CHAPTER 2


3. THE PEOPLE OF THE BOOK: BANI’ ISRA’IL AND JUDAISM


3.1 The Greeks


During the middle of the fourth century BC, when the Greek conquests became ascendant, the Jews were terribly oppressed. Albeit, during the time of Alexander and his successors the semi-independent position of the Jewish kingdom in Palestine remained, yet, in 168 BC the Greek King of Antioch, named Antonius, enedeavoured to decimate the separate identity of the Jewish nation along with their faith by erecting, in Jerusalem, a temple of the Greek god ‘Zeus.’

3.2 The Romans


The Holy scriptures of the Jews were desecrated, reciting the Taurah banished and rites of all Jewish peoples became unenforceable. Soon however, the Jews rallying behind Yehuda Maqabi defeated the Greeks under the King of Antioch and Jerusalem was rebuilt. But they were not destined to enjoy their hard-earned freedom, as the Romans, having defeated the Greeks, began to enslave them.

The Roman war-lord Titus conquered Jerusalem on 7 September 70 CE and dismantled the temple of Solomon. He carried away with him to Rome the religious scriptures of the Jews as war booty. The Jews were banished from, and non-Jewish colonies were established around, Jerusalem. The leader of the then Jews, was Josephus, the renowned author of a celebrated text ‘The History of Judaism,’ compiled at Rome, several years after the destruction of Jerusalem.


4. THE PEOPLE OF THE BOOK: CHRISTIANITY


4.1 Unitarian and Trinitarian Christianity


The ascendancy of the Roman Empire over Europe, the North African hinterland, and a large region of West Asia, Jesus of Nasirah commenced propagation of his religion, after Yahya made firm the foundations of the ‘Jesus’ movement. During this period from the spread of Christianity emerged two forms of faith; Unitarian (led by Barnabas, Arius) and Trinitarian (or Pauline) Christianity.

4.2 Council of Nicaea


After a long-standing bloody dispute over the two unique understandings, the Council of Nicaea which met in 325, near Constantinople, by his influence, the emperor Constantine assembled Unitarians and Trinitarians in order to determine the creed of Christianity. It remarkably emerged the definition of true Christianity according to the wishes of a few; the books of the New Testament unwittingly organized.

The Phrygian goddess, Cybele, was then worshipped generally. [17] This European goddess was the counterpart of the India goddess Durga (or Kali) in likeness and attributes. Before the birth of the prophet Isa, in all the peoples of Asia Minor, Syria and in the coastlands of the Mediterranean Sea (except Jews), the worship of the goddess Cybele, Isis and the sun-god Mythra was rife. Christianity could not flourish before beliefs and customs, related to the worship of these deities, were incorporated into the Christian dogma.

4.3 Emergence of Christianity


Owing to these polytheist beliefs, the person of Jesus was made an enigma, denying him the status of Prophet and making him a manifestation of God. This process prolonged toward the basis of numerous sects, mutually-opposed to one another, converting Christian beliefs into a labyrinth and its mass-production and communication with little knowledge of the deeds of ‘Isa and his short Prophethood; submerged by incredible yarns and discerning tales of mere pious belief; rendering it almost impossible to find out what he was and what he did in this world for the benefits of humanity.


A number of European authors have corroborated the fact, in their books, that modern Christianity contains many dogmas of the ancient polytheist nations, and have cited, for example, numerous ancient Egyptian, Chinese, Indian, and Iranian Creeds within their own. During the reign of Ptolemy I, King of Egypt, a great number of the Jews had settled in Egypt. Jewish colonies emerged throughout Syria, Asia Minor, Greece and Italy among others were the original centers focused on the propagation of Christianity.


The Greek version of the Christian New Testament, first compiled between the third and fourth centuries, whilst the Hebrew version formed in the ninth Christian century. The prototypical nature of these two served as the imperative for all extant bibles in many languages currently available.

17 The Phrygian people inhabited a part of Asia Minor, and belonged to the Greek race. Phrygia was a civilized and progressive land. However in the beginning of the 7th Century BC it was subdued by the Cimmerian people. Thereafter, Phrygia remained under the suzerainty of Lydia, Iran and Rome, in that order. Go Back