Was Christ a Jew?
Conventional Christian theology places too much emphasis on the literal interpretations of traditional Jewish scriptures while neglecting the vast but complex histories, philosophies and theologies of the ancient Near East and Asia Minor that also shed light on Christianity. Regardless of New Testament passages suggesting a Jewish lineage to Christ, the very essence of Christ and Christianity itself are non-Judaic in nature, thereby canceling out any possibility that Christ may have been a Jewish rabbi, or the Jewish Messiah. We the faithful must remember that Christ was God manifest. Thus, humanizing him or making him out to be a mere Jew, an African, or a Scandinavian for that matter, is an affront to the universality of a supreme deity that is transcendent from all physical and material realm. What’s more, Christ’s philosophies and all subsequent theologies associated with traditional Christianity are virtually all non-Hebraic in nature and character. There are also many aspects of church rituals within the Catholic and Orthodox faiths that are strikingly Pagan in character. However, for the purpose and intent of this article I will specifically address the non-Judaic nature of Christ and not dwell on the many Pagan rituals that have been absorbed within the traditional Christian churches.
To begin with, it is no secret that many Jewish scholars throughout history have suggested that Christ was not a Jew. The Talmud, the absolute scriptural authority within Judaism, clearly suggests that Christ was not a Jew. However, let us put aside for a moment what they, or what we Christians for that matter, have to say about Christ and let's begin to look more closely at the very nature of Christ and the theologies and philosophies he represented.
Many biblical scholars today agree that when Christ preached to the masses in Palestine he quoted exclusively from the Septuagint. This practice would be odd for a Jew because the Septuagint was the Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures that Jewish scholars and rabbinical authorities throughout history have strongly condemned as utterly corrupted by Paganism. A simple question arises here: Why did Christ not quote from traditional Hebrew texts, the Tanakh/Torah, and instead chose to quote texts that Jews universally claim to be pagan corrupted?
It is also worthy to note that Christ's Jewish followers, his apostles, seem to have been Hellenized Jews. Moreover, why did Christ speak Aramaic (a language that is perhaps an off-shoot of ancient Armenian) and not Hebrew, the language of the Israelites? More importantly, why were the very first worshipers of the infant Christ Zoroastrian priests, the three Magi of the east? In antiquity, the East referred to the Armenian Highlands. Why are there discrepancies regarding Christ's Jewish genealogy in the Gospels? And finally, how did Christianity spread like wildfire through the Pagan world and got virtually no where within traditional Jewish society? The answer to this question can't be Jewish persecution of Christians because Pagans at the time were equally notorious for their persecution of Christians.
I am not surprised at how fast Greeks, Assyrians, Armenians, Copts, Ethiopians, Romans and Hellenized Jews embraced Christianity, these people recognized God’s manifestation on earth and his universal message. The social egalitarianism, universality of the Triune God and the theological concepts represented by Christ and his message were familiar to the ancient Pagans of the Mediterranean basin, Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. This familiarity of pagans towards Christs nature, in essence, explains the unprecedented and astronomically fast spread of the Christian faith. In my opinion, Christ was the God known to all gentiles under different names and different forms at different times and different locations. And for reasons yet unknown, his last manifestation was in Palestine approximately two thousand years ago. It is crucial, however, to remember that Palestine at the time was heavily influenced by Greeks, Egyptians and Romans. Moreover, the general region of Palestine, which was adjacent to the great pagan theological centers of Alexandria, Byblos and Babylon, was also home to many pagan cults and Greco-Roman and Zoroastrian centers of worship.
Pagan influences upon Judaism and Christianity
There is not much that is unique within Judaic belief. The Jewish biblical traditions, which are known to have been compiled within the first century AD, are not original theological concepts. Upon close analysis, they seem to be nothing more than reinterpretations of the aforementioned pagan traditions, the overpowering foreign traditions that they were exposed to during their long and turbulent national journey. Since Babylon has a very bad reputation within religious circles, for the sake of objectivity it should be mentioned that ancient Babylon was a great center of theology, a city within which existed good and evil, truth and lie, God and Satan.
