Early Christians after Jesus’ death would pretty quickly elevate him to divine status. And this was despite the Jewish scriptures specifying a messiah as a very human leader rather than some sort of incarnation of God.
The famous pagan philosopher Porphyry had plenty to say on this issue. He wrote extensively about the flaws in the early Christian arguments about Jesus being God incarnate, his alleged miracles and actions and we’ll see in this article what he said about Jesus’s attitude to risking his life, his later death and crucifixion and after. We’ll go through, in particular, four points Porphyry made on this issue. So lets get started.
Who was Porphyry?
Porphyry lived in the third century and was reputed to be, intellectually, the greatest and most influential opponent of Christianity during Rome’s pagan period. He was a follower of the philosopher Plotinus and lived during the time of Diocletian in the decades before Constantine became Emperor and adopted Christianity. So he lived shortly before the Christian period. Porphyry wrote numerous books relating to not just philosophy and logic but on subjects as wide ranging as music, astrology and religion. So a very intelligent and deep thinking man who wrote on a huge number of issues but who felt the need to write on the failings and flaws of Christianity as well as this new belief spread in the Roman Empire during his life.
And he is in fact most famous for his fifteen volume work called ‘Adversos Christianos’ – meaning ‘Against the Christians’. Porphyry had a special dislike of Christianity and this enormous work was reputed to be quite probing and damaging to the Christian cause. So much so that plenty of Christian Church fathers and theologians of his time and the century after would feel compelled to challenge the many issues and points he had brought against Christianity and attempt to counter his arguments against Christian theology and dogma.
Porphyry poured scorn on the so called miracles of Jesus and the Hebrew beliefs that Christianity had inherited but twisted and modified into a new fangled belief. The idea of a God having the shape of a human as specified in the book of Genesis and sitting in an idyllic heaven as promoted by Christianity seemed ludicrous to him.
’Reason tells us that the Divine is present everywhere and in all men, but that only the mind of the wise man is sanctified as its temple’ – Porphyry
Unfortunately we only have fragments of his works left. His books attacking Christianity were initially banned by Constantine himself and then later by Theodosius II during the middle of the fifth century who ordered all his books attacking Christianity to be burned. And so there are no surviving copies as far as we know. However we still have a small fraction of his fifteen volume work derived from second hand sources. These are primarily the writings of Christian apologists like Tertullian, Macarius Magnes, Augustine, Eusebius, Methodius, Apollinaris, Jerome, Theodoret, John Philoponus and others who responded to his challenge and tried to refute his arguments and in this process quote the points that he made. In fact around thirty sources are said to either name him or mention his works. And so inadvertently just like the works of Celsus another pagan opponent of Christianity, we – through Christian writers – know at least some of his writings and the points he made although these are just a small proportion of what he had written during his life.
Jesus generally avoided risk and death in the first place
So let’s start prior to Jesus’ arrest. The first point we’ll go through as pointed out by Porphyry was the reticence shown by Jesus towards danger or any risk to his life. That he was risk averse and would invariably flee the scene rather than risk death when he could. So we can read some examples in John Chap 8 and Chap 10 where the Jews were ready to stone him
John Chap 8
57 Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?
58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
59 Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.John Chap 10
31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.
32 Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?
33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.
34 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?
35 If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;
36 Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?
37 If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.
38 But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.
39 Therefore they sought again to take him: but he escaped out of their hand,
In both instances, he escapes the crowd by running away. In John Chap 8 after fleeing the scene he hides in a temple to escape the crowds. Now for someone who can allegedly walk on water this is a pretty unimpressive way of dealing with the situation. He fails to use miracles to prevent his stoning and neither does he give an eloquent reply or use the art of persuasion in other words a more nobler and braver manner of survival than running away and hiding.
The usual Christian defence on this subject is that his time hadn’t come to die as yet and that he had to stick with a timetable of sorts climaxing in the crucifixion. However this doesn’t answer the issue of why he didn’t employ more respectable means of avoiding death than hiding in the temple. From a divine being one would expect a little more than a nimble escape. Even ordinary humans could and would perform better when facing such circumstances. And it doesn’t answer the issue of why, if he using miracles willy nilly elsewhere, in these particular circumstances he needs to physically run away and hide.
