The Other Side of The Judeo - Christian History

Anton Sammut

Throughout its history, religion has always been subjected to censorship, invariably to accommodate those who wanted to wield power...

(Published 2012)

Contents

Preface....Pg. 9

Many of us might have wondered on occasions why the Western world embraces certain traditions and cultures whereas others are cast aside or ignored: why do such different socio-religious exigencies exist? And if everything has been handed down to us from the past, was there any alternative to how things could have evolved? And if so, what was the reason this did not transpire?

Obviously, these are questions are not easy to answer in just a few words. However, in this book we will try to arrive at some answers. We will also try to understand what might have been the fundamental causes which have shaped Western culture, otherwise known as the Judeo-Christian tradition; a term that has become so familiar to us, that today it has become part of the Western secular language.

However, it seems that the Judeo-Christian term is rather vague, especially in our ever-increasingly secular world. So let us have a look at what certain scholars understood by this term. For example, Dr Franklin Hamlin Littell (1917-2009), who was a professor of Religion and promoter of the Zionist state, declared: ''To be Christian is to be Jewish''[1]

Similarly, the renowned psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) affirmed: ''Judaism is the religion of the father, whereas Christianity has become the religion of the Son''[2]

In other words, Dr Freud is saying that the difference between these two religions is that the Jews adore God as the Father whereas the Christians as ''orphans'' of this Father, find him through his Son. On the hand, however, there are those who want to make a more candid distinction where this term is implicated, such as what was asserted by Rabbi Dr Eliezer Berkovits (1908-1992) who says:

''Judaism is Judaism because it rejects Christianity, as much as Christianity is Christianity because it rejects Judaism''[3]

On the other hand there are those who maintain that the Judeo-Christian concept is only a political paradigm which (supposedly) will bring about a new political order for the world (a spiritual approach to politics), open enough to be compatible with different general accounts of political change. The word ''paradigm'' derives from the Greek word ''paradeigma'' which means ''model'', frequently used to determine a set of scientific rules, ideologies or some form of religious belief; and from this aspect once it is established (through religious traditions, moral principles, etc), there is any rarely any room left for the reinterpretation of such paradigm.

Nevertheless, in this book we will try to find alternative means to explore if, after all, we could reinterpret part of what, for most, has become and undisputed belief.

In this book we will try to answer other questions like: How did monotheism originate? Who was Yahweh? Who was Moses? Is it true that the biblical Hebrews started to believe in one God hundreds of years after Moses? What really was the Ark of the Covenant and from where did the ten commandments originate exactly? Was the story of David and his son Solomon historically accurate? In reality who was Yeheshuah, better known as Jesus Christ? What do the other gospels that were left out of the New Testament say? Who was St Paul in actual fact; and most of all, which was the first Church before the Roman Catholic one? How did the papal pontificate originate, and what were the repercussions of the false document which was supposedly left to the Church by Emperor Constantine the Great, in order to retain her power?

These are some of the questions which we are going to tackle throughout this book. Discoveries which have occurred over the last centuries will help us to shed light on some answers and unearth even more speculation in the process.

The author

Notes

[1] New dawn magazine No 3 Feb-March, 1994

[2] Freud, Sigmund, Moses and Monotheism, Vintage Books, 1955, pp.111,112.

[3] Sanders, E. P.,Jesus and Judaism, Fortress Pres, 1985, pp.28, 36.

Part One

1. The origins of religious symbols and religion itself....Pg. 15

In order to comprehend what will we be reading regarding the evolution of Western religions and their holy books in the coming pages, it would be wise to first provide a short history of the main protagonist of these of these accounts: the human being.

From the dawn of his existence, man has always been endowed with a creative flair, particularly where safeguarding and justifying his existence were involved. Undoubtedly, the biggest leap that can be seen throughout the evolution of mankind is.....

2. The Sumerians, Abraham and the Israelites....Pg. 27

Today the majority of scholars believe that the dawn of Western culture began with the Sumerian civilization, a people who were far more advanced than others of their time (3800BC). So pronounced was this advancement that its people were able to form the foundation of the Mediterranean culture and up to a certain extent even the European one. [1]

Back in those times the Southern lands of Mesopotamia were divided into two regions, that of Sumer, in the south, and that of Akkad in the north. Although one cannot be certain, the Sumerians probably originated from......

