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They both alluded to certain qualities that they seem to have uniquely posessed.Did either man ever say that he was better than everyone else? or anyone else for that matter?
" Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.' " sounds pretty exclusivist. Interpretations vary, as it does with everything.
neither pythagoras, siddhartha, yeshua, socrates wrote anything about themselves, or wrote anything on philosophy. every thing is second hand. not uncommon.A consensus of scholars concurs that Jesus never said these words.
In the earliest strata of the synoptic material, there are no "I am" sayings.
It stems from the unique theological stance of the Johannine author of the fourth gospel, which was defending the idea of Jesus's deity from criticism by other Jews and exclusion from the synagogues over including another figure in the worship owed to the One God of Israel.
No one involved in textual criticism regards this saying as going back to Jesus.
As such, we cannot hold him accountable for something he is overwhelmingly unlikely to have taught - but which rather clearly stems from the editorial, sectarian stance of a spokesman for a persecuted early Christian community writing in a different era from Jesus and in response to a different set of circumstances (synagogue exclusion, which didn't happen during Jesus's lifetime and the question of divine incarnation).
Which brings up an important question: when someone asks what Jesus or Buddha taught, should we point simply to what some later followers attributed, or consult historical scholarship that can help us determine what likely goes back to the said individual?
Even though we can never know with 100% certainty what positively does go back to the historical Jesus, we can discern what is earlier and can separate this from what he evidently did not teach.
If the question is about what the Gospels, New Testament or Christianity says, thrn we can just go ahead.
But for Jesus himself, since we have no teachings directly from him, I would urge that we should not do this.
neither pythagoras, siddhartha, yeshua, socrates wrote anything about themselves, or wrote anything on philosophy. every thing is second hand. not uncommon.
i agree. i believe the OT and the NT have been seeded with things that probably aren't attributed to the personalities involved. like worship of the personality. this is why i study other systems to understand ideas about human action and behavior.Yes but for Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Epicurus and other ancient philosophers we have works actually written by them.
When it comes to those for whom we don't, including Jesus and Buddha, we cannot take what a later writer attributes merely at face value without invoking textual criticism.
Consider that a few of the 'Pauline' Epistles in the New Testament have been found by modern scholars to have definitely not come from his hand, when compared to his authentic writings. Sometimes, the ideological differences are huge - such as the approach to the role of women in the church.
This means that we need to be careful with the Gospel material if we are talking about what the historical Jesus is likely to have actually taught and the same caution must be applied to the Pali Canon for the Buddha.
I have my doubts about the complete historicity of the gospels -- i think the basic truths have been overlaid with legend and myth.Did either man ever say that he was better than everyone else? or anyone else for that matter?
Those are the words of the author of gJohn and certainly not the words of a historical Yeshua. You have to be very careful how and who you quote from the New Testament." Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.' " sounds pretty exclusivist. Interpretations vary, as it does with everything.
I have my doubts about the complete historicity of the gospels -- i think the basic truths have been overlaid with legend and myth.
But if you believe the gospels, Jesus very definitely made claims that put him in a category unlike other men. "Son of man" and "Son of God" come to mind. "I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me." "I am the vine and you are the branches." "I and the Father are one." How about this one:
Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?" "I am," said Jesus. "And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven."