\n
Paper 121<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The Times of Michael\u2019s Bestowal <\/span><\/span>\ubbf8\uac00\uc5d8\uc774 \uc99d\uc5ec\ub41c \uc2dc\uae30<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1. The Occident of the First Century After Christ 121:0.1 (1332.1) ACTING under the supervision of a commission of twelve members of the United Brotherhood of Urantia Midwayers, conjointly sponsored by the presiding head of our order and the Melchizedek of record, I am the secondary midwayer of onetime attachment to the Apostle Andrew, and I am authorized to place on record the narrative of the life transactions of Jesus of Nazareth as they were observed by my order of earth creatures, and as they were subsequently partially recorded by the human subject of my temporal guardianship. Knowing how his Master so scrupulously avoided leaving written records behind him, Andrew steadfastly refused to multiply copies of his written narrative. A similar attitude on the part of the other apostles of Jesus greatly delayed the writing of the Gospels.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \n 1. The Occident of the First Century After Christ<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:1.1 (1332.2) Jesus did not come to this world during an age of spiritual decadence; at the time of his birth Urantia was experiencing such a revival of spiritual thinking and religious living as it had not known in all its previous post-Adamic history nor has experienced in any era since. When Michael incarnated on Urantia, the world presented the most favorable condition for the Creator Son\u2019s bestowal that had ever previously prevailed or has since obtained. In the centuries just prior to these times Greek culture and the Greek language had spread over Occident and near Orient, and the Jews, being a Levantine race, in nature part Occidental and part Oriental, were eminently fitted to utilize such cultural and linguistic settings for the effective spread of a new religion to both East and West. These most favorable circumstances were further enhanced by the tolerant political rule of the Mediterranean world by the Romans.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:1.2 (1332.3) This entire combination of world influences is well illustrated by the activities of Paul, who, being in religious culture a Hebrew of the Hebrews, proclaimed the gospel of a Jewish Messiah in the Greek tongue, while he himself was a Roman citizen.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:1.3 (1332.4) Nothing like the civilization of the times of Jesus has been seen in the Occident before or since those days. European civilization was unified and co-ordinated under an extraordinary threefold influence:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:1.4 (1332.5) 1. The Roman political and social systems.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:1.5 (1332.6) 2. The Grecian language and culture \u2014 and philosophy to a certain extent.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:1.6 (1332.7) 3. The rapidly spreading influence of Jewish religious and moral teachings.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:1.7 (1332.8) When Jesus was born, the entire Mediterranean world was a unified empire. Good roads, for the first time in the world\u2019s history, interconnected many major centers. The seas were cleared of pirates, and a great era of trade and travel was rapidly advancing. Europe did not again enjoy another such period of travel and trade until the nineteenth century after Christ.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:1.8 (1333.1) Notwithstanding the internal peace and superficial prosperity of the Greco-Roman world, a majority of the inhabitants of the empire languished in squalor and poverty. The small upper class was rich; a miserable and impoverished lower class embraced the rank and file of humanity. There was no happy and prosperous middle class in those days; it had just begun to make its appearance in Roman society.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:1.9 (1333.2) The first struggles between the expanding Roman and Parthian states had been concluded in the then recent past, leaving Syria in the hands of the Romans. In the times of Jesus, Palestine and Syria were enjoying a period of prosperity, relative peace, and extensive commercial intercourse with the lands to both the East and the West.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \n 2. The Jewish People<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:2.1 (1333.3) The Jews were a part of the older Semitic race, which also included the Babylonians, the Phoenicians, and the more recent enemies of Rome, the Carthaginians. During the fore part of the first century after Christ, the Jews were the most influential group of the Semitic peoples, and they happened to occupy a peculiarly strategic geographic position in the world as it was at that time ruled and organized for trade.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:2.2 (1333.4) Many of the great highways joining the nations of antiquity passed through Palestine, which thus became the meeting place, or crossroads, of three continents. The travel, trade, and armies of Babylonia, Assyria, Egypt, Syria, Greece, Parthia, and Rome successively swept over Palestine. From time immemorial, many caravan routes from the Orient passed through some part of this region to the few good seaports of the eastern end of the Mediterranean, whence ships carried their cargoes to all the maritime Occident. And more than half of this caravan traffic passed through or near the little town of Nazareth in Galilee.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:2.3 (1333.5) Although Palestine was the home of Jewish religious culture and the birthplace of Christianity, the Jews were abroad in the world, dwelling in many nations and trading in every province of the Roman and Parthian states.