Theos-Talk Archives (April 2003 Message tt00113)

PART ii Jesus

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ADDITIONAL QUOTATIONS


EBIONITES (Heb.). Lit., "the poor"; the earliest sect of Jewish
Christians, the other being the Nazarenes. They existed when the
term "Christian" was not yet heard of. Many of the relations of
Iassou (Jesus), the adept ascetic around whom the legend of
Christ was formed, were among the Ebionites. As the existence of
these mendicant ascetics can be traced at least a century earlier
than chronological Christianity, it is an additional proof that
Iassou or Jeshu lived during the reign of Alexander Jannaeus at
Lyd (or Lud), where he was put to death as stated in Sepher
Toldos Jeshu."	T. GLOSSARY, p. 108-9


INNOCENTS A nick-name given to the Initiates and Kabalists
before the Christian era. The "Innocents" of Bethlehem and of
Lud (or Lydda) who were put to death by Alexander Jannaeus, to
the number of several thousands (B.C. lOO, or so), gave rise to
the legend of the 40,000 innocent babes murdered by Herod while
searching for the infant Jesus. The first is a little known
historical fact, the second a fable, as sufficiently shown by
Renan in his Vie de Jesus."	T. Glossary, p.156-7

"ALEXANDER JANNAEUS, or Alexander Yannai (d. 76 B.C.), Hasmonean
(Maccabean) king of Judaea, succeeded his brother Aristobulus I
tq. v.) in 103 B.C. Alexander imposed his rule on the Palestinian
coast and on areas east of the Jordan and the Dead Sea. He was
an ally of the Sadducees and persecuted their opponents, the
Pharisees. He was succeeded by his wife, Salome Alexandra, who
reversed his pro-Sadducee policy."
ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA, 15th Ed. 1981



"We believe that it was the Sadducees and not the Pharisees who
crucified Jesus. They were Zadokites--partisans of the house of
Zadok, or the sacerdotal family. In the "Acts" the apostles were
said to be persecuted by the Sadducees, but never by the
Pharisees. In fact, the latter never persecuted any one. They
had the scribes, rabbis, and learned men in their numbers, and
were not, like the Sadducees, jealous of their order."	ISIS II
148


"A thick film of allegory and blinds, the "dark sayings" of
fiction and parable, thus covers the original esoteric texts from
which the New Testament--as now known--was compiled. Whence,
then, the Gospels, the life of Jesus of Nazareth? Has it not
been repeatedly stated that no human, mortal brain could have
invented the life of the Jewish Reformer, followed by the awful
drama on Calvary? We say, on the authority of the esoteric
Eastern School, that all this came from the Gnostics, as far as
the name Christos and the astronomico-mystical allegories are
concerned, and from the writings of the ancient Tanaim as regards
the Kabalistic connection of Jesus or Joshua, with the Biblical
personifications. One of these is the mystic esoteric name of
Jehovah--not the present fanciful God of the profane Jews
ignorant of their own mysteries, the God accepted by the still
more ignorant Christians--but the compound Jehovah of the pagan
Initiation. This is proven very plainly by the glyphs or mystic
combinations of various signs which have survived to this day in
the Roman Catholic hieroglyphics.

The Gnostic Records contained the epitome of the chief scenes
enacted during the mysteries of initiation, since the memory of
man; though even that was given out invariably under the garb of
semi-allegory, whenever entrusted to parchment or paper. But the
ancient Tanaim, the Initiates from whom the wisdom of the Kabala
(oral tradition) was obtained by the later Talmudists, had in
their possession the secrets of the mystery language, and it is
in this language that the Gospels were written." HPB ART III
197


"We can assert, with entire plausibility, that there is not one
of all these sects--Kabalism, Judaism, and our present
Christianity included-- but sprung from the two main branches of
that one mother-trunk, the once universal religion, which
antedated the Vedic ages--we speak of that prehistoric Buddhism
which merged later into Brahmanism. The religion which the
primitive teaching of the early few apostles most resembled--a
religion preached by Jesus himself--is the elder of these two,
Buddhism. The latter as taught in its primitive purity, and
carried to perfection by the last of the Buddhas, Gautama, based
its moral ethics on three fundamental principles. It alleged
that 1, everything existing, exists from natural causes; 2, that
virtue brings its own reward, and vice and sin their own
punishment; and, 3, that the state of man in this world is
probationary. We might add that on these three principles rested
the universal foundation of every religious credal God, and
individual immortality for every man -- if he could but win it."
ISIS II 123


