| |
The Historical Origin of Christianity
Historically speaking, the roots of Christianity lay in one of the many messianic sects of Judaism that existed in the First Century. After Jesus' death, his apostles and their followers spread to many areas. In Jerusalem, James, Jesus' brother led a sect which adhered strictly to Jewish Law and which preached the coming end of days and that Jesus would return immanently. They did not allow uncircumcised gentiles to join. Outside Jerusalem, and throughout the empire existed many sympathizers to Judaism who were kept from the religion due to their reluctance to be circumcised or follow strict kosher prohibitions as well as the reluctance of the Jews to admit outsiders. In Antioch, Paul led his own paganizing sect which admitted gentiles without requiring them to follow Judaic law. It is he who invented what we now know as Christianity, with a mixture of Oriental resurrection cults and Judaic monotheism and Jesus' message, suited to his needs. Had Jerusalem not fallen and James' cult been scattered, Christianity might have remained a sect of Judaism and Paul might have been ostracized for the paganizing opportunist that he was. But after the Romans put down the Judean revolt and expelled the Jews from Palestine, Peter in Rome and Paul in Antioch formed an alliance and settled on the side of allowing converts without their having to undergo adult circumcision and abandon their non-kosher ways. Evidently Peter got the prestige of being the first among the apostles and Paul was allowed to develop the theology which became repugnant to strictly adherent Jews. It was a Jewish Rabbi who formalized the split about the year 80 when he included a curse against those who believed that the messiah had already come in the "blessings" read during the Sabbath observance at synagogue. At this point, observant Jews who were followers of Jesus had to choose between attending synagogue and praying for themselves and their co-believers to be cursed, or abandon Judaism and the schism was cemented.
All of this was centuries before the New Testament was codified. The doctrine of original sin was developed over those centuries and served as a means to sell salvation to those who were interested in the Church. The early Church was spread mostly through women and orphans raised by Christian charities. Once Christianity became powerful enough, it was co-opted by Constantine and codified to ensure Episcopal supremacy and the submission of women.
The idea that the Bible is the foundation of Christianity is a late-mediaeval heresy that allowed those who were outside the power structure of the apostolic church (a church where authority was passed down through ordination from Peter onward) to "ordain" themselves by interpreting the bible according to their own tastes. We then get Luther's doctrines of sola scriptura (by scripture alone) and the ordination or priesthood of all men in Christ. Luther opened the door to scriptural literalism. Calvin and the other protestants reacted against the Church not by moving toward reason, but by moving away, with their doctrines of predestination and so forth, and the Jesuits were eventually formed to spread Catholic Scholastic doctrine based on Aquinas both in the New World and the Orient as well as to fight against strict biblical literalism and other Protestant ideas.
Remember that Galileo was not punished for challenging the interpretation of the Bible, but for challenging Church authority, which felt itself alone qualified to interpret scripture and to rest on Ptolemaic and Aristotelian doctrine when it suited them.
As for the Old Testament, certain early Christian theologians wished to jettison it, but the entire idea of Jesus being the messiah had depended un his fulfilling various Old Testament prophecies, and thus the Old Testament was retained.
Ted Keer
(Edited by Ted Keer on 9/28, 11:45am)
|
|
