This was brought to mind when I looked into the various pronouncements by Jesus that he was god. See HERE and HERE
Then I came across the following remarks about his mental health in the Wikipedia entry: "Mental health of Jesus"
"The question of whether the historical Jesus was in good mental health has been explored by multiple psychologists, philosophers, historians, and writers.
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Opinions challenging the sanity of Jesus
The assessment of the sanity of Jesus first occurs in the gospels. The Gospel of Mark [Mark 3:21 (KJV)] reports the opinion of members of his family who believe that Jesus "is beside himself." [or "is out of his mind"-(NKJV)] Some psychiatrists, religious scholars and writers explain that Jesus' family, followers (John 7:20),] and contemporaries seriously regarded him as delusional, possessed by demons, or insane
The accusation contained in the Gospel of John is more literal:
Binet-Sanglé diagnosed Jesus as suffering from religious paranoia:
His view was shared by the New York psychiatrist William Hirsch, who in 1912 published his study, Religion and Civilization: The Conclusions of a Psychiatrist, which enumerated a number of Jesus' mentally-aberrant behaviours. Hirsch agreed with Binet-Sanglé in that Jesus had been afflicted with hallucinations and pointed to his "megalomania, which mounted ceaselessly and immeasurably". Hirsch concluded that Jesus was just a "paranoid":
— (vol. 2, p. 393)
New Testament scholar Andrew Jacob Mattill Jr. [Wikidata] in his article in The Book Your Church Doesn't Want You To Read (1993), he draws attention to the ever-increasing megalomania of "John's Jesus" (described in the Gospel of John 6:29, 35, 38, 40, 47-58; 7:38; 8:12; 11:25-26; 14:6, 13-14) and concludes:
In 2012, a team of psychiatrists, behavioral psychologists, neurologists and neuropsychiatrists from the Harvard Medical School published a research that suggested the development of a new diagnostic category of psychiatric disorders related to religious delusion and hyperreligiosity. They compared the thoughts and behaviors of the most important figures in the Bible (Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Paul) with patients affected by mental disorders related to the psychotic spectrum using different clusters of disorders and diagnostic criteria (DSM-IV-TR), and concluded that these Biblical figures "may have had psychotic symptoms that contributed inspiration for their revelations", such as schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, delusional disorder, delusions of grandeur, auditory-visual hallucinations, paranoia, Geschwind syndrome (especially Paul) and abnormal experiences associated with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). According to the authors, in the case of Jesus, it could have been: paranoid schizophrenia, bipolar and schizoaffective disorders. They hypothesized that Jesus may have sought death through "suicide-by-proxy" (indirect suicide)
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Opinions challenging the sanity of Jesus
The assessment of the sanity of Jesus first occurs in the gospels. The Gospel of Mark [Mark 3:21 (KJV)] reports the opinion of members of his family who believe that Jesus "is beside himself." [or "is out of his mind"-(NKJV)] Some psychiatrists, religious scholars and writers explain that Jesus' family, followers (John 7:20),] and contemporaries seriously regarded him as delusional, possessed by demons, or insane
And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for people were saying, "He is beside himself". And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He is possessed by Be-el′zebul, and by the prince of demons he casts out the demons".
— Mark 3:21–22, Revised Standard Version
— Mark 3:21–22, Revised Standard Version
The accusation contained in the Gospel of John is more literal:
There was again a division among the Jews because of these words. Many of them said, "He has a demon, and he is mad; why listen to him?"
— John 10:19–20, Revised Standard Version
— John 10:19–20, Revised Standard Version
Binet-Sanglé diagnosed Jesus as suffering from religious paranoia:
In short, the nature of the hallucinations of Jesus, as they are described in the orthodox Gospels, permits us to conclude that the founder of Christian religion was afflicted with religious paranoia.
His view was shared by the New York psychiatrist William Hirsch, who in 1912 published his study, Religion and Civilization: The Conclusions of a Psychiatrist, which enumerated a number of Jesus' mentally-aberrant behaviours. Hirsch agreed with Binet-Sanglé in that Jesus had been afflicted with hallucinations and pointed to his "megalomania, which mounted ceaselessly and immeasurably". Hirsch concluded that Jesus was just a "paranoid":
— (vol. 2, p. 393)
But Christ offers in every respect an absolutely typical picture of a wellknown mental disease. All that we know of him corresponds so exactly to the clinical aspect of paranoia, that it is hardly conceivable how anybody at all acquainted with mental disorders, can entertain the slightest doubt as to the correctness of the diagnosis.
— (p. 103)
— (p. 103)
New Testament scholar Andrew Jacob Mattill Jr. [Wikidata] in his article in The Book Your Church Doesn't Want You To Read (1993), he draws attention to the ever-increasing megalomania of "John's Jesus" (described in the Gospel of John 6:29, 35, 38, 40, 47-58; 7:38; 8:12; 11:25-26; 14:6, 13-14) and concludes:
The more trust one puts in the Fourth Gospel's portrait of Jesus the more difficult it is to defend the sanity of Jesus.
In 2012, a team of psychiatrists, behavioral psychologists, neurologists and neuropsychiatrists from the Harvard Medical School published a research that suggested the development of a new diagnostic category of psychiatric disorders related to religious delusion and hyperreligiosity. They compared the thoughts and behaviors of the most important figures in the Bible (Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Paul) with patients affected by mental disorders related to the psychotic spectrum using different clusters of disorders and diagnostic criteria (DSM-IV-TR), and concluded that these Biblical figures "may have had psychotic symptoms that contributed inspiration for their revelations", such as schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, delusional disorder, delusions of grandeur, auditory-visual hallucinations, paranoia, Geschwind syndrome (especially Paul) and abnormal experiences associated with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). According to the authors, in the case of Jesus, it could have been: paranoid schizophrenia, bipolar and schizoaffective disorders. They hypothesized that Jesus may have sought death through "suicide-by-proxy" (indirect suicide)
Question: Could it be that Jesus was mentally unhealthy? So much so that he was religiously delusional? After all, several of the Bible verses mentioned above suggest this might be the case. That he "is mad." "He has a demon." "He is possessed by Be-el′zebul," and that "he "is out of his mind."
I realize that it's highly unlikely that anyone here is in any position to challenge the remarks of any of the professional people mentioned above, but as a lay person what would be your argument against the notion that Jesus was mentally unhealthy?
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