"... the secret doctrines of the Magi, of the pre-Vedic
Buddhists, of the hierophants of the Egyptian Thoth or Hermes,
and of the adepts of whatever age and nationality, including the
Chaldean kabalists and the Jewish nazars, were identical from the
beginning. When we use the term Buddhists, we do not mean to
imply by it either the exoteric Buddhism instituted by the
followers of Gautama-Buddha, nor the modern Buddhistic religion;
but the secret philosophy of Sakyamuni, which in its essence is
certainly identical with the ancient wisdom-religion of the
sanctuary, the pre-Vedic Brahmanism. (p. 143) Already some time
before our era, the adepts, except in India, had ceased to
congregate in large communities; but whether among the Essenes,
or the Neo-platonists, or, again, among the innumerable
struggling sects born but to die, the same doctrines, identical
in substance and spirit, if not always in form, are encountered.
By Buddhism, therefore, we mean that religion signifying
literally the doctrine of wisdom, and which by many ages
antedates the metaphysical philosophy of Siddartha Sakyamuni."
ISIS II 142-3


"...the followers of Jesus evidently adhered to a sect which
became a still more exasperating thorn...It appeared as a heresy
within another heresy; for while the nazars of the olden
time...were Chaldean kabalists, the adepts of the new dissenting
sect showed themselves reformers and innovators from the
first...The Essenes...were the converts of Buddhist missionaries
who had overrun Egypt, Greece, and even Jude at one time, since
the reign of Asoka the zealous propagandist; and while it is
evidently to the Essenes that belongs the honor of having had the
Nazarene reformer, Jesus, as a pupil, still the latter is found
disagreeing with his early teachers on several questions of
formal observance. He cannot strictly be called an
Essene...neither was he a nazar, or Nazaria of the older
sect...He is the founder of the sect of the new nazars, and...a
follower of the Buddhist doctrine...what is self-evident is that
he preached the philosophy of Buddha-Sakyamuni. Denounced by the
later prophets, cursed by the Sanhedrin, the nazars--they were
confounded with others of that name...they were secretly, if not
openly persecuted by the orthodox synagogue. It becomes clear
why Jesus was treated with such contempt from the first..."	ISIS
II 132


"The motive of Jesus was evidently like that of Gautama-Buddha,
to benefit humanity at large by producing a religious reform
which should give it a religion of pure ethics; the true
knowledge of God and nature having remained until- then solely in
the hands of the esoteric sects, and their adepts. p. 137 - To
assure ourselves that Jesus was a true Nazarene -- albeit with
ideas of a new reform -- we must not search for the proof in the
translated Gospels, but in such original versions as are
accessible. ... Thus, if we take in account all that is puzzling
and incomprehensible in the four Gospels, revised and corrected
as they now stand, we shall easily see for ourselves that the
true, original Christianity, such as was preached by Jesus, is to
be found only in the so-called Syrian heresies. Only from them
can we extract any clear notions about what was primitive
Christianity."	ISIS II 133


"... belief in reincarnation has nothing in it that can militate
against the teachings of Christ. We affirm, furthermore, that
the great Nazarene Adept distinctly taught it. So did Paul and
the Synoptics, and nearly all the earliest Church Fathers, with
scarcely an exception, accepted it, while some actually taught
the doctrine."	HPB ART I 172


"Jesus, the Adept we believe in, taught our Eastern doctrines,
KARMA and REINCARNATION foremost of all. When the so-called
Christians will have learnt to read the New Testament between the
lines, their eyes will be opened and -- they will see."	HPB ART
I 175



Question: "Do not the words and teachings of Jesus, taken in
their esoteric sense, point one (the) way to the Theosophic
Path?"

