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Narrating Early Religions, Judaism and Christianity: the Scholars Speak”

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“Narrating Early Religions, Judaism and Christianity: the Scholars Speak” By Brent Waterbury Smashwords copyright 2013 Intro "All truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as self-evident." Schopenhauer, 19th century philosopher "Honest criticism of religious faith is a moral and intellectual necessity.” (“Letter to a Christian Nation”, Harris, ’06) This ebook is a post-modern look of ancient religions, Judaism and Christianity and their origins from a scholar’s point of view. This is also an in-depth look at how these religions started and their evolution over time. The subject of religious origins has always been a rather complex undertaking since billions of people of people clearly believe that God inspired their religion--while billions of others deny that. So to alleviate this confusion over the last 150 years or so historians were prompted by a term called contextualization--meaning scriptures only within their historical boundaries and no more. Well, this brought about a Pandora's Box of new revelation as to exactly who wrote scriptures out and their reasons for writing them in the first place. So starting in the mid 1700’s new interpretations of religions were published which deciphered mans most esteemed institution. Later, a few of these contextualized books even became #1 best sellers: "The ancient’s ways are almost incomprehensible to the unstudied modern." (“Theosophy: a modern revival of the ancient wisdom”, Kuhn, 1930) “Scholars are often accused of being out of touch with the average person and writing only about things significant to themselves and their Ivy-league colleagues.” (“Searching for the Original Bible”, Price, pg. 19) This ebook is also based on my own personal experiences in various church's over 10 years since I was once a devoutly religious Christian. Like St. Paul, I too wandered the 'spiritual deserts' trying to find answers to my questions. But after years of searching through the Bible I found the spiritual problems wasn't me per se (as I often thought) rather the Bible itself. Why? Because the Bible is good at raising questions but not so good at providing answers: "A majority of Americans (78%) say that the Bible is the 'word of God'... The U.S. is an intensely Christian nation today... Most people believe in the supernatural.” (Pew 2011), ("Transformation of the World", religion), (“Barna, “Beliefs: general religion's”, May '07) So later I set the Bible down for a decade or so thinking 'this is just another ancient religion and I'll never understand it' and let it go at that. But the problem was I admired the Old Testament with its overall philosophy and moral teachings. So I moved into historical research and scholarly area and ended up finding more answers than I dreamed of! But of course the answers I found aren't what most religious people want: “Do you find the Bible... Confusing? Difficult to read? Hard to understand?” (www.bible seminar.net) Continuing: "The Bible is misunderstood. Most Americans are completely in the dark about what scholars have been saying about the Bible for the past 200 years." ("Jesus, Interrupted”, Ehrman, pg. 1) Because religion can be mysterious and unknowable millions are turned off. In fact, over the last 50 years possibly hundreds of millions of people have left religion altogether (including Hinduism) without any negative effect on societies worldwide: "The American public is disillusioned with traditional Christianity... Both doubt and belief are each on the rise... Rigid dogmas continue to confine many lives.” ("Bad Religion", Douthat), (“Reason for God: belief in an Age of Skepticism”, Keller, pg. 2-10), (“Life after Faith: a case for secular humanism”, Preface, Kircher), see Barna, "New research how different generations view the Bible", '12 An atheist: "Religious faith remains a perpetual source of human conflict. What is the worst in us-- outright delusion--has been elevated beyond the reach of criticism." ("End of Faith", Harris) “The mere mention of pagan origins, astro-theology and mythology always brings howls of protest and denial from the church.” (“Book Your Church Doesn’t Want You to Read”, intro, Leedom, ed) Then there are Christians that read their Bible and love its inspiration but know very little about its history. They don't know why the texts were originally written down, what prompted them and who separated what from what. And as you will read, the basic truths contained below are not new and nor have they been hidden from sight. The main problem is people today don't read and instead get most of their information from TV or the Internet from people who also don't have time to read! So reprocessed information become rather half-truths or worse yet--fiction masked as truth as in major news outlets today out to make a quick buck. This