Ross Did Not Respond to My Question...

Yesterday I was browsing the Bible... The Old Testament... I read the Book of Esther in detail... and again I was convinced that what I am reading is essentially the History of an Ancient People... Just like I have read the Greek and Roman histories...

The Book of Esther added a new shade to my conviction... as the Jewish people massacre about 75-80 thousand Persians...

Read the story of Esther below... in a very brief few lines...

What strikes me is that it sounds very much like a "Helen of Troy" type story...

Troy... fighting Spartans...

Romans invading Europe and building the "Hadrian Wall..."

So I asked myself... Why the Old Testament is part of the Christian Bible...

I have not found any answer yet...

I have asked Ross, the chaplain in my last teaching position... He could not satisfy my curiosity...

I suggested to him that each people should substitute their history as the Old testament...

He contemplated about my suggestion...But never answered it...

Why only Jewish history... May be French history for France... Armenian History for Armenians... Russian history for Russians...

The Christian Bible will have different Old Testaments... BUT ONLY ONE NEW TESTAMENT... the teachings of Jesus...

Why not...?

Ross never answered me...

***

... And the Book of Esther...

The story begins with Ahasuerus, ruler of the Persian empire holding a lavish banquet ... initially for his court and dignitaries and afterwards for all inhabitants of the capital city, Shushan. On the seventh day, Ahasuerus orders the queen to come and display her beauty before the guests by wearing only her crown. She refuses ... Furious, Ahasuerus has her removed from her position and makes arrangements to choose a new queen from a selection of beautiful young women from throughout the empire. One of these is the Jewish orphan Esther... Who after the death of her parents, she was fostered by her cousin Mordecai ... She finds favour in the King's eyes, and is crowned his new queen. Of course palace intrigues and plots are common … There are a number of palace intrigues and the rivalries bring Mordecai and Persian princes and soldiers face to face … It so happens that Mordecai saves the emperor and finds favours with him … But the prime minister and other Persian princes resent him... The prime minster finds that Mordecai is Jewish... plots to kill Mordecai and with him all the Jews in the empire... Mordecai finds about the plot and implores Esther to go to the emperor and... After Esther's Intervention the King-Emperor permits the Jews to defend themselves by the prime minister and his allies...   On 13 Adar, 500 attackers and prime minister's, Haman's, ten sons are killed in Shushan... followed by a Jewish slaughter of 75,000 Persians … Esther sends a letter instituting an annual commemoration of the Jewish people's redemption, in a holiday called Purim. Ahasuerus remains very powerful and continues reigning, with Mordecai assuming a prominent position in his court.

... And now Purim is celebrated every year...

The festival of Purim is celebrated every year on the 14th of the Hebrew month ofAdar (late winter/early spring). It commemorates the salvation of the Jewish people in ancient Persia from Haman’s plot “to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews, young and old, infants and women, in a single day.”

***

It seems to me that the Old Testament is basically the Jewish history... from the ancient times to the times of Jesus...

But it strikes me very contradictory... and I cannot reconcile the Christian teachings with the stories of the Old Testament...

Hadrian's Wall is a good reading... Just like the stories of the Old testament... and I am sure all other people have their own stories... I am familiar with few of them... and they may pass as "Old Testament" stories...

Russians have their stories... Croats have theirs... The Ukranians and the British and the French and the Spanish and the Phoenicians and the Hindus... and the Chinese have theirs... I am sure all people have stories to tell... and I wonder why the Bible should compile only the story of one of them... The story of ONE people to the exclusion of all the rest ...

If there is ONLY ONE "chosen" people and that is the reason... Then God is acting very much like Donald Trump and is prejudiced against ALL the other people...

But I am sure there is more to it than my feeble mind comprehends...

I think every people should substitute their own history and stories in a New Testament and attach to it the New Testament and it will be the Bible of that particular people...

What ALL the Bibles will have in common is the New Testament... The teaching of Jesus...

I suggested this to Ross, my friend and the chaplain of the last school where I was teaching... He was baffled... Did not know what to say...

"How do you come up with these ideas...,"  he mumbled... But never responded to my suggestion..

***

Check some of the writings in the Old testament... It has no common ground with the teachings of Jesus... Check below for just few... and if it catches your imagination... then you can continue the rest... on your own...

1) King James Bible Exodus 34:14
For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God...

2) Joshua 24:19
Joshua said to the people, "You are not able to serve the LORD. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins.

In both passages God is very jealous...



3) Ezekiel 23:25
I will direct my jealous anger against you, and they will deal with you in fury. They will cut off your noses and your ears, and those of you who are left will fall by the sword. They will take away your sons and daughters, and those of you who are left will be consumed by fire.

Here God will murder the sons and daughters... and burn people...

Check the Psalm below...

Kill innocent babies of the heathen Babylonians Psalm 137:9 “Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.”

 4) Numbers 25: 3-4                                                                                                    ... "And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel. And the LORD said unto Moses, 'Take all the heads of the people and hang them up before the LORD against the sun, that the fierce anger of the LORD may be turned away from Israel.'"

Here people will be decapitated... Very similar to Muslim teachings and Islamic Jihadists... Similar to ISIS... It is quite spooky and eerie how similar the Old testament and Muslim teachings are...!!!!!!!

The old testament is very violent and hateful and vengeful... has nothing in common with the TEACHINGS of the New Testament...

The ONLY commonality is that Jesus is ethnically Jew... and I do not think that is an sufficiently STRONG LINK...

5) Numbers 16:32-35

 ... "And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation. And all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them: for they said, Lest the earth swallow us up also. And there came out a fire from the LORD, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense." 

God Buries Them Alive     

6) Exodus 12: 29-30                                                                                                                  "And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead." 

God Kills The Firstborns!      

7) Deuteronomy 15:5

"And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God..." 
    Deuteronomy 13:6
"If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers;" 
    Deuteronomy 13:8-9
"Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people." 
    Deuteronomy 13:15
"Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword."

This is a commandment to kill ALL the Unbelievers...

This definitely reminds me of the Islamic teachings and the Islamic Jihadists... and ISIS... They have massacred thousands of "Unbelievers"... too...

***

As I have suggested before... Christianity is a rapturous rebellion... Christianity rejects the Old ways of doing things... "An eye foe an eye" is rejected and "Turn the other cheek" is introduced...

I always had a problem when I attended the "Last Supper" before Easter... and the leaders referred to the "Last Supper" as "Passover Seder Meal"...

For me there is no unity between the Old and the New Testaments... Jesus rejected the Old... rebelled against it and ushered in the NEW...

In the Old Testament there is too much hatred and wars and killings and murders and punishment and beheadings and burnings... 

The Old glorifies AN EYE FOR AN EYE... very similar to the Muslim teachings...

But, 

The New Testament is based on LOVE... and teaches to "Turn the other cheek..."