"WQJ: Taken in the sense he intended the people to take them,
they lead to the way. Taken in the sense in which he desired his
Disciples to receive them, they are teachings upon the way.
Taken in their esoteric sense -- as he knew them -- they are the
way. Were the wisdom of Egypt and India today blotted out from
both the seen and unseen worlds -- the true seeker would find in
his teachings, when rightly studied, all the teachings of Isis
and Buddha. As he received his instruction from Egypt, received
from India, it is more than probable that esoterically his
teachings are identical with both."	WQJ ART II 459


"...in common with Pythagoras and other hierophant reformers,
Jesus divided his teachings into exoteric and esoteric."	ISIS II
147


"The position THEY [MASTERS] give to Jesus, as far as we know, is
that of a great and pure man, a reformer who would fain have
lived but who had to die for that which he regarded as the
greatest birth-right of man -- absolute Liberty of conscience; of
an adept who preached a universal Religion knowing of, and having
no other "temple of God" but man himself; that of a noble Teacher
of esoteric truths which he had no time given to him to explain;
that, of an initiate who recognized no difference -- save the
moral one -- between men; who rejected caste, and despised
wealth; and who preferred death rather than to reveal the secrets
of initiation. And who, finally, lived over a century before the
year of our vulgar, so called, Christian era."
THEOSOPHIST July 1883


[ This quotation from an account by Charles Johnston of his
interview with H.P.B. when he met her for the first time in
London, in the Spring of 1887, soon after her arrival from
Ostende appeared originally in Theosophical Forum (New York) for
April, May, June and July 1900-1 ] and was reprinted in The
Theosophical Movement, April 1964.

Question: "How do the adepts guide the souls of men?"

H.P.B.: "In many ways, but chiefly by teaching their souls
direct, in the spiritual world But that is difficult for you to
understand. This is quite intelligible, though. At certain
regular periods, they try to give the world at large a right
understanding of spiritual things. One of their number comes
forth to teach the masses, and is handed down to tradition as the
Founder of a religion. Krishna was such a Master; so was
Zoroaster; so were Buddha and Shankara Acharya, the great sage of
Southern India. And, so also was the Nazarene. He went forth
against the counsel of the rest, to give to the masses before the
time, moved by a great pity, and enthusiasm for humanity; he was
warned that the time was unfavorable, but nevertheless he elected
to go, and so was put to death at the instigation of the
priests."

Question: "Have the adepts any secret records of his life?"

H.P.B.: "They must have," she answered; "for they have records of
the lives of all Initiates. Once I was in a great cave-temple in
the Himalaya mountains, with my Master," and she looked at the
picture of the splendid Rajput; "there were many statues of
adepts there; pointing to one of them, he said: 'This is he
whom you call Jesus. We count him to be one of the greatest
among us.' "But that is not the only work of the adepts. At
much shorter periods, they send forth a messenger to try to teach
the world. Such a period comes in the last quarter of each
century, and the Theosophical Society represents their work for
this epoch."
THE THEOS. FORUM, New York, Apl, 1900


"...Jesus, whether of Nazareth or Lud,* was a Chrestos, as
undeniably as that he never was entitled to the appellation of
Christos, during his life-time and before his last trial.

*"Lud" or Lydda, reference is made here to the Rabbinical
tradition in the Babylonian Gemara, called Sepher Toldoth Jeshu,
about Jesus being the son of one named Pandira, and having lived
a century earlier than the era called Christian, namely, during
the reign of the Jewish king Alexander Jannaeus and his wife
Salome, who reigned from the year 106 to 79 B.C. Accused by the
Jews of having learned the magic art in Egypt, and of having
stolen from the Holy of Holies the Incommunicable Name, Jehoshua
(Jesus) was put to death by the Sanhedrin at Lud. He was stoned
and then crucified on a tree, on the eve of Passover. The
narrative is ascribed to the Talmudist authors of "Sota" and
"Sanhedrin," p.19 Book of Zechiel." Isis Unveiled, II. 201


"A thick film of allegory and blinds, the "dark sayings" of
fiction and parable, thus covers the original esoteric texts from
which the New Testament--as now known--was compiled. Whence,
then, the Gospels, the life of Jesus of Nazareth? Has it not
been repeatedly stated that no human, mortal brain could have
invented the life of the Jewish Reformer, followed by the awful
drama on Calvary? We say, on the authority of the esoteric
Eastern School, that all this came from the Gnostics, as far as
the name Christos and the astronomico-mystical allegories are
concerned, and from the writings of the ancient Tanaim as regards
the Kabalistic connection of Jesus or Joshua, with the Biblical
personifications. One of these is the mystic esoteric name of
Jehovah--not the present fanciful God of the profane Jews
ignorant of their own mysteries, the God accepted by the still
more ignorant Christians--but the compound Jehovah of the pagan
Initiation. This is proven very plainly by the glyphs or mystic
combinations of various signs which have survived to this day in
the Roman Catholic hieroglyphics.