3. Moses....Pg. 39

In order to understand what we are saying, first and foremost it is important to put aside what we have ''historically'' embraced from childhood, for we must keep in mind that the Bible consists of a number of retrospective books in which the so-called biblical events had occurred long before they were written down in the Holy Book.

Let us start with the first five books of the of the Old Testament, namely ......

4. The Exodus (part one)....Pg. 49

Like many narratives found in the Old Testament, those about Moses were probably adapted from pre-existing writings that had originated in the lands of Mesopotamia, during and after the Babylonian Exile. Among them were the legends of Sargon the Great, King of Akkad (c.2270-2215 BC), which underline the close resemblance to the story of Moses. An Assyrian text claims:.......

5. The Exodus (part two)....Pg. 65

The biblical sequence of the Ten Commandments is followed by the Ark of the Covenant, mentioned in Exodus 25:10, and which was believed to possess extraordinary powers. For instance, according to the Bible, it was not the first time that the ''fiery radiance'' emanating from this sacred relic caused....

6. From King David to the Babylonian Exile....Pg. 77

Centuries passed and with them came the reign of Saul, David, his son Solomon and the foundation of the city of Jerusalem. [1]

In approximately 1000 BC we find that the Semitic tribes of Canaan were being systematically attacked by their enemies, the Philistines. Subsequently, the Canaanites/Israelites decided that the only way to beat these warriors was to........

7. From the Babylonian Exile to the birth of Jesus Christ....Pg. 91

In 538 BC, the city of Babylonia was attacked by the Persian king Cyrus the Great (c.600-529 BC), and this conquest meant good news for the exiled Israelites settled there, for the Persian sovereign was rather tolerant where foreign cultures and religions were concerned.

Proof of this was shown when in 536 BC, Cyrus the Great issued a....

Part Two

8. Jesus Christ....Pg. 113

After the Roman General Pompey conquered Jerusalem in 63 BC and the Roman command of the city was ensured, Pompey's friend Herod the Great (74-4 BC), was appointed King of the Jews.Under his rule, over the span of twenty years the region of Judea underwent such a transformation that it acquired a resemblance to a.....

9. The Gospels (part one)....Pg. 135

What makes the Gospels so challenging, particularly in our search for the historical Jesus, is that they are not historical in nature, as in being a history remembered, but rather a prophecy historicised; which is a form of reconciliation between the historical Jesus and......

10. The Gospels (part two)....Pg. 149

After this short introduction to the four canonical Gospels it would now be helpful to try to investigate them in more depth. Let us start from the very beginning; to be precise, from the birth of Jesus Christ.

From the Gospels we know that Jesus was born....

11. The Gospels (part three)....Pg. 159

Another point of contention found in the Gospels is to what St Joseph actually did for a living. Jesus was the son of a certain Joseph ab Heli, who the Gospels identify as ''a carpenter. However, this is probably a misinterpretation of the Greek word.....

12. James the Just....Pg. 173

Earlier on we mentioned a person who was to have a great impact on early Christianity. This man was James the Just (Yaaqov HaTzaddik), the brother of Jesus Christ, as described in the New Testament. The Gospels according to St Mark (6:3) and St Matthew (13:55) mention that Jesus had....

13. St. Paul and Christian Hellenism....Pg. 187

At the beginning of chapter 6 of the acts of the Apostles, especially from the martyrdom of St Stephen onwards, the reader is introduced to two factions withing the Church of Jerusalem: the Jews and the Hellenists (the Gentiles, probably of Greek origin). It was in fact, this ideological crossroad that little by little....

14. Gnosticism....Pg. 203

Gnosticism is a philosophical/religious movement which was very prominent in the Greco-Roman world of the 2nd century AD, and although it was established before Christianity, it was through Christianity that it grew and spread.

The Gnostics, a term derived from the Greek ''gnostikos'' meaning he who has ''gnosis''(secret teachings and knowledge), maintain that.....

