T
Tantum_ergo
Guest
Massive superstition?
Ah, perhaps you are unaware that ‘the period’ of which you speak is actually one of the **least superstitious **ones in history for the area (the Roman Empire in the Near East) under consideration.
First: Jewish history at the time of the birth of Christ was one of ‘monotheism’ for some 2000 years previous.
Second: The Hellenistic period (some 300 years long at the time of the birth of Christ) was notable for its focus on ‘rationality’. The Greek gods (transmogrified in many cases or grafted onto what became the “Roman gods”) were ‘legend’ --even to the vast majority of peasants. The ‘middle’ and ‘upper classes’ might have paid a lip service to a particular city’s ‘god’ but they did not ‘believe’ the tales. Greek science even at this date (helped by the works of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle) had put the ‘mythology’ of the gods quite plainly. Rationalism, stoicism, etc. were what men aspired to–not ‘superstition’.
Thrid: By the birth of Christ, even the plebs of the Roman empire were not adherents of the Roman gods. Due to the immensity of the Empire itself and the growth through conquest, many ‘mythologies’ had become ‘known’ to the Roman. . .casting his own “roman gods” even further from ‘truth’. The ‘pick and choose society’ (strongly reminiscent of today’s ‘multiculturalism’) led people to an ‘adherence’ (sometimes but most often not leading to worship) to a polyglot pantheon. . .but (just as we have today) the huge ‘variety’ made it less and less likely for ANY of the myriad gods/legends to be taken SERIOUSLY.
So–an era of ‘superstititon’? No.
Like today–an era of ‘multiculturalism’ and skepticism.
An era of ‘choice’.
An era where ‘rationalism’ was touted, and ‘variety’ embraced. All **could **be chosen:
One could worship a Roman god, Greek god, or no god.
The only thing one could **not **do was to claim that there was only **one GOD and **(This is important) by that claim ‘force’ other people to stop worshipping their gods.
IOW, the Jewish people were perfectly free to worship their one god under the Romans. But they couldn’t go around and ‘stop’ the Romans from worshipping the ROMAN gods.
This situational stalemate lasted (it was considered a GREAT TOLERANCE then, just as it is today, for everybody to able to worship ‘what they wanted’ provided they didn’t stop ‘somebody else’ from worshipping something else) until the Roman emperors decided it wasn’t enough to allow people to choose–because some people weren’t ‘choosing’ to worship what the Romans wanted them to worship–including said Emperors.
But ‘superstition?’
Neither Jewish people. . .nor Christian people. . .are ‘superstitious’. Even the 1st century AD Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and other ‘religious’ groups were not SUPERSTITIOUS.
Strangely enough, pagan groups --pantheistic naturists for the most part such as the Druids --**were superstitious. **It is those people whom Christianity sought to rescue **from **that practice.
But the Druids weren’t around the Near East, were they?
The peoples who were there were not, by and large, ‘superstitious folk’.
Ah, perhaps you are unaware that ‘the period’ of which you speak is actually one of the **least superstitious **ones in history for the area (the Roman Empire in the Near East) under consideration.
First: Jewish history at the time of the birth of Christ was one of ‘monotheism’ for some 2000 years previous.
Second: The Hellenistic period (some 300 years long at the time of the birth of Christ) was notable for its focus on ‘rationality’. The Greek gods (transmogrified in many cases or grafted onto what became the “Roman gods”) were ‘legend’ --even to the vast majority of peasants. The ‘middle’ and ‘upper classes’ might have paid a lip service to a particular city’s ‘god’ but they did not ‘believe’ the tales. Greek science even at this date (helped by the works of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle) had put the ‘mythology’ of the gods quite plainly. Rationalism, stoicism, etc. were what men aspired to–not ‘superstition’.
Thrid: By the birth of Christ, even the plebs of the Roman empire were not adherents of the Roman gods. Due to the immensity of the Empire itself and the growth through conquest, many ‘mythologies’ had become ‘known’ to the Roman. . .casting his own “roman gods” even further from ‘truth’. The ‘pick and choose society’ (strongly reminiscent of today’s ‘multiculturalism’) led people to an ‘adherence’ (sometimes but most often not leading to worship) to a polyglot pantheon. . .but (just as we have today) the huge ‘variety’ made it less and less likely for ANY of the myriad gods/legends to be taken SERIOUSLY.
So–an era of ‘superstititon’? No.
Like today–an era of ‘multiculturalism’ and skepticism.
An era of ‘choice’.
An era where ‘rationalism’ was touted, and ‘variety’ embraced. All **could **be chosen:
One could worship a Roman god, Greek god, or no god.
The only thing one could **not **do was to claim that there was only **one GOD and **(This is important) by that claim ‘force’ other people to stop worshipping their gods.
IOW, the Jewish people were perfectly free to worship their one god under the Romans. But they couldn’t go around and ‘stop’ the Romans from worshipping the ROMAN gods.
This situational stalemate lasted (it was considered a GREAT TOLERANCE then, just as it is today, for everybody to able to worship ‘what they wanted’ provided they didn’t stop ‘somebody else’ from worshipping something else) until the Roman emperors decided it wasn’t enough to allow people to choose–because some people weren’t ‘choosing’ to worship what the Romans wanted them to worship–including said Emperors.
But ‘superstition?’
Neither Jewish people. . .nor Christian people. . .are ‘superstitious’. Even the 1st century AD Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and other ‘religious’ groups were not SUPERSTITIOUS.
Strangely enough, pagan groups --pantheistic naturists for the most part such as the Druids --**were superstitious. **It is those people whom Christianity sought to rescue **from **that practice.
But the Druids weren’t around the Near East, were they?
The peoples who were there were not, by and large, ‘superstitious folk’.
