| The History of Christianity | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pagan / Polytheistic
Roots:
Hebrews, 5000 to 1850 B.C.
 The
earliest historical origins of the Hebrew culture and religion extend back
to the third millenium B.C.E. (after the invasion of early
Witches by the Babylonians), with a Babylonian tribe known as the Habiru,
or "Hebrews". The Hebrews enter the scene slightly before 2000 B.C.
E. - at least 3,000 years after the Epic of Gilgamesh was first known to
exist. A patriarch, Abraham, along with several tribal chieftains, leads
the Hebrews from the city of Ur, the birthplace of many Babylonian kings
and a prominent Mesopotamian society, to the "promised land" of Canaan
(most of which is now part of Iran). After this migration occured, they
were officially "Isrealites", but for now we'll look at the state of their
culture immediately before they finished their migration.
Gods and Goddesses At this point in time, the Hebrews still believed in the gods and goddesses of their pagan ancestors. Yes, the Hebrews were once pagans! Just like nearly every religion in the world of its time. Some of their gods and goddesses include: Baal, the god of storms; Yam Nahar, the god of the seas and rivers; and Lotan, the seven-headed dragon which would come to be known later as the Leviathan in the Pentatuch. The supreme deity who reigned over all the other gods was named El, who fathered all the gods and ruled the Pantheon. The Origins Account / The Garden of Eden The original story of the'Genesis Creation', in the context of the Hebrews, begins with the Babylonian epic of creation; Enuma Elish, or "When on High", has many parallels to the first chapter of Genesis: Before creation:
> The surface area of the Earth was a watery, mock-void. > It is implied that land will appear at a later time.
> Day or generation 3; waters are parted and give way to land. > Day or generation 4; Sun, moon, and Stars are created. > Finally, mankind was created. > Rest for the Creator(s). Six generations; though the Hebrew version says six days, the Hebrew word for "day" is the same as "generation". The seventh generation is the time of rest for the Creator(s). Parallels spelled-out:
The Great Flood The story of Noah's Ark is probably the most well known of all Judao-Christian tales. It's portrayel in secular media is not an uncommon event in the slightest and has been in everything from children's cartoons to christmas ornaments. However, what most people don't realize is that this story was proceeded by an even more ancient tale; the differences between the two seem trivial at best. Dated to be at least 7,000 years old, is the Epic of Gilgamesh. It is thought that the Epic of Gilgamesh began as a true story, but eventually became shrouded with legends and elaborate myths by the time of our earliest record of it, around 5000 B.C.E.. Divided into
12 tablets. The 11th tablet tells the story of a global flood in which
the gods find man to be crude and disgusting, and decide to flood the Earth.
Later, one of the gods warns a man named Utnapishtim of the coming disaster
and instructs him to build an Ark, and to gather a male and a female of
every form of life on Earth. Near the end of the flood, Utnapishtim releases
a dove to find land. The dove merely circles and returns to the boat. He
then releases a crow, which does not return. This tells Utnapishtim that
the crow must have found land, and the flood waters subside. In some versions
of the story, a rainbow even appears.
The similarities between these two Flood Myths are generally considered non-coincidental. However, even a few of the differences do reveal a connection if you dig a little deeper. For example, the fact that the Heros have two different names is really meaningless, since Utnapishtim simply means "finder of life", and was named according to his role in the story. If he were based on a real person, it is unlikely that his name was Utnapishtim. Though he probably was a fictional character, the Hebrews recognized that fact that his name merely reflected his role in the story and gave him a "real" name, Noah, upon adoption of the Flood Myth. Faithfully Definitive Concoctions: Hebrews / Isrealites, 1200 to 750 B.C.
