Quick answer: yes!
Good question Deegee if you are seeking an understanding of
the basis for Christian belief. The ransom is shot through with inconsistencies
as mentioned by Island man and others, not to mention the problem of those who
lived before the time when Adam was supposed to have lived. The ransom is just
a fiction.
Adam did not exist, the Bible account is ludicrous if taken
as a literal event. It has all the hallmarks of being one of many foundational
MYTHS. Truth was never the object of this story.
Since Adam introduced ‘sin’ in this myth; an antidote would
be needed hence the "second Adam" to buy back or reclaim the right to undying life. Myth
ruthlessly requires symmetry, retribution and balance, in a way that real life
does not. Cultists over the millennia have attributed various god-men saviours
in this theatrical tale of redemption. It has usually required the sacrifice of
the son of the Sun God at the spring equinox which idea in turn recalls earlier and more primitive methods for restoring
equilibrium in the tribe; namely human sacrifice. (Bear this in mind at the
memorial!)
The name Jesus (used earlier in Dionysian-mystery ritual)
came late in the succession of players for the role. The early first century
Christians did not give their saviour a personal name but although “Jesus” was
in use in the late second century it was endorsed by the Catholic imperial Church
of Rome in the fourth. By the fifth and sixth centuries CE the former names
such as the crucified saviour Dionysus and the “Good Shepherd” Mithras and the host
of preceding god-men, were proscribed by church decree on pain of death. ‘Jesus
worship’ had been the great political tool for late the Roman Empire . . . and
possibly had been a stupefying factor contributing in part to its downfall.
Isn’t it strange how there is no evidence for Jesus outside
of the Bible? Roman history does not record a god-man called Jesus. Any successful literal resurrectionist would have been headline news
at any time and at any place on Earth. History knows of none, it is only in
mythology where we encounter people being brought back from the dead.
However do note how church authority has survived until today, secured and sanctified by Imperial Rome seventeen centuries ago and along with it, its
most precious myth of the ransom sacrifice.
