CHRISTIANITY`S ATTEMPT TO REPLACE JUDAISM
I try to interpret human activities in terms of the basic nature of all humans and while in most cases it is impossible to prove my theses, it gives me and my readers food for thought. It is not a questionable fact, that the first Christians sprang from Jews that were for one reason or another not satisfied with the Jewish religion. But when the early Christians developed their precepts it had to be sufficiently different from Judaism to attract discontented Jews. I want to make it clear that I am not an expert on either Christianity or Judaism nor am I a religious Jew. Both religions believe in a single almighty God.
Paul, an apostle, said the following to a community in Rome, “to set the mind on the flesh i.e.( life on earth) is death but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace.” For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God and those who are centred on the flesh cannot please God. Jews believe in doing good here on earth and do not have a great deal to say about the after-life. Christians make a great deal about the after-life and what awaits you in the after-life if you are good. Enjoy doing good here is an axiom of the Jews. Christians can repent daily, Jews only once a year at Rosh Hashanah. For Jews sex is a blessing and they even allow it on the Sabbath. The Catholics who wanted to be different from the Jews but couldn’t very well do away with sex entirely, banned it for their priests. I have never read this anywhere but the Christians do not require circumcision, but it is basic for Judaism. It might have been difficult to entice the Pagans, who were in the majority in the known world at that time, to be circumcised so the Catholics did not make that a requirement of Christianity.
Remember human nature. You have to be more pleasing as a religion to all non-believers and marginal Jews than Judaism that you want to replace. It is my personal opinion that without the early Catholic church and Christians there would be no anti-Semitism. To replace the Jewish religion was what the early Christians wanted and everything they said was to do just that.
