26 Religions
The ancient religions and philosophies have mystical
traditions, some similar to Judaism. These reveal similar patterns of thought.
Here is a description of early religions that shared the same temporal space
during the development of Judaism.
26.1 Apocalyptic,
Apocrypha, Essenes
Those books not canonized showed the influence of Greek and Persian
influences to too great an extent to be canonized. Some of them like the Book
of Zerubabel have created powers in the darkness where before stood only dark
servants of Hashem.
[2258]
Here, the Satan wages war against the Messiah. There is also discussion of the
power of the Messianic mother vs. the Mother of Stone of the Satan’s
child. Some of these books show the transition to Christian ideology, so they
are included here.
The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs exhibits the
pattern of seven angels, which may have been seven demigods in the Manichean
system of
Iran.
[2259]
26.1.1 Dead Sea Scrolls
26.1.1.1 Sunrise
Understanding where the Essenes came from is essential to understanding
their perspective and the meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Text
26-1: Roy A. Rosenberg
As might be expected, the common “people of the land”
– am haaretz felt little kinship with the elitist Sadducees. The emerging
middle class in the cities and towns that developed during the Hellenistic
period was perhaps even more alienated from them, since the philosophy embraced
by the Sadducees made it impossible for them to interpret Torah law in a
progressive fashion. Thus the Pharisees became the party supported by the
majority of the Jewish people. They were able to innovate law, utilizing
rhetorical devices that drew forth from the written words of the Torah
interpretations that were not readily apparent, and they had recourse to
customary or unwritten law called “traditions of the elders.” The
middle class and the common people, even if they were not Pharisees themselves,
depended upon their guidance and the practices that they promoted.
As a result, the Sadducean priests who led the Temple establishment
found it both necessary and desirable to make an accommodation with the
Pharisees. Over the course of time Pharisaic law came to dominate even the
procedures followed by the priests in the sacrificial service of the Temple
itself. This, the more dedicated “sons of Sadoq” (Sadducees), who
presumably were quite unlike the group described by Josephus, found impossible
to accept. They seceded from the Temple and the compromising Sadducees who
remained there, migrating to the wilderness where they could practice and
believe as they wished. They were, in their own eyes, the true “sons of
Sadoq” who would, as the age of wickedness came to its close, come to
power at last and rebuild the Temple according to plans revealed to them by God.
They would revive the ancient ways and the ancient calendar, venerating without
hindrance from those who opposed them the sedeq of Israel’s God, his
almighty Right Hand made manifest in the sun each
day.[2260]Jupiter
has the Hebrew name Tzedek, identified with the Right Hand of G-d. Hence, in a
mystical interpretation the messiah sits at the Right Hand of G-d from Psalm
110. The root, “tzde” means the proper state of the universe as
opposed to the strict idea of righteousness. L’havdil, kettu (kittu) or
sydyk
tzedek and misor
mishpat were
children of Shamesh
[2261] a
Phoenician
[2262] sun deity,
perhaps alluded to in Psalm 89:15. The Sun
shemesh as a father figure
has Jupiter
tzedek as a
son
[2263] and perhaps Mercury
mishpat kokhav as the second. Abraham Ibn Ezra used the phrase
mishpetei ha-kokhavim for the laws of the stars, perhaps the sentences of
justice carried by
Mercury.
[2264] Psalm
89:15: “Righteousness
tzedek and justice
mishpat are the
foundation of your throne; kindness
hesed and truth
emet shall go
before you.”
Isaiah 41:2: “Who aroused from the East
righteous glory – tzedek who will call to his feet and will give
before him nations and kings, rulership...”
While tzedek associates
with Malchut in messianic manifestation and the divine presence, tzadik
associates with Shadai and the sefira of Yesod in righteous
foundation.
[2265]
Interestingly tzedek in archetype resembles the masculine sky above while tzadik
the feminine earth below shifting the malchut and yesod into the positions
described by the Bahir as 7
th and
8
th.
[2266]
L’havdil, examining the pagan origins of these names is useful to
understanding their
symbolism.
[2267] Merodach is a
messenger between god (Sun) and his people in an early
tradition,
[2268] making tzedek
(Jupiter) his son and mishpat his grandson
(Mercury).
[2269] Egyptian Set
and Babylonian Marduk (Mar – son of the mountain – duk) are other
names for Merodach who symbolize the son of Shadai – Mountain One or Power
of the Storm.
[2270]
Çüdüq prepares the straight course of the Sun similar to
Set guiding Ra. L’havdil, in Hebraic mysticism, Metatron (tzedek) is
called the little god, who while shielding us from the overwhelming light of G-d
appears as a god. Moshe, symbolizes, l’havdil, Nebo – Mercury, the
scribe of the laws. Mt. Nebo is the mountain from which Moses gazes out at the
Promised Land and his resting place. Many variations in the myths below, but
some corrections needed for these older texts are in red:
Text
26-2: Origines Judaicae by William Frederick
Cobb
Çüdüq (Cuduk) was the god moving straight forward,
before he was a god of righteousness, just as right denoted what was physically
straight before it was applied to moral rectitude. Hence
Çüdüq, or Sutech (Set)
, seems
(sic)
[2271]
to be a name originally applied to the sun in his straight course
across the
heavens.[2272]
What, however seems clear is that Set was of Semitic origin, was
worshipped by the
Kheta,[2273] and was
adopted through the Hyksos into the Egyptian Pantheon. The identification of
him with Shaddai the powerful, has the authority of Emmanuel de Rouge. It is
worth observation that the Babylonian Merodach –
מרדך was
styled “the herald of the gods,” the intermediary between Ea and
man. His planet
Jupiter[2274] watched
over the course of
justice,[2275] and
received among the Jews the name of Cedeq,
He-who-walks-before-Ea.[2276]
None the less he was originally a solar deity borrowed
by the Semites from the Accadians
(sic)
[2277].
The Akkadians were Semites so this is confusing. Also, the Sumerian
Amar-Utu, calf of the Sun, became Akkadian Merodach who would be more the son of
the Sun (Akkadian
Shamesh).
[2278]
Text
26-3: The beginnings of history according to the Bible and
the traditions of Oriental Peoples from the Creation of Man to the
Deluge
Hanoch who as we are told was deified like Sheth
(Seth)
,[2279] thus
happens, in the essential features of his physiognomy to bear a remarkable
resemblance to the Babylonian Marduk, “the herald of the gods,” the
special revealer, the common mediator between Ea master of supreme wisdom and
men, he whose planet (Jupiter) watches over the maintenance of justice in the
world, and in that character receives the appellation Cedeq from the Jews;
finally, “he who walks before Ea,” just as Hanoch “walked with
God.”[2280] But Marduk
was originally a solar personification, and has always retained something of
that character; his name is simply a Semitic corruption of
Accadian Amar-utuki, signifying
(sic)[2281]
“sun-brilliance;” the solar
number of 365 years is thus specially appropriate to him, and I am impressed
with the idea that when the Hebrews first attributed this length of life to
Hanoch, they borrowed it from a foreign computation,
...
Marduk is supposed to have reigned on the earth, and in Babylon, where
his tomb was shown; on the other hand, he is the last of the personifications of
the Sun, found in the cycle of the gods assigned to the months. And the
succession of these personifications of the Sun in the course of the calendar is
essentially significant; it expresses the principal phase of its revolution its
alternations of waxing and waning. In the first place, in the month of Duz
(Tamuz)
, at the time of the summer solstice, he was “Adar the
warrior,” or “the Sun of the South, the Sun of Noon,” who,
like Adar-Malik, corresponds to the Moloch of Phoenicia and Palestine; the
implacable Summer Sun, who, at the hour of noon, when the intensity of his flame
reaches its culminating point, devours the productions of earth, and who can be
appeased only by human victims; he it is who, at the beginning of this month
Duz, slays Dumuzi (Tammuz-Adonis), the young and gracious Sun of the
Spring. Three months later, in Tashrit (Tishrei)
, at the autumnal
equinox, he becomes Shamash, “the supreme and equitable judge of
heaven and earth,” “the director,” “the law which
enforces the obedience of the lands;” the Sun of the Equinoxes dividing
equally the day and the night, exercising his power with justice and
moderation.[2282]
Marduk succeeds him in the month of Arah-shamna (mar heshvon)
already ruled by the hostile power of the sign Scorpio, the month during
which each day beholds the energy of the luminous orb diminish, and makes it
descend one step toward its annual decline. Marduk, adversary of the demons, is
thus the Sun, still combating the advance of the principle of darkness and
winter, but at last succumbing in the struggle. He was chosen to preside over
the eighth month (October-November), as being the one of the solar gods
represented by Mythology as suffering periodic death each day at the evening of
the winter season. Nergal, too, the god of earth, whose name in Accadian meant
originally “the ruler of the tomb,” ne-urugal, is the god who
takes his place, succeeding to his rule in the month of Kisiliv, “month of
the thick clouds;” Accadian, itugan ganna, the month ending with the
winter solstice, this being the very epoch of the annual death of the Sun. This
sequence of events, this continuous retrogression, is reflected in the
construction of the genealogy of the antediluvian patriarchs of the line of
Sheth, at least so far as we can judge from the skeletonized condition in which
it has come down to us.
The solar calendar that the Essenes followed showed the importance that
the sun held in the schedule of their lives. Prayer began each day at the
shekiah (first glimpse of the rising sun) with the proclamation of
Shema. Overtime the Essenic ideas were influenced by non-Sadoqites who
joined the order. While initially, ideas of the afterlife or the resurrection
held little importance as they accepted only the Torah, now prophetic
principles, Zoroastrian angelic legions, and even some Mithraic sun significance
assimilated.
[2283]A curious element of Essenic ritual, according to Josephus, was worship
of the sun, to which they prayed at dawn. This practice was probably adopted
from Zoroastrian or Mithraic religion. Other elements in Essenic doctrine, as,
for instance, the belief in angels undoubtedly come from Persia and were
probably absorbed during the Exile.The Essenes did not pray facing
Jerusalem, but instead the rising sun. Jewish synagogues outside of Israel are
laid out for prayer to the east as well. Nevertheless, the Essenes would have
been Torah observant Jews by today’s standards keeping the holidays and
Shabbat with zealousness. Spirituality was important and they were less
interested in dielectric
reasoning,
[2284] but more
interested in the intention of the commandments as Jeremiah taught, “
I
will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their
hearts.”[2285]
They also believed in fate
[2286]
providing solace through the Roman apocalypse, keeping the words of the
prophets’ close in mind, and witnessing their fulfillment in their own
time.
When the Essenes looked to the east, they may have had the idea of
“the dawn of our redemption”. To this day a prayer for Israel
reads, “Bless Thou the State of Israel which marks the dawn of our
deliverance.” For the Essenes the sunrise brought them to a state of awe
of G-d. Each sunrise represents the hope of a new day. In the past the sun was
an image of an angel of light or an agent of God that would save them, but the
Essenes were monotheists and would never have worshipped the sun. When Moses
gazed into the burning bush that was not consumed, the fire was also an angel of
light. This angel stands as a veil between G-d and creation so that the world
is not consumed.
Text
26-4: Mercury son of Jupiter
The mythology of Mercury begins back in Babylonian times where Mercury
was known as Nebo (Nebu). Nebu was the son of Marduk, the king of the
gods.[2287] Marduk became
the king by slaying the sea monster Tiamat, thus establishing order in the
universe. Nebo became the scribe of the gods. It was his job to write down the
laws and edicts of Marduk and to communicate them to men. Marduk later became
the Greek Zeus and then the Roman Jupiter. Nebo became the Greek Hermes and then
the Roman Mercury.Similarly, Moshe wrote down the laws and edicts of
G-d. Mt. Nebo was the place of Moses’ death according to Deuteronomy
34:1:
א
וַיַּעַל
מֹשֶׁה
מֵעַרְבֹת
מוֹאָב,
אֶל-הַר נְבוֹ,
רֹאשׁ
הַפִּסְגָּה,
אֲשֶׁר
עַל-פְּנֵי
יְרֵחוֹ;
וַיַּרְאֵהוּ
יְהוָה
אֶת-כָּל-הָאָרֶץ
אֶת-הַגִּלְעָד,
עַד-דָּן. 1 And Moses went up
from the plains of Moab unto mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over
against Jericho. And the LORD showed him all the land, even Gilead as far as
Dan;
Nimrod was the son of Cush, grandson of Ham, great-grandson of
Noah. Nimrod’s followers apotheosized Nimrod when he died into Marduk,
while apotheosizing his son Nebu (god of wisdom) into Mercury, which travels
close to the Sun (grandparent). Sumerian Marduk, associated with Jupiter and
was considered the son of
Enki.
[2288] Nimrod’s
followers borrowed AMAR.UTU (Marduk) from the Akkadian Semites (SHEM) who
considered him the son of the
Sun.
[2289]
The Sumerians were non-Semites of a fairly pure
race[2290] of unknown probably
Mongolian or Dravidian
origin,[2291] reaching back many
centuries before records. Equally uncertain is the date of the entry of the
Semites, whose language ultimately displaced the non-Semitic Sumerian idioms.
The Sumerians spoke a non-Semitic language unlike any other in which the
grammatical forms are apparently often ambiguous, suggesting that the people who
spoke it understood each other through using “tones” like the
Chinese. With few exceptions, the names of the gods which the texts reveal to us
are all derived from this non-Semitic language, which furnishes us with
satisfactory etymologies for such names as Marduk, Nergal and
Sin.The Asian civilization has a different origin than the Noah
story would suggest.
[2292]
Ironically, they are likely the source of the earliest recorded pantheon of
deities. The Asians are not descendents of Ham by locality or Shem
linguisticly.
[2293] In the
Sinim peoples, there are wondrous beauties and wisdom. There is foremost a
respect for family. They are a people who did not need a deluge, a people
outside of Noah.
The Noah story does not explain racial differences,
where three brothers should have similar genetics. More likely simultaneous
humanoid evolution in several parts of the world support these differences while
not precluding some common ancestory.
26.1.1.2 Angel of
light or the Sun god
The peculiar name for the highest angel may come from the Persian deity
Mithras, the sun god.
[2294]
While there are similarities, modern Judaism rejects a mediator. While
Sandalphon weaves the prayers of Israel into garlands to grace the head of G-d
or Metatron is busy writing the merits of Israel, these angels are corruptible;
and we do not pray to them, nor in their names. For example, the angel Metatron
was given lashes for not standing and giving the impression that he might be a
god.
[2295] L’havdil, in
Judaism, there is not a mediator as there is in
Christianity.
[2296]Text
26-6: Hugo Odeberg on Mithras
Metatron derived from or connected with
Mithra
The earliest writer known to have attempted identifying Metatron with
Mithra is H. E. Schmieder in his Programma, Nova Interpretatio.. .Gal. 3 19' 20
, pp. 41-8, Excursus de Mitatrone (1826).
Pointing out parallel features in the conceptions of Metatron and
Mithra, Schmieder puts forward the hypothesis that the Persian ideas, esp. with
regard to Mithra, were first introduced into Jewish circles among the Essenes
who then cultivated and developed them further. The central function in which
Schmieder holds Mithra and Metatron to be congruent is that of
mediator (sic). Nork (Felix Adolph Korn),
Brahminen und Rdbbinen, 1836, pp. 99, 100, trying to connect the Jewish
archangels and angels over elemental forces with the Persian 'Amshaspands' (i.e.
Amesa Spentas) and ' Izeds *(i.e. Yazatas), also identifies Metatron with
Mijra.
The total picture that Nork evolves of Metatron corresponds to the
representation of this angelic or celestial figure as given by the Yalqut R e
'ufieni, or, generally speaking, to the conceptions prevalent in cabbalistic
works from the fourteenth century onwards. Nork-Korn does not really attempt to
account for the origin of Metatron from the Persian Mithra. His knowledge of
Metatron seems to have been based on Eisenmenger, Entdecktes Judenthum. Wiesner,
in Ben Chananja, 1862, p. 384; 1866, pp. 600-625.
This is the most important and most elaborate among the endeavours to
derive Metatron from Mithra. Wiesner, not as is usual Kohut, should indeed be
mentioned as the pioneer champion of the Metatron-Mithra theory. For the
conceptions of Mithra Wiesner bases upon Rhode, Sage der Perser, Spiegel,
Avesta, Windischmann, Mithra and on the Zend Avesta, in particular Mihir Yast.
For the conceptions of Metatron he goes back to the earliest references known at
that time, viz. those contained in the Babylonian Talmud. These references he
considers critically. Wiesner lays stress on the following
parallels:
(1) Mipra: Guardian of the World, the Mediator for the earth (Mittler
der Erde), the Prince of the World (Mihir Vast, 103). Metatron: Prince of the
World, Mediator. Wiesner here rightly points out that TB. Sank. 38 b, clearly
involves the existence at that time of a view maintaining Metatron's
mediatorship.
(2) Mipra: Mithra's glory is compared with that of Ahura Mazda, e.g. in
Mihir Yast, i : "Ahura Mazda spake. . . 'Verily, when I created Mithra, ... I
created him as worthy of sacrifice, as worthy of prayer as myself, Ahura Mazda '
" (Darmesteter's translation in Sacred Books of the East). Metatron: bearer of
the Divine Name (TB. Sank. 38 b).
(3) Mipra: Mithra is the careful witness of all thoughts, words and
deeds and hence representative of Truth, Justice and Faith, "der Hort des
Gesetzes und sein Racher" (Windischmann, Mithra, p. 53). Metatron:
Scribe-Witness and representative of the Godhead towards the world, implied by
TB. Hag. 15 a.
(4) and (5) Mipra connected with death and immortality; increases the
water and is the instigator of the dry land. Metatron has to do with the fate
of men in and after death; is ORIGIN OF THE WORD METATRON connected with the
primaeval waters according to the variant reading of Gen. R. 5.
(6) and (7) Mifira was identified with the Demiurge which latter is
represented as a ' Youth '; Metatron also called the ' Youth ' (Naar). Mifira
is, according to some sources, "born of woman", and "em Konig gottlichen
Geschlechtes ". Metatron, being Enoch, is also "born of woman".
(8) Mifira a celestial priest (Mikir Vast, 89). Wiesner remarks upon the
curious fact—that acc. to him—the Talmudists ascribed this office
not to Metatron, but to Mikael. We now know that Metatron in mystical sources
was represented as having a Tabernacle of his own (2 Leg. Martyrs', 3 En. 15 B).
The parallels adduced by Wiesner are striking. They are, of course, not
sufficient to show that the conceptions of Metatron have actually evolved or
developed out of those of Mithra. Wiesner's theories were supported by Zipser in
several articles in the contemporary periodical. M. Joel, Blicke in die
Religionsgeschichte zu Anfang des zweiten christlichen Jahrhunderts, 1880, i.
127, regards Metatron as identical with the Mithra of Mithraism, the ideas of
which may have influenced the Rabbinic teachers of the time of >jElisa* baen
>Afcuya (TB. Hag. 15 a; cf. 3 En. 16).
A. Kohut, Ueber die judische Angelologie und Ddmonologie in
ihrerAnhangigkeit vom Parsismus. All the features in the Mithra and Metatron
conceptions, which are of real import for the study of a possible Mipraic origin
of the mysticism which finds its centre in the figure of Metatron, and which are
found in the article by Kohut, are already pointed out by Wiesner. The points on
which Kohut goes beyond Wiesner are, on the other hand, rather uncertain and
vague as well as insufficiently founded. A refutation of the article of Kohut,
hence, is by no means eo ipso a refutation of the hypothesis of Metatron as
being derived from Mithra or influenced by the conceptions of the latter. A
further investigation of the possible connections between Mifra and Metatron
might with more reason be connected with the name of Wiesner (and his
contemporary Zipser) than with that of Kohut. K. Kohler, JE. viii.-5oo, and
Jewish Theology, ed. New York, 1918, p. 185. K. Kohler is also an adherent of
the Metatron-Mithra theory especially from the point of view of Metatron's
connection with the Merkabah speculations.
“There can scarcely be any doubt as to the Mithraic origin”
of the Merkabah-rites in general. Metatron, like Mithra, ace. to Kohler, is the
Divine charioteer. The Mithra speculations entered Jewish circles through
Mithraism. It must be remarked here that Metatron does not figure as the
charioteer of the Merkabah. The only trait pointing in this direction would be
Metatron's function of guide of the Merkabah-seer. But this is not constitutive
for Metatron. Other high angels have the same function (MIKAEL, GABRIEL, 'URIEL,
etc.).
The ray of sunlight whose physical manifestation is that of an angel
symbolizes the righteousness of
God.
[2297] Metatron serving as
guide for the Merkabah parallels Psalm 85:14:
Tzedek will go before Him, placing his steps on
the way.Text
26-7: Angel of Light
The Essenes venerated Sedeq as the Angel of Light, an epithet fitting
for a divinity linked to the sun. In the War Scroll we read, “Thou hast
made us an eternal people unto thee, and hast cast our lot in the portion of
light that we may know thy truth. And from of old thou hast charged the Angel
of Light to help us. In his lot are all the sons of sedeq and all the spirits
of truth are in his dominion ... We are in the portion of thy truth. We will
rejoice in the might of thy hand and be glad in thy salvation and exult in thy
right hand and in the gift of thy peace” (1QM 13:9ff.). The
Community Rule teaches similarly: “In the hand of the Angel of Light is
dominion over all the sons of sedeq. In the ways of light do they walk”
(1QS 3:20ff.). The Angel of Light was known by two other names as well,
Michael and Malki-Sedeq. The Angel of Darkness, his antagonist, also had two
other names: Belial (“worthless”) and Malki-Resha (“King
Wickedness”) (4Q543 Test-Amram).
Sun disks with wings became a symbol of the kings of Israel marking
their
property.
[2298],[2299]
They symbolized the Malki-Sedek, the righteous
king.
[2300] In any case, the
“light of salvation” denotes the hopes of the people to follow a
righteous leader or to bask in the light of G-d. There is some allusion to the
significance of the sun as the light of the world in the prayer for the sun as
well.
[2301]
26.1.1.3 11Q13
Melchizedek
This scroll points to three qualities of a great leader. The Moreh Tzedek
is the Teacher of Righteousness (11Q13:20). The Tzemah Tzedek or Tzemah David
is the Shoot of Righteousness or the Shoot of David respectively, the comforter
(11Q13:15-19).
[2302]
The Malchi-Tzedek is the victorious king (11Q13:1-14). The materials in this
scroll were not included in the Tanach.
In the Melchizedek scroll, the
followers of Melchizedek are ransomed by G-d. Melchizedek is a righteous king,
leader of the sons of light,
messenger
[2303] of
Daniel,
[2304] who executes the
vengeance of G-d.
[2305]
Overall, this scroll is quite amazing. In verses 5-6, we read, “
and of
the inheritance of Melchizedek, for [...] and they are the inheri[tance of
Melchi]Zedek, who will make them return. He will proclaim liberty for them, to
free them from [the debt] of all their iniquities.” The ‘[debt]
of iniquities’ are the oppressors G-d sends to afflict people for their
sins. G-d also sends those who liberate us from this debt such as Cyrus and
here Melchizedek. This is the atonement or year of favor of Melchizedek. There
is also a lot of hope in 11Q13 as the leader is also a messenger of peace and
teacher.
The Melchizedek lesson is that when one does not live under the
yoke of oppressors, one should realize that the ‘debt of iniquities’
is paid, and not take this time for granted. Break the cycle of the scales of
justice, by not assuming that the blessings one has are the result of
one’s own labor, but recognize God’s hand in the good times as well
as the bad. The concept of grace and the role of fate are
prominent:
Text
26-8: 11Q13 Melchizedek
Note: The ellipses brackets [...] indicate breaks in the original scroll
fragments. Florentino García-Martínez added all Bible references
in braces {}. The document line (not verse) numbers follow the original Hebrew
manuscripts. Items in parenthesis () are my own translations.
Column 2
1 [... ] ? [...]
2 [...] And as for what he said: Lev 25:13 "In this year of jubilee, [you shall
return, each one, to his respective property," as is written: Dt 15:2 "This is]
3 the manner (of effecting) the [release: every creditor shall release what he
lent [to his neighbor. He shall not coerce his neighbor or his brother when] the
release for El [has been proclaimed]."
4 [Its inter]pretation for the last days refers to the captives, about whom he
said: Isa 61:1 "To proclaim liberty to the captives." And he will make
5 their rebels prisoners [...] and of the inheritance of Melchizedek, for [...]
and they are the inheri[tance of Melchi]zedek, who
ישיבמה
אליהמה וקרא
להמה
דרור
לעזוב
להמה[ משא ]כול
עוונותיהמה
ו[כן יהי]ה
הדבר הזה
6 will make them return. He will proclaim liberty for
them, to
free[2306] them
from [the debt][2307] of all
their iniquities. And this will [happen]
7 in the first week of the jubilee which follows the ni[ne] jubilees. And the
day [of atonem]ent is the end of the tenth jubilee
לכפר
בו על כול בני
[אור ו] בני [אור
ו]אנש[י ]גורל
מל[כי ]צדק[ ...].ם
8 in which atonement will be made for all the sons of
[Light] and for the men of the lot of Melchizedek. [And on the heights] he will
decla[re in their] favor according to their lots; for
הואה
הקץ
לשנת
הרצון למלכי
צדק
ולצב[איו ע]ם
קדושי אל
לממשלת משפט
כאשר כתוב
9 it is the time of the <<year of
‘favor’[2308]>>
for Melchizedek,[2309] to
exa[lt in the tri]al the holy ones of El through the
rule of judgment, as is written
לקרא
שנת-רצון
ליהוה
ויום נקם
לאלהינו לנחם
כל-אבלים
“Isa 61:2. To proclaim an
acceptable year of the
Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all
who mourn.”
10 about him in the songs of David, who said: Ps 82:1
"elohim will stand up in the assem[bly of
El,][2310] in the midst of
the
gods[2311]
he judges." And about him he said: Ps 7:8-9 "Above it
11 return to the heights, El will judge the peoples." As for what he sa[id: Ps
82:2 "How long will yo]u judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked?
Selah."
12 Its interpretation concerns Belial and the spirits of his lot, who were
rebels [all of them] turning aside from the commandments of El [to commit evil].
ומלכי
צדק יקום נקם
משפטי א[ל
וביום החואה
יצי]ל[מה מיד ]
בליעל ומיד
כול ר[וחי
גורלו]
13 But, Melchizedek will carry out the vengeance of El's
judgments[2312] [on this
day, and they shall be freed from the hands] of Belial and from the hands of all
the sp[irits of his lot].
14 To his aid (shall come) all “the gods of [justice”; he] is the
one [who will prevail on this day over] all the sons of El, and he pre[side
over] this [assembly].
15 This is the day of [peace about which God] spoke [of old through the words of
Isa]iah the prophet, who said: Isa 52:7 “How beautiful
16 upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, of the
mess[enger of good who announces salvation], saying to Zion: ‘your Elohim
[reigns’”].
17 Its interpretation: The mountains are the pro[phets ...]
18 And the messenger i[s] the anointed of the spir[it] [mashiach haruach] about
whom Dan[iel] spoke {Dan 9:25, 26} [...until the time of (the/an) Anointed
Prince [mashiach nagid] there will be seven weeks ... after sixty-two weeks,
(the/an) Anointed shall be cut off. ...and the messenger
of][2313]
19 good who announ]ces salvation] is the one about whom it is written that [he
will send him[
לנח[ם]
ה[אבלים פשרו
]ל[ה]שכילמה
בכול קצי
הע[ולם ...]
20 “To comfo[rt[ the ]afflicted,” its interpretation:] to instruct
them in all the ages of the worl[d...]
(20 “To comfort the [afflicted,” its interpretation and] to
educate –
‘sāchel’ to the ends of the wor[ld...] )
}Isa 61:2-3 “to comfort the afflicted, to watch over the afflicted ones of
Zion}.
21 in truth. [...]
22 [...] it has been turned away from Belial and it [...]
23 [...] in the judgments of El, as is written about him: Isa 52:7 "Saying to
Zion: 'your Elohim rules'." ["Zi]on" is
[עדת
כול בני הצדק
המה] מקימ[י]
הברית הסרים
מלכת [בד]רך
העם
ואל[ו]היך
הואה
24 [the congregation of all the sons of justice, those] who establish the
covenant, those who avoid walking [on the pa]th of the people
and your God is
...[2314],[2315]
[... מלכי
צדק אשר
יצי]ל[מה
מי]ד
בליעל
ואבר אמר
והעברתמה
שו[פר ב]כול
[א]רץ
25 [... Melchizedek, who will resc]ue [them]
from the hand of Belial. And as for what he said: Lev
25:9 "You shall blow the hor[n in every] land."
Column 3 (only small pieces)
1 [Its interpretation ...]
2 and you know [...]
3 God [...]
4 and many [...]
5 [...] Melchizedek [...]
6 the law for them [...] the hand [...] and he will announce [...]
7 they shall devour Belial with fire [...] Belial, and they shall rebel [...]
8 the desires of their hearts [...]
9 the ramparts of Judah [...] the ramparts of Je[rusalem...]
26.1.2 Hellenism
26.1.2.1 Sun and rays
The Torah is the blueprint for the creation of the world. The word
‘Torah’ contains the root, ‘light’, a metaphor for the
illumination of wisdom and knowledge. Later G-d’s giving of the Torah
became personified in the Helios giving forth the logos, or equally Apollo the
deity of reason.
[2316] As Philo
Judaeus (30 BC – 20 AD) philosophized, “... the logos is God’s
likeness by whom the whole cosmos was
fashioned.”
[2317]In
the Byzantine mosaic in the Bet Alpha synagogue, one can see the Hellenistic
influence. Here the lord of hosts is the sun deity, helios in the center with
four steeds all bearing sun disks on their foreheads as they pull the chariot
carrying the sun across the sky. The twelve constellations surrounding are the
heavenly hosts.
Figure
26-1: Zodiac Mosaic in the Bet Alpha synagoge
Other scenes in the mosaic include the Ark of the Covenant and the
sacrifice of Isaac.
Figure
26-2: Complete Bet Alpha Mosaic
26.1.2.2 Rabbis
The term rabbi refers to being a teacher of the Mishnah, and expounder of
the law. Hellenism influenced all three Jewish
movements.
[2318] The Pharisees
made laws, while the Sadducees excluded all but the written Torah, while the
Essenes sought attachment to G-d by attachment to the law and each
other.
[2319]Text
26-17: Hellenism and rabbinical practice
There was much good in Greek thought, and this the rabbis accepted. The rabbis
saw in Aristotelian logic a supreme instrument for the development of thought
and discussion, and built their legal deductions on Greek logic. They accepted
the Platonic ideal of universal education. Everyone, be he rich or poor, has
the duty to develop his abilities as far as his intelligence permits, and the
state must supply the facilities for the schooling of all children. In their
own lives they exemplified the spirit of stoic fortitude and courage; man must
do his duty bravely without expecting rewards, and must retain his inner balance
in joy as well as in sorrow. They even debated the possibility of writing holy
books in Greek, the ancient world’s universal language, distinguished by
clarity and universal acceptance. Egyptian Jews actually used Greek to such
extent that they forgot Hebrew almost completely. Above all, like Greek
assemblies, they made law through interpretation of Scripture, promoting
legislation that went beyond Scripture and transformed the character of
Judaism.
... However much they failed to acknowledge it, the Pharisees drew from
Hellenism.[2320] They had been
attracted by the student-teacher relationship that had been common in the
Hellenistic world but alien to Judaic society. They had been impressed by that
part of Hellenistic education that tried to develop character in students and
that had a high regard for individuality. Under Pharisaic influence the
synagogue became a university for the Jews, a place where they gathered to learn
and read the words of sacred writings from the past, where they read from the
Five Books of Moses (The Torah), studied, sang and prayed.
The Pharisees were impressed by the Stoic teaching of an inner standard
impervious to happenstance and suffering. And the Pharisees were attracted to
Hellenistic law-making: Greek-style legislative bodies. The Pharisees created
the Beth Din ha-Gadol (Great Legislature) as a lawmaking, law-transmitting and
law-confirming body - an institution they did not learn of from scripture. But
they saw their legislative body as having its authority in God rather than from
a constitution, and they saw the laws created by the legislature as having
originated in divine revelation.
The Pharisees left interpretations of Judaism's laws open to discussion and
scholarly debate. And in debate they invented the cross-examination that was to
become a part of modern jurisprudence. They believed that God alone was able to
look into the conscience of individuals and measure whether they lived by The
Law.
The Essenes appreciated the observance of the law for
spiritual development, but not for exposition. Many of the great teachers
(rabbis) found in the Perkei Avot pursued both. Nevertheless, now Jewish
history is reframed. For example, Shem the son of Noah is said to have had a
Torah academy or yeshiva where Jacob went to study, even before the giving of
the Torah. Here begins the honor of the Talmudic city dweller over the am
haaretz, the person who worked the land. Alas, how great is the respect for the
prophets, the shepherds of your people.
Today rabbinical Judaism
is viewed as the sole form of Judaism as allopathic medicine is considered the
sole source of healing. Nevertheless, both areas had earlier forms filled with
rich meaning and value.
26.2 Arianism
Christianity identifies Arianism amongst its heretical groups, which also
includes the Cathari, Gnostics, and follows of Manichaeism. The Alexandrian
presbyter Arius introduced Arianism in the 4
th
century:
[2321]Text
26-18: Arian Principle on the non-Divinity of
Jesus
It affirmed that Christ is not truly divine but a created being. Arius'
basic premise was the uniqueness of God, who is alone self-existent and
immutable; the Son, who is not self-existent, cannot be God. Because the Godhead
is unique, it cannot be shared or communicated, so the Son cannot be God.
Because the Godhead is immutable, the Son, who is mutable, being represented in
the Gospels as subject to growth and change, cannot be God. The Son must,
therefore, be deemed a creature who has been called into existence out of
nothing and has had a beginning. Moreover, the Son can have no direct knowledge
of the Father since the Son is finite and of a different order of existence.
(see also Index: Christ,
two natures of)
According to its opponents, especially the bishop Athanasius,
Arius' teaching reduced the Son to a demigod, reintroduced polytheism (since
worship of the Son was not abandoned), and undermined the Christian concept of
redemption since only he who was truly God could be deemed to have reconciled
man to the Godhead.
26.3 Asian
26.3.1 Astrology
26.3.2 Confucianism
Governmental religion, utilitarian based, leading to much wisdom, but
occasional immorality such as discarding an elderly woman without a husband.
There is a remnant of ancestral worship, feeding the dead, and belief in
ghosts.
26.3.3 Totemism
Totemism believes in a mystical link between natural elements such as the
sun, animals, or sea leading to worship of deities in these
places.
26.3.4 Buddhism
Buddhism is a non-deity religion of spiritual harmony through meditation
and harmony whose goal is nirvana, an awakening leading to doing
nothing.
26.4 Canaanite
Religion
Deities had names corresponding to Hebrew words. Most of these are
Canaanite, some with Egyptian origen:
- Sun – Shemesh
- River – Nahar
- Sea – Yam
- Rahab – Egyptian monster
- Taninam – Sea monster –
תנינם
- Leviathon – Lotan
- El Elyon – Highest of the gods, head god Elyon.
- Amen or Amon – Egyptian deity personification of air or breath
represented as either a ram or a goose, revered as king of the gods in
Egypt.[2322] Was a sun god to
the Hittites of Kheta.
- Tzedek – Following the straight course, god of navigation, before the
Sun god transitioning to Righteousness
- Sutech – Shepherd god, some identify Sutech,
Set, Cedeq, and Shadai as the same in different cultures.
- Shadai – almighty, identified with breasts and sustenance –
Albright, Shadai was also a city in Syria, weather
god
“Amon's name meant The Hidden One, and his image was
painted blue to denote invisibility. This attribute of invisibility led to a
popular belief during the New Kingdom (1539-c. 1075 BC) in the knowledge and
impartiality of Amon, making him a god for those who felt
oppressed.”
[2323]
In Jewish prayer, one says
amen in response to hearing a
blessing. A
men may mean that G-d sees our needs and will bestow
blessings upon us fairly. L’havdil, the literal Hebrew of a
men
deals more with training, trust, entrustment, education, practice, and belief.
