08-13-2019, 09:41 AM
I spent years trying to understand the root causes of Christianity and how it could have emerged from Judaism. It only makes sense as a mystery religion based on the concept of a savior deity, the same as we see in other syncretic cults of the time. We have evidence of a couple of important conceptual strings within Judaism that could easily have produced Christianity. Quite apart from Christianity, we had the idea of the Logos as God's son and high priest of heaven (in the writings of Philo). The Ascension of Isaiah contains what seems to be a pre-Christian mystery text in which the Logos descended through the heavens and clothed itself in gradually less glory until it reached the lowest heaven, in which we exist - and where the devils are fighting in the sky for domination.
The demons encountered the Logos in glory equal to theirs (not above their own, since as the Logos passed between heavens he would give the password at the gate into the new heaven and take on the glory of that specific realm), and they saw him as a competitor for power. They killed him (in the sky) and hung up his body as a shame. He was buried and raised on the third day, all which took place in the sky. His resurrection returned his initial glory to him, and he took prisoners in all the heavens, from the first up to the sixth, where he was seated back in the highest heaven.
This seems to be the earliest form of Christianity.
The biographies we find in the gospels were a late addition aimed at turning the leaders of Christianity into friends and students of some earthly Jesus, which never really existed. Turning their doctrines into statements and parables that came from his mouth. Rooting their religion in history, and allowing them to claim that he was put to death by the enemies of early Christianity: the Romans and the Jews.
You never find Paul, the earliest official peddler of Christian thought beyond the borders of Israel, mentioning Jerusalem in connection to Jesus. He never mentions Jesus preaching, never mentions Mary, never says that he was killed by the Romans, never says that he came from Galilee. There are ZERO biographical details provided by Paul regarding Jesus. Why? These things developed after Paul's lifetime.
The demons encountered the Logos in glory equal to theirs (not above their own, since as the Logos passed between heavens he would give the password at the gate into the new heaven and take on the glory of that specific realm), and they saw him as a competitor for power. They killed him (in the sky) and hung up his body as a shame. He was buried and raised on the third day, all which took place in the sky. His resurrection returned his initial glory to him, and he took prisoners in all the heavens, from the first up to the sixth, where he was seated back in the highest heaven.
This seems to be the earliest form of Christianity.
The biographies we find in the gospels were a late addition aimed at turning the leaders of Christianity into friends and students of some earthly Jesus, which never really existed. Turning their doctrines into statements and parables that came from his mouth. Rooting their religion in history, and allowing them to claim that he was put to death by the enemies of early Christianity: the Romans and the Jews.
You never find Paul, the earliest official peddler of Christian thought beyond the borders of Israel, mentioning Jerusalem in connection to Jesus. He never mentions Jesus preaching, never mentions Mary, never says that he was killed by the Romans, never says that he came from Galilee. There are ZERO biographical details provided by Paul regarding Jesus. Why? These things developed after Paul's lifetime.