One thing I was surprised to learn upon my conversion to Judaism was how they were quite open about the evolution of their faith over the millennia.
One Rabbi described it as abrogating bad religion.
As a Christian, I was always taught that Jesus (whom we believed was God) was the same yesterday, today and forever - unchanging, unyielding. Like a rock; unmovable and timeless.
The implication being that what the Bible teaches is also unchanging, unyielding and timeless. I would interpret this as meaning the basic tenets of the faith are (were) the same as they were 2,000 years ago.
I am currently reading How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee, by Bart Ehrman. In this book, Mr. Ehrman illustrates how the idea of Jesus evolved over a specific time period between the middle of the second century CE up to the fourth. The issue in question was the exact nature of Jesus' divinity.
In the early years after Jesus' death, he was viewed as an exalted human who became God after his resurrection from the dead. Ehrman shows how this idea of exaltation changed over time from happening at the resurrection to happening at his baptism and finally at the advent of his birth.
By the time of the fourth Gospel, the exaltation of Jesus evolves into pre-existing deification; that is - Jesus was divine from the beginning of time, and not at his birth, baptism or resurrection as the earlier Gospels reveal.
Even this kind of divinity evolves into what we now know as the Trinitarian view.
All throughout these centuries, as the view of Jesus evolves; previous views of Jesus are deemed heresy - such as the earliest Christian community's view of an exalted human Jesus.
So, my question is; can the Christian faith evolve even further, or is the current orthodox view (trinitarianism, blood atonement salvation, original sin, etc.) set in stone?
NORM
One Rabbi described it as abrogating bad religion.
As a Christian, I was always taught that Jesus (whom we believed was God) was the same yesterday, today and forever - unchanging, unyielding. Like a rock; unmovable and timeless.
The implication being that what the Bible teaches is also unchanging, unyielding and timeless. I would interpret this as meaning the basic tenets of the faith are (were) the same as they were 2,000 years ago.
I am currently reading How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee, by Bart Ehrman. In this book, Mr. Ehrman illustrates how the idea of Jesus evolved over a specific time period between the middle of the second century CE up to the fourth. The issue in question was the exact nature of Jesus' divinity.
In the early years after Jesus' death, he was viewed as an exalted human who became God after his resurrection from the dead. Ehrman shows how this idea of exaltation changed over time from happening at the resurrection to happening at his baptism and finally at the advent of his birth.
By the time of the fourth Gospel, the exaltation of Jesus evolves into pre-existing deification; that is - Jesus was divine from the beginning of time, and not at his birth, baptism or resurrection as the earlier Gospels reveal.
Even this kind of divinity evolves into what we now know as the Trinitarian view.
All throughout these centuries, as the view of Jesus evolves; previous views of Jesus are deemed heresy - such as the earliest Christian community's view of an exalted human Jesus.
So, my question is; can the Christian faith evolve even further, or is the current orthodox view (trinitarianism, blood atonement salvation, original sin, etc.) set in stone?
NORM
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