The noun form refers to
art.
[2324]El Elyon
continues to refer to G-d in Judaism. Shemesh –
שמש seems to have
some power to defeat evil beings by reciting the last two letters in reverse
order, which by the ‘Name’ of G-d melts ones
enemies.
[2325] Emet –
אמת destroys
golems by erasing the aleph on the body leaving only death.
26.5 Catharism
Some Catharists may have interacted with kabbalists around the
12
th century in Southern France, i.e. the time and the location where
the Bahir first went public. Their doctrines
included:
[2326]
Text
26-19: Catharism on the Illusion of the Material
World
Although the various groups emphasized different doctrines, they all
agreed that matter was evil. Man was an alien and a sojourner in an evil world;
his aim must be to free his spirit, which was in its nature good, and restore it
to communion with God. There were strict rules for fasting, including the total
prohibition of meat. Sexual intercourse was forbidden; complete ascetic renunciation
of the world was called for.
The Cathar doctrines of creation led them to rewrite the biblical story;
they devised an elaborate mythology to replace it. They viewed much of the Old
Testament with reserve; some of them rejected it altogether. The orthodox
doctrine of the Incarnation
was rejected. Jesus was merely an angel; his human sufferings and death were an
illusion. They also severely criticized the worldliness and corruption of the
Catholic Church.
Though the Catharists lived in the same location as the Bahir’s
discovery, there is no evidence of historical connection in thought. Catharism
is a Gnosticism.
26.6 Christianity
26.6.1 Introduction
Christianity is perhaps the most successful religion in producing generous
people in the world. Synthesizing an ethical code from Judaism and a
gift-giving spirit from
Saturnalia
[2327], the religion
has turned a large number of people into beneficent
individuals.
[2328] What is the
secret of Christianity’s success in transforming the world?
For
the Christian, generosity is born out of recognition of the suffering of
‘Jesus the
Christ’
[2329] for
atonement. The principle of intrinsic or original sin in humanity is the
foundation of Christianity. Yet, humility is born out of this
guilt.
[2330] By degrading the
human condition, Christianity breaks the yolk of self-importance liberating the
generous spirit that often lies dormant in mankind.
Asceticism,
self-deprecation, glorification of a “Savior”, and to believe in the
greater importance of the afterlife serves to remove selfishness from the
individual and create good will towards all mankind. The theological idea of
the ‘Virgin Birth’ is the basis of the greatest sacrifice that man
could ever imagine, setting the cornerstone of this religion.
[2331] Could this religion
have been created without bashing the Pharisees and their religion? The
self-improving-self-deprecating ideology of Christianity derives from the
experiences of Jesus with his fellow Jews. While Jesus’ and Paul’s
insinuations of the arrogance of Jews is a misconception or mistranslation, the
stories serve to breakdown resistance of future gentiles to Christian
conversion. While Christianity’s sacrifice of a deity to end conceit is a
great tool, the incarnation of a deity is not a biblical expectation or
necessity.
[2332] Text
26-20: Numbers 23:19
God is not a man –
לא
איש אל, that he should lie –
ויכזב;
nor the son of man, that he should repent –
ובן-אדם
ויתנחם
ההוא. Has He said, and shall He not do it
or has He spoken, and shall He not make it good?
The original
Judeo-Christians faded with time. Ironically all that remained were the
followers that Paul made from his missionary journeys while not approved or even
of the same substance as the original Jewish followers of Jesus. Paul’s
witnessing of the Sanhedren’s stoning of Stephen galvanized him away from
the law and into an anti-Mosaic perspective. If not for this execution,
Christianity would have likely faded with the other failed messianic movements
into the history of Judaism.
26.6.2 Execution of Stephen
Text
26-21: Stephen's Testimony Before the Sanhedren –
Acts 6:8 – 7:53
8 Now Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, did great wonders and
miraculous signs among the
people.
[2333] 9 Opposition
arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was
called)--Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and
Asia. These men began to argue with Stephen, 10 but they could not stand up
against his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke. 11 Then they secretly
persuaded some men to say, "We have heard Stephen speak words of blasphemy
against Moses and against God." 12 So they stirred up the people and the elders
and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the
Sanhedrin. 13 They produced false witnesses, who testified, "This fellow never
stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. 14 For we have heard
him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the
customs Moses handed down to us." 15 All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin
looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an
angel.
1 Then the high priest asked him, "Are these charges true?" 2 To
this he replied: "Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared
to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in
Haran. 3 'Leave your country and your people,' God said, 'and go to the land I
will show you.' 4 "So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran.
After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now
living. 5 He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God
promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even
though at that time Abraham had no child. 6 God spoke to him in this way: 'Your
descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be
enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 7 But I will punish the nation they
serve as slaves,' God said, 'and afterward they will come out of that country
and worship me in this place.' 8 Then he gave Abraham the covenant of
circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight
days after his birth. Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became
the father of the twelve patriarchs. 9 "Because the patriarchs were jealous of
Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him 10 and rescued
him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the
goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt; so he made him ruler over Egypt and all his
palace. 11 "Then a famine struck all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering,
and our fathers could not find food. 12 When Jacob heard that there was grain in
Egypt, he sent our fathers on their first visit. 13 On their second visit,
Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph's family.
14 After this, Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his whole family,
seventy-five in all. 15 Then Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our fathers
died. 16 Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that
Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a certain sum of
money.
17 "As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to
Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt greatly increased. 18 Then another
king, who knew nothing about Joseph, became ruler of Egypt. 19 He dealt
treacherously with our people and oppressed our forefathers by forcing them to
throw out their newborn babies so that they would die. 20 "At that time Moses
was born, and he was no ordinary child. For three months he was cared for in his
father's house. 21 When he was placed outside, Pharaoh's daughter took him and
brought him up as her own son. 22 Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the
Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action. 23 "When Moses was forty years
old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites. 24 He saw one of them being
mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing
the Egyptian. 25 Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was
using him to rescue them, but they did not. 26 The next day Moses came upon two
Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, 'Men, you
are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?' 27 "But the man who was
mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, 'Who made you ruler and judge
over us? 28 Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?' 29
When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and
had two sons.
30 "After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to
Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. 31 When he
saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to look more closely, he
heard the Lord's voice: 32 'I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob.' Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look. 33 "Then
the Lord said to him, 'Take off your sandals; the place where you are standing
is holy ground. 34 I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I
have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will
send you back to Egypt.' 35 "This is the same Moses whom they had rejected with
the words, 'Who made you ruler and judge?' He was sent to be their ruler and
deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36
He led them out of Egypt and did wonders and miraculous signs in Egypt, at the
Red Sea and for forty years in the desert. 37 "This is that Moses who told the
Israelites, 'God will send you a prophet like me from your own people.' 38 He
was in the assembly in the desert, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount
Sinai, and with our fathers; and he received living words to pass on to us. 39
"But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their
hearts turned back to Egypt. 40 They told Aaron, 'Make us gods who will go
before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt--we don't know what
has happened to him!' 41 That was the time they made an idol in the form of a
calf. They brought sacrifices to it and held a celebration in honor of what
their hands had made.
42 But God turned away and gave them over to the
worship of the heavenly bodies. This agrees with what is written in the book of
the prophets: "'Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the
desert, O house of Israel? 43 You have lifted up the shrine of Molech and the
star of your god Rephan, the idols you made to worship. Therefore I will send
you into exile' beyond Babylon. 44 "Our forefathers had the tabernacle of the
Testimony with them in the desert. It had been made as God directed Moses,
according to the pattern he had seen. 45 Having received the tabernacle, our
fathers under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the
nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of
David, 46 who enjoyed God's favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling
place for the God of Jacob. 47 But it was Solomon who built the house for him.
48 "However, the Most High does not live in houses made by men. As the prophet
says: 49 "'Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of
house will you build for me? says the Lord. Or where will my resting place be?
50 Has not my hand made all these things?'
51 "You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are
just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! 52 Was there ever a
prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the
coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him-- 53 you
who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not
obeyed it."
54 When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed
their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven
and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56
"Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right
hand of God." 57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of
their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began
to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young
man named Saul. 59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus,
receive my spirit." 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not
hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell
asleep.
Normally a simple contrite appearance would have mitigated
capital punishment. Some of the generalizations and slander led to further
arousal of the court. Perhaps Stephen was manic, the Sanhedren did not
understand, and a mistaken execution would prod a young Paul to lead a crusade
against his former Pharaseean peers.
26.6.3 Un-Law
Rabbi Yaakov Emden (See
30.20) taught, “the original
intention of Jesus, and especially of Paul, was to convert only the Gentiles to
the seven moral laws of Noah and to let the Jews follow the Mosaic law —
which explains the apparent contradictions in the New Testament regarding the
laws of Moses and the
Sabbath
[2334]2334 While the
Noahide laws apply to the entire world the rest of the commandments apply only
to
[2335]ael.
2335 Now
Paul’s decision to circumcise Timothy whose mother was Jewish, becomes
clear; although he condemned the law including circumcision.
Jesus,
differing significantly from the devoteness of the Essenes, fostered leniency,
“The sabbath is made for man and not man for the sabbath”and
“my yoke is easy and my burden is
light.”
[2336] Being from
the plebians of the Galilee, this would not be
surprising.
[2337]
26.6.4 Blood atonement
Leviticus 17:11 is often misunderstood according to the following
article:
[2338]Text
26-22: Rabbi Michael Skobac on Leviticus
17:11
One of the cornerstones of Christian theology is that the only way to
achieve atonement for sins is through the offering of a sacrifice whose blood is
shed in our place. The Greek Testament makes this very clear in Hebrews 9:22
“...without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Is this
idea consistent with the teachings of the Tanach, or do the Jewish and Christian
bibles diverge on this issue? Christians generally insist that the absolute need
for a vicarious blood sacrifice is rooted in the Torah, and cite as proof
Leviticus 17:11 “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have
given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls; for it is
the blood that makes an atonement for the soul.”
If you are a Christian, or are a Jew who has been approached by
Christian missionaries, you have probably heard many sermons on the topic of
atonement, and have undoubtedly read many studies, which support the contention
that there is no atonement without blood. Of course you are also aware that this
is a teaching, which is not shared by traditional Jews. Have you ever wondered
how they could reject what to others seems so clear? This study has been
prepared to give you the opportunity to consider a different perspective on the
vital issue of atonement.
ANOTHER LOOK AT LEVITICUS 17:11
You might remember that in junior high school, we were often given an
assignment to write the title for a story; what is the central idea of a
passage. Let's look at Leviticus 17:11 in context:
“And whatever man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who
sojourn among you, who consumes any blood, I will set My face against that
person who consumes blood, and will cut him off from among his people. For the
life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to
make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the
soul. Therefore, I say to the children of Israel, ‘No one among you shall
consume blood, nor shall any stranger who sojourns among you consume
blood.’”
What should immediately be apparent is that the topic of this passage is
not how to secure atonement from sins, but the prohibition against consuming
blood. We are told parenthetically that the reason for this prohibition is that
the blood contains the vitality of the animal (cf. Genesis 9:4, Deuteronomy
12:23) and consequently, when we bring an animal sacrifice, its blood serves as
the atoning agent, and not another part of its body. Since Leviticus 17 doesn't
come to teach us about the principles of atonement, we will have to look
elsewhere for the Bible's most important teaching on how to repair our
relationships with G-d.
Before proceeding, let's consider another point about what is, and what
is not being said in Leviticus 17:11. The passage does say that since blood
symbolizes the life of the animal, G-d has given it to us as a means of atoning
for our sins. But does the verse clearly teach that it is the only means G-d
has provided to make atonement? As with any other Biblical study, we will have
to examine this question in light of the Bible as a whole. But for now, we
should note that our verse merely says that blood can serve as an atonement. It
is an effective means of atonement, but by no means the only form of
atonement.
In the Torah, blood sacrifices were not the only path to atonement;
there were other ways to achieve forgiveness. For example, incense served to
atone for the people in Numbers 16:46-47, and giving charity is described in
Exodus 30:15-16 and Numbers 31:50 as ‘making atonement for your
souls’ - the same expression as in Leviticus 17:11. In reality, blood
sacrifices were the least effective of all the means of atonement mentioned in
the Bible. One important limitation to the effectiveness of sacrifices is that
they were only brought for unintentional sins (i.e. someone didn't know that
kindling a fire was prohibited on the Sabbath, or they were aware of this, but
thought it was Sunday when kindling the fire). Sacrifices did not help to atone
for sins that were done intentionally (Leviticus 4, and Numbers 15:22-31).
Examining the Christian interpretation of Leviticus 17:11 generates some
serious problems. What happens if someone can't afford to purchase an animal for
his sin offering? Is it possible that G-d would institute a system of atonement
that could only be used by the wealthy? The Torah took this into account and
allowed the poor person to bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons if he
couldn't afford a lamb (Leviticus 5:7). However, what if someone was so
destitute, that he couldn't afford even these small birds?
"But if his means are insufficient for two turtledoves or two young
pigeons, then for his offering for that which he has sinned, he shall bring the
tenth of an ephah of fine flour for a sin offering; he shall not put oil on it
or place incense on it, for it is a sin offering." (Leviticus
5:11)
Since flour could be used for a sin offering, it is clear that blood was
not a prerequisite for atonement. Another example will drive home the point. The
proposition that only blood sacrifices could secure atonement creates a dilemma.
Could it be that G-d would set up a system of atonement that wouldn't be
available to all people at all times? While the Temple stood, sacrifices did
serve as part of the atonement process. But what is the fate of Jewish people
who don't have access to the Temple? What were the Jewish people supposed to do
after 586 BCE when the first Temple was destroyed and they were exiled to
Babylon? What did the Jewish people do in the times of the Macabees when the
Syrian-Greeks were in control of the Temple and didn't allow sacrifices?
Christians erroneously claim that Rabbinic Judaism came up with novel,
non-Biblical measures to deal with atonement after the destruction of the Temple
by the Romans in 70 CE. Actually, it wasn't Talmudic innovation at all- the
Bible anticipated the possibility of the cessation of sacrifices. When King
Solomon finally laid the finishing touches on the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, he
inaugurated it with a moving dedication speech (I Kings 8; II Chronicles 6). In
this lengthy speech of almost 50 verses, you will notice that Solomon doesn't
speak about sacrifices at all! This omission would be strange if the most
crucial part of the Temple were the sacrifices. Actually, the central focus of
the Temple was the Holy Ark (Exodus 25) containing the Torah. The Temple was
first and foremost a symbol of G-d's presence and revelation to the Jewish
people (I Kings 8:13, Exodus 25:8).
Towards the end of his speech, Solomon deals with the possibility of the
Jewish people being denied access to the Temple in the eventuality that they are
exiled from the land of Israel.
"If they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in
the land of their enemies who have taken them captive, and pray to You toward
their land which You have given to their fathers, the city which You have
chosen, and the house which I have built for Your name; then hear their prayer
and their supplication in heaven Your dwelling place, and maintain their cause,
and forgive Your people who have sinned against You and all their transgressions
which they have transgressed against You..." (I Kings 8:46-50).
This seminal passage puts the spotlight on the Christian
misunderstanding of Leviticus 17:11. The Bible is clearly teaching that
sacrifices weren't necessary in order to atone for sins. Prayer and repentance
are cited here as effective means for securing atonement. Certainly, when the
Temple stood, and one could afford an animal, a sacrifice was brought as part of
the atonement process for unintentional sins. Leviticus 17:11 teaches that when
we bring such an animal as a sacrifice, we aren't allowed to consume its blood,
because as the life force, it is the part of the animal that affects our
atonement.
Christian dogma holds that the crucifixion of Jesus at Calvary served as
the final atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. Christianity insists that
this is not just a Pauline innovation, but reflects the requirements of the
Jewish Bible, and tries to establish this by pointing to Leviticus 17:11 as the
key to atonement in the Tanach. However, if this passage is examined, it will be
clear that Jesus could never serve as an atoning sacrifice. Obviously, the
shedding of blood by pricking my finger or killing my cat won't fulfill the
Biblical requirements for atonement. The Torah delineates how sacrifices are to
be brought.
"For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you
upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls..."
Clearly, not any spilled blood is accepted by the
Torah as a sacrifice. Jesus' crucifixion may qualify as an atonement according
to the Greek Testament, but since his blood was not offered on the altar, it is
not in line with what the Torah mandates.
There are actually several other factors which would
render the crucifixion of Jesus an unacceptable sacrifice. According to the
Biblical rules in Leviticus, all sacrifices had to be offered by a Priest who
descends from Aaron. This was not the case in the death of Jesus, who was
crucified by Roman soldiers. Additionally, Biblical law prohibited any sacrifice
which was blemished or maimed (Leviticus 22:19-21). However, prior to his
crucifixion, Jesus was whipped and beaten (Matthew 27:26, Mark 15:19, John 19:3)
which would render him unfit. Furthermore, Jesus was circumcised in the flesh,
which according to Philippians 3:2 and Galatians 5:12 is considered mutilation.
Frequently, Christians react to this line of reasoning
by protesting that it is improper to be so literal, and that Jesus' death was
more of a symbolic or spiritual sacrifice. This would be fine if the Bible
provided for such ethereal offerings, but such is not the case. The Greek
Testament, however, does insist that Jesus was a real sacrifice, literally
fulfilling the Biblical requirements of such:
"But coming to Jesus, when they saw that he was
already dead, they did not break his legs...in order that the Scripture might be
fulfilled: `Not a bone of him shall be broken.'" (John
19:33-36)
The Gospel of John portrays Jesus as the Paschal lamb
which was not supposed to have any of its bones broken (Exodus 12:46, Numbers
9:12). Since the author of John insists that Jesus was a real sacrifice to the
extent that the Biblical rules of the Passover were fulfilled in him, we can't
dismiss the problems cited above as legalistic nit-picking.
One wonders why the Greek Testament chose to type Jesus as a Paschal
lamb rather than the sacrifice for the Day of Atonement. We know from Exodus 12
that the Passover sacrifice did not serve as an atonement for sins, it
commemorates the exodus from Egypt. (Even when the lamb was slaughtered in Egypt
and its blood smeared on the doorposts, it did not serve to atone for the sins
of anyone. It was a sign for the angel of death to pass over Jewish homes during
the plague of the first born. The only people in danger were first born males,
the blood wasn't a help to other people in the family, and didn't serve as an
atonement for the first born). A more fitting prototype for Jesus would have
been the Yom Kippur sacrifice, which made atonement for the sins of all the
people. It is interesting that according to Leviticus 16:10,21-22, the animal
which effectuated the atonement for the sins of the nation was not killed, but
sent live out into the desert. Again, the shedding of blood is not a sine qua
non for atonement.
The Greek Testament went to some great lengths to demonstrate that the
atoning death of Jesus was predicated upon the Jewish Bible. In the book of
Hebrews, a verse from the book of Psalms is quoted as evidence that the
sacrifice of Jesus was part of G-d's original plan for the world.
"Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, but a body You have
prepared for me" (Hebrews 10:5 referring to Psalms 40:6).
In verse 10 of our passage from Hebrews, we are told that the body
spoken of refers to the body of Jesus. However, the Greek Testament took some
great liberties in quoting from the book of Psalms, which never mentions a body
being prepared:
"Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired; my ears You have
opened; Burnt offerings and sin offerings You have not required" (Psalm
40:6).
The author of Romans asserts that the Jewish scriptures spoke about the
Messiah coming in order to eradicate sin from Israel:
"And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written,`The deliverer will
come from Zion and remove ungodliness from Jacob'." (Romans 11:26 citing Isaiah
59:20)
However, checking the original source in Isaiah reveals the flawed
foundation of the claim made in the book of Romans.
"And a redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from
transgression, says the L-rd."
Isaiah didn't teach that the Messiah's purpose is to remove sin; rather,
he will come to the Jewish people when they show themselves worthy by turning
away from sin.
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT VICARIOUS ATONEMENT?
One wonders why throughout the four Gospels, Jesus never speaks about
his death serving as a sacrifice to atone for the sins of the world. Is the idea
that an innocent person can be killed instead of those who are guilty consistent
with what the Bible teaches? After the sin of the Golden Calf, G-d expressed His
intention to destroy the Jewish people. Moses intercedes, and offers to die in
their place. In response, G-d says "Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot
him out of My book!" (Exodus 32:32-33). Throughout the Bible, G-d says that one
person cannot die for the sins of another:
"Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor shall sons be put
to death for their fathers; everyone shall be put to death for his own sin"
(Deuteronomy 24:16, II Kings 14:6).
"But everyone will die for his own sin; each man who eats sour grapes,
his teeth will be set on edge" (Jeremiah 31:30).
"The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for
the father's iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son's
iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the
wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself" (Ezekiel 18:20).
"No man can by any means redeem his brother, or give to G-d a ransom for
him" (Psalms 49:7).
"So you shall not pollute the land in which you are; for blood pollutes
the land and no expiation can be made for the land for the blood that is shed on
it, except by the blood of him who has shed it!" (Numbers 35:33).
Although Romans 4:5 says that Jesus justifies the ungodly, the Tanach
teaches that "He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the righteous,
both of them are an abomination to theL-rd" (Proverbs 17:15).
If indeed, Jesus came as the final sacrifice to atone for the sins of
the world, why does the Tanach predict that the Temple will be rebuilt and
sacrifices resumed?
"Even those I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My
house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable
on My altar; for My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples."
(Isaiah 56:7). "From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia My worshipers, My dispersed
ones will bring My offerings." (Zephaniah 3:10)
"All the flocks of Kedar will be gathered together to you, the rams of
Nebaioth will minister to you; they will go up with acceptance on My altar, and
I shall glorify My glorious house." (Isaiah 60:7)
"And I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an
everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them and multiply them, and
will set My sanctuary in their midst forever." (Ezekiel 37:26)
"And He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify
the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present
to the L-rd offerings in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem
will be pleasant to the L-rd, as in the days of old and as in former years."
(Malachi 3:3-4)
"And every cooking pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to the
L-rd of hosts; and all who sacrifice will come and take of them and boil in
them." (Zechariah 14:21) "And it shall be the princes part to provide the burnt
offerings, the grain offerings, and the libations...to make atonement for the
house of Israel." (Ezekiel 45:17)
The Christian claim that our sins can only be forgiven if blood is shed
on our behalf also seems to limit the power of G-d. It's ludicrous to say that
G-d`s ability to forgive us is dependent on anything. One of the most basic
teachings in the Bible is that since G-d is merciful, He often forgives us
simply because He is merciful. "Who is a G-d like You, who pardons iniquity and
passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not
retain His anger forever, because He delights in unchanging love." (Micah 7:18;
cf. Psalm 103:7-18). Even when we don't seek G-d appropriately, He has the
ability to reach out to us with love and forgive us:
"Their heart was not steadfast toward Him, nor were they faithful in His
covenant. But He, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity...remembering that
they were but flesh." (Psalms 78:36-39)
"You have not brought Me the sheep of your burnt offerings...or the fat
of your sacrifices, but you have burdened Me with your sins...Nevertheless, I
will wipe out your transgressions for My own sake, and I will not remember your
sins." (Isaiah 43:23-25)
THE BIBLICAL VIEW OF ATONEMENT
One of the clearest indications that Christianity is off base in its
insistence on the centrality of blood sacrifices is that none of the prophets
speaks about it. There isn't one instance in the prophetic books where the
Jewish people are told that in order to get right with G-d they need to get
covered by the blood. If that's the case, what is the fundamental teaching of
the Tanach on the issue of atonement? What theme is reiterated time and again by
the holy prophets in the Jewish Bible?
"That every man will turn from his evil way, then I will forgive their
iniquity and their sin." (Jeremiah 36:3).
"Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts,
and let him return to the L-rd, and He will have compassion on him; and to our
G-d, for He will abundantly pardon." (Isaiah 55:7).
"I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide; I said,
`I will confess my transgressions to the L-rd', and You did forgive the guilt of
my sin." (Psalm 32:5).
"And if My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray,
and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven,
will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." (II Chronicles 7:14). "But if
the wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed and observes all
My statutes and practices justice and righteousness, he shall surely live; he
shall not die. All his transgressions which he has committed will not be
remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has practiced he
shall live...When a wicked man turns away from his wickedness which he has
committed and practices justice and righteousness, he will save his
life...Repent and turn away from all your transgressions, so that iniquity may
not become a stumbling block to you (Ezekiel 18:21- 22,27,30).
"By loving-kindness and truth iniquity is atoned for..." (Proverbs
16:6).
"If you return to G-d you will be restored; if you remove
unrighteousness far from your tent...then you will delight in G-d..." (Job
22:23-27).
"Depart from evil, and do good, so you will abide forever." (Psalm
37:27, cf. Ezekiel 33, Zechariah 1:3, Jeremiah 26:13).
The central teaching of the Bible is that only a break with our past and
a sincere turning in repentance can restore our relationships with G-d. If I go
off the path, I have to put myself back on track, and G-d will forgive me. Even
when sacrifices were offered, they in and of themselves didn't effect atonement.
The sacrifice was part of the process, it helped bring us to the core of
atonement which is achieved by TESHUVAH, returning to G-d by forsaking our evil
ways and praying for forgiveness. One of the main teachings of the prophets was
to chide Jewish people who thought that sacrifices were the essential element of
atonement:
"What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me? says the L-rd. I have had
enough of burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed cattle. And I take no
pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats...Wash yourselves, make
yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil,
Learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead
for the widow. Come let us reason together says the L-rd, `Though your sins are
as scarlet, they will be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they
will be like wool, if you consent and obey..." (Isaiah 1:11-18).
"The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the L-rd." (Proverbs
15:8).
"To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the L-rd than
sacrifice." (Proverbs 21:3). "For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice,
and in the knowledge of G-d rather than burnt offerings." (Hoseah 6:6).
"Has the L-rd as great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in
obeying the voice of the L-rd? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to
hearken more than the fat of rams." (I Samuel 15:22).
"With what shall I come to the L-rd, and bow myself before the G-d on
high? Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, with yearling calves? Does the
L-rd take delight in thousands of rams, in ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I
present my firstborn for my rebellious acts, the fruit of my body for the sin of
my soul? He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the L-rd require of
you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your G-d."
(Micah 6:6-8,cf. Amos 5:22- 24, Jeremiah 7, Psalm 69:31-32).
Since repentance, and not blood is the Biblical form of atonement, we
now understand how in I Kings 8, Solomon explained that even if the Jewish
people don't have access to the Temple, they still have access to G-d. This will
illuminate a famous story found in the book of Jonah. G-d sends Jonah to the
evil city of Ninveh to warn them of their impending destruction. Jonah doesn't
come into the city and tell the people that unless they begin offering
sacrifices they are doomed. Their response to his warnings is to repent: they
fast, pray, and turn from their evil. What is G-d's response?
"When G-d saw their deeds that they turned from their wicked way, then
G-d relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon
them, and He did not do it." (Jonah 3:10).
In similar fashion, Daniel advised king Nebuchadnezzar on how to atone
for his transgressions:
"Therefore, O king, may my advice be pleasing to you: Redeem your sins
by doing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor."
(Daniel 4:27).
This principle will also help explain a passage in the book of Hoseah.
Hoseah was a prophet to the 10 northern tribes in the kingdom of Israel during a
time when there was a civil war going on between them and the two tribes of the
kingdom of Judah in the south. Because of the strife, the tribes up north
couldn't get to the Temple in Jerusalem to offer sacrifices. Did this leave them
with no way of atoning for their sins? The prophet advises:
"Return, O Israel, to the L-rd your G-d, For you have stumbled because
of your iniquity. Take words with you and return to the L-rd. Say to Him, `Take
away all iniquity, and receive us graciously, for we will render as bullocks the
offerings of our lips'." (Hoseah 14:1-2).
We are able to approach G-d directly with prayer, which is possible at
all times; and G-d assures us that sincere prayer can achieve forgiveness for
our sins:
"Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O L-rd, the G-d of my salvation. And
my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness. O L-rd, open my lips, and my
mouth shall show forth Your praise. For You do not delight in burnt offerings.
The sacrifices of G-d are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. These, O
G-d, You will not despise." (Psalms 51:14-17, re:II Samuel 12:13).
"I will praise the name of G-d with a song, and will magnify Him with
thanksgiving. This shall please the L-rd better than an ox or bullock that has
horns and hoofs." (Psalm 69:30-31).
"For You, L-rd, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in
lovingkindness to all who call upon You. Give ear, O L-rd to my prayer, and give
heed to the voice of my supplications." (Psalm 86:5-6).
"And listen to the supplications of Your servant and of Your people
Israel, when they pray toward this place; hear from heaven Your dwelling place,
hear and forgive." (II Chronicles 6:21).
Are Christians consistent with the Jewish Bible when they claim that
atonement is only possible with a blood sacrifice? Did the Rabbis just make up
the idea that we can restore our relationship with G-d through prayer and
repentance? YOU DECIDE!
Disregard the analogy of the body of Jesus
with a sacrifice in red above, and the article presents the fine valiant
principles of the Torah on this subject.
26.6.5 Divorce
We know from Mark 10 that Jesus did not agree with Deuteronomy 24 on
divorce, which he called the Law of Moses not God, Has vShalom. Tradition holds
that Adam haRishon, the first man was married to a demon wife before Eve.
Hence, the place of divorce is secured from the beginning of mankind.
Text
26-23: Deuteronomy 24:1-5
1. When a man has taken a wife, and married her, and it comes to pass that she
finds no favor in his eyes, because he has found some uncleanness in her; then
let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her
out of his house.
2. And when she has departed out of his house, she may go and be another
man’s wife.
3. And if the latter husband hates her, and writes her a bill of divorcement,
and gives it in her hand, and sends her out of his house; or if the latter
husband dies, who took her to be his wife;
4. Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his
wife, after she is defiled; for that is abomination before the Lord; and you
shall not cause the land to sin, which the Lord your God gives you for an
inheritance.
5. When a man has taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war, nor shall he be
charged with any business; but he shall be free at home one year, and shall
cheer his wife whom he has taken.
Text
26-24: Mark 10 on Divorce
2. Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, "Is it lawful for a man
to divorce his wife?"
3. "What did Moses command you?" he replied.
4. They said, "Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send
her away."
5. "It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law," Jesus
replied. 6. "But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.'
7. 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his
wife, 8. and the two will become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one.
9. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."
10. When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. 11.
He answered, "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits
adultery against her. 12. And if she divorces her husband and marries another
man, she commits adultery."
The Essenes opposed polygamy as
prostitution – Zenut CD 7:1 of the Damascus scroll found in 4Q265-73,
5Q12, and 6Q15.
Text
26-25: Essenes on polygamy
"The builders of the wall ... shall be caught in fornication twice by taking a
second wife while the first is alive, whereas the principle of creation is, Male
and female created he them [Genesis 1:27]. Also, those who entered the Ark went
in two by two. And concerning the prince it is written, He shall not multiply
wives to himself [Deuteronomy 17:17]; but David had not read the sealed book of
the law which was in the ark for it was not opened in Israel from the death of
Eleazar and Joshua, and the elders who worshipped Ashtoreth."
- Damascus Document CD 4.20-5.1 (G. Vermez'
translation)[2339]
Only
one comment of divorce is preserved in the Dead Sea
Scrolls.
[2340] The text implies
they accepted the law of divorce as a law of
G-d:
[2341]Text
26-26: Dead Sea Scrolls 4Q159
8. In the case where a man slanders a maiden of Israel, if he says it at the
[moment] of taking her, they shall examine her 9. regarding (her)
trustworthiness. If he has not lied about her, she shall be put to death; but if
he has testified [false] ly against her, they are to fine him two minas [and he
is not] 10. to divorce her for all the days (of his life).
From Leviticus, we know that a Cohen Gadol (high priest)
is forbidden to marry a divorcee. Hence we know that divorce was known earlier,
even in Leviticus!
Text
26-27: Leviticus 14:10-14 and 22:13
10. And he who is the high priest among his brothers, upon whose head the
anointing oil was poured, and who is consecrated to put on the garments, shall
not uncover his head, nor tear his clothes;
11. Neither shall he go to any dead body, nor defile himself for his father, or
for his mother;
12. Neither shall he go out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his
God; for the crown of the anointing oil of his God is upon him; I am the
Lord.
13. And he shall take a wife in her virginity.
14: 14. A widow, or a divorced woman –
גרושה,
or defiled, or a harlot, these shall he not take; but he shall take a virgin of
his own people to wife.
...
22: 13. But if the priest’s daughter is a widow, or divorced, and
has no child, and has returned to her father’s house, as in her youth, she
shall eat of her father’s bread; but there shall no stranger eat
it.
‘Divorced’ from the word Gerush –
גרש means to
drive away or banish. The principle of divorce existed before Deuteronomy
presented the laws. Perhaps Hagar, Abraham’s wife was a divorcee when he
banished her. But, since she did not sleep with another man, he was permitted
to take her back to be his wife at the end of his life with her name
Keturah.
“The grounds for divorce were strife between Abraham's two
wives and strife between their children. God approved of the divorce on those
grounds (Genesis 21:12-13). There is no suggestion of adultery or other sexual
misconduct by Hagar. So this, the Bible's first reference to divorce, refutes
the concept that the only biblical basis for divorce is
adultery.”
[2342]
26.6.6 Ebionites
The Ebionites (poor people) trace themselves to the original followers of
Jesus (Joshua ben Joseph). They do not follow the deification of a messiah.
They consider Jesus a prophet
instead.
[2343]
26.6.7 Forgiveness
Text
26-28: Parable of the field of wheat and
weeds
MAT 13:24 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of
heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:
MAT 13:25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the
wheat, and went his way.
MAT 13:26 But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then
appeared the weeds also.
MAT 13:27 So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir,
didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it
weeds?
MAT 13:28 He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said
unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?
MAT 13:29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the weeds, ye root up
also the wheat with them.
MAT 13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of
harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the weeds, and bind
them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.
In fact,
we are all weeds in the eyes of Hashem. The mountains are filled with weeds,
but there, they are called wildflowers. All people live together and even the
weeds can be elevated. A congregation consists of both good and bad and in fact
would not be a congregation without the bad. Moreover in each of us are good
and bad qualities, but if we close an eye to seeing the bad in others, we can
bring them to the side of merit. The incense that was used in the temple was
required to have one repugnant ingredient and was invalid without it. The
‘bad’ is bound to the good and is redeemed. Forgiveness of sin is
possible with repentance, reparation, and returning to G-d.
[2344]A fringe Jewish view exists today in some Hasidic sects who believe by
attachment to a true tzaddik, one can become righteous. Early Christianity
followed this approach. Modern Christianity apostatized it. Some Talmudic
academies have believed in their rabbi as the
messiah.
[2345]
Hasidim attach to their tzaddik and believe that the True Tzaddik, the Tzaddik
Emet can lift them out of sin. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov taught, “He who
will visit my grave, I will reach down and pull him out of Gehinnom by his
peahs.”
[2346]
Nevertheless, no Jewish group or sect has ever posited the transference of the
authority to forgive sin to a human
being.
[2347] Such an idea is
not to be found in the entire
Tanach.
[2348]
26.6.8 Pascal Lamb
John refers to Jesus as the Pascal Lamb. The Pascal Lamb that is eaten on
Passover was never a sacrifice. The words for sacrifice, zevach or Karban never
occur within the Exodus 12 text describing the Lamb. The lamb was not taken to
a high priest, but each family slaughtered their own to mark their doorposts and
to eat for dinner with herbs to provide strength for the journey of their
redemption that would begin the next day. The Pascal Lamb symbolized redemption
not from sin, but from slavery. Atonement sacrifices were goats, because of
their symbolic affinity for getting into trouble. The messiah’s
association with a lamb is not that he must die, but that he will mark the way
for our redemption.
In Egypt the lamb and ram were worshiped and they
were symbols of the deity of the month of Nissan. The slaughter of the lamb
also symbolized the slaughter of the gods of Egypt.
26.6.9 Scapegoat
The Christian association of the Leviticus scapegoat with Isaiah 53 was not
a Jewish interpretation at the time of
Jesus.
[2349]
Literal interpretations often lead to strange
ideas:
[2350] Text
26-29: Christian Theologies on the Scapegoat
The goat died for the sins of the
people. In other words, the goat paid for the wrong deeds of the people.