Within this perspective let’s look at some of the key locations, events and individuals within Jewish sacred tradition that are inherently tied to Babylon: Abraham the “father” of Jews was from Urfa, the Armenian Highlands. Noah, the second Adam, was a Sumerian. The Garden of Eden is said to have been located within historic Armenia. Well known to us all, the known world at the time was repopulated after the Great Deluge from the Armenian region of Mount Ararat. And finally, the long term captivity of the Jewish nation within Babylon. Thus, simply taking into account the aforementioned core biblical tales and beliefs, it should be easy to see that the core foundations of the sacred scriptures found within the Jewish Torah (the first five books of the Jewish Tanakh) were clearly non-Jewish in nature and may have actually been Anatolian and/or Mesopotamian in origin. It is also important to note here that the sacred traditions of the Persians, Armenians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Indians and the Hellenic world predated that of Judaism by many centuries.
In the opinion of many scholars, it was precisely during the captivity of the Jews (sixth century BC) within Babylon that the Hebrew tribal deity known as Yahweh began taking more recognizable forms that are familiar to us Christians today. Observing religion from this perspective, it is easy to conclude that Christianity was the natural continuation and/or evolution of the primordial realization by man of a universal creator God. This primordial realization by man clearly echoes the well known biblical accounts of the Garden of Eden, the Great Flood and the Tower of Babylon. Civilized man first lived, as the biblical and archaeological sources attest, within Mesopotamia and Asia Minor, known universally as the Cradle of Civilization.
Council of Nicaea
When one closely studies the Christian Gospels and the Jewish scriptures one clearly sees that there are essentially no similarities between the nature, ethics and theosophies associated with the Triune God of Christianity and the tribal deity found within the so-called Old Testament - other than the ones that seem to be coincidental or simply contrived by Christ's Jewish apostles in order to "fit" Christ into Hebrew society and tradition. Some Christian apologists today claim that pagan element that may exist within Christianity was a result of doctrinal formulations made during the Church councils such as the Council of Nicaea, the first major convention of prominent Christian leaders held within Byzantium in 325 AD under the close supervision of the pagan Emperor Constantine the Great.
It should be taken into consideration that prior to the Council of Nicaea there were many popular forms of Christianity in existence and some of the them, such as the Marcionites, wanted nothing to do Judaic traditions. However, when the powerful Roman Emperor at the time cast his final verdict all other Christian schools of thought simply disappeared. The Emperor Constantine chose a school of thought that essentially combined the Christian and Jewish traditions, known at the time as the Pauline sect of Christianity. The Pauline Christians, with the Emperor's stamp of approval, proved to be very violent, mercilessly eradicating all other groups that opposed them. Another consequence of the church council was the rejection and subsequent destruction of various troublesome texts at the time that simply did not fit into the Pauline mentality, such as the Gospels of Thomas.
Why did Constantine take this action? Based on contemporary accounts, Constantine was a very warlike man. He was a proud pagan until the last day of his life. He was cunning and he was ruthless. After the split of the Rome Empire, Constantine found himself ruling over a large number of Jews, many of them prominent, within his eastern half of the Roman Empire. It is also said that Constantine had many prominent Jews within his royal court. Some historians claim that Constantine intent at Nicaea was to unite his pagan, Christian and Jewish subjects under one religious banner. At the time, Jews and Christians formed a large minority in the Roman Empire. After the final sacking of Jerusalem by Rome, the wealthy Hellenized Jews, as well as many ordinary Jews, moved into Roman held territories. The famous Roman Jewish historian Josephus is just one example. Let's also not forget that at the time in question religion was a powerful sociopolitical institution, much like what democracy, capitalism, socialism or communism are today. Thus, directly controlling a given population's religion meant controlling the population. Therefore, as a result of the geopolitical climate within the eastern Roman Empire at the time we got the brand of Christianity tat we are familiar with today.
