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=> of emperors and gods

Posted by parhad (Guest) - Wednesday, February 4 2004, 12:15:30 (EST)
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In the third volume (?) of Will and Ariel Durant's 12 volume set about everything, titled "Caesar and Christ", he says the events of the Roman world conspired to prepare the way for Jesus. That's a pretty thick sentence...lots of ideas there.

People had been steadily moving towards consolidation from family to tribe to clan and city, city/state, then state, kingdom and finally empire. In that same time local gods kept getting bumped up higher and higher till an emperor would naturally see himself as a god as well. The Romam emperors after Augustus were an increasingly botched and dingy lot to whom the idea of being gods on earth seemed like a natural progression. It's no accident perhaps that Jesus becomes King in Heaven at the same time Tiberius becomes God on earth. Something whacky was developing we're still reaping the whirlwind for.

Two thousand years before that we Assyrians, Babylonians and Sumerians called our kings "Ensi", in Sumerian...meaning god's agent or factor...not god hisself. And of course we were far more gentle and civilized about it because our kings and governors could be called to account...not like an emperor-god. And it figures the ones who called themselves gods would be crazy. This whole god business unhinges people something fierce and it isn't necessry at all...the US Constitution is a far more moral and spiritual guide for peaeful iving with respect for all, than the "teachings" of phlegmatic jackasses of 2000 years ago.

The later Roman empire split into West and East with the Greek colony of Byzantium on the Gulf of Marmora becoming the seat and capital city of the Eastern Roman, later Orthodox, Empire. But before that the Roman emperor began selecting a co-emperor to serve as second in command and heir apparent. Then when the empire split and each emperor had his prince, there were four potential gods on earth all with armies...not very different from what we have today. By the time Constantine killed everyone else and went shopping for Christmas presents the next day, the institution of emperor-gods on earth had been somewhat discredited. Enter Jesus.

What if you put a carpenter up there in heaven...but had his agents be emperors and popes and prelates and princes of the church and other rich and powerful skunks? Wouldn't they be doing the "lord's work" by bending all necks to his supreme and gentle rule? Didn't Emperors and Autocrats see their people as grown children who had to be led here and there, complaining and rebelling and refusing to pay taxes all the way home? Sometimes, surely, some correction was in order as children must be brought to heel periodically...and what of those who had so little care for their immortal souls as to deny Christ? Weren't you doing them a favor, and pleasing god too, to bring them into the fold...dead or alive?

Remember all this was being crafted and whipped up from the guts and center of one of the most brutal killing and raping machines ever known...the Roman Empire, which without blinking an eye would transform itself not at all, but put out new brochures listing itself on the stock exchange as "The Holy Roman Empire". Now, if there isn't a joke in there somewhere, I don't know what...

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