Jesus, in this death for our sins, did away with the animal offering; and, in
dying for us; he did away with sin and death [Heb. 7:26-28].
[2351]
While the Old Testament clearly has
symbolic gestures of sin transference such as animal sacrifices (detailed in the
first and third chapters of Leviticus and numerous other references) and the
infamous "scapegoat" (Leviticus 16:9-10), Paul is the one who seems to have
adapted this to a
literal
transference with a human
sacrifice. While Jesus' ransom for sin and forgiveness for sin are mentioned
throughout the New Testament, only Paul addresses the concept of sin
transference.[2352]
I really do not think that many in the
Church fully grasp what happened on the dark altar of Calvary. On that altar
the Lamb of God was made to be sin on our behalf (2 Corinthians 5:21). He did
not simply die for our sins. He died with our sins. He was not merely
cursed for our sins. He became a curse for us (Galatians 3:13). He did not
simply close his eyes in death and sleep in Joseph’s tomb. He was
“numbered with the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12). He was led into
the ultimate wilderness called Hell wherein He paid the wages of
sin.[2353]
The departure of the Spirit left Christ in
a wilderness of mind and soul that no other human being has ever experienced. A
portent of this can be seen in one of the sacrificial rituals of ancient Israel
in which the high priest would take a goat, lay his hands upon its head, and, in
figurative ordinance, pronounce upon the head of the animal all of the
transgressions and sins of the people. After this, the goat-now a scapegoat, one
vicariously bearing the guilt of others-would be led away into the wilderness:
"And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not
inhabited" (Leviticus 16:22; emphasis added; see also v. 10). In like manner,
Christ in Gethsemane was exiled into a spiritual wilderness never before
inhabited. No man had ever experienced what he would experience. At some point
in the tribulation of the night, the withdrawal of the Spirit was complete: "And
he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor"
(Isaiah 59:16). The Lord was alone in a spiritual void, stripped of all sources
of solace, cut off from the presence of the Father, bearing in soul and body by
virtue of his own strength alone the collective guilt of all mankind. How long
the
weight
of our sins crushed upon him we
do not know; how unrelenting his anguish we cannot
comprehend.[2354]
Christ's Atonement was a descent into the
seemingly "bottomless pit" of human agony. He took upon himself the sins of
the most wretched of all sinners; he descended beneath the crudest tortures
devised by man. His downward journey encompassed that quantum of suffering
unrelated to spiritual error, but nonetheless viably acute in stinging
proportions—the agony of loneliness, the pain of inadequacy, the suffering
of infirmities and sickness. In the course of his divine descent he was
assaulted with every temptation inflicted on the human race. After our futile
attempts to explain the awesome depths of this "terrible trip," we come back
again to those simple but expressive words of the scriptures, "He descended
below all things" (D&C 88:6). There need be no equivocation, no
back-pedaling, no apologizing—the Atonement is infinite in its
depth.[2355]
I think Elder Porter did not mean to imply
that the Lord taking the sins was figurative. I think he was speaking of
the ordinance of the scapegoat being figurative. As a General Authority,
Br. Porter would not make an error of that magnitude. We firmly hold that
the
Savior
took upon Himself our sins and
that act was not figurative but was very literal. Where the condition lies
is in our willingness to do what he has asked us to do so that we might avail
ourselves of this great blessing. While the atonement is free, we believe
we must be obedient to his
commandments.[2356]‘Sin
transference’ is a very real idea in all modern forms of Christianity.
While there is a literal line from the Torah that is the basis of this concept,
‘sin transference’ is not a part of mainstream Judaism. In
addition, Judaism has always stood in opposition to human sacrifice. We cannot
pay for our sins with the life of our brethren. While the suffering servant is
a symbol of G-d’s punishment of Israel, he does not possess the sins of
Israel.
[2357]
Text
26-30: Isaiah 53:4-5
4. Certainly
(אכן)
our sickness
(הלינו
– we were sick) he carried
(נשא),
and our pains he bore them
(סבלם),
and we thought him stricken, defeated by G-d and afflicted.
5. And he was wounded
(מחלל
– pierced) from our transgressions (careless errors),
broken
(מדכא
– crushed, break) from our iniquities (evil ways), our whole
(שלומנו
– our peace) chastisement
(מוסר
– reprimand, devotion) is upon him and in his friendship we are
healed.He turns the people back to G-d by not accusing them. He
lifts the sins off of them by lifting their spirits, giving them hope, and they
turn back to G-d. Isaiah 53 is about returning to G-d through Tshuvah,
repentance, and guilt after seeing a victim for ones own sins. This is not the
payment of sin by someone else’s blood. Isaiah 53 does not mention
atonement by payment – Kippur –
כפר.
While the death of righteous Jews under duress may speak of the
injustices of other nations and bring G-d’s mercy once again on the house
of Israel, the martyr does not possess, take upon himself, or die with the sins
of the people. There is a concept of two messiahs in mystical Judaism, where
the first, Messiah ben Yosef will prepare the way for the second messiah,
Messiah ben Judah.
[2358] These
ideas represent the karmic reconciliation between the House of Joseph and the
House of Judah from their early conflicts in Israel. These two messiahs must be
alive at the same time so they may become reconciled. The tradition holds that
the First will die in the battle of Armageddon so that the Second may survive to
establishes G-d’s kingdom.
26.6.10 Messiah
26.6.10.1 Cyrus is
His Messiah
Isaiah 45, the chapter that clearly states beyond any doubt explicitly that
Cyrus is the Messiah is the same chapter that says that God is not Jesus. I
capitalize Messiah here to emphasize the fact that the prophet’s
understanding of the term is completely different than the Christian
understanding and even Jewish sectarian understanding. For Isaiah the Messiah
does not have to be a Jew and in fact is Cyrus.
Now a lot of people are
confused, because they say, “Well what do we do now if Cyrus is the
Messiah?” Since Cyrus clearly is the Messiah, we either have to be
focusing all our hope on his return or we need to reevaluate our understanding
of the Messiah. We should also be clear that Cyrus is not some kind of model of
the Messiah. The Hebrew could not be more explicit, “Cyrus is His
Messiah.”
OK now what does Isaiah 45:20 say about Jesus? It says
literally, “God is not Jesus” –
אל לא
יושיע – El Lo Yoshua. Yoshua is
Yeshua that is Jesus. I quote this verse not because I believe Isaiah could
have known anything about Jesus having lived seven and half centuries before his
time, but Christians themselves considered this verse a condemnation of their
Savior Deity! Look up the commentary on this verse in the Artscroll Siddur and
you will find under the Alenu prayer that a Jewish convert to Christianity
informed the church on this verse and the church forced the Jews to remove it
from their prayer book, i.e. they forced a quote from Isaiah to be stricken!
I would agree with the interpretation, “And for me, the sentence
clearly is saying that the nations that have made a god by selecting an image to
attribute to it for them, have prayed to that god, thinking that that particular
god is G-d, but that the god they are praying to is not G-d, and thereby cannot
save, or be even called
salvation.”
[2359]
Nevertheless, since Christians believe Isaiah knew Jesus than they should be in
a complete quandary, knowing that Isaiah rejects Jesus and proclaims loyalty to
Cyrus all in the same chapter of Isaiah 45.
Getting back to reality, we
must seriously reevaluate our understanding of the concept of messiah before we
blindly accept a Christian or even a Jewish sectarian interpretation.
On the subject of the attributes and names of G-d, I refer you to the
book Kuzari. This is a must read IMHO for anyone who is considering conversion
to Judaism. It is a true story of how the King of the Khazars arranged a debate
between scholars of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism to select a religion for
his nation. In any case, the names of G-d are explained ad infinitum. We know
for certain that all the names we have for G-d are a mere creation below His
Infiniteness or Nothingness. At the highest level is the name “I will be
that which I will be.” Below this is the ineffable Name, which we refer
to as Hashem. There is nothing wrong with calling G-d according to one of his
attributes, “Av Rachamim” – Father of mercy for example. But
we NEVER PRAY TO ATTRIBUTES, THEY ARE NOT DIETIES, THEY ARE NOT SAINTS, THEY ARE
NOT gods. L’havdil, the Trinity idea is anathema to suggest that three
gods constitute one godhead. That Jesus would be considered the same, as god is
anathema too. Kabbalists who describe 10 sefirot or attributes NEVER CONSIDER
THESE TO BE SEPARATE POWERS OR DIETIES! Ultimately 3 are not 1, 10 are not 1,
all are limitations in our ability to grasp G-d and are instead OUR ATTEMPT TO
RELATE TO HIM/HER! AND I EMPHASIZE HIM/HER, because God is no MORE a HIM THAN
A HER. G-D DOES NOT HAVE A WIFE who is ISRAEL ANY MORE THAN ISRAEL IS A
BRIDEGROOM TO G-D as a WIFE!
All of these ideas are metaphors to help us
relate to G-d, NOT TO BE TAKEN LITERALLY. Nevertheless, we can discard the
Trinity idea, which does not seek to describe attributes, but is instead PURE
IDOLATRY in dividing the godhead into parts.
On the other hand WE SHOULD
KEEP THE METAPHORS OF G-D AS WIFE, HUSBAND, the TEN SEFIROT of WILL, WISDOM,
UNDERSTANDING, KINDNESS, RIGOR, TRUTH, VICTORY, GRATITUDE, RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND
KINGSHIP. These are ways to relate to G-d and we need to understand what it
means to be created in the Image of G-d that is according to these attributes,
which are also His creation. One may ask when is G-d a Wife? I ask you the
question back, ‘When is G-d a
Wife’?
[2360]So I
mostly agree with the statement, “We can offer Him praise and honor by
saying He is gracious, or He is my salvation, but He is clearly NOT those
things.” I would not include the word salvation, because of the confusion
of this term between Hebrew and
English.
[2361] You are correct
to say, "He is clearly NOT those things" literally.
26.6.10.2 Nazarene Messiah
Meditation
26-1: The Nazarene Messiah
G-d said to Samuel listen to the people and make them a king, but Samuel
knew that the people betrayed G-d in their request. Instead, G-d provided a
messiah who would represent His will to the people so that they could receive
Him.” The messiah is the righteous Jew who is “a light unto the
nations.”
After G-d relented, permitting mortal kingship in
Israel, He manifested a new structure where a king may arise in each generation
to lead His people. In this perspective what is a dead messiah? There are many
dead messiahs. Yehoshua son of Joseph the carpenter, perhaps the most
successful brought the light of the Bible to the greatest number of people.
Though he no longer lives he is more alive today then when he walked the earth.
A tzaddik is more alive in the world after death. The gematria ‘katz
hai’ - ‘alive in the end’ reveals the hidden essence in the
tzaddik. Isaac Avinu exemplified this quality. Though a quiet man in his life,
in death he is forever alive and a merit to the living.
qyddx = yh {q = qjxy =
208
In Judaism, we are prohibited from worshipping a messiah. This would
be idolatry. Instead the true messiah points the way back to G-d Who Alone is
to be worshipped.
26.6.10.3 Messiah and Snake
The gematria of Messiah and Snake are the same in Hebrew. The major value
is 358, with minor value 3+5+8=16, with reduced value 7. The major value
denotes an enchantment and prosperous quality, the minor value denotes a
fall,
[2362] and the reduced
value implies a spiritual nature. Here is a list of words or phrases with
gematria 358. Those items in the gray font do not have the same gematria, but
are etymologically related.
Table
26-1: The Gematria of the Messiah and the
Serpent
|
Messiah Qualities
(English)
|
Messiah Qualities
(Hebrew)
|
Serpent Qualities
(English)
|
Serpent Qualities
(Hebrew)
|
|
Messiah
|
משיח
|
Snake
|
נחש
|
|
We had returned
|
שבנו
|
Divines
|
נשח
|
|
Goshen
|
גשנה
|
Armed
|
חשים
|
|
And lightnings
|
וברכים
|
Enchantment
|
נשח
|
|
Anointing
|
משחה
|
In hatred
|
בשנאה
|
|
A breast plate
|
חשן
|
Destroyer
|
משחית
|
|
His offering
|
כרבנו
|
|
שטן
|
|
Shall be anointed
|
ימשח
|
|
|
|
And shall come near
|
ונכרב
|
|
|
|
And we dwelt
|
ונשב
|
|
|
The qualities of the serpent are also qualities of messiah and as one
conquers these traits one applies this energy for the good. This is the meaning
of turning ones sins into merit on Yom Kippur. Similarly, Esau had a greater
potential than Jacob for doing good if he would have conquered his evil desires.
The messiah has conquered his hatred and applied his skills of enchantment for
the good.
Nahash – snake, also means copper, brass, or even
silver or gold as in a goblet. It refers to divination or sorcery. Joseph
referred to his missing “divining” goblet with this word. Moses
placed a snake on top of a pole so those that looked upon it would be cured of
the poison from the desert serpents. Nahooshah was the name of the brass
serpent during the reign of Hezekiah. Hezekiah destroyed the brass serpent
because of idolatry. Nehoshet refers to the censers upon which incense was
offered. Those of Korach and his followers were beat into plates for the
tabernacle. This teaches that though G-d places snakes in our path as obstacles
these are ultimately for out benefit. Nahash was an Ammonite leader to
oppressed Israel.
G-d commanded Moses to place a seraph on the top of the
pole and not a ‘nahash’ not a snake. G-d’s commandment is
missing the word for snake. Instead, G-d was telling Moses to place the image
of an angel on the pole that would cause the people to look upward to G-d. G-d
works through angels. Before G-d inflicts a punishment, He has already prepared
the remedy. While, fiery snakes are a corrective force, removing the word
‘snakes’ leaves us with the fiery angel of healing. Perhaps,
misinterpreting G-d’s words and placing a snake on the pole led to the
later idolatry for which the bronze serpent was destroyed.
Text
26-31: Number 21:8-9
And the Lord said to Moses, Make a venomous serpent (seraph), and set it
upon a pole; and it shall come to pass, that everyone who is bitten, when he
looks upon it, shall live.
And Moses made a serpent (seraph) of shining (nahash), and put it upon a
pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked
at the serpent of shining, he lived.Why are healing properties
associated with venom? Perhaps small amounts of snake poison have homeopathic
medical benefits. A small amount would stimulate the immune system to fight
off a greater illness. Similarly, the looking at the snake on the pole would
stimulate an immune response. Seraph refers to a serpent or snake that
‘burns’ with poison. Burning is analogous to fire and hence the
angelic seraph is a fiery angel.
The healing
property of snake poison is an instance where a small amount of harm causes the
person’s body to strengthen its resistance. Similarly a person who
recognizes sin may achieve greater repentance. For this reason G-d permits
evil to exist.
Greek philosophers recognized the healing quality of
sunlight. This is an example of a positive remedy. Light is messiah healing
as opposed to snake oil. The warmth of the Sun strengthens the body and
improves the immune system. In Greek the word for Sun is Helios. From this
word we get the words ‘health’ and ‘healing’.
Christian theologians have sought to explain the serpent on
Moses’s pole in the following
way.
[2364] The process begins
with the English word ‘heal’ and then steps back into Hebrew to get
the word hilah –
hlyh which means
‘shining’ from the word for bright morning star, hailel –
llyh. Another step back is to take the word
‘light’ for kindling to get lahat –
fhl. Lahat also means flaming or
fiery.
[2365] This type of
‘light’ connects to ‘heal’ through a letter reversal
taking light -> IE licht ->
lyj -> heal.
Another word related to ‘light’ is Dolak –
qld that means to burn, light, or kindle. The
confusions between burn and seraph, light and flaming, heal and shining have led
Christian theologians to believe that the Serpent in the Garden of Eden was a
fallen angel seraph who attracted Eve by shining and was of similar rank to
Messiah in heaven.
Overall, the messiah
represents the positive approach to healing. The serpent represents the
negative approach to healing. Both are a remedy in their own way with the same
gematria, 358. The Sanskrit word deva means “shining one.” Deva
refers to angelic beings or demigods in Eastern religions. Related words that
found their way into English include “divine” and
“devotion.”
26.6.10.4 Suffering
messiah
Meditation
26-2: Suffering Messiah Tours Israel
I viewed myself amongst a choir of angels in the blue heavens. God heard
the prayers and formed worlds for their
families.
[2366] As man requests
so God decrees and each religion has its reward.
After encountering the Messiah he brought me to a tunnel where I beheld
a light at the end like the Sun. It was Helios, the healing light and I beheld
it rising over Jerusalem.
The Messiah said that he could not journey with me to the Holy Land. I
insisted but there was a dread sadness in his eyes. He told me that until the
time of the redemption, he must continue to suffer to help
lift[2367] the sin of others
away. Until this is all fulfilled, he cannot reenter Israel. I took his hand
and told him that my lead will exempt
him.[2368]
I took him to the Dead Sea and than up the dry riverbed of Nahal Zelem
– נחל
צלים. There were no people around and he
filled himself with the enjoyment of Israel. I then took him to the Negev and
down into the canyons of the Makhtesh during the
floods.[2369] The walls were
beautiful to behold and he touched their swirling geological patterns as we
descended into the heart.
We rose again and found a donkey on the plains during the rainstorms and
the Messiah wanted to ride upon the donkey. He told me to lead him to
Jerusalem, through Hebron and Bethlehem. As we proceeded, a crowd of people
followed us until we reached Bethlehem where he wished to stop to behold his
birthplace.
Eventually, we reached the Holy City and he wished to enter through the
Armenian gate. He said in the final redemption, he will enter through the
Western Wall gate. As we approached the overlook of the Temple, he asked me to
enter him through his eyes. As my mind became his, my mental dialogue ceased
and I beheld all people in an equal light above petty judgment.
I asked whether he was God and he said no, there is only God in heaven.
He said he was the Son of
God.[2370] I asked whether he
is a divine being. He said no! I took his hands and we soared above the
Temple mount and beheld the area. He showed me that a new Temple would be built
completely encapsulating the Dome of the Rock.
I saw myself as Messiah ben Joseph serving Messiah ben David in a castle
in the area. There were angels with me that followed me when I brought visitors
into his audience chamber. The Jews will be first in this day as servants to
the King Messiah. He held my hands and the angels gathered around us and I
willed that all the gates of the Palace be opened. The host of people entered
and gathered with us under the wings of God, the light of angels all about. The
Messiah told me to call the Angel of Gehenom and then all of the Dark Angels.
They all arrived and became part of our unity in the light of God, high on his
Mountain, before his service. There is only one God and his Name is
One.[2371]There
is some debate on whether the correct Hebrew name for Jesus is Yeshua –
ישוע or
Yehoshua –
יהושע
or
יהושוע?
The gematria of Yeshua is 386 while the gematria of Yehoshua is 391 or 397 with
the uncommon spelling. The first form is a blessing since moshiach = 358 with
Hashem = 26 and the letter Bet for blessing = 2, equals 384. The second
includes the 5 books of Moses. The third includes the 6 tractates of
Mishnah.
Text
26-32: Yeshua vs. Yehoshua
The Names Yeshua and Yehoshua
by Dr. James Price, professor of Hebrew
Yehoshua in the Septuagint
Two things indicate that Yehoshua is the proper Hebrew name for Jesus:
(1) In the Greek Translation of the OT known as the Septuagint (LXX),
the name Joshua is rendered *Iasous* = Jesus.
(2) In the NT, Joshua is mentioned twice (Acts 7:45; Heb 4:8), and in
both places the Greek NT spells the name *Iasous* = Jesus.
Thus the Greek *Iasous* is the equivalent of Hebrew *Yehoshua*
Yehoshua in the Hebrew Bible
As far as the Hebrew Bible is concerned, it is important to note that in
the early books, the name Joshua is spelled as (yod-hey-waw-shin-ayin) or on
rare occasions as (yod-hey-waw-shin-waw-ayin). However, in the books of Ezra and
Nehemiah, the high priest is named Jeshua the son of Jozadak (
yod-shin-waw-ayin); whereas in the contemporary books of Haggai and Zechariah,
the same high priest is named Joshua the son of Jehozadak (
yod-hey-waw-shin-ayin beth-nun). Thus, it can be concluded that in post-exilic
times of the Biblical era, the names Yeshua and Yehoshua were regarded as
equivalent.[2372]
26.6.10.5 Essene Tradition of Twelve
Disciples
Sanhedren 43a refers to someone by the name of Yeshu –
ישו. This does
not seem likely to be Jesus. He had five disciples:
Text
26-33: Sanhedren 43a
Our Rabbis taught: Yeshu had five disciples, Matthai, Nakai, Nezer,
Buni and Todah. When Matthai was brought [before the court] he said to them [the
judges], Shall Matthai be executed? Is it not written, Matthai [when]
“shall I come and appear before God?” Thereupon they retorted; Yes,
Matthai shall be executed, since it is written, “When Matthai [when] shall
[he] die and his name perish.” When Nakai was brought in he said to them;
Shall Nakai be executed? It is not written, “Naki [the innocent] and the
righteous slay thou not?” Yes, was the answer, Nakai shall be executed,
since it is written, in secret places does Naki, [the innocent] slay. When Nezer
was brought in, he said; Shall Nezer be executed? Is it not written, “And
Nezer [a twig] shall grow forth out of his roots.” Yes, they said, Nezer
shall be executed, since it is written, But thou art cast forth away from thy
grave like Nezer [an abhorred offshoot]. When Buni was brought in, he said:
Shall Buni be executed? Is it not written, Beni [my son], my first born? Yes,
they said, Buni shall be executed, since it is written, Behold I will slay
Bine-ka [thy son] thy first born. And when Todah was brought in, he said to
them; Shall Todah be executed? Is it not written, A psalm for Todah
[thanksgiving]? Yes, they answered, Todah shall be executed, since it is
written, Whoso offereth the sacrifice of Todah [thanksgiving] honoured
me.
The Essene tradition portrays the Teacher with twelve disciples.
26.6.10.6 Primordial Man
The concept of primordial man, Adam Kadmon in Judaism has been suggested to
be associated with the idea of messiah. There is some basis in the Midrash that
G-d created the Name of the Messiah before the world. Also, the principle that
Adam contained all the souls of mankind exists. In fact there is the idea that
the messiah is the nexus or representation of Adam Kadmon in some Hasidic
writings. Yet, Adam Kadmon existed before all other souls so the messiah today
would be co-existent with souls in other humans, which means he would not
contain them all in the same sense.
A major difference from
Christianity is that in Judaism G-d created Adam Kadmon—he was not
“born” of a deity. Albright’s attempts to back annotate a
savior literal son of god into the Jewish Aramaic tradition in order to justify
Christianity’s expectation of a divine messiah is
weak.
[2373]
26.6.11 Later Day Saints
Later day saints and prophets are real to God.
Meditation
26-3: Responsa to LDS
“You may always call upon me directly. There is only one God and
ultimately I am unknowable. Those who would say that God is a person refer to a
creation or manifestation of myself in their world. While my presence has been
on the earth as when I walked in the Garden of Eden to find Adam, I know all,
and would never have to live a life as man to know the life of a man. Those who
insist on this or that there are three gods of one mind have created a fairy
tale. Still they are a good people and if they are happy I am happy for them.
They will improve with your prophecy. Over time their ideas will
purify.
The angels were made on the second day and they
are distinct from man. They do not have free will. Man’s souls rest
under the Throne of God waiting to be born. The angels are my messengers.
All angels are my servants. In each generation there are those with potential
to lead and to help turn my people back to God. This is the role of
messiah.”Scholarship, Service, and Spirituality – three
pillars to life. “I looked for myself but I could not find me. I looked
for God, but He alluded me. I looked for my brother and found all
three.”
[2374]
Text
26-34: Typical LDS Blessing
O heavenly Father, we are thankful for the careful preparation of our
teacher and all of the wisdom she imparted to us, as well as all of the students
that were able to attend here today.
O heavenly Father, open our hearts to your love that we may always have
a ‘soft answer to turn away wrath.’ Give us a love like Solomon had
for you in his youth so that we may follow all of your statutes.
Give us a ‘heart that hears’ that we may always understand
the plight others and help them.
...Here is one of the great insights of the LDS
religion
[2375], which is also
that of
Judaism:
[2376]
Text
26-35: Honorable Marriage
Do not be caught up in materialism, one of the real plagues of
our generation—that is, acquiring things, fast-paced living, and
securing career success in the single
state.[2377]
Honorable marriage is more important than wealth, position, and
status.Revered LDS scholar Hugh Nibley’s great grandfather was
Alexander Neibaur who was a contemporary of Joseph Smith. Neibaur was a Jew and
scholar of kabbalah. He was from Poland and moved to Preston England and
converted to Christianity and then LDS. It is possible that Joseph
Smith’s ideas of multiple worlds of existence stems from the Jewish idea
of Gilgul based on his discussions with Neibaur. The LDS’s genealogical
search engine is at
http://www.familysearch.org.
LDS theology has
canonized statements similar to the New Testament on criticism of
Jews.
Text
26-36: Second Nephi 10:1-8
Jews shall crucify their God—They shall be
scattered until they begin to believe in him—America shall be a land of
liberty where no king shall rule—Be reconciled to God and gain salvation
through his grace. Between 559 and 545 B.C.
1 AND now I, Jacob, speak unto you again,
my beloved brethren, concerning this righteous abranch of which I have spoken.
2 For behold, the apromises which we have obtained are promises
unto us according to the flesh; wherefore, as it has been shown unto me that
many of our children shall perish in the flesh because of bunbelief, nevertheless, God will be merciful
unto many; and our children shall be crestored, that they may
come to that which will give them the true knowledge of their Redeemer.
3 Wherefore, as I said unto you, it must
needs be expedient that Christ—for in the last night the
aangel spake unto me that this should be his
name—should bcome among the
cJews, among those who are the more wicked part of
the world; and they shall dcrucify
him—for thus it behooveth our God, and there is none other nation on earth
that would ecrucify
their fGod.
4 For should the mighty
amiracles be wrought
among other nations they would repent, and know that he be their God.
6 Wherefore, because of their iniquities,
destructions, famines, apestilences, and bloodshed shall come upon
them; and they who shall not be destroyed shall be bscattered among all nations.
7 But behold, thus saith the
aLord God:
bWhen the day cometh that they shall believe
in me, that I am Christ, then have I covenanted with their fathers that they
shall be crestored in the
flesh, upon the earth, unto the dlands of their inheritance.
8 And it shall come to pass that they
shall be agathered in from their long
dispersion, from the bisles of
the sea, and from the four parts of the earth; and the nations of the Gentiles
shall be great in the eyes of me, saith God, in ccarrying them
forth to the lands of their inheritance. Orson Hyde, an LDS apostle,
to his great merit, made it to the Land of Israel in
1841.
[2378]
Text
26-37: Orson Hyde in Israel
Along his travels he faced many hardships. He fought danger, disease and
hunger all along the way. Some of Hyde’s greatest trials came on his
voyage from Smyrna to Beirut. As he traveled with a group of Arabs under the
hire of a few Englishman they were blown off course into the small isles that
litter the easternmost cost of the Mediterranean. This journey of four days
turned into nineteen. They had not taken food stores for this happenstance and
began to suffer from lack of nutrition. He managed to survive by gathering
snails from the rocks of the isles, which they passed. Eventually they found the
mainland, and he continued his journey by land through Beirut.
Hyde obviously had little love for the "Arabs" in the area. He called them
"land pirates"...
Hyde debarked at Jaffa, and traveled onward to Jerusalem. At this time
Jerusalem had a population of approximately 20,000 in habitants. Among these,
7000 were Jews. The majority of the population consisted of Turks and Arabs. He
traveled the city viewing and meditated among the spiritually historic sights
that he emotionally witnessed. He attempted to contact other Christian
missionaries and prominent men of the city, but he did not meet with much
success. So he again resolved to complete the purpose of his mission
alone.
One year and six months had passed since he embarked on his journey from
Nauvoo, Illinois. On Sunday morning, October 24, 1841, just before dawn, Elder
Orson Hyde walked out of Jerusalem, up the Mount of Olives, and viewed the
beautiful sight of Jerusalem at as sunlight spread across the city of the
Messiah. Here he wrote and delivered the dedicatory prayer, consecrating the
land for the gathering of Judah’s scattered remnants and for the eventual
building of a temple. In the dedicatory prayer, Elder Hyde referred to the
prophecies of God’s servants in relation to the Jews and Jerusalem, and
asked that all might be fulfilled. He called for the richest blessings of heaven
upon the Jews; he blessed, by virtue of his priesthood, and by his special
calling as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, the city, the land, and the
elements, to the end that Judah might be gathered, Jerusalem rebuilt, and become
a ‘Holy City," that the Lord’s name might be glorified in all the
earth. After the prayer, in accordance with a vision given him before he left
Nauvoo, he erected a pile of stones as a witness. He later erected a similar
pile or altar upon Mount Zion.
Hyde noted that many Jews listened to his prayer with great interest. To
this day his prayer is well known in Jerusalem among the Jews for the wonderful
blessings and promises which it proclaims upon Jerusalem and the "the Lords
chosen people." Soon after this he boarded a ship and sail back to England by
way of Egypt, Trieste, and Regensburg. On the way he wrote a letter to the
editor of the church’s British newspaper the Millennial Star, describing
the event of his journey and predicting England role in bringing the results
that he had worked and prayed for.
It was by political power and influence that the Jewish nation was
broken down, and her subjects dispersed abroad; and I will here hazard the
opinion; that by political power and influence they will be gathered and built
up; and, further, that England is destined, in the wisdom of economy of Heaven,
to stretch forth the arm of political power, and advance in the front ranks of
this glorious enterprise.
26.6.12 Church
The Christian word, Church, is from the Hebrew word, Knesset, which means
assembly as in Bet Knesset, assembly house. James, the brother of Jesus, ran
the ‘church’ at the beginning of the Common Era. James may have
died by accident or murder; his death is a
tragedy.
[2379]Text
26-38: James the Lesser
After the crucifixion of Jesus, his brother, James, led the small
community of Judeo-Christians in Jerusalem. Under his leadership, the Jerusalem
"church" tried to preserve the Jewishness of the group, and opposed attempts to
bring in non-Jews who had not been circumcised. Researcher Oded Ir-Shai, in his
article "The Jerusalem Church - From a Church of the Circumcised to a Church of
non-Jews" (published in a Hebrew book entitled "The Jerusalem Book - The Roman
and Byzantine Period," Yad Ben Tzvi, 1999), analyzes the few sources that
mention James and his period. The time of his appointment as first bishop of
Jerusalem is not known, but "his term ended tragically in the year 62, after the
death of the Roman governor Festus, and on the eve of the arrival of his
successor Albinus to Judea." According to
the description by Josephus Flavius in his book "Antiquities of the Jews," the
high priest, Hanan Ben Hanan, took advantage of the opportunity that Judea was
left without a Roman governor, "and called a sanhedrin [high court] of judges,
and brought before it the brother of Jesus who is called the Messiah - his name
is James - and other people, and accused them of having broken a law, and handed
them over for stoning." Ir-Shai believes that the source of the
hostility toward James was his social outlook, "which was based mainly on
zealous concern for the poor and the oppressed, and hostility not only toward
wealth, but toward the wealthy as well," as the situation is depicted in the
"Iggeret" ["Letter"] attributed to him in the New Testament. The
social ferment in Jerusalem increased greatly during that time and erupted after
four years, at the same time as the Great Revolt of the Jews against the Romans.
In the later Christian tradition, there is a somewhat different
version of the circumstances of his death: "James the Just" is described as a
holy man who "didn't drink wine and strong drink, didn't eat meat, and never
used a razor on his head." Since he managed to attract many to believe in Jesus,
the "scribes and the Pharisees" demanded that he restrain the people, and for
this purpose, stood him on the wall of the Temple Mount. But James refused to
deny the gospel of his brother, and therefore he was thrown off the wall. When
it turned out that he hadn't been killed by the fall, "they started to stone
him," it is said, and one person among the masses, a washerman by trade, beat
James on the head with a cudgel.
James the Lesser was a righteous man. The Book
of James in the New Testament testifies to his hopes and values. What is not
said above is that many Jews respected James even amongst the religious.
Nevertheless, G-d used the Romans to destroy the Second Temple because of the
sin of senseless hatred. The reference to Minim, spies, in the 19
th
blessing of the Amidah meant Christians
at one
time.
[2380] This is a sad
commentary on the conflict that grew out of early Christian
history.
26.6.13 Catholicism
Pope John Paul XX from Poland has come out with apologies to the Jewish
people for the Catholic Church during WWII. John Cornwell discovered that Pope
Pius XII made a deal with Adolf Hitler to look the other way in terms of the
Holocaust in exchange for authority over the German Catholic Church. The Reform
Jewish movement pursued this further and the Vatican was forced to acknowledge
its anti-Semitic history and cover-up during WWII. Unfortunately, the New
Testament trains anti-Semitism into each new generation by stereotyping Jewish
leaders and individuals with negative parables and
accusations.
[2381]Text
26-39: Complicity of Pope Pius XII in the
Holocaust
Long-buried Vatican files reveal a new and shocking indictment of World
War II's Pope Pius XII: that in pursuit of absolute power he helped Adolf Hitler
destroy German Catholic political opposition, betrayed the Jews of Europe, and
sealed a deeply cynical pact with a 20th-century devil.
One evening several years ago when I was having dinner with a group of
students, the topic of the
papacy was broached, and the discussion quickly boiled over. A young
woman asserted that Eugenio Pacelli, Pope Pius XII, the Pope during World War
II, had brought lasting shame on the Catholic Church by failing to denounce the
Final Solution. A young man, a practicing Catholic, insisted that the case had
never been proved.
Raised as a Catholic during the papacy of Pius Xll – his picture
gazed down from the wall of every
classroom during my childhood – I was only too familiar with the
allegation. It started in 1963 with a play by a young German author named Rolf
Hochhuth, Der Stellvertreter (The Deputy) which was staged on Broadway in 1964.
It depicted Pacelli as a ruthless cynic, interested more in the Vatican's
stockholdings than in the fate of the Jews. Most Catholics dismissed Hochhuth's
thesis as implausible, but the play sparked a controversy which has raged to
this day. Disturbed by the anger brought out in that dinner altercation, and
convinced, as I had always been,of Pius XII's innocence, I decided to write a
new defense of his reputation for a younger generation. I believed that
Pacelli's evident holiness was proof of his good faith. How could such a saintly
pope have betrayed the Jews? But was it possible to find a new and conclusive
approach to the issue? The arguments had so far focused mainly on his wartime
conduct; however, Pacelli's Vatican career had started 40 years earlier.
It seemed to me that a proper investigation into Pacelli's record would require
a more extensive chronicle than any attempted in the past. So I applied for
access to archival material in the Vatican, reassuring those who had charge of
crucial documents that I was on the side of my subject.
Six years earlier, in a book entitled A Thief in the Night, I had
defended the Vatican against charges that Pope John Paul I had been murdered by
his own aides. Two key officials granted me access to secret material:
depositions under oath gathered 30 years ago to support the process for
Pacelli's canonization, and the archive of the Vatican Secretariat of State, the
foreign office of the Holy See. I also drew on German sources relating to
Pacelli's activities in Germany during the 1920s and 1930s, including his
dealings with AdoIf Hitler in 1933. For months on end I ransacked Pacelli's
files, which dated back to 1912, in a windowless dungeon beneath the Borgia
Tower in Vatican City. Later I sat for several weeks in a dusty office in the
Jesuit headquarters, close to St. Peter's Square in Rome, mulling over a
thousand pages of transcribed testimony given under oath by those who had known
Pacelli well during his lifetime, including his critics.
By the middle of 1997, 1 was in a state of moral shock. The material I
had gathered amounted not to an exoneration but to an indictment more scandalous
than Hochhuth's. The evidence was explosive. It showed for the first time that
PaceIli was patently, and by the proof of his own words, anti-Jewish. It
revealed that he had helped Hitler to power and at the same time
undermined
potential Catholic resistance in Germany. It showed that he had
implicitly denied and trivialized the Holocaust,despite having reliable
knowledge of its true extent. And, worse, that he was a hypocrite, for after the
war he had retrospectively taken undue credit for speaking out boldly against
the Nazi persecution of the Jews.