15. Gnosticism and their Gospels....Pg. 219

Up until some time ago, little was known about Jesus, beyond what was found in the Gospels of the New Testament. In fact, it is rather strange that a man who changed the lives of millions of people and who was the basis of Western religion should have left so little evidence of his existence behind him. This was not because there were no ancient texts which discussed Jesus Christ, but because....

16. The formation of the New Testament and its linguistic aspects....Pg. 231

Up until the 2nd century AD, there were dozen of Christian manuscripts which in one way or another delineated the teachings of Jesus Christ, but none of them was biographical or written by author who had lived during the times of Jesus.[1]

As a matter of fact, the 27 books of the New Testament are only a small fraction of the Christian literature produced during the......

17. The establishment of the church and the papal primate....Pg. 245

After glancing at some of the psycholinguistics theories explaining what determine a specific thought or a narrated concept, with particular reference to the Gospels of the New Testament, we will now try to shed light on would could have influenced and determined Christian thinking.

As already postulated in previous chapters, Platonism was one of the philosophical foundations of Christianity. The two were bridged together by Neo-Platonism whose main contributor was...

18. The strengthening of the papal primate and the official foundation of the Catholic Church....Pg. 259

During the 2nd century AD, the role of the bishop of Rome became ''clearer'', and this is attested to in the letters of St Ignatius of Antioch (died c.110), one of the Fathers of the Church. However, we should not consider this primate as being similar to the ones known today. Fore example, the first ''popes'' were married, as was the case with St Sixtus I (115-125), St Damasus I (366-348), St Innocent (401-417) and St Boniface (418-422).

During this period Rome was still not the heart of Christianity because,........

19. Persecution by the clergy and papal corruption....Pg. 275

These atrocities continued.......In 359 AD, in Skythopolis (Middle East), a mob of Christians organised the first concentration camps for those who ''fell into heresies'' or those who adhered to other religions. Most of the time this violence was not only instigated by common people but also by the bishops. St Agostine of Hippo was one of them: '' Force them to join the Church! Force them with violence and torture in the name of Jesus Christ!''

In the year 364, in the midst of a lot of violence, the Christian Emperor.....

20. The middle ages....Pg. 287

In the meantime, the conflicts between the Western Church and that of the East persisted until this dispute reached its crux in 1054, when the Patriarch of Constantinople, Michael I Cerularius (c.1000-1059) was excommunicated.

This all started when the patriarchates of Jerusalem (638), Alexandria (641) and Antioch (647), ended up being controlled by.......

21. The Renaissance, the Great Schism, Protestantism and our times....Pg. 299

Around the 14th century, the pope's primate reached its apex as an ecclesiastical jurisdiction. However with the death of Pope Gregory XI, which occurred on the 27th of March, 1378, everything changed, particularly when the German Hohenstaufen Dynasty and the French kings initiated their battles to conquer and rule Europe. [1]

The Catholic world was on the verge of collapse......

Part Three

22. A retrospective reflection....Pg. 315

We shall start this retrospective reflection with a short story:

In ' the beginning' there was the Absolute Spirit who in a 'premeditated moment' in eternity, decided to create time and said: ''Let's create spirits who function around time.''

And so God created the Spirit of Faith, the Spirit of Doubt, the Spirit of Rationality and the Spirit of Deception, which had the minor Spirit of Curiosity at his service.

Once upon a time, the Spirit of Faith said:......................

23. The brain, religious neurosis and other observations....Pg. 331

The human mind is truly a complex phenomenon conceived by a complex organ which is far more complex than the phenomenon itself, in that the human brain is always ready to adapt and interpret the world according to our needs.

Essentially, the brain is divided into two cerebral hemispheres: the left and the right. The left specialises in analytic such as numerical computation and the processing of information. On the other hand, the right hemisphere specialises in synthetic thinking: a process which incorporates.....

24. What about the future? What is in store for mankind....Pg. 341

It is said that this period of global unrest ( yielding financial collapse, global warning, devastating tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and massive earthquakes) is symptomatic of a world which is entering a new astrological phase.

In fact, there are those who claim that most of the crises and environmental catastrophes that are experiencing nowadays are all due to this ''astral collision'' which is taking place between the so-called Age of Pisces and the Age of Aquarius, which we will be entering soon;.......

Bibliography....Pg. 351