The Gnostic Records contained the epitome of the chief scenes
enacted during the mysteries of initiation, since the memory of
man; though even that was given out invariably under the garb of
semi-allegory, whenever entrusted to parchment or paper. But the
ancient Tanaim, the Initiates from whom the wisdom of the Kabala
(oral tradition) was obtained by the later Talmudists, had in
their possession the secrets of the mystery language, and it is
in this language that the Gospels were written."
HPB ART III 197


"We can assert, with entire plausibility, that there is not one
of all these sects--Kabalism, Judaism, and our present
Christianity included-- but sprung from the two main branches of
that one mother-trunk, the once universal religion, which
antedated the Vedic ages--we speak of that prehistoric Buddhism
which merged later into Brahmanism. The religion which the
primitive teaching of the early few apostles most resembled--a
religion preached by Jesus himself--is the elder of these two,
Buddhism. The latter as taught in its primitive purity, and
carried to perfection by the last of the Buddhas, Gautama, based
its moral ethics on three fundamental principles. It alleged
that 1, everything existing, exists from natural causes; 2, that
virtue brings its own reward, and vice and sin their own
punishment; and, 3, that the state of man in this world is
probationary. We might add that on these three principles rested
the universal foundation of every religious credal God, and
individual immortality for every man -- if he could but win it."
ISIS II 123


"... the secret doctrines of the Magi, of the pre-Vedic
Buddhists, of the hierophants of the Egyptian Thoth or Hermes,
and of the adepts of whatever age and nationality, including the
Chaldean kabalists and the Jewish nazars, were identical from the
beginning. When we use the term Buddhists, we do not mean to
imply by it either the exoteric Buddhism instituted by the
followers of Gautama-Buddha, nor the modern Buddhistic religion;
but the secret philosophy of Sakyamuni, which in its essence is
certainly identical with the ancient wisdom-religion of the
sanctuary, the pre-Vedic Brahmanism. (p. 143) Already some time
before our era, the adepts, except in India, had ceased to
congregate in large communities; but whether among the Essenes,
or the Neo-platonists, or, again, among the innumerable
struggling sects born but to die, the same doctrines, identical
in substance and spirit, if not always in form, are encountered.
By Buddhism, therefore, we mean that religion signifying
literally the doctrine of wisdom, and which by many ages
antedates the metaphysical philosophy of Siddartha Sakyamuni."
ISIS II 142


"...the followers of Jesus evidently adhered to a sect which
became a still more exasperating thorn...It appeared as a heresy
within another heresy; for while the nazars of the olden
time...were Chaldean kabalists, the adepts of the new dissenting
sect showed themselves reformers and innovators from the
first...The Essenes...were the converts of Buddhist missionaries
who had overrun Egypt, Greece, and even Jude at one time, since
the reign of Asoka the zealous propagandist; and while it is
evidently to the Essenes that belongs the honor of having had the
Nazarene reformer, Jesus, as a pupil, still the latter is found
disagreeing with his early teachers on several questions of
formal observance. He cannot strictly be called an
Essene...neither was he a nazar, or Nazaria of the older
sect...He is the founder of the sect of the new nazars, and...a
follower of the Buddhist doctrine...what is self-evident is that
he preached the philosophy of Buddha-Sakyamuni. Denounced by the
later prophets, cursed by the Sanhedrin, the nazars--they were
confounded with others of that name...they were secretly, if not
openly persecuted by the orthodox synagogue. It becomes clear
why Jesus was treated with such contempt from the first..."
ISIS II 132