In the "Holy Year" of 1950, a year in which many millions of pilgrims
flocked to Rome to
catch a glimpse of Pacelli, he was at the zenith of his papacy. This was
the Pius people now in their mid-50s and older remember from newsreels and
newspaper photographs. He was 74 years old and still vigorous. Six feet tall,
stick thin at 125 pounds, light on his feet, regular in habits, he had hardly
altered physically from the day of his coronation 11 years earlier. He had
beautiful tapering hands, a plaintive voice, large dark eyes and an aura of
holiness. It was his extreme pallor that first arrested those who met him. His
skin "had surprisingly transparent effect," observed the writer Gerrado
Pallenberg, "as if reflecting from the inside a cold, white flame." His charisma
was stunning. "His presence radiated a benignity, calm and sanctity that I have
certainly never before sensed in any human being." recorded the English writer
James Lees-Milne. "I immediately fell head over heels in love with him. I was so
affected I could scarcely speak without tears and was conscious that my legs
were trembling."
But there was another side to his character, little known to the
faithful. Although he was a man of selfless, monklike habits of prayer and
simplicity, he was a believer in the absolute leadership principle. More than
any other Vatican official of the century, he had promoted the modern ideology
of autocratic papal control, the highly centralized, dictatoria1 authority he
himself assumed on March 2, 1939, and maintained until his death in October
1958. There was a time before the advent of modern communications when Catholic
authority was widely distributed, in the collective decisions of the church's
councils and in collegial power-sharing between the Pope and the bishops. The
absolutism of the modern papacy is largely an invention of the late 19th century
It developed rapidly in the first decades of this century in response to the
perception of the centrifugal breakup of the church under an array of
contemporary pressures: materialism, increasing sexual freedom, religious
skepticism, and social and political liberties.
From his young manhood on, Pacelli played a leading role in shaping the
conditions and scope of modern papal power. Eugenio Pacelli was born in Rome in
1876, into a family of church lawyers who served the Vatican. He had an older
sister and brother and a younger sister. His parents, devout Catholics, shared
an apartment in central Rome with his grandfather, who had been a legal adviser
to Pius IX, the longest-serving Pope in history. There was only one small
brazier to supply heat for the whole family, even in the depths of winter.
Eugenio was a modest youth, who never appeared before his siblings unless he was
fully dressed in a jacket and tie. He would always come to the table with a
book, which he would read after having asked the family's
permission.
From an early age he acted out the ritual of the Mass, dressed in robes
supplied by his mother. He had a gift for languages and a prodigious memory. He
was spindly and suffered from a "fastidious stomach." He retained a youthful
piety all his life. Politically and legally, however, he was capable of great
subtlety and cunning. The Pacelli's were fiercely loyal to the injured merit of
the papacy. From 1848, the Popes had progressively lost to the emerging
nation-state of Italy their dominions, which had formed, since time immemorial,
the midriff of the Italian peninsula. Six years before Eugenio's birth, the city
of Rome itself had been seized, leaving the papacy in crisis. How could the
Popes regard themselves as independent now that they were mere citizens of an
upstart kingdom? Eugenio's grandfather and father believed passionately that the
Popes could once again exert a powerful unifying authority over the church by
the application of ecclesiastical and international law.
In 1870, at a gathering in Rome of a preponderance of the world's
bishops, known as the First Vatican Council, the Pope was dogmatically declared
infallible in matters of faith and morals. He was also declared the unchallenged
primate of the faithful. The Pope may have lost his temporal dominion, but
spiritually he was solely in charge of his universal church. During the first
two decades of this century, papal primacy and infallibility began to creep even
beyond the ample boundaries set by the First Vatican Council. A powerful legal
instrument transformed the 1870 primacy dogma into an unprecedented principle of
papal power. Eugenio Pacelli, by then a brilliant young Vatican lawyer, had a
major part in the drafting of that instrument, which was known as the Code of
Canon Law.
Pacelli had been recruited into the Vatican in 1901, at the age of 24,
to specialize in international affairs and church law. Pious, slender, with dark
luminous eyes, he was an instant favorite. He was invited to collaborate on the
reformulation of church law with his immediate superior, Pietro Gaspam, a
world-famous canon lawyer. Packaged in a single manual, the Code of Canon Law
was distributed in 1917 to Catholic bishops and clergy throughout the world.
According to this code, in the future all bishops would be nominated by the
Pope; doctrinal error would be tantamount to heresy; priests would be subjected
to strict censorship in their writings; papal letters to the faithful would be
regarded as infallible (in practice if not in principle}: and an oath would be
taken by all candidates for the priesthood to submit to the sense as well as the
strict wording of doctrine as laid down by the Pope.
But there was a problem. The church had historically granted the
dioceses in the provincial states of Germany a large measure of local discretion
and independence from Rome. Germany had one of the largest Catholic populations
in the world, and its congregation was well educated and sophisticated, with
hundreds of Catholic associations and newspapers and many Catholic universities
and publishing houses. The historic autonomy of Germany's Catholic Church was
enshrined in ancient church-state treaties known as concordats.
Aged 41 and already an archbishop, PaceIli was dispatched to Munich as
papal nuncio, or ambassador, to start the process of eliminating all existing
legal challenges to the new papal autocracy. At the same time ,he was to pursue
a Reich Concordat, a treaty between the papacy and Germany as a whole which
would supersede all local agreements and become a model of Catholic church-state
relations. A Reich Concordat would mean formal recognition by the German
government of the Pope's right to impose the new Code of Canon Law on Germany's
Catholics. Such an arrangement was fraught with significance for a largely
Protestant Germany. Nearly 400 years earlier, in Wittenberg, Martin Luther had
publicly burned a copy of Canon Law in defiance of the centralized authority of
the church. It was one of the defining moments of the Reformation, which was to
divide Western Christendom into Catholics and Protestants. In May 1917, Pacelli
set off for Germany via Switzerland in a private railway compartment, with an
additional wagon containing 60 cases of special foods for his delicate stomach.
The Pope at that time, Benedict XV, was shocked at this extravagance, but
PaceIli had favored status as the Vatican's best diplomat. Shortly after he
settled in Munich, he acquired a reputation as a vigorous relief worker. He
traveled through war-weary Germany extending charity to people of all religions
and none.
In an early letter to the Vatican, however he
revealed himself to be less than enamored of Germany's Jews. On September 4,
1917. PaceIli informed Pietro Gaspam, who had become cardinal secretary of state
in the Vatican -- the equivalent of foreign minister and prime minister -- that
a Dr. Werner, the chief rabbi of Munich, had approached the nunciature begging a
favor. In order to celebrate the festival of Tabernacles, beginning on October
1, the Jews needed palm fronds, which normally came from Italy. But the Italian
government had forbidden the exportation, via Switzerland, of a stock of palms
which the Jews had purchased and which were being held up in Como. "The
Israelite Community," continued Pacelli, "are seeking the intervention of the
Pope in the hope that he will plead on behalf of the thousands of German Jews."
The favor in question was no more problematic than the transportation of
Pacelli's 60 cases of food-stuffs had been a few months earlier. Pacelli
informed Gaspam that he had warned the rabbi that "wartime delays in
communication" would make things difficult. He also told Gaspam that he did not
think it appropriate for the Vatican "to assist them in the exercise of their
Jewish cult." His letter went by the slow route overland in the diplomatic bag.
Gaspatti replied by telegram on September 18 that he entirely trusted Pacelli's
"shrewdness," agreeing that it would not be appropriate to help Rabbi Werner.
PaceIli wrote back on September 28, 1917, informing Gasparri that he had again
seen the Rabbi, who "was perfectly convinced of the reasons I had given him and
thanked me warmly for all that I had done on his behalf." Pacelli had done
nothing except thwart the rabbi's request. The episode, small in itself, belies
subsequent claims that Pacelli had a great love of the Jewish religion and was
always motivated by its best interests.
Eighteen months later he revealed his antipathy
toward the Jews in a more blatantly anti-Semitic fashion when he found himself
at the center of a local revolution as Bolshevik groups struggled to take
advantage of the chaos in postwar Munich. Writing to Gasparri, Pacelli described
the revolutionaries and their chief, Eugen Levien in their headquarters in the
former royal palace. The letter has lain in the Vatican secret archive like a
time bomb until now: "The scene that presented itself at the palace was
indescribable. The confusion totally chaotic, the filth completely nauseating;
soldiers and armed workers coming and going; the building, once the home of a
king, resounding with screams, vile language, profanities. Absolute hell. An
army of employees were dashing to and fro, giving out orders, waving bits of
paper, and in the midst of all this, a gang of young women, of dubious
appearance, Jews like all the rest of them, hanging around in all the offices
with provocative demeanor and suggestive smiles. The boss of this female gang
was Levien's mistress, a young Russian woman, a Jew and a divorcee, who was in
charge. And it was to her that the nunciature was obliged to pay homage in order
to proceed. This Levien is a young man, about 30 or 35, also Russian and a Jew.
Pale, dirty, with vacant eyes, hoarse voice, vulgar, repulsive, with a face that
is both intelligent and sly." This association of Jewishness with Bolshevism
confirms that Pacelli, from his early 40s, nourished a suspicion of and contempt
for the Jews for political reasons. But the repeated references to the
Jewishness of these individuals, along with the catalogue of stereotypical
epithets deploring their physical and moral repulsiveness, betray a scorn and
revulsion consistent with anti-Semitism. Not long after this, Pacelli campaigned
to have black French troops removed from the Rhineland, convinced that they were
raping women and abusing children – even though an independent inquiry
sponsored by the U.S. Congress, of which Pacelli was aware, proved this
allegation false. Twenty-three years later, when the Allies were about to enter
Rome, he asked the British envoy to the Vatican to request of the British
Foreign Office that no Allied colored troops would be among the small number
that might be garrisoned in Rome after the occupation.
Pacelli spent 13 years in Germany attempting to rewrite the state
Concordats one by one in favor of the power of the Holy See and routinely
employing diplomatic blackmail. Germany was caught up in many territorial
disputes following the redrawing of the map of Central Europe after the First
World War. Pacelli repeatedly traded promises of Vatican support for German
control of disputed regions in return for obtaining terms advantageous to the
Vatican in Concordats. The German government's official in charge of Vatican
affairs at one point recorded the "ill feeling" prompted by Pacelli's "excessive
demands." Both Catholics and Protestants in Germany resisted reaching an
agreement with Pacelli on a Reich Concordat because the nuncio's concept of a
church-state relationship was too authoritarian. In his negotiations, Pacelli
was not concerned about the fate of non-Catholic religious communities or
institutions, or about human rights. He was principally preoccupied with the
interests of the Holy See. Nothing could have been better designed to deliver
Pacelli into the hands of Hitler later, when the future dictator made his move
in 1933.
In June 1920, Pacelli became nuncio to all of Germany, with
headquarters in Berlin as well as in Munich, and immediately acquired a
glittering reputation in diplomatic circles. He was a favorite at dinner parties
and receptions, and he was known to ride horses on the estate of a wealthy
German family. His household was run by a pretty young nun from southern Germany
named Sister Pasqualina Lehnert. Pacelli's sister Elisabetta, who battled with
the nun for Pacelli's affections, described Pasqualina as "scaltrissima"--
extremely cunning. In Munich it had been rumored that he cast more than priestly
eyes on this religious housekeeper. Pacelli insisted that a Vatican
investigation into this "horrible calumny" be conducted at the highest level,
and his reputation emerged unbesmirched.
Meanwhile, he had formed a close relationship with an individual named
Ludwig Kaas. Kaas was a representative of the solidly Catholic German Center
Party, one of the largest and most powerful democratic parties in Germany.
Though it was unusual for a full-time politician, he was also a Roman Catholic
priest. Five years Pacelli's junior, dapper, bespectacled, and invariably
carrying a smart walking stick, Kaas, known as "the prelate," became an intimate
collaborator of Pacelli's on every aspect of Vatican diplomacy in Germany. With
Pacelli's encouragement, Kaas eventually became the chairman of the Center
Party, the first priest to do so in the party's 60-year history. Yet while Kaas
was officially a representative of a major democratic party, he was increasingly
devoted to Pacelli to the point of becoming his alter ego. Sister Pasqualina
stated after Pacelli's death that Kaas, who "regularly accompanied Pacelli on
holiday" was linked to him in "adoration, honest love and unconditional
loyalty." There were stories of acute jealousy and high emotion when Kaas became
conscious of a rival affection in Pacelli's secretary, the Jesuit Robert Leiber,
who was also German.
Kaas was a profound believer in the benefits of a Reich Concordat,
seeing a parallel between papal absolutism and the FÜHRER- PRINZIP, the
Fascist leadership principle. His views coincided perfectly with Pacelli's on
church-state politics, and their aspirations for centralized papal power were
identical. Kaas's adulation of PaceIli, whom he put before his party, became a
crucial element in the betrayal of Catholic democratic politics in
Germany.
In 1929, Pacelli was recalled to Rome to take over the most important
role under the Pope, Cardinal Secretary of State. Sister Pasqualina arrived
uninvited and cunningly, according to Pacelli's sister, and along with two
German nuns to assist her, took over the management of his Vatican residence.
Almost immediately Kaas, although he was still head of the German Center Party,
started to spend long periods--months at a time --in Pacelli's Vatican
apartments Shortly before Pacelli's return to Rome, his brother, Francesco had
successfully negotiated on behalf of Pius Xl, the current Pope, a concordat with
Mussolini as part of an agreement known as the Lateran Treaty.
The rancor between the Vatican and the state of Italy was officially at
an end. A precondition of the negotiations had involved the destruction of the
parliamentary Catholic Italian Popular party. Pius XI disliked political
Catholicism because he could not control it. Like his predecessors, he believed
that Catholic party politics brought democracy into the church by the back door.
The result of the demise of the Popular Party was the wholesale shift of
Catholics into the Fascist Party and the collapse of democracy in Italy. Pius
XI and his new secretary of state, Pacelli, were determined that no
accommodation be reached with Communists anywhere in the world – this was
the time of persecution of the church in Russia, Mexico, and later Spain -but
totalitarian movements and regimes of the right were a different
matter.
Hitler, who had enjoyed his first great success in the elections of
September 1930, was determined to seek a treaty with the Vatican similar to that
struck by Mussolini, which would lead to the disbanding of the German Center
Party. In his political testament, Mein Kampf, he had recollected that his fear
of Catholicism went back to his vagabond days in Vienna. The fact that German
Catholics, politically united by the Center Party, had defeated Bismarck's
Kulturkampf- the "culture struggle" against the Catholic Church in the
1870s--constantly worried him. He was convinced that his movement could succeed
only if political Catholicism and its democratic networks were
eliminated.
Hitler's fear of the Catholic Church was well grounded. Into the early
1930s the German Center Party, the German Catholic bishops, and the Catholic
media had been mainly solid in their rejection of National Socialism. They
denied Nazis the sacraments and church burials, and Catholic journalists
excoriated National Socialism daily in Germany's 400 Catholic ewspapers. The
hierarchy instructed priests to combat National Socialism at a local level
whenever it attacked Christianity. The Munich-based weekly Der Gerade Weg The
Straight Path) told its readers, "Adolf Hitler preaches the law of lies. You who
have fallen victim to the deceptions of one obsessed with despotism, wake
up!"
The vehement front of the Catholic Church in
Germany against Hitler, however, was not at one with the view from inside the
Vatican--a view that was now being shaped and promoted by Eugenio Pacelli. In
1930 the influential Catholic politician Heinrich Briining, a First World War
Veteran, became the leader of a brief new government coalition, dominated by the
majority Socialists and the Center Party. The country was reeling from
successive economic crises against the background of the world slump and
reparations payments to the Allies. In August 1931, Briining visited Pacelli in
the Vatican, and the two men quarreled. Brüning tells in his memoirs how
Pacelli lectured him, the German chancellor, on how he should reach an
understanding with the Nazis to "form a right-wing administration" in order to
help achieve a Reich Concordat favorable to the Vatican. When Brüning
advised him not to interfere in German politics, Pacelli threw a tantrum.
Brüning parting shot that day was the ironic observation-chilling in
hindsight-- that he trusted that "the Vatican would fare better at the hands of
Hitler ... than with himself, a devout Catholic." Briining was right on one
score. Hitler proved to be the only chancellor prepared to grant Pacelli the
sort of authoritarian concordat he was seeking. But the price was to be
catastrophic for Catholic Germany and for Germany as a whole.
After Hitler came to power in January 1933, he made
the concordat negotiations with Pacelli a priority. The negotiations proceeded
over six months with constant shuttle diplomacy between the Vatican and Berlin.
Hitler spent more time on this treaty than on any other item of foreign
diplomacy during his dictatorship. The Reich Concordat granted Pacelli the
right to impose the new Code of Canon Law on Catholics in Germany and promised a
number of measures favorable to Catholic education, including new schools. In
exchange, Pacelli collaborated in the withdrawal of Catholics from political and
social activity. The negotiations were conducted in secret by Pacelli, Kaas, and
Hitler's deputy chancellor, Franz von Papen, over the heads of German bishops
and the faithful. The Catholic Church in Germany had no say in setting the
conditions. In the end, Hitler insisted that his signature on the concordat
would depend on the Center Party's voting for the Enabling Act, the legislation
that was to give him dictatorial powers. It was Kaas, chairman of the party but
completely in thrall to Pacelli, who bullied the delegates into acceptance.
Next, Hitler insisted on the "voluntary" disbanding of the Center Party, the
last truly parliamentary force in Germany. Again, Pacelli was the prime mover in
this tragic Catholic surrender.
The fact that the party voluntarily disbanded
itself, rather than go down fighting, had a profound psychological effect,
depriving Germany of the last democratic focus of potential noncompliance and
resistance: In the political vacuum created by its surrender, Catholics in the
millions joined the Nazi Party, believing that it had the support of the Pope.
The German bishops capitulated to Pacelli's policy of centralization, and German
Catholic democrats found themselves politically leaderless. After the Reich
Concordat was signed, Pacelli declared it an unparalleled triumph for the Holy
See. In an article in L 'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican-controlled newspaper,
he announced that the treaty, indicated the total recognition and acceptance of
the church's law by the German state. But Hitler was the true victor and the
Jews were the concordat's first victims. On July 14, 1933, after the initialing
of the treaty, the Cabinet minutes record Hitler as saying that the concordat
had created an atmosphere of confidence that would be "especially significant in
the struggle against international Jewry." He was claiming that the Catholic
Church had publicly given its blessing, at home and abroad, to the policies of
National Socialism, including its anti-Semitic stand. At the same time, under
the terms of the concordat, Catholic criticism of acts deemed political by the
Nazis, could now be regarded as "foreign interference." The great German
Catholic Church, at the insistence of Rome, fell silent. In the future all
complaints against the Nazis would be channeled through Pacelli. There were some
notable exceptions, for example the sermons preached in 1933 by Cardinal Michael
von Faulhaber, the Archbishop of Munich, in which he denounced the Nazis for
their rejection of the Old Testament as a Jewish text.
The concordat immediately drew the German church
into complicity with the Nazis. Even as Pacelli was granted special advantages
in the concordat for German Catholic education, Hitler was trampling on the
educational rights of Jews throughout the country. At the same time, Catholic
priests were being drawn into Nazi collaboration with the attestation
bureaucracy, which established Jewish ancestry. Pacelli, despite the immense
centralized power he now wielded through the Code of Canon Law, said and did
nothing. The attestation machinery would lead inexorably to the selection of
millions destined for the death camps.
As Nazi anti-Semitism mounted in Germany during the
1930's, Pacelli failed to complain, even on behalf of Jews who had become
Catholics, acknowledging that the matter was a matter of German internal policy.
Eventually, in January 1937, three German cardinals and two influential bishops
arrived at the Vatican to plead for a vigorous protest over Nazi persecution of
the Catholic Church, which had been deprived of all forms of activity beyond
church services. Pins XI at last decided to issue an encyclical, a letter
addressed to all the faithful of the world. Written under Pacelli's direction,
it was called Mit Brennender Sorge (With Deep Anxiety), and it was a forthright
statement of the plight of the church in Germany. But there was no explicit
condemnation of anti-Semitism, even in relation to Jews who had converted to
Catholicism. Worse still, the subtext against Nazism (National Socialism and
Hitler were not mentioned by name) was blunted by the publication five days
later of an even more condemnatory encyclical by Pins XI against
Communism.
The encyclical Mit Brennender Sorge, though too little and too late,
revealed that the Catholic Church all along had the power to shake the regime. A
few days later, Hermann Göring, one of Hitler's closest aides and his
commander of the Luffwaffe, delivered a two-hour harangue to a Nazi assembly
against the Catholic clergy. However, Roman centralizing had paralyzed the
German Catholic Church and its powerful web of associations. Unlike the
courageous grass-roots activism that had combated Bismarck's persecutions in the
1870s, German Catholicism now looked obediently to Rome for guidance. Although
Pacelli collaborated in the writing and the distribution of the encyclical, he
quickly undermined its effects by reassuring the Reich's ambassador in Rome.
"Pacelli received me with decided friendliness," the diplomat reported back to
Berlin, "and emphatically assured me during the conversation that normal and
friendly relations with us would be restored as soon as possible."
In the summer of 1938, as Pius XI lay dying he
became belatedly anxious about anti-Semitism throughout Europe. He
commissioned another encyclical, to be written exclusively on the Jewish
question. The text, which never saw the light of day, has only recently been
discovered. It was written by three Jesuit scholars, but Pacelli presumably had
charge of the project. It was to be called Humani Generis Unitas (The Unity of
the Human Race). For all its good intentions and its repudiation of violent
anti-Semitism, the document is replete with the anti-Jewishness that Pacelli had
displayed in his early period in Germany. The Jews, the text claims, were
responsible for their own fate. God had chosen them to make way for Christ's
redemption, but they denied and killed him. And now, "blinded by their dream of
worldly gain and material success," they deserved the "worldly and spiritual
ruin" that they had brought down upon themselves. The document warns that that
to defend the Jews as "Christian principles and humanity" demand could involve
the unacceptable risk of being ensnared by secular politics--not least an
association with Bolshevism. The encyclical was delivered in the fall of 1938 to
the Jesuits in Rome, who sat on it. To this day we do not know why it was not
completed and handed to Pope Pius XI. For all its drawbacks, it was a clear
protest against Nazi attacks on Jews and so might have done some good. But it
appears likely that the Jesuits, and Pacelli, whose influence as secretary of
state of the Vatican was paramount since the Pope was moribund, were reluctant
to inflame the Nazis by its publication. Pacelli, when he became pope, would
bury the document deep in the secret archives.
On February 10, 1939, Pius XI died, at the age of 81. Pacelli, then 63,
was elected Pope by the College of Cardinals in just three ballots, on March 2.
He was crowned on March 12, on the eve of Hitler's march into Prague. Between
his election and his coronation he held a crucial meeting with the German
cardinals. Keen to affirm Hitler publicly, he showed them a letter of good
wishes which began, "To the Illustrious Herr Adolf Hitler." Should he, he asked
them, style the Führer "Most Illustrious"? He decided that that might be
going too far. He told the cardinals that Pius XI had said that keeping a papal
nuncio in Berlin "conflicts with our honor." But his predecessor, he said, had
been mistaken. He was going to maintain normal diplomatic relations with Hitler.
The following month, at Pacelli's express wish, Archbishop Cesare Orsenigo, the
Berlin nuncio, hosted a gala reception in honor of Hitler's 50th birthday. A
birthday greeting to the Führer from the bishops of Germany would become an
annual tradition until the war's end.
Pacelli's coronation was the most triumphant in a hundred years. His
style of papacy, for all his personal humility, was unprecedentedly pompous. He
always ate alone. Vatican bureaucrats were obliged to take phone calls from him
on their knees. When he took his afternoon walk, the gardeners had to hide in
the bushes. Senior officials were not allowed to ask him questions or present a
point of view.
As Europe plunged toward war Pacelli cast himself in the role of judge
of judges. But he continued to seek to appease Hitler by attempting to persuade
the Poles to make concessions over Germany's territorial claims. After Hitler's
invasion of Poland, on September 1, 1939, he declined to condemn Germany, to the
bafflement of the Allies.
His first public statement, the encyclical known in the English-speaking
world as Darkness over the Earth, was full of papal rhetoric and equivocations.
Then something extraordinary occurred, revealing that whatever had motivated
Pacelli in his equivocal approach to the Nazi onslaught in Poland did not
betoken cowardice or a liking for Hitler. In November 1939, in deepest secrecy,
Pacelli became intimately and dangerously involved In what was probably the most
viable plot to depose Hitler during the war. The plot centered on a group of
anti-Nazi generals, committed to returning Germany to democracy. The coup might
spark a civil war, and they wanted assurances that the West would not take
advantage of the ensuing chaos. Pius XII agreed to act as go-between for the
plotters and the Allies. Had his complicity in the plot been discovered it might
have proved disastrous for the Vatican and for many thousands of German clergy.
As it happened, leaders in London dragged their feet, and the plotters
eventually fell silent. The episode demonstrates that, while Pacelli seemed weak
to some, pusillanimity and indecisiveness were hardly in his
nature.
Pacelli's first wartime act of reticence in failing
to speak out against Fascist brutality occurred in the summer of 1941, following
Hitler's invasion of Yugoslavia and the formation of the Catholic and Fascist
state of Croatia. In a wave of appalling ethnic cleansing, the Croat Fascist
separatists, known as the Ustashe, under the leadership of Ante Pavelic, the
Croat Führer, embarked on a campaign of enforced conversions, deportations,
and mass extermination targeting a population of 2.2 million Serb Orthodox
Christians and a smaller number of Jews and Gypsies. According to the Italian
writer Carlo Falconi, as early as April, in a typical act of atrocity, a band of
Ustashe had rounded up 331 Serbs. The victims were forced to dig their own
graves before being hacked to death with axes. The local priest was forced to
recite the prayers for the dying while his son was chopped to pieces before his
eyes. Then the priest was tortured. His hair and beard were torn off, his eves
were gouged out. Finally he was skinned alive. The very next month Pacelli
greeted Pavelic at the Vatican. Throughout the war, the Croat atrocities
continued. By the most recent scholarly reckoning 487,000 Orthodox Serbs and
27,000 Gypsies were massacred; in addition, approximately 30,000 out of a
population of 45,000 Jews were killed. Despite a close relationship between the
Ustashe regime and the Catholic bishops, and a constant flow of information
about the massacres, Pacelli said and did nothing. In fact, he continued to
extend warm wishes to the Ustashe leadership. The only feasible explanation for
Pacelli's silence was his perception of Croatia as a Catholic bridgehead into
the East. The Vatican and the local bishops approved of mass conversion in
Croatia (even though it was the result of fear rather than conviction), because
they believed that this could spell the beginning of a return {?} of the
Orthodox Christians there to papal allegiance. Pacelli was not a man to condone
mass murder, but he evidently chose to turn a blind eye on Ustashe atrocities
rather than hinder a unique opportunity to extend the power of the
papacy.
{Note from emperors-clothes.com: This is a very
generous interpretation. In fact the Catholic Church, controlled the Independent
State of Croatia. At one point it was in fact directly run by Archbishop
Stepinac who answered to Pius XII. Stepinac has, in turn, been beatified by the
current pope, in a Croatian ceremony attended by Croatian President Franjo
Tudjman.}
Pacelli came to learn of the Nazi plans to exterminate the Jews of
Europe shortly after they were laid in January 1942. The deportations to the
death camps had begun in December 1941 and would continue through 1944. All
during 1942, Pacelli received reliable information on the details of the Final
Solution, much of it supplied by the British, French, and American
representatives resident in the Vatican. On March 17, 1942, representatives of
Jewish organizations assembled in Switzerland sent a memorandum to Pacelli via
the papal nuncio in Bern, cataloguing violent anti-Semitic measures in Germany
and in its allied and conquered territories.
Their plea focused attention on Slovakia, Croatia, Hungary, and
unoccupied France, where, they believed, the Pope's intervention might yet be
effective. Apart from an intervention in the case of Slovakia, where the
president was Monsignor Josef Tiso, a Catholic priest, no papal initiatives
resulted. During the same month, a stream of dispatches describing the fate of
some 90,000 Jews reached the Vatican from various sources in Eastern Europe. The
Jewish organizations' long memorandum would be excluded from the wartime
documents published by the Vatican between 1965 and 1981. On June 16, 1942,
Harold Tittmann, the U.S. representative to the Vatican, told Washington that
Pacelli was diverting himself, ostrichlike, into purely religious concerns and
that the moral authority won for the papacy by Pius XI was being eroded. At the
end of that month, the London Daily Telegraph announced that more than a million
Jews had been killed in Europe and that it was the aim of the Nazis "to wipe the
race from the European continent." The article was re-printed in The New York
Times. On July 21 there was a protest rally on behalf of Europe's Jews in New
York's Madison Square Garden. In the following weeks the British, American, and
Brazilian representatives to the Vatican tried to persuade Pacelli to speak out
against the Nazi atrocities. But still he said nothing.
In September 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt sent his personal
representative, the former head of U.S. Steel, Myron Taylor, to plead with
PaceIli to make a statement about the extermination of the Jews. Taylor traveled
hazardously through enemy territory to reach the Vatican. Still Pacelli refused
to speak. Pacelli's excuse was that he must rise above the belligerent parties.
As late as December 18, Francis d'Arcy Osborne, Britain's envoy in the Vatican,
handed Cardinal Domenico Tardini, Pacelli's deputy secretary of state, a dossier
replete with information on the Jewish deportations and mass killings in hopes
that the Pope would denounce the Nazi regime in a Christmas message. On
December 24, 1942, having made draft after draft, Pacelli at last said
something. In his Christmas Eve broadcast to the world on Vatican Radio, he
said that men of goodwill owed a vow to bring society "back to its immovable
center of gravity in divine law." He went on: "Humanity owes this vow to those
hundreds of thousands who, without any fault of their own, sometimes only by
reason of their nationality and race, are marked for death or gradual
extinction." That was the strongest public denunciation of the Final Solution
that Pacelli would make in the whole course of the war.
It was not merely a paltry statement. The chasm between the enormity of
the liquidation of the Jewish people and this form of evasive language was
profoundly scandalous. He might have been referring to many categories of
victims at the hands of various belligerents in the conflict. Clearly the choice
of ambiguous wording was intended to placate those who urged him to protest,
while avoiding offense to the Nazi regime. But these considerations are
over-shadowed by the implicit denial and trivialization. He had scaled down the
doomed millions to "hundreds of thousands" without uttering the word "Jews,"
while making the pointed qualification "sometimes only by reason of their
nationality or race." Nowhere was the term "Nazi'' mentioned. Hitler himself
could not have wished for a more convoluted and innocuous reaction from the
Vicar of Christ to the greatest crime in history.
But what was Pacelli's principal motivation for this trivialization and
denial? The Allies' diplomats in the Vatican believed that he was remaining
impartial in order to earn a crucial role in future peace negotiations. In this
there was clearly a degree of truth. But a recapitulation of new evidence I
have gathered shows that Pacelli saw the Jews as alien and undeserving of his
respect and compassion. He felt no sense of moral outrage at their plight. The
documents show that:
- He had nourished a striking antipathy toward the Jews as early as 1917 in
Germany, which contradicts later claims that his omissions were performed in
good faith and that he "loved" the Jews and respected their religion.
- From the end of the First World War to the lost encyclical of 1938,
Pacelli betrayed a fear and contempt of Judaism based on his belief that the
Jews were behind the Bolshevik plot to destroy Christendom.
- Pacelli acknowledged to representatives of the Third Reich that the
regime's anti-Semitic policies were a matter of Germany's internal politics. The
Reich Concordat between Hitler and the Vatican, as Hitler was quick to grasp,
created an ideal climate for Jewish persecution.
- Pacelli failed to sanction protest by German Catholic bishops against
anti-Semitism, and he did not attempt to intervene in the process by which
Catholic clergy collaborated in racial certification to identify Jews.
- After Pius XI's Mit Brennender Sorge, denouncing the Nazi regime
(although not by name), Pacelli attempted to mitigate the effect of the
encyclical by giving private diplomatic reassurances to Berlin despite his
awareness of widespread Nazi persecution of Jews.
- Pacelli was convinced that the Jews had brought misfortune on their own
heads: intervention on their behalf could only draw the church into alliances
with forces inimical to Catholicism. Pacelli's failure to utter a candid word on
the Final Solution proclaimed to the world that the Vicar of Christ was not
roused to pity or anger. From this point of view, he was the ideal Pope for
Hitler's unspeakable plan. His denial and minimization of the Holocaust were all
the more scandalous in that they were uttered from a seemingly impartial moral
high ground.
There was another, more immediate indication of Pacelli's moral
dislocation. It occurred before the liberation of Rome, when he was the sole
Italian authority in the city. On October 16, 1943, SS troops entered the Roman
ghetto area and rounded up more than 1,000 Jews, imprisoning them in the very
shadow of the Vatican. How did Pacelli acquit himself'? On the morning of the
roundup, which had been prompted by AdoIf Eichmann, who was in charge of the
organization of the Final Solution from his headquarters in Berlin, the German
ambassador in Rome pleaded with the Vatican to issue a public protest. By this
stage of the war, Mussolini had been deposed and rescued by AdoIf Hitler to run
the puppet regime in the North of Italy. The German authorities in Rome, both
diplomats and military commanders, fearing a backlash of the Italian populace,
hoped that an immediate and vigorous papal denunciation might stop the SS in
their tracks and prevent further arrests. Pacelli refused. In the end, the
German diplomats drafted a letter of protest on the Pope's behalf and prevailed
on a resident German bishop to sign it for Berlin's benefit.
Meanwhile, the deportation of the imprisoned Jews went ahead on October
18. When U.S. chargé d 'affaires Harold Tittmann visited Pacelli that
day, he found the pontiff anxious that the "Communist" Partisans would take
advantage of a cycle of papal protest, followed by SS reprisals, followed by a
civilian backlash. As a consequence, he was not inclined to lift a finger for
the Jewish deportees, who were now traveling in cattle cars to the Austrian
border bound for Auschwitz. Church officials reported on the desperate plight of
the deportees as they passed slowly through city after city. Still Pacelli
refused to intervene.
In the Jesuit archives in Rome, I found a secret document sworn to under
oath by Karl Wolff, the SS commander in Italy. The text reveals that Hitler had
asked Wolff in the fall of 1943 to prepare a plan to evacuate the Pope and the
Vatican treasures to Liechtenstein. After several weeks of investigation, Wolff
concluded that an attempt to invade the Vatican and its properties, or to seize
the Pope in response to a papal protest, would prompt a backlash throughout
Italy that would seriously hinder the Nazi war effort. Hitler therefore dropped
his plan to kidnap Pacelli, acknowledging what Pacelli appeared to ignore, that
the strongest social and political force in Italy in late 1943 was the Catholic
Church, and that its potential for thwarting the SS was immense.
Pacelli was concerned that a protest by him would benefit only the
Communists. His silence on the deportation of Rome's Jews, in other words, was
not an act of cowardice or fear of the Germans. He wanted to maintain the
Nazi-occupation status quo until such time as the city could be liberated by the
Allies. But what of the deported Jews? Five days after the train had set off
from the Tiburtina station in Rome, an estimated 1,060 had been gassed at
Auschwitz and Birkenau – 149 men and 47 women were detained for slave
labor, but only 15 survived the war, and only one of those was a woman, Settimia
Spizzichino, who had served as a human guinea pig of Dr. Josef Mengele, the Nazi
medical doctor who performed atrocious experiments on human victims. After the
liberation, she was found alive in a heap of corpses. But there was a more
profound failure than Pacelli's unwillingness to help the Jews of Rome rounded
up on October 16. Pacelli's reticence was not just a diplomatic silence in
response to the political pressures of the moment, not just a failure to be
morally outraged. It was a stunning religious and ritualistic silence. To my
knowledge, there is no record of a single public papal prayer, lit votive
candle, psalm, lamentation, or Mass celebrated in solidarity with the Jews of
Rome either during their terrible ordeal or after their deaths. This spiritual
silence in the face of an atrocity committed at the heart of Christendom, in the
shadow of the shrine of the first apostle, persists to this day and implicates
all Catholics. This silence proclaims that Pacelli had no genuine spiritual
sympathy even for the Jews of Rome, who were members of the community of his
birth. And yet, on learning of the death of AdoIf Hitler, Archbishop Adolf
Bertram of Berlin ordered all the priests of his archdiocese "to hold a solemn
Requiem in memory of the Führer."
