On a Universal Religion

By “universal” I only mean compatible with the religions of the countries from Europe to Iran. My observations are useful. I will see if I can integrate these isolated data. (a) The Jewish Temple and the Samaritan sanctuary were generally regarded by outsiders as dedicated to Jupiter = Zeus = Ba’al or El ‘Elyon, and were designated at times by Jews and Samaritans themselves as dedicated to Zeus for ease of communication. Plenty of examples in Josephus, I Maccabees, etc. as I recall. (b) The Hebrew/Canaanite/Phoenician “El ‘Elyon” אל עליוןGod Most High is the natural equivalent of Zeus Hypsistos Ζευς ‘Υψιστος. (c) El and Baal tend to fuse in the Canaanite religion or religions. (d) God is frequently called Ba’al בעל in the O.T. as a metaphor, notably throughout the first half of Hosea, where it means “God” and “husband” both at once. (e) There was a accommodation of Christianity with the old Roman religion in Rome (as any Protestant will tell you at length). Notice the choice of the Vatican Hill, the taking over of the title Pontifex, the inscription Deo Optimo Maximo on Roman Catholic churches to this day, etc. The Mons Vaticanus was so called because from it came oracles or pronouncements or predictions (vaticinia, singular vaticinium). Thus Papal infallibility. Note also the Pope’s blessing “urbi et orbi” “to the city and the world”. My own opinion is that this is the reason for the elevation of Latin to a sacred language by the Roman Church. Now obviously none of this would be relevant in Syria (including Palestine). Also, the elevation of Catholic Christianity to the position of one of the two most favoured religions and later on its supplanting of the other favoured religion, Mithraism, came later on, well after Vespasian. However, the ingredients must have been there beforehand. (A reminder. Catholic Καθολικος = “universal”, but as defined at the Council of Nicaea by the authority of Constantine, not R.C.!!!). (f) The name Jupiter is a compound, with Jove being the Anglicisation of the base form. The cognate in terms of linguistic history in Greek is Zeus. I need to look at the oblique cases (cases other than the nominative and vocative) of the Greek and Latin words to see this. It has been argued with a lot of evidence that the Tetragrammaton YHWH is Indo-European, presumably from Hittite or Hurrian, languages from Anatolia spoken in parts of Palestine for many centuries. In this connection the forms used as prefixes, Yo and Yeho, the alternative independent formYah [The H is not a vowel-marker, but pronounced as an H], the suffixed forms Yah [the H is only a vowel-marker here] and Yahu, as well the form Yao known from magical texts are relevant. The site of the Jerusalem Temple was bought by David from Araunah [an Indo-European name] the Hittite. It was on an exposed bit of flat hill-top, i.e. it was the site for an Akropolis. The Cave of Machpelah was bough by Abraham from Hittites. It is known from inscriptions that even in O.T. times the name YHWH was used by non-Israelites, including Aramaeans near Palestine. (g) We now need to re-consider the record of the building of a Temple of Zeus by Vespasian or Hadrian or both on Mt. Gerizim, and think AGAIN about who might have regarded it with disfavour. We also need to look again at the words in one of the first of the Marqeh hymns about some kind of rejection of a form of religion practised very recently, apparently even by the congregation that recited the words of contrition. (See Kippenberg again).

Now I will need the FULL Slavonic Josephus more than ever!

A sample of what appears in the Real Messiah order it here