"The motive of Jesus was evidently like that of Gautama-Buddha,
to benefit humanity at large by producing a religious reform
which should give it a religion of pure ethics; the true
knowledge of God and nature having remained until- then solely in
the hands of the esoteric sects, and their adepts. p. 137 - To
assure ourselves that Jesus was a true Nazarene -- albeit with
ideas of a new reform -- we must not search for the proof in the
translated Gospels, but in such original versions as are
accessible. ... Thus, if we take in account all that is puzzling
and incomprehensible in the four Gospels, revised and corrected
as they now stand, we shall easily see for ourselves that the
true, original Christianity, such as was preached by Jesus, is to
be found only in the so-called Syrian heresies. Only from them
can we extract any clear notions about what was primitive
Christianity." ISIS II 133


"... belief in reincarnation has nothing in it that can militate
against the teachings of Christ. We affirm, furthermore, that
the great Nazarene Adept distinctly taught it. So did Paul and
the Synoptics, and nearly all the earliest Church Fathers, with
scarcely an exception, accepted it, while some actually taught
the doctrine." HPB ART I 172


"Jesus, the Adept we believe in, taught our Eastern doctrines,
KARMA and REINCARNATION foremost of all. When the so-called
Christians will have learnt to read the New Testament between the
lines, their eyes will be opened and -- they will see."
HPB ART I 175


Question: "Do not the words and teachings of Jesus, taken in
their esoteric sense, point one (the) way to the Theosophic
Path?"

"WQJ: Taken in the sense he intended the people to take them,
they lead to the way. Taken in the sense in which he desired his
Disciples to receive them, they are teachings upon the way.
Taken in their esoteric sense -- as he knew them -- they are the
way. Were the wisdom of Egypt and India today blotted out from
both the seen and unseen worlds -- the true seeker would find in
his teachings, when rightly studied, all the teachings of Isis
and Buddha. As he received his instruction from Egypt, received
from India, it is more than probable that esoterically his
teachings are identical with both." WQJ ART II 459


"...what the Homilies do prove, is again our assertion that there
was a secret doctrine preached by Jesus to the few who were
deemed worthy to become its recipients and custodians. ... If we
now recall the fact that a portion of the Mysteries of the
"Pagans" consisted of the ... aporrheta, or secret discourses;
that the secret Logia or discourses of Jesus contained in the
original Gospel according to Matthew, the meaning and
interpretation of which St. Jerome confessed to be "a difficult
task" for him to achieve, were of the same nature; and if we
remember, further, that to some of the interior or final
Mysteries only a very select few were admitted; and that finally
it was from the number of the latter chat were taken all the
ministers of the holy "Pagan" rites, we will then clearly
understand this expression of Jesus quoted by Peter: "Guard the
Mysteries for me and the sons of my house," i.e. of my doctrine.
And, if we understand it rightly, we cannot avoid thinking that
this "secret" doctrine of Jesus, even the technical expressions
of which are but so many duplications of the Gnostic and
Neo-platonic mystic phraseology --that this doctrine, we say, was
based on the same transcendental philosophy of the Oriental
Gnosis as the rest of the religions of those and earliest days.
That none of the later Christian sects, despite their boasting,
were the inheritors of it, is evident from the contradictions,
blunders, and clumsy repatching of the mistakes of every
preceding century by the discoveries of the succeeding one."
ISIS II 191



Whether Jesus belonged to the sect of the Nazarenes or Essenes is
difficult to establish but Jesus preached the philosophy of
Sakyamuni, the Buddha.

While Nazars of olden time were the Chaldean Kabalists, the
Essenes were the converts of Buddhist missionaries who had
overrun the Middle East, Egypt, Greece and even Judea at one
time, since the reign of king Asoka [Glos. pp. 55-6], a zealous
Buddhist, who sent out missionary Buddhist monks far and wide --
even as far as Ireland it is rumored. [see ISIS UNVEILED II
132 and 133]


The Essenes [Glos. p. 115] were Buddhists, and have the honour of
the Nazarene reformer, Jesus, as a pupil, yet, the latter is
found disagreeing with his early teachers on questions of formal
observance. "He cannot strictly be called a Nazar, or a nazaria
of the older sect. What Jesus was, may be found in the Codex
Nazaraeus, in the unjust accusations of the Bardesanian
Gnostics." (we must note this hint and inquire into the Codex and
accounts of Bardesanian Gnostics). [Glos. pp. 226, 129,
50]

