Possibly we should talk about what what was divinely revealed to all these people who went to heaven and then wrote a book about it, but instead, I realised I really needed to know what was going on in history at the same time all this religious teaching was being written down.
You've probably read some of the Christian gospels and have some idea what Judea looks like in 1AD. But this comes after 500 years of being conquered, the temple destroyed, being taken away, and let go, and conquered again, and rebelling, and being conquered by someone else, etc, etc. The first bit about the being taken away to Babylon and then a generation later let go is described in the book of Daniel which also describes a bunch of visions about heaven the end of the world. Esther describes Esther marrying a Persian emperor (probably a fictionalised version of the historical one) c.f. Purim. Maccabees describes yet another revolt celebrated by Hannukah.
( Read more... )
You've probably read some of the Christian gospels and have some idea what Judea looks like in 1AD. But this comes after 500 years of being conquered, the temple destroyed, being taken away, and let go, and conquered again, and rebelling, and being conquered by someone else, etc, etc. The first bit about the being taken away to Babylon and then a generation later let go is described in the book of Daniel which also describes a bunch of visions about heaven the end of the world. Esther describes Esther marrying a Persian emperor (probably a fictionalised version of the historical one) c.f. Purim. Maccabees describes yet another revolt celebrated by Hannukah.
( Read more... )