There were nevertheless Jews who gave Pacelli the benefit of the doubt.
On Thursday, November 29, 1945, Pacelli met some 80 representatives of Jewish
refugees who expressed their thanks "for his generosity toward those persecuted
during the Nazi-Fascist period ."One must respect a tribute made by people who
had suffered and survived, and we cannot belittle Pacelli's efforts on the level
of charitable relief, notably his directive that enclosed religious houses in
Rome should take in Jews hiding from the SS.
By the same token, we must respect the voice of
Settimia Spizzichino, the sole Roman Jewish woman survivor from the death camps.
Speaking in a BBC interview in 1995 she said. "1 came back from Auschwitz on my
own. . I lost my mother, two sisters and one brother. Pius XII could have warned
us about what was going to happen. We might have escaped from Rome and joined
the partisans. He played right into the Germans' hands. It all happened right
under his nose. But he was an anti-Semitic pope, a pro-German pope. He didn't
take a single risk. And when they say the Pope is like Jesus Christ, it is not
true. He did not save a single child."
We are obliged to accept these contrasting views of Pacelli are not
mutually exclusive. It gives a Catholic no satisfaction to accuse a Pope of
acquiescing in the plans of Hitler. But one of the saddest ironies of Pacelli's
papacy centers on the implications of his own pastoral self-image. At the
beginning of a promotional film he commissioned about himself during the war,
called The Angelic Pastor, the camera frequently focuses on the statue of the
Good Shepherd in the Vatican gardens. The parable of the good shepherd tells of
the pastor who so loves each of his sheep that he will do all, risk all, go to
any pains, to save one member of his flock that is lost or in danger. To his
everlasting shame, and to the shame of the Catholic Church, Pacelli disdained to
recognize the Jews of Rome as members of his Roman flock, even though they had
dwelled in the Eternal City since before the birth of Christ. And yet there was
still something worse. After the liberation of Rome, when every perception of
restraint on his freedom was lifted, he claimed retrospective moral superiority
for having spoken and acted on behalf of the Jews. Addressing a Palestinian
group on August 3, 1946, he said, "We disapprove of all recourse to force...Just
as we condemned on various occasions in the past the persecutions that a
fanatical anti-Semitism inflicted on the Hebrew people." His grandiloquent
self-exculpation a year after the war had ended showed him to be not only an
ideal pope for the Nazis Final Solution but also a hypocrite. The postwar
period of Pacelli's papacy, through the 1950s, saw the apotheosis of the
ideology of papal power as he presided over a triumphant Catholic Church in open
confrontation with Communism. But it could not hold. The internal structures and
morale of the church in Pacelli's final years began to show signs of
fragmentation and decay, leading to a yearning for reassessment and renewal. In
old age he became increasingly narrow-minded, eccentric. and hypochondriacal. He
experienced religious visions, suffered from chronic hiccups, and received
monkey-brain-cell injections for longevity. He had no love for, or trust in
those who had to follow him. He failed to replace his secretary of state when
lie died and for years he declined to appoint a full complement of cardinals. He
died at the age of 82 on October 9,1958. His corpse decomposed rapidly in the
autumnal Roman heat. At his lying-in-state, a guard fainted from the stench.
Later, his nose turned black and fell off. Some saw in this sudden corruption of
his mortal remains, a symbol of the absolute corruption of his
papacy.
The Second Vatican Council was called by John XXIII who succeeded
Pacelli, in 1958, precisely to reject Pacelli's monolith in preference for a
collegial, decentralized, human, Christian community, the Holy Spirit, and love.
The guiding metaphor of the church of the future was of a "pilgrim people of
God." Expectations ran high, but there was no lack of contention and anxiety as
old habits and disciplines died hard. There were signs from the very outset that
papal and Vatican hegemony would not easily acquiesce, that the Old Guard would
attempt a comeback. As we approach the end of this century, the hopeful energy
of the Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II, as it came to be called, appears
to many a spent force. The church of Pius XII is reasserting itself in
confirmation of a pyramidal church model: faith in the primacy of the man in the
white robe dictating in solitude from the pinnacle. In the twilight years of
John Paul II's long reign, the Catholic Church gives a pervasive impression of
dysfunction despite his historic influence on the collapse of Communist tyranny
in Poland and the Vatican's enthusiasm for entering its third millennium with a
cleansed conscience. As the theologian Professor Adrian Hastings comments, "The
great tide powered by Vatican II has, at least institutionally, spent its force.
The old landscape has once more emerged and Vatican II is now being read in Rome
far more in the spirit of the First Vatican Council and within the context of
Pius XII's model of Catholicism.'' A future titanic struggle between the
progressives and the traditionalists is in prospect, with the potential for a
cataclysmic schism, especially in North America, where a split has opened up
between bishops compliant with Rome and academic Catholicism, which is
increasingly independent and dissident. Pacelli, whose canonization process is
now well advanced, has become the icon, 40 years after his death, of those
traditionalists who read and revise the provisions of the Second Vatican Council
from the viewpoint of Pacelli's ideology of papal power--an ideology that has
proved disastrous in the century's
history.[2382]
26.6.14 Romania
Anti-Semitism is alive and kicking in Romania
By Cellu
Rozenberg
Tags: Israel News, Romania
Anyone in need of additional
reminders of how much Romanians love the Jews could have found it in the recent
destruction and desecration of some 200 graves in the great cemetery in
Bucharest. Even though there are almost no Jews in Romania (their number is
estimated at a mere few thousand, excluding Israelis who have gone there on
business), anti-Semitism is nevertheless alive and kicking.
The graves
that were destroyed and desecrated - a reminder of the large Jewish community,
numbering some 800,000 people, half of which was destroyed in the Holocaust not
by the Germans, but by Hitler's loyal allies, the Romanians - give no rest to
some Romanians. This is not the first time such things have happened in Romania,
but everyone keeps quiet, as if this were merely a bit of mischief.
The
roots of Romanian anti-Semitism are planted deep in the country's soil, which is
soaked with Jewish blood. In almost every city and town where Jews lived, they
were routinely subject to murder and looting - carried out by ordinary citizens,
but backed by the regime - both before World War II and after it. It is no
wonder that historian Hannah Arendt described Romania as the most anti-Semitic
country of all.
On the morning of June 29, 1941, 12,000 Romanian Jews,
who were almost blindly loyal to the state, were led through the streets of the
city of Iasi, humiliated and hungry, to the local police station, which became
their slaughterhouse. It was the government that ordered the terrible massacre,
in which my family, too, was murdered when the security forces began shooting in
all directions. That, we will never forget.
By the end of World War II,
most of the rest of Romania's Jews had also been systematically deported and
eliminated. Thus following that war, many of the surviving Jews preferred to
abandon communist Romania and move to Israel, albeit shorn of all their
possessions. The communist regime did a thriving trade in Jews, demanding
thousands of dollars for each one. They thereby stole additional money and
property from the Jews. Under the communist regime, the Holocaust was never
taught in Romanian schools. Only in 2004, due to external pressure, was the
subject added to the curriculum.
But if anyone thought that a change had
finally occurred over the last few years, if anyone hoped that anti-Semitism had
been relegated to the boors who desecrate graves rather than pervading the
government, then President Traian Basescu's remarks at a press conference at the
Bucharest Airport upon his return from Syria a week ago reminded us that there
is another Romania besides that of pastrami and wine - the Romania of
anti-Semitism. Syria, Basescu said, is bordered by the following countries:
Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine.
It is well known that Romania's president
is not particularly well-educated, but as a former sea captain one would have
expected him to at least know a little geography and history. Has it escaped him
that there is as yet no country called Palestine, but that another country,
admittedly small, nevertheless exists on Syria's border - one called Israel? It
is a pity that the Foreign Ministry did not see fit to respond sharply to these
remarks. It is still not too late.
Cellu Rozenberg is a historian who
specializes in national security.
26.6.15 Emanation
There is a tradition each of us contains a spark of moshiach and that he is
also Adam Kadmon the primordial
man.
[2383]Text
26-40: Adam Kadmon by Micha F. Lindemans
Hebrew: "The primordial man". The first man of the Jewish Kabbalah, who
first appeared in 13th century texts. He was the perfect prototype man created
by God. The Kabbalists took up the concept using it to describe the divine
symbolism of the human body. Later Adam Kadmon came to be identified with the
messiah and was contrasted with the devil Adam Beliya'al'. He is symbolized by
the Sephiroth or ten circles of creation. There are some similarities with the
Persian Adam Kasia.
Deut 13:14: Certain men, wicked (lieing – beliya’al –
children of liars –
בני-בליעל
) persons, have gone out from among you, and have drawn away the inhabitants of
their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which you have not
known;
There is also the tradition that the messiah is of Zer Anpin that is one of
the Partzufim, meaning small face and like a son to the partzuf associated with
father. These are the restructured sefirot sharing with each other like a
family. The original sefirot shattered because the shefa did not flow, but was
held fast until the sefirot exploded. To identify Zer Anpin with the messiah
would be to identify an image of G-d with an image of man, not quite correct.
Furthermore, in this case Zer Anpin who must be united with Nukvah, by analogy
would require that the messiah be married.
Malkhut is one of the ten Sefirot, but if Malkhut wants to have a
relationship with Yesod, she takes on the garment of Nukvah and she speaks to
Ze'ir Anpin, because Yesod is just one aspect of the son, who is her betrothed.
... the lowest world has many levels, and this is because Asiyah itself divides
into five Partzufim, and their names are Arik Anpin, Abba, Imma, Ze'ir Anpin and
Nukva de'Zer Anpin, in other words the Nukvah of the one that is betrothed to
Ze'ir
Anpin.[2384]For G-d
to call to a man, “my son” means that he is in the image of Zer
Anpin. This is also like Yesod, the righteous one who is part of the six. And
the six are the vav in the Aleph that is Moshe Rabenu with Moshiach ben David as
the upper yod and Moshiach ben Yosef as the lower Yod. Together, they are Adam
Kadmon, primordial man. Perhaps this idea is more of Persian origin. The
original messianic idea is the expectation of a mortal righteous king to turn
the people back to G-d and who will fight G-d’s battles, and help bring
the Jewish people back to Israel.
26.6.16 Sublimation
There is a joy in those who teach Torah from their belief in a saving
messiah (moshiah moshiach). It is hard to explain the source of this joy, but
it appears to be in the sublimation of their own will to the will of messiah and
through the messiah’s will to the will of G-d. The prophets sublimated
their ego directly to G-d, yet for some reason this is difficult.
Alternatively, there seems to be a way of letting the messiah in, possessing you
and making his will, your will. This is similar to recognizing an aspect of the
messiah exists in each of us and collectively we constitute Adam
Kadmon.
There is one danger to the sublimation of ones will to the
messiah, and that is if the record of his teachings
are not his own. Hence,
Samuel told the people correctly that G-d is their King and they need no other.
So in their sublimation to the will of messiah, people have sought Ruach
Hakodesh, the Holy Spirit to guide them. There is also an aspect of Capara,
letting another suffer for them to pay for their sins in this subjugation.
Psychologically, there is no competition from a dieing messiah, no threat, no
challenge. In this martyrdom, Paul and John turned a man into a god so that the
people should not appear to be subjecting their will to a mortal king in a form
of idolatry. Hence, G-d said to Samuel, “they have betrayed me not
you.”
In 49 AD, Paul, at the Council of Jerusalem declared that the
gentiles need not keep the Jewish laws to be saved by the
messiah.
[2385] He knew that the
gentiles were not obligated to the law in any case, but offered them a new
religion that would not burden them and yet would unite them with goals. To be
all things to all people he declared in Corinthians
9:22.
[2386] Thus, he structured
a world religion.
The word savior is misunderstood. It is from the
Greek word Soteros, the title of the pagan king on a Greek coin, proclaiming the
king, the savior.
[2387] The
Jewish idea is that G-d is our Savior; though we may stray He will always
welcome us back with open arms.
26.6.17 Incarnation
26.6.17.1 Origins
of a deified son of god
Isaac Asimov in his New Testament study comments on the Virgin Birth:
[2388]Text
26-41: Virgin Birth
But then, why the tale of the virgin birth, told with such urgency, that
a marginal Old Testament verse (Isaiah 7:14 for Matthew 1:23) has to be searched
for and found by Matthew to account for it?
...
But the Jews were, in those days, surrounded by a vast world of Gentiles
who had traditions of their own. It was quite customary and usual in Gentile
legend (almost necessary, in fact) that any great hero, any wonder worker be the
son of a god. A virgin could be impregnated by a god in magical
fashion—this would not be impossible in the Greek tradition.
And as it happened, there were Jews not only in Judea, where Jewish
thought was provincial and conservative, but in Alexandria and other places
where the Greek influence was strong. Greek versions of the Bible used the
Greek word for “virgin” in the Isaiah quotation, and it is quite
possible that Matthew followed the Greek version rather than the Hebrew version
in supporting the virgin birth, and that he did not deliberately
misquote.
In Jesus’ time, the possibility of virgin birth may have taken on
added force. The Roman historian Livy, who died just a few years before the
start of Jesus’ ministry, had written a history of Rome that proved
enormously popular. In it he retells the tale of Rome’s founding by the
twin brothers Romulus and Remus. The interesting part of that legend is that
Romulus and Remus are described by him as being of virgin birth. Their mother,
Silvia, was a Vestal Virgin whose children were fathered by Mars.
Greek-speaking Jews would surely place no credence in that, and yet
there might have been the impulse to feel that if a virgin birth could be used
to exalt the founders of the pagan city of Rome, how much more could one rightly
be used to exalt the founding of the kingdom of God.
In Sefer Zerubabel, Romulus is identified with Armilos, the son of
Satan and the stone statue
mother.
[2389] It is not too
surprising that the idea of the virgin birth influenced by Roman Vestal ideas
was written into the Book of Matthew.
26.6.17.2 Principle power of belief in
incarnation
The power of this idea lies in an unwavering belief in One G-d. No persona
can be ascribed to the incarnation.
C. S. Lewis made the following
statement.
[2390]If Christ didn’t exist what would I do. I wouldn’t want to
live in that case. Thus I would choose to believe in Christ even if I knew he
didn’t exist.
I was quite perplexed by these comments by C.S.
Lewis leading to the following meditation within the context of the
writer:
Meditation
26-4: Living with the Love of G-d
Why wouldn’t C.S. Lewis want to live without Christ? After all he
would still have G-d. This is precisely the point, for he wouldn’t have
God since they are the
same.[2391] So why not just
believe in G-d. Here we have the point that God loved His people so much that
when he saw their hopelessness and fall into sin, instead of pulling up the
ladders and hiding His face, He came down to be amongst them—to cry with
them, to laugh with them, to hope with them, to dance with them, so that they
would feel close to Him again. But why does this require a human form? In
Hasidic thought, the tzaddik lowers himself in order to raise others, depriving
himself from spiritual closeness with G-d, instead becoming a mirror for the
fallen to forgive themselves as they fall in love with him. In today’s
Christianity[2392]
the heavenly Tzaddik comes to dwell amongst us in JC, though our sins be
scarlet, He will make them white as snow. With the love of God in human form
there is elevation, with a Human’s suffering, there is a mirror of
forgiveness.[2393] Forgiveness
of sins always requires repentance. The meditation suggests that being with an
incarnation leads to repentance.
Moshe
Rabbenu’s
[2394] face
shined when he emerged from his tent with the full light of the Shechinah upon
him. In this light Moshe exhibited the will of G-d. The Christian extension is
to postulate a nullified person from birth filled solely with the will of G-d.
This Midrash explains how G-d contracts himself into a limited
space:
[2395]
Text
26-43: Midrash on Contraction
The Holy One blessed be He contracted His Shekhinah into the Tabernacle
or between the poles of the ark.
“For the rabbis, tzimtzum means a concentration of divine being
within a small space. In Lurianic teaching it implies the opposite: a
withdrawal from a small space and creation of an empty place the size of a
point, from which the Divine is, as it were, absent—from which he has
contracted his
essence.”
[2396]The
theology of incarnation has some basis here, a person might make himself a void
for the presence of God to enter, perhaps even the contraction of God in the
space of a person for some higher
purpose.
[2397] There is a basis
for Christian incarnation theology from a mystical interpretation of Judaism,
although earlier Christianity, which did not interpret messiah as a divine
being, is closer to mainstream Judaism.
26.6.18 Human Sacrifice
Suicide is wrong except to avoid adultery, killing another, and idolatry.
Intentional human sacrifice is thus wrong. Nevertheless, one can find meaning
in the death of another for tshuvah and sanctification.
Text
26-44: Rashi on Leviticus 10:2 about Nadav and
Avihu
Moses endeavored to comfort his brother in still another way, saying:
"Thy sons died to glorify the name of the Lord, blessed be His name, for on
Sinai God said to me: 'And there will I meet with the children of Israel, the
Tabernacle shall be sanctified by those that glorify Me.' I knew that this
sanctuary of God was to be sanctified by the death of those that stood near it,
but I thought either thou or I was destined for this, but now I perceive that
thy sons were nearer to God than we." These last words sufficed to induce Aaron
to control his grief over the loss of his sons, and like the true wise man he
silently bore the heavy blow of fate without murmur or lament. God rewarded him
for his silence by addressing him directly, and imparting an important priestly
law to him.[2398]
Moses or Aaron would have sanctified the tabernacle in life if Nadav
and Avihu had not died. Suicide is not a permitted Jewish practice. Nadav and
Avihu did not commit suicide. On the other hand, Sanhedrin teaches that a voice
went out of Jerusalem saying that the Nazarene would die if he would come to
this city. Perhaps, Jesus thought he wouldn’t be killed? Tractate
Sanhedrin has a reference to someone that sounds like Jesus but he only has five
disciples. There was a herald that went forth for 40 days that warned him that
he would be killed if he entered the city of Jerusalem, suggesting that he might
have been guilty of suicide even if for parousia.
Text
26-45: Sanhedrin 43a
MISHNAH. IF THEN THEY FIND HIM INNOCENT, THEY DISCHARGE HIM; BUT IF
NOT, HE GOES FORTH TO BE STONED, AND A HERALD PRECEDES HIM [CRYING]: SO AND SO,
THE SON OF SO AND SO, IS GOING FORTH TO BE STONED BECAUSE HE COMMITTED SUCH AND
SUCH AN OFFENCE, AND SO AND SO ARE HIS WITNESSES. WHOEVER KNOWS ANYTHING IN HIS
FAVOUR, LET HIM COME AND STATE IT.
GEMARA. Abaye said; It must also be announced: On such and such a day,
at such and such and hour, and in such and such a place [the crime was
committed], in case there are some who know [to the contrary], so that they can
come forward and prove the witnesses Zomemim.
AND A HERALD PRECEDES HIM etc. This implies, only immediately before
[the execution], but not previous thereto. [In contradiction to this] it was
taught: On the eve of the Passover Yeshu was hanged. For forty days before the
execution took place, a herald went forth and cried, ‘He is going forth to
be stoned because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy. Any
one who can say anything in his favor, let him come forward and plead on his
behalf.’ But since nothing was brought forward in his favor he was hanged
on the eve of the Passover! — ‘Ulla retorted: Do you suppose that he
was one for whom a defense could be made? Was he not a Mesith [enticer],
concerning whom Scripture says, Neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou
conceal him? With Yeshu however it was different, for he was connected with the
government [or royalty, i.e., influential]. Our Rabbis taught: Yeshu had five
disciples, Matthai, Nakai, Nezer, Buni and Todah.
The Last Supper must have been held the day before or several days
before Passover. This would have to be the case; otherwise temple guards would
have been celebrating Passover instead of being able to arrest Jesus.
Jesus’ words during this meal suggest he was preparing to die. By Jesus
intentionally putting himself into harm’s way without being forced to
murder, commit open idolatry, or sexual crime raises the question of
purpose?
[2399] Human sacrifice
is a prohibition. Divinely imposed suffering in the case of Job may have some
bearing on atonement.
[2400]
Does G-d grant meaning to self-flagellation or self-torture? There is some
basis in the story of the Ten Martyrs for those who go to their death to
sanctify G-d’s
Name.
[2401]
26.6.19 Suicide
While completely forbidden in Judaism, a Nazarene paradigm can find meaning
here. The Nazarene may view the suicide as atoning for his family and others.
His death is not meaningless! He died so that others may be forgiven.
The vehicle of atonement is love and giving a meaning to this type of
end, to turn it into a beginning. Perhaps, the atonement is granted by G-d so
that the survivors may find meaning in their suffering! The sufferers ought not
to feel guilty that they might have prevented this death, but instead should
find good news in forgiveness in their own life.
26.6.20 Capara
A Capara means a ransom paid to free a prisoner, or it could be money given
as tzedakah, or a goat given as an offering. The word Caphoret means ark cover.
There is also the idea that a Capara may cover ones sins so that they are
diminished in the eyes of Hashem. In all cases though the Capara applies to the
giver and not the receiver of the benefit. The atonement is for the giver.
That is not to say that people are not connected and that our prayers for
another are in vain, has vshalom. G-d listens to these prayers, but the sins of
the father are not upon the child and vice-versa. This is not to say that
leadership may be responsible for the misfortunate state of followers and that
good leadership can help people act better. Nevertheless, each person is
responsible for his or her own sin and atonement.
Hence deity
sacrifice and drinking the blood and eating the flesh of a god are not a Capara
for the sinner. A Capara may be G-d forbid, a car accident, where ones car took
damage so that ones own body was spared. On Yom Kipper, the fast is essential
for the diminishing of our own fat, is a Capara for us. Isaiah 53 does not
mention the word Caper because there is no atonement here, but ones sins are
lifted through guilt and tshuvah for seeing another suffer due to the
consequence of our sins.
Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzatto made the following
statement:
Text
26-46: Luzatto on the Tzaddik
... suffering and pain may be imposed on a tzaddik (righteous person) as
an atonement for his entire
generation.[2402] This tzaddik
must then accept this suffering with love for the benefit of his generation,
just as he accepts the suffering imposed upon him for his own sake. In doing so,
he benefits his generation by atoning for it, and at the same time is himself
elevated to a very great degree.
Such suffering also includes cases where a tzaddik suffers because his
entire generation deserves great punishments, bordering on annihilation, but is
spared via the tzaddik's suffering. In atoning for his generation through his
suffering, this tzaddik saves these people in this world and also greatly
benefits them in the World-to-Come.
In addition, there is a special higher type of suffering that comes to a
tzaddik who is even greater and more highly perfected than the ones discussed
above. This suffering comes to provide the help necessary to bring about the
chain of events leading to the ultimate perfection of mankind as a whole.
... Beyond that, the merit and power of these tzaddikim is also
increased because of such suffering, and this gives them even greater ability to
rectify the damage of others. They can therefore not only rectify their own
generation, but can also correct all the spiritual damage done from the
beginning, from the time of the very first
sinners.[2403]Luzatto
uses the word Caper. Nevertheless, the atonement only applies to the suffering
tzaddik and not to others, though there is an element of tshuvah that others may
feel when seeing a tzaddik suffer. Moreover, self-sacrifice can never forgive
the sins of others. Capera, atonement always applies only to a giver of
tzedakah or a sufferer, has vshalom. One can also give charity for the benefit
of another but the Capera benefit is not incurred by another only the potential
benefit from the giver’s prayers.
That one who suffers may
cleanse his or her own soul to the point where his or her prayers are more
efficacious is possible, but it is not his or her suffering specifically that
helps others. Hazal, the sages teach that a ‘tzaddik decrees and G-d
fulfills’. This emphasizes the influence that righteous ones have in the
eyes of Hashem. There are stories of people slain from a casual remark of a
sage. Moshe struck down an Egyptian taskmaster with a word. The prophet Daniel
declared prophecy and Hashem fulfilled. Some of the prophecy may have been
based on Daniel’s background in Babylonia, but G-d still fulfils the words
of the righteous. Moshe beseeched G-d on Mt. Sinai to spare the people. His
prayers influenced G-d to spare the people. Any suffering incurred by Moshe for
the sins of the people is his own atonement but not a means to saving the people
from punishment.
Nevertheless, there is also the principle that when a
tzaddik leaves a locale, the spiritual level of the place descends. Hence,
there is a secondary influence to the presence of righteous people in a
community. Since, we are all part of the primordial man, all of our actions
influence the well being of each other to some extent. Rabbi Nachman chose to
be buried in a cemetery of pogrom victims to make a tikkun for their souls.
This also is not atonement, but the tzaddik exercising his good will to improve
the fate of others.
Luzatto says, “
a tzaddik suffers because his
entire generation deserves great punishments, bordering on annihilation, but is
spared via the tzaddik's suffering. In atoning for his generation through his
suffering, this tzaddik saves these people in this world...” The
implication that specifically, the suffering of a tzaddik atones for his
generation is wrong. This would imply that torturing an innocent animal, has
vshalom could save onlookers. Instead, the suffering of a tzaddik may make his
prayers more efficacious. Luzatto uses the word imposed, this means that
suffering may be used as a Capara, but also monetary tzedakah can be a voluntary
form of Capara.
“My God, my God, why has though forsaken
me.” To save a life is to be a Jew. Jesus wasn’t tempted by a
satan, an adversary with these words, but all who heard should have wanted to
save him. His Capara was for his own life. Atonement is always for ones own
life, though a suffering servant turns others back to God.
Each and every
Capara is always a payment by the benefactor. In Numbers 16, Moshe instructed
Aaron to take his censor, place incense upon it, and take it out into the
congregation and make atonement to stop the plague. The key to the Capara is
the Ketoret – the incense. For the incense was made from the offerings of
the people and though they had strayed in their rebellion against Moshe an G-d,
they had also donated the ingredients of the Ketorets.
Though we be filled
with sin, remember our offerings, our tithes, our tzedakah, that it may be a
covering for our sin. And the pleasing smoke of the Ketores was a cover, a
Kippur over the sins of the people and G-d forgave them.
26.6.21 Love and Giving
Yet what is the spirit of this religion, the
spirit of love, the spirit of community warmth, from where does it
come?
[2404] The spirit needs
friends to share with, to learn Torah with, and to grow in spirit with. All of
the commandments are equally important in Judaism. However, Christianity raises
belief in Jesus to be 1
st. The avoidance of hatred is also equated
with the 1
st. The principle of love ranks there as well—this
is the idea of the love of Christ.
26.6.22 “What would Jesus
do?”
We can learn by the examples of the righteous, but we cannot be certain of
all of their deeds. For example, to mimic John 8:44 would lead to
scorn.
[2405] Words filled with
anger lead to idolatry.
[2406]
Hence, we live by the commandments and our love for each
other.
“Our masters taught: When R. Eliezer, suspected of
[Judeo-Christian]
heresy,”
[2407]
26.6.23 “Who do you say I
am”
Greatly misunderstood from Matthew 16:
13 When Jesus came to the
region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son
of Man is?"
14 They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah;
and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
15 "But what about you?"
he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
16 Simon Peter answered, "You are the
Christ, the Son of the living God."
Jesus is probing to see if the people
are ready to follow him as haMoshiach. The Greek christ means
anointed. The messianic idea is as much a story about followers as it is a
story about a leader. Nevertheless, Matthew 16:16 ends with the cryptic
“Son of the living God.”
On Shemini Etzeret – 5768
– October 4th, 2007:
Meditation
26-5: To Understand Him and him
What are the heavens my son? They are none other than the light passing
through the leaves. The light shines setting shadows upon the walls of a
tarp.
[2408] As the images of
leaves and branches dance, such is the dancing of the Source of Light.
What is my spirit my son? As the wind caries the shefa of spirit to the
world, so is the spirit of God carried unto man.
Who am I? You are my Lord, the One True God?
Jesus enters: “Who do you say I am?” Who are you?
“I am the Son of Man.” For wonder, what did you mean when you said,
‘they make their phylacteries large upon their heads’? “I did
not understand. When I was a young man, how could I know the things you know
from your years. There is no pride in the service of G-d, but only man’s
love of God.” Who do you say you are? “I am little lower than the
angels. There is no god beside Him. There is only One G-d that is He.”
And whose voice do I hear. “Sometimes you hear Him through the angels,
sometimes you hear Him through a son of man, but the voice of the servant
transmits the word of God.”
Jesus continues: “Who do you say I am? I walked the world a
humble man trying to renew the faith of man, to awaken a love each day. But I
fell pray to anger, my spite rose inside, and I battled with him night and
day.
[2409] He thought
he’d take me away from Him, but through it all, I still longed for Him.
Though others slandered me and talked me down; they could not take me from Him.
So I spoke in parable and they could not understand to criticize His
revelation.”
What did you mean when you criticized divorce as the law of Moshe?
“I was too young to know the Wisdom of God in the merciful Laws of
Divorce. That we should find the Lord with our True Other Half of our Soul is
the basis of this law. Moshe only taught the word of God and I did not
understand that in my hope for spiritual reconciliation that sometimes two are
not one.”
What did you mean when you told others, ‘to leave their fathers and
mothers and follow me?’ “That we Honor our Father and Mother only
within the Honor of God is what I thought, but now I know that we Honor our
Father and Mother as we Honor God, without expectation of reward. We ought not
judge our parents, but to honor and this is the great commandment.”
And your mother who you told to wait while you lectured in the temple
courts? “That I should have not caused pain to my mother then and later.
That it would have been greater to have lived and loved her than to have gone
down to my death in false vanity that I thought would not happen. In the end
though I changed the world through later teachers who changed who I said I was.
They turned me from a Son of Man into a literal Son of God, although I did not
ask for such a heresy to be brought into the world. Nevertheless, my teachings
grew in stature and also grew in distortion.”
And what of Paul, did he represent you? “Paul who I did not know did
not know me. When he saw me, he did not perceive, as a prophet must. Heresy,
idolatry, those who would worship me only fall from the Holy One. So later a
Nicene Creed would unify me with the Divine to escape heresy, but would they?
To his Everlasting Glory, the King of the Universe cares less for theology than
the deeds of man, so he looks away from heresy and judges alone by man’s
love for his fellow and his deeds of love for all creation.”
“Paul condemned marriage excepting the weak. In Truth two are
greater than one and a cord of three is a partnership with G-d that
withstands.”
“Adonai Hu Ha-Elohim – G-d He is the L-rd and there is no
other. There was no god before him, nor will there be after. I strove only to
be a Son of Man and that too is to be great! Seek not after praises from
others, do not look for others to laud over you. Seek only the One True G-d, He
is your Lord, the Peace of your Days, the Spirit of your hearts.”
26.6.24 Holidays
Traditionally observing Christmas involved killing a tree for decoration.
This is in direct prohibition with the Torah, where one is prohibited from
killing trees indiscriminately and in some cases a decision of a Jewish court is
required. In times of war one was not supposed to cut down trees in the land of
Israel. Giving flowers does not destroy the flower bush. L’havdil when a
Succah is decorated pruned branches of a tree are used for the S’hak that
goes on top. One does not kill a tree to build the Succah. Nevertheless for a
permanent structure, the tree could be used and there is an elevation of
G-d’s creation in the construction of a house of G-d.
Possibly the
tree could represent Jesus as l’havdil the Tree of Life represents the
Tzaddik.
L’havdil, Easter involves decorating an egg, which is not
consumed. This diminishes nourishment, which the egg would normally provide.
Some kids will practice ‘egging a house’ which is disrespectful to
the egg. L’havdil in Judaism and egg is eaten after a blessing which is
an elevation of its purpose.
26.6.25 Resurrection
The first Christians were all Jews and they
sought to manifest the hope of the words of Hosea 6 fully in their
lives.
[2410] When they
celebrated the original Easter it was the resurrection of their own healing that
they experienced. From Hosea we learn of the association of the dew of the
earth with hope and renewal. This is also the meaning of the egg on
Passover.
While the principle of resurrection to the Israelites is
hope
[2411] and applied to all
people, that of Christianity is the dying god that is reborn as proof of his
divinity. The source of this change is explained
below.
[2412] Text
26-47: Pre-Christian Resurrected Gods
An inscription in the Vatican states plainly, “He who will not eat
of my body, nor drink of my blood, so that he may be one with me and I with him,
shall not be saved.” This is not terribly surprising; unless you consider
that this is inscribed on the remains of the temple the Vatican was built
on—one dedicated to the God Mithras. Mithras was a solar deity whose
worshippers called him redeemer; his religion died out not long after the advent
of Christianity.
Such eerie parallels between the pronouncements of Jesus and Mithras are
not the only similarities between the two religions. Mithras was known to his
followers as “The light of the world,” or “The Good
Shepherd,” and exhorted his followers to share ritual communion meals of
bread and wine. His priests were called “Father.”
Mithras was also born in a cave, with shepherds in attendance, on the
twenty-fifth of December. (Alternatively, he is assisted in his birth from a
stone by shepherds.)
Are these just coincidences? Absolutely not. Fourth century Bishop John
Chrysostom writes: “On this day also the Birthday of Christ was lately
fixed at Rome in order that while the heathen were busy with their profane
ceremonies, the Christians might perform their sacred rites undisturbed. They
call this the Birthday of the Invincible
One;[2413] but who is so
invincible as the Lord? They call it the Birthday of the Solar Disk, but Christ
is the Sun of Righteousness.”
Consider this—several other Gods share the December birthday, and
like Mithras, they are also solar deities, who are born in the winter solstices,
often of virgin mothers, die, and are reborn. One of these, a pre-Christian
deity called Attis, was called “The lamb of God,” and his
crucifixion and subsequent resurrection were celebrated annually, with ritual
communions of bread and wine. His virgin mother, Cybele, was worshipped as
“The Queen of heaven.” It gets more interesting the further back we
look—Attis and Cybele's predecessors are the Babylonian Goddess Ishtar,
and her consort Tammuz. It is from their legend that we get the name for the
annual celebration of the resurrection of Christ—Easter, a name of the
Goddess Ishtar.
This is not the only coincidence related to this ancient
couple—the earliest use of the cross as a religious symbol is related to
Tammuz. In fact, crosses are related to a variety of solar deities. Of course,
the cross was not popular with early Christians, except in the form of an X, the
Greek initial of “Christos.” (Even this was borrowed symbolism- the
initials belonging to the Greek Chronos.)
Hundreds of years before Jesus, there was a passion story told about
a God man, born of a virgin mother, in a stable. He travels about with his
followers, preaching and performing miracles, including turning water into wine.
Eventually, he incurs the wrath of the religious authorities, who are appalled
that he refers to himself as the son of god. He allows himself to be arrested
and tried for blasphemy—a willing self-sacrifice. He is
found guilty and executed, only to rise from the grave three days later, where
the women weeping at his tomb do not recognize him until he assumes his divine
form. This god, also one of the first depicted crucified, is the vine-God
Dionysus.
Common to all of these ‘mystery’ religions (so called
because one was required to be initiated or baptized into the faith to learn its
doctrines), including early Christianity, are themes of rebirth, redemption, and
the transmission of life-changing information, spiritual salvation. So many
religions in those times shared similar themes with that usually the deities
became melded together. Early depictions of Jesus show him holding the Lyre of
Orpheus, or driving Apollo's chariot. A talisman bearing the crucified likeness
of Dionysus is inscribed Orpheus-Bacchus. The follower of Jesus, named Lazarus
(‘resurrected,’ a derivative of the name of Osiris, the resurrected
God of Egypt).
It is impossible to tell just by looking at old artwork, which haloed
infant gods are cuddled in the arms of which mothers. The Emperor Constantine,
who legitimized Christianity in Rome, was a worshipper of Sol Invictus—an
amalgamation of solar deities Mithras, Helios, and Apollo-and he recognized
Jesus' place in that company almost immediately. Even today, ancient solar
symbols abound in Christian iconography. Not that Constantine was the only one
to muddle these gods together; in fact, Christianity's oldest known mosaic
depicts Jesus as a triumphant Helios, complete with chariot.
Of course, later Christians were terribly perturbed by these
similarities to Pagan religions. These coincidences so disturbed one early
Christian church father, Justin Martyr, that he accused the devil of sending an
imitator of Christ in advance. Had he paid a little more attention to the past,
he might have noted that the association of Jesus with Dionysus is not so
strange—philosophers had been making connections between Jehovah and
Dionysus for centuries.
