(July 25, 2024 at 7:05 pm)Vicki Q Wrote: The clear expectation in C1 Israel was that God would act to free His people. This was generally interpreted that through force of arms the Jews would boot the Romans out, God would return with forgiveness for Israel, and a forever golden age would begin in which Israel would be 'a light to the Gentiles'.
That is pretty obvious but that expectation is something that is much older than the 1 st century.
Since the jews believe in an intervening god, a god that helps them to defeat their enemies, it is normal for them to have such an expectation.
All children (jews) hear about the wars and victories of their ancestors and they see themselves as the superior culture, the culture with the one true god.
The first story that gives us a clue as to how the jewish mind works is the story of Moses trying to free his people from slavery, from Egypt.
I would say the moral of the story is “Don’t worry about being weak and having a small army. You can beat the scum of the earth because you (jews) are the good guys and the good god, the #1 omnipotent god, is on your side.”
That kind of story is a repeated a bunch of times to the children. It is something that is part of jewish culture.
The expectation of god intervening?
That expectation would be something that is developed sometime after Rome conquered Israel.
The jewish people would be asking “How is it possible for god’s army to lose? How is it possible that a foreign country is ruling over us?”
Such questions would be directed at the priests as well.
In terms of history, in terms of science, we can flush this notion of gods down the toilet.
Priests don’t talk to any god. They would have to use their own minds and make up an answer.
The old answer has always been the same: Shift the blame on the people. “Someone among you must have sinned. Maybe it was that girl who is a prostitute. Maybe it is those guys who have leprosy or are coughing or the blind guy. Maybe it is the guy who has a very lucrative business.”
That is based on the concept of the escape goat.
One goat takes the sins of the people away. The goat is sacrificed or let out into the desert. Think of Jesus getting sacrificed.
The other goat doesn’t carry any sins and is let free in the city. This would be Barabas. Apparently, Jesus is called Jesus Barabas in some old texts. The word has some special meaning.
(July 25, 2024 at 7:05 pm)Vicki Q Wrote: So branch of Judaism appears which claimed that Gentiles were to be freely admitted to the People of God, the God-given Torah was optional and the person who was supposed to free Israel (the Messiah) was in fact crucified. Israel would remain ruled by Rome, and Judaism rebuilt around a dead failure.
I’m sure that every decade, a new messiah appeared. If he is a good speaker, he can get himself an audience or “students” or “disciples”. Sometimes, you get a few messiahs at the same time and I guess they will argue with each other.
Like I said:
In terms of history, in terms of science, we can flush this notion of gods down the toilet.
In other words, pretty words from a messiah isn’t going to save Israel.
A messiah is just a human. Jesus is not the son of a god.
You need a lot of weapons and a good army to stand up against a big enemy.
Rome will likely send its own soldiers and also countries that are allied with them.
In the end, all wars are based on who has the most resources, the most advanced technology.
When you run out of bombs or bullets or soldiers to operate those bombs and technologies, you lost the war.
