7. What was the prevalent religion of the “ancient country of Palestine”?
At what time? Again, in ancient times, the Bible already tells. The Great God: EL. His son: BA’AL. The Great Godess: ASHERAH. Some of the Canaanites worshiped Molech – still worshiped today by a bizarre cult of rich white people who frequent an American resort called Bohemian Grove.
Since Christian and Islamic times, meaning for the last 2,000 years or so, some Palestinians have worshiped Jesus, some Allah, some Yahweh.
Let’s note that there are several Talmuds. Judaism, the Jewish religion based on The Old Testament, was NOT followed by the ancient Israelites, nor was it even mentioned in the Old Testament. Today there are hundreds if not thousands of interpretations of the Bible. Judaism spans from Kabbalist to spiritual lite to harshly primitive – every version exists today as its own Jewish cult. No two cults agree. Neturei Karta are arch-enemies of the Kahanists. There are “Orthodox” Jews promoting Israel, the theft of Palestinian land, and the killing of Arabs. There are other “Orthodox” Jews railing against this. There are Jews who say other Jews aren’t Jews. There are Jews who beat and imprison other Jews if they protest Israel’s behaviour in Palestine — they do the same to Zionist Jews if Israel decides to kick them off their settlements and they refuse to leave! There are Jews who think ALL Jews are sweet and victimized. There are Jews who hate Zionists and think they’re the scum of the earth. There has never been One Jew, one Jewishness, one Jewish behaviour.
Although Jews refer to their time in Spain as the Golden Age of Jewry, they always neglect to mention that they were happiest under Muslim rule. Not only have they NOT been historically persecuted by Muslims, the opposite is actually true. Jews have always flourished in Islamic countries, and have never been deprived by them of their religion. Christians, however, have not been so lenient with them.
Do you know why the Iranian Jewish population shrunk from 88,000 in 1975 to 26,000 by 1980? Many Jews feared they would be oppressed, even killed by the Ayatollah’s new Islamic government (1979), and so 62,000 of them fled! They ran! Some people like to imagine that the Jews were driven out, but that’s not the case. 26,000 stayed and never regretted it. They are happy there and have absolutely no desire to leave. They practice their religion openly and with pride, are respected by Iranians as members of a very ancient sect, and are guaranteed representation in the Iranian government.
But can you tell me: what was the religion of the ancient Israelites? According to the Books of Samuel and Kings, it changed constantly from the time of the Israelite takeover (under Joshua) right up until the story ends with Ezra 600 years later. The Levites in Jerusalem regularly tried to force their Yahweh religion on the rest of the tribes, with the tribe of Judah supplying their might. Their success rate was terrible. They never made a dent in the ten Northern tribes. In fact, they were persona non-grata. Their prophets Elijah and Elisha were rejected and driven out. The Southern religion of the Levites was totally rejected by the ten Northern tribes, and even the Southern tribes of Judah and Simeon at various times ignored these priests. A couple of kings, like Hezekiah and Solomon, gave the Levites important positions in their government, but still allowed the people to set up private shrines around the country, to whomever they wanted. Shrines to all kinds of gods were built, even by Solomon himself. During those times, the Levites found themselves powerless, and they squealed and brayed about how God was furious about it. Only David and Josiah were totally pro-Levite. They tore down all shrines and made worship of Yahweh under the Levites at the temple, the only legal religion in the land. At those times, the Levites ruled the rest of the Israelites, who had to follow their god and bring them animals and cash. This always had to be enforced by the kings. But only those two kings (David & Josiah) ever allowed the Levites all the power they wanted, which God said they should have. All over “Israel”, Israelites of every tribe ignored these guys.
As soon as any Levite-supported kings died, the people reverted away from the Levites and set up their private shrines again. The ancient “Jewish” people had no consistent religion. The Levite control, and worship of Yahweh, ordered by God himself, was only in place for a very few years, in a very small area, out of five centuries of Israelite occupation of the ancient Middle East. After Ezra (c500 BCE), Rabbinical Judaism was invented — no rabbinical writings exist earlier than him — and then the tribe of Judah had their own invention — thousands upon thousands of interpretations of what the Old Testament actually means, applied to every word, sentence, paragraph — creating millions of ideas that are not written anywhere in the Bible … all invented by the tribe of Judah, to interpret a bunch of old Levite writings and take control of the Israelite flocks. So what was the ancient religion of the Jews? The fact that the Levites wrote a book about how their religion is the one sanctioned by god, didn’t seem to have much effect on the ancient Israelites, nor does it influence modern Judaism. Only one ancient tribe followed them, Judah, and only sometimes; and modern Jews have their own religion which ignores the Levite agenda completely.
Doesn’t the Bible say that when the Southern tribes (Jerusalem) went bad — strayed away from the Levite priests — they were even worse than the Northern tribes? Didn’t the tribe of Judah sacrifice their children in the valley of Gehenna? The religion of Judaism can be so many things, depending on which set of interpretations your rabbi favours. Kahanist? Reform? Both Judaism. Two opposite sets of beliefs, among thousands. What was ever the religion of all the Jews?1
At what time? Again, in ancient times, the Bible already tells. The Great God: EL. His son: BA’AL. The Great Godess: ASHERAH. Some of the Canaanites worshiped Molech – still worshiped today by a bizarre cult of rich white people who frequent an American resort called Bohemian Grove.
