When Jerusalem was captured and its temple was burned by pagan king in 586 BCE (or 607?), it was a theological crisis for the Jews. Then a concept of Messiah (King-Priest) who will restore everything was evolved. When the messiah was murdered, it was further evolved into a teaching of ransom (as a sacrifice arranged by the “loving” Heavenly Father for the atonement of sins of mankind).
Evolution of theology
by elbib 3 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Half banana
I agree strongly with the idea that religious belief evolves according to events. It might be true to say that all things change over time.
Some things in real life do not change or change at a rate too slow to observe such as the sequence and structure of geological formations. Gemstones must be an exception to the rule of all things changing. Contrast this with the ever changing nature of ideas and beliefs.
Most certainly Jewish defeats galvanized the desire for a heroic redeemer especially in the book Isaiah, where driven by loss and impotence, the writer imagines the arrival of a glorious all conquering saviour.
The Bible from start to finish is a reflection of the thinking and beliefs of people at all the evolving stages of their cultures and ideas over time. Starting with offering the gods blood sacrifice and developing from polytheism through henolatry (worshipping one particular god) finishing in Revelation in a riot of visionary monotheism jam packed with Greek and not so philosophical mumbo-jumbo.
So we need to be mindful of language too and note that it also evolves, such as seen in the contempt put into the word pagan by the Roman church to distance itself from the true folk origins of Christianity. (Pagan simply meaning "of the village people" in Latin and by inference "the uneducated").
A significant mistake would be to imagine that the career of the Jews has any special meaning to it. The Bible is just their dreams writ large.
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elbib
Half banana,
Nicely expanded.
I liked your phrase: "a riot of visionary monotheism jam packed with Greek and not so philosophical mumbo-jumbo."
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Finkelstein
Theology is structured and cultivated by making appealing desirous expectations.
The Hebrews/ Israelites prophesied a to come Messiah to save their nation, god's chosen people and so what happened is that certain men started to self proclaim they were this prophesied Messiah and there is documentation that supports this occurring even before the birth or life of Jesus Christ.
For example the Jehovah Witnesses religion is evolutionary continuation of that established appealing desirous expectation in its structured theological teachings.