The Origins of One Version of Monotheism

[Irreverend Hugh, KSC]

An essay I have been working on discussing the origins of Monotheism. it originally was a response to an insult about my Paganism. It has become something altogether different. Any comments?


The Story of the Little Fish:
a Nasorean view written by a Neo-Pagan

In the land of Palestine, also once known as Judaea and called Israel nowadays, during the period of Roman rule, there arose a challenge from a small community of religious Jews which eventually became the fragments upon which Paul was able to create the Christian religion. That community was called Qumran (other wise known as the Essenes). This community posited that the majority of the people around them, both Jewish and Roman were spiritually dead, and that Jews needed ?´resurrection?? in order to have the life necessary for the kingdom of YHWH which was soon to be restored after righteousness and life returned to the land.  Under Roman rule, life was not hard for the Jews as a whole, and in fact, their political and religious leaders benefited immensely from Roman cosmopolitanism (which had actually been established earlier by the Hellenic civilization).

The Qumran Community, seeing itself as the true heirs of the faith and kingship of Israel (and thus the righteousness of YHWH), naturally looked upon the Jewish political and religious leaders as corrupt and complacent.  This created difficulties for the Community when two of their own leaders, twin pillars and brothers by the names of Yacov (James) and Yehoshua (Jesus) started to create the conditions necessary for a revival of spiritual life and an ushering in of the kingdom of YHWH.  Yehoshua radicalized the Qumran teachings to such a degree that made it popular among the common populace. This was done in attempt to build a messianic revolution which would restore the Israel as the Kingdom of YHWH and drive out the Roman oppressors. Contrary to the Pauline Christianity of later days, Yehoshua was not promoting peace. He was, in fact, trying to build up a momentum, both socially and militarily, to overthrow the Roman overlords and their collaborators.

The initial impetus for this drive towards revolution occurred with the execution of the man now known as John the Baptist, who was up till then, the one appointed by the Community to usher in the kingdom. The authorities of the day had gotten wind of the threat and had presumed that a swift execution would surely end the building movement. But that execution of the Community??s pillar only convinced Yehoshua, who with Yacov had been ?´resurrected?? by John the Baptist, that the conditions were ripe for bringing the true kingdom in.  Yehoshua was able to convince Yacov of his more radical views in popularizing the Community??s teachings in order to gain the material and moral support needed for a revolution. But Yehoshua only had a year to preach before he too was arrested and executed. Before this, when he intuited that the game was up for him personally, he pointed to his brother Jacov as the true leader of the blossoming messianic movement. Yehoshua offered up himself as a sacrifice to YHWH in the hope for help in ushering in the kingdom.

In that year of Yehoshua??s preaching to the masses around Jerusalem, the Community??s movement came to be very popular. So Pontius Pilatus, after having arrested both brothers, devised a scheme to avert the inevitable uprising which would occur had he executed both. He knew that the Roman military would put down any uprising, but not in time to save his own skin. He would appease the masses which were influenced by the growing Community, by giving them a choice over executing only one, and letting the other go free. Of course, the masses choose to free that person pointed out by Yehoshua as the true leader, Yacov Barabbas (James the ?´Son of the Father??). Yehoshua went as a willing sacrifice so that his passion would live on. That was around 33A.D.

By the time the Romans destroyed the Jewish Temple in 70A.D., many changes had occurred. The popularity of the Community and its messianic movement continued to grow under the leadership of Yacov. He felt confident enough to enter the Temple in 66A.D., but was murdered by the priesthood. This murder of the man that the masses considered ?´Righteous??, provoked a rebellion against the priesthood and the Roman authorities which led to war. Yacov had had over three decades which to preach and spread the message, so the ensuing conflict was only natural.

Another change which had occurred was the introduction of an illegitimate teacher known as Saul of Tarsus, who was initially attracted to the Community after the execution of Yehoshua. He had tried to gain acceptance as a Community teacher but was discredited by the majority of the masses around Jerusalem. Thus Saul/Paul??s later emphasis upon a Jewish ?´rejection?? of their messiah, which became the linchpin of later Pauline Christianity, and an equal emphasis upon the ?´universal?? nature of the movement. All later attempts by the Community to discredit Paul??s growing movement among the Diaspora and the Gentiles, was seen by Paul as evidence of the Jews wishing to ?´Judaize?? the new faith. Of course, this is absurd. The Community saw Paul as an illegitimate leader who was threatening to destroy what they were building. Paul took teachings he gleaned from the Community about ?´death?? and ?´resurrection?? literally and applied them to Yehoshua/Jesus. He virulently denounced anyone who claimed to know the true teachings as frauds. He also instructed his followers to respect the Roman authorities. And one can see this pattern occur later in Church history as the Pauline Christians gained ground over many of the ?´heretical?? sects which posited that Jesus was, in fact, a man who had tried and failed to usher in the kingdom. One could see a direct correlation between Gnostic Christianity and the earlier Jewish Qumran Community, in that the Gnostics also posited the idea that people were ?´dead?? and needed to experience ?´resurrection??. The Gnostics felt that Jesus/Yehoshua was a great teacher for popularizing his teachings for the masses and for offering that ?´resurrection?? to anyone who wished.

