Business Model Vs. Family Model of Religion/Mythology

[PhilosopherJay]

Hi All,

Categories are often distinguished by binary characteristics - law/outlaw, Father/Mother, day/night. One can also see that the same term can be re-used in different binary configurations. For example: sunshine/rain and rain/cloud

Perhaps the most interesting binary characteristic between Judaism and Christianity is the son/no son characteristic. For the Jews, the singular binary opposition between Yaweh and other gods of Greeks, Romans and others was simply that he was the sole God of the Jews. Through circumcision, Sabbath observance and diet, you worshiped Yaweh. That made you Jewish.

There is also another important opposition between the God of the Jews and other Gods. Other Gods were connected outside the Jewish religion through family kinship positions. Zeus was the father of Hercules and the brother/husband of Hera. We can see that this implies some kind of rough equality between male/female. In the Jewish religion circa First century, we do not see this rough equality. God is creator and father. There is not female. This reflects (in the Marxist materialist sense) the completely patriarchal family structure of the time. Men had unlimited wives, only they were not wives with any kind of rights. They had no rights of ownership or inheritance. This made them less than male children. Women were essentially slaves kept for sex, nursemaid and mother functions.

Still, the giving birth of sons is essential to the functioning of the household. Therefore, the Jewish wife/wives did play an important social role. Sons could inherit and continue the estate/farm and community, daughters could be bartered and used to connect families.

What is interesting about Christianity is that the power of the son is emphasized. You do get a relationship between a father god and a son god. At the same time, you never reach the son and daughter relationships of Greco-Roman mythology.

In First Century Judaism, the father relationship is key. The God Yaweh is the father of the nation. All Jewish men are the sons of the father/creator God. However, it is not a sexual relationship that brings about the son, rather it is more like an artisan-artwork relationship. As the artist molds the statue. God molds the nation of Israel. God is the artist, the nation is the artwork.

One can say that the Greco-Roman mythology reflects the family idea of one husband/father - one wife and a "bad" husband who runs around impregnating other women.
On the other hand, the Jewish mythology reflects a business. God creates and runs the business. The nation is what God produces. The nation is made up of the sons of Gods, but not the biological sons of God, but the handmade sons of God. The sons are in fact the idols or rather the nation is the idol of the idol-maker God. This explains the prohibition against worshiping idols. It is the idol-maker (God) who is to be worshipped, not the product.

Christianity introduces an anthropomorphic son into Judaism. It is correct to say that in doing so it imitates the Greco-Roman religions. However, it is important to understand that there is no wife or daughter of God in Christianity. The Judeo-Christian family is purely a patriarchical family. Or rather, it is still a business enterprise. The father/God is still the owner of the business. In fact, the son never inherits the business, rather the son is sacrificed to save the business enterprise. In this sense the Christian religion takes a step towards the family model of the Greco-Roman religions, but then reverses itself and keeps the business model of the religion.

The first binary oppositions in Christianity is Living Father/Living Son, but the second binary opposition is Living Son/Dead Son. It is in this second opposition that Christianity rejects the family Greco-Roman model of religion.

There is actually a third binary opposition which is a certain reversal of the second - Dead Son/Living Son. This is the promise of the resurrection. The son has been sacrificed, but one day the son will be re-created by the father and brought back to life. No doubt if the artist made the idol for the nation and the other idol, the nation broke it, the artist can easily remake the same idol.

In this sense, Christianity never abandons the patriarchal artisan Business model of religion of the Jewish nation. It simply says that the competitor (Judaism) broke its idol and begs for credit until at some future time, it will re-create its smashed creation, which will bring everybody to heaven.

Perhaps, it would be well to keep this three stage development in mind. First, the gospel of the birth of a son, second the death of that son at the hands of the Jews, and third, the promised rebirth of that son.

Warmly,

Jay Raskin

[Charles Wilson]

http://www.amazon.com/Cult-Asherah-Anci ... ds=asherah

Jay! -

Consider also an extension of what you wrote in your book Christs and Christianities. If the Story of Mary was written out of what became the Gospels, what would it mean to write out a female god? The above book makes a very good presentation that "Asherah, Consort of El" was, by the time of Israel, written out as a female deity and became "Asherah Poles", mere totems or wooden objects. You end up with a "disembodied male god" in El and no other gods.

What do you pray to if you are a barren female? Who do you ask for fertility? A disembodied male god? It has repercussions. We end up in the Garden of Eden with Eve and Adam and they walk with a single god.