Non-Judaic tenants within Christianity
It is also important to note that Palestine at the time of Christ had a strong cult called the Essenes. This was a reclusive group of eccentric individuals who's members chose to abandon earthly possessions and live aesthetic lives in the desert. Historians today consider the Essenes to be more-or-less a Zoroastrian cult within Palestine. This group is also said to have been severely persecuted by orthodox Jews at the time. According to many biblical scholars, the Essene connection to early Christianity is very strong. Many of the social attributes associated with early Christians closely resemble that of the Essenes. Some prominent biblical scholars even claim that John the Baptist and Christ may have been Essenes as well. Perhaps the narrated friction that existed in the Gospels between the John the Baptist and the Sadducees and the Pharisees and the ultimate beheading of John the Baptist authenticates this speculation. Nevertheless, let's keep in mind that biblical scholars state that the scriptures were written within a generation or two after Christ's crucifixion and resurrection. Thus, the following non-Jewish elements within Christianity existed generations before the famous Council of Nicaea. Therefore, no one can rightfully claim that the Nicaean Council, or any other church council for that matter, manipulated the scriptures of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and various other agnostic gospels in order to incorporate pagan beliefs into the Christian texts.
Intentions of the apostles
The apostles of Christ seem to have gone to great lengths to directly connect the risen Christ to Hebrew scripture within their writings. Perhaps this was done by the followers of Christ in order to convert Jews at the time from their seemingly primitive and corrupt faith. The aforementioned is precisely the reason why there seem to be contrived attempts by the apostles connecting Christ to the Hebrew scriptures. Attempts such as making Christ sit on a donkey and enter Jerusalem, as prophesied in Hebrew scriptures, to convince the Jews that Christ was indeed their long awaited Messiah. Unfortunately, our present day knowledge and understanding of Christ is primarily based upon these contrived attempts of the apostles. Nevertheless, the attempts of the apostles would prove to be a futile effort in the long run.
The rejection of "Christ" by Judaism
Christ, as God on earth, was such an indigestible theosophical concept for a great majority of Jews at the time that he was mercilessly tortured and put to death. But for whatever reason, the Jewish followers of Christ, namely Paul, were very concerned about convincing the Jewish population of Asia Minor and the Levant at the time that Christ was their long awaited Messiah. Nevertheless, even after the many contrived efforts, the general population, especially the religious establishment did not recognize Christ to be their promised Messiah. I personally think that the Jews at the time would have been better able to recognize their promised Messiah, at the very least - much better than us pagans. And to this day, Jewish theologians scoff at us Christians when we tell them that our Christ-God was their promised Messiah.
A Jewish Rabbi once said, “you [Christians] have stolen our watch and for two thousand years have been telling us what time it is.” He was clearly implying that we Christians have taken their sacred scriptures, the Tanakh/Torah, and for two thousand years we have been 'reinterpreting' it for them. The comments of the Rabbi have profound implications because the so-called Old Testament is their national holy book, they are the ones that should know it intimately - not us pagans.
Frankly, I do not blame the Jews for rejecting Christ because Christ was not their expected savior, their promised Messiah, a King that would save the Jewish nation from pagan oppression as promised to them by Yahweh. And that, as well as Christ's early popularity among the peasants of the region, was precisely the reason why the Jewish religious establishment at the time became extremely concerned about Christ's corrupting influence over the Jewish faithful. As a result, the Jewish authorities considered Christ to be a wizard, a wicked man, and a man that represented a belief system associated with paganism. Nothing about Christ other than the coincidental and/or the contrived was what Jews at the time were expecting in their Messiah - according to their sacred scriptures.
However, our Triune God was a universal deity known to ancient man throughout Asia Minor. I also believe that in addition to John the Baptist, who as I stated earlier is said to be an Essene, individuals such as Pythagoras, Zoroaster and Buddha were also prophets sent by the supreme creator God in order to "prepare the way" for Christ. The problem within Christendom today is its biblical fundamentalism, as exemplified by the Evangelical movement within the United States, that basically shuts out all other theological concepts and literature as the works of the Devil. In my opinion, however, the theosophies and rituals associated with Christ are fundamentally non-Hebraic in nature and origin. Any serious or well learned theologian would be able to make that speculation, if not out right conclusion.
However, a question still remains. Regardless of Christ's nature, why did God manifest himself within Palestine? I'm afraid that is a question that only God can answer. Nevertheless, if one takes into consideration the claim attributed to Christ that he was on earth to cure the sick and not the healthy, one may easily conclude the following: What people do we know of in that region of the world that most needed Christ's healing powers?
