History Mystery: The famous trial of Socrates -1

The Great great scholar Socrates was executed at the age of seventy in 399 BCE in the most famous town Athens. Why such an old man was executed in the most civilized and democratic society of those days. Was he put to death for preaching mere philosophy or was he molested anybody like today’s religious preachers? The irony here is Plato and Xenophon the disciples of Socrates gives us a different story. The interesting question is- What made the 500 Athenian jurors to put Socrates to death. To find out the real reason behind his death, we have to go back to those days of Athens. Let us go there and analyze!!!

Socrates rose to power of Pericles in his early age. Those were the golden age of Greece. Pericles promoted peoples courts and promoted the arts and philosophy. Socrates rose against evils and he designed a program to ensure full opportunity for employment to the downtrodden working class. Pericles reconstruction of the citadels and construction of the Parthenon were the worth mention. Socrates developed a set of moral values and beliefs that raised him with in most of his fellow Athenians. Socrates is somehow opposite to egalitarian and his views were opposite to self governing of the people. Instead he thought people should be governed and guided by a wise person like sheep herd were cared by a wise shepherded, this view about democracy shaked the Athenian form of government and he criticized indiscriminately the right of every Athenian to speak in the Athenian Assembly.

According to Diogenes and Laertius, the views of Socrates in the streets and market places made the fellow Athenians who passed by to get anger but Socrates accepted all the insults and opposition silently. Because of his old students like Alcibiades and Critas the democratic government was overturned for some period. According to I.F.Stone, Critias who is the cousin of Philosopher Plato is inhuman in nature and he is very strong to overturn the democratic system at the cost of human life. He executed more than 1500 most popular democrats and killed more than 5000 Children women and slaves with the oligarchy. Thirty Tyrants who run their parallel government asked Socrates to execute Leon Salamies and appropriate his assets and wealth. He refused to do so but he neither stopped them or their thugs to do so. This incident made the Athenians to view Socrates and his preaching in another dimension. And the every fellow citizen believed that Socrates and his thoughts are very treacherous and most corrupting which can destroy the common man of that town.


In the year 403 a general amnesty was issued to Socrates by which he could not be prosecuted for any of his offence during the thirty tyrant’s period. Hence his trail was only after 403 to 399BCE a mere four years of duration. In the people’s democratic Athens any public can initiate a criminal proceeding. The poet Meletus, initiated oral summon to Socrates before the witness. According to the summon Socrates required to appear before the King or the lower court judge. The preliminary hearing was happened in the Royal Stoa a fortified building in the central Athens.

(Cont.....)

History Mystery: Did a historical Jesus exist? Part.II

According to the Gospels Jesus may crucified on the first day of the Passover or the day before (Depends upon the Gospel According to John Jesus was crucified on the day before the Passover).

The Passover is one of the holiest of Jewish holidays and it was the time for forgiveness and celebration. On those days only Jews made public scarifies to their god hence there is less chance for crucifixion. The arrest and quick trial of Jesus was happened on the pass over eve night. And the Jewish Sanhedrin could assemble in the middle of the night and spelt the quick judgment is highly impossible. The Sanhedrins were slapped and spit on Jesus could not be possible. (Sanhedrin was the Jewish judicial and administrative council which acts on set of rules). Mishnah Sanhedrin has certain rules to follow:

Tomb of Jesus

• No criminal trail can be hold at night.
• The Sanhedrin session could be taken place in the temple premises.
• Capital crime could not be trailed in one day sitting alone.
• No criminal session could be happened on the Sabbath day or of any festival day.
• The own confession of the accused is not enough to judge any one guilty.
• The blasphemy charges cannot be hold good if the accused pronounced the god before the witness.
But the trial of Jesus had broken all the rules.

The crucifixions of Jesus in the Gospels are completely symbolic in nature and based on the scriptures but not on the history. His arrest, trial and the execution all flout the Jewish law. And for blasphemy stoning is the ultimate sentence and there is no reason to hand over the execution to the Romans. The famous Jewish writer Philo of 20BCE wrote elaborately about the political and religious activities of those periods but he never mentioned or wrote anything about Jesus (he wrote about the political rivalry between Pontius Pilate in Judea and the Jews)
There are four documents, in other words historical documents available. Antiquity of the Jews by Josephus, The Annals by Tacitus, Letter to Trajan by Pliny the Younger, and The Lives of the Caesars by Suetonius. It is available in Catholic Encyclopedia.

According to Suetonius, “The Jews continuously made disturbance at the instigation of Chrestus and hence Chrestus was expelled”. Here we can only assume that Suetonius mentioned here Jesus as Chrestus. Chrestus is not the proper Latin translation of Greek Christos. Since the document itself talking about 49 CE by which Jesus was already dead.

Here The Annals by Tacitus mention the following,

Capernaum

“Hence to suppress the rumor, he falsely charged with the guilt, and punished Christians, who were hated for their enormities. Christus, the founder of the name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius: but the pernicious superstition, repressed for a time broke out again, not only through Judea, where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome also, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their center and become popular”

Bethany

Christus mentioned here clearly refers Jesus Christ but it is not enough to establish the historical existence of himself. Keep it in mind Tacitus wrote these forty years after the ruin of Judea.