ebook can dramatically help: "Most contemporary Christians are massively ignorant how the church got to where it is today.” Dr. Snyder, Asbury Theological Seminary (from, “Pagan Christianity?”, intro) “Despite the fact that the Bible is the #1 Bestseller, biblical illiteracy abounds.” Barna, "New research: how different generations view the Bible", '12, sourced from, “Pagan Christianity: exploring the roots of our church practices”, Viola/Barna, ’12), “Historians prefer to have lots of written sources, not just one or two. The more, obviously, the better.” Religious historian Dr. Bart Ehrman (“Did Jesus Exist?”, intro) Finally, this is written more for laypeople not scholars although there are sources for just about everything. Also the layout here is unique in that I've chosen the more interesting aspects of the subject matter but use the scholar’s own quotes to make a point.. The reasons for this is that readers don't need to wade through tons and tons of dry scholarly material just to get at a few conclusions. About the author? "The common goal of most biblical scholars is to figure out how the Bible works." ("Surpassing Wonder: the invention of the Bible and the Talmuds", Akenson, '98, pg. 7-11) My own background in writing goes back roughly 20 years when I began writing scripts to market. Scripts are a self-discipline and are not as easy as many presume since an audience is always in mind. Thus the writer must try to come up with something novel and get to their point very quickly. Also having a great imagination helps! Years later I finally found my religious roots once again and began the research that would years later turn into this book. And as one who’s always been interested in how religions evolve I also have a book on Islam out that digresses from the standard tradition that Mohammed wasn’t the only one who wrote the Koran. I guess I’m a heretic at heart: "There’s no good reason to be hostile toward good scholarship. Ron Hendel, BAR ("Critical Biblical Scholarship--what's the use?", Bible Archeological Review, July/Aug.12) Regardless, this is maybe the Bible's draw--the traditions and mystery like a mystery novel. If that's the case then the Bible won't disappoint. But if you're like me, where the mystery got in the way of clarity then read on... Contents Early Religions 20,000- 800 BC Ancient civilization of Sumero-Babylonian Savior Religion Primer Egypt 60,000-2300 BC Indian religion 3000 BC Ancient Devil Babylonian and Syrian 2800 BC Sin 3000 BC Pagan hell Sacrifice Persia and Zoroasterianism Mithaism 1st-4th c. Ancient Greece Plato and Platonism 400 BC Ancient Greece Cynic's 320 BC Epicurean's 300 BC-100 AD Stoic's 400 BC-300 AD Buddah 200 BC Roman Religions Fall of Rome 200-500 AD Old Testament Hebrew scriptures/ OT 300 BC Genesis (the beginning) Myths/Old Testament Archeology Israelites (defenders of God) David/Solomon Hebrew sin Devil/ OT Hebrew Sacrifice OT Prophecy/Eschatology 700-200 BC Post Exile 580-200BC Apocalyptic dualism 200 BC Jewish Messiah 400 BC-200 AD Other Jewish Heroes Angels Hell/Judaism Jerusalem 250 BC Pharisees, Sadducees Essene's 200 BC-70 AD Dead Sea Scrolls 200 BC-10 AD Jewish War with Rome 66-132 AD Old Testament Criticism Coda 1948 New Testament New Testament overview New Testament history NT Archeology New Testament myth The Gospels--Mathew, Mark, Luke & John Acts of the Apostles 90-111 AD Messiahs Jesus in St. John Who else was Jesus of Nazareth? New Testament Gnosticism Was Jesus an angel? Was Jesus a gnostic? NT apocalyptic Was Jesus an Essene? Sacrifice/Crucifixion Christian sin Kingdom of God/kingdom of heaven Jewish sect infighting 6-100 AD Parables Faith and Prayer Miracles Devil/NT Was Jesus in the OT? Didache Resurrection/heaven Hell/NT Book of Revelation Cult of Apostle Paul Conclusion Early Religions- 6000BC--800 BC “Indeed our creator is eternal. Indeed ageless he who formed us.” Semitic Ugaritic text “Religion is human experience interpreted by human imagination. The idea that religion contains a literal, not symbolic, expression of truth and life is simply an impossible idea... Matters of religion should never be matters of controversy. We seek rather to honor the piety and understand the poetry embodied in these fables.” (“Reason in Religion”, “The Sense of Beauty”, Santayana, Sp., 1896, pg. 189) "The concept of [ancient] religion is hazy. Some old problems have never been solved...Namely distinguishing between 'true' religions, 'superstitious' and 'philosophical' belief systems... Ancient myth is a deliberately chosen means of communicating knowledge. It is we who are at the disadvantage." ("Transformation of the World: 19th c., religion", Osterhammel, 2014), ("Serpent in the Sky: high wisdom of ancient Egypt", West, '93), see also "Golden Bough" In these early chapters on ancient religions we should try to imagine yourself into the minds of the initiates and to see the world from their perspective.
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