Arevordi
To begin with, it is no secret that many Jewish scholars throughout history have suggested that Christ was not a Jew. The Talmud, the absolute scriptural authority within Judaism, clearly suggests that Christ was not a Jew. However, let us put aside for a moment what they, or what we Christians for that matter, have to say about Christ and let's begin to look more closely at the very nature of Christ and the theologies and philosophies he represented.
Many biblical scholars today agree that when Christ preached to the masses in Palestine he quoted exclusively from the Septuagint. This practice would be odd for a Jew because the Septuagint was the Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures that Jewish scholars and rabbinical authorities throughout history have strongly condemned as utterly corrupted by Paganism. A simple question arises here: Why did Christ not quote from traditional Hebrew texts, the Tanakh/Torah, and instead chose to quote texts that Jews universally claim to be pagan corrupted?
It is also worthy to note that Christ's Jewish followers, his apostles, seem to have been Hellenized Jews. Moreover, why did Christ speak Aramaic (a language that is perhaps an off-shoot of ancient Armenian) and not Hebrew, the language of the Israelites? More importantly, why were the very first worshipers of the infant Christ Zoroastrian priests, the three Magi of the east? In antiquity, the East referred to the Armenian Highlands. Why are there discrepancies regarding Christ's Jewish genealogy in the Gospels? And finally, how did Christianity spread like wildfire through the Pagan world and got virtually no where within traditional Jewish society? The answer to this question can't be Jewish persecution of Christians because Pagans at the time were equally notorious for their persecution of Christians.
I am not surprised at how fast Greeks, Assyrians, Armenians, Copts, Ethiopians, Romans and Hellenized Jews embraced Christianity, these people recognized God’s manifestation on earth and his universal message. The social egalitarianism, universality of the Triune God and the theological concepts represented by Christ and his message were familiar to the ancient Pagans of the Mediterranean basin, Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. This familiarity of pagans towards Christs nature, in essence, explains the unprecedented and astronomically fast spread of the Christian faith. In my opinion, Christ was the God known to all gentiles under different names and different forms at different times and different locations. And for reasons yet unknown, his last manifestation was in Palestine approximately two thousand years ago. It is crucial, however, to remember that Palestine at the time was heavily influenced by Greeks, Egyptians and Romans. Moreover, the general region of Palestine, which was adjacent to the great pagan theological centers of Alexandria, Byblos and Babylon, was also home to many pagan cults and Greco-Roman and Zoroastrian centers of worship.
Pagan influences upon Judaism and Christianity
There is not much that is unique within Judaic belief. The Jewish biblical traditions, which are known to have been compiled within the first century AD, are not original theological concepts. Upon close analysis, they seem to be nothing more than reinterpretations of the aforementioned pagan traditions, the overpowering foreign traditions that they were exposed to during their long and turbulent national journey. Since Babylon has a very bad reputation within religious circles, for the sake of objectivity it should be mentioned that ancient Babylon was a great center of theology, a city within which existed good and evil, truth and lie, God and Satan.
Within this perspective let’s look at some of the key locations, events and individuals within Jewish sacred tradition that are inherently tied to Babylon: Abraham the “father” of Jews was from Urfa, the Armenian Highlands. Noah, the second Adam, was a Sumerian. The Garden of Eden is said to have been located within historic Armenia. Well known to us all, the known world at the time was repopulated after the Great Deluge from the Armenian region of Mount Ararat. And finally, the long term captivity of the Jewish nation within Babylon. Thus, simply taking into account the aforementioned core biblical tales and beliefs, it should be easy to see that the core foundations of the sacred scriptures found within the Jewish Torah (the first five books of the Jewish Tanakh) were clearly non-Jewish in nature and may have actually been Anatolian and/or Mesopotamian in origin. It is also important to note here that the sacred traditions of the Persians, Armenians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Indians and the Hellenic world predated that of Judaism by many centuries.
