Posted: May 12, 2016 7:37 am
Yes.
My opinion is that in the wake of the Greek invasion, and the influence of Greek culture on the Near East, we already know that various factions split from the "old" religion. This started happening centuries before the Romans invaded. The Roman invasion may have had a small influence, but it's not as obvious as the Greek one. (Greek philosophy - not so much Roman)
We know that the Greek invasion led to the creation of synagogues and the rabbi class. Rabbis weren't necessarily Levites, anyone with a knowledge of the law could disseminate the learning of it, in a meeting house.
Into this culture, came teachers who didn't use meeting houses, one of these, or possibly more of them had great followings, and it's even possible that one or two of them were executed for sedition when they spoke out against the Romans (Jesus and John the Baptist being given some sort of special treatment).
I'm even a little of the opinion that "Saul" was a made up person who was supposed unite the religion under him, in the manner of the first king of the Israelites uniting the Children of Israel under him and their religion.
He and his followers, spread throughout the empire telling stories of a man, and his cousin, who were killed, some of them wrote down the stories, and some of them wrote letters to each other to tell of how they were putting the religion together.
The Church, three hundred years later, cobbled the story together, picking and choosing which stories, and which letters supported their mythology, and they made their holy book, which wasn't allowed to be dissected but was expected to be followed by their congregations, under priests, in the style of the rabbis, in meeting houses, in the style of synagogues. Anything that showed that their religion wasn't "inspired" by God, was discarded.
Add to this the mythology of mass persecutions by Jews, and pagans, and sympathy for the "martyrs" and you have the religion we know today.
Of course this is all pure conjecture on my part. I know a little about the book, the history, the archeology, the history of the religion, and I know how obsessive Christians are in their belief.
You'll never get die-hard fans of the religion to even admit I might be right, or that some of what I say might be true, but I'm "entitled to my opinion" and I'm entitled to express it. I even get into arguments with non-believers when I put forward this opinion. It takes careful reading to find the links.
I can say a lot more but I really want to sell this book. So I don't want to publish too much of what I say online.
My opinion is that in the wake of the Greek invasion, and the influence of Greek culture on the Near East, we already know that various factions split from the "old" religion. This started happening centuries before the Romans invaded. The Roman invasion may have had a small influence, but it's not as obvious as the Greek one. (Greek philosophy - not so much Roman)
We know that the Greek invasion led to the creation of synagogues and the rabbi class. Rabbis weren't necessarily Levites, anyone with a knowledge of the law could disseminate the learning of it, in a meeting house.
Into this culture, came teachers who didn't use meeting houses, one of these, or possibly more of them had great followings, and it's even possible that one or two of them were executed for sedition when they spoke out against the Romans (Jesus and John the Baptist being given some sort of special treatment).
I'm even a little of the opinion that "Saul" was a made up person who was supposed unite the religion under him, in the manner of the first king of the Israelites uniting the Children of Israel under him and their religion.
He and his followers, spread throughout the empire telling stories of a man, and his cousin, who were killed, some of them wrote down the stories, and some of them wrote letters to each other to tell of how they were putting the religion together.
The Church, three hundred years later, cobbled the story together, picking and choosing which stories, and which letters supported their mythology, and they made their holy book, which wasn't allowed to be dissected but was expected to be followed by their congregations, under priests, in the style of the rabbis, in meeting houses, in the style of synagogues. Anything that showed that their religion wasn't "inspired" by God, was discarded.
Add to this the mythology of mass persecutions by Jews, and pagans, and sympathy for the "martyrs" and you have the religion we know today.
Of course this is all pure conjecture on my part. I know a little about the book, the history, the archeology, the history of the religion, and I know how obsessive Christians are in their belief.
You'll never get die-hard fans of the religion to even admit I might be right, or that some of what I say might be true, but I'm "entitled to my opinion" and I'm entitled to express it. I even get into arguments with non-believers when I put forward this opinion. It takes careful reading to find the links.
I can say a lot more but I really want to sell this book. So I don't want to publish too much of what I say online.
