Untangling the Political Dimension from Monotheism

Let me tell you why I have a problem with the canonical book of the Acts of the Apostles (aside from the fact that the Marcionites rejected the text as spurious).

It doesn't have any roots in this world.

Let me explain what I mean.

When you witness Judaism or Islam, 'religion' is inextricably intertwined with cultural identity. The Jews saw themselves as a distinct ethnic group. They certainly made proselytes. But their religion and God was unmistakably THEIR religion and God. It couldn't be misconstrued as speaking on behalf of something universal (unless of course you are Christian).

There are clear rituals which signal who is within and who is outside the community of 'God's religion.' The text which defines 'God's religion' is written in an obscure language which is used and understood by only an elite priestly class.

While I can certainly see objections being thrown up against this kind of revelation insofar as it 'lacks the sublimity' of the Christianity, there is something real about this 'tribal religion.'

Now let us look at the apolitical, wholly imaginary origins for Christianity as spelled out in the Acts of the Apostles.

There is an unmistakable lack of 'ethnos' here. All kinds of people are coming together here to join in an imaginary fellowship in universal principles that seems wholly alien to anything Jewish.

This is why I mistrust the canonical Acts of the Apostles (aside from that original historical rejection of the Marcionites). The material doesn't seem real.

How did such a diverse group come together without any contemporary political motivation that played out in the real world? How wasn't it a part of the contemporary Jewish messianic hope to crush the heads of the Romans and chase them out of the Holy Land?

I just don't buy that the ideals of the Book of Acts were the ideals of the Jewish God nor his people.

They seem utterly concocted to reinforce a Roman agenda for what Christianity SHOULD appear like to enjoy official tolerance.

Read Celsus and find out what bothered the contemporary Roman government about the original (Marcionite) faith. This is the truth about Christianity. In order to succeed in the Empire it had to check its original Semitic truths at the door.

And what were its original Jewish roots rooted in?

In my mind there can be only one answer - absolute devotion to the last king of Israel, Marcus Julius Agrippa.