emtyeye wrote:
Long did I wonder why the Pope and his friends dress like Roman emperors and live at approximatly the same address. Now there is a discovery that explains it:
Judea was a big problem for Rome in the first century. Slaves and others were converting to Judism for several reasons. Jews were against slavery, at least for their own people and went to great lengths to free their enslaved members. Jews refused to work on the Shabath, slaves worked every day. The Jews would not worship Ceasar, who was considered to BE "god" by Rome. And Judea was a fierce, militaristic state that openly revolted against Rome, providing inspiration to others who had been conquered. The general Vespasian went to war with them, but was called back to Rome by Nero and left his son Titus to clean up. Once in Rome, Nero was killed and Vespasian became emperor. He then was deified becoming "god" , thus Titus was literally "the son of god". Titus' campaign to destroy Jerusalem, as detailed by historian of the day, Josephus, follows the exact path of Jesus, starting at the sea of Gallilee, next to Gadara then Jerusalem. Jesus prophesises the destruction of Jerusalem and Titus actually accomplished it. The gospels were written by the three Flavian emperors, Vespasian, Titus and Dometion (the father, son and "holy ghost") as a form of war propaganda to subvert the Jewish religion and undermine it's militarism by replacing it with a pacifistic messiah who would "give unto Ceasar". The discovery is that the passages in Josephus' work "The War of the Jews" (circa 80 AD) that describe Titus' campaign against Jerusalem are a literary parallel to the campaign of Jesus in the New Testament. There are at least a dozen parallels and they occur in the exact same sequence in both texts. Both texts were written in the same part of the world and in the same time period. Jesus was Titus Flavius in disguise. Those who took up the new, invented religion would then wind up worshiping the Emperor without even realizing. Apparently, it's still going on.
Not as silly a premise as some may believe. It is not right but it is closer to the truth than may be otherwise suspected.
In Roman times up to the time of Constantinople there were many religions.
One of these was a new religion. That of Christianity.
They had their Caesar which was a living God. Jesus became out of necessity not the prophet but the embodiment of Christ too. So all the baby in the manger stories and such were added to back a claim.
Out of necessity.
Furthermore The religion a small and cultish had to be non-threatening and peaceful. Peaceful believers were not a threat to the Roman emperors, at least the later emperors.
They did something more accommodating than just preach a peaceful faith and again out of necessity, something that previous religions of old have done.
They started a process of amalgamation. They realigned holy days to "fit" with other Roman Gods - Invictus and Mitra and others.
Ever wondered as to such things as the aligning St Nicolas and where and why the Pagan Easter Bunny egg thing aligned so well. It was not fluke.
In as much that the Islamic faith is happy to count Jesus as a prophet of their God, Christians accommodated themselves by small degrees to fit in. Invictus and Mitra are no longer worshipped of course but during a time when special dates were celebrated they conformed too to celebrate their peaceful religion in ways similar and their holy days during similar times.
Their numbers built and by the times of Constantinople's conversion they had seamlessly evolved into Christianity as we know it (or pretty close to). The Roman Saints absorbed and the Holy Days kept (if not realigned).
02 Mar 2011, 7:54 am
