The hidden roots of Judaism and Christianity are in animal sacrifice, human sacrifice, and cannibalism.
Animal sacrifice is the ritual killing of an animal as part of a religious rite. In many cases, this has evolved into ritual slaughter, the religious rite of killing an animal for consumption, where prayers are said, rather than the animal being part and parcel of the prayer. The reasons behind it taking place are varied across the world and through time. In Judaism, or rather, Hebrew Temple worship, it was often understood that the animal being sacrificed was being offered in the place of the person doing the sacrifice, in recognition that that person should be sacrificed for their sin or wrongdoing. It was a blood atonement.. There is evidence, of course, that human sacrifices also took place in the ancient world.As can be seen in the Old Testament, an animal or animals were often substituted in place of a human.
From the time of Moses till the time of the prophet Hezekiah, a period of seven hundred years or more, the Hebrews were not necessarily monotheistic, but sometime idolaters, as their records show. The serpent was reverenced as the Healer of the Nation; they worshipped a bull called Apis, as did the Egyptians; they worshipped the sun, moon, stars, and all the hosts of heaven; they worshipped fire, and kept it burning on an altar, as did the Persians and other nations; they worshipped stones, revered an oak-tree, and bowed down to images; they worshipped a virgin mother and child; they worshipped Baal, Moloch, and Chemosh (names given to the sun), and offered up human sacrifices to them, after which, in some instances, they ate the victims.
Apparently, some peoples eventually found the ritual murder of their king or other representative to be repugnant, yet there is also evidence that human sacrifice was probably practiced by the Jews until the time of the Romans, who sought to put an end to it-at least, thats the way some Roman histories tell it. Hebrew rituals, though, from Abraham through the period of Temple worship that ended around 70 A.D. often entailed the ritual sacrifice of animals, though there were commentaries against it. There are many instances of animal and at least one human sacrifice in the Old Testament-as well as stories of cannibalism, and in the New Testament, Jesuss parents sacrifice two doves (Luke 2:21-27) after he is circumcised:
and Paul performs a Temple worship ritual, involving sacrifice ("offering") quite a while after Jesuss death (Acts 21:23-26):
In any case, some Jews and some Christians still practice rituals that sacrifice animals. Shortly before Yom Kippur, for example, some orthodox Jews practice the ritual of Kapparos, where they hold an object above their heads, pray and ritually transfer their sins to the object as a means of atonement. For many (most) contemporary Jews, the object is money, which is then donated to charity. For others, though, the object is a as it was in the original rite, a chicken, which is held by the shoulder blades, prayed over-to symbolically transfer sins- slaughtered, and again, donated to charity-becoming a poor familys pre-Yom Kippur meal.
Cannibalism. Its an idea that conjures all sorts of thoughts and reactions in human beings around the world. Theres evidence that the Anasazi, the puebloan Indians that inhabited the four corners region from about 500 B.C. to about 1300 A.D., practiced cannibalism at the end of their reign in the area, evidence in the form of human bones from that era that show evidence of preparation for consumption. While its purely speculative evidence, and archaeologists and anthropologists are still lining up on both sides of the issue, the reaction from the Pueblo, Hopi and Navaho communities-all of whom claim at least some distant relation to those ancient people-was immediate and vociferous, and to make the suggestion to some of those people today is to look for a fight, such is the power of the ancient taboo and stigma attached to the very idea of cannibalism.. Back east, the woodland Indians probably made up a variety of myths and legends, like the flesh eating Wendigo, to speak of those times when cannibalism became necessary-one bad winter, a relative might disappear, and one would say, The wendigo carried them off, rather than , well, "we had to eat them"........on the other hand, the instances of cannibalism that we have record of in the modern era-the famous Andean flight portrayed in the book Alive! for instance-show that the consumption of human flesh for survival takes on religious implications for the individuals who survive, and sometimes even for those who are dying, knowing that they might be consumed. We also see evidence of religious ritual accompanying the practice of cannibalism in those tribal people who still practice it, or for whom the practice is still in cultural memory. We also can see evidence of this theme in the ancient world, not only in the practice of cannibalism per se, but in religious rituals where one consumed the" body and blood of god."
As repulsive as the notion may seem, it is a fact that "theophagy"--the technical term for the consumption of a god's body and blood--has been considered a religious experience worldwide for thousands of years. While certain religions (-cough!-Christianity-cough!-) may think that they invented the concept of the Eucharist, and that "Holy Communion" has nothing whatsoever to do with cannibalism, the ritual of sacrificing a god or goddess and sharing his or her blood and body as a sacrament is an act found throughout the ancient world. The only thing so-called modern religion has done is to maintain the form of the ritual in a symbolic rather than literal sense.
"He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him," so the "founder of Christianity," Jesus, purportedly said. It might seem abhorrent to the Christians of today that one of their most precious rituals actually has its roots in the cannibalistic sacrifice and consumption of their deity. This origin, however, is the fact.
Far from being a Christian invention, rituals similar to what came to be called the Eucharist have been practiced for millennia by various cults and sects around the globe. Initially, thousands of years before the Christian myth was established, an actual human being, acting as proxy for the deity worshipped, was sacrificed and eaten by the cult's followers. In some cases, more than one person was killed and consumed in this matter. This behavior went on throughout the ancient world, and the words regarding this act--"For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." etc.- attributed to Jesus were generally part of the ritual
As we know, in Christianity the theophagous act is now purely symbolic, and Jesus is the primary human sacrifice, but it was not always this way in the predecessor religions that contributed to the formation of Christianity. No matter how far away from it we wish to get, theophagy used to signify the actual dismemberment and consumption of a human being. The Eucharist has its roots in a cannibalistic act, plain and simple.
