Time Machine to…Palestine, First Centuries BCE & CE

One of the world’s most tantalizing events centers around the life and death of one Yeshua bn Yosef. So many questions have arisen over the past two millennia, as well as events that have profoundly shaped humankind, that I would want to see what the truth was.

One of the world’s most tantalizing events centers around the life and death of one Yeshua bn Yosef. So many questions have arisen over the past two millennia, as well as events that have profoundly shaped humankind, that I would want to see what the truth was.

In my way-back machine I would first want to answer the question of whether this man actually existed. Many scholars dispute this as there is no reliable evidence of even the strong circumstantial variety, to support the claim. If you approach the question of existence as you would any person in history much written about, then you find you have the same problems: nothing written by them, no surviving official reports, no artifacts, etc. It’s a tough problem verifying history. (And no, I’m not taking a stand on this one way or another…I’d rather just take my time machine and find out.)

In some ways, Yeshua is a tougher nut to crack because he wasn’t, in his time, of mythic proportion. We didn’t was great war, nor did he rule in a mighty castle. Stories of legend tell of Agamemnon, of Troy, of Amazons, and Cretan kings…long thought the figures of imagination, but the last century of archaeology showing circumstantial evidence of their basis in fact. They left weapons and graves, and castles and cities (in ruins). But a poor man from Nazareth didn’t have this cache of durable artifact to lean on, having to rely on, instead, softer legacies that time soon moves with the wind.

So, first task is to find out if Yeshua existed. Assuming that is so, then what did he say? What did he do? Do the facts resemble the written legacy? And what of Maryam of Magda? Was she there? Was she just a follower, or something more important, if not to the man then to the cause? What of the other followers?

I’d also want to know about the Romans. They are painted as vile authoritarian figures. From the historical record, this is a little harsh, but two thousand years (nay, even the past few decades) have shown us how cruel we can be to one another when cruelty is institutionalized. What effect did these foreigners have in the lives of the local population.

And don’t think I’m going to let the local religious leaders go without some scrutiny, either. Much has been made about their culpability in the downfall of this Yeshua. Was it so?

But as fascinating as the events surround this man’s might have been, I’d also like to tweak myself back to the beginning. The birth. When, exactly, was it? Was it anything like the stories we’ve been told?

Then I’d follow the family. Yosef and Maryam, and all the other children. What became of them? What was their life?

Then I’d trace over to Saul of Tarsus, this guy who came after the fact. Did he actually have a revelatory moment, or was he an opportunist (as some say) who perverted the teaching of Yeshua, wresting control from those who had actually been followers experiencing the teachings first-hand?

So many questions that on extended trip in the time machine could answer. What if the reality isn’t what the collective consciousness has come to believe? More importantly, what if the reality is closer to the truth than the skeptics have posited. I wonder how this new truth would change the world?