Msg#: 1822 Date: 02-28-95 08:23 From: Simon Ewins Read: Yes Replied: No To: Bruce Riley Mark: Subj: Jesus SE> Ultimately he failed and was stoned to death by the leaders of the SE> mainstream religious community and his body was hung on a tree. It SE> appears that the body was lost for a brief period of time and SE> rumours began to be circulated by his remaining followers that he SE> had risen from the dead. There is one report that his body was later SE> found and dragged through the streets of Jerusalem behind a horse. BR> What happened to the cross story? What's your source for this BR> version? Various. The Roman philosopher Celsus wrote a lot of stuff that is not in agreement with the gospel version of things around 170 C.E. Unfortunately all of his work was destroyed by Christians in the 3rd century. However, Origen quotes Celsus extensively in his writing so we can get a few blurbs that way. The Hebrew document called Toldoth Jeshu (Generations of Jesus) supports a lot of my story and there are some references in Acts that indicate that Jesus was already dead when hung on the tree. Acts 5:30 and Acts 10:39 both state, quick flatly, that Jesus was killed and _then_ hung upon a tree. The word used (in the Greek) for 'tree' in these two passages is 'xulon' which is the word used for a living tree (as used in Revelation 22:2 in the 'tree of life'). This seems to indicate two things. First Jesus was already dead when he was hung on a tree (not a cross) and those who slew him were Jews (not Romans) since the reference in the passages is to the Sanhedrin. Acts 13:29 refers to taking Jesus down from the tree and once again the word used is 'xulon' as in a living tree.