With palms together,
There is an interesting article in the N Y Times today about a stone tablet found amid the Dead Sea Scrolls. Apparently it suggests that the notion of a suffering messiah who would rise in three days was a common belief in the century prior to the Christian Jesus.
The article suggests:
If such a messianic description really is there, it will contribute to a developing re-evaluation of both popular and scholarly views of Jesus, since it suggests that the story of his death and resurrection was not unique but part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time.
Hmmm. The death and resurrection myth prior to Jesus' birth? It would seem this adds to the notion advance some decades ago by a Jewish scholar suggesting this whole Jesus script was a scheme to get Jesus recognized as the Messiah, that Jesus was aware of the things that needd to happen before they happened in order to meet the criteria.
And later:
Mr. Knohl said that it was less important whether Simon was the messiah of the stone than the fact that it strongly suggested that a savior who died and rose after three days was an established concept at the time of Jesus. He notes that in the Gospels, Jesus makes numerous predictions of his suffering and New Testament scholars say such predictions must have been written in by later followers because there was no such idea present in his day.
But there was, he said, and “Gabriel’s Revelation” shows it.
“His mission is that he has to be put to death by the Romans to suffer so his blood will be the sign for redemption to come,” Mr. Knohl said. “This is the sign of the son of Joseph. This is the conscious view of Jesus himself. This gives the Last Supper an absolutely different meaning. To shed blood is not for the sins of people but to bring redemption to Israel.”
Strange.
Link
Be well
Religion implies faith or belief.
Forget about "religion" in today's sense. Think "law" and "belief" and apply where necessary.
Religion is true when its doctrines and precepts are either dictated by right reason or revealed by God.
A view shared by Islam/Muhammadism which differentiates between heavenly religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) and other reasonable religions (Zoroastrianism, sometimes Hinduism etc.)
However, is that "religion" as in "law" or "religion" as in "belief"?
The Hebrews were first and foremost "a people". This people, like many early, primitive societies, gathered together, devised customs, beliefs, rites and rituals which became the adhesive that held the tribe together. Aspects of these became sliced and diced as only moderns can do to become attributes of special categories, i.e., religion, law, philosophy, theology, etc.
Today, we clearly are a religion, but also a people. We are a culture, or if you take the Kaplan route, a "civilization". We are a culture. There is a genetic science to our people, so in some sense we are a race...or at least genetically different from non-Jews. It is complex.
Maybe we could say we are a people who created a religion based on our experience with the Absolute. Other peoples have their own experiences with the Infinite. God speaks many languages and has taught many peoples many different, but equally effective, paths to Him.
Just my two cents on this theme.
Be well.
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