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:2.4 (1333.6) Greece provided a language and a culture, Rome built the roads and unified an empire, but the dispersion of the Jews, with their more than two hundred synagogues and well-organized religious communities scattered hither and yon throughout the Roman world, provided the cultural centers in which the new gospel of the kingdom of heaven found initial reception, and from which it subsequently spread to the uttermost parts of the world.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:2.5 (1333.7) Each Jewish synagogue tolerated a fringe of gentile believers, \u201cdevout\u201d or \u201cGod-fearing\u201d men, and it was among this fringe of proselytes that Paul made the bulk of his early converts to Christianity. Even the temple at Jerusalem possessed its ornate court of the gentiles. There was very close connection between the culture, commerce, and worship of Jerusalem and Antioch. In Antioch Paul\u2019s disciples were first called \u201cChristians.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:2.6 (1333.8) The centralization of the Jewish temple worship at Jerusalem constituted alike the secret of the survival of their monotheism and the promise of the nurture and sending forth to the world of a new and enlarged concept of that one God of all nations and Father of all mortals. The temple service at Jerusalem represented the survival of a religious cultural concept in the face of the downfall of a succession of gentile national overlords and racial persecutors.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:2.7 (1334.1) The Jewish people of this time, although under Roman suzerainty, enjoyed a considerable degree of self-government and, remembering the then only recent heroic exploits of deliverance executed by Judas Maccabee and his immediate successors, were vibrant with the expectation of the immediate appearance of a still greater deliverer, the long-expected Messiah.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:2.8 (1334.2) The secret of the survival of Palestine, the kingdom of the Jews, as a semi-independent state was wrapped up in the foreign policy of the Roman government, which desired to maintain control of the Palestinian highway of travel between Syria and Egypt as well as the western terminals of the caravan routes between the Orient and the Occident. Rome did not wish any power to arise in the Levant which might curb her future expansion in these regions. The policy of intrigue which had for its object the pitting of Seleucid Syria and Ptolemaic Egypt against each other necessitated fostering Palestine as a separate and independent state. Roman policy, the degeneration of Egypt, and the progressive weakening of the Seleucids before the rising power of Parthia, explain why it was that for several generations a small and unpowerful group of Jews was able to maintain its independence against both Seleucidae to the north and Ptolemies to the south. This fortuitous liberty and independence of the political rule of surrounding and more powerful peoples the Jews attributed to the fact that they were the \u201cchosen people,\u201d to the direct interposition of Yahweh. Such an attitude of racial superiority made it all the harder for them to endure Roman suzerainty when it finally fell upon their land. But even in that sad hour the Jews refused to learn that their world mission was spiritual, not political.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:2.9 (1334.3) The Jews were unusually apprehensive and suspicious during the times of Jesus because they were then ruled by an outsider, Herod the Idumean, who had seized the overlordship of Judea by cleverly ingratiating himself with the Roman rulers. And though Herod professed loyalty to the Hebrew ceremonial observances, he proceeded to build temples for many strange gods.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:2.10 (1334.4) The friendly relations of Herod with the Roman rulers made the world safe for Jewish travel and thus opened the way for increased Jewish penetration even of distant portions of the Roman Empire and of foreign treaty nations with the new gospel of the kingdom of heaven. Herod\u2019s reign also contributed much toward the further blending of Hebrew and Hellenistic philosophies.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:2.11 (1334.5) Herod built the harbor of Caesarea, which further aided in making Palestine the crossroads of the civilized world. He died in 4 B.C., and his son Herod Antipas governed Galilee and Perea during Jesus\u2019 youth and ministry to A.D. 39. Antipas, like his father, was a great builder. He rebuilt many of the cities of Galilee, including the important trade center of Sepphoris.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:2.12 (1334.6) The Galileans were not regarded with full favor by the Jerusalem religious leaders and rabbinical teachers. Galilee was more gentile than Jewish when Jesus was born.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \n 3. Among the Gentiles<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:3.1 (1334.7) Although the social and economic condition of the Roman state was not of the highest order, the widespread domestic peace and prosperity was propitious for the bestowal of Michael. In the first century after Christ the society of the Mediterranean world consisted of five well-defined strata:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:3.2 (1335.1) 1. The aristocracy. The upper classes with money and official power, the privileged and ruling groups.