The tradition of the Jewish folks following the demise of Christ has puzzled Christians for hundreds of years. How might the folks of the Previous Testomony, who adopted God (albeit imperfectly), persist in rejection of Christ and exist in what seemed to be such a uniquely amoral state? Jews within the Center Ages have been infamous for cruelty and greed, and there’s even proof that they might sometimes sacrifice Christian youngsters. Some consider that the Ashkenazi Jews of in the present day aren’t the Jews of the Bible, however are descended from medieval Turkish converts, in what is called the Khazar principle. Nevertheless, genetic testing contradicts this, and Sephardic Jews don’t appear to have had a considerably higher status. In a extra theologically believable principle, Medieval Christians believed that the Jews have been cursed as a consequence of their homicide of Christ, with St. Thomas Aquinas and Pope Gregory IX saying they have been sentenced to perpetual servitude as a consequence of their rejection of Christ. Whereas that might actually clarify their lack of nationhood and the destruction of the Second Temple, it’s additionally clear that a lot of this corruption predated Christ, or they by no means would have had Him crucified within the first place. A special principle, put ahead by Ron Unz within the article Prof. John Beaty and the True Origin of the Jews, might present extra context as to why they rejected Christ, why they’ve continued to be so obstinate of their rejection, and why they appear to have such a novel streak of cultural immorality. The idea states that the majority of contemporary Jews descend from Carthaginian/Phoenician converts, who started to transform to Judaism following the Roman destruction of Carthage in 146 BC. If that is true, the implications of it prolong past family tree.
A Temporary Abstract of the Carthaginian Concept
For many who haven’t learn the article, the Carthaginian principle completely solves an odd puzzle with regard to fashionable Jewish origins. Unz summarizes the puzzle as follows:
“Most mainstream specialists appeared to quietly concede that Sand was right in arguing that by the point of the Roman Empire the overwhelming majority of the Jews residing alongside the shores of the Mediterranean have been in all probability of convert inventory, having little ancestry from the Israelites of Palestine. But the genetic proof painted a really completely different image for the foremost subsequent Jewish populations.As talked about, the Ashkenazi Jews appear to derive from Center Japanese males who took European wives within the centuries after the Fall of Rome. In the meantime, the Sephardic Jews of Muslim Spain are additionally of Center Japanese ancestry, and so they have been the wealthiest and most quite a few element of Jewry all through a lot of the Center Ages previous to their 1492 expulsion by Ferdinand and Isabella. So, if solely a small fraction of Jews had roots in Palestine, it seems fairly odd that these would have turn into the progenitors of each the Sephardic and male Ashkenazi traces. Genetic proof appears to battle with sturdy literary and historic proof.”
These seemingly contradictory our bodies of proof are introduced collectively by the Carthaginian speculation. The Carthaginians/Phoenicians have been a Canaanite folks, carefully associated to the Judeans, and so the distinction between the 2 wouldn’t be picked up by our insufficiently exact genetic testing. Carthage additionally had an enormous empire of roughly 4 million folks, and so it could’ve supplied an ample supply of converts across the Mediterranean. After the destruction of Carthage by Rome, the defeated and stateless Carthaginians would’ve discovered the faith of their religious cousins very enticing, on condition that it prophesized a messiah that will save their folks. The Carthaginians have been additionally recognized for being wonderful retailers and urban-dwellers, just like modern-day Jews, however fairly completely different from the peasants of Judea. As we are going to look at under, this principle would additionally join fashionable Jews with the Canaanite ancestors of the Carthaginians.
Folks of the E book?
“And he stated, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.”-Genesis 9:25
The Bible makes use of the time period “Canaanite” to discuss with the indigenous pagan tribes within the land of Canaan (modern-day Israel and Lebanon). The story of the Canaanites begins with their namesake, Canaan. The Bible describes how Canaan’s father, Ham, witnesses Noah bare and tells his brothers about it, quite than serving to cowl Noah up. As punishment, Noah curses Canaan in Genesis 9:25. Canaan’s descendants settle within the land of Canaan, and they’re condemned for practising incest, homosexuality, bestiality, and little one sacrifice (Leviticus 18). God finally instructions the Israelites to take away them from the southern portion of the land (modern-day Israel). Whereas some are beneath the impression that the Canaanites have been utterly annihilated, the Bible states in Judges 3 1:4 that the Canaanites within the north (modern-day Lebanon) have been allowed to outlive in order to check future Israelites in battle.
