Saturday, December 01, 2018

"A certain man planted a vineyard" - Critical Presumption on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam


Around Tokyo


Critical Presumption on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

It is sometimes said to be nonsense or meaningless to assume things that never happened in the history and imagine what otherwise should have resulted. 

However, it must not be meaningless to consider hypothetical scenarios in the case of involving God.

So, if Abraham had not followed the words of God and immigrated into Palestine, no Hebrew tribe should have been established.  However, on the contrary, the 4000-year history of the mankind came to be built on this one man's faith in God.

If Moses had not found God in a bush fire and followed His word, Jewish people must have been lost in Egypt.  However, on the contrary, formation and development of Judaism were ensured by this man's faith in God.

And, if Christ Jesus had not started His mission in Israel, Jewish people must have been simply defeated, destroyed and driven to diaspora and and oblivion by the Roman Empire.  There were many tribes and kingdoms defeated, destroyed and driven to diaspora and and oblivion by the Roman Empire.  The Jewish people who lost the core of their religion and tradition, namely Jerusalem, must have been unable to keep their identity and restore their pride.  In the case of the Babylonian captivity, they had Jerusalem where for them to return and re-establish their identity, religious pride, and ethnic survival.  However, the Roman Empire was more powerful than any other ancient empires hostile to the Jewish tribe.  The Empire actually stopped development of the Greek Civilization, although it inherited some ancient-Greek legacy, and terminated continuity of the Egyptian Civilization for ever, although Egypt had been already conquered by Alexander the Great and its partial successor.  The Roman Empire must have completely dispersed Jewish people who lost the core of their religion and tradition.  However, Judaism could survive along with Christianity.

When Christianity was spreading in the Roman Empire, Roman citizens came to realize that Jewish people were special unlike any other tribes, since  Christianity was born among Jewish people and Judaism was important to understand Christianity.  Whether or not early Christians hated Jewish people, Roman citizens observed and treated Jewish people in a special way, and  Jewish people realized that they were special in the Empire where Christianity was getting dominant.   Whether or not early Christians wanted Jewish people to disappear, the religion of Jewish people and their presence must have been admitted by Roman citizens.  In other words, early Christianity in the Roman Empire needed existence of the Jewish people to have Roman citizens understand what Christianity was.  Christianity and Judaism were the head and tail of a coin.

It is true that Christianity is believed to have been established to supersede Judaism; however, on the contrary, it helped Judaism and Jewish people survive through the Roman Empire.

But what if Muhammad had not been troubled over something and come into a cave of Mt. Hira for meditation, probably because his distress could not be solved by Judaism and Christianity at the time, where he heard words of God?


**** **** ****


Mar 12:1 And he began to speak unto them by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and digged a place for the winefat, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country.
Mar 12:2 And at the season he sent to the husbandmen a servant, that he might receive from the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard.
Mar 12:3 And they caught him, and beat him, and sent him away empty.