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:3.3 (1335.2) 2. The business groups. The merchant princes and the bankers, the traders \u2014 the big importers and exporters \u2014 the international merchants.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:3.4 (1335.3) 3. The small middle class. Although this group was indeed small, it was very influential and provided the moral backbone of the early Christian church, which encouraged these groups to continue in their various crafts and trades. Among the Jews many of the Pharisees belonged to this class of tradesmen.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:3.5 (1335.4) 4. The free proletariat. This group had little or no social standing. Though proud of their freedom, they were placed at great disadvantage because they were forced to compete with slave labor. The upper classes regarded them disdainfully, allowing that they were useless except for \u201cbreeding purposes.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:3.6 (1335.5) 5. The slaves. Half the population of the Roman state were slaves; many were superior individuals and quickly made their way up among the free proletariat and even among the tradesmen. The majority were either mediocre or very inferior.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:3.7 (1335.6) Slavery, even of superior peoples, was a feature of Roman military conquest. The power of the master over his slave was unqualified. The early Christian church was largely composed of the lower classes and these slaves.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:3.8 (1335.7) Superior slaves often received wages and by saving their earnings were able to purchase their freedom. Many such emancipated slaves rose to high positions in state, church, and the business world. And it was just such possibilities that made the early Christian church so tolerant of this modified form of slavery.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:3.9 (1335.8) There was no widespread social problem in the Roman Empire in the first century after Christ. The major portion of the populace regarded themselves as belonging in that group into which they chanced to be born. There was always the open door through which talented and able individuals could ascend from the lower to the higher strata of Roman society, but the people were generally content with their social rank. They were not class conscious, neither did they look upon these class distinctions as being unjust or wrong. Christianity was in no sense an economic movement having for its purpose the amelioration of the miseries of the depressed classes.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:3.10 (1335.9) Although woman enjoyed more freedom throughout the Roman Empire than in her restricted position in Palestine, the family devotion and natural affection of the Jews far transcended that of the gentile world.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \n 4. Gentile Philosophy<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:4.1 (1335.10) The gentiles were, from a moral standpoint, somewhat inferior to the Jews, but there was present in the hearts of the nobler gentiles abundant soil of natural goodness and potential human affection in which it was possible for the seed of Christianity to sprout and bring forth an abundant harvest of moral character and spiritual achievement. The gentile world was then dominated by four great philosophies, all more or less derived from the earlier Platonism of the Greeks. These schools of philosophy were:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:4.2 (1335.11) 1. The Epicurean. This school of thought was dedicated to the pursuit of happiness. The better Epicureans were not given to sensual excesses. At least this doctrine helped to deliver the Romans from a more deadly form of fatalism; it taught that men could do something to improve their terrestrial status. It did effectually combat ignorant superstition.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:4.3 (1336.1) 2. The Stoic. Stoicism was the superior philosophy of the better classes. The Stoics believed that a controlling Reason-Fate dominated all nature. They taught that the soul of man was divine; that it was imprisoned in the evil body of physical nature. Man\u2019s soul achieved liberty by living in harmony with nature, with God; thus virtue came to be its own reward. Stoicism ascended to a sublime morality, ideals never since transcended by any purely human system of philosophy. While the Stoics professed to be the \u201coffspring of God,\u201d they failed to know him and therefore failed to find him. Stoicism remained a philosophy; it never became a religion. Its followers sought to attune their minds to the harmony of the Universal Mind, but they failed to envisage themselves as the children of a loving Father. Paul leaned heavily toward Stoicism when he wrote, \u201cI have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:4.4 (1336.2) 3. The Cynic. Although the Cynics traced their philosophy to Diogenes of Athens, they derived much of their doctrine from the remnants of the teachings of Machiventa Melchizedek. Cynicism had formerly been more of a religion than a philosophy. At least the Cynics made their religio-philosophy democratic. In the fields and in the market places they continually preached their doctrine that \u201cman could save himself if he would.\u201d They preached simplicity and virtue and urged men to meet death fearlessly. These wandering Cynic preachers did much to prepare the spiritually hungry populace for the later Christian missionaries. Their plan of popular preaching was much after the pattern, and in accordance with the style, of Paul\u2019s Epistles.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:4.5 (1336.3) 4. The Skeptic. Skepticism asserted that knowledge was fallacious, and that conviction and assurance were impossible. It was a purely negative attitude and never became widespread.