DB{oyarin} about JC{hrist}/Jewish Gospels andso on

If there is one thing that Christians know about their religion, it is that it is not Judaism & if there is one thing that Jews know about their re-ligion, it is that it is not Christianity: if there is one thing that both groups know about this double NOT, it is that Christians believe in the Tri-nity & the incarnation of Christ {a Greek word for Messiah/"Mashiach/Gezalfde"} & that Jews don't, that Jews keep kosher & Christians don't?!

If only things were this simple: in his book, DB is going to tell a very different historical story, a story of a time when Jews & Christians were much more mixed up with each other than they are now, when there were many Jews who believed in something quite like the Father and the Son & even in something quite like the incarnation of the Son in the Messiah, & when followers of Jesus kept kosher as Jews, & accordingly a time in which the question of the difference between Judaism and Christianity just didn't exist as it does now. Jesus, when he came, came in a form that many, many Jews were expecting: a 2nd divine figure incarnated in a human. The question was not "Is a divine Messiah coming"? but only'Is this carpenter from Natsereth the One we are expecting'? Not surprisingly, some Jews said yes & some said no. Today we call this first group Christians & the second group Jews, but it was not like that then, not at all! Everybody then ~ both those who accepted JC & those who didn't ~ was Jewish {or Israelite, the actual ancient terminology}! Actually, there was no Judaism at all, nor was there Christianity.

In fact, the idea of "a religion," that is, one of a number of religions to which one might or might not belong, had not come on the scene yet & wouldn't for centuries. By the third century {or even earlier} Christianity became a name for what Christians called themselves, but Jews were not to have a name for their religion in one of their own languages until sometime in the modern period, perhaps the 18th or 19th cen-tury. Until then terms meaning Judaism as the religion of the Jews were used only by non-Jews.

I love this guy ever since I met him in january '67 @ Yerushalayim/Katamon and from there to Eilat, Herzeliya and his books during all those many years: & myDi is an ideal way to mix all these times & places 'as in dreams, visions, hallucinations' or whatever you would like to call it ~~~