Jesus in the wilderness
And even in the less believable and more supernatural sections of the gospel stories where he has an encounter with Satan in the wilderness, he refuses to risk his life for no apparent reason. And this story is described in Matthew and Luke Chap 4
Luke Chap 4
9 And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence:
10 For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee:
11 And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
12 And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
13 And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.Matthew Chap 4
5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
In these stories Jesus is brought to the top of the temple of Jerusalem itself and Satan challenges him to jump mentioning that angels are obliged to save him from death. And being the temple presumably many worshippers and those around would have seen this miracle. But Jesus refuses to do so. For the purposes of this video we’ll leave aside the many issues arising from this story. For instance why it would need angels to prevent his death. Surely if Jesus could do miracles he doesn’t need angels as a bodyguard preventing any physical threat to his existence. Secondly why if Jesus is god himself (or part of a trinity) it’s at all possible for Satan to even think he can tempt him at all. Satan should surely have recognised God his maker or his son having been in heaven with them before his fall. And last but not least why if he was divine he didn’t destroy Satan there and then rather than allowing him to tempt numerous humans from the straight and narrow. That would have been the most sensible and divine thing to do rather than letting Satan continue to do his dirty work and lead people into temptation. So lets see what Porphyry says regarding Jesus avoiding jumping from the temple when challenged by the devil.
’Come now, let us here mention another saying to you. Why is it that when the tempter tells Jesus “Cast thyself down from the temple,”, He does not do it, but says to him, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God,” whereby it seems to me that He spoke in fear of the danger from the fall? For if, as you declare, He not only did various other miracles, but even raised up dead men by His word alone, He ought to have shown forthwith that He was capable of delivering others from danger by hurling Himself down from the height, and not receiving any bodily harm thereby. And the more so, because there is a passage of Scripture somewhere which says with regard to Him, “In their hands they shall bear thee up, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.” So the really fair thing to do, was to demonstrate to those who were present in the temple that He was God’s Son, and was able to deliver from danger both Himself and those who were His.’ – Porphyry
This point of Jesus supposedly doing plenty of miracles elsewhere wherever he went but refusing to awe Satan with them is certainly a difficult one. Theres no compelling reason for him not to show Satan his powers.
Jesus’ hypocrisy during facing death
Porphyry also mentions Jesus egging on his supporters to be contemptuous of death whatever the circumstances. However his own behaviour when when his time comes and he faces oblivion is quite different.
‘Moreover, there is another saying which is full of obscurity and full of stupidity, which was spoken by Jesus to His disciples. He said, “Fear not them that kill the body,” and yet He Himself being in an agony and keeping watch in the expectation of terrible things, besought in prayer that His passion should pass from Him, and said to His intimate friends, “Watch and pray, that the temptation may not pass by you.” For these sayings are not worthy of God’s Son, nor even of a wise man who despises death.’ – Porphyry
The passages Porphyry is referring to are both in gospel of Matthew Chap 10 and Chap 26 where Jesus is in the garden of Gethsemane.
Matthew Chap 10
10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.Matthew Chap 26
26:39 And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.
And in the first one he tells his followers to be bold and without hesitation in the face of death. Any fear might detract them from their path to heaven and they may end up in everlasting life in hell. But in the second, when faced with his own end, his reaction is quite different from his earlier message. He pleads with God to remove him from this situation if at all possible though excepting this might be his wishes. Again there are several issues arising from this incident which Porphyry himself might have pointed out. Why is Jesus if he specifically came to die for the human race even going through this charade of asking God to save him from death. Surely that was his whole mission anyway? Also if he is a son of God, why is he praying to God which if we accept the idea of a Trinity is effectively praying to himself. But even if you accept the reasons that Christian apologists might make of this strange behaviour, the fact remains that he didn’t present a stoic attitude towards his own death as he expected his followers to do.
Jesus sweating blood
Luke’s account of the story also describe Jesus sweating blood. And this is a known problem in modern medicine
The name given to it is Hematohidrosis and it occurs when someone is very fearful, panicking or showing signs of extreme level of stress at which point they will sweat blood. So again we have proof of a man in extreme fear who seems not to have the courage required even though the gospels mentions an angel ministering to him and ‘strengthening him’.
Crying out on the cross
And finally when Jesus is on the cross he cries out rather than being stoical about the situation and facing death with dignity. Again this is inconsistent with his teachings to his followers.
Matthew Chapter 27
46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
47 Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias.
Other characters in history put on a better show
And we could compare his end to other characters in history who proved more capable of bearing pain and suffering than he did while keeping very stoic about their predicament. Some good examples are the various Christian saints who put up a much braver face than Jesus when it came to facing torture. There is no mention of these saints crying to god for help or sweating blood. So surely Jesus could have managed a similar response. But instead he is to an extent outshone by his own followers.