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:4.6 (1336.4) These philosophies were semireligious; they were often invigorating, ethical, and ennobling but were usually above the common people. With the possible exception of Cynicism, they were philosophies for the strong and the wise, not religions of salvation for even the poor and the weak.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \n 5. The Gentile Religions<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:5.1 (1336.5) Throughout preceding ages religion had chiefly been an affair of the tribe or nation; it had not often been a matter of concern to the individual. Gods were tribal or national, not personal. Such religious systems afforded little satisfaction for the individual spiritual longings of the average person.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:5.2 (1336.6) In the times of Jesus the religions of the Occident included:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:5.3 (1336.7) 1. The pagan cults. These were a combination of Hellenic and Latin mythology, patriotism, and tradition.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:5.4 (1336.8) 2. Emperor worship. This deification of man as the symbol of the state was very seriously resented by the Jews and the early Christians and led directly to the bitter persecutions of both churches by the Roman government.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:5.5 (1337.1) 3. Astrology. This pseudo science of Babylon developed into a religion throughout the Greco-Roman Empire. Even in the twentieth century man has not been fully delivered from this superstitious belief.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:5.6 (1337.2) 4. The mystery religions. Upon such a spiritually hungry world a flood of mystery cults had broken, new and strange religions from the Levant, which had enamored the common people and had promised them individual salvation. These religions rapidly became the accepted belief of the lower classes of the Greco-Roman world. And they did much to prepare the way for the rapid spread of the vastly superior Christian teachings, which presented a majestic concept of Deity, associated with an intriguing theology for the intelligent and a profound proffer of salvation for all, including the ignorant but spiritually hungry average man of those days.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:5.7 (1337.3) The mystery religions spelled the end of national beliefs and resulted in the birth of the numerous personal cults. The mysteries were many but were all characterized by:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:5.8 (1337.4) 1. Some mythical legend, a mystery \u2014 whence their name. As a rule this mystery pertained to the story of some god\u2019s life and death and return to life, as illustrated by the teachings of Mithraism, which, for a time, were contemporary with, and a competitor of, Paul\u2019s rising cult of Christianity.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:5.9 (1337.5) 2. The mysteries were nonnational and interracial. They were personal and fraternal, giving rise to religious brotherhoods and numerous sectarian societies.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:5.10 (1337.6) 3. They were, in their services, characterized by elaborate ceremonies of initiation and impressive sacraments of worship. Their secret rites and rituals were sometimes gruesome and revolting.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:5.11 (1337.7) 4. But no matter what the nature of their ceremonies or the degree of their excesses, these mysteries invariably promised their devotees salvation, \u201cdeliverance from evil, survival after death, and enduring life in blissful realms beyond this world of sorrow and slavery.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:5.12 (1337.8) But do not make the mistake of confusing the teachings of Jesus with the mysteries. The popularity of the mysteries reveals man\u2019s quest for survival, thus portraying a real hunger and thirst for personal religion and individual righteousness. Although the mysteries failed adequately to satisfy this longing, they did prepare the way for the subsequent appearance of Jesus, who truly brought to this world the bread of life and the water thereof.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:5.13 (1337.9) Paul, in an effort to utilize the widespread adherence to the better types of the mystery religions, made certain adaptations of the teachings of Jesus so as to render them more acceptable to a larger number of prospective converts. But even Paul\u2019s compromise of Jesus\u2019 teachings (Christianity) was superior to the best in the mysteries in that:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:5.14 (1337.10) 1. Paul taught a moral redemption, an ethical salvation. Christianity pointed to a new life and proclaimed a new ideal. Paul forsook magic rites and ceremonial enchantments.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:5.15 (1337.11) 2. Christianity presented a religion which grappled with final solutions of the human problem, for it not only offered salvation from sorrow and even from death, but it also promised deliverance from sin followed by the endowment of a righteous character of eternal survival qualities.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:5.16 (1338.1) 3. The mysteries were built upon myths. Christianity, as Paul preached it, was founded upon a historic fact: the bestowal of Michael, the Son of God, upon mankind.