Did early Christians, like their modern descendents, believe that theirs
was the one and only true manifestation of religion? Consider the words of
Clement, of Alexandria, “There is one river of Truth, which receives
tributaries from every side.” If only the later followers of the religion
listened more closely, these mysteries may not have been lost.
26.6.26 Sabbath
By reasoning from a lesser decree to a stricter decree we learn that if we
are not to pick a fruit on a festival than all the more so we should do so on
Sabbath. That the Day of Rest applies to animals as well as trees and all
creation teaches this as well, applying that we do not destroy on the Sabbath
even the connection of an apple to her tree. Of course, in the case to save a
life these rules are suspended.
If one had not prepared for the Sabbath,
and decided to break these rules; nevertheless, to claim that the Sabbath was
made for man and not man for the Sabbath to justify picking fruit off the trees
disregards that the Sabbath provides peace and rest even for trees.
26.7 Egyptian
Religion
Set is conceived as the sun that kills with the arrows of heat; he is
the slayer, and iron is called his bones. He is the deity of the desert with
the head of an oryx. “The Hittites, who identified their own god Sutech
with the Egyptian Set. But even among the Hyksos, Set was revered as the awful
God of irresistible power, of brute force, of war, and of
destruction.”
[2414]
26.8 Gnosticism
Gnosticism held a dualist view of the universe as a battleground for good
and evil. Man is a out of favor in a cosmos created by an uncaring demiurge,
who is below a superior god, source of the Aeons. Man’s mission is to
return to the heavens from which he had come.
To do this a soul has
to pass through the seven spheres each of which an angel controls. As with
the Jewish concept of the seven heavens, angels allowed those to pass who knew
their proper names and special formulas. This knowledge of names and formulas
is gnosis. Clemant of Alexandrea, a Gnostic, who lived about 150 AD, taught
that the angels controlled movement of the stars and the four elements.
Identification of angels with stars explains their enormous number, beauty, and
radiance. The emphasis of monotheism in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam should
have precluded pantheistic ideas in Gnosticism, but the reference to the
“bnai elohim” or sons of gods in Genesis and Psalms 29:1 and 89:7
encouraged the popular belief that there are other divine or semi-divine beings.
In the Book of Tobit, Raphael guides the young hero Tobias on a dangerous
journey, and reveals the major formulas that protect him from the demon Asmodeus
and restore his father’s sight. Raphael behaves like a guardian
angel.
The aeon is an important principle of
Gnostic
thought:
[2415]Text
26-48: Gnostic Principle of the Aeon
The first aeon was said to emanate directly from the unmanifest divinity
and to be charged with a divine force. Successive emanations of aeons were
charged with successively diminished force. Each Gnostic system explained aeons
in its own way, but all concurred that aeons increased in number in proportion
to their remoteness from the divinity and that lower aeons shared
proportionately less in divine energy. At a certain level of remoteness, the
possibility of error was said to invade the activity of aeons; in most systems,
such error was responsible for the creation of the material universe. For many,
Christ was the most perfect aeon, whose specific function was to redeem the
error embodied in the material universe; the Holy Spirit was usually a
subordinate aeon.
In certain systems, aeons were regarded positively as embodiments of the
divine; in others, they were viewed negatively as vast media of time, space, and
experience through which the human soul must painfully pass to reach its divine
origin. The Coptic Gnostics of Egypt believed in Jesus as the
reincarnation of Melchizedek. The Gnostic Gospels held a similar view.
A
lion motif is featured in Isaiah 31:4 that is a poetic metaphor for G-d by the
name Tzavaot.
[2416]
“For thus has the Lord spoken to me, Like the lion and the young
lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against
him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of
them; so shall the Lord of hosts –
צבאות
come down to fight for Mount Zion, and for its
hill.”
‘Hosts’ is from Sabaoth or
Ialdabaoth,
[2417] possibly
connected with lions during the Jewish Temple period in Leontopolis.
Interestingly the city is referred to in the Septuagint version of Isaiah 19:18
as the city of Asedic –
sun of
righteousness.
[2418]
Ialdabaot was a gnostic symbol of a demiurge, containing the image of the Sun,
the Nahash – or shining serpent that Moshe raised to heal the people.
Here the lion image with serpent body is unfriendly, conveying a gnostic
fear.
[2419] Perhaps this
relates to the Shedu -
שד.
[2420]
L’havdil, the name of G-d, Shadai -
שדי is spelled
similarly with the yod at the end meaning ‘my’ or possibly the
presence of G-d. Overall, while Gnosticism may have grown out of
Judaism’s
tzedek tradition, it has diverged with its conception of
an evil deity.
26.9 Islam
Islam believes in seven heavens where G-d sits on his throne in the
7
th heaven surrounded by angels who serve him as ministers and
attendants, serve an earthly king. Muhammad founded Islam in an attempt to
reign in sadistic violent tendencies that he saw in the peoples of
Arabia.
[2421]An
11
th grade textbook in Saudi Arabia says, “that as Judgment Day
comes, Jews will conceal themselves behind trees. The trees, in turn, will say,
“Oh, Muslim, Oh, servant of God, here is a Jew hiding behind me. Come
here and kill him.”
[2422]
Muhammad developed Islam in 610 AD.
26.9.1 Al-Aksa Mosque
The farthest mosque based on later tradition that Mohammed ascended from
the Temple Mount although the earlier intended mosque was near Medina. The
Al-Aksa is fabulous inside. While there, I had the following
experience.
Meditation
26-6: Al-Aksa
“While this is the mountain of Abraham, we claim his inheritance
through Ishmael. And also we believe in Moses. We also claim the teachings of
King David and the city of David. We also claim the Temple that Solomon built.
Our belief in the One G-d is purer than yours ... But now I see a high priest
coming forth and he is Shimeon haTzaddik and he claims the rock where the dome
sits in the name of the Priesthood. How can I stand against the rights of the
priesthood?”
When the purity of the priesthood is
reestablished so will the Temple in Jerusalem be restored.
26.10 Judaism
26.10.1 Equanimity
Equal respect for all of the commandments of Torah characterizes this
religion. Hallmarks of Orthodox Judaism are keeping kosher, Shabbat, and
taharas hamishpacha (family purity). Nevertheless, the principles of not
slandering, avoidance of anger, loving thy neighbor as thyself are only of equal
importance. The later commandments are diluted in the education of a Jew who
struggles to free himself from the yetzer harah (evil inclination).
Nevertheless, Judaism is perhaps the most successful religion for creating a
people who respect and preserve the commandments of G-d, which results in a
goodly nation.
There have been trends in Judaism. For example, the
Mussar movement emphasized character improvement as opposed to ritual
observance. The Haskalah movement emphasized intellectual enlightenment. The
Hasidic movement emphasized being filled with joy and good will. Jewish Renewal
emphasized a reinvigoration of spirituality from the kabbalah. The Reform
movement is bent on absorbing the primary principles of love and
kindness.
[2423]
26.10.2 Early
messianic ideas
The following article hints at the messianic belief in early
Judaism.
[2424] In principle
God’s personalities may be seen as angelic messengers, but were never
worshipped. The key is to realize the magic of creation and to “follow
your shining star.”
Figure
26-3: The Proper Teacher
Text
26-50: Psalm 85:11-14
Kindness and Truth will meet, Tzedek and Peace will
kiss.[2425]
Truth[2426]
will grow from the earth, and
Tzedek[2427]
from the heaven gazes
through.[2428]
Also the Lord will give goodness and our land will give
its
produce.[2429]
Tzedek will go before Him, placing his steps on the
way.[2430]
Tzedek is the Shining
Star
[2431]
that one should follow in
life.
[2432]
“I see him, but not now; I behold
him, but not near.
A guiding star from Jacob; a rising scepter from
Israel”
[2433]—Numbers 24:17
“Tzedek ☼ Tzedek, you shall pursue that you
will
[2434] Inherit this land which the Lord your God gives to
you”
—Deuteronomy 16:20
In references to Deut 16:20, the first tzedek refers to the Female
reproductive organ – Nukva – Malchut and the second tzedek to the
Male – Zer Anpin –
Yesod.
[2435] Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan
Z”l paraphrased suggests, ‘While the first can be completely
righteous, the second causes fear even to the righteous.
This is the confluence of Zer Anpin and Nukvah, the former
who lies across the sky with his head in the East and the later whose head is
also in the East
below.[2436] Their feet
are in the
West.’
[2437]Text
26-51: Aryeh Kaplan commentary on Bahir 75
The word “glow” (Nogah) usually refers to the twilight, which
is the light of day shining into the night. As discussed above, day is Male,
while night is Female. The “glow” of twilight is therefore when the
male intrudes into the Female. It therefore represents the sexual organ of the
Female, and is thus said to be “opposite Him”
It is then explained that the first “righteousness” refers to the
Divine Presence (Shekhinah), which is Malkhut-Kingship, the Female. The
reference is to the sexual organ of the Female.
The other “righteousness” is the male organ, which is the Sefirah of
Yesod-Foundation. It frightens the righteous, “for there is no man
righteous on earth, who does good and does not sin” (Ecclesiastes 7:20).
It is more frightening, since sexual righteousness, while possible for a woman,
is next to impossible for a man.
The author then asks if this “righteousness” is charity. Charity is
the concept of giving something freely, without it being earned. He replies
that it is not. The concept of a free gift is like a “coat of
mail,” worn on the “body.” The “body” is
Tiferet-Beauty, which is the concept of measured giving (see
30).
If God were to bestow His good freely without it being earned, it would not be a
perfect good. For one thing, since it was not earned, it would be the
“bread of shame” (Magid Mesharim, Bereshit). Furthermore,
since the recipient is receiving without giving, he does not at all resemble God
when he receives, and this itself is a concept of shame.
Therefore, in order that this good be perfect, it must be earned. This is the
concept of “righteousness” (tzedek), where a fair reward is given
for a fair job of earning it.
...
(Truth from hochmah and binah, and its reflection peace from chesed and
gevurah are discussed hereafter in Bahir 75)
Judaism has always sought inspiration from the daily cycle of
time. Whether from the spark of the sun to sunrise or from twilight to the
night sky; all are the work of G-d. Yet for security, G-d further depaganizes
Judaism by revealing His unknown name:
ג
וָאֵרָא,
אֶל-
אַבְרָהָם
אֶל-
יִצְחָק
וְאֶל-
יַעֲקֹב
--
בְּאֵל
שַׁדָּי;
וּשְׁמִי
יְהוָה,
לֹא
נוֹדַעְתִּי
לָהֶם.
3 and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, as God Almighty, but
by My name YHWH I made Me not known to them.
Hence, we know G-d in a
greater way today. The witnessing of the Right Hand of G-d, His miracles is a
lesser basis to faith, but perhaps better than naught. But ahhh... for faith,
l’shema, for its own sake, so pure and clean like the winter’s snow
burying under it the last traces of
idolatry.
[2438]
26.10.3 Witch
An outrageous story of Shimon Shatach sentencing 80 witches of Ashkelon to
death raises the question if they were actually killed. The Torah states that
‘one does not suffer a witch to live’, not as an excuse to murder
them, but to the point that they increase the suffering of their own lives.
Instead, by finding a positive way to diminish their superstitious involvements,
one brings them back to life. If they do not appear to be suffering, they are
not practicing the witchcraft the Torah refers to. Shimon Shatach also threw
the Sadducees out of the Sanhedrin (90 BCE) and established yeshiva schools of
learning whereas before children were educated primarily by their parents.
Ironically, he may have simply replaced one caste society with another, but
slightly better suited to derive laws for the masses, perhaps. However, he
embittered the high priests towards the Pharisees.
Text
26-53: Shimon Shetach
Simeon's fairness toward gentiles is illustrated by the following
narrative: Simeon lived in humble circumstances, supporting himself and his
family by conducting a small business in linen goods. Once his pupils presented
him with a donkey which they had purchased from an Arab. On the neck of the
animal they found a costly jewel, whereupon they joyously told their master that
he might now cease toiling since the proceeds from the jewel would make him
wealthy. Simeon, however, replied that the Arab had sold them the ass only, and
not the jewel; and he returned the gem to the Arab, who exclaimed, "Praised be
the God of Simeon ben Shetach!"
26.11 Manichaeism
The prophet Mani, “the Apostle of Light” in 3
rd
century Persia, held that knowledge leads to salvation, victory of the good
light over the evil darkness. The world is permeated with a deep pessimism
dominated by evil powers and a strong desire to break the chains holding the
divine and luminous principle inside the prison of matter and of the body. This
would resemble the Jewish view of the world after the shattering of the vessels,
the state of Tohu. Knowledge leads to salvation by the individual recognizing
his soul is a particle of light, of the same
substance
[2439] with the
transcendent G-d. Held that we can recall a previous
existence.
[2440] Idea of a
divine soul. Recognized three ages:
- Golden Age – forces of light and darkness, knowledge and ignorance are
distinct.
- Mixed period – forces become mixed and difficult to separate.
- Present Age – battle for the cosmos between these forces, the age of
separation.
Similar ideas here to the Essene’s “War Between the Sons of
Light and the Sons of Darkness.” Though the religion is basically
monotheistic, the need to recognize that evil is not a part of G-d, fostered a
dualistic approached. The later Jewish ideas of externalized evil in a
personified Satan rebelling against God and pursuing the destruction of mankind
are similar. Held to the Zoroastrian doctrine of two poles of good and evil
that will again be distinguished.
In summary, a belief in past, present, and future where the nature of light
is wisdom and the nature of darkness is ignorance. Influenced by Iranian
dualism from Zoroastrianism. Manichaeism survives in Taoist or Buddhist
disguise until the 14th century.
26.12 Messianism
While the original believers in Jesus were Jews, the messianic religion
would one day be transformed into a new religion. There are three principles if
excluded from Christianity that would provide some claim to Judaism. One is the
removal of the divinity of Jesus and the trinity. The second is the removal of
the virgin birth and Immaculate Conception. Lastly is the removal of sin
transference, human sacrifice, blood atonement, and the
Eucharist.
[2441] Yet, can one
who denies a Torah law such as the permissibility of divorce be a true
prophet?
Meditation: Messiah a Mortal King – For those who
discover this hidden text. There is a suggestion that a messiah would have some
divine powers while he would be mortal. Yet, this material is not consistent
with Torah!
[2442] In fact, it
is an imagination, an attempt to reconcile the bliss of a Christian outlook with
a Torah concept of messiah.
The messiah is our king a mortal king, though our eternal King is always
G-d. Nevertheless, G-d has given us the Son of Man to be a king over us in this
world. He has given him authority to heal. He has given him authority to
forgive sin. How is it possible for the Son of Man to forgive sin? Sin is a
creation of man and is much lower than the heavens. Take hold of the hand of
the Son of Man and he will forgive your
sin.[2443] Who is the
Son of Man? He is the king I have given unto you, the messiah, your lord. Let
him possess your heart and listen to his will as a mortal king for his will is
the will of the Lord in heaven. He has purified himself on the mountain against
his temptations. Is the Son of Man, G-d? No, this can never be. The Son of
Man is like Metatron who I made little lower than the angels and yet raised him
up to be king over them all. Such I have made the Son of Man your king this
day.The Rabad felt that we pray to G-d
through Metatron who was called the lesser
god.
[2444] Zechariah 3:4
suggests that the ‘Angel of the
Lord’
[2445] can cause
iniquity to pass, “And he answered and spoke to those who stood before
him, saying, Remove the filthy garments from him. And to him he said, Behold, I
have caused your iniquity to pass from you, and I will dress you in festive
garments.” Is this authority to forgive
sin?
[2446]In Enoch 3,
Metatron is given authority to judge the angels.
Text
26-54: Sefer Hekhalot or Enoch 3:16:1
R. Ishmael said: Metatron, the Angel, the Prince of the Presence, the
Glory of all heaven, said to me: (1) At first I was sitting upon a great Throne
at the door of the Seventh Hall; and I was judging the children of
heaven, the household on high by authority of the Holy One, blessed be He.
And I divided Greatness, Kingship, Dignity, Rulership, Honour and Praise, and
Diadem and Crown of Glory unto all the princes of kingdoms, while I was sitting
in the Yeshiva and the princes of kingdoms were standing before me, on my right
and on my left—by authority of the Holy One, blessed be He.
In
Chagigah 15a, Metatron has authority to record the merits of
Israel.
Text
26-55: Chagigah 15a
Aher mutilated the shoots. Of him Scripture says: Suffer not thy mouth
to bring thy flesh into guilt. What does it refer to? — He saw that
permission was granted to Metatron to sit and write down the merits of
Israel. Said he: It is taught as a tradition that on high there is no
sitting and no emulation, and no back, and no weariness. Perhaps, — God
forfend! — there are two divinities! [Thereupon] they led Metatron forth,
and punished him with sixty fiery lashes, saying to him: Why didst thou not rise
before him when thou didst see
him?[2447]Below,
Metatron is the emanation of the First Cause and the Prince of the
World.
Text
26-56: Origens of the Kabbalah: Scholem
28 Cf.
the Hebrew text in Reshith ha-Qabbala, 78.Gersholm Scholem is the author of Reshith ha-Qabbalah, where he has
published the Hebrew text of the above. Perhaps the kawwanah is towards the
attributes of God, which are in fact the cherub, since G-d is unknowable; but
still there is only the thought of G-d during prayer. Further explanation of
how and why the
kawwanah of man is felt through the cherub: See
30.23 Rabad and the MT in
Judaism.
Similarly, from Genesis 18, Adonai would seem to be the
presence of G-d in an angel. Joseph Gikatilla identifies Adonai with Tzedek in
the first gate in the Sha’are Orah.
Text
26-57: Adonai connected with Metatron
It is this third angel who appears at several other
key junctures of God's revelation to Israel. The malach Adonai appeared to
Moshe at the burning
bush.[2448] Later, God
promises to send this special agent who will not only guard our people but also
be given authority to pardon sin “since my Name is in him” (Exodus
23:20-21).[2449] Because
of his special office, there was further speculation about the angel of the
Lord. In some rabbinic teachings, he is given the name
“Metatron” which literally means (in Greek) “in the midst of
the Throne”. He is seen as God's right-hand man at the very throne
of HaShem! So important is this angel as an intermediary, that one rabbi
even suggested that it is appropriate to lift prayers
(sic)[2450] to this angel
(Tractate Sanhedrin
38b).[2451] While this
view was rejected by the majority, it goes to show the unique place which the
malach Adonai/Metatron held in the angelology of historic
Judaism.
Intentionally, Adonai is substituted for Hashem in prayer. Adonai
shields us from the ineffable Name. Hence, we do not pray to an angel, but only
to G-d, nor is the angel considered a deity; nor do we pray in the name of this
angel to G-d. In fact the name Adonai –
אדני is not
known as an angel.
[2452] The
following passage from the Passover Haggadah reinforces how important it is to
recognize that there is only God involved in our life:
Text
26-58: Haggadah on God Alone
The Israelites were saved by God and not an angel or seraph or any other
messenger. For it is written: “On that same night I will pass through
Egypt and strike down every firstborn--both men and animals--and I will bring
judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord!” (Exodus
12:12)
“For I will pass through the land of Egypt,” I myself, not
an angel;
“And I will smite all the firstborn” I myself, not a
seraph;
“And against all the gods of Egypt I will execute
judgments,” I myself, not a messenger;
26.13 Mithraism
26.13.1 Salvation cults
The following exposition is from A. Powell Davies’ “The Meaning
of the Dead Sea Scrolls”, pp.90-92.
Text
26-59: A. Powell Davies
What the layman does not know, and the scholar does, is that there were
many Pagan deities during the time of Jesus and afterwards for whom quite
similar claims were made and in whose names were preached quite similar
doctrines. Mithras was a Redeemer of mankind; so were Tammuz, Adonis and
Osiris. The view eventually taken of Jesus as a Redeemer was not a Judaic
concept; nor was it held by the first Christians in Palestine. The Messiah the
Jews and the Judaic Christians expected was not the Son of God but a messenger
from God, not one who saved by blood-atonement but one whose salvation came from
his rule of the earth in a Messianic kingdom. The Judaic Christians were not
thinking of a salvation that admitted them to heaven, but of a salvation which
would establish a new order on earth, and this remained the case, even though
they believed in immortality.
It was when Christianity spread out into the Pagan world that the idea
of Jesus as a Savior God emerged. This idea was patterned on those already
existing, especially upon Mithras. It was the birthday of Mithras, the
25th of December (the winter solstice) that was taken over by the
Pagan Christians to be the birthday of Jesus. Even the Sabbath, the Jewish
seventh day appointed by God in the Mosaic Law and hallowed by his own resting
on this day after the work of Creation, had to be abandoned in favor the
Mithraic first day, the Day of the Conquering Sun.
In the Mediterranean area during the time of Christian expansion,
nowhere was there absent the image of the Virgin Mother and her Dying Son.
Originally, it was the earth itself that was the goddess, virginal again with
every spring. Her son was the fruit of the earth, born only to die, and in
dying, to be implanted once more in the earth, as the seed that would renew the
cycle. This was the “vegetation myth” from which the drama of the
“Savior-God” and the “Mater Dolorosa” (the sorrowful
mother, the mother of Christ sorrowing for her son) was drawn, soon to be
elaborated.
The cycle of seasons on the earth was seen to be paralleled by a
coordinate cycle in the heavens. There, too, was to be seen the virgin goddess;
the constellation Virgo that rose in the eastern sky just when Sirius, the star
from the east, was signaling the new birth of the Sun. The passage of the
horizon line through Virgo was the conception of the Virgin from the Sun. The
earth myth was thus blended with the sky myth and both with the memory of
ancient heroes, real or legendary, and so came the saga of the
Redeemer.
The cave later to be associated with the rebirth of Jesus, was earlier
the birthplace of Horus, who, when he was grown, would become Osiris, who must
die for the salvation of his people. Isis was the Mater Dolorosa. There were
innumerable such salvation cults, as described by such writers as Sir James G.
Frazer in his Golden Bough, and by the great classical scholar, Professor
Gilbert Murray.
In these cults were found the same sacraments later to be called
Christian. The Last Supper (Eucharist) belonged to Mithraism, from whence it
was borrowed to combine with the sacred meal of Palestine Christianity. Not
only sacraments but such concepts as “the blood of the Lamb” (or of
Taurus the Bull) were likewise taken from Mithraism. And not only cultist
concepts but ethical teachings too were absorbed from the cults which entered
into Christianity. In addition, there were ethical teachings which were not
cultist, such as those of the Stoics.
The extent of the indebtedness of Christianity to Pagan religion is so
great that, provided there was a Judaic-Christian nucleus at all, very little
indeed need have been supplied by the Palestinian Christians. It must be
remembered that after the earliest days little was said of Jesus the teacher. It
was Christ the Savior who was Lord of the Christians. And whether it had been
he or the Lord Mithras would have made very little difference in the
redemptionist doctrines, the sacraments and observances of the church that at
last declared that “Christ” was the Savior God, a decision
formalized by a majority vote in 325 A.D.,
at the Council of Nicea.
It will be seen, then, that what the scholar knows and the layman does
not, is the extent to which Christianity would have become what it did without
Jesus and his disciples at all. The only element of importance that is found
nowhere in Paganism is the portrait of Jesus the teacher; but this, as we have
already noted, was not the emphasis of Pagan Christianity. By the third
century, it had passed almost out of sight, not to return until the
Enlightenment, the Protestant Reformation, and the invention of printing brought
the Bible to the people. The Bible, indeed, had been considered too dangerous a
book to put into the hands of the laity: they were not equipped to understand
it and it might be an incitement to heresy. It was the Christ of the Creeds and
the Sacraments, the Salvationist God, that the Christian church for so many
centuries was concerned with: Jesus of Galilee it scarcely knew at
all.
The one essential nexus for making the Judaic Christ the victor in the
struggle of Salvationist religions was Paul of Tarsus, Pharisee, yet a
Hellenist, an inspired Jew with a profound comprehension of Paganism. Supreme
master of synthesis, it was he who first conceived the purpose of binding Israel
to Athens, the dying Temple of Jerusalem with the Mithraic sacrifice, the
Essenic Jehovah with the Unknown God of the Areopagus (earliest aristocratic
council of ancient Athens). As the Apostle Paul, this was the world-minded
“Christianos”—never merely a Palestinian Christian—who
knew his “Lord” not in the flesh but through his own
“gnosis,” and saw that Apollo, Mithras and Osiris could be made to
bow before his own Hebraic Adonai (Lord), and that by absorption of their
saviorhoods and blood redemptions, the Messiah of Israel could become the
world-Christ.
But it could have happened otherwise and still have borne the name of
Christianity. That is what the scholar knows but not the layman. And thus the
scholar—not as believer but as scholar—is not disturbed at what the
Scrolls imply for Christian origins: he has known all along that historically,
Christianity is not the religion founded by Jesus and spread abroad by his
disciples. But the layman has not known it. The discovery of the Scrolls has
somehow made him sense it. That is why his interest in them is not the
“fad” that some among the churchmen have tried to make it out to be.
The layman wants to know the truth about the origins of
Christianity.
26.13.2 The Last Supper
The Last Supper (Eucharist) belonged to Mithraism, from whence it
was borrowed to combine with the sacred meal of Palestinian Christianity
(Passover). Not only sacraments but also such concepts as “the blood of
the Lamb” (or of Taurus the Bull) were likewise taken from Mithraism. And
not only cultist concepts but ethical teachings too were absorbed from the
cults, which entered into Christianity. In addition, there were ethical
teachings, which were not cultist, such as those of the
Stoics.[2453]‘One
Mithraic hymn begins: "Thou hast redeemed us too by shedding the eternal
blood."’
[2454] This was
the sacrifice of the bull. ‘According to myth, Mithra was born, bearing
a torch and armed with a knife, beside a sacred stream and under a sacred tree,
a child of the earth itself. He soon rode, and later killed, the life-giving
cosmic bull, whose blood fertilizes all vegetation. Mithra's slaying of the bull
was a popular subject of Hellenic art and became the prototype for a
bull-slaying ritual of fertility in the Mithraic
cult.’
[2455] ‘After
the sacrifice, Mithra and the sun god banqueted together, ate meat and bread,
and drank wine.’ ‘The myth was reinterpreted by the Roman
Mithraists in terms of Platonic philosophy. The sacrifice took place in a cave,
an image of the world, as in the simile of the cave in Plato's Republic. Mithra
himself was equated with the creator (demiurge), he was called "demiurge and
father of all things," like the Platonic demiurge.’ The transformation of
Mithra from servant into deity is the source for the transformation of Jesus
from messiah into deity. The demiurge is the Platonic subordinate deity who
fashions the sensible world in the light of eternal ideas or the Gnostic
subordinate deity who is the creator of the material world. From here we see
the transformation of Jesus into the logos of creation in the Book of John and
ultimately the god of the Old Testament.
...In the Qumran
liturgy, it is provided that “the Messiah of Israel shall stretch forth
his hands on the bread; and after giving a blessing, all of the congregation of
the community shall partake, each according to his rank.” It is
essentially this ritual that Jesus followed, as related in the New Testament
accounts of the Last Supper. “And as they were eating, he took bread, and
when he had blessed, he brake it and gave to them” (Mark xiv, 22).
[2456] The
case of the wine would be similar, wine also (the “blood” of the
grape) being sacred. The ancients knew nothing of the chemistry of fermentation
(not only as to wine but also the “miracle” of the yeast leavening
bread). Consequently, they regarded the effect of wine as
“god-possession.” The god had entered into and
“enthused” them (the literal meaning of the word enthused means
possessed by a god) and so they were filled with fervor (or frenzy). The
earlier orgies associated with the magical properties of wine slowly gave way to
more restrained and solemn observances in which “possession” by the
god changed into communion with the god and the magical became the mystical.
Thus, in the mystery cults of the Mediterranean area, the wine that was
“blessed” was the blood—and therefore the life—of the
Redeemer. For our covenanters at Qumran, it was the blood—the
life—of the Messiahs. Through the bread that was broken and eaten, and
the cup that was passed from one to another, the Messiahs entered into the very
life itself of their communicants and all were a one, mystically
united.[2457]It
seems likely that Jesus identifying the bread with his body and the wine with
his blood is based on the pagan notion of deity consumption, but with
application here to communion with the messiah. Nevertheless, this is not a
Jewish idea and is not found in the Essenes. Davies, while insightful in other
places, is wrong here: “
it was the blood—the life—of the
Messiahs.” This is Mithraism not Judaism. There is no consumption of
blood or flesh of deities, has vshalom.
The Didache, the Teachings of the
Twelve Apostles, in its Latin version has a reference to the sacrament. Here,
the wine represents, “the Holy Vine of son, David” while the bread
symbolizes the “life and knowledge through Jesus, child.” There is
some opinion that this is a link between the Essenes and Christians. In any
case, a Midrash associates one’s drink in heaven is the reward for ones
prayers in this world, while one’s food in heaven will be the reward for
ones Torah learning in this world. Now the Passover meal represents the table
of the Tzaddikim that one will dine with in heaven. The wine becomes the reward
for reciting T’hillim, the Psalms of David. The matzos, flatbread,
becomes the reward for learning the Torah or teachings of
Jesus.
[2458] There is one
further symbolism in the Midrash: the mitzvot, commandments, one has kept in
life will be rewarded by the clothes one has in heaven. Moreover the mitzvot
are eternal and they are actually the spiritual clothes of those who have past
on.
In the
Didache:
[2459]
- There is nothing on the person of Jesus, or the resurrection.
- There is no specific reference on the atonement.
- There is nothing on the virgin birth.
- There is nothing on the authority of any scripture.
- There is no mention of Christ's presence in the
Eucharist.
The Didache although not intended for Jews
contains the following:
- Both abortion and the ancient practice of discarding unwanted or
defective babies are expressly forbidden.
- Christians are told not to eat meat if the animal was sacrificed in a
pagan ceremony.
- Keeping the Jewish dietary laws is presented as being a good thing to do,
but not required.
- The faithful risked losing their salvation if they turned away from the
path of good behavior. (Nowadays, most Christians believe in eternal security --
genuinely coming to Christ assures forgiveness of all your sins -- past,
present, and future.)
Text
26-60: Didache trans. Roberts
The Lord's Teaching Through the Twelve Apostles to the
Nations.
Chapter 1. The Two Ways and the First Commandment. There are two
ways, one of life and one of death, but a great difference between the two ways.
The way of life, then, is this: First, you shall love God who made you; second,
love your neighbor as yourself, and do not do to another what you would not want
done to you. And of these sayings the teaching is this: Bless those who curse
you, and pray for your enemies, and fast for those who persecute you. For what
reward is there for loving those who love you? Do not the Gentiles do the same?
But love those who hate you, and you shall not have an enemy. Abstain from
fleshly and worldly lusts. If someone strikes your right cheek, turn to him the
other also, and you shall be perfect. If someone impresses you for one mile, go
with him two. If someone takes your cloak, give him also your coat. If someone
takes from you what is yours, ask it not back, for indeed you are not able. Give
to every one who asks you, and ask it not back; for the Father wills that to all
should be given of our own blessings (free gifts). Happy is he who gives
according to the commandment, for he is guiltless. Woe to him who receives; for
if one receives who has need, he is guiltless; but he who receives not having
need shall pay the penalty, why he received and for what. And coming into
confinement, he shall be examined concerning the things which he has done, and
he shall not escape from there until he pays back the last penny. And also
concerning this, it has been said, Let your alms sweat in your hands, until you
know to whom you should give.
Chapter 2. The Second Commandment: Grave Sin Forbidden. And the
second commandment of the Teaching; You shall not commit murder, you shall not
commit adultery, you shall not commit pederasty, you shall not commit
fornication, you shall not steal, you shall not practice magic, you shall not
practice witchcraft, you shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill that
which is born. You shall not covet the things of your neighbor, you shall not
swear, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not speak evil, you shall
bear no grudge. You shall not be double-minded nor double-tongued, for to be
double-tongued is a snare of death. Your speech shall not be false, nor empty,
but fulfilled by deed. You shall not be covetous, nor rapacious, nor a
hypocrite, nor evil disposed, nor haughty. You shall not take evil counsel
against your neighbor. You shall not hate any man; but some you shall reprove,
and concerning some you shall pray, and some you shall love more than your own
life.
Chapter 3. Other Sins Forbidden. My child, flee from every evil
thing, and from every likeness of it. Be not prone to anger, for anger leads to
murder. Be neither jealous, nor quarrelsome, nor of hot temper, for out of all
these murders are engendered. My child, be not a lustful one. for lust leads to
fornication. Be neither a filthy talker, nor of lofty eye, for out of all these
adulteries are engendered. My child, be not an observer of omens, since it leads
to idolatry. Be neither an enchanter, nor an astrologer, nor a purifier, nor be
willing to took at these things, for out of all these idolatry is engendered. My
child, be not a liar, since a lie leads to theft. Be neither money-loving, nor
vainglorious, for out of all these thefts are engendered. My child, be not a
murmurer, since it leads the way to blasphemy. Be neither self-willed nor
evil-minded, for out of all these blasphemies are engendered.
Rather, be meek, since the meek shall inherit the earth. Be long-suffering
and pitiful and guileless and gentle and good and always trembling at the words
which you have heard. You shall not exalt yourself, nor give over-confidence to
your soul. Your soul shall not be joined with lofty ones, but with just and
lowly ones shall it have its intercourse. Accept whatever happens to you as
good, knowing that apart from God nothing comes to pass.
Chapter 4. Various Precepts. My child, remember night and day him
who speaks the word of God to you, and honor him as you do the Lord. For
wherever the lordly rule is uttered, there is the Lord. And seek out day by day
the faces of the saints, in order that you may rest upon their words. Do not
long for division, but rather bring those who contend to peace. Judge
righteously, and do not respect persons in reproving for transgressions. You
shall not be undecided whether or not it shall be. Be not a stretcher forth of
the hands to receive and a drawer of them back to give. If you have anything,
through your hands you shall give ransom for your sins. Do not hesitate to give,
nor complain when you give; for you shall know who is the good repayer of the
hire. Do not turn away from him who is in want; rather, share all things with
your brother, and do not say that they are your own. For if you are partakers in
that which is immortal, how much more in things which are mortal? Do not remove
your hand from your son or daughter; rather, teach them the fear of God from
their youth. Do not enjoin anything in your bitterness upon your bondman or
maidservant, who hope in the same God, lest ever they shall fear not God who is
over both; for he comes not to call according to the outward appearance, but to
them whom the Spirit has prepared. And you bondmen shall be subject to your
masters as to a type of God, in modesty and fear. You shall hate all hypocrisy
and everything which is not pleasing to the Lord. Do not in any way forsake the
commandments of the Lord; but keep what you have received, neither adding
thereto nor taking away therefrom. In the church you shall acknowledge your
transgressions, and you shall not come near for your prayer with an evil
conscience. This is the way of life.
Chapter 5. The Way of Death. And the way of death is this: First of
all it is evil and accursed: murders, adultery, lust, fornication, thefts,
idolatries, magic arts, witchcrafts, rape, false witness, hypocrisy,
double-heartedness, deceit, haughtiness, depravity, self-will, greediness,
filthy talking, jealousy, over-confidence, loftiness, boastfulness; persecutors
of the good, hating truth, loving a lie, not knowing a reward for righteousness,
not cleaving to good nor to righteous judgment, watching not for that which is
good, but for that which is evil; from whom meekness and endurance are far,
loving vanities, pursuing revenge, not pitying a poor man, not laboring for the
afflicted, not knowing Him Who made them, murderers of children, destroyers of
the handiwork of God, turning away from him who is in want, afflicting him who
is distressed, advocates of the rich, lawless judges of the poor, utter sinners.
Be delivered, children, from all these.
Chapter 6. Against False Teachers, and Food Offered to Idols. See
that no one causes you to err from this way of the Teaching, since apart from
God it teaches you. For if you are able to bear the entire yoke of the Lord, you
will be perfect; but if you are not able to do this, do what you are able. And
concerning food, bear what you are able; but against that which is sacrificed to
idols be exceedingly careful; for it is the service of dead gods.
