Directed toward Christians and Jews; basically just intelligent thinkers?

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My answer is not intended to attack or insult but it is the concluions I've arrived at after decades of study of comparative religion and ancient history. Ths is a good question and now that you're familiar with both religion's texts, I think this may make a bit more sense to you from a historical perspective. I am not answering as to why modern Christians have this belief, but I have come to some ideas of how this belief developed and became accepted across the ancient world.

Christianity is replacement theology to Judaism and its holy texts and precepts depend on turning the beliefs of Judaism topsy-turvy in many regards. It is so very different from the concept of the nature of God to the manner that humans relate to God and to each other.

Christianity borrowed words, phrases, and many of the stories of the ancient Hebrews, but reassigned to them meanings that are MUCH closer to the Romanized and Hellenized concepts of Roman occupied Judea. Before the Romans, the Greeks had occupied Judea and their attempts to assimilate the Jewish people out of existence did leave influence.
All of the polytheistic believers and nations were somewhat "used" to their political leaders telling them what gods were to be venerated during their rule and which deity their ruler was representative of in human form. Adding a new deity or giving a new name to an ancient deity whose belief was already established was not that big a deal for most of the Gentile population. Tanakh recorded that any time such a practice of a Jewish king telling the Jews that they were to worship a foreign deity...the entire Jewish people suffered..and often at the very hands of the people whose deity they had left God to serve. That lesson is told right in our Jewish Bible, the same one the Christians have as an adaptation of their Old Testament, yet they rarely see this in the story because their New Testament also imposes topsy-turvy meaning to the context of the stories in so many places.

Emperor Hadrian attempted to wipe out Judaism after they revolted against the previous Emperor, Trajan. He built a Roman temple to Jupiter on top of the ruins of the old Jewish temple in Jerusalem, which had been destroyed in 70 CE, and is said to have burnt the Torah on top of the Temple Mount in 135 CE .
He then renamed Judea, Palestina, a Latinized version of the name of the Philistines, to insult the Jews and eliminate the history of Jewish presence. The Philistines had long since completely assimilated into the surrounding peoples when their five coastal city-states fell around 735BCE, and the only vestiges of those ancient Agean seafaring people that the Hellenized Romans wished to claim as ancestors were artifacts and place names

Belief in a savior man/god whose blood and death atoned for the sinful nature of his people was common to many in the Levant. Original sin (born with a burden of sin ) is foreign to Torah and Judaism.

A study of Plato's Republic, particularly the portion called "The Myth of Er" gives a near verbatim depiction of the Christian concept of hell (that is not found in Tanakh) more than 200 years before the time Jesus is said to have lived.

Tammuz and Mithras were also sacrificed savior deities who had followers of apostate Jews in the North (Galilee) and areas of Paul's travels. Tammuz and the Romanized version of the Zoroastrian Mithras were both born of virgins (a concept having nothing to do with the Davidic Messiah or Tanakh) and their death was said to have brought their people reconciliation to their sinful natures. Tammuz was said to die and be reborn each spring. Tammuz worship was so widespread and it was condemned in Tanakh in the book of Ezekiel. There is still even a Hebrew month named for this pagan man/god despite such Jewish condemnation of his worship. Sir James Frazier's work The Golden Bough is useful to learning about the concept of Savior Kings that was not only widespread in the Middle east but in Europe and helped to aid the rapid spread of Christianity. Noted Oxford scholar and award winning Historian Richard Fletcher's The Barbarian Conversion: From Paganism to Christianity also helps one to understand the development of many beliefs and rituals found in modern Christianity.

At best, Christianity is a little less than 1/3 based on Jewish precept, but primarily a mixture of the beliefs of the polytheistic peoples in and round Judea and the Galilee of the first century. Only Judaism had strict prohibitions of altering or adding to the Torah or the concept of God and the path of the eternal covenant of Israel.
IMHO, after more than 40 years of study of comparative religions, I gained the most insight into Christian faith after I had also read about the beliefs of the non-Jews who adopted the Christian dogma. I recommend both of the above books along with a text from the 80s titled World Religions by Geoffrey Parrinder. They will whet your appetite for more.

Christianity has never been a unified belief, from the earliest days of the Didache (instructions to the apostles on how to conduct church affairs) there were conflicts on how much Judaic influence should remain (was Jesus a god or not?) and it was often a very nasty affair. The Gnostics were largely killed off by their fellow Christians, but some Gnostic aspects do remain. A study of the Nag Hammadi library (translations from the Coptic are online) can help you discern this
Something else to consider regarding my mention of Tammuz and it's assocation with the Romanized version of Mithras worship:
TAMMUZ
täˈməz, ancient nature deity worshiped in Babylonia. A god of agriculture and flocks, he personified the creative powers of spring. He was loved by the fertility goddess Ishtar, who, according to one legend, was so grief-stricken at his death that she contrived to enter the underworld to get him back. According to another legend, she killed him and later restored him to life. These legends and his festival, commemorating the yearly death and rebirth of vegetation, corresponded to the festivals of the Phoenician and Greek Adonis and of the Phrygian Attis. The Sumerian name of Tammuz was Dumuzi. In the Bible his disappearance is mourned by the women of Jerusalem (Ezek. 8.14).

Hmm Man/god born of virgin dies and Ishtar resurrects him in the spring...Ishtar ( Easter) spring resurrection...striking isn't it?

Sunrise services in honor of Tammuz and praying for his resurrection is an ancient heathen custom. It is actually described and condemned in the book of Ezekiel.