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:5.17 (1338.2) Morality among the gentiles was not necessarily related to either philosophy or religion. Outside of Palestine it not always occurred to people that a priest of religion was supposed to lead a moral life. Jewish religion and subsequently the teachings of Jesus and later the evolving Christianity of Paul were the first European religions to lay one hand upon morals and the other upon ethics, insisting that religionists pay some attention to both.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:5.18 (1338.3) Into such a generation of men, dominated by such incomplete systems of philosophy and perplexed by such complex cults of religion, Jesus was born in Palestine. And to this same generation he subsequently gave his gospel of personal religion \u2014 sonship with God.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \n 6. The Hebrew Religion<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:6.1 (1338.4) By the close of the first century before Christ the religious thought of Jerusalem had been tremendously influenced and somewhat modified by Greek cultural teachings and even by Greek philosophy. In the long contest between the views of the Eastern and Western schools of Hebrew thought, Jerusalem and the rest of the Occident and the Levant in general adopted the Western Jewish or modified Hellenistic viewpoint.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:6.2 (1338.5) In the days of Jesus three languages prevailed in Palestine: The common people spoke some dialect of Aramaic; the priests and rabbis spoke Hebrew; the educated classes and the better strata of Jews in general spoke Greek. The early translation of the Hebrew scriptures into Greek at Alexandria was responsible in no small measure for the subsequent predominance of the Greek wing of Jewish culture and theology. And the writings of the Christian teachers were soon to appear in the same language. The renaissance of Judaism dates from the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures. This was a vital influence which later determined the drift of Paul\u2019s Christian cult toward the West instead of toward the East.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:6.3 (1338.6) Though the Hellenized Jewish beliefs were very little influenced by the teachings of the Epicureans, they were very materially affected by the philosophy of Plato and the self-abnegation doctrines of the Stoics. The great inroad of Stoicism is exemplified by the Fourth Book of the Maccabees; the penetration of both Platonic philosophy and Stoic doctrines is exhibited in the Wisdom of Solomon. The Hellenized Jews brought to the Hebrew scriptures such an allegorical interpretation that they found no difficulty in conforming Hebrew theology with their revered Aristotelian philosophy. But this all led to disastrous confusion until these problems were taken in hand by Philo of Alexandria, who proceeded to harmonize and systemize Greek philosophy and Hebrew theology into a compact and fairly consistent system of religious belief and practice. And it was this later teaching of combined Greek philosophy and Hebrew theology that prevailed in Palestine when Jesus lived and taught, and which Paul utilized as the foundation on which to build his more advanced and enlightening cult of Christianity.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:6.4 (1338.7) Philo was a great teacher; not since Moses had there lived a man who exerted such a profound influence on the ethical and religious thought of the Occidental world. In the matter of the combination of the better elements in contemporaneous systems of ethical and religious teachings, there have been seven outstanding human teachers: Sethard, Moses, Zoroaster, Lao-tse, Buddha, Philo, and Paul.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:6.5 (1339.1) Many, but not all, of Philo\u2019s inconsistencies resulting from an effort to combine Greek mystical philosophy and Roman Stoic doctrines with the legalistic theology of the Hebrews, Paul recognized and wisely eliminated from his pre-Christian basic theology. Philo led the way for Paul more fully to restore the concept of the Paradise Trinity, which had long been dormant in Jewish theology. In only one matter did Paul fail to keep pace with Philo or to transcend the teachings of this wealthy and educated Jew of Alexandria, and that was the doctrine of the atonement; Philo taught deliverance from the doctrine of forgiveness only by the shedding of blood. He also possibly glimpsed the reality and presence of the Thought Adjusters more clearly than did Paul. But Paul\u2019s theory of original sin, the doctrines of hereditary guilt and innate evil and redemption therefrom, was partially Mithraic in origin, having little in common with Hebrew theology, Philo\u2019s philosophy, or Jesus\u2019 teachings. Some phases of Paul\u2019s teachings regarding original sin and the atonement were original with himself.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:6.6 (1339.2) The Gospel of John, the last of the narratives of Jesus\u2019 earth life, was addressed to the Western peoples and presents its story much in the light of the viewpoint of the later Alexandrian Christians, who were also disciples of the teachings of Philo.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:6.7 (1339.3) At about the time of Christ a strange reversion of feeling toward the Jews occurred in Alexandria, and from this former Jewish stronghold there went forth a virulent wave of persecution, extending even to Rome, from which many thousands were banished. But such a campaign of misrepresentation was short-lived; very soon the imperial government fully restored the curtailed liberties of the Jews throughout the empire.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:6.8 (1339.4) Throughout the whole wide world, no matter where the Jews found themselves dispersed by commerce or oppression, all with one accord kept their hearts centered on the holy temple at Jerusalem. Jewish theology did survive as it was interpreted and practiced at Jerusalem, notwithstanding that it was several times saved from oblivion by the timely intervention of certain Babylonian teachers.