Codex Theodosianus I
The Most Important Event, which is a Document, in World History Today
According to many people, but according to only specious authority, the most important event in world history is the birth of Yehoshuah bar Josef of Nazareth, “Jesus the Nazarene”. That is why our history has been largely divided into “BC” and “AD”, which means of course before and after his birth.1 Theologically, of course, it was later established by dogmatic decree that the most important date around which all of history should be folded into a before and after is the death of the same figure, which was purportedly 33 years later. Indeed this is supposed to be the most important date, really, for the entire cosmos according to those who follow the beliefs of Christianity. Or perhaps the date should be 3 days later when he was purportedly resurrected? Those would both be more substantial dates from a theological point of view.
But in fact the division of history into a before and after around a most significant event has overall settled on Jesus’ supposed year of birth. Not strictly or necessarily, but traditionally and pervasively. I would suggest that regardless of all the beliefs of Christianity, or even the historicity of any persons involved or events related to its origins, that the conversion of Saul of Tarsus is a far more significant event. The reason is that Saul, known as Paul of the New Testament, is the most important figure in the development of the Christian movement in point of fact, and may have been responsible for inventing it whole cloth.
Paul, of course, was a Jew. Indeed, a Pharisee. In Philippians 3:5, he writes, “Circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee.” Additionally, in Acts 23:6, Paul addresses the Sanhedrin, declaring, “I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. I stand on trial because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead.” He testifies himself to his own acts against the initial followers of Jesus, which was merely a major chord in the prevalent key of the attitude of the Jews of that time toward what was a sect of Judaism and nothing more than that. A heretical sect, which declared that the prophesied King of the Jews, their Messiah, was Jesus. All twelve disciples of Jesus that we are told about today were also Jews. Most of the initial followers if not all were also Jews, although it seems that non-Jews were also fascinated by his teachings and charisma, an important point about his movement which will be brought up again.
So essentially, the Jewish sect which Jesus founded, or upon whom it was founded, was alienated from the vast majority of Jews, and found itself in exile in order not to be utterly destroyed by them in Judea. It found itself on the typical Jewish path of exile and movement, and this to the extreme, as they were exiled from the Jews themselves, as Jews themselves, differing on teachings which may have been validly argued by Jews from both sides one supposes. If they had a real Rabbi-Messiah in their midst, it would be probably not unreasonable that he might tell them how to understand their laws in a way he thought the best, and he would probably be in the proper position to do so. But they didn’t see it that way, and that is a dispute between two sects of Judaism, as far as the rest of the world was concerned, who barely even knew of it outside of Judaic circles.
But this sect did grow since that time of Jesus’ death, and it did gain followers and apparently Saul of Tarsus did convert to it, and from then on was a major figure in its early establishment and promulgation, as well as the establishment of much of its core doctrines, although later these would be endlessly revised by priests of various sects, both of which (the ideas and their inventors) he’d never imagined. Even so, there is no reason to suspect that he didn’t invent a good deal of what he promoted himself. Let’s look at this aspect a bit, but not too long, as it is only a limited hangout anyway.
While Peter was understood to be the first deputy of Jesus moving forward, Paul seems to have changed the thrust of this sect of Judaism from being insular toward Jews or Jewish ways to becoming “goyim friendly”, and thus it seems Paul was a critical figure in the turning point of this Jewish sect becoming the Christianity it would later become.
The “preaching work” (by only Jews, toward only Jews) was critical to the development of this sect from the beginning, but its expansion toward non-Jews as a specific thrust could be understood only if Judaism itself is revised to imply that their Yahweh had revised his covenant with them and expanded it to “the Gentiles” (the Jewish term meaning “non-Jews”). This made the sect now even more heretical, but by this point it seems it had given up in the main on converting Jews into accepting their now-dead Messiah (which they claimed was resurrected), and now turned to full-on creating a sect of Judaism that allowed and even focused upon gaining non-Jewish adherents. This was a very radical departure, even more radical than the notion of a Messiah rejected and murdered by the Jews, which was not what they expected to happen to their real Messiah in any event.
Regardless of the Jewish take on these mutations, on either side of the rift, Christianity is therefore essentially a Jewish sect open to the inclusion of Gentiles, with a doctrine of a “Messiah for all”, and with its own dogmas and doctrines which they were simply free to create as they went along, since they didn’t have to answer to any Jewish authority about the subject anymore. At least not as far as is evident to a first inspection of these developments. But surely such a development as this burgeoning new mutation of Judaism was not ignored by the Jews who had rejected it from the beginning, and surely they couldn’t have failed to notice its profound influence on those Gentiles who were, from the beginning fascinated with it, but now being included within it en masse. Nor could they ignore the effects it was having on the thinking of sects sprouting up all around the Roman Empire, and on religious figures such as Mani in the Persian Empire. Nor could they ignore the effects it had on the populace of the Roman Empire in Greece and in Italy. They could ignore none of these things, because of two major reasons.