Since Christian and Islamic times, meaning for the last 2,000 years or so, some Palestinians have worshiped Jesus, some Allah, some Yahweh.
Let’s note that there are several Talmuds. Judaism, the Jewish religion based on The Old Testament, was NOT followed by the ancient Israelites, nor was it even mentioned in the Old Testament. Today there are hundreds if not thousands of interpretations of the Bible. Judaism spans from Kabbalist to spiritual lite to harshly primitive – every version exists today as its own Jewish cult. No two cults agree. Neturei Karta are arch-enemies of the Kahanists. There are “Orthodox” Jews promoting Israel, the theft of Palestinian land, and the killing of Arabs. There are other “Orthodox” Jews railing against this. There are Jews who say other Jews aren’t Jews. There are Jews who beat and imprison other Jews if they protest Israel’s behaviour in Palestine — they do the same to Zionist Jews if Israel decides to kick them off their settlements and they refuse to leave! There are Jews who think ALL Jews are sweet and victimized. There are Jews who hate Zionists and think they’re the scum of the earth. There has never been One Jew, one Jewishness, one Jewish behaviour.
Although Jews refer to their time in Spain as the Golden Age of Jewry, they always neglect to mention that they were happiest under Muslim rule. Not only have they NOT been historically persecuted by Muslims, the opposite is actually true. Jews have always flourished in Islamic countries, and have never been deprived by them of their religion. Christians, however, have not been so lenient with them.
Do you know why the Iranian Jewish population shrunk from 88,000 in 1975 to 26,000 by 1980? Many Jews feared they would be oppressed, even killed by the Ayatollah’s new Islamic government (1979), and so 62,000 of them fled! They ran! Some people like to imagine that the Jews were driven out, but that’s not the case. 26,000 stayed and never regretted it. They are happy there and have absolutely no desire to leave. They practice their religion openly and with pride, are respected by Iranians as members of a very ancient sect, and are guaranteed representation in the Iranian government.
But can you tell me: what was the religion of the ancient Israelites? According to the Books of Samuel and Kings, it changed constantly from the time of the Israelite takeover (under Joshua) right up until the story ends with Ezra 600 years later. The Levites in Jerusalem regularly tried to force their Yahweh religion on the rest of the tribes, with the tribe of Judah supplying their might. Their success rate was terrible. They never made a dent in the ten Northern tribes. In fact, they were persona non-grata. Their prophets Elijah and Elisha were rejected and driven out. The Southern religion of the Levites was totally rejected by the ten Northern tribes, and even the Southern tribes of Judah and Simeon at various times ignored these priests. A couple of kings, like Hezekiah and Solomon, gave the Levites important positions in their government, but still allowed the people to set up private shrines around the country, to whomever they wanted. Shrines to all kinds of gods were built, even by Solomon himself. During those times, the Levites found themselves powerless, and they squealed and brayed about how God was furious about it. Only David and Josiah were totally pro-Levite. They tore down all shrines and made worship of Yahweh under the Levites at the temple, the only legal religion in the land. At those times, the Levites ruled the rest of the Israelites, who had to follow their god and bring them animals and cash. This always had to be enforced by the kings. But only those two kings (David & Josiah) ever allowed the Levites all the power they wanted, which God said they should have. All over “Israel”, Israelites of every tribe ignored these guys.
As soon as any Levite-supported kings died, the people reverted away from the Levites and set up their private shrines again. The ancient “Jewish” people had no consistent religion. The Levite control, and worship of Yahweh, ordered by God himself, was only in place for a very few years, in a very small area, out of five centuries of Israelite occupation of the ancient Middle East. After Ezra (c500 BCE), Rabbinical Judaism was invented — no rabbinical writings exist earlier than him — and then the tribe of Judah had their own invention — thousands upon thousands of interpretations of what the Old Testament actually means, applied to every word, sentence, paragraph — creating millions of ideas that are not written anywhere in the Bible … all invented by the tribe of Judah, to interpret a bunch of old Levite writings and take control of the Israelite flocks. So what was the ancient religion of the Jews? The fact that the Levites wrote a book about how their religion is the one sanctioned by god, didn’t seem to have much effect on the ancient Israelites, nor does it influence modern Judaism. Only one ancient tribe followed them, Judah, and only sometimes; and modern Jews have their own religion which ignores the Levite agenda completely.
Doesn’t the Bible say that when the Southern tribes (Jerusalem) went bad — strayed away from the Levite priests — they were even worse than the Northern tribes? Didn’t the tribe of Judah sacrifice their children in the valley of Gehenna? The religion of Judaism can be so many things, depending on which set of interpretations your rabbi favours. Kahanist? Reform? Both Judaism. Two opposite sets of beliefs, among thousands. What was ever the religion of all the Jews?1
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