Whereas the Bible describes the folks of this land as Canaanites, the Greeks had a special title for them: Phoenicians. Carthage was based by the Phoenicians as a colony within the ninth century BC, roughly three centuries after fashionable students consider the Canaanite displacement by the hands of the Israelites occurred. Nevertheless, there’s little purpose to suppose these Phoenicians/Carthaginians have been something aside from the direct descendants of the Biblical Canaanites. Ephraim Stern, chairman of the Hebrew College of Jerusalem’s Institute of Archaeology, acknowledged that the Phoenicians have been the descendants of the Biblical-era Canaanites, a few of whom have been compelled out of Palestine by the Israelites round 1200 BC. Already, an unimaginable irony presents itself. Fashionable students subtly acknowledge that the overwhelming majority of Roman Jews by no means left Palestine, which means that fashionable Palestinians are the closest descendants of the traditional Israelites. Others have already identified how ironic it’s that your complete Zionist mission justifies itself off the declare that they’re the descendants of the Israelites, however in actuality, they’re expelling the precise descendants of the Israelites from the holy land. The Carthaginian principle additional deepens this already outstanding irony. Zionist settlers aren’t only a overseas entity attacking the true Israelites, however are literally the descendants of the those that have been cursed and explicitly ordered for removing from the land by God, in response to scriptures that spiritual Zionists themselves consider in. They do have a connection to the holy land, it’s simply not the one they need. From a Christian perspective, the story of contemporary Zionism is the story of a bitter folks trying to reverse God’s judgment upon them with out Christ, and who’ve been allowed to exist in order to check Israelites in fight. This finally ends up remaining true theologically, within the sense that Christians are the brand new Israelites and Christian societies have been seized by Jewish organizations, and it’s additionally turn into true once more actually, within the sense that Israelite descendants are actually bodily in fight with Canaanite descendants within the holy land.
Defining Fashionable Judaism
It’s generally believed that modern-day Jews are followers of the Previous Testomony, solely differentiated from Christians by their rejection of Jesus because the Messiah. The Hebrew scriptures appear to obviously level to Jesus because the Messiah, leaving Christians pissed off for hundreds of years over the Jewish refusal to just accept this. Nevertheless, the scholarship of Prof. Israel Shahak has proven that the fashionable Jewish faith consists of all kinds of unusual, seemingly pagan practices. Many have accused them of basic satan worship, however Canaanite origins might present larger readability as to the essence of their beliefs. As we coated earlier, the Canaanites within the Bible engaged in a bunch of disturbing pagan practices, together with little one sacrifice. One is perhaps tempted to suppose that three thousand years is just too lengthy for any hyperlink to stay; maybe the migration to Carthage resulted in vital change to the Canaanite tradition, or maybe the destruction of Carthage and mass conversion to Judaism resulted in an overhaul of their spiritual practices. Nevertheless, the historic document exhibits that this isn’t the case. Regardless of the space between Carthage and Phoenicia, the Phoenician Carthaginians retained an unsevered reference to their native faith, and this included the observe of kid sacrifice. For a few years it was doubted that the Carthaginians really sacrificed youngsters, however latest findings have supplied overwhelming proof that they did. An article in Haaretz supplies a helpful abstract:
“Although they dispersed all through the western Mediterranean, the Phoenicians remained united by their spiritual practices. For hundreds of years, Carthage despatched a delegation to Tyre every year to sacrifice on the temple of the city-god Melqart. In Carthage itself, the chief deities have been the divine couple Baal-Hammon, which means “Lord of the Brazier,” and Tanit, recognized with Astarte. Probably the most infamous attribute of Phoenician faith was the observe of kid sacrifice. The realm across the western Mediterranean (Carthage, Western Sicily, Southern Sardinia) is affected by burials of sacrificed youngsters, however in reality, the observe was commonplace within the Phoenician cities everywhere in the Levant. Diodorus Siculus studies that in 310 B.C.E., throughout an assault on the town, the Carthaginians sacrificed over 200 youngsters of noble delivery to appease Baal-Hammon.”
