How Darius Founded Judaism.

AskWhy! Publications

Are the Hebrew Scriptures fakes?

Abstract

They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.

Amos 5:10

Contents

© Dr M D Magee
Contents Updated: Monday, 4 June 2007

Biblical theology is a subject in decline. The evidence of this decline is not so much the permanent crisis in which it seems to have settled, or the lack of a new consensus to replace the great works of Eichrodt or von Rad. Rather the decline is evident in the fact that an increasing number of scholars no longer regard theology as the ultimate focus of biblical studies, or even as a necessary dimension of those studies at all.

John J Collins in The Hebrew Bible and Its Interpreters (1990)

Contents by Web Pages

The Crisis of Sacred History

Dipping into pages that interest you is all right as far as it goes, but you will not get an extended argument unless you follow it from the beginning. These pages are in a fairly logical order. You will never read all of them in one sitting, so bookmark the page, and begin here…

1. The Truth about the Jewish Scriptures 1 Divine Crisis (41KB)
2. The Truth about the Jewish Scriptures 2 Objective History (44KB)
3. The Truth about the Jewish Scriptures 3 Walls of Jericho (49KB)
4. The Truth about the Jewish Scriptures 4 Jerusalem (52KB)
5. The Truth about the Jewish Scriptures 5 The Scriptures (66KB)
6. A Century of Bad Archaeology (75KB)
7. Modernist School Copenhagen Scholars (42KB)
8. The Truth about the Jewish Scriptures e-book (pdf) (542KB)

   Prehistory of Judaism and Christianity

9. Origins of Religion and Culture (74 KB)
10. Religion —Origins I (65 KB)
11. Religion —Origins II (69 KB)
12. Religion —Origins III (66 KB)
13. Understanding Myths in Relation to Religion (67 KB)
14. The Sun God—Mesopotamia (55 KB)
15. Babylonian Gods (40KB)
16. The Sun God Egypt, China, India (72 KB)
17. Marduk And Monotheism (70KB)
18. Greek Gods Dr J Harrison’s boolet (70KB)

Jerusalem and Judah Before the Return

19. Canaanite Religion in the Levant (49KB)
20. Yehouah the Sun God 1 The Glory of God in the East (42KB)
21. Yehouah the Sun God 2 The Consummation of Israel (53KB)
22. Jerusalem and Judah Before the Return 1 (72KB)
23. Jerusalem and Judah Before the Return 2 (62KB)
24. Hebrew Goddesses And the Origin of Judaism (55KB)

    How Persia Created Judaism

25. Zoroastrian Influences on Judaism and Christianity 1 Pre-Zoroastrian Iranian religion (48KB)
26. Zoroastrian Influences on Judaism and Christianity 2 Zoroastrianism: Theology (54KB)
27. Zoroastrian Influences on Judaism and Christianity 3 Zoroastrianism: Practices (45KB)
28. How Persia Created Judaism 1 A World State (65KB)
29. How Persia Created Judaism 2 Persian Religious Policy (55KB)
30. How Persia Created Judaism 3 The Universal God (51KB)
31. How Persia Created Judaism 4 Persian influences (49KB)
32. Herodotus on the Persians Persian influences (9KB)
33. Discussion (54KB)

    Ezra and the Law

34. “Returning” Exiles Or Persian Colonists? (53KB)
35. The Foundations of Judaism 1 The work of Nehemiah and Ezra (76KB)
36. The Foundations of Judaism 2 The work of Nehemiah and Ezra (74KB)
37. The Foundations of Judaism 3 The work of Nehemiah and Ezra (78KB)
38. Sulpicius Severus On the Restoration of the Temple by Darius (8KB)
39. Haggai and Zerubabel Was Zerubabel Zoroaster? (40KB)
40. Deuteronomy Second law? Or first? (80KB)
41. Deuteronomic History And the Prophets (75KB)
42. Joshua, Josiah And the Deuteronomic Historian (107KB)
43. Judges The name of God (64KB)
44. Jerusalem and Judah After the Return (48KB)
45. People of Abarnahara 1 The Phœnicians (58KB)
46. People of Abarnahara 2 The Two Judahs (17KB)
47. Angels Winged beings from heaven? (20KB)
48. The Hellenistic Age I between the Testaments (70KB)
49. The Hellenistic Age II between the Testaments (67KB)

    Hellenistic Romances

50. The Pentateuch Expanding Deuteronomy (65KB)
51. Genesis Myths 1 Mesopotamian Mythology (55KB)
52. Genesis Myths 2 Mesopotamian Mythology (65KB)
53. Patriarchs 1 Or “Returners? (74KB)
54. Patriarchs 2 Or “Returners? (50KB)
55. Moses 1 And the Exodus (52KB)
56. Moses 2 And the Exodus (44KB)
57. Moses 3 And the Exodus (40KB)

    Persian Propaganda

58. Who Wrote The Hebrew Scriptures? (22KB)
59. The Prophets Persian Propagandists (52KB)
60. Psalms and Worship The Psalms as Propaganda (19KB)
61. The Enoch Literature Was Enoch Zoroaster? (45KB)
62. Esther And Crucifixion (30KB)

    Sacred History is Phony History

63. David and Solomon The Evidence from Megiddo. (45KB)
64. Did King David Ever Really Live? (57KB)
65. Solomon And his Temple (68KB)
66. Bent Scholar on the United Monarchy
67. Assyria Background History (59KB)
68. The “Divided Monarchy 1” Biblical History with a Slight Basis (70KB)
69. The “Divided Monarchy 2” Biblical History with a Slight Basis (85KB)
70. Biblical Languages Hebrew and Aramaic (54KB)

    Is Dating Phony Too?