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:6.9 (1339.5) As many as two and one-half million of these dispersed Jews used to come to Jerusalem for the celebration of their national religious festivals. And no matter what the theologic or philosophic differences of the Eastern (Babylonian) and the Western (Hellenic) Jews, they were all agreed on Jerusalem as the center of their worship and in ever looking forward to the coming of the Messiah.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \n 7. Jews and Gentiles<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:7.1 (1339.6) By the times of Jesus the Jews had arrived at a settled concept of their origin, history, and destiny. They had built up a rigid wall of separation between themselves and the gentile world; they looked upon all gentile ways with utter contempt. They worshiped the letter of the law and indulged a form of self-righteousness based upon the false pride of descent. They had formed preconceived notions regarding the promised Messiah, and most of these expectations envisaged a Messiah who would come as a part of their national and racial history. To the Hebrews of those days Jewish theology was irrevocably settled, forever fixed.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:7.2 (1339.7) The teachings and practices of Jesus regarding tolerance and kindness ran counter to the long-standing attitude of the Jews toward other peoples whom they considered heathen. For generations the Jews had nourished an attitude toward the outside world which made it impossible for them to accept the Master\u2019s teachings about the spiritual brotherhood of man. They were unwilling to share Yahweh on equal terms with the gentiles and were likewise unwilling to accept as the Son of God one who taught such new and strange doctrines.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:7.3 (1340.1) The scribes, the Pharisees, and the priesthood held the Jews in a terrible bondage of ritualism and legalism, a bondage far more real than that of the Roman political rule. The Jews of Jesus\u2019 time were not only held in subjugation to the law but were equally bound by the slavish demands of the traditions, which involved and invaded every domain of personal and social life. These minute regulations of conduct pursued and dominated every loyal Jew, and it is not strange that they promptly rejected one of their number who presumed to ignore their sacred traditions, and who dared to flout their long-honored regulations of social conduct. They could hardly regard with favor the teachings of one who did not hesitate to clash with dogmas which they regarded as having been ordained by Father Abraham himself. Moses had given them their law and they would not compromise.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:7.4 (1340.2) By the time of the first century after Christ the spoken interpretation of the law by the recognized teachers, the scribes, had become a higher authority than the written law itself. And all this made it easier for certain religious leaders of the Jews to array the people against the acceptance of a new gospel.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:7.5 (1340.3) These circumstances rendered it impossible for the Jews to fulfill their divine destiny as messengers of the new gospel of religious freedom and spiritual liberty. They could not break the fetters of tradition. Jeremiah had told of the \u201claw to be written in men\u2019s hearts,\u201d Ezekiel had spoken of a \u201cnew spirit to live in man\u2019s soul,\u201d and the Psalmist had prayed that God would \u201ccreate a clean heart within and renew a right spirit.\u201d But when the Jewish religion of good works and slavery to law fell victim to the stagnation of traditionalistic inertia, the motion of religious evolution passed westward to the European peoples.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:7.6 (1340.4) And so a different people were called upon to carry an advancing theology to the world, a system of teaching embodying the philosophy of the Greeks, the law of the Romans, the morality of the Hebrews, and the gospel of personality sanctity and spiritual liberty formulated by Paul and based on the teachings of Jesus.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:7.7 (1340.5) Paul\u2019s cult of Christianity exhibited its morality as a Jewish birthmark. The Jews viewed history as the providence of God \u2014 Yahweh at work. The Greeks brought to the new teaching clearer concepts of the eternal life. Paul\u2019s doctrines were influenced in theology and philosophy not only by Jesus\u2019 teachings but also by Plato and Philo. In ethics he was inspired not only by Christ but also by the Stoics.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:7.8 (1340.6) The gospel of Jesus, as it was embodied in Paul\u2019s cult of Antioch Christianity, became blended with the following teachings:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 121:7.9 (1340.7) 1. The philosophic reasoning of the Greek proselytes to Judaism, including some of their concepts of the eternal life.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/a>
\n2. The Jewish People
\n<\/a>
\n3. Among the Gentiles
\n<\/a>
\n4. Gentile Philosophy
\n<\/a>
\n(1) The Epicurean
\n(2) The Stoic
\n(3) The Cynic
\n(4) The Skeptic
\n5. The Gentile Religions
\n<\/a>
\nThe mystery religions
\n6. The Hebrew Religion
\n<\/a>
\n7. Jews and Gentiles
\n<\/a>
\n8. Previous Written Records
\n<\/a>
\n(1) The Gospel by Mark
\n(2) The Gospel of Matthew
\n(3) The Gospel by Luke
\n(4) The Gospel of John
\nAcknowledgment<\/p>\n