The scholarship of Prof. Ariel Toaff exhibits that this observe additionally didn’t finish with the destruction of Carthage, and that European Jews practiced little one sacrifice nicely into the Center Ages. The existence of Carthaginian little one sacrifice strongly helps the accounts of Canaanite little one sacrifice within the Bible, in addition to Prof. Toaff’s analysis, and exhibits a big hyperlink between Rabbinic Judaism and Canaanite paganism.
One other intriguing continuity is the position of Saturn in Jewish tradition. The historian Eusebius information that the Phoenician supreme deity, El, was deified because the star Saturn. The Romans additionally linked Saturn with the Carthaginian supreme deity, Baal-Hammon, presumably strengthened by the truth that Saturn ate his youngsters in Roman mythology. Roman and Medieval Jewish sources attest that no less than some type of Saturn/Baal-Hammon worship remained even after the Carthaginians mass transformed to Judaism. Shlomo Sela, a professor within the Division of Jewish Thought at Bar Ilan College, analyzed the works of Abraham ibn Ezra, a distinguished Medieval Jewish commentator, who wrote a prolonged work trying to defend the hyperlink between the Jews and Saturn. Sela wrote that this hyperlink is “traditionally vouched for in nearly all of the sources which have been offered above to reveal the persistence of the Saturn-Jewish connection from antiquity until the Center Ages. Thus, each Tacitus and St. Augustine asserted that the Jews made the Sabbath their relaxation day with a view to honor or worship Saturn.” Lest anybody suppose that this was simply Roman or Christian propaganda, Sela additionally states: “That Jewish society of the Talmudic interval acknowledged the identical affiliation is proven by the truth that the Babylonian Talmud (Shabbat 156a) refers to Saturn as Shabbetai, i.e., the star of Shabbat (Saturday).” Ibn Ezra himself didn’t deny that the Shabbat (Sabbath) was associated to Saturn, however defended it by saying that Jews rested to guard themselves from Saturn’s malignant affect, which was supposedly strongest on that day. The Jewish newspaper, Ahead, additionally admits the hyperlink, however claims that the Jews named Saturn after the Sabbath just because the Romans believed the Jews have been resting in honor of Saturn. Each of those explanations increase severe questions. The Previous Testomony clearly and repeatedly states that God blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy, and that it’s to be devoted solely to God (Exodus 20:8-11). If religious Jews relaxation for Saturn, even when we’re to consider that it’s to guard themselves from Saturn, this is able to be religiously errant on the very least. Together with that, one would suppose that pious Jews could be deeply offended by the Roman accusation that they devoted the Sabbath to a malicious pagan deity and would strenuously resist such a connection given the extreme scriptural warnings in opposition to idol worship. As an alternative, they seem to have had no drawback with naming Saturn “the Sabbath star”, casting doubt on the concept the Romans have been unsuitable about this. On condition that Jews have resisted conversion to Christianity for two-thousand years beneath monumental stress, and that they even use a completely different mathematical plus signal as a result of ours appears to be like an excessive amount of like a cross, a misnomer right here would appear like fairly the oversight.
Together with the historic proof, Prof. Shahak additionally identified one thing fascinating in his e-book Jewish Historical past, Jewish-Faith: The Weight of Three Thousand Years:
“Maybe essentially the most sacred Jewish method, ‘Hear 0 Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one’, recited a number of occasions every day by each pious Jew, can nowadays imply two opposite issues. It could imply that the Lord is certainly ‘one’; however it could additionally imply {that a} sure stage within the union of the female and male deities has been reached or is being promoted by the correct recitation of this method.”
After having learn this initially, I used to be baffled, and questioned how such an odd perception might have ended up in fashionable Judaism. With the Carthaginian context although, it makes good sense, because the Carthaginians worshipped a divine couple, the male Baal-Hammon and the feminine Tanit, as talked about above.
Assuming that the Carthaginian principle is true, the proof means that the fashionable Jewish faith is a form of hybrid between real Torah Judaism and Canaanite paganism. This ought to be unsurprising, because the Phoenicians have been a proud folks with an empire that had lasted a millennium, and so they have been in all probability reluctant to completely shirk their very own faith in favor of 1 coming from their impoverished peasant cousins. This additionally foreshadowed their eventual refusal to just accept the Christianity that the remainder of the Roman Empire (even Judea) adopted, with the bitter reminiscences of Roman conquest additional entrenching their obstinance.