Animal sacrifice is the ritual killing of an animal as part of a religious rite. In many cases, this has evolved into ritual slaughter, the religious rite of killing an animal for consumption, where prayers are said, rather than the animal being part and parcel of the prayer. The reasons behind it taking place are varied across the world and through time. In Judaism, or rather, Hebrew Temple worship, it was often understood that the animal being sacrificed was being offered in the place of the person doing the sacrifice, in recognition that that person should be sacrificed for their sin or wrongdoing. It was a blood atonement.. There is evidence, of course, that human sacrifices also took place in the ancient world.As can be seen in the Old Testament, an animal or animals were often substituted in place of a human.
From the time of Moses till the time of the prophet Hezekiah, a period of seven hundred years or more, the Hebrews were not necessarily monotheistic, but sometime idolaters, as their records show. The serpent was reverenced as the Healer of the Nation; they worshipped a bull called Apis, as did the Egyptians; they worshipped the sun, moon, stars, and all the hosts of heaven; they worshipped fire, and kept it burning on an altar, as did the Persians and other nations; they worshipped stones, revered an oak-tree, and bowed down to images; they worshipped a virgin mother and child; they worshipped Baal, Moloch, and Chemosh (names given to the sun), and offered up human sacrifices to them, after which, in some instances, they ate the victims.
Apparently, some peoples eventually found the ritual murder of their king or other representative to be repugnant, yet there is also evidence that human sacrifice was probably practiced by the Jews until the time of the Romans, who sought to put an end to it-at least, thats the way some Roman histories tell it. Hebrew rituals, though, from Abraham through the period of Temple worship that ended around 70 A.D. often entailed the ritual sacrifice of animals, though there were commentaries against it. There are many instances of animal and at least one human sacrifice in the Old Testament-as well as stories of cannibalism, and in the New Testament, Jesuss parents sacrifice two doves (Luke 2:21-27) after he is circumcised:
and Paul performs a Temple worship ritual, involving sacrifice ("offering") quite a while after Jesuss death (Acts 21:23-26):
In any case, some Jews and some Christians still practice rituals that sacrifice animals. Shortly before Yom Kippur, for example, some orthodox Jews practice the ritual of Kapparos, where they hold an object above their heads, pray and ritually transfer their sins to the object as a means of atonement. For many (most) contemporary Jews, the object is money, which is then donated to charity. For others, though, the object is a as it was in the original rite, a chicken, which is held by the shoulder blades, prayed over-to symbolically transfer sins- slaughtered, and again, donated to charity-becoming a poor familys pre-Yom Kippur meal.
Cannibalism. Its an idea that conjures all sorts of thoughts and reactions in human beings around the world. Theres evidence that the Anasazi, the puebloan Indians that inhabited the four corners region from about 500 B.C. to about 1300 A.D., practiced cannibalism at the end of their reign in the area, evidence in the form of human bones from that era that show evidence of preparation for consumption. While its purely speculative evidence, and archaeologists and anthropologists are still lining up on both sides of the issue, the reaction from the Pueblo, Hopi and Navaho communities-all of whom claim at least some distant relation to those ancient people-was immediate and vociferous, and to make the suggestion to some of those people today is to look for a fight, such is the power of the ancient taboo and stigma attached to the very idea of cannibalism.. Back east, the woodland Indians probably made up a variety of myths and legends, like the flesh eating Wendigo, to speak of those times when cannibalism became necessary-one bad winter, a relative might disappear, and one would say, The wendigo carried them off, rather than , well, "we had to eat them"........on the other hand, the instances of cannibalism that we have record of in the modern era-the famous Andean flight portrayed in the book Alive! for instance-show that the consumption of human flesh for survival takes on religious implications for the individuals who survive, and sometimes even for those who are dying, knowing that they might be consumed. We also see evidence of religious ritual accompanying the practice of cannibalism in those tribal people who still practice it, or for whom the practice is still in cultural memory. We also can see evidence of this theme in the ancient world, not only in the practice of cannibalism per se, but in religious rituals where one consumed the" body and blood of god."
As repulsive as the notion may seem, it is a fact that "theophagy"--the technical term for the consumption of a god's body and blood--has been considered a religious experience worldwide for thousands of years. While certain religions (-cough!-Christianity-cough!-) may think that they invented the concept of the Eucharist, and that "Holy Communion" has nothing whatsoever to do with cannibalism, the ritual of sacrificing a god or goddess and sharing his or her blood and body as a sacrament is an act found throughout the ancient world. The only thing so-called modern religion has done is to maintain the form of the ritual in a symbolic rather than literal sense.
"He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him," so the "founder of Christianity," Jesus, purportedly said. It might seem abhorrent to the Christians of today that one of their most precious rituals actually has its roots in the cannibalistic sacrifice and consumption of their deity. This origin, however, is the fact.
Far from being a Christian invention, rituals similar to what came to be called the Eucharist have been practiced for millennia by various cults and sects around the globe. Initially, thousands of years before the Christian myth was established, an actual human being, acting as proxy for the deity worshipped, was sacrificed and eaten by the cult's followers. In some cases, more than one person was killed and consumed in this matter. This behavior went on throughout the ancient world, and the words regarding this act--"For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." etc.- attributed to Jesus were generally part of the ritual
As we know, in Christianity the theophagous act is now purely symbolic, and Jesus is the primary human sacrifice, but it was not always this way in the predecessor religions that contributed to the formation of Christianity. No matter how far away from it we wish to get, theophagy used to signify the actual dismemberment and consumption of a human being. The Eucharist has its roots in a cannibalistic act, plain and simple.
