To: Professor Dotcomm who wrote (80791 ) 1/16/2002 1:17:32 AM From: lbs1989 Read Replies (3) | Respond to of 116753 Dear Professor Dotcomm, Christianity is not an offshoot of Judaism. In the 1st Century, Flavius Josephus, the historian, writing for the instruction of Greeks and Romans coined the term Judaism in order to pit it against Hellenism. Hellenism was understood to be the civilization, language, poetry, religion, art, science, manners, customs and institutions, which spread from from Greece its original home. Judaism was not the name of any form of religious worship practiced in Judea in the time of Jesus. Religious worship known and practiced today under the name of Judaism was known and practiced in Judea in the time of Jesus under the name of Pharisaism. The form of religious worship known as Pharisaism in Judea in the time of Jesus was a religious practice based exclusively upon the Talmud. The Talmud today contains 63 books of legal, ethical and historical writings of ancient rabbis. It was edited five centuries after the birth of Christ. The Talmud was written by its authors between 200 BC and 500 AD and had its genesis during the Babylonian Captivity. It is a compendium of law and lore. It is the legal code which forms the basis of "Jewish" religious law and is the textbook used in the training of rabbis. The Talmud, then,is the written form of that which, in the time of Jesus was called the Tradition of the Elders and to which Jesus makes frequent unflattering allusions. The Talmud in its edited version reviles Jesus, Christians and the Christian Faith. The official unabridged English translation of the Talmud with official footnotes was printed in London in 1935 by the Soncino Press in very limited numbers. Today there are two main divisions of "Jews". The Sephardim and the Ashkenazim. The overwhelming majority of world Jewry today is Ashkenazi. The Askenazi Jews trace their recent ancestry from an Eastern European Kingdom, which flourised as an independent buffer state between the Christian West and the Muslim Middle East between 650 and 1016 AD. (Khazaria) The pagans of Khazaria adopted Pharisaism as the state religion in the 8th century. The Khazars trace their heritage from Noah to Jepheth to Gomar to Togarmah to Kozar (Khazar). The Khazars maintained a degree of political independence until at least 1016 when the Byzantine Emperer Basil II and the Russian Army sent a combined force against the Khazars. With the destruction of the Khazar began the Disporia of the Ashkenazi "Jews". When non-JUDEAN groups accepted/ adopted the Pharisatic (Jewish) faith , whose primary book of guidance is the Babylonian Talmud, they also embraced the MYTH of Hebrew decent. The Khazars a Turkic/Asiatic tribe, regarded themselves as somehow of the "Seed" and the "Blood" of ancient Israel (Shem, Abraham, Jacob). If you want more information on this topic I suggest you go to Google and look up some of the key words in this note. There is a ton of information out there. Beat Regards,