The Pharisees and the Star of Remphan
“Woe to you, academics of the legislation and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You journey over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you may have succeeded, you make them twice as a lot a baby of hell as you’re.”-Matthew 23:15
By the point of Christ’s battle with the Pharisees nearly two centuries after the destruction of Carthage, the majority of the Carthaginian conversions had doubtless already occurred. The influence of this on Jerusalem was in all probability substantial, particularly given the affect that fashionable Jewish populations are likely to exert over city areas. The Encyclopedia Britannica states that converts grew to become “more and more quite a few in Palestine” throughout this era, and there have been many who “noticed a number of Jewish practices with out being absolutely transformed.”
The prominence of the Pharisees might itself have been an instance of this influence, as they have been outlined largely by their rejection of Greek affect and their keen abroad proselytizing,
“The eagerness of the Pharisees to win converts is attested in The Gospel Based on Matthew (23:15), which states that the Pharisees would ‘traverse sea and land to make a single proselyte.’”
https://www.britannica.com/subject/Judaism/Hellenistic…ury-ce so their motion would’ve been carefully linked with Carthaginian converts who resented the domination of the Greco-Roman civilization. Prof. Shahak identified how fashionable Judaism is fixated on rituals, typically with out regard as to whether God or Devil is being worshipped. This obsession with ritual over substance can also be one thing Jesus condemned the Pharisees for, and it could possibly be proof that they compromised with their new allies. One can simply think about how the Pharisees might have began off with good intentions of their mission to transform the Carthaginian lots, however discovered them extra cussed than hoped. Tempted by the wealth and energy that these potential new converts might carry them, the Pharisees primarily made a Faustian discount with the Carthaginians, downplaying variations of theology and emphasizing areas of much less controversy, corresponding to superficial rituals and the approaching of a messiah. Because of this, Carthaginian Saturnism regularly contaminated the Pharisees, and this new syncretic faith blinded them to the Messiah that will not revive the empire.
A tragic fall on this vogue would actually simply be a rhyming of historical past, because the Previous Testomony consists of many tales of the Israelites being negatively influenced by surrounding pagans. St. Stephen seems to allude to this in his speech to the Sanhedrin (Acts 7), the place he compares their actions to these of disobedient Israelites within the Previous Testomony, together with some who determined to worship Moloch and Remphan over God:
“Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I’ll carry you away past Babylon.”-Acts 7:43
Remphan (or Rephan) is the Egyptian title for Saturn. Stephen is referencing Amos 5:26 when he refers back to the star of Remphan:
“However ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your photos, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.”-Amos 5:26
Chiun is the Hebrew title for Saturn, and the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary on this verse states that Saturn was in all probability represented with a star image: “In all probability there was a determine of a star on the pinnacle of the picture of the idol, to characterize the planet Saturn; therefore “photos” correspond to “star” within the parallel clause.” It appears fairly doable that Carthaginian affect led to a revival within the utilization of this star of Saturn image, and is what led Stephen to discuss with this particular verse. When asking ourselves what this star image might have regarded like, there’s after all one very apparent candidate: the Star of David. Not many Christians appear to concentrate on this, however there isn’t a point out within the Previous Testomony of any form of “star” of David, a star image for David, or anything that might plausibly hyperlink David with the fashionable Jewish image. Theories for the origin of the Star of David are obscure and different, however the Jewish Digital Library’s web page on the subject apparently says that “The oldest undisputed instance is on a seal from the seventh century B.C.E. present in Sidon.” Sidon was a serious Canaanite/Phoenician metropolis, and the seventh century BC is only a century after the prophet Amos is alleged to have lived. The web page additionally states that Arab and Jewish sources referred to the hexagram as “the seal of Solomon” and that this connects the image with early “Judeo-Christian” magic such because the first-century magical work The Testomony of Solomon. On this non-canonical work, God provides Solomon a hoop engraved with a pentagram that permits him to manage demons, and the story ends with Solomon worshipping Moloch and Remphan in change for intercourse. This appears to be the earliest documentary supply for the Star of David, which occurs to be from the time Stephen lived and occurs to additionally hyperlink the image with Saturn/Remphan. Had been Amos and Stephen talking of the Star of David after they condemned this star of Saturn image? We might by no means have the ability to affirm this, however on condition that the oldest instance of the Star of David is from across the time of Amos, in a serious metropolis of Saturn worshippers, and its first documented appearances additionally affiliate it with Saturn within the time of Stephen, this appears extremely doubtless. It additionally appears extremely doubtless that Carthaginian pagan affect performed a task within the Jewish corruption that led to Christ’s crucifixion, as Canaanite affect did with the spurning of Amos.