First, these influences sprouted directly from the legacy of Jesus himself, a heretical Jew in their midst whom they had had killed, and whose followers they were still persecuting, whose message was being promulgated through the enduring loyalty of his Jewish disciples and followers. This would be a persistent concern for the Jewish authorities who rejected this Jewish sect as heretical, since it represents a direct and potentially growing threat to their own authority among Jews.
Second, it had profound impact on the socio-psychological environment of the world around them, which meant at least an indirect opportunity for their own revising of their own situation in that world, since this sect sprang from them, and could not be divorced from them in its cultural and ideational components, hence in its reference to them. Nor could it so easily escape their reach simply by migrating somewhere within an empire that permitted rather fluent migrations among those with the means to exploit it. They may have seen this heretical sect as a sort of prodigy of their own essence, spuriously ejected from them and now transforming into a sort of “monster of its own making.”
Indeed, I think it is obvious that they would see it this way, and I think it would be absurd for the Jews to see it any other way given their predicament in the Roman-controlled world, under which they chafed. To see such a development grow despite its early persecution from the Jews themselves, and then from that of the Romans, indicated a prospect of concerning proportions. Not only might it rival and devour the mainline Jews, but it might also be an opportunity to expand a network of influence not only despite its heresy, but because of it. With that in mind, maybe what is in order is a more objective consideration of Saul and his “conversion” to the sect of Yehoshuah the Messiah (“Jesus Christ”).
He was a Pharisee, no doubt he knew other Pharisees (I mean, do you think?). No doubt he was committed to his upbringing and beliefs, heritage, social position, etc. No doubt he wasn’t persecuting Yehoshu-ites just on a whim. No doubt he wasn’t roaming around alone with a sword, ambushing them here and there like some guerilla soldier on his own maniacal mission. You see, this just isn’t realistic at all, but if you grew up around people inculcating Bible stories constantly, you probably had this image in your mind. Some lone hater, roaming around on his own mission, as an obsession or hobby perhaps, “smiting Christians”. Well, the case is more like he was probably part of an organized group of people, commissioned by a council of enemies who were Pharisees and Sadducees and so on, operating under the dictates of King Herod or on their own, to both continuously stalk, harass, exploit, and of course kill the heretical sect they all so despised.
Moreover, Saul probably didn’t encounter anything supernatural, as that is a conceit of those who simply believe in the divinity of such stories in advance, which no one in their right mind would ever do who first heard these stories, whether child or adult, though children are at unfair advantage in how they are introduced to the supposed divinity of such stories, as well as the contents of the stories themselves. No, this does not pass go, this does not collect 200 shekels.
The Jewish royal and rabbinical establishment weren’t some stupid oafs just letting this sect run amok. They had probably a whole division of operatives, of which Saul was just one. But lo and behold, he was converted by a magical donkey, and he is a new man in Christ all of a sudden. He just happens to be very clever, scholarly, as one might expect of a Pharisee. He happens to become very influential in the sect, and happens to redirect its entire focus. I wonder how that happened… It probably happened like this: Saul infiltrated the sect under false pretexts of conversion by supernatural confrontation with Jesus. He then cooperated with them, but always had an agenda: To transform this movement into a Trojan horse of Jewish influence, by it being maintained as heretical, but growing in its influence among Gentiles.
It is my view that Paul was the first “hidden Pope” of this sect, and that Peter was somehow sidelined or convinced or otherwise influenced, or even coerced into going along with his agenda, or even just bypassed, perhaps through a combination of influences. Further, it seems evident that many Jewish and non-Jewish agents probably infiltrated through feigning conversion through auspices of the same arrangement through which Paul was entered in, whether their handlers were Jews or Romans or others. This was the primary ingredient of direct Jewish influence over this heretical cult from the very beginning, and we would be fools to think that only Judas was ever unfaithful to it.
The entire time this religious offshoot began, it was an attempt to displace the status quo of the Jewish establishment with a new leadership, not to repudiate it at all. But this failed. It is my view, and I think it an eminently objective and realistic one, that instead, the Jewish establishment rejected and repudiated it, ostracized and attacked it, and successfully infiltrated and controlled this movement from the beginning, transforming it into a way of gradually influencing the Gentile societies all around said Jewish establishment, enabling a gradual transformation of them to the point of transforming their culture through conversion of their populations, working upward to the highest ranks of society. I could quote many (Jewish and non-Jewish, recent and not recent) who view this as the overall effect of the Christian and Islamic movements, but will save such details for a later stage of this examination.
This demonstrable trend of influence and change continued until finally capturing the Emperorship, and creating laws that would gradually not only protect and favor Christians, but Jews who were nominally anti-Christian also. These laws would be codified into a complete system of laws, reorganized, refreshed, and newly laid down on February 15, 438, and it went into effect on January 1, 439, and was called Codex Theodosianus.
I do not subscribe to the beliefs of any religion that is presently organized in the world today. I do believe in the historicity of Jesus, as I have no real reason to doubt it and some reasons to believe in it. I do not believe in the spiritual teachings about him or his supposed origins, nor of anything else derived from Christian, Islamic, or Judaic teachings. Therefore I always use the uncapitalized pronoun when referring to Jesus or any other person.