Note: Many Christians and Jews believe that the Pentatuch was written by Moses around 2000 B.C., however this doesn't help the situation of the Epic of Gilgamesh predating even the birth of Moses by roughly 3,000 years. And, as we will discuss later on, there is ZERO evidence that Moses even existed! Many scholars divide the the Pentatuch into only two authors, called "J" and "E". "J" because he refers to his god as Yahweh, originally a Canaanite deity. "E" because he refers to his god as Elohim. There is probably a third author, "D", who wrote Dueteronomy. It is worth noting here that the word Elohim refers to the plural of El, the god of the fertile crescent nations. These authors were writing of historical events such as "the tower of Babel (Babylon)", however they were recorded with the intent of passing along political and spiritual truths at the expense of historical accuracy. Thus, as the Hebrew religion changed from polytheistic (pagan) to monotheistic (one god), so did many of the fundamentals for their religion. And since their spiritual views had changed, so did the stories they told. Gradually, any historical truths were lost and replaced with what is now the first five books of the Old Testament. For example, the story of the Hebrew's exodus from Egypt. Scholars can now read the records of the Ancient Egyptians with the ease of a common newspaper. Egyptian history stretches as far back as 40,000 years, and during the period of time when the exodus supposedly occurred, around 4,000 years ago, our records are fairly complete. Yet the Egyptians don't mention anything about the exodus in their records. Nothing about the first born child of every Egyptian being killed by an "Angel of Death". No mention at all of plagues involving frogs or locusts. No river turning to blood. Nothing, nada, zilch. Even the loss of the Pharaoh's son should have been found somewhere in the records, as royal family trees from the Egyptians are fairly well known. And as far as the Hebrews being taken slaves by the Egyptians? Never happened! The only record of the Hebrews even existing according to the Egyptians isn't until about 1000 B.C., about two centuries later, in which the Hebrews were merely mentioned in passing as a neighboring people. Another, perhaps even more obvious mistake, is that of the origins of the Egyptians. The Bible records in genesis, chapters 49 through 50, that the descendants of Abraham seeded Egypt a little over 4,000 years ago. Then why does the Egyptian culture date back ten times longer? The "E" author has Elohim as a very subtle god who influences mortals by voice alone, hiding himself from the sight of mere mortals. Meanwhile "J" has Yahweh introducing himself casually, comfortably, with Abraham in genesis chapter 18. In the hands of author "J", Yahweh becomes cruel and malicious in his conversion from pagan Canaanite god into the god of the Hebrews. Yahweh even commanded Abraham to sacrifice his first born son. This is not surprising, considering that Yahweh got his start as a pagan god, and in most pagan religions of the time, the first born was considered the seed of one of the gods. As a result, the first born was often sacrificed to whichever god sired him. Evidence shows that the "Yahweh Cult" began within the court of King Solomon's son Rehoboam about 960 B.C., and that the "J" doccument was written in order to establish this cult and favor the Davidic line of succession. The Yahweh cult was concentrated in the south in Judea and is associated with temple ritual among the Jews. Meanwhile,
Elohim, in the hands of author "E", remained subtle. The Elohim
cult was concentrated in the north, among the Isrealites.
They Isrealites are supposed to be a monotheistic people, and yet they have two competing gods. What were they to do? In 742 B.C., while "D" was still trying to get rid of Elohim, King Tigleth Pilesar, who had recently ascended to the throne of Assyria, had his eye on the Isrealite's land. The prophet Isaiah allegedly had a vision in which Yahweh asked him to carry a message to Isreal saying that Yahweh was the only god. Yet the Isrealites feel that Yahweh is the very god who allowed the Assyrians to prevail against them, and reject Isaiah's message. Isaiah comes back with another message; that by keeping Yahweh's laws in their everyday lives and not merely in temple rituals - would make Yahweh happy, would make the Isrealites righteous in his eyes, and earn them protection. Yet upon rejection Isaiah's message, King Sargon II overtakes the northern portion of Palestine, and the 10 lost tribes of Isreal are assimilated into Assyria's rule. Palestine became the land of the Jews, and the Isrealites were worried. Suddenly Isaiah's claims were taken more seriousely. They had to choose between the two gods, and Yahweh had allegedly shown himself more powerful by intervening on their behalf in Egypt, and so the choice was easy. But now they would have to abandon all of the scriptures which refered to Elohim...or would they? According to many prophets of the time, Yahweh desired Isreal to join forces with the Jewish kings. As a result, the Yahweh and Elohim cults vanished, the Isrealites were long gone, and the Hebraic religion and culture becomes a Jewish one. Later, in the book of deuteronomy, Joshua threatens his people to adhere to a single god, or face the wrath of Yahweh. Besides which, the Isrealites had promised to make Yahweh their god. And so, Yahweh had become their elohim - or high god. "D" seemed to pull off the harmonization of the two gods into a single being very neatly. Now the Isrealites could claim that they had but a single god, who was referred to by different descriptive names. So Elohim,
once the highest god of the fertile crescent (Babylon, Assyria, Palastine,
etc.), was now Yahweh (originally a pagan god among the Canaanites).
