I have begun to do a series of interviews with various Youtube channels from hosts who have long ago requested such. I have cleared some of my other immediate writing projects before moving on into July-August. During this window of time I have done interviews with Jacob Berman and Derek Lambert and have one scheduled with Dave LeBlanc coming up this week.
Although I have written a lot about the topic of “An Unknown Father of Jesus”–most fully in my book, The Jesus Dynasty, which I recommend for those interested in delving in a bit deeper, but also on my blog (see various links)–I can’t recall every doing an interview on this topic. So here it is–along with associated other topics as Jacob and I wandered through the maze of many subjects related to early Christianity. I will post the others as they are completed.
And NO, I have never claimed that Mary was either raped by, or had sex with, a Roman soldier–as others have proposed–or even that the Pantera tombstone in Germany can be historically connected to Jesus of Nazareth. What I have done, assuming Jesus had a human father–like any other human being–and that the kinds of “virgin conception” (not so much birth) stories in Matthew and Luke are late and legendary, is ask whether we have any other candidates other than Joseph–or are we left completely in the dark as to his DNA paternity? Miraculous conception stories in the Roman world are a dime a dozen–but I believe all the figures named–from Plato to Apollonius to Jesus–in fact were sired by other male human beings. You can read some of those stories here, on my University web site, that I invite you to explore: Jewish Roman World of Jesus (see under Hellenistic Roman Religions and Philosophy: “Divine Men, Heroes, and Gods”). So my question is–what can we say about Jesus? Once one realizes that the old refrain that “Pantera” is a pun on “Parthenos” (“virgin” in Greek), that I heard all my life repeated like it was required “handbook” knowledge, has no basis in our early sources (see “The Origin of the Idea that ‘Pantera’ is not a Real Name“), the matter of “who was Pantera” becomes an interesting question.
This one is long but many of you like digging deep into things. Please enjoy and share as you wish.
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