Chapter 7. Concerning Baptism. And concerning baptism, baptize this
way: Having first said all these things, baptize into the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, in living water. But if you have no
living water, baptize into other water; and if you cannot do so in cold water,
do so in warm. But if you have neither, pour out water three times upon the head
into the name of Father and Son and Holy Spirit. But before the baptism let the
baptizer fast, and the baptized, and whoever else can; but you shall order the
baptized to fast one or two days before.
Chapter 8. Fasting and Prayer (the Lord's Prayer). But let not your
fasts be with the hypocrites, for they fast on the second and fifth day of the
week. Rather, fast on the fourth day and the Preparation (Friday). Do not pray
like the hypocrites, but rather as the Lord commanded in His Gospel, like this:
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy
will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily (needful)
bread, and forgive us our debt as we also forgive our debtors. And bring us not
into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one (or, evil); for Thine is the
power and the glory for ever..
Pray this three times each day.
Chapter 9. The Eucharist. Now concerning the Eucharist, give thanks
this way. First, concerning the cup:
We thank thee, our Father, for the holy vine of David
Thy servant, which You madest known to us through Jesus Thy Servant; to Thee be
the glory for ever.
And concerning the broken bread:
We thank Thee, our Father, for the life and knowledge
which You madest known to us through Jesus Thy Servant; to Thee be the glory for
ever. Even as this broken bread was scattered over the hills, and was gathered
together and became one, so let Thy Church be gathered together from the ends of
the earth into Thy kingdom; for Thine is the glory and the power through Jesus
Christ for ever.
But let no one eat or drink of your Eucharist, unless
they have been baptized into the name of the Lord; for concerning this also the
Lord has said, "Give not that which is holy to the dogs."
Chapter 10. Prayer after Communion. But after you are filled, give
thanks this way:
We thank Thee, holy Father, for Thy holy name which You didst cause to
tabernacle in our hearts, and for the knowledge and faith and immortality, which
You modest known to us through Jesus Thy Servant; to Thee be the glory for ever.
Thou, Master almighty, didst create all things for Thy name's sake; You gavest
food and drink to men for enjoyment, that they might give thanks to Thee; but to
us You didst freely give spiritual food and drink and life eternal through Thy
Servant. Before all things we thank Thee that You are mighty; to Thee be the
glory for ever. Remember, Lord, Thy Church, to deliver it from all evil and to
make it perfect in Thy love, and gather it from the four winds, sanctified for
Thy kingdom which Thou have prepared for it; for Thine is the power and the
glory for ever. Let grace come, and let this world pass away. Hosanna to the God
(Son) of David! If any one is holy, let him come; if any one is not so, let him
repent. Maranatha. Amen.
But permit the prophets to make Thanksgiving as much as they desire.
Chapter 11. Concerning Teachers, Apostles, and Prophets. Whosoever,
therefore, comes and teaches you all these things that have been said before,
receive him. But if the teacher himself turns and teaches another doctrine to
the destruction of this, hear him not. But if he teaches so as to increase
righteousness and the knowledge of the Lord, receive him as the Lord. But
concerning the apostles and prophets, act according to the decree of the Gospel.
Let every apostle who comes to you be received as the Lord. But he shall not
remain more than one day; or two days, if there's a need. But if he remains
three days, he is a false prophet. And when the apostle goes away, let him take
nothing but bread until he lodges. If he asks for money, he is a false prophet.
And every prophet who speaks in the Spirit you shall neither try nor judge; for
every sin shall be forgiven, but this sin shall not be forgiven. But not every
one who speaks in the Spirit is a prophet; but only if he holds the ways of the
Lord. Therefore from their ways shall the false prophet and the prophet be
known. And every prophet who orders a meal in the Spirit does not eat it, unless
he is indeed a false prophet. And every prophet who teaches the truth, but does
not do what he teaches, is a false prophet. And every prophet, proved true,
working unto the mystery of the Church in the world, yet not teaching others to
do what he himself does, shall not be judged among you, for with God he has his
judgment; for so did also the ancient prophets. But whoever says in the Spirit,
Give me money, or something else, you shall not listen to him. But if he tells
you to give for others' sake who are in need, let no one judge him.
Chapter 12. Reception of Christians. But receive everyone who comes
in the name of the Lord, and prove and know him afterward; for you shall have
understanding right and left. If he who comes is a wayfarer, assist him as far
as you are able; but he shall not remain with you more than two or three days,
if need be. But if he wants to stay with you, and is an artisan, let him work
and eat. But if he has no trade, according to your understanding, see to it
that, as a Christian, he shall not live with you idle. But if he wills not to
do, he is a Christ-monger. Watch that you keep away from such.
Chapter 13. Support of Prophets. But every true prophet who wants to
live among you is worthy of his support. So also a true teacher is himself
worthy, as the workman, of his support. Every first-fruit, therefore, of the
products of wine-press and threshing-floor, of oxen and of sheep, you shall take
and give to the prophets, for they are your high priests. But if you have no
prophet, give it to the poor. If you make a batch of dough, take the first-fruit
and give according to the commandment. So also when you open a jar of wine or of
oil, take the first-fruit and give it to the prophets; and of money (silver) and
clothing and every possession, take the first-fruit, as it may seem good to you,
and give according to the commandment.
Chapter 14. Christian Assembly on the Lord's Day. But every Lord's
day gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving after
having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure. But let
no one who is at odds with his fellow come together with you, until they be
reconciled, that your sacrifice may not be profaned. For this is that which was
spoken by the Lord: "In every place and time offer to me a pure sacrifice; for I
am a great King, says the Lord, and my name is wonderful among the nations."
Chapter 15. Bishops and Deacons; Christian Reproof. Appoint,
therefore, for yourselves, bishops and deacons worthy of the Lord, men meek, and
not lovers of money, and truthful and proved; for they also render to you the
service of prophets and teachers. Therefore do not despise them, for they are
your honored ones, together with the prophets and teachers. And reprove one
another, not in anger, but in peace, as you have it in the Gospel. But to anyone
that acts amiss against another, let no one speak, nor let him hear anything
from you until he repents. But your prayers and alms and all your deeds so do,
as you have it in the Gospel of our Lord.
Chapter 16. Watchfulness; the Coming of the Lord. Watch for your
life's sake. Let not your lamps be quenched, nor your loins unloosed; but be
ready, for you know not the hour in which our Lord will come. But come together
often, seeking the things which are befitting to your souls: for the whole time
of your faith will not profit you, if you are not made perfect in the last time.
For in the last days false prophets and corrupters shall be multiplied, and the
sheep shall be turned into wolves, and love shall be turned into hate; for when
lawlessness increases, they shall hate and persecute and betray one another, and
then shall appear the world-deceiver as Son of God, and shall do signs and
wonders, and the earth shall be delivered into his hands, and he shall do
iniquitous things which have never yet come to pass since the beginning. Then
shall the creation of men come into the fire of trial, and many shall be made to
stumble and shall perish; but those who endure in their faith shall be saved
from under the curse itself. And then shall appear the signs of the truth:
first, the sign of an outspreading in heaven, then the sign of the sound of the
trumpet. And third, the resurrection of the dead -- yet not of all, but as it is
said: "The Lord shall come and all His saints with Him." Then shall the world
see the Lord coming upon the clouds of heaven.
26.13.3 Mithras parallels
The following accounts are somewhat contrived by emphasis on parallels
while ignoring differences. The significant question is to what extent
Christianity has elevated these ideas vs. lost a more significant
message?
26.13.3.1 Account
1
The origins of the modern Christmas traditions lie in Roman paganism and
the celebration of Saturnalia, which occurred a little after mid-December.
During Saturnalia, Romans were given over to wild merry-making, gift giving,
etc., in what would today be likened to Mardi Gras. This was the state of
affairs regarding Christmas for centuries, in spite of the theocratic Middle
Ages, until the modern Christmas was synthesized from various Euro-pagan
traditions in the Victorian era into what we know it as today.
[2461]It is surprising
that Christianity was to become the international religion, when one considers
that the already well-established religion of Mithraism was a natural challenger
for that title. Up until the time of the Emperor Constantine, it was the latter
religion, which was more popular within the framework of the Roman Empire, and
Christianity was regarded as being only one sect amongst numerous other sects.
It was only when Constantine decreed that Christianity was to be the state
religion, that Mithraism, together with a host of other religions and sects, was
put into the melting pot, and ideas of that religion, most suited for the
Christian purpose, were absorbed into the new state-approved religion.
Mithraism, the religion followed by those who worshipped the sun
god Mithra, originated in Persia about 400 BC, and was to spread its Pagan ideas
as far west as the British Isles. In the early centuries of the Christian era,
Mithraism was the most wide-spread religion in the Western World, and its
remains are to be found in monuments scattered around the countries of Europe,
which then comprised the known civilized world. Mithra was
regarded as created by, yet co-equal with, the Supreme Deity. Mithraists were
Trinitarian, kept Sunday as their day of worship, and their chief festivals were
what we know of as Christmas and Easter. Long before the advent of Jesus, Mithra
was said to have been born of a virgin mother, in a cave, at the time of
Christmas, and died on a cross at Easter. Baptism was practiced, and the sign of
the cross was made on the foreheads of all newly-baptized converts. Mithra was
considered to be the savior of the world, conferring on his followers an eternal
life in Heaven, and, similar to the story of Jesus, he died to save all others,
provided that they were his followers. For three centuries both
religions ran parallel, Mithraism first becoming known to the Romans in 70 BC,
Christianity following a century later, and it wasn’t until AD 377 that
Christianity became sufficiently strong to suppress its former rival, although
Mithraism was to remain a formidable opponent for some time after that, only
slowly being forsaken by the people. It was only the absorption of many
Mithraist ideas into Christianity which finally saw its downfall.
The big turning point was brought about by the Congress of Nicaea
in AD 325. Constantine, a great supporter of the Christian religion, although
not converting to it until the time of his decease, gathered together 2,000
leading figures in the world of theology, the idea being to bring about the
advent of Christianity as the official state religion of Rome. It was out of
this assembly that Jesus was formally declared to be the Son of God, and Savior
of Mankind, another slain savior god, bringing up the tally of slain god-men to
seventeen, of which Mithra, together with such men as Bel and Osiris, was
included. Just as Nicaea can be regarded as the birthplace of
Christianity, so too it can be regarded as the graveyard of what we imagine
Jesus taught. From that time onwards, Christianity was to absorb the
superstitions of Mithraism, and many other older religions, and what was
believed to have happened to earlier savior gods, was made to centre around the
Nazarene. The coming of Christianity under state control was to preserve it as a
religion, and was the death knell of all other sects and cults within the Roman
Empire. Had Constantine decided to retain Mithraism as the
official state religion, instead of putting Christianity in its place, it would
have been the latter that would have been obliterated. To Constantine however,
Christianity had one great advantage, it preached that repentant sinners would
be forgiven their sins, provided that they were converted Christians at the time
of their Passing, and Constantine had much to be forgiven for, He personally did
not convert to the new religion until he was on his death bed, the reason being
that only sins committed following conversion were accountable, so all sins
committed by a convert, prior to conversion, didn’t matter, and he could
hardly have sinned too much whilst he was lying on his death bed. Mithraism
could not offer the same comfort to a man like Constantine, who was regarded as
being one of the worst mass-murderers of his time. The Emperor
Julian, who followed Constantine, went back to Mithraism, but his short reign of
only two years could not change what Constantine had decreed. His defeat, and
death, at the hands of the Persians, was used by the Christians as an argument
in favor of the new, against the old, being looked upon as an omen that
Christianity had divine approval. If Julian had been spared to reign some years
longer, the entire history of international religion would almost certainly have
been different. Under Emperor Jovian, who followed Julian, the
substitution of Christianity for Mithraism made further progress, and old Pagan
beliefs, like the Virgin Birth, Baptism and Holy Trinity, became generally
accepted as the basis of the state religion. The early Christian idea of
Unitarianism was quickly squashed in favor of Trinitarianism, and those who
refused to accept the Holy Trinity were put to the sword, the beginning of mass
slaughter in the name of religion, which was to go on for
centuries.
26.13.3.2 Account 2
The following account is fairly thorough, although presented caveat
emptor.
[2462]This
religion, cloaked in mystery and secrecy, has captivated the imaginations of
scholars for generations. Many facts discovered sheds vital light on the
cultural dynamics that led to the rise of Christianity. The National Geographic
Society’s book “Great Religions of the World,” page 309
writes; “By Jesus’ time, East and West had mingled here for three
centuries. Down columns of boulevards walked Roman soldiers loyal to the
Persian god Mithras.” Mithras was a Persian deity. He was also the most
widely venerated god in the Roman Empire at the time of Jesus. The Catholic
Encyclopedia as well as the early Church Fathers found this religion of Mithras
very disturbing, as there are so many similarities between the two religions, as
follows: 1) Hundreds of years before Jesus, according to the
Mithraic religion, three Wise Men of Persia came to visit the baby savior-god
Mithra, bring him gifts of gold, myrrh and frankincense.2)
Mithra was born on December 25 as told in the “Great Religions of the
World”, page 330; “...it was the winter solstice celebrated by
ancients as the birthday of Mithraism’s sun god.”3)
According to Mithraism, before Mithra died on a cross, he celebrated a
“Last Supper with his twelve disciples, who represented the twelve signs
of the zodiac. 4) After the death of Mithra, his body was laid
to rest in a rock tomb.5) Mithra had a celibate
priesthood.6) Mithra ascended into heaven during the spring
(Passover) equinox (the time when the sun crosses the equator making night and
day of equal length). As you can now see, Christianity derived
many of its essential elements from the ancient religion of Mithraism.
Mithraism became intertwined with the cult of Jesus to form what is known today
as “Christianity.” Although literary sources on this religion are
sparse, an abundance of material evidence exists in the many Mithraic temples
and artifacts that archaeologists have found scattered throughout the Roman
Empire, from England in the north and west to Palestine in the south and east.
The temples were usually built underground in caves, which are filled with an
extremely elaborate iconography (illustrating by pictures, figures and images).
There were many hundreds of Mithraic temples in the Roman Empire, the greatest
concentrations have been found in the city of Rome itself.We
often hear about how many of the traditions, rites and symbols of modern day
"Christian" holidays have their roots in paganism. Have you ever wondered why
December 25th was chosen to celebrate the birth of Jesus? Could it only be a
consequence that ancient paganism and the story of Mithras' birth coincides with
the Yule/Christmas season? If the accounts in the Bible are correct, the time of
Jesus birth would have been closer to mid-summer, for this is when shepherds
would have been "tending their flocks in the field " and the new lambs were
born. Strange enough, the ancient pagan religion, Mithraism, which dates back
over 4,000 years, also celebrated the birth of their "saviour" on December 25th.
Franz Cumont, who is consider by many to be the leading research authority on
Roman Paganism, explained the ancient religion called
Mithraism.Then Mithras returned to the earth to teach humanity
His commandments and begin Mysteries and Rites which would help humans remember
His acts on our behalf. Because of His actions, we can choose good without the
overwhelming power of evil, even though evil's influence can still seem powerful
because our minds believe it is. Because of His teachings, we know that the
purpose of our lives is to serve others in the name of Mithras. The followers
refer to Him as the "Light of the World" a phrase often used also in Christian
faith when referring to Jesus. This son of a god born of a
virgin, was so commonly spread in those days that Philo of Alexandria (30 BCE -
45 CE), warned against this widespread superstitious belief in unions between
male gods and human females. The offspring’s are known as
demigods.Tammuz, who was incorporated also into Attis and
Mithras, and they stood model for the story in the NT, because they were deities
who all are supposed to have died and resurrected. Tammuz was always called
Adon, meaning Lord. (the Greek Adonis, was based on him). Actually all these
deities were based on the first deity to have died and resurrected, the Egyptian
deity Osiris. So there is absolutely nothing unique about Jesus. In fact he is
copyright due to Osiris.Of the following (semi) deities legends
went around that they were born of a virgin:Augustus (his
father was the god Apollo) Agdistis
AttisAdonis
Buddha DionysusKorybas
Krishna MithrasOsirus
Perseus Romulus and RemusTammuz
Zoroaster JesusSo basically, all the
pagan religions were alike, including Christianity. It just happens that one of
them got the ascendancy, and became the most powerful, and did its best to wipe
out all the others. In addition to a lack of historical support, many
characteristics of Jesus, which Christians today believe in, are undeniably
similar or identical to religious trends and beliefs that preceded Christianity.
There are tens of accounts of pagan gods of many different cultures who were
said to have the same attributes as those that Christians claim Jesus had. A
brief review of some of these may lead to some interesting questions concerning
the originality of the Christian claim:ATTIS - Phrygia: Born of
the virgin Nana on December 25. He was both the Father and the Divine Son. He
was a savior crucified on a tree for the salvation of mankind. He was buried but
on the third day the priests found the tomb empty -- He had arisen from the dead
(on March 25th). He followers were baptized in blood, thereby washing away their
sins -- after which they declared themselves "born again." His followers ate a
sacred meal of bread, which they believed became the body of the savoir.
BUDDIAH – INDIA: Born of the Virgin Maya on December 25th.
He was announced by a star and attended by wise men presenting costly gifts. At
birth angles sing heavenly songs. He taught in temple at age 12. Tempted by
Mara, the Evil One (Satan), while fasting. He was baptized in water with the
Spirit of God present. Buddiah healed the sick and fed 500 from a small basket
of cakes and even walked on water. He came to fulfill the law and preached the
establishment of a kingdom of righteousness and obliged followers to poverty and
to renounce the world. He transfigured on a mount. Died (on a cross, in some
traditions), buried but arose again after tomb opened by supernatural powers.
Ascended into heaven (Nirvana). Will return in later days to judge the dead.
Buddiah was called: "Good Shepherd," "Carpenter," "Alpha and Omega," "Sin
Bearer," "Master," "Light of the World," "Redeemer," etc.DIONYSUS
- GREECE: Born of a Virgin on December 25th, placed in a manger. He was a
traveling teacher who performed many miracles. Turned water into wine. Followers
ate sacred meal that became the body of the god. He rose from the dead March
25th. Identified with the ram and lamb's and was called "King of Kings," "Only
Begotten Son," "Savior," "Redeemer," "Sin bearer," "Anointed One," the "Alpha
and Omega."HERACLES – GREECE: Born at the winter equinox of
a virgin who refrained from sex with her until her god-begotten child was born
and was sacrificed at the spring equinox. He too, was called "Savior," "Only
begotten," "Prince of Peace," "Son of Righteousness." KRISHNA -
INDIA: Krishna was born while his foster-father Nanda was in the city to pay his
tax to the king. His nativity heralded by a star, Krishna was born of the virgin
Devaki in a cave, which at the time of his birth was miraculously illuminated.
The cow-herds adored his birth. King Kansa sought the life of the Indian Christ
by ordering the massacre of all male children born during the same night at He.
Krishna traveled widely, performing miracles -- raising the dead, healing
lepers, the deaf and the blind. The crucified Krishna is pictured on the cross
with arms extended. Pierced by an arrow while hanging on the cross, Krishna
died, but descended into Hell from which He rose again on the third day and
ascended into Heaven. (The Gospel of Nicodemus tell of Jesus' descent into
Hell.) He will return on the last day to judge the quick and the dead. Krishna
is the second person of the Hindu trinity.OSIRIS – EGYPT:
He came to fulfill the law. Called "KRST," the "Anointed One." Born of the
virgin Isis-Meri on December 25th in a cave / manger, with his birth announced
by a star and attended by three wise men. Earthly father named "Seb" (translates
to "Joseph.") At age 12 he was a child teacher in the Temple and at 30 he was
baptized, having disappeared for 18 years. Osiris was baptized in the river
Iarutana -- the river Jordan -- by "Anup the Baptizer," who was beheaded. (Anup
translates to John.) He performed miracles, exorcised demons, raised El-Osiris
from the dead. Walked on water and was betrayed by Typhon, crucified between two
thieves on the 17th day of the month of Athyr. Buried in a tomb from which he
arose on the third day (19th Athyr) and was resurrected. His suffering, death,
and resurrection celebrated each year by His disciples on the Vernal Equinox --
Easter. Called "The Way, the Truth, the Light," "Messiah," "god's Anointed Son,'
the "Son of Man," the "Word made Flesh," the "word of truth." Expected to reign
a thousand years.NOTE 1: Persian legends of Mithras says that
He was born of the Sun God and a virgin mother, called "the Mother of God", on
December 25th. They saw him as a symbol of justice, truth, and loyalty. He was
considered the savior of humankind, and stories abound of His healing the sick,
raising the dead, and performing miracles (making the blind see and the lame
walk). Throughout His lifetime, He was seen as a protector of human souls, a
mediator between "heaven" and "earth" and was even associated with a "holy
trinity". He remained celibate, until the ripe old age of 64, throughout his
life and preached the virtues of ethics, moral behavior, and good will. Does
this sound familiar? Sure sounds like Jesus.NOTE 2: Ancient
Persians believed in a "celestial heaven" and hell. They believed that they
would be judged by their god and granted justice of" eternal salvation. On
judgment day, the faithful dead would be resurrected and light would triumph
over darkness. NOTE 3: They took part in ritual purification or
baptism, held Sundays sacred, drank wine and ate bread as a symbol of the body
and blood and even took part in ritualistic purging (purification rites such as
flagellation). NOTE 4: In their legends, Mithras had an "earthly
mission' to accomplish. He then was put to death on a cross and buried in a cave
(some legends have Him held in a cave to be reborn once a year).
NOTE 5: He then "rose from the dead" and took part in a last
supper with his 12 disciples (often associated with the 12 signs of the zodiac)
and then ascended to the heavens to watch over His "flock" from above.
As a footnote to all this: The World Book Encyclopedia tells
that Mithras was an angel of light who fought on the side against the forces of
evil. In the Zoroastrian religion of ancient Persia Mithras was called
“the Heavenly Light.” This belief carried to Assyria and Asia Minor
where many people identified him with the sun. Mithraism came into the ancient
Roman world about 75 BCE, and ranked as a principal competitor of Christianity
for 200 years. In addition to a lack of historical support, many characteristics
of Jesus, which Christians today believe in, are undeniably similar or identical
to religious trends and beliefs that preceded Christianity. There are tens of
accounts of pagan gods of many different cultures who were said to have the same
attributes as those that Christians claim Jesus had.
Trinity―Trinities were
popular in pagan sects before Christianity was introduced to the world. Some of
the more well known trinity gods included Mithra-Vohu Mana-Rashnu,
Amen-Mut-Khonsu, and
Osiris-Isis-Horus.Virgin
Birth―Among the pagan cultures that preceded Christianity,
virgin birth stories abounded. The long list of pagan gods born of virgins
includes: Romulus and Remus, Zoroaster, Buddha, Mithras, Chrishna, Osiris-Aion,
Agdistis, Attis, Tammuz, Adonis, Korybas, Perseus, and
Dionysus.Disciples―In
the following 'saviors' cases, a grouping of disciples was
present, just as they were present in Jesus' story: Horus, Buddha, Chrishna,
Dionysus, Mithra. Interestingly enough, in the case of Dionysus, his disciple
Acoetes was a boatman, just as Jesus' disciple Peter. And just as Peter was
freed from jail when the doors miraculously flew open, so was Dionysus' disciple
Acoetes. In Budda's case, he, like Jesus, demanded that his disciples renounce
all worldly possessions. Yet another instance of similarity is that the
disciples of both Jesus and Buddha were said to have been arrested for
preaching, as well as witnessed to have "walked on
water."Miracles―Among
those 'saviors' who, like Jesus, performed countless miracles include: Horus,
Chrishna, Buddha, Dionysus, Mithra, Osirus, and Adonis. Horus was
said to have walked on water, just as Jesus did. In addition, Horus raised one
man, El-Azarus, from the dead in front of countless witnesses. In the case of
Buddha, it was told that he fed five hundred men with one loaf of bread, that he
cured lepers, and that he caused the blind to see. Dionysus rescued a person
from dying when the person was utterly desolate and placed them among the stars.
And he gave food and drink, herbs and berries, to the starving people -- not to
mention turning water into
wine.The Sun―Here is
another common theory, quoted from S. Acharya's "The Origins of Christianity and
the Quest for the Historical Jesus:" "The reason why all these pagan narratives
are so similar to a "god-man" is that these stories were based on
the movements of the sun through the heavens, an astrotheological development
that can be found throughout the planet because the sun and the 12 zodiac signs
can be observed around the globe.Paul was supposedly born and
raised in the city of Tarsus, a region in SE Asia-Minor (now called Turkey)
where Mithras was well known. Biblical scholars are now saying that Paul, the
alleged author of 13 out of the 27 (maybe more) books of the New Testament, may
have been influenced in his writings by this strong religion of Mithraism. We
can see a profound kinship between Mithraism and
Christianity.In-as-much as Mithraism was so popular in Rome, it
is no wonder why the pagan Emperor Constantine, who believed in the sun god,
Mithras, designated a certain day of the week to him, Sunday, which means,
“the day of the sun.” The original "Christian" faith
became a mix of pagan, Mithraic, Judeo/Christian teaching. This lead to the
confusing mix of theology that we have today within the "Christian" community.
This apostasy from the original simple and plain teachings of Christ was
accelerated by the persecutions and killings of any who tried to support the
"old" ways. Maybe this solves the mystery of the “ungodly” marriage
between Mithraism and the cult of Jesus. As it turns out, it was all for
political convenience! But, Christians think they are better than that today. In
short: The "Christianity" they have today has almost no relationship, in
doctrine or in way of life, to the "the original teachings of Jesus."
In my mind, there are two Jesus' teachings. Jesus the Jew and
Jesus the Gentile, which by the way is really Paul's Jesus. And guess which one
Christians follow? The ex-pagan Constantine liked Paul's Jesus over Jesus the
Jew. Jesus and all the others upon whom this character is predicated are
personifications of the sun, and the Gospel fable is merely a rehash of a
mythological formula revolving around the movements of the sun through the
heavens.For instance, many of the world's crucified "god-men"
have their traditional birthday on December 25. This is because the ancients
recognized that (from an earth-centric perspective) the sun makes an annual
descent southward until December 21 or 22, the winter solstice, when it stops
moving southerly for three days and then starts to move northward
again.During this time, the ancients declared that "God's sun"
had "died" for three days and was "born again" on December 25. The ancients
realized quite abundantly that they needed the sun to return every day and that
they would be in big trouble if the sun continued to move southward and did not
stop and reverse its direction. Thus, these many different cultures celebrated
the "sun of God's" birthday on December 25th. The following are the
characteristics of the "sun" of God:a. The sun "dies" for three
days on December 22, the winter solstice, when it stops in its movement south,
to be born again or resurrected on December 25, it resumes its movement
north.b. In some areas, the calendar originally began in the
constellation of Virgo, and the sun would therefore be "born of a
Virgin."c. The sun is the "Light of the World."d. The
sun "cometh on clouds, and every eye shall see him."e. The sun
rising in the morning is the "Savior of mankind."f. The sun wears a
corona ("crown of thorns") or a halo.g. The sun "walks on
water."h. The sun's "followers" or "disciples" are the 12 months and
the 12 signs of the Zodiac, through which the sun must pass.i. The
sun is "crucified," which represents it's passing through the equinoxes, the
vernal equinox being Easter, at which time it is then
resurrected.In addition, all over the world are sites where this
"god" or that allegedly was born, walked, suffered, died, etc., a common
occurrence that is not monopolized by, and did not originate with, Christianity.
An early Christian Syrian writer (quoted in Credner's "De Natalitorium Christi
Origine") wrote the following concerning the December 25 hoax: "The reason why
the Church fathers transferred the celebration from January 6 to December 25,
was that it was the custom of the pagans to celebrate on the same December 25
the birthday of the sun, at which time they lit lights in token of festivity,
and in these rites and festivals the Christians also took part. Accordingly,
when the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a liking for
this festival, they resolved that the true nativity should be commemorated on
that day."When the Christ myth was new Mithras and Mithraism were
already ancient. Worshiped for centuries as God's Messenger of Truth, Mithras
was long revered by the Persians and the Indians (Zoroastrianism) before his
faith found it's way to Rome where His mysteries flourished in the second
century AD. Every year in Rome, in the middle of winter, the Son of God was born
once more, putting an end to darkness. Every year at the first minute of
December 25th the temple of Mithras was lit with candles, priests in white
garments celebrated the birth of the Son of God and boys burned incense. Mithras
was born in a cave, on December 25th, of a virgin mother. He came from heaven to
be born as a man, to redeem men from their sin. He was know as "Savior," "Son of
God," "Redeemer," and "Lamb of God." With twelve disciples he traveled far and
wide as a teacher and illuminator of men. He was buried in a tomb from which he
rose again from the dead -- an event celebrated yearly with much rejoicing. His
followers kept the Sabbath holy, holding sacramental feasts in remembrance of
Him. The sacred meal of bread and water, or bread and wine, was symbolic of the
body and blood of the sacred bull.Baptism in the blood of the
bull (taurobolum) – early Baptism "washed in the blood of the Lamb"
– late Baptism by water [recorded by the Christian author Tertullian
Mithraic rituals brought about the transformation and Salvation of His adherents
--an ascent of the soul of the adherent into the realm of the
divine.Yes, the ex-pagan Constantine and Paul were quit aware of
all of this and it was that much easier to bring the pagan Gentile people into
this new religion called Christianity. Contrary to popular belief, the ancients
were not an ignorant and superstitious lot who actually believed their deities
to be literal characters. This has been part of the conspiracy to make the
ancients appear as if they were truly the dark and dumb rabble that was in need
of the "light of Jesus." The reality is that the ancients were no less advanced
in their morals and spiritual practices, and in many cases were far more
advanced, than the Christians in their own morality, which in its very attempt
at historicity, is in actuality a degradation of the ancient
myths."In addition, all over the world are sites where this "god"
or that allegedly was born, walked, suffered, died, etc., a common occurrence
that is not monopolized by, and did not originate with, Christianity. At the
time of Jesus of Nazareth, as for centuries before, the Mediterranean world
roiled with a happy diversity of creeds and rituals. Details varied according to
location and culture, but the general outlines of these faiths were
astonishingly similar. Simply put, the ancients' gods:a. Were
born on or very near our Christmas Day b. Were born of a
Virgin-Mother c. Were born in a Cave or Underground Chamber.
d. Led a life of toil for Mankind. e. Were called by the
names of Light-bringer, Healer, Mediator, Savior, Deliverer. f. Were
however vanquished by the Powers of Darkness. g. And descended into
Hell or the Underworld. h. Rose again from the dead, and became the
pioneers of mankind to the Heavenly world. i. Founded Communions of
Saints, and Churches into which disciples were received by Baptism.
j. Were commemorated by Eucharistic meals. Many
professors of modern and past times cannot help but conclude that Jesus is based
on pagan deities of old. Among these scholars number individuals such as Porphry
(3rd Century), Max Muller, Ernest de Bunsen, Joseph Wheless, Albert Churchward
(all of the 19th Century), and T.W. Doane (20th Century). Even Pope Leo X, privy
to the truth because of his high rank, made this curious declaration, "It was
well known how profitable this fable of Christ has been to us" ("The Diegesis"
by Rev. Robert Taylor, footnote, p. 35).Going back even to
Sumeria, 2,000 or so years BEFORE Greece, in the legend of Gilgamesh, and showed
up in many pagan mythoes; a god dying to cleanse peoples' sins shows up in
Persian myths (as well as in Buddhism and Hinduism); and on and on.
But the STORIES of Jesus and many of the teachings are exactly the
same as the stories told in Hinduism and Buddhism. There are scholars who are
saying there is not a single original thought in Christianity. These scholars
are now saying there are FEW things taken from Tanakh. Predominantly, the
teachings and myths of Christianity are Buddhist and Hindu.To
conclude, in light of the tremendous volume of evidence that is there for anyone
interesting in taking the time to read it, the underlying question of whether or
not Christianity is simply the heir of pagan beliefs prevalent at the time of
its development, is not a question that can simply be ignored by any Christian
when pondering the origins of his/her faith.References were taken
from:The World Book Encyclopedia; Library of the World’s
Myths and Legends (Persian Mythology); Stories of the Bible on TV –
Historians; J.M.Robertson, T.W.Doane, F.Cument, J.G.Frazer; The Origins of the
Mithraic Mysteries by David Ulansey
26.13.3.3 Account 3
The history of sun worship, so seemingly foreign to the Western mind
has, in fact, manifested itself into Christianity in many ways as the story of
Jesus in the Gospels. So little was known about the life of Jesus, any and all
writing styles from Midrash (searching past scriptures for "hints" of how they
might apply to the present) to discerning the story of the Zodiac and its
constellations were used to fill in what was clearly missing in the literal
record.[2463]Consider
our "modern" terms, Horizon and Sun Set. These terms belie their ancient
history. Horus-sun (Horizon) was sunrise as Horus was the Egyptian god of light
and the day light portion of the 24 hour cycle. Set, was the god of darkness and
night. He came on the scene at "Sun Set" and is the Jackal headed god of the
Egyptian underworld. When we say “what a beautiful Sun Set,” we
don't realize we are speaking as one might in ancient Egypt. Darkness was the
time of Set, god of darkness. Night time was not a good time in most ancient
mythologies. This is why many a priest stood every morning acting as if by
incantation and arm waving, he could bring back the Sun/Son from the Underworld
of darkness and fear. The sun descending into hell is something it did every
Sun-Set. There was relief every morning when the sun/son was
reborn.Set murdered Osiris and in turn, Horus, son of Osiris,
killed Set. Sunrise on the Horus-Sun defeats the night which began at Sun Set.
Pretty cool huh? Jesus struggles with Satan (Set or Sata) in just the same way
Horus battles with Set. It's all dualism. It's Light and Dark, good and evil,
God and Satan.“Set kills Osiris and scatters his body, then
claims the throne of the gods for his own. He is later struck down by Horus, the
son of Osiris, who restores order to the world and sets up the pharaohs as the
guardians of Maat. Set and Horus continue to battle for control of the world,
setting up an epic conflict of good versus evil.” (Light and Dark) David
C. Scott Website. Gods and Mythology of Egypt.Consider the fact
that Jesus is surrounded by 12 disciples and the events of Jesus life are like
the Sun of God surrounded by the 12 signs of the Zodiac that make up the way of
the sun across the heavens in one year. Just as the 12 sons of Jacob and the 12
tribes of Israel are astro-theology personified and are in fact references to
the zodiac and the story it tells. We might not watch the heavens anymore, and
we know precious little about the zodiac, the characters and the revolving story
they tell, but our ancestors read the heavens as we read books
today.For instance, many of the world's crucified god men have
their traditional birthday on December 25th (“Christmas”). This was
a basic understanding we had in WCG and was not off the mark. Today, there is
many times more material to show this connection.This is because
the ancients recognized that (from an earthcentric perspective) the sun makes an
annual descent southward until December 21st or 22nd, the winter solstice, when
it stops moving southerly for three days and then starts to move northward
again. During this time, the ancients declared that "God's sun" had "died" for
three days and was "born again" on December 25th. So Xmas really is the Birthday
of the SUN/SON in every way.The ancients realized quite
abundantly that they needed the sun to return every day and that they would be
in big trouble if the sun continued to move southward and did not stop and
reverse its direction. Thus, these many different cultures celebrated the
“sun of God's” birthday on December 25th.In reality,
the sun “dies” for three days on December 22nd, the winter solstice,
when it stops in its movement south, to be born again or resurrected on December
25th, when it resumes its movement north. For those three days it might be said
the Sun is in the grave.In December, the Virgin, the
constellation Virgo precedes sunrise and thus, “Behold, a Virgin shall
bring forth the sun/son,” would be part of the story in the heavens.