CW

[PhilosopherJay]

Hi Charlie,

Yes, Great point, Charlie. I think it is important. It was Persia King Cyrus the Great who probably put Judea onto the business model of religion and on the path to monotheism. Asherah and polytheistic worship seems to disappear after the alleged return of Jewish leaders from Babylonian exile post 528 B.C.E.. As Cyrus was Yaweh's Christ, the exclusive worship of Yahweh would have perhaps been an indication of loyalty to Cyrus.
The Cyrus Cylinder in the British Museum is interesting:

Marduk surveyed and looked throughout the lands, searching for a righteous king, his favorite. He called out his name: Cyrus, king of Anšan; he pronounced his name to be king all over the world. He made the land of Gutium and all the Umman-manda [i.e., the Medes] bow in submission at his feet. And he [i.e., Cyrus] shepherded with justice and righteousness all the black-headed people, over whom he [i.e., Marduk] had given him victory. Marduk, the great lord, guardian of his people, looked with gladness upon his good deeds and upright heart.

He ordered him to go to his city Babylon. He set him on the road to Babylon and like a companion and a friend, he went at his side. His vast army, whose number, like water of the river, cannot be known, marched at his side fully armed. He made him enter his city Babylon without fighting or battle; he saved Babylon from hardship. He delivered Nabonidus, the king who did not revere him, into his hands. All the people of Babylon, all the land of Sumer and Akkad, princes and governors, bowed to him and kissed his feet. They rejoiced at his kingship and their faces shone. Lord by whose aid the dead were revived and who had all been redeemed from hardship and difficulty, they greeted him with gladness and praised his name.

I am Cyrus, king of the world, great king, mighty king, king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four quarters, the son of Cambyses, great king, king of Anšan, grandson of Cyrus, great king, king of Anšan, descendant of Teispes, great king, king of Anšan, of an eternal line of kingship, whose rule Bêl and Nabu love, whose kingship they desire for their hearts' pleasure.

When I entered Babylon in a peaceful manner, I took up my lordly abode in the royal palace amidst rejoicing and happiness. Marduk, the great lord, established as his fate for me a magnanimous heart of one who loves Babylon, and I daily attended to his worship. My vast army marched into Babylon in peace; I did not permit anyone to frighten the people of Sumer and Akkad. I sought the welfare of the city of Babylon and all its sacred centers. As for the citizens of Babylon, [...] upon whom Nabonidus imposed a corvée which was not the gods' wish and not befitting them, I relieved their wariness and freed them from their service. Marduk, the great lord, rejoiced over my good deeds. He sent gracious blessing upon me, Cyrus, the king who worships him, and upon Cambyses, the son who is my offspring, and upon all my army, and in peace, before him, we moved around in friendship.

By his exalted word, all the kings who sit upon thrones throughout the world, from the Upper Sea to the Lower Sea [i.e., from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf], who live in the districts far-off, the kings of the West, who dwell in tents, all of them, brought their heavy tribute before me and in Babylon they kissed my feet. From Babylon to Aššur and from Susa, Agade, Ešnunna, Zamban, Me-Turnu, Der, as far as the region of Gutium, the sacred centers on the other side of the Tigris, whose sanctuaries had been abandoned for a long time, I returned the images of the gods, who had resided there [i.e., in Babylon], to their places and I let them dwell in eternal abodes. I gathered all their inhabitants and returned to them their dwellings. In addition, at the command of Marduk, the great lord, I settled in their habitations, in pleasing abodes, the gods of Sumer and Akkad, whom Nabonidus, to the anger of the lord of the gods, had brought into Babylon.

What Cyrus seems to have done can be considered a form of ethnic cleansing: "I gathered all their inhabitants and returned to them their dwellings." He returned the statues of the Gods and returned them to their separate Homelands: "at the command of Marduk, the great lord, I settled in their habitations, in pleasing abodes, the gods of Sumer and Akkhad, whom Nabonidus, to the anger of the lord of the gods, had brought into Babylon."

This suggests to me that it was Cyrus' policies to take followers of different Gods whom he found in Babylon and sent them home to rule the areas they had come from. In other words people who did not have ties and loyalty to their original homelands but still worshipped a traditional God of that homeland. Cyrus wanted to shake up the old power structures and put people in charge who would be loyal just to him. We may suppose that the 70 year exile was just a myth created by the new Cyrus appointed Jewish leaders to accept their new reformed model of Cyrus created Judaism.

In this way, the business model of Cyrus was imposed on Judea from the top down. It broke up the organic family orientated religion (especially Yahweh and his consort Asherah) that had existed prior to this point.

Warmly,

Jay Raskin

[arnoldo]

. . . Categories are often distinguished by binary characteristics - law/outlaw, Father/Mother, day/night. One can also see that the same term can be re-used in different binary configurations. For example: sunshine/rain and rain/cloud

Perhaps the most interesting binary characteristic between Judaism and Christianity is the son/no son characteristic. . .

Alan Segal suggested that the distinction between Juadaism/Christianity aren't necessarily black & white but rather entails shades of grey.

Two Powers in Heaven: Early Rabbinic Reports About Christianity and Gnosticism