What does the Codex Nazareus [Glos., p. 86] say ? "Jesu is Nebu,
the false Messiah, the destroyer of the old orthodox religion."
It is further said in ISIS UNVEILED : He is the founder of the
sect of the new nazars -- a follower of the Buddhist doctrine.
Nebu is from naba, meaning inspiration in Hebrew, and Nebo is god
of wisdom. "But Nebo is also Mercury, and Mercury is Buddha in
the Hindu monogram of planets. Moreover, we find the Talmudists
holding that Jesus was inspired by the genius of Mercury
[Bodha - Wisdom. Glos. p. 226]."


Both in the KEY TO THEOSOPHY and ISIS UNVEILED we see parallels
drawn between the two great Reformer--Teachers : Jesus and
Gautama Buddha. [see ISIS UNVEILED II p. 133] It is said that
both of them had the same motive: 1. to reform the current
popular Jewish religion, and, 2. teaching pure Ethics, the
true teaching having been concealed as an exclusive property of
certain esoteric sects.



I U II p. 127 We are given a clue that Jesus was a true
Nazarene. With ideas of reform, we must not look for evidence in
the Gospels, which are fabrications, but seek in the true
original Christianity -- the remnants of the Gnostics. H P B
writs: "Thus, if we take into account all that is puzzling and
incomprehensible in the four Gospels, revised and corrected as
they now stand, we shall easily see for ourselves that the true,
original Christianity, such as was preached by Jesus, is to be
found in the so-called Syrian heresies. Only from them can we
extract any clear notions about what was primitive Christianity".


"...what the Homilies do prove, is again our assertion that there
was a secret doctrine preached by Jesus to the few who were
deemed worthy to become its recipients and custodians. ... If we
now recall the fact that a portion of the Mysteries of the
"Pagans" consisted of the ... aporrheta, or secret discourses;
that the secret Logia or discourses of Jesus contained in the
original Gospel according to Matthew, the meaning and
interpretation of which St. Jerome confessed to be "a difficult
task" for him to achieve, were of the same nature; and if we
remember, further, that to some of the interior or final
Mysteries only a very select few were admitted; and that finally
it was from the number of the latter chat were taken all the
ministers of the holy "Pagan" rites, we will then clearly
understand this expression of Jesus quoted by Peter: "Guard the
Mysteries for me and the sons of my house," i.e. of my doctrine.
And, if we understand it rightly, we cannot avoid thinking that
this "secret" doctrine of Jesus, even the technical expressions
of which are but so many duplications of the Gnostic and
Neo-platonic mystic phraseology --that this doctrine, we say, was
based on the same transcendental philosophy of the Oriental
Gnosis as the rest of the religions of those and earliest days.
That none of the later Christian sects, despite their boasting,
were the inheritors of it, is evident from the contradictions,
blunders, and clumsy repatching of the mistakes of every
preceding century by the discoveries of the succeeding one."
ISIS II 191


"...except a handful of self-styled Christians who subsequently
won the day, all the civilized portion of the Pagans who knew of
Jesus honored him as a philosopher, an adept whom they placed on
the same level with Pythagoras and Apollonius. Whence such a
veneration on their part for a man, were he simply, as
represented by the Synoptics, a poor, unknown Jewish carpenter
from Nazareth? As an incarnated God there is no single record of
him on this earth capable of withstanding the critical
examination of science; as one of the greatest reformers, an
inveterate enemy of every theological dogmatism, a persecutor of
bigotry, a teacher of one of the most sublime codes of ethics,
Jesus is one of the grandest and most clearly-defined figures on
the panorama of human history. His age may, with every day, be
receding farther and farther back into the gloomy and hazy mists
of the past; and his theology -- based on human fancy and
supported by untenable dogmas may, nay must with every day lose
more of its unmerited prestige; alone the grand figure of the
philosopher and moral reformer instead of growing paler will
become with every century more pronounced and more clearly
defined. It will reign supreme and universal only on that day
when the whole of humanity recognizes but one father -- the
UNKNOWN ONE above -- and one brother -- the whole of mankind
below."
ISIS II 150



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