10 BIGGEST LIES ABOUT JESUS

artritJesus is perhaps the most popular religious figure around the world, and with that level of popularity there are bound to be some misconceptions and just some plain lies about Jesus. In this article, I'll be sharing 10 of the biggest lies about Jesus that you need to know. My name is Okamgba Patrick, and I want you guys to stick around till the end of this article just to see how many of these lies that you actually knew.

Okay, so let's jump right into this lie at number 10. And this lie is that Jesus wrote the New Testament. When it comes to the Bible in general, archaeology and the study of written sources, have shed some light on the history of both halves of the Bible, the Old Testament, and the New Testament. The Old Testament contains a story of the children of Israel among other things before the birth of Jesus, and the New Testament is from the birth of Jesus onward. However, although the New Testament is filled with many teachings of Jesus, Jesus in fact didn't write any portion of the New Testament, nor did he write any of the Old Testament for that matter. Of course, he couldn't, because he wasn't even born yet. Traditionally, 13 of the 27 books of the New Testament of the Bible were attributed to the apostle Paul, who famously converted to Christianity after meeting Jesus in a vision on the road to Damascus. And he wrote a series of letters that helped spread the faith. Although the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John that begin the New Testament of the Bible, are believed to be eyewitness testimony, as well as the words and teachings, the birth, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus, are listed in their books. But no, Jesus didn't personally write any portion of the New Testament.

Lie number 9 - Jesus was white. This is the most common image of Jesus that's been seen around the world you know he's light skinned with a beard. He has long hair, and often, he's depicted with blue eyes but in fact, Jesus was a Palestinian, Jewish man, living in Galilee in the first century. Forensic scientists have done facial reconstruction of 2,000 year-old skulls from Palestine in order to get a sense of what Jesus might have looked like - with olive skin, black hair, and larger, not so pointed nose, as he's normally depicted with.

The lie coming at number 8 is that Muslims don't believe in Jesus. Of course, Jesus is the central figure of Christianity, so, he's often just associated with that faith. However, the Quran - the Muslim Holy book, mentions Jesus many times as an important Holy figure. While he's not believed to be divine or referred to as the son of God in any way, he is however, commonly acknowledged and considered to be a mighty messenger of God in the Islamic faith. Also, the Quran contains a Surah in it titled Surah Maryam, and it contains many instances throughout the life of Jesus.

This next lie may come as a shock - Jesus is Christian?? Well, in fact, Jesus was a Jew. I did mention that a little bit earlier, but he was a Jew born in Galilee in a Jewish part of the world. All of his friends and close associates, his disciples, all of them, they were Jews. He regularly worshiped in Jewish communal worship as well. But, a Christian is a follower of Christ, so Jesus himself is the christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah. So, it wouldn't make sense to follow himself. Apart from that though, the term Christian only appeared well into the book of Acts of the New Testament. Acts, Chapter 11, when they were given that name by other people. But before that though, the followers of Jesus were just called something like "The Followers of The Way," or they were just believed to be a Jewish sect that would follow Jesus.

This next lie is kind of funny but Jesus was called Jesus. That is a lie. As we mentioned earlier, jesus was Jewish by birth and by religion. And it therefore makes sense that he would have a Hebrew name - that's the language of the Jews. But the name Jesus isn't a Hebrew name, so we have a problem there. Well this is mainly to do with language. The name Jesus is simply a derivative of the Greek translation of his real name. His greek speaking apostles were probably unable to pronounce his Hebrew name which was "Yehoshua" also pronounced as "Yeshua." But, when the name is translated into English, it becomes Joshua. So, interestingly, the Quran refers to Jesus as "Isa." So, Jesus, Joshua, Yahashua, Yeshua, Isa. All of them the exact same name.

Okay guys, we've reached halfway in this article. Really hoping you're enjoying it so far. If you are, I do have a related article just for you. It's titled "The 7 Reasons why Jesus came to earth." Yeah! Very interesting article. We got 5 more facts to look at, so let's continue this episode.

Now, at lie number 5 - Jesus had 12 disciples. In fact, no, no, no, no, no, he did not. The belief that Jesus only had 12 disciples is based on the misunderstanding of the three categories of Jesus's followers. First, was made up of those who came to hear him speak, or to be healed by him whenever he entered a town or a village. And the second category, you can label these people as those who followed Jesus from town to town and these were called disciples according to the gospel of Luke. Those were about 70 or 72 of them in total. Also, there's the third category of the followers of Jesus. Now, these are known as the apostles. These are the 12 men that Jesus appointed to go off on their own and preach his message independently without Jesus' supervision. So these weren't just mere disciples, because they didn't just follow the teachings of Jesus, but they also went to share the message, start new churches in different parts of the world. Also, in the book of Acts, of the New Testament, it's mentioned that about 120 of Jesus' disciples were gathered in an upper room. So, just to recap, Jesus had many, many, many, disciples, but he appointed 12 of them to be apostles.

Also, one common lie is that Jesus only taught when he became an adult. Jesus was a preacher as an adolescent, as well, the Bible describes a time when Jesus was 12 years old and he was found by his parents preaching in the temple to adults. And according to the Bible, this is what it has to say "After three days they found him in the temple court sitting among the teachers, listening to them, and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished." So, not only at 12 years old was Jesus asking questions to other religious leaders, but he was also teaching them and giving them answers according to the text. Also, according to Islamic teaching, we find in the Quran the following verses about Jesus talking while he was in the cradle as a baby Jesus said, "Indeed I am the servant of Allah. He had given me the scripture and made me a prophet."

For lie number 3, did you know that there weren't 3 wise men? It's a common scene depicted in the nativity scene, especially around Christmas time. But, it does report that some wise men came to Jesus when he was born, but it does not say how many. Contrary to the common belief that there were three of them. None of the early church fathers suggested that these wise men or magi were kings either. The term "magi" used in the Bible is plural - there were apparently at least two of them, but there could have been several more. The Bible simply mentions three gifts that were presented to baby Jesus: Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh.

We also know from the Bible, that Jesus was not a little newborn when they arrived after the magi visited Mary. Jesus was an only child - This is the lie at number 2. Jesus was actually the firstborn, not an only child of Mary. According to the Bible in the book of Matthew, Chapter 13, Verses 55-56, in this scripture it says, "Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary? And aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Aren't all his sisters with us as well? Where then, did this man get all these things?".

And finally, the lie at number 1 - Jesus' birthday. Well, the Bible does not specify a day or a month that Jesus was born, but one problem is that a lot of people believe that the birthday was December 25th. But, the Bible doesn't indicate that either. An issue does come up with dating the birthday in December though, is that it would be very unusual for shepherds to be in the field at this cold time of the year, when the fields were unproductive. And normally the practice was to keep the flocks in the fields from the spring to the autumn. Also, winter would likely be an especially difficult time for pregnant Mary to travel long distances from Nazareth to the town of Bethlehem, which is about 70 miles. And it actually wasn't until the year AD 440 that the church officially associated December 25th with the birth of Jesus Christ. Also, according to the Islamic belief, the Quran mentions in Surah 19, Verse 25, Jesus talking to his mother Mary and it says, "And shake toward you the trunk of the palm tree it will drop upon you ripe fresh dates. Typically palm trees begin to bear fruit in April or May, and are ripe for picking around August to September. So yes, when we look at the Biblical accounts and the Quranic accounts, it just wouldn't necessarily make sense for Jesus to be born on December 25th. And the common belief is that he was born sometime in the fall, maybe even spring.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article, and remember I have another article coming up soon. More articles of not only Jesus but other historical and mystical recordings shall be e coming your way. Stay tuned. ing