How Christian apologists deal with it
And these are issues which Christian theologians have had problems with for 2,000 years. How do you possibly explain away Jesus – allegedly God himself – showing panic and fright? Macarius Magnes, one Christian apologist who mentions Porphyry’s point tries to explain it away by arguing that Jesus was only pretending to be frightened of death. And this was a plan on his part to tease the devil into thinking that he was after all open to temptation
‘as a man might stir up a wild beast by making a noise.’ The devil had earlier tried and failed to tempt him in the wilderness. And this was Jesus egging him on to give it another try. So Jesus was essentially playing a trick on the devil by pretending to have weakness. And then Macarius tries to turn what Jesus allegedly said and give it a positive spin.
“So, he really wants the cup to come quickly, not to pass away. And observe that he calls it a cup, not suffering, for a cup represents good cheer.” – Macarius Magnes
And this defence – that Jesus pretends to show weakness – is something that Justin Martyr, Irenaeus and others also used to explain away his less than noble behaviour. But it smacks of desperation. And most importantly it doesn’t really address Porphyry’s point. It also shows Jesus as less than honest if he – as they explain – is really using deception against Satan. And it goes against the church teaching that was thrashed out at the Council of Chalcedon in 451CE – and that was that Jesus was both human and divine at the same time. And a divine being could and would never use deception as part of his strategy.
Why was Jesus stay silent and fail to produce miracles in front of intelligent and educated men
Moving on to Jesus’ interview with Pontius Pilate, Porphyry points out that Jesus failed to speak, never mind impress, with his powers of eloquence or produce anything miraculous or do anything of consequence in front of rational people, philosophers or men of high station – people who had had a good education in other words. The gospels in fact mention no person of high station who met with Jesus and was impressed enough to accept him as a messiah. And these were the type of people who could not be fooled as easily as the fisherman and other labouring class of people that Jesus mainly appealed to.
Now if Jesus was divine and was here on earth to preach and to give good advice to man and to teach us then standing before Pontius Pilate was without doubt the best stage that someone in his station in life – an itinerant preacher – could ever hope for and a chance to say something profound in front of the Roman establishment. A powerful speech on freedom for his people, for the spiritual message that he had not just for the Jews but for the pagans and the whole world might have been the sensible thing to do. It must be remembered the Romans had annexed Judea just recently ending all Jewish hopes of freedom for the foreseeable future so this was his chance to really influence matters.
However he decides to stay pretty much silent and for no good reason. Porphyry write on this issue.
‘Why did not Christ utter anything worthy of one who was wise and divine, when brought either before the high-priest or before the governor? He might have given instruction to His judge and those who stood by and made them better men. But He endured to be smitten with a reed and spat on and crowned with thorns, unlike Apollonius, who, after speaking boldly to the Emperor Domitian, disappeared from the royal court, and after not many hours was plainly seen in the city then called Dicaearchia, but now Puteoli. But even if Christ had to suffer according to God’s commands, and was obliged to endure punishment, yet at least He should have endured His Passion with some boldness, and uttered words of force and wisdom to Pilate His judge, instead of being mocked like any gutter-snipe.’ – Porphyry
So Porphyry argues that on the stage where it really mattered, Jesus came up short. He could impress fishermen and the local country yokels from the villages with his faith healing. But when he faced people made of more sterner stuff and people far removed from his traditional believer base of simple villagers, he barely tries to convince them
So no words of wisdom and no final words to the rest of the world before he was taken away.
No miracles in front of Pilate
And continuing on the same issue, neither does Jesus perform any of his miracles in front of Pontius Pilate or other men of high station in life even though he allegedly does them elsewhere without issue. Porphyry compared the performance of Jesus with that of Apollonius of Tyana, a Greek Philosopher who lived roughly at the same time as Christ. When Apollonius was brought before the Roman Emperor Domitian he managed to effect his escape by miraculous means. But Jesus, Porphyry points out, had no tricks up his sleeves that would convince men like Pontius Pilate and therefore he kept quiet and failed to make any effort.