What I’ll interact in now might be pure hypothesis, and it may appear outlandish, however I do suppose it logically follows from Christian perception. For those who’re a Christian, you consider that God spoke to and revealed many issues to the Israelites within the Previous Testomony, and also you additionally consider that Devil is actual and does interact with humanity no less than sometimes. Conserving that in thoughts, the Jewish Digital Library states a revealing motive behind the widespread utilization of the Star of David: “The prime motive behind the extensive diffusion of the signal within the nineteenth century was the will to mimic Christianity. The Jews regarded for a placing and easy signal which might “symbolize” Judaism in the identical method because the cross symbolizes Christianity.” Christians have lengthy seen the solar as a pure image of God, and if God created a pure image of Devil, Saturn could be a logical selection. Saturn is essentially the most distant planet from the solar that the ancients have been conscious of, and can also be fairly actually chained by its rings. In 1981, the Voyager mission made the outstanding discovery of a large hexagonal storm on Saturn’s north pole, one thing the ancients couldn’t presumably have been conscious of, which makes it very coincidental {that a} hexagram ended up representing Saturn.
In Greek mythology, Saturn was additionally chained by Jupiter, one other coincidence on condition that the ancients have been additionally unaware of Saturn’s rings. Did Devil reveal elements of Saturn to entice the Canaanites to idolatry? Did he then revive the image they created, so he might counter the cross after Christ’s resurrection? In fact that is purely speculatory, however this can be a sequence of coincidences that I feel is price pondering for any believing Christian.
Removed from being a easy origin story of the Jewish folks, the Carthaginian principle recontextualizes 1000’s of years of Christian-Jewish relations and Biblical historical past. Zionists would discover themselves the villains of their very own story, and the previous three millennia would seem like a steady story of fight between the folks of God and a depraved Saturnian cult. As an alternative of a principled dedication to the Hebrew scriptures that Rabbinic Jews declare is their purpose for rejecting Christ, the true purpose would look extra like pagan corruption, mixed with an timeless grudge in opposition to Rome and its Church, which stole their empire from them in the identical method that the Israelites banished them from their homeland. Rome succeeding the Israelites on this vogue would prefigure the Roman Church as the brand new Israel. As an alternative of becoming a member of the brand new Israel, Jews nonetheless search the previous one, utterly unaware that it was by no means even theirs. Maybe, with higher information of their origins, they may lastly discover the humility to finish their wandering within the wilderness.
Notes
https://www.worldhistory.org/Carthaginian_Religion/#google_vignette
https://library.biblicalarchaeology.org/article/phoenicia-and-its-special-relationship-with-israel/
https://www.academia.edu/38440339/Abraham_Ibn_Ezras_Appropiation_of_Saturn pg. 40
https://katz.sas.upenn.edu/sources/weblog/saturn-and-jews
https://ahead.com/information/9794/the-sabbath-planet/
https://www.britannica.com/subject/Judaism/Hellenistic-Judaism-4th-century-bce-2nd-century-ce
“The rise of the Pharisees might thus be seen, in a way, as a response in opposition to the extra profound Hellenization favoured by the Sadducees, who have been allied with the philhellenic Hasmoneans”
“The eagerness of the Pharisees to win converts is attested in The Gospel Based on Matthew (23:15), which states that the Pharisees would ‘traverse sea and land to make a single proselyte.’”
https://www.britannica.com/subject/Judaism/Hellenistic-Judaism-4th-century-bce-2nd-century-ce
https://www.internationalstandardbible.com/R/rephan.html
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/jfb/amos/5.htm
https://www.gotquestions.org/star-of-David.html
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/magen-david#google_vignette