Matthew literalized the story in his reaching back into Isaiah for a story about
a young woman that had virtually nothing to with prophecy of a literal virgin
birth or Jesus himself.Remember the alternative explanation of
Isa. 14 and “how thou art fallen, oh Lucifer, (light Bringer-Venus
precedes sunrise), thou bright and morning star,” (Venus). Remember how
Venus appears to rise and then descends back into the earth and how this IS the
origin of the story of Satan's fall for trying to ascend to God's Throne, which
is astro-theologically NOON. Everyone sees “Satan fall as lightening from
heaven” at one time or another during the year if you know what Venus
looks like just before Sun rise on the Horus-sun, or even shortly after
Sun-Set.Something that bright got humanity's attention and the
stories of its apparent motion followed and then were literalized by the
theologically ignorant. Venus always was and always will be a planet on the
inside orbit between earth and the sun. It behaves as it does because it is as
it is. Whole theologies have grown up around that which could not then be
explained but now can be easily explained. Once you have the true explanation,
you can drop the false one.The Jesus story in the gospels may
also be the story of the Sun/Son of God.The sun is the
“Light of the World.” Just as Jesus.The sun "cometh on
clouds, and every eye shall see him." Just as Jesus.The sun rising in
the morning is the "Savior of mankind." Just as Jesus.The sun wears a
corona, "crown of thorns" or halo. Just as Jesus.The sun "walks on
water." Just as Jesus.The sun can turn water (rain) into wine
(grapes) Just as Jesus.The sun's "followers," "helpers" or
"disciples" are the 12 months and the 12 signs of the zodiac or constellations,
through which the sun must pass. Just as Jesus.The sun at 12 noon is
in the house or temple of the "Most High"; thus, "he" begins "his Father's work"
at "age" 12. Just as Jesus.The sun enters into each sign of the
zodiac at 30°; (30x12=360 degrees) hence, the "Sun of God" begins his
ministry at "age" 30. Just as Jesus.The sun is hung on a cross or
"crucified," which represents it’s passing through the equinoxes, the
vernal equinox being Easter, at which time it is then resurrected. Just as
Jesus.(Archarya S.-- Suns of God/The Christ Conspiracy)
The equinoxes are 90-degree positions in the year that is the angle
formed by the cross.
Consider the following.The
rejection of Cain's grain offering (Agricultural Goddess and fertility
recognition of the religions surrounding Israel) and the acceptance of Abel's
(roasted meat) offering was a symbol of the change to come in Israel from
Matriarchy and female based religion, to Patriarchy, Priesthood and cultic
temple worship and sacrifices. The story is not true, the message was clear!
Women are now property and men own them, no matter what the "pagan" nations
around practice or respect in the mysteries of the feminine and fertility. (sex
if you must know!)Little has changed in the Christian Patriarchy
since which is why for years I allowed myself to say the words, "who gives this
woman..." in marriage ceremonies. I stopped including that in the wedding
ceremony at the end. The Father always formally transferred his property to the
qualified and selected male and I had to be the priest in the middle negotiating
the transaction! Men have had way too much time to screw up the planet and it's
time perhaps to let the feminine spirit restore the right side of the brain in
humans! Its time to act as the one we really all are in spite of that which
divides us.The physical sun has always fascinated human beings.
It "rises" in the east to bring it's warmth, light, and "sets" in the West,
plunging the world into darkness with all the associated insecurities and
dangers. It was truly a miracle and a most welcomed relief when every morning,
the Sun rose from the land of the dead to bring it's light and protection for
yet another day. It's cycles and apparent motion through the constellations has
told the story of mankind for thousands of years, with all our hopes and fears.
The physical Sun has been much of the inspiration of the spiritual son
mythologies.We're all still sun/son worshippers at
heart.
26.14 Neoplatonism
Neoplatonism believed in the One Good, transcending being and thought, and
unknowable. This bears some similarity to the kabbalistic idea of the Ayn Sof.
G-d says in the Torah, “I am that I am.” which is the a Jewish
source of ‘Without End’. Still Judaism emphasizes that G-d is
knowable as well. Knowing G-d is to know all his names.
Neoplatonism
also believes in concentric spheres circling each other from the abstract
sublime closest to the unknowable Good with the crude physical world in the
center closest to us.
[2464] The
material world that is farthest from the Good is the source of evil.
The Neoplatonic One or Good is a transcendent, infinite, productive
goodness, and freedom attainable through mystical experience. The One
distributes Love – Eros to all souls; this love in turn leads each soul
back with intellectual and moral effort on the part of these souls toward
mystical union with the One. In the Enneads, Plotinus presents a ordered
structure of living reality eternally proceeding from the One and descending in
continuous stages from the Nous or Divine Intellect with its living forms,
through the soul, with its different levels of experience and activity to the
last and lowest realities, the forms of the bodies. This resembles the fives
souls of man defined in Judaism as Yechidah, Chaya, Neshama, Ruach, and Nefesh
where Nefesh is the body. Emanations from G-d in Neoplatonism include the 365
aeons. Whether the sefirot manifest by emanation varies in kabbalistic
texts.
[2465]Text
26-61: Moshe Idel’s Sefirotic Ideas
Sefer ha-Bahir presents a mythically oriented picture of the Sefirotic
pleroma, whereas R. Isaac the Blind gives a much more complex theory of the
emergence of the Sefirot from the depths of divinity, betraying a deep
speculative tendency probably influenced by Neoplatonic thought.
Other ideas include asceticism, contemplation,
and the monastic life. Knowledge of the One in light and darkness is possible.
The One strives to see its reflection in the ascendant human. The One is beyond
all description and is unknowable. Origen was one of the early Neoplatonists
and lived Caesaria, Israel.
26.15 Pythagoreanism
Pythagoras lived around 580 BCE in the area of Samos, Ionia. He believed
the truth of the human is an occult self: the soul or psyche. This was an
opposing force to the physical self. Concomitant to this notion of a separate
and distinct soul was a belief in transmigration,
reincarnation, and the
kinship of all things. As the true self was finally independent of its specific
embodiment, it self-persisted, until purified, through successive incarnations.
The Soul if freed from physicality was capable of immortality in the realm of
the divine. These ideas are traceable to Northern and Indo-Iranian cultures as
well. Principles include harmony of the spheres, limit (peras) and the
unlimited (apeiron), number and ratio, the platonic number. Self exists beyond
the empirical personality. Freedom is gained in a realm apart from a this,
worldly existence, that the route of salvation was away from life and involved a
process of disentanglement from the world’s historical conditions. The
“more” to life is not more in this world, but liberation, to a life
in another world.
Judaism parallels many of the ideas, but there is
greater emphasis on the importance of life in this world. The Jewish idea of
‘gilgalim’ resembles transmigration for the purpose of additional
purification in each lifetime, until one is able to attach to the
divine.
Pythagorean magic involved bringing the spirit of God down into
an idol, which the magician would use for divination. He held great
significance to the number four, the size of the bottom row of the
tetraktys, the sacred decad, which resembled ten bowling pins. The
tetraktys, the perfect triangle, consisted of rows with size 1+2+3+4 = 10. He
believed in the cosmos, the beauty of order, developed a doctrine of opposites,
a belief in keeping to secrecy, and the harmony of the spheres. Pythagoras
taught by pregnant, cryptic
akousmata ("something heard") or
symbola. These became sacred discourses passed on in from the
4
th century. During his lifetime, a symbol of three yods in a
triangle symbolized the
tetraktys.
[2466]Figure
26-4: Tetraktys - the “sacred
decad”
The Pythagoreans believed in a specific meaning to each of the first
ten principle numbers. Numerology holds a similar position though with
different meanings and up to the number one hundred. Jewish kabbalah does not
pursue this. The sefirot in Jewish kabbalah are the source of the ten numerals
as opposed to being the ten
numerals.
[2467] Here is an
example of these
associations:
[2468]
For the Pythagoreans even abstracted things "have" their number:
"justice" is associated with the number four and with a square, "marriage" with
the number five, and so on.Aristotle followed up on the Pythagorean
idea and describes the
associations.
[2469] Though they
have some similarity with the Tarot they differ from Jewish kabbalah in most
cases and apply only to the first ten numerals, which held a source status to
the Pythagoreans. While in Jewish kabbalah the ten sefirot are in three
columns, the Pythagoreans with the doctrine of opposites saw them five opposite
five or in two columns. Jewish kabbalah sees each sefira in the central column
leaning towards one side or the
other.
[2470]In summary,
Pythagoreanism included ideas
of:
[2471]
Text
26-62: Principles of Pythagoreanism
(1) the metaphysic of number and the conception that reality, including
music and astronomy, is, at its deepest level, mathematical in nature; (2) the
use of philosophy as a means of spiritual purification; (3) the heavenly destiny
of the soul and the possibility of its rising to union with the divine; (4) the
appeal to certain symbols, sometimes mystical, such as the tetraktys, the golden
section, and the harmony of the spheres (to be discussed below); (5) the
Pythagorean theorem; and (6) the demand that members of the order shall observe
a strict loyalty and secrecy.Pythagoreanism continued to evolve
after the death of
Pythagoras.
[2472]
After 350 BC the Academics of the next generation continued
"Pythagorizing" Platonic doctrines, such as that of the supreme One, the
indefinite dyad (a metaphysical principle), and the tripartite
soul.
The indefinite dyad is the principle of opposites that define
each other.
26.16 Sumerian
Enki (en - lord ki - earth) who became Akkadian Ea had the sacred number
40. He is called the lord of the abyss being the oceans on the earth. Not
coincidentally, the Noah flood story lasts 40 days. Ki is life force in Asian
Tao, probably connecting to Sumerian
ancestry.
[2473]The flood
story is known throughout the world even in S. America suggesting it was brought
across the Bering Strait migration 12,000 years ago. William F. Albright
discusses this to show that religious concepts date back long before
civilization. Now the Gilgamesh is not the only early flood story.
Enki
parallels many of the qualities of Aquarius, depicted with streams of water at
each of his arms, and a nurturing, compassionate
quality.
[2474]Figure
26-5: Colored Enki
26.17 Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism believes in praying to one god while accepting a pantheon of
gods. The three Magi or wise men in Christianity were Zoroastrians since this
religion calls their disciples magi. The name of the main god is Ahura Mazda
who is creator of heaven and earth, light and darkness, day and night. The
fallen deities or daivas are demons. They are the progeny of bad thought,
untruth, or pride. This is similar to a Jewish idea that desires manifest
angels. The fallen angel idea, prominent in Christianity with traces in Judaism
is similar. The world is created in six stages:
- Sky made of rock crystal
- Water
- Earth
- Vegetation
- Animal life
- Humanity
A great mountain range surrounds the land linked
to a central mountain, Mount Hara, located at the center of the earth. This is
similar to the Jewish idea that Mount Mariah, the Temple Mount, is the center of
our world with all minerals flowing to the rest of the world from this source.
The Jewish development of an elaborate hierarchy of angels parallels the
Babylonian exile (sixth century BCE) and ideas of
Zoroastrianism.
[2475]The
Zoroastrian myth of the cosmic battle between Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu with
their armies of angels and devils influenced the angelology and demonology of
the Apocrypha, Essene scriptures, and New Testament, which in turn influenced
later Jewish, Christian, and Islamic thought. During this age the “Lord
of Hosts” and warrior angels fight against the forces of evil led by Satan
who assumes characteristics of the archfiend, Angra Mainyu. Zoroastrianism had
concepts of life after death on earth, in heaven, and in hell. The role of
angels is to praise and serve God, reveal divine truth, act as extensions of
God’s will, rewarding the good, punishing the wicked, and conducting the
souls of the righteous to heaven. In Tobit, Raphael a guardian angel has some
similarity with Zoroastrian Fravashis—
guardian angels or ancestral
spirits who act as guards or guides of souls to heaven and assistants to Ahura
Mazda in the creation of the world and defenders of heaven. Parallel
Zoroastrian archangels also found in Hebrew writings include:
- Michael (like God) the warrior leader of the heavenly host from the
Bible.
- Gabriel (man of God) the heavenly messenger from Daniel 8:16.
- Raphael (God has healed) from the Apocrapha.
- Uriel (God is my light) from 2 Esdras.
Nevertheless the
idea of a host of angels parallels more Gnostic thought.
[2258] See
30.18 Sefer
Zerubabel[2259] See
30.21 The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
p.1276
[2260] sic, The
Veneration of Divine Justice, The Dead Sea Scrolls and Christianity, Roy A.
Rosenberg, 1995, p.29
[2261]
van der Toorn, K. et al., Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible. Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing, 1996, entry Zedeq, p.930 and Dictionary of ancient deities
By Patricia Turner, Charles Russell Coulter:
http://books.google.com/books?id=jEcpkWjYOZQC&printsec=frontcover
[2262]
Canaanite
[2263] Sometimes a
daughter, alluding to
tzedakah
[2264] http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0002_0_01531.html
[2265] The Sharei Orah
associates tzedek with malchut and rainfall, while tzadik with yesod and
righteousness. The Bahir associates it with the Shechinah, the Divine presence.
Tzadik associates with Gevurah and judgment. Yesod and Malchut are unified in
the ideas of tzedek and
tzedakah.
[2266] See
17.3 Bahir Sefirot Arrangement p.632 Also See
Bahir 120 in
30.10.3 and Isaiah
45:8 is explained in
2.24 Malachi[2267]
http://bulfinch.englishatheist.org/da/Synoptical-Table.htm[2268]
30.22 Origines Judaicae by William Frederick Cobb
out of copyright on Google books:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=3&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.com%2Fbooks%3Fid%3DVOyfAAAAMAAJ%26pg%3DPA36%26lpg%3DPA36%26dq%3Dmenotheism%26source%3Dbl%26ots%3Dqeh6ZOF4gr%26sig%3Dp4fPQJtwQtEP8nbsK8iMdtCKIRs%26hl%3Den%26ei%3Dw-iOSrDJK8mptge6-ejOBA%26sa%3DX%26oi%3Dbook_result%26ct%3Dresult%26resnum%3D3&ei=w-iOSrDJK8mptge6-ejOBA&usg=AFQjCNGGNELDnKimgk_5oC0EzM4Vk1-XFg
[2269] See
Text 26-3: Mercury son of
Jupiter[2270] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marduk,
http://www.coldwater.k12.mi.us/lms/planetarium/myth/Draco.html
[2271] Better, son of the
Sun.
[2272] Alternatively,
Çüdüq is Jupiter in its straight slow course seen at the
same hour traveling across the nightly
sky.
[2273]
Hittites
[2274] On the
Babylonian temple “The storied tower of Birs Nimrud counts seven of these
quadrangular platforms painted in seven colors, black, white, yellow, blue,
scarlet, silver, and gold, and in the same order sacred to the stellar gods,
Adar (Saturn), Ishtar (Venus), Merodach (Jupiter), Nebo (Mercury), Nergal
(Mars), Sin (the Moon), Shamash (the Sun).” New Advent Catholic
Encyclopedia:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02177b.htm
[2275]
See
26.1.1.1 Sunrise p. 868 concerning
misor.
[2276] Psalm 85:14, See
Footnote
150[2277]
From the Sumerians, but he was son of a solar deity
there.
[2278] See
Text 26-47: Pre-Christian Resurrected
Gods p.922
[2279] The
exaltation of Shem is Melchizedek. Tradition holds he was born circumcised.
Hanoch became Metatron. Elijah became Sandalfon. Nevertheless etymologically,
Seth is Set – Sutech and
Çüdüq. See
26.4.
[2280]
http://books.google.com/books?id=YTMqAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=&f=false
The beginnings of history according to the Bible and the traditions of Oriental
Peoples From the Creation of Man to the Deluge, By François Lenormant,
Professor of Archaeology at the National Library of France, p.260,
1882
[2281] Its Sumerian not
Akkadian and means “calf of the
Sun”.
[2282] Coincides
with the astrological sign of the scales and l’havdil the judgement
holiday of Rosh
Hashanah.
[2283] The Meaning
of the Dead Sea Scrolls, A. Powell Davies,
p.65.
[2284] After the
rabbinical Babylonian
traditions.
[2285] See
Text 2-186: Jeremiah on Everyone Helping
Each Other to ‘Know the Lord’ Jeremiah
31:31
[2286] See
2.8.3 King David and Avishalom
p.118
[2287] http://avalon100.tripod.com/Mercury.html
[2288] Ea is Akkadian while
Enki from the Sumerian -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enki
[2289]
See
Text 26-2: Origins of tzedek
p.281. Also see
http://www.crystalinks.com/sumergods1a.html. UTU (sun) was
the son of moon god Nanna and goddess Ningal. UTU was the god of the sun and
justice. He rises in “the mountains of the east” and sets in the
“mountains of the west”. He carried a pruning saw to cut through
the mountain from which he arose at dawn. The Sumerian spelling AMAR.UTU means
“calf of the sun”. Finally, UTU is Shamash (sun) in Akkadian.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utu
[2290] http://www.askwhy.co.uk/judaism/0235Marduk.php
[2291] http://users.cwnet.com/millenia/clan.htm
[2292] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cradle_of_Civilization
[2293] http://www.asknoah.org/HTML/descendants_of_noah.html
Rashi’s comment on Genesis 12:6, “and the Canaanites were then in
the land: He [the Canaanite] was gradually conquering the Land of Israel from
the descendants of Shem, for it fell in Shem’s share when Noah apportioned
the land to his sons, as it is said (below 14: 18):“And Malchizedek the
king of Salem.” Therefore, (below verse 7): And the Lord said to Abram: To
your seed will I give this land. I am destined to restore it to your children,
who are of the descendants of Shem. [from Sifra, end of Kedoshim]” Nimrod
being a Caananite supports this thesis.
[2294] Book of Enoch, Hugo
Odeberg, pp.131-134
[2295] Text 26-53: Chagigah 15a
p.281
[2296] Also see the end
of
30.23 Rabad and the MT in
Judaism[2297] The
Veneration of Divine Justice, The Dead Sea Scrolls and Christianity, Roy A.
Rosenberg, 1995, p.21
[2298]
Artifacts dated to the Rulership of King Hezekiah had these markings.
[2299] http://books.google.com/books?id=n8XblpbjPTIC, yahweh and the
sun, glen taylor
[2300] http://www.lmlk.com/research/lmlk_postage.htm shows the flying
scroll of the Torah which also is
light.
[2301] http://ffoz.org/blogs/_misc/birkat%20hachammah%20hebrew-english.pdf
[2302] The Veneration of
Divine Justice, The Dead Sea Scrolls and Christianity, Roy A. Rosenberg, 1995,
p.122
[2303] 11Q13:18, Daniel
9:25, See
2.33.4 From Passover to Shavuot, the Rise of Messiah
p.202
[2304] See
2.33.1 Identity of Israel in Captivity p.198. The
Masorites accepted this text into the Tanach because “the son of
man” is a symbol for a righteous kingdom, not a divine being, versus
beastly nations as seen from verses Daniel 7:17-18. As the beasts are kingdoms
so is the “Son of Man” here.
[2305] Florentino
García-Martínez, The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated (The Qumran Texts
in English) (2nd edition; Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill and Grand Rapids,
Mich.: Eerdmans, 1996), 139-40. Transliterated Hebrew words were inserted by
Paul Sumner, based on the transcription of 11QMelch by Paul J. Kobelski,
Melchizedek and Melchiresha (CBS Monographs 10; Washington, D.C.: Catholic
Biblical Assn., 1981), 5-6.
http://site.ebrary.com/lib/utah/Doc?id=10089157 p.1206
http://www.hebrew-streams.org/works/qumran/melchizedek-dss.html
[2306] “To enable
them to leave behind all burdens of iniquity” is better. Here is a leader
that inspires the people to leave behind their ways of iniquity.
[2307] “from [the
sufferings due] to all of their
iniquities”
[2308] The
word is ‘ratzon’ and means favor not “grace” as in
Florentino’s
translation.
[2309] Similar
to Isaiah 61:2 but Melchizedek is substituted for the name of the Lord.
Melchizedek is like a messianic leader here, literally the righteous king the
people are waiting for. In the Tanach, Malki-Tzedek
is
hyphenated.
http://www.inspiredbooks.com/Chapter-4.htm
[2310] Here
elohim
means the holy ones of G-d including
Melchizedek.
[2311] Better,
‘in the midst of judges He judges’.
[2312] Also see Isaiah
63:4
[2313] Melchizedek
becomes the messenger of peace who will comfort the afflicted and instruct the
people.
[2314] Unlike most
translators who assume the object is the first word of the next verse, which is
missing in any case—I would certainly not make up the object is
‘Melchizedek’, which would be
idolatry.
[2315] The Dead Sea
Scrolls Study Edition, ed. Florentino Garcia Martinez and Eibert J.C.
Tigchelaar, Brill Publications: Electronic version:
http://site.ebrary.com/lib/utah/Doc?id=10089157
p.1209
[2316] See Beth Alpha
Synagogue Mosaic circa 500 AD from the Byzantine
empire.
[2317] Jesus Christ,
Sun of God: Ancient Cosmology and Early Christian Symbolism, David R. Fideler,
Published by Quest Books, 1993,
pp.41-43
[2318] A History of
the Jewish Experience Eternal Faith, Eternal People, Leo Trepp,
p.57
[2319] A History of the
Jewish Experience Eternal Faith, Eternal People, Leo Trepp,
pp.48-49
[2320] http://www.fsmitha.com/h1/ch17.htm
[2321] Encyclopedia
Britannica
[2322] Worshipped
at Thebes
[2323] Encyclopedia
Britannica
[2324] See
9.5.1 Amen[2325]
Based on a dream where inside a gothic stone structured house with a stone
arched roof, I encountered various gargoyle/golem beings. The third a large
broad-like man, I dismissed by recalling Shemesh and its last two letters
reversed,
שם,
reciting the formula, “By the Name of G-d, I dismiss you
forever.”
[2326]
Encyclopedia
Britannica
[2327] See
26.12.3.1[2328]
This has not always been the case as anti-Semitism flourished under Luther and
Calvin.
http://www.outreachjudaism.org/reformers.html
[2329] The suffering and
death of a deity
[2330] See
26.6.9 p. 806 and
Text 2-171: Isaiah 53:1-12 p.
153
[2331] See
26.6.17, p.
806
[2332] http://www.outreachjudaism.org/. Hezekiah said there was no
one so righteous as David. In this manner a Jew understands that repentance is
complete before G-d and there is no remembrance of sin. Hence if a Jew is
asked if he is righteous, he should say yes, as his repentance atones for his
sins.
[2333] NIV translation
http://www.biblestudytools.com/OnlineStudyBible/bible.cgi?word=Acts+7§ion=0&version=niv&new=1&oq=&NavBook=ac&NavPreviousChapter=%3C%3C&NavGo=7&NavCurrentChapter=7
[2334] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Emden and
http://www.auburn.edu/~allenkc/falk1a.html
[2335] See
2.1.2 and
30.20 R. Yakov
Emden[2336] See
“The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls” A. Powell Davies, p.128.
[2337] See
Text 24-8: Shamai and Hillel later
divisions[2338] http://www.jewishpassion.com/documents/pt_leviticus_17_11.html
[2339] http://www.mystae.com/restricted/reflections/messiah/xenochian.html
[2340] See
Text 26-24: Dead Sea Scrolls
4Q159
[2342] http://www.tagnet.org/adventist.fm/articles/divorce.htm
[2343] See
http://www.ebionite.org/
[2344] Because he has become
bittul – nullified, one can hear His
Will.
[2345] See
Text 11-1: Sanhedren 98b on the Names of
Moshiach[2346] Peahs are
long side burns or ear-locks. This alludes the righteousness of the
person.
[2347] Nevertheless,
the ability to praise Israel and deride Israel has been extended to
angels.
[2348] The authority
to forgive sin is not transferred to angels
either.
[2349] See
Christianity
, the 5
th sect of Judaism in
Text 10-25: The Personification of
Evil[2350] Michael
Walton, 3/23/2001
[2351] Old
Testament Light, Lamsa, page 175. The phrase “died for the sins”
distorts the payment idea of
CaPaRaH.
[2352] http://www.wordwiz72.com/atone.html[2353]
Methodist view.
http://www.veronaumc.org/sermons/Scapegoat.htm
[2354] Mormon view. King of
Kings, Bruce Porter,
http://deseretbook.com/mormon-life/study/one-article?article_id=347&page=2
[2355] The Atonement
Infinite in Depth, Tad R. Callister,
http://deseretbook.com/mormon-life/study/one-article?article_id=1375
[2356] Peggy
Shadel
[2357] Text 2-171: Isaiah
53:1-[2358] http://www.menorah.org/tsmbj13.html. This site illustrates
authentic Jewish Christian messianic ideas with
Christianity
as the 5
th sect of Judaism.
These will not include scapegoat
,
human sacrifice atonement, which is a very literal-non-Jewish
idea.
[2359] Email discussion
source
[2360] When G-d is
creator of the world, nourishing us when we are along, or encouraging our study
of Torah. Ultimately G-d’s name is Binah, understanding, when She is our
Wife.
[2361] English
salvation is from sin. Hebrew salvation is to be rescued from
persecution.
[2362] Nofel
means to fall and has a minor value of 16. Also the falling tower in tarot or
numerology is 16.
[2363] The
serpent – 358 plus one transformation equals adversary -
359.
[2364] The pole is not
to be confused with the Staff of Moses, which is a branch from the Tree of
Life.
[2365] Genesis
3:24
[2366] This is an LDS
concept reflecting the Mormon tabernacle choir in
heaven.
[2367] Nasei as in
Isaiah 53 meaning to lift and
remove.
[2368] This technique
is a form of astral projection for a heavenly being. In this manner it leaves
its plane of existence while still attached with a silvery cord to its essence.
The hand of the visionary becomes this
cord.
[2369] This is
HaMakhtesh HaGadol in the Negev southeast of Beer
Sheva.
[2370] In a
metaphorical way, i.e. no virgin
birth
[2371]
12/23/2001
[2372] http://www.basictheology.com/forums/PrintPost.aspx?PostID=457
[2373] From The Stone Age to
Christianity, William Foxwell Albright, Second Edition, Doubleday Anchor Books,
1957, pp.378-380: “There are a number of points, into which we shall not
enter here, which make it very probable that Atrakhasis, the recurrent
Mesopotamian savior of mankind from catastrophe, son of the god Ea, yet
explicitly called ‘man,’ was actually fused in Jewish-Aramaic
tradition with the figure of the Messiah, as reconstructed from messianic
prophecies in the Old
Testament.”
[2374] Dan
Marriott, 1/11/02
[2375] Ezra
Taft Benson, Ensign, May 1988,
p.53.
[2376] Jewish teachers
must emphasize this priority to rescue the Jewish people from dwindling
away.
[2377] Postponing
marriage
[2378] http://chass.colostate-pueblo.edu/history/seminar/hyde/hydepaper.htm;
http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=14054
[2379] “Bones of
Contention”, Sara Leibovich-Dar, Haaretz Daily, November 8,
2002
[2380] Talmud Avodah
Zarah 16b-17a
[2381]
Hitler’s Pope, John
Cornwell
[2382] Copyright
Vanity Fair, 1999 Reprinted for educational and non-commercial purposes
only
[2383] http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/adam_kadmon.html
[2384] http://www.christ-centeredkabbalah.org/K-Tran/GateOfReincarnations5703.htm
[2385] The World of the
Bible, Roberta Harris,
p.151
[2386] Ibid,
p.152
[2387] “All have
the inscription Ptolemaiou (left) and either Basileos (king) or Soteros (savior)
on the right.” The Biblical Archaeologist, O. R. Sellers,Vol. 25, No. 3
(Sep., 1962), pp.
87-96
[2388] Asimov’s
Guide to the Bible, The New Testament, Isaac Asimov,
p.119
[2389] See
30.17 The Midrash of Shemhazai and Aza'el
[2390] Wilcox lecture,
12/02/2003
[2391] Within the
context of C.S. Lewis
[2392]
Early Christianity
does not believe in incarnation or
trinity.
[2393] See
Isaiah
53:1-[2394] Moses our
teacher
[2395] Midrash
Tanhuma, Va-yakhel 7 quoted in An Introduction to Kabbalah,
p.198
[2396] Ibid,
p.198
[2397] Space, Time and
Incarnation, Thomas Forsyth
Torrance
[2398] Legends of
the Jews, Louis Ginzberg, vol.3,
ch.51
[2399] See
26.6.10.4[2400]
See
30.1.9.3[2401]
See
30.1.10[2402]
See
5.4.3 and also see
30.1.9.3.
[2403] Derech Hashem, Rabbi
Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, translation by Aryeh Kaplan Feldheim Publishers,
Jerusalem, 1977, pp 123-125. “Written in the early eighteenth century,
Derech Hashem is a "classic" in Torah literature and is used in Orthodox
Yeshivas throughout the world.”
http://www.yashanet.com/studies/revstudy/text/r14_1a.htm
[2404] See
17.7 Transposed Tree of
Live[2405] Your God is
Too Small, J.B. Phillips,
p.98
[2406] See
Text 7-6: Guard One’s Tongue to
Guard All Life[2407] The
Book of Legends, Sefer Ha-aggadah, ed. Hayim Nahman Bialik and Yehoushua Hana
Ravnitzky, R. Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, 99,
p.224
[2408] Within a Sukkah
on Shemini Etzeret – Eighth Closing Day, an extra holiday, before we
return to the mundane
world.
[2409]
Spite.
[2410] Text 2-59: Hosea
681
[2411] See
19.4 Resurrection,
p.658
[2412] The Mysterious
dying God, About.com, Alternative Religions,
http://altreligion.about.com/library/weekly/aa052902a.htm
[2413] Sol Invictus or
Dies Natalis Solis Invicti – “the birthday of the unconquered
sun.”[2414] http://www.sacred-texts.com/evil/hod/hod05.htm
[2415] Encyclopedia
Britannica
[2416] From Jewish
Magic to Gnosticism, Attilo Mastrocinque, p.79
http://books.google.com/books?id=qv6rkmFNDcMC&pg=PA79&lpg=PA79&dq=lion+headed+serpent&source=bl&ots=LsVVl-EYKW&sig=78DPtO7EwLGsdQSWkiokQB1bK6g&hl=en&ei=KlG6SrjIE-Gz8QbohK2MCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10#v=onepage&q=lion%20headed%20serpent&f=false
[2417] http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/i/ialdabaoth.html:
“The Sethian Gnostics called the creator of the (physical) world
Ialdabaoth, a name apparently derived from mystical Judaism but which in this
case indicated an inferior status. The name fitted the creator that they
described, and was practically synonymous with the
demiurge.”
[2418] http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=206&letter=L,
http://www.ecmarsh.com/lxx-kjv/isaiah/isa_019.htm
[2419] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lion-faced_deity.jpg from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnosticism#Kabbalah
[2420] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lammasu
[2421] Story of Islam, the
movie.
[2422] Scripps Howard
News Service, Deroy Murdock,
http://www.memri.org
[2423] See
26.6.21 Love and Giving
p.806
[2424] Journal of the
American Academy of Religion 1968 XXXVI(2):118-122;
doi:10.1093/jaarel/XXXVI.2.118
http://jaar.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/pdf_extract/XXXVI/2/118
[2426] Emet - Truth is also
a force of G-d. It is actually the verb form of recreation, the future tense of
death –
אמת. The
qualities of G-d are personalities and forces, not mere characteristics or
attributes of the Creator.
[2427]
Tzedek
(masculine noun) - Jupiter -
צדק is the Angel
of Light. Sometimes he is Michael, sometimes Metatron; he is the presence of
the messiah or tzaddik emet, the primordial man – Adam Kadmon. Hence the
sefirot and reconstructed partsufim are dynamic forces of G-d in our world.
Tzedek is the force of Zer Anpin.
[2428] Psalm 85:12 –
like the sun shining through to the earth. Alludes to the spirit of moshiach, a
spark in each of us.
[2429] Psalm 85:13 –
Tzedek
precedes the Lord, like a protective filter of
the light of G-d.
Text 26-2: Origins
of tzedek; Tzedek is the pathway to G-d. Also “proper cosmic
order”, Roy A. Rosenberg, Veneration of Divine Justice. In modern terms,
tzedek is translated as righteousness.
[2430] Psalm 85:14 –
Tzedakah
(feminine noun) is often translated as charity.
However, the ancient meaning is the resulting good countenance, demeanor, from
tzedek, proper behavior. The cosmic order is in harmony as tzedek places the
steps in the direction for Hashem to walk upon. The ‘tzaddik decrees and
G-d follows’ explains the special relationship that existed between Moshe
and G-d. Also see Likutey Moharan vol. 4, p.70 fn.1 on Rabbi Nachman hiding his
shining countenance and p.288 on tzedek being joyfulness.
[2431] See
26.9 and for inspiration the movie
“The Note” 2007.
[2432] Leads to goodness.
Also see
9.7 Star Wisdom [FIGURES]. Keeping G-d as the
source of all creation in mind, one can still “wish upon a star”
that resembles Kiddush Levanah – sanctification of the New Moon. Sighting
a shooting star – make a wish, a custom.
[2434] Proper
course—straight path; see
30.10.4 Bahir
75
[2435] See
30.10.430.10.3 Bahir 75 and commentary in
Text
26-49[2436] See
Text 3-30: Sanhedrin
38b[2437] See
Text 2-96: Aryeh Kaplan commentary on
Bahir 72 and 73[2438]
See
Text 26-56: Haggadah on God
Alone[2439]
Consubstantial
[2440]
anamnesis
[2441] The
Eucharist is the practice of deity consumption via wine that is blood and a
wafer that is flesh.
[2442]
Authority to forgive sin is not transferred to angel or human being, but perhaps
the ability to lift sins off another ala Isaiah 53, or the Angel of the Lord may
remove the appearance of iniquity ala Zechariah
3:4.
[2443] See
Text 26-55: Adonai connected with
Metatron[2444] See
Text 30-13: Origins of the Kabbalah,
pp. 214-216 – Gershom
Scholem
[2445]
Metatron
[2446] See
16.4 Sin
p.598
[2447] So Aher would
not jump to the wrong
conclusion.
[2448] http://www.umjc.org/torah-mainmenu-28/27-vayeira/57-5765-angels-in-the-outfield
[2449] There is nothing said
about ‘authority’ to pardon sin. Instead, Exodus 34:9 shows that
Moses calls upon G-d with this name to pardon
sin.
[2450] The text says
that R. Akiba thought that the messiah sat on a throne adjacent to G-d. See
Text 3-30: Sanhedrin
38b[2451] See
Text 3-30: Sanhedrin
38b[2452] See
10.3 The 8 Letter Name of
G-d[2453] The Meaning of
the Dead Sea Scrolls, A. Powell Davies,
p.91
[2454] Encyclopedia
Britannica
[2455]
Ibid.
[2456] The Meaning of
the Dead Sea Scrolls, A. Powell Davies,
p.99
[2457] Ibid,
p.100
[2458] The Meaning of
the Dead Sea Scrolls, A. Powell Davies,
p.105
[2459] http://www.pathguy.com/didache.htm
[2460] http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/didache-roberts.html
[2461] http://ezinearticles.com/?expert_bio=Dennis_Diehl
Dennis’ writings are quite extraordinary.
http://members.aol.com/MercStG/ChriMithPage1.html http://media.www.iowastatedaily.com/media/storage/paper818/news/2004/12/08/HotTopics/Column.Mithra.Is.The.Reason.For.The.Season-1102514.shtml
[2462] http://jdstone.org/cr/files/mithraschristianity.html
[2463] http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Original-Sun-of-God&id=93709
[2464] Platonic forms are
divine ideas. A divine form parallels every physical form in creation.
Seeking to understand Plato’s seven spheres is a philosophical endeavor.
The Aristotelian Golden Mean is an idea of balance similar to the balance
between the left and right pillars of the Tree of
Life.
[2465] Kabbalah New
Perspectives, Moshe Idel,
p.136
[2466] Harris
Lenowitz
[2467] Sefer
Yetzirah
, Kaplan commentary in
the section that there are ten not eleven and not
nine.
[2468] Encyclopedia
Britannica, Pythagoreanism – Major Concerns and
Teachings
[2469] The Greek
Qabalah, Kieran Barry,
p.29
[2470] Sefer
Yetzirah
The Book of Creation In
Theory and Practice, Aryeh Kaplan,
p.34.
[2471] Encyclopedia
Britannica, Pythagoreanism
article.
[2472]
Ibid.
[2473] http://loveenki.blogspot.com/2009/07/enki-and-history-of-humankind-1-i-am.html
[2474] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enki
[2475] Jewish angels have
names from Hebrew as opposed to Zoroastrian angels.
