(April 19, 2013 at 7:08 pm)Minimalist Wrote: I read a little feud between bible and non-bible archaeologists some time back which basically was over the findings by the latter that there were no reliably identifiable "synagogues" in Galilee prior to the 2d century. The jesus freaks have a tendency to want to push everything into the first century but when C14 dating techniques are applied that no longer worked. As I recall in Greek the word merely suggests a place of assembly. The US senate could be a synagogue... instead of the cesspool it truly is.
Everything the believers say is a "spot all the errors" puzzle. I have only come across one rational statement about the 1st c. AD. It was to the effect, "Something very interesting happened. Unfortunately we have no idea what it was." He was expressing not only almost no evidence but that what little there is just makes no sense. Mithra, Appolonius of Tyana, Sol Invictus and other cults spring up.
In the previous century there had only been a short-lived Egyptian god cults under sponsorship of Caesar and Antony. Before that, nothing. After the 1st AD nothing new just a continuation of the 1st c. appearances. But it mostly assuming the 2nd c. reports indicates they started in the 1st c. are the only thing that relegate these things to the 1st.
For example the earliest Christian material is around 130 and it appears mature enough that it had to have started in the previous century but what it was in the previous century and even what it was by the material itself is far from clear.
Quote:Anyway, the point is that synagogues were a later addition to the mix. If there was any point at all to the OT it is that ALL religious activity was supposed to be centered in the temple IN Jerusalem. This was how the priests maintained their monopoly.
The Yahweh cult was not creedal. It was purely ritual/taboo. There was nothing to teach or learn or believe beyond what the priests could do to you if you violated their hundreds of Torah laws which made everyone guilty of something.
I think it was Ayn Rand who pointed out the objective of passing laws on everything was to make everyone guilty of something. That is what the Torah most closely resembles. And the priest kings of the Maccabes not only enforced but could impose summary execution upon the guilty on their own say so. One assumes shekels instead of stoning was an option.
Of course the ritual obligations were to travel to Jerusalem once a year to pay the temple tax. And to sacrifice which was another tax. Islam copied this but eased the requirement making it Mecca only once in a lifetime. No place in any literature are anything like rabbis mentioned. There is no indication that the peasants had to be taught anything. Any suggestion of it is total invention.
And as I have noted, the idea of having to know something of scripture is based solely upon the gospel story of the young Jesus in the temple and upon the gospel of Jesus as a child wherein he knew scripture. Unfortunately there is no indication of anything like that in all Judaism.
The closest thing to it is the Bar Mitzvah which was invented in the second half of the 19th c. It is the only jewish, christian sacrament.
Quote:A bunch of Jews "assembling" somewhere need not mean it was a religious thing. They could have been talking about what men usually talk about.
Pussy.
The more women are condemned for exciting carnal thoughts the less responsible the man for giving into them. And Minyim and Funyuns sound like the same thing.
But, yes, thank you god that I was not born a woman -- else I could not fuck that hot bitch in my bed.
Quote:I always found it interesting that the Greek geographer, Pausanias, writing a century after the alleged "saul/paul" was in Corinth never found any hint that there were any jews or xtians in Corinth in the 2d century. Of course, we have later evidence of such synagogues but that really doesn't help them, does it?
That would be a bit early for anyone to notice a difference between Jews and Christians.
But Corinth is traditionally one of the origin points of Christianity. Northern Syria and Eastern Turkey are the focal points not Palestine. I mean Sidon and Tyre were coastal cities to the west of 1st c. Galilee. if they were driven out of Jerusalem (which is hypothetical beyond any source) those would be the obvious places to settle. So would Damascus. In the other direction the densely populated Nile delta.
Enough for now. And people wonder why my website is so big.
