Re: Where is the more strong evidence in Paul pointing to an outer space Jesus
Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2018 9:11 am
I myself am actually very sympathetic to the idea that an earlier version of the Ascension of Isaiah was "mythicist" in its own way. Our current verse (10.8) says that the beloved is told to "go forth and descend through all the heavens" to the firmament and "that world" and then to the angel in sheol. Here the earth ("that world") may be no more than just another point along the path, no more likely to host the crucifixion than the heavens or the firmament. Could this be a relic from an earlier version in which Jesus was in fact crucified in sheol? Romans 10.6-7 also names locales associated with Jesus as heaven and the abyss; the earth is not mentioned. Could that be a relic of the same story?
But in the form of the Ascension of Isaiah that we currently possess, in all of its versions, the crucifixion happens on the earth, after which Christ descends to Sheol.
And it takes a lot less textual rearrangement and imagination to posit an earlier version in which the crucifixion happened in sheol (a sheol which is beneath the earth) than it does to posit an earlier version in which it takes place in the firmament or in the air, much less in "outer space" (ugh).
But in the form of the Ascension of Isaiah that we currently possess, in all of its versions, the crucifixion happens on the earth, after which Christ descends to Sheol.
And it takes a lot less textual rearrangement and imagination to posit an earlier version in which the crucifixion happened in sheol (a sheol which is beneath the earth) than it does to posit an earlier version in which it takes place in the firmament or in the air, much less in "outer space" (ugh).