The Identity of "the Chrestos" - He was the "Body" Jesus "Made Use of" to Die On the Cross

Discussion about the New Testament, apocrypha, gnostics, church fathers, Christian origins, historical Jesus or otherwise, etc.
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Secret Alias
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The Identity of "the Chrestos" - He was the "Body" Jesus "Made Use of" to Die On the Cross

Post by Secret Alias »

I have always accepted the authenticity of the Letter to Theodore. Ever since I wrote that entry for that Mythicism book I've thought about the possibility that the Islamic pseudepigraphal understanding of someone other than Jesus being crucified is at the core of the "Secret Gospel." The veneration of "Jesus Christ" might have something to do with his being chosen by the Savior to be the one to be crucified.
It is not then the partial truths, of which truth is predicated, but the truth itself, that we are to investigate, not seeking to learn names. For what is to be investigated respecting God is not one thing, but ten thousand. There is a difference between declaring God, and declaring things about God. And to speak generally, in everything the accidents are to be distinguished from the essence.

Suffice it for me to say, that the Lord of all is God; and I say the Lord of all absolutely, nothing being left by way of exception.

Since, then, the forms of truth are two- the names and the things -- some discourse of names, occupying themselves with the beauties of words: such are the philosophers among the Greeks. But we who are Barbarians have the things. Now it was not in vain that the Lord chose to make use of a mean form of body; so that no one praising the grace and admiring the beauty might turn his back on what was said, and attending to what ought to be abandoned, might be cut off from what is intellectual. We must therefore occupy ourselves not with the expression, but the meaning.

6.17.151.1 Καί μοι ἀπόχρη φάναι θεὸν εἶναι τὸν κύριον πάντων. αὐτοτελῶς δὲ λέγω τὸν κύριον πάντων, οὐδενὸς ὑπολειπομένου κατὰ ἐξαί6.17.151.2 ρεσιν. ἐπεὶ τοίνυν δύο εἰσὶν ἰδέαι τῆς ἀληθείας, τά τε ὀνόματα καὶ τὰ πράγματα, οἳ μὲν τὰ ὀνόματα λέγουσιν, οἱ περὶ τὰ κάλλη τῶν λόγων διατρίβοντες, οἱ παρ' Ἕλλησι φιλόσοφοι, τὰ πράγματα δὲ 6.17.151.3 παρ' ἡμῖν ἐστι τοῖς βαρβάροις.αὐτίκα ὁ κύριος οὐ μάτην ἠθέλησεν εὐτελεῖ χρήσασθαι σώματος μορφῇ, ἵνα μή τις τὸ ὡραῖον ἐπαινῶν καὶ τὸ κάλλος θαυμάζων ἀφιστῆται τῶν λεγομένων καὶ τοῖς κατα6.17.151.4 λειπομένοις προσανέχων ἀποτέμνηται τῶν νοητῶν. οὐ τοίνυν περὶ τὴν λέξιν, ἀλλὰ περὶ τὰ σημαινόμενα ἀναστρεπτέον.
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