In the opinion of many scholars, it was precisely during the captivity of the Jews (sixth century BC) within Babylon that the Hebrew tribal deity known as Yahweh began taking more recognizable forms that are familiar to us Christians today. Observing religion from this perspective, it is easy to conclude that Christianity was the natural continuation and/or evolution of the primordial realization by man of a universal creator God. This primordial realization by man clearly echoes the well known biblical accounts of the Garden of Eden, the Great Flood and the Tower of Babylon. Civilized man first lived, as the biblical and archaeological sources attest, within Mesopotamia and Asia Minor, known universally as the Cradle of Civilization.
Council of Nicaea
When one closely studies the Christian Gospels and the Jewish scriptures one clearly sees that there are essentially no similarities between the nature, ethics and theosophies associated with the Triune God of Christianity and the tribal deity found within the so-called Old Testament - other than the ones that seem to be coincidental or simply contrived by Christ's Jewish apostles in order to "fit" Christ into Hebrew society and tradition. Some Christian apologists today claim that pagan element that may exist within Christianity was a result of doctrinal formulations made during the Church councils such as the Council of Nicaea, the first major convention of prominent Christian leaders held within Byzantium in 325 AD under the close supervision of the pagan Emperor Constantine the Great.
It should be taken into consideration that prior to the Council of Nicaea there were many popular forms of Christianity in existence and some of the them, such as the Marcionites, wanted nothing to do Judaic traditions. However, when the powerful Roman Emperor at the time cast his final verdict all other Christian schools of thought simply disappeared. The Emperor Constantine chose a school of thought that essentially combined the Christian and Jewish traditions, known at the time as the Pauline sect of Christianity. The Pauline Christians, with the Emperor's stamp of approval, proved to be very violent, mercilessly eradicating all other groups that opposed them. Another consequence of the church council was the rejection and subsequent destruction of various troublesome texts at the time that simply did not fit into the Pauline mentality, such as the Gospels of Thomas.
Why did Constantine take this action? Based on contemporary accounts, Constantine was a very warlike man. He was a proud pagan until the last day of his life. He was cunning and he was ruthless. After the split of the Rome Empire, Constantine found himself ruling over a large number of Jews, many of them prominent, within his eastern half of the Roman Empire. It is also said that Constantine had many prominent Jews within his royal court. Some historians claim that Constantine intent at Nicaea was to unite his pagan, Christian and Jewish subjects under one religious banner. At the time, Jews and Christians formed a large minority in the Roman Empire. After the final sacking of Jerusalem by Rome, the wealthy Hellenized Jews, as well as many ordinary Jews, moved into Roman held territories. The famous Roman Jewish historian Josephus is just one example. Let's also not forget that at the time in question religion was a powerful sociopolitical institution, much like what democracy, capitalism, socialism or communism are today. Thus, directly controlling a given population's religion meant controlling the population. Therefore, as a result of the geopolitical climate within the eastern Roman Empire at the time we got the brand of Christianity tat we are familiar with today.
Non-Judaic tenants within Christianity
It is also important to note that Palestine at the time of Christ had a strong cult called the Essenes. This was a reclusive group of eccentric individuals who's members chose to abandon earthly possessions and live aesthetic lives in the desert. Historians today consider the Essenes to be more-or-less a Zoroastrian cult within Palestine. This group is also said to have been severely persecuted by orthodox Jews at the time. According to many biblical scholars, the Essene connection to early Christianity is very strong. Many of the social attributes associated with early Christians closely resemble that of the Essenes. Some prominent biblical scholars even claim that John the Baptist and Christ may have been Essenes as well. Perhaps the narrated friction that existed in the Gospels between the John the Baptist and the Sadducees and the Pharisees and the ultimate beheading of John the Baptist authenticates this speculation. Nevertheless, let's keep in mind that biblical scholars state that the scriptures were written within a generation or two after Christ's crucifixion and resurrection. Thus, the following non-Jewish elements within Christianity existed generations before the famous Council of Nicaea. Therefore, no one can rightfully claim that the Nicaean Council, or any other church council for that matter, manipulated the scriptures of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and various other agnostic gospels in order to incorporate pagan beliefs into the Christian texts.