71. Dating Ancient Near Eastern History 1 (52KB)
72. Dating Ancient Near Eastern History 2 (38KB)
73. Dating Ancient Near Eastern History 3 (37KB)
74. Dating Physical Methods (28KB)

    Persians and Greeks

75. And to put things in perspective…
    Did Zoroastrianism Influence Greek Philosophy? Judge for yourself from the evidence (40KB)

    Inventing a Religion

76. Inventing a Religion Mikado worship (19KB)
77. Future Scripture Read our service to a future millennium of believers online. (277KB)
    Or get the pdf e-book

    Book Reviews

78. The Lost Temple of Israel by Zvi Koenigsberg

Select Bibliography

The CAIS-SOAS (The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies) of London University has a version of this book here.

Key points

• These pages explain the true origins of Judaism
• The actual origin of Judaism was in the time of the Persian empire of Darius II, not a thousand years earlier with Moses or hundreds of years before that with Abraham
• The bible, as the Jewish scriptures or the Christian Old Testament, was started by Persian colonists, rewritten by the Ptolemies and added to by the Hasmoneans, so it was not ancient at the time of Jesus but was probably still being written by the Essenes

• Abzu: Guide to Resources for the Study of the Ancient Near East Available on the Internet Edited by Charles E. Jones (Oriental Institute), Abzu is an extensive index of resources on the pre-Islamic civilizations of Western Asia and Egypt.
• Byzantium: Byzantine Studies on the Internet Edited by Paul Halsall (Fordham University), Byzantium is a course supplement for Byzantine Studies and more.
• The Cambridge Classics External Gateway to Humanities Resources Edited by Bruce Fraser (University of Cambridge), Cambridge Classics provides access to internet resources of general interest to classical scholars, including links to materials on philosophy, ancient science, linguistics, drama and art.
• Diotima: Materials for the Study of Women and Gender in the Ancient World Edited by Suzanne Bonefas (Associated Colleges of the South/Miami University) and Ross Scaife (University of Kentucky), Diotima features a wide-range of resources for teaching and research on women in the ancient world.
• Exploring Ancient World Cultures Edited by Anthony F. Beavers (University of Evansville), Exploring Ancient World Cultures is a general textbook project dedicated to the ancient Near East, ancient India, ancient Egypt, ancient China, ancient Greece, ancient Rome, early Rome and medieval Europe.
• Kirke: Katalog der Internet-Ressourcen für die Klassische Philologie aus Erlangen Edited by Ulrich Schmitzer (Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg), Kirke (in German) is an extensive index of internet sites relating to the classical periods of Greece and Rome.
• The Labyrinth: A World Wide Web Server for Medieval Studies Edited by Deborah Everhart and Martin Irvine (both of Georgetown University), The Labyrinth has become the standard starting point for Medieval Studies on the internet.
• NetSERF: The Internet Connection for Medieval Resources Edited by Beau A C Harbin (The Catholic University of America), NetSERF is a subject-oriented index of medieval resources available on the Internet.
• The Perseus Project: An Evolving Digital Library on Ancient Greece Edited by Gregory Crane (Tufts University), The Perseus Project is a growing database containing a vast array of information including texts, lexicons, images and maps on ancient Greece.
• Rassegna degli Strumenti Informatici per lo Studio dell’Antichità Classica Edited by Alessandro Cristofori (University of Bologna), the Rassegna (in Italian) is a gateway to resources for the classical periods of Greece and Rome.
• Romarch: Roman Art and Archeology Edited by Pedar Foss (University of Cincinnati) and supported by the University of Michigan, Romarch is a wide-ranging index of resources on ancient Italy and the Roman world.

Skeptical Resources—Internet infidels | Jesus Never Existed | Steven Carr’s Website | Christianism | Early Christian Writings | God is Imaginary | “Religion Detoxification” | Our Judaio-Christian Heritage | Jesus is a Myth | No Deity | No Beliefs | Evil Bible | Bible God | ex-Christians | Jesus Police | Islamic Faith Freedom | American Atheists | Jovial Atheist | Askwhy! books
Other Resources—Early Christian Docs | Resources for Study | Traditional Bible-History | Traditional Bible World History | Traditional Bible History | about.com biblical history | Apologetics web sites | Advent Ch Fathers | Orion center links | Wikipedia | Traditional Jewish History

Page Tags: Judaism Religion, Jewish Origins, Judaism Fact, Origin of Judaism, Persian Religion, Empire, Zoroaster, Zarathustra, Jewish Scripture, Ancient History, Belief, Old Testament, Culture, Mythology, The Old Testament Bible

Last uploaded: 05 October, 2008.

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