12. And He said to me, "Have you seen, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each one in his paved chambers? For they say, 'The Lord does not see us; the Lord has left the earth.' "
13. And He said to me, "You will yet see again greater abominations that they are doing."
14. And He brought me to the entrance of the gate of the house of the Lord that is to the north, and behold there the women were sitting, weeping for Tammuz.
15. And He said to me, "Have you seen, son of man? You will yet see again greater abominations than these."
16. And He brought me to the inner court of the house of the Lord, and behold, at the entrance of the Temple of the Lord between the porch and the altar, about twenty- five men, their backs to the Temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, and they were prostrating themselves eastward to the sun.
17. And He said to me, "Have you seen, son of man? Was it [too] trivial to the house of Judah to prevent them from performing the abominations that they have done here? For they have [already] filled the land with violence, and repeatedly provoked Me, and behold they send disgrace into their nose.
18. I too, shall act with fury; My eyes will not spare, neither will I have pity, and they will call into My ears with a loud voice, but I shall not listen to them."

This was a warning prior to the destruction of the FIRST Temple. The Second Temple was destroyed just after another man/god was being worshipped in Jerusalem. Coincidence?...Show more

The question should not only be why but why so many Jews believed that he was the Messiah and God during the time he lived and in the earliest days of the faith. Looking at it from the perspective of a 21 century Jew its difficult if not impossible to understand. One needs to take into consideration the difference that time has made over the 2 millenia.
When Christians look back we look back at what Jews believed at that time. When Jews look back they compare it to Judaism today. There was no Talmud no Kabbalah although the Sepher Yetzeria may have existed at that time none of the other works had yet been composed. Hebrew was used only in the Temple and in some synagogues. Most Jews spoke Aramaic or Greek. Hebrew was not being used except for study and liturgical use. For the most part Jews were not reading the "Tanakh" they were reading the Septuagint and the Targums. Translations of the Jewish scriptures made into Greek and Aramaic. Both were considered excellent translations then. Once the Christians started using them this would change. The Jewish scriptures had not been redacted by the Masorites yet. What was considered Scripture was different. Many books were accepted as being Scripture that are not accepted today. To get a better understanding you need to look at the Ethiopian Jews. Ethiopian Jews were separated from the rest of the Jewish Community before the time of Jesus and still accept many of these books. These books contain the beliefs many Christians have that modern Jews now reject. In fact Ethiopian Jews accept all of the books contained in the Catholic OT and many more. The reasons why can be argued but clearly much of the Scripture accepted by the Jews that supported Jesus's Messiah-ship was rejected when the followers of Christianity began to dwarf Judaism.

In regards to the pagan influences or origins of Christianity. I will say we can find the same pattern in Judaism. Clears references to Artemis and similarities to pagan beliefs in the region. An honest look will show very different contexts to these similarities and a great deal on incompatibility. There are books that claim that ALL religions are basically the same using the same logic. We know that this is not true....Show more

Deep thinking produced negative results. So I used my intelligence and decided to live my short live full of fun... so perhaps intelligent people do think deeply but have chosen not to anymore because it doesn't bring them any joy I dont get why anyone whether intelligent or dumb as a doorknob would watch anything to do with models. So that was my frivoulous answer for the day...Show more

I doubt Jewish folks can answer this, because we see that passage just as you do -- as indicating no one can replace or add to God & Jesus certainly isn't God.

So I'll leave it to Christian folks to answer.


If you step way outside theology there is an answer. Judaism was about turning ancient culture paganism (different from modern paganism) on it's head. Christianity was a reversal of Judaism that wound up right back at those other cultures -- but with a significant change of making a symbolic sacrifice, not continued real ones. Also with adoption of the basic montheistic idea from Judiasm (not purely but more than others before), & and moral basis from Judaism (again, not in it's entirety but on it's own style & terms.)

I'll add there is real upset with Judaism for this problem, so from the beginning there was a development of theology that puts down Jews & Judaism for "rejecting" Jesus. Hence one aspect in the starts of antisemitism. And the rather rude answers here from people who wouldn't hurt a fly but will ramble on about how people from ANOTHER religion from theirs are being punished by God. No live & let live gets in that idea.

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Seemore
To clarify. Moses is NOT on level with Buddha, Mohammed or Jesus. Judaism holds he was NOT the originator of the religion, NOT the one to bring the religion. The Torah says & Jews hold it was revealed by God to all the people at the same time. It's an unusual storyline so people tend not to realize it...but it is a critical theme in Judaism.

You've also got a bunch of quotes that I guarentee you are taken out of context & quite false. Any religion that claim "Jews are punished" for not adopting their religion, leave me cold & should be punished itself for hate statements. I dont' have time now, but when I've tracked down stuff like this, there is always a catch to make it false quotes....Show more

The earliest scriptures are confusing and comes across as contradictory due to the use of songs, psalms, parables and the like. Translations from ancient tongues and language into modern day text and meanings have helped to cloud further.

What is important dear Child of God, is that we not lose ourselves in the semantics of doctrine and 'hear' the core of the true teachings. Ultimately, it is your destiny to find your own truth. For only you can decide what is truth for you.

Personally, I feel we are ALL a part of God, as God is all things and no things. Much more than we can intelligently comprehend. Yeshua, David, Muhammad, Krishna, Rama, Buddha, Zoroaster, Baha'ullah, etc. came to bring God (Light, Life and Love) to humanity. For me, this is to bring God's love to all.

I wish you many blessings on your journey. May Judaism serve you most well. May God's Peace, Joy and Love always reign in your heart, mind and soul....Show more