I realize it is now mainstream on the podcasts to think the
"timeline" of history got changed in one way or another. I still rely on
standard science even though I critique standard science.
"This legend is recorded in Syriac in called the Doctrine of Addai4 which was probably written c. 300...The details of the story need detain us as they are obviously legendary. Thus Agbar IX (179) was the first Christian King of Edessa and in the Doctrine the back of his time is read back into the time of Jesus."
see the fascinating academic article:
The Origins and Emergence of the Church in Edessa during the First Two Centuries A.D.
The "king of Edessa" story about Jesus healing him (through a
letter he sent to the king) is a well-known apocrypha in academia as it
is a story from Eusebius (who was the great Brown-No$er of
Constantine). So this was Abgar V Ukkma who died in 46 ad but was first
healed by Jesus via Thaddeus and later " eventually in 216 Abgar IX, King of Edessa,
was sent in chains to Rome" ... Abgar VIII of Edessa, also known as Abgar the Great or Abgar bar Ma'nu, was an Arab king of Osroene from 177 CE to 212 CE.
Eusebius claimed Thomas sent Thaddeus to Edessa. The letter is
considered a "literary fabrication." Egeria in the 4th Century trip to
Edessa records seeing the letter and that Thomas went directly to
Edessa. A copy of the letter was given to Egeria and the Coptic monks
used the letter as an amulet to ward off evil aka an apotropaic.
Starting in the 4th Century the Church rejected these apotropaics as
"chains for the soul." (Council of Laodicea). Constantine was seen as a
second Abgar... The Edict of Milan in 313 established tolerance of
Christianity and the first church was established in Edessa that year by
Quno, the bishop of Edessa. The Book of the Law of Countries documents
the error (or lie) of Eusebius. So that book documents the king of
Edessa converted to Christianity in the 3rd century but Eusebius left
out the phrase, "when he became a believer" that was in the original
claim about the letter from Jesus.
The Book of the Laws of Countries (BLC) was written in the early third century CE.
The so-called Book of the Laws of Countries - actually a dialogue on the influence of Fate on human life originating from the school
of the Aramaic philosopher Bardai~an of Edessa (r54-222 A.D.)- records a law given by King Abgar against the practice of castration
which could be part of the service in worship of the goddess: ...human liberty, which expresses itself in ethical commandments, is actually stronger than
the power of Fate residing in stars and planets. The statement of this treatise, that Abgar's law was the result of his conversion to
the Christian belief, is almost certainly due to a (later?) revision of Bardaisan's dialogue on Fate which may have been caused by the
legendary tale in the Doctrina Addai on King Abgar becoming a Christian.4 The effect of Abgar's measure is somewhat exaggerated
for still in the fifth century A.D., Rabbula Bishop of Edessa forbade self-emasculation in his canons for the clergy.
and
However early documents stemming from Syria, such as the Odes of Solomon and the Acts of Thomas, had long been
known although it had proved difficult to fit these into a coherent history of Eastern Christianity. The discovery of the Gospel of Thomas, and the
new light which it has thrown on Syriac Christianity, has re-opened the question. Our concern in this article is with early Christianity in Edessa
a city which became a major centre of the early Church deserving rank with Rome, Ephesus, Alexandria and Antioch.
Edessa was the capital of the small principality of Osrhoene east the Euphrates and it lay on the great trade route to the East which passed
between the Syrian desert to the South and the mountains of Armenia to the North. The city's inhabitants spoke Syriac, an Aramaic dialect
akin to, but not identical with, that spoken in Palestine.
I
rely on actual academics - people who spend years getting a Ph.D.
vetted by peer-review, etc. So for example Richard Carrier grew up
Christian and so he investigated the historical Jesus for his Ph.D. - he
has amazing details on what is valid, in terms of evidence, as per
Josephus. I also just read a Ph.D. professor from New Zealand - his book
is in my room somewhere - but he also debunks the historical Jesus.
Then there is Professor Marian Hillar who documents in detail that
Justin Martyr - the first writer on the historical Jesus - actually was
relying on Numenius, the NeoPlatonic philosopher. Finally there is
Professor Michael E. Hudson documenting that the Jubilee debt
forgiveness was the true message of Jesus but the Romans and Greeks were
against any debt forgiveness. This is why I always say, "Forgive us our
debts as we forgive our debtors" while "Sin" actually was the Sumerian
Moon good as the snake kundalini energy. hahahaha. Also of course
Acharya S. aka D.M. Murdock did excellent analysis on the lack of
evidence on historical Jesus - her tome "Christ in Egypt" is her most
academic book but it's more like an encyclopedia. She died young from
all the stress of trying to support herself and her child - while
debating and taking on all the criticism. Then there is Elaine Pagels
but also the classicist book I just read "Heresy" - that goes into all
the "other" gospels that got excluded.