And so two conflicting pagan gods were merged to become a single, all-powerful
deity for a monotheistic Jewish culture.
The Jesus outlined in the New Testament was nothing like the real Jesus at all. For starters, the prisoner whom was liberated in the place of Jesus was named Jeshu Barabbas, which literally "Jesus, son of God" of, "Jesus, son of the Father" ("Jeshu" is Jesus in Aramaic). Were both Barabbas and Jesus the son of God? Of course this could just be an odd coincidence. Lion from the Tribe of David... So, Jesus was a descendant of David, huh? You wouldn't think so, since this would be on his paternal side - the side to which he supposedly shares no blood relation. Joseph was a direct descendant of David. If Mary was a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus, then Jesus was certainly not from the tribe of David. So why would the New Testament authors describe him as such? Simple, the Jewish prophecies told of the Messiah being a direct descendant of David. It was necessary in order to establish Jesus as the "King of the Jews". Either Joseph
was Jesus' biological father, or Jesus was not from the tribe of David.
He simply could not have been both a descendant of David and the
Son of God.
Of course, at that point in time, the Jews were not speaking Hebrew, but Roman (Hebrew was a lost language among the Jews for a substantial amount of time), and there were some problems with the translation. The word translated as "virgin" in the Isaiah verse means a young woman who was not necessarily a virgin. There is a specific Hebrew word for "virgin" which was not used in that verse - but the Jews, as stated above, were not speaking Hebrew at that time. Thus appears the misconception that the Jewish Messiah would be born of a Virgin. Here is the "virgin-birth" verse in its true context: (Isaiah 7:14-16 NRSV) "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted." Another interesting (but not necessarily related) fact is that the character of Greek and early Roman mythology, "Hercules", was the son of a god (the king of the gods in fact), and of a mortal woman. Notice the similarity? Both Jesus and Hercules had a mortal mother and a father who was the supreme deity of the Universe. Also interesting is the fact that the Jews were under Roman occupation when the whole "Jesus-thing" happened. So the virgin birth was never prophesied by the old testament, except in a Roman mistranslation - the Romans had a fairy tale of their oown that did tell of a "virgin" birth - and Jesus was supposedly born of a virgin during the Roman occupation. Sounds more like the whole virgin birth story was fabricated to connect Jesus with a misconceived prophecy. And not to
beat a dead horse, but Isaiah 7:14-16 was not even a prophecy meant
to describe the Messiah, but describes Isaiah trying to give King Ahaz
a sign that was to happen during that time period (seven hundred years
before Jesus) that Judah would not be invaded. This has absolutely nothing
to do with a future Jesus.
Again, this
verse was misquoted and made into a jury-rigged prophecy by Christians.
The author of the book of Matthew contrived the following fulfillment to
the supposed prophecy: (Matthew 8:16-17 NRSV) "That evening they
brought to him many who were possessed with demons; and he cast out the
spirits with a word, and cured all who were sick." But why is this not
describing a future Jesus? See next paragraph.
The suffering
servant was to be a mortal, not the son of God, and he was to be born of
a young woman, but not necessarily a virgin. He was to be rewarded by God
for all his sacrifices. Jesus was God, and thus was not subject to reimbursement
during his Earthly existence.
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