The peoples of other civilizations don’t have a religious book like Bible to refer and cross examine the religious structure in other hand Jews have a scripture based religion. The Romans and Greeks have separate Law, Philosophy etc but for Jews all come under the same religion. In Judaism more particularly in Hellenistic Judaism the cult of Jesus Christ is a very small part of their religion.

From all the above “The story of Jesus Christ” fully relay on the Gospels rather than any historical evidences. For the Jesus story you can identify plenty of literary and conventional materials which raise the possibility for the observed historical events. That much only can say.

History Mystery: Did a historical Jesus exist? Part.I

Today all most every one of us in the world believes that Jesus Christ was a real personality. Perhaps he may not be the son of god or perhaps he may not be the real Messiah. The belief, Jesus as a human being came out as Eucharist ritual and theology concept of flesh and blood. Then what is the basis for the claim that “Jesus ever existed”?

There are two views we are going to analyze here. The first one is the Biblical or the religious view that Jesus as a real personality and the other one; The materialistic or the historical view. Here I wish to point out one thing. We have only one source of information about him which is the bible alone; that too more particularly from the Gospels. Everything we know about him is derived from the Gospels alone.

According to the Gospels, Jesus Christ was most popular and well-known personality who done splendid miracles and have the capacity of his own to pull the crowd. He not only done miracles but some revolutionary changes in religious system in the Jewish priesthood hence arrested and put to death before thousands of his followers who stood as eye witness. The historical view removes some exaggerated accounts in the life of Jesus in the Gospels taking into account.

Both of the views purely depend on the Gospels alone but, Are the Gospels give a reliable historical account? When the Gospels were written, where the gospels were written? which is the origin? Nobody knows. Earlier estimates dates the Gospels were written from 50 to 150CE and some ascertain that may be 4th Century. The traditional belief is that the Gospels had been written by the disciples of Jesus or someone who directly connected with them. It is believed that the Gospels are the eyewitness.


Let us gain some knowledge about the Gospels and its writers through the account of early church leader Papias of 130CE. According to him the Gospel Mark was not written by him but it was someone named Mark and the Gospel of Mathew was recorded by someone named Mathew in Hebrew dialect and so on… Since the Gospel of Mathew contains the virgin birth of Jesus and the hereditary lineage with David, the early theologians thought it was the first Gospel. Since the Gospel of Luke was not an eyewitness in nature and it was a self described one. So there is no possibility for it being first one.

The Gospel of Mark is also considered as second hand information since the order of events was different in order. The source of information for Mark is Peter. There is a chance that Mark might come from Rome where Peter preached. Theologian ascertains The Gospel of Mark was the first Gospel. Since Peter was shown as a fool who could not understand the messages of Jesus, Peter could not be the source of information for Gospel of Mark hence Mark is the first gospel.                                               (Cont....)

History Mystery: Sex And The Religions Part.XII

 Religious Dances of Ancient times


In ancient times the dances were of religious or the ceremonial importance. Most of the ancient religious system of temples had female slaves to perform such sacred dances. The religious dances of all most heathen temples were tried to replicate and applaud sexual delights and fantasy since all the early religions were based on sex worship. In those days in and around Egypt the females were trained as musicians and they were expert in them. Throughout their life time went naked and the nudeness in public while doing performance was not embraced them. Note: Most of the Psalms of David emblazoned to the Chief of the Chorus. Hence there is a probability that the leader and the team of musicians were nude.

Not only the Musicians the Dancers also performed by the undressed girls. It is similar to that of the dances performed by the Egyptian dancers named “Ferida “of these days. The dancers otherwise called Awalim also have singers in their troupe. The Orgy was a particular rite in worship of the Greek god Dionysus the god of wine. Those rites were celebrated only by the women and they assembled at the temples in the woods in nude or in brown skins. And they allowed their hair to hang loosely and had a stick in their hand to symbolically represent the sacred scepter of the wine god Dionysus. They danced and danced till their excitement subsides.

During the rituals at nights they sacrificed the scared bull. But in the early period Greeks sacrificed man but not the animal and in both cases the important aspect of the orgy was the respect given with high regard to the Penis or the Phallus of the sacrificed bull or the man. These represent the procreative god and their rituals were called as maenads (bacchantes). In Phrygia the dancers who were dancers of the goddess Rhea Cybele were called as Corybantes. The priests of the Goddess have castrated or remove their testicle of their own and entered into orgy dances with blood oozing out from their mutilated penis. All most all the dances including Greek had phallus as the sexual importance to symbolize the relationship of sexes. When Maenads danced it produces excitement that approached convulsions. Similar is in the religious dances to honor Bacchus. It can be understood that the Jews of those days also danced religious dances.

''Let Israel rejoice in him that made him; let the children of Zion be joyful to their king. Let them praise his name in the dance; let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp." (Ps, CXLIX, 2, 3)

"But when Herod's birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod” (Matt, xiv, 6). In the early Christian churches the choir danced while they sung.

The painting Borgia amusing himself painted by Grainier displays the form of entertainment in dancing by the nude girls of those days. There was a shameful understanding about the nudeness and the dances danced by the naked girls. In Ancient Rome Caracalla gave lavish entertainments in the Capri islands were the dancers were the beautiful dancing girls. Once the appreciation for their dances recedes then the dancing girls will be thrown in to the sea over the cliffs. Even now in Rural Spain there is a popular dance performed by both male and female during the dance the dancers throw off their garments one by one until the absolute nudity.