Lol time out!! You just went from total immersion French, to learning Italian haha?? You are so smart! Are you trying to learn all the romance languages? Awhile ago I went to check if you had an intro post and I think I saw a post from you in Spanish. That's awesome, I always wanted to learn a different language. A curfew?? Oh hell no!!! Lol.
Are you saying this because of something specific about them, or are you just pointing out that they too are an ancient religion that survives?
Is it uncommon for a lineage to survive thousands of years after national destruction, or are you just talking about the survival of religious sects? I actually wish my knowledge was better here, I know that Israel is an interesting case because of the duality of 'Being Jewish.' That can be a religious claim, or an ethnic claim. I'm friends with a few Jews who are strictly adherents to the religion of the NFL lol. As well as there being certain medical conditions that ethnic Jews are more prone to, etc. Is that the case also with Zoroastrianism and Mandaeism?
I wasn't trying to lift out the point that it's so impressive that the Jews are an ancient religion that has survived as much as I was trying to point out that building up the context of that survival makes it impressive. The context is juxtaposing the 'Biblical Chosen People' theory with the literal history of those people. The God of Abraham was always saying 'I will not forsake my people.' This God constantly allowed their defeat in battle when they were not obedient, cursed the people when disobedient, and rewarded them with victory and blessed them when obedient. And this 'Tall Tale' God said that his own people will reject his Messiah, and that the gentiles will except Him, that His message will go out to the ends of the Earth, and although his own people will reject him (which always resulted in bad results for them in the Bible), in the end he will not forsake them.
Under these (and more) contexts, when we look at the REAL history of these people, it's awfully fishy how it plays out in similar fashion. Ok, just for starters, these people just happen to be one of these lineages/religions that survived after national destruction. 10 of the 12 original tribes were forgotten to history after Assyria conquered the north alone (just as an example of how conquests usually play out in a people being lost to history). The south was more so captured in waves, but the decisive event was the destruction of the Temple in 586 BC by Babylon. No problem, Jewish lineage/religion survived, the Temple and nation are reinstated. In 70 AD Rome destroys the Temple again, the major Diaspora begins. Some remained. In 132 a revolt against Rome led to the Romans decimating the Jewish community, and renaming Jerusalem and Judea to obliterate Jewish identification with the land of Israel. The Jews experienced one of the longest and most scattered diasporas in history, along with a steep demographic decline. As a result of endless massacres, epidemics, conversions, etc, they were down to approximately 1.2 million in 650 AD. So in this context, their survival is at the very least impressive.
Today, they are the only nation that inhabits the same land, bears the same name, speaks the same language, and worships the same God that it did 3,000 years ago. Again, I'm not claiming that extraordinary historical 'Luck' translates into a religion being true, I'm just saying that the predictions of their fate from there ancient God, and how there literal history played out, and how it now sits, is at the very least interesting.
I think that you missed something major here! It's on the tip of your nose lol. Here it is...the Jews ARE the world's dominant religions!!!
If this 'Myth' happened to be true about 'A Chosen People of God' whose story was prophesied to start with Abraham, and eventually go out unto all the world...would you or would you not expect it to constantly be in the world news by the 21st century? Would a humble secluded ancient Zoroastrian religion fit the bill? Or would you expect it to be everywhere by now? If the Jews or Israel are not in the news, this Jewish spin off called Catholicism is...an organized religion based on this claimed Messiah out of the same religion of Abraham. If Catholocism isn't in the news Christianity is. If Christianity isn't in the news Islam is. Islam claims Jesus as one of the prophets, Islam too is going back to Ishmael, the son of Abraham, same religious core. All of these spin offs are precisely like your signature "There is nothing new under the sun." In Jesus' time we had the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes, Herodians, false prophets (Islam), etc. Each of these spin offs in Jesus' time has something of equal comparison to what we find today, all anchored into the God of Abraham, yet have been corrupted in various ways. Jesus would definitely be whipping out his 'Whitewashed tombs' and 'Brood of viper' rebukes on these groups today, just like in his time.
Anti-Semitism is a fascinating parallel between the message of this ancient God of Israel and the literal history of Israel. God's chosen people having a major target on their backs (demonic) BECAUSE they are God's chosen people! That old religious story line matches up nicely with the bizarre extreme reality of Anti-Semitism.
I find it fascinating that Jesus the Messiah arrived during the Roman Pax Romana. The perfect time in history. Many nations of the world were now under one umbrella, there was a common language, a common currency, travel was at it's easiest in the ancient world, Rome was in it's heyday of peace. Now, here's where the chicken vs the egg argument can come in lol. You can argue with me that it was BECAUSE of the Pax Romana that Christianity found itself in the perfect place in history to have it's message go out unto the ends of the world (at that time), and I can argue that NO, it was God placing Jesus His Messiah in the perfect position in history! Isn't it fascinating how one person can never pin the other person down? There's always that intellectual free will in either direction!
On a personal note, this observation about literal Jewish history really helped a facet of my Jesus studies. I find it fascinating that there is this peculiar silver lining that comes out of the Jewish rejection, and flat out hatred of Jesus (as claimed Messiah). I already mentioned Dr Michael Brown to you as the person who convinced me that there was merit in the arguments that Jesus was prophesied about in the Old Testament. I find it fascinating that the Jew's intense hatred for Jesus absolutely guarantees us that the OT is safe from Jesus interpolation into the OT. Who in there right mind would ever think that orthodox Jews would allow Christians to paint Jesus into their holy books? The notion is absurd. This was very important to me in my study of prophecy. The OT is very old and I have a critical historical side (not as bad as you), I do doubt it at times, I might have thrown the towel in on prophecy study if it was not for this interesting observation. It's as if the Jewish hatred for Jesus created this huge protective brick wall between the OT and NT. So that even if you have major historical doubts about the OT, you can still have trust in the purity of lifting out Jesus prophecies from the OT if you find them to be impressive. Just another interesting observation that I see (that helped out my skeptical side). I know that you are a postmodern and would really struggle with the OT in a historical sense!
Thanks to this silver lining of this Jewish hatred for Jesus, you are literally limited to only accusations of the NT writers taking the OT out of context, or misquoting it. But nobody argues in the other direction. And this is WAY more favorable to us historically because the NT is much easier to get a historical grip on than the OT (if you are critical/postmodern, I know a lot of Christians aren't). Having said that,
@Uber Genius can defend the accusations against NT writers 'Painting Jesus Into the OT' better than me! I've already quoted him recently, I'll requote him...
EDIT...by the way I'm not trying to knock the OT as much as i'm just trying to play Devil's advocate on it and meet a postmodern halfway.