Christian apologists like Macarius Magnes would argue that the way Jesus acted was entirely in line with the way he was supposed to behave according to the jewish scriptures. But it’s not a satisfactory answer. Nowhere in Jewish prophecy does it say a man called Jesus would face a man called Pontius Pilate and specify the exact story which followed to the crucifixion. And certainly there was no reason at all why Jesus could not have a thoughtful conversation with the Roman Governor whatever the subsequent decision by Pilate. And if there was any stage one could argue where a miracle could have really carried some weight then this was it – in front of the Roman Governor. In fact Pontius Pilate left no record of his meeting with Jesus – something he would have undoubtedly done if had been impressed with the man and their meeting.
The nature of the resurrection
Porphyry also makes several comments on the nature of the physical resurrection of the body of Jesus after his crucifixion. Jesus when he showed himself to Thomas showed wounds in his body. Porphyry explains this could hardly be said to be a perfect resurrection. The body, if we assume the story is true, seems had been reanimated but not healed. And this goes somewhat counter to other supposed miracles where he heals the lame and lepers from physical issues. But in this instance he can’t apparently heal himself of there wounds
’…if our state after the resurrection is one of blessedness, in which the body shall be exempt from every kind of wound, and from the pain of hunger, what is meant by the statement that Christ took food, and showed his wounds after His resurrection? For if He did it to convince the doubting, when the wounds were not real, He practiced on them a deception; whereas, if He showed them what was real, it follows that wounds received by the body shall remain in the state which is to ensue after resurrection.’ – Porphyry
So Porphyry’s point is essentially that either the wounds of a resurrected Jesus were real or they were not real. If they were real then Jesus could not heal himself. But if they were not real and he was fully intact but that the wounds were just ‘fake wounds’ if you like in order to show them to Thomas then he could not be God as cannot and will not deceive as that is not his nature and the wounds were therefore a deception.
Why didnt he appear to Pilate after resurrection himself
And after his supposed resurrection, Porphyry suggests Jesus should have appeared to his tormentors ie Pontius Pilate and other worthies of the Jews rather than to his own followers. For the accounts and testimonies of these people would be far more reliable and accepted than the those of his followers who had an interest in making him appear divine.
’Why did this Jesus (after his crucifixion and rising-as as your story goes) not appear to Pilate, who had punished him saying he had done nothing worthy of execution, or to the king of the Jews, Herod, or to the high priest of the Jewish people, or to many men at the same time, as for example to people of renown among the Romans, both senators and others, whose testimony was reliable.’ – Porphyry
Instead the witnesses were people who were highly suspect and unreliable – for instance Mary Magdalene claimed she was being haunted by seven demons no less. And she then claims she had seen Jesus. This was not someone who Porphyry suggests would have been believed in his day never mind in the 21st Century.
’But He appeared to Mary Magdalene, a coarse woman who came from some wretched little village, and had once been possessed by seven demons, and with her another utterly obscure Mary, who was herself a peasant woman, and a few other people who were not at all well known. And that, although He said: “Henceforth shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming with the clouds.” For if He had shown Himself to men of note, all would believe through them, and no judge would punish them as fabricating monstrous stories. For surely it is neither pleasing to God nor to any sensible man that many should be subjected on His account to punishments of the gravest kind.’ – Porphyry
And this is a good point. Jesus appearing to Pontius Pilate and other high Jewish officials and members of the Sanhedrin and other respectable and educate people would have been far more effective than appearing to villagers and people of the lowest strata in society who had an axe to grind anyway being his followers. And as Porphyry states all the persecution the Christians faced in the next 300 years would not have taken place as the resurrection would have been verified by trustworthy sources. So many lives would have been saved and many more people would have been brought to the truth. In other words Jesus made the wrong decision to appear to relatively inconsequential people.
As always there was a Christian response to this point. Macarius defends Jesus appearing to nonentities by arguing that if Jesus had appeared to Pilate and other high status Jews, then these men would have undoubtedly covered up the event although he fails to specify any reason why these people woudl be dishonest on the matter. Instead he wrote, “he appeared in the flesh to women who were unable to persuade anyone of his rising.” This apparently according to Macarius was the better approach.
Summing up
So an interesting dissection by Porphyry of the mythology that had accumulated regarding Jesus after his death
And these form a powerful set of issues that are difficult to answer for Christians of today as well as the early Christians of his day. Its a shame that his fifteen volume work never survived but what remains is fascinating and I’ll cover more of Porphyry’s thoughts on Christianity in future articles.
Thanks for reading!
Image source
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christ_Pantocrator_Deesis_mosaic_Hagia_Sophia.jpg
Photo: Myrabella / Wikimedia Commons
