Preface

Early History

There were four rivers mentioned in the Garden of Eden. As it was in the days of rise of civilization there were four major centers of Sumer (Tigris and Euphrates), Egypt (Nile) and Harappan culture (Indus). For nearly three millennia before Christ there had been development of religions and folk cultures. Jericho had been a settlement for almost 6000 years before the time of Christ. By the time the Israelites overtook it was a major city built in stone.

As is mentioned in the old testament Abraham came from Ur of Chladea. Ur was one of the ancient cites of Sumer, that had been built in the third or fourth millennium BCE. He left that place scholars think in 1800 BC. and traveled up the Euphrates through what was Babylon to Harran. Harran was later to become a Mitanni state. These Mitanni were related to the Medes who were Indo-European types. They worshipped gods like Varunna and Mithra. No doubt they were very like their Vedic cousins who settled the Ganges river in India. The word Brahma which is now the name for the absolute godhead in modern India and the word Brahm or Abraham are very similar in their meaning. It means primal power. The Israelites to be rejected that culture and taking the body of myths they had they went into Palestine and then later were enslaved by the Egyptians. About the time of the departure there arose a philosophy of the One God in Egypt under the Pharaoh Ikhnaton in 1300's BC.

About 600 B.C. a reform movement started up in Akkad which was an invective against the Medes. Zarathustra's Iranian dualism. It worked it's way through the middle east a finally by the time Jesus was born it was influential.

The Epic of Gilgamesh which was set down in Sumer on clay tablets long before Abraham had left there had already contained the story of the flood. The gods were called Elohim and so they were in the Old testament also. The laws of Hammurabai were set down on stone stele in Babylon and were assimilated by the Jews also. So the form of the nation of Israel was established in history and began to mature as the temple culture.

Society at the time of Jesus

Israel had already gone through three hundred years of Hellenization and sixty years of Roman rule when Jesus was born. The Pharisees had become a major force in the state and they were dedicated to maintaining the purity of the doctrines of the Jews. They had sought to reinforce ritual purites as well. The Sadducees were a more liberal bunch and had somewhat different beliefs from the Pharisees, as they did not believe in the resurrection, and were more secular, or perhaps materialist, in their philosophy. Understanding the politics of the prophets at the time is important to understanding Jesus' teachings to the people. The kingdom of God is his focal point and it suggest a macrocosmic interpretation of history, which is inclusive of God's will for his domain.

What is generally not considered in interpreting Jesus in modernity is the still present influence of the ancient deities of the area. To the modern mind these deities are merely symbols of religious cults. In his time they were living beings who acted through the agencies of the priests and temples that represented them. Sorcery was prosecuted severely in consequence and any use of the supernatural was carefully checked out for mistaken attitudes to the society. Jesus is frequently accused of being an agent of Beelzebub, and any time he seems to be wavering from Jewish thought and accepted practice they pick up a stone to throw it at him. They used to kill sorcerers and if a prophet should go bad they would kill him also. The only difference between sorcery and miracle is the sense of Godliness implied. If its effects is against the nation it is sorcery, if otherwise a miracle.

The kingdom of Heaven that Jesus knew was not going to be a kingdom of this world but of the other, the Heaven. He declined the traditional role of "the anointed" as king in Israel and that led many people to despise him. No Son of David should be a wandering doctor of laws and healer of the sick, according to the temple cultus. To many, he must lead the nation against the oppressors like the Romans. Jesus of course knew best. Involvement with politics of kingship would be the ultimate failure for him in terms of his detachment from the world. He would have to lead armies and those would be the very armies in the world that he knew would never bring peace. So he preferred to suffer persecution than to lead the Zealots in an uprising. He used himself for an irony of history that they would never forget. And they didn't.

After he died and was resurrected, he ascended. So many Christians who remember the resurrection forget the real meaning of the ascension. This ascension is essential to understanding the Kingdom of Heaven. To many tt means that he actually vanishes from the physical plane of existence and becomes a God of the heaven. He does "live" bodily in heaven. But in reality it is the realization of oneness with God or God-realization. As Christ mentions in his discussion with the Sadducess about the seven brothers and their wives, the body of resurrection is not the body of flesh. He ascends knowing that the soul transcends the body and that the powers of the soul transcend the physical plane. Humans do not have souls, they are souls. Realization of this soul means to live in the same dimension that Jesus lived in - The Kingdom of God, or the state of the supremacy of God and the rule of law.