HOW DID THIS CHRISTIANITY THING GET STARTED? Perhaps there was a young Jewish idealist who challenged the status quo and offered a thoroughly altruistic and non-retributive ethical ideal--love your enemies, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick, etc., without any expectation of return. He attracted a following, and the ensuing conflict and religious rivalries and strife got the attention of the authorities, who arrested him and scattered his followers. After he was executed for being such a trouble-maker, his disciples could not fathom why a perfectly just God would allow such a perfectly good man to come to such a horrible end. Not content with the story of Job, they made him over into the fulfillment of the Messianic ideal. There was yet a problem. He carried no sword and was not a political leader of the same sort as David or others who had fed the Messianic legends. Therefore, they reasoned, he must represent some other mode of redemption. Aha! He was the Lamb of God, the most perfect person who ever lived and thus he was a fitting sacrifice to cancel out the Sin of the World going back to Adam and Eve. Given the existing cultural belief that sins could and MUST be canceled, the existing traditions of sacrificing animals were carried over to him, at least in the writings of Paul. Whether this was a metaphor or based on sincere belief in the need to cancel sins, Jesus (or somebody like him) was converted from being a moral teacher and good man into a new kind of Messiah. etc. It is a great story. One wonders if any of it actually happened, or, if so, how much?
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 13:25:56 +0000
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