The Roman destruction of the Temple in 70A.D. also destroyed the Qumran Community, whose triumphal occupation of that Temple was tragically short-lived. The teachings were hidden in various places, whether in writings assembled in caves, or in secrets passed around by those who escaped into the Diaspora. After that date, Paul??s new religious movement and his views about Jesus/Yehoshua gained immense popularity among the Roman world. The building blocks for a radically different religion were in place. But the Community??s influence was strong enough to inspire many of the religious movements, Jewish and Gentile, which followed and which are now included under the Christian rubric, despite some radical divergences from the Pauline faith. (And in the views of many of the Community-influenced sects, Pauline Christianity is the divergence from the teachings of Yehoshua.) Later Pauline Christians claimed that Peter was the one appointed by Jesus/Yehoshua to carry on the leadership. But there is evidence that Peter rejected this idea when it was suggested by Paul. To the Community, of which Peter was an important part, it was clearly Yacov/James who was the successor to Jesus.

Paul??s changing of the meaning of Jesus/Yehoshua was nothing short of radical, almost as radical as Yehoshua himself. Paul changed Jesus?? sacrifice of himself for his movement into the sacrifice of YHWH??s son for the sins of all humanity, thus freeing everyone from bondage, giving them the means to live with their God. He turned the failure of a Jewish messianic movement into a triumph of world spirituality. He took the teachings of a radical Jewish sect and packaged them in a way that would be understood by the masses in the Roman Empire. And despite his attempts to tone down the aspects of Jesus?? teachings that were clearly radical and anti-authoritarian, later Christian movements used those teachings to promote freedom. Even Paul himself fell under the influence of the teachings with his subsequent disrespect towards the authorities whom he deemed to be corrupt.

The later Pauline Christians attacked other sects and other religions with a vehemence never before seen, and after gaining political power within the Roman Empire, had the mechanism to enforce their understanding of the teachings upon people with differing opinions. And it is this Christianity and its interpretation of Jesus we are familiar with today. The patently false notion that the Jews had rejected their messiah Jesus/Yehoshua became the linchpin of centuries of anti-Semitism. Based on the teachings of the Community, were Yehoshua able to muster up the revolution necessary for ushering the kingdom, he would have been embraced by the Jews as a whole. And seeing the later popularity of the movement of which Yehoshua was a prominent leader, only serves to undermine any idea that the Jews had rejected their messiah. That the movement was popular is not doubted. What is in doubt is the idea that it was Christian from the start, for it was the later interference from Paul which created Christianity as we know it.

[Shibboleet The Annihilator]

HUGH:
0 Replies since 2003



Numerous various incorrect... aw fukkit...

[East Coast Hustle]

TL;DR

[AFK]

needs moar tequila

[The Littlest Ubermensch]

NEEDS MOAR VIRTUALLY UNUSED SMILEYS
:cowass:



:pow:

[The Good Reverend Roger]

TL;DR

That saying will be the death of Discordianism.  Even the good parts.  ESPECIALLY the good parts.

Just saying.

[East Coast Hustle]

when it comes to Hugh, pretty much EVERYTHING is TL;DR.

[East Coast Hustle]

when it comes to Hugh discordianism, pretty much EVERYTHING is TL;DR.

let me fix that for me.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

when it comes to Hugh discordianism, pretty much EVERYTHING is TL;DR.

let me fix that for me.

So, let me get this straight....if the "level of discourse" doesn't become "more intellectual", then you are going to start stepping on everyones' nuts.

But if it DOES, then it's TL;DR.

That's fucking awesome.  You get to be a petty internets tyrant AND tragically hip, all at the same time!



TGRR,
Tips his hat.  Even Hugh never leapt so high!

[Cain]

TL;DR

That saying will be the death of Discordianism.  Even the good parts.  ESPECIALLY the good parts.

Just saying.

Agreed. 

I try to make anything over a few paragraphs as simple to understand as is possible.  But you can only do so much without warping the original concepts beyond their usability.  If something is complex, well, you have to deal with that, sadly.

Incidentally, I just think ECH was taking a dig against Hugh's rants.  Which is kind of fair enough, in a way.  I always found what Hugh had to say was more helpful if you could drag him into a conversation, question him and discuss things from various angles.

Then again, that's pretty much true of every ranter, including myself.  If I just wanted to rant, why not get a blog and be done with it? (Yes, yes, I know, I DO have one, but that is besides the point...).  The follow up is just as important as the ideas presented, I think.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

I think in the case of the OP in this case it stands for Too Lame; Didn't Read.

IMO long posts are easy to read if the person writing them knows how to make them flow, and I've had enough caffeine.

[East Coast Hustle]

troof.

but it's more fun to let Roger take shots at me for being a "petty internet tyrant".

because, you know, I'm such a heavy-handed admin who has a history of capriciously fucking with site members' accounts...

[The Good Reverend Roger]

troof.

but it's more fun to let Roger take shots at me for being a "petty internet tyrant".

because, you know, I'm such a heavy-handed admin who has a history of capriciously fucking with site members' accounts...

...And you're standing there.  Hardly moving.

[Doktor Loki]

Maybe he's providing you target practice, so when you REALLY need it you wont be rusty.

Or maybe not.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Maybe he's providing you target practice, so when you REALLY need it you wont be rusty.

Or maybe not.

It's like he's moving in slow motion.