I mean, that’s kinda the point of the combined old and new testaments.
I’m not a religious person, but I was brought up in it, and a lot of the new testament is basically saying, “Yeah, in the past it was very much difficult to appease God and make it to the good afterlife. Lots of rules, lots of demands, little to no mercy, that sort of thing. But now we’ve got Jesus and he’s shaking up the old order in a big way! Not a Jew? Not a problem! Basically, you put your trust in him and you can skip the temple and the old order of religious leaders and make a church in your house! Invite over your friends and as long as you’re following the teachings of Jesus you can relax on all the old laws from Moses’s time! And get this: there’s much fewer conditions and hoops to jump through and the main lesson is to love everyone.”
Of course this tended to upset the old order, and the Romans, who were calling the shots at the time, but again, that was kind of the point: the old testament was a strict set of guidelines that set out rules for all aspects of life for a specific sociocultural group of people to keep them not only religiously centered but preserved as a distinct group from their neighbors.
Once Jesus came and the religion was opened to non-jews, suddenly all that exclusivity was a liability more than self preservation, so the new testament cast most of that to the side, to appeal to the widest range of potential converts.
Wasn’t it lucky, a pharisee was visited by Jesus (after he died) so he could be chosen to play a large role in shaping all the current dogmas Christianity suffers from. To think, the religion would have probably vanished as some hippy, love everyone cult, if Paul didn’t come in and add much needed facets of control.
I mean, that’s kinda the point of the combined old and new testaments.
I’m not a religious person, but I was brought up in it, and a lot of the new testament is basically saying, “Yeah, in the past it was very much difficult to appease God and make it to the good afterlife. Lots of rules, lots of demands, little to no mercy, that sort of thing. But now we’ve got Jesus and he’s shaking up the old order in a big way! Not a Jew? Not a problem! Basically, you put your trust in him and you can skip the temple and the old order of religious leaders and make a church in your house! Invite over your friends and as long as you’re following the teachings of Jesus you can relax on all the old laws from Moses’s time! And get this: there’s much fewer conditions and hoops to jump through and the main lesson is to love everyone.”
Of course this tended to upset the old order, and the Romans, who were calling the shots at the time, but again, that was kind of the point: the old testament was a strict set of guidelines that set out rules for all aspects of life for a specific sociocultural group of people to keep them not only religiously centered but preserved as a distinct group from their neighbors.
Once Jesus came and the religion was opened to non-jews, suddenly all that exclusivity was a liability more than self preservation, so the new testament cast most of that to the side, to appeal to the widest range of potential converts.
Wasn’t it lucky, a pharisee was visited by Jesus (after he died) so he could be chosen to play a large role in shaping all the current dogmas Christianity suffers from. To think, the religion would have probably vanished as some hippy, love everyone cult, if Paul didn’t come in and add much needed facets of control.
“Oh no, membership is down! Add some new shit!”