Intentions of the apostles
The apostles of Christ seem to have gone to great lengths to directly connect the risen Christ to Hebrew scripture within their writings. Perhaps this was done by the followers of Christ in order to convert Jews at the time from their seemingly primitive and corrupt faith. The aforementioned is precisely the reason why there seem to be contrived attempts by the apostles connecting Christ to the Hebrew scriptures. Attempts such as making Christ sit on a donkey and enter Jerusalem, as prophesied in Hebrew scriptures, to convince the Jews that Christ was indeed their long awaited Messiah. Unfortunately, our present day knowledge and understanding of Christ is primarily based upon these contrived attempts of the apostles. Nevertheless, the attempts of the apostles would prove to be a futile effort in the long run.
The rejection of "Christ" by Judaism
Christ, as God on earth, was such an indigestible theosophical concept for a great majority of Jews at the time that he was mercilessly tortured and put to death. But for whatever reason, the Jewish followers of Christ, namely Paul, were very concerned about convincing the Jewish population of Asia Minor and the Levant at the time that Christ was their long awaited Messiah. Nevertheless, even after the many contrived efforts, the general population, especially the religious establishment did not recognize Christ to be their promised Messiah. I personally think that the Jews at the time would have been better able to recognize their promised Messiah, at the very least - much better than us pagans. And to this day, Jewish theologians scoff at us Christians when we tell them that our Christ-God was their promised Messiah.
A Jewish Rabbi once said, “you [Christians] have stolen our watch and for two thousand years have been telling us what time it is.” He was clearly implying that we Christians have taken their sacred scriptures, the Tanakh/Torah, and for two thousand years we have been 'reinterpreting' it for them. The comments of the Rabbi have profound implications because the so-called Old Testament is their national holy book, they are the ones that should know it intimately - not us pagans.
Frankly, I do not blame the Jews for rejecting Christ because Christ was not their expected savior, their promised Messiah, a King that would save the Jewish nation from pagan oppression as promised to them by Yahweh. And that, as well as Christ's early popularity among the peasants of the region, was precisely the reason why the Jewish religious establishment at the time became extremely concerned about Christ's corrupting influence over the Jewish faithful. As a result, the Jewish authorities considered Christ to be a wizard, a wicked man, and a man that represented a belief system associated with paganism. Nothing about Christ other than the coincidental and/or the contrived was what Jews at the time were expecting in their Messiah - according to their sacred scriptures.
However, our Triune God was a universal deity known to ancient man throughout Asia Minor. I also believe that in addition to John the Baptist, who as I stated earlier is said to be an Essene, individuals such as Pythagoras, Zoroaster and Buddha were also prophets sent by the supreme creator God in order to "prepare the way" for Christ. The problem within Christendom today is its biblical fundamentalism, as exemplified by the Evangelical movement within the United States, that basically shuts out all other theological concepts and literature as the works of the Devil. In my opinion, however, the theosophies and rituals associated with Christ are fundamentally non-Hebraic in nature and origin. Any serious or well learned theologian would be able to make that speculation, if not out right conclusion.
However, a question still remains. Regardless of Christ's nature, why did God manifest himself within Palestine? I'm afraid that is a question that only God can answer. Nevertheless, if one takes into consideration the claim attributed to Christ that he was on earth to cure the sick and not the healthy, one may easily conclude the following: What people do we know of in that region of the world that most needed Christ's healing powers?
Arevordi
I enjoyed reading this as Ive been thinking along the same lines for a while now. I am a Christian who lives in the Bible Belt of the United States surrounded by evangelicals who believe in a pre-tribulation rapture, and support the atrocities of the state of Israel. But alas many of them are good people, just misguided. Sadly brainwashing is pervasive in my country among all types of people, regardless of distinctions of class, race, ethnicity,religion, gender, political persuasion, intelligence, etc.
ReplyDeleteOne little point I thought might add to this discussion is an insight I had while reading the third chapter of the gospel of John, specifically verse 10, where Jesus is having a friendly conversation with the Pharisee Nicodemas about the necessity of being born again. This is obviously a foreign concept to Nicodemas. When he asks "How can these things be?", Jesus slyly replies: "You call yourself a holy man of Israel, and you know these things not?" My own humble interpretation is that Jesus is implying that they are both "holy men" but only one of them is of the Israeli brand.
I have a few other insights concerning his ministry but I'll leave it at that for now. Thank you again for your ideas.