So essentially with
Paul - I don't know all the details but he did not have any real
"historical" Jesus details in his letters - whether they were fake or
not, depends on the letter. The scholars were hand writing everything
but the main point here is that the Essenes were against the lunar
calendar and so the "Hellenization" of West Asia - as the Levant
"Sun-Riser" - is really about suppressing the female Lunar energy (just
as El was married to Asherah) - a good book on this is "When God was a
Woman" by Merlin Stone.
"Earliest Christian communities of
Edessa consisted of groups later condemned as heresies, notably
Marcionites, Manicheans, and followers of Bardaisan." According to the
legend, the King Abgar prostrated before Thaddeus instead of the other
way around.
The goddess depicted in the bas-relief sculpture is wearing a tunic and covered by a cloak and is flanked by two lions. Comparanda from the eastern Mediterranean showing similar iconography of the naiskos point to the goddess’s identity as Cybele, Atargatis, or Allāt, with most evidence suggesting Allāt.
https://gedsh.bethmardutho.org/Abgarids-of-Edessa
the deceased was most likely introduced to the goddess and
ritual object through trade and purchased the carving from a merchant. However, this does not
exclude the deceased from being incorporated into a small group of people that worshiped these
goddesses within Petra and may be a symbol of their marzeah or religious beliefs. Additionally,
votive carvings were not specific to the funerary contexts. In Petra these types of objects could
be placed within niches in public or ritual spaces like temples to worship a specific deity
(Wenning 2010
And there are also, for example, the Egyptian magical objects-including one representing Isis suckling Horus-which have found in the famous Sicilian sanctuary of the Gaggera at Selinus. Dating back to the seventh century BC, these too are a result of Phoenician and Carthaginian intermediaries
Peter Kingsley
From Pythagoras to the Turba philosophorum: Egypt and Pythagorean Tradition
His name is fully Romanized: Sextus Julius Africanus
SEXTUS JULIUS AFRICANUS AND THE ROMAN NEAR EAST IN THE THIRD CENTURY Author(s): William Adler
Source: The Journal of Theological Studies, OCTOBER 2004, NEW SERIES, Vol. 55, No. 2 (OCTOBER 2004), pp. 920-550
Published by: Oxford University Press
Thomas-Gospel and Thomas-Community: A New Approach to a Familiar Text
The Splintered Divine: A Study of Istar, Baal, and Yahweh Divine Names and Divine Multiplicity in the Ancient Near East
My vid on Peter Kingsley's initiation at Edessa Turkey vid
The Book of the Laws hints at Bardaisan’s belief that the world was created out of pre-existing substances,78 a notion not without parallel among early Christian writers. Justin Martyr, for instance, upheld the view that the world was made from “unformed matter” (ἐξ ἀμόρφου ὕλης).79 Harmonizing the accounts given by Plato in the Timaeus and by Moses in Genesis 1:2, Justin elaborates: “So by God’s word the whole universe was made out of this substratum (ἐκ τῶν ὑποκειμένων), as expounded by Moses, and Plato and those who agree with him, as well as we, have learned it [from him].”80
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/article/hv21n1possekel
In the second century, when Bardaisan formulated his cosmology, a belief in pre-existing substances was thus held by several Christian intellectuals, but in a later age, when the doctrine of a creatio ex nihilo had emerged as a broad consensus among theologians,83 the presupposition of some sort of primordial matter came to be regarded as an outrageous heresy. The fact that Bardaisan’s followers continued to uphold the idea of primordial matter and that, moreover, they appear to have developed his doctrines further into a dualist direction,84 relegated them to a place far outside the mainline tradition.
Likewise, it could not have been the so-
called Gospel of the Separated [Evangelion da- Mepharreshe] -- i.e.
the four canonical gospels arranged one after another but regarded as
a unit. At a time in which Irenaeus strives rather laboriously to
establish the fourfold gospel in the "great church," it cannot already
have been in use in Edessa.
Justin did not shrink from using Luke as a
source for the earthly life of Jesus, in addition to the other synoptics,
and because he considered all three of these gospels to be written by
apostles or their companions (Dial. 103.8), he acknowledged for [[ET
206]] them the same claim to credibility as for the Old Testament,
with which they could alternate in the Sunday readings (Apol. 67.3).
Thus sayings taken from the synoptic gospels are introduced with the
solemn formula "it is written" (Dial. 49.5; 100.1; 101.3; 103.8; 104;
105.6; 106.4; 107.1).
Perhaps Justin knew the gospel of John, but even if he did, his
outlook is intrinsically foreign to it.[16] It is basically so foreign that
we can scarcely silence the voice that would bid us to give up
altogether any thought of such an acquaintance. Justin completely
follows the narrative sequence of the synoptics, even where they
conflict with John. Like John, Justin is possessed with the idea of
existence of Christ as the Logos prior to the creation of the world, but
he does not derive his proof from the Fourth Gospel, neither from the
prologue nor any other portion; moreover he does not even derive it
from the letters of Paul, [209] but seeks laboriously to press the
synoptics into the service of such ideas. The miraculous birth or the
confession of Peter must bear the brunt of providing a proof which
John could have given with no difficulty.
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