Crossy
not sure exactly what your after - ADVENTURE wise - but
nearest the sun to the 1st religion would be
the Mesopotamian Creation Myths ....
EXTANT texts goback to 1,800 BC (Akkadian) but they are probably re-writes going back to 2,600 BC. (Sumerian)
Mesopotamia is a tricky "CONCEPT"
It contais 5 sub-sets - in time order -
Ubaid - pre Sumer
1-Sumeria
2-Akkadian
3-Old Babylonia
4/5- The Other Two
For purposes here - Mesopotamia = Iraq and
Basra, Iraq = beginning of human cities ....
i.e. Sumer
faculty.gvsu.edu
The Hebrews ... don't begin till
after 2,200 BC (Abraham (UR=Sumer))
IOW - he popped out after recorded religion
(Sumer-3,200 BC) began and 99% knew Mesopotamian
religion very well
bible-archaeology.info
(I am ignoring the Minoans - the peoples
in Turkey and Egypt)
The HOLE in the Christ logic is HIS association
with the Old Testament.
i.e. if the Old Testament is rubbish - ditto Christ
- and ditto the gospel writers.
Finally - although Mesopotamia had REAL WRITING
from 3,200 BC forward - it gets obliterated
and the Alphabet (via Phonecia) does not appear
till 1,000 BC - so there is a dead-period
exceptions -
en.wikipedia.org
This is important with respect to the Old Testament
There either was or wasn't an Jewish Oral Tradition between
2,200 BC --> 1,000 BC and then written down thereafter
-or-
It got "created" after 1,000 BC with folklore thrown
in.
In any event - its messy
Genesis is an example of a "mess". Some jewish scholars
argue that Genesis was written by two tribes. And lay out
the versions (within the one text) side by side.
The thinking is - two tribes had a pissing contest (which
means two high priests had a pissing contest) and some
EDITOR intervened and merged the two into 1 document.
Ambiguities and all.
Bottom line - all of it is out of the mouths of men.
No God or Gods required.
(See Friedman - Who Wrote the Bible?)
Some OT proverbs (wisdom writings) are almost direct
rip-offs from the much earlier Sumer/Akkadian "myths".
i.e. they are not from God to man.
With respect to the new testament - who are you reading?
Nobody knows.
This will save time and might be right. Or wrong.
Mark - wrote first
Luke and Mathew copied/embellish Mark.
John is hanging out by himself.
If true - problem - Mark wasn't there.
He is writing - second hand.
Years after Christ's death - he bumped into
Peter and scribbled stuff down what Peter said.
Or did he embellish and invent?
There may have been other unknown documents
lost to history.
And who invented Luke and Mathew via Mark?
(There are a bazillion texts on this)
The backbone of the New Testament is Paul.
But Paul didn't hang with Christ when Christ was
walking around. Paul came much later.
My sense of Paul is - a combo F. Scott Fitzgerald /
biopolar - but no cam-corders or CNN to examine.
The Old Testament is full of God says kill those
and kill them. An infinite number of times.
It occurred to me that the Old Testament would be
in history's back pages - but Christ screwed up -
and made it his goto book. Actually Christ
could ONLY goto that book - because that's his
story line (David) - and there's the smoking gun.
Its a thought ....
Although the invention of the Alphabet was a pivotal
event - more important were Homer and the greeks.
In a nutshell --
Homer launched Greece -
and guys like Thales, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and
Alexander popped out .... then
Alexander had one big effect in that taking over
the world -- everyone had to play catch-up on 'thought'
including the Hebrews -
Ironically -
-- we call the greek religion mythology
-- but Socrates, Plato, Aristotle KNEW that their GODS
were THE Gods - i.e. the starters of Western civ have
had their gods thrashed ....
-- Homer via the Epic - brought religion and everything
else (poetry) to the forefront. And Alexander cemented
it world-wise.
There are 3 periods to Christanity
-- Jew only - before Paul
-- We take all - Paul
-- think like me or I will kill you - 381 AD
In closing - I have been trying to find an axiom that
says that the Universe cannot exist without life forms.
So far - on appearance only - it appears that the universe
does not require life forms in order to exist.
It also bothers me that if I landed on Mars and found
weak little creatures - I wouldn't wanna kill any of
them.
Ancient Israel - Lester Grabbe - is a good starter book (1997).
Its about Archeology - and your forced to pay attention
to timelines.
regards
John McCarthy |
