The Keeches, Josea and Jesus

There was a group (Keeches) who predicted the end of the world. They were a tight knit group, never allowed any outsiders into the group. They shunned media persons and eagerly waited for the end of the world. The date and came and went, Alas! the world didn't end. So what would you expect other than the group dissolving and shying away from every society and ignore that they were part of the group? No they didn't do any of that. Instead they actively pursued the group.  The same people who shunned strangers and media started to approach them actively and started evangelization and they claimed that the world was saved because of their prayers. Is it an isolated phenomenon? No, these occurs with every normal human being (Festinger and Carlsmith 1959). Instead of shedding our irrational belief wee actively justify it and rationalize it.

Now let us go back to past, some 2600 years that is 600 BC to Judah. A new King rose to power who had high ambitions and wanted to unify Israel with Judah - Josiah. He collected the powerful monotheist Yahweh faction and adopted their methods. He helped in spreading their version and collected their traditions into a book - bible(OT). Naturally the bible predicted that he will be the greatest king, greater even that David the mythical ancestor. They also hoped that Israel will regain the past glory. But what happened? The Egyptian Necho came along and killed Josiah and in less than 40 years the Judahites were taken as slaves by Babylonia. DId it cause them to abandon their religion? No, they found out a cause for their downfall, they sinned and god is punishing them.Instead of rejecting their religion that proved false they became more fanantical amd consolidated in their religion. More and more people joined and the whole Judah became followers of Yahweh and eliminated all other religions that were striving in the land. Finally Judah became true followers of Jewish religion. (The Oxford History of the Biblical World, A History of the Ancient Near East, The Bible Unearthed - Israel Finkelstein)

Now let us move a little more forward, around 150 BC. There was a teacher of righteousness in Israel, whose name some speculate as Judah. He was a prophet and was later crucified by Maccabees[Alexander Janneus] (is also a speculation based on the dead  sea scrolls). Did his followers abandon the religion? From the above examples it was clear that they didn't. His followers invented a new story, that he died for the sins of human and he will come back. Times passed many more failed messiahs got added to the list. Followers of various messiahs joined together at times and opposed violently at other times. Another Jewish sect(s) who believed in a celestial messiah who died and resurrected in heaven (evidenced from Paul and James epistles and the previous official [canonical] non official [non canonical] books) got joined with this sect. Finally a new story began to take shape. The messiah died for the sins of humans (the original story) and he was resurrected by god and was given the exalted name - Jesus(Paul's story). The celestial became earthly and the earthly one got a (? New)name and divine status. The "Judah" nation that betrayed him by sinning became the "Judas" person.  Slowly stories started to emerge regarding his nativity and activity. A new religion arose which was later codified by Emperor Constantine. The new religion took on the fanaticism of ancient Jews but was more open and open to all people and hence was not defined by territory and became the world religion -Christianity. If there was any historical core to the gospel story it is this. If this story is implausible then we can conclude that the whole gospel story has no historical basis, it's just religious (motivated) drivel.

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