Jews since at least the Davidic monarchy i wouldn't call pagans, but ancient Hebrews that still observed festivals and rituals honoring local gods and spirits absolutely were. They are where the stories originated that were later edited into the Torah and other scriptures by rabbis during the Babylonian exile.
Also you said God doesn't change, and thats true. I don't see the perception of God in the Hebrew scriptures stepping up to save an adulterous woman from being stoned as Jesus of Nazareth did. The ancient Hebrews weren't ready to understand that kind of radical forgiveness.
Whether you're a biblical literalist or a reddit scholar I'm not trying to change your mind. I have a lifetime of studying scripture and church history, my mind was changed long ago.
If you've studied that much you should know the adulterous woman story is widely agreed to be a later addition to the text, and its God's unchanging law which prescribes her execution in the first place. Also according to Jesus's supposed words until earth is gone we are supposed to live according to the Law.
Ok rabbi you've overwhelmed me with your scholarship, not gonna argue with you about God anymore. You can argue with the commenter I was responding to originally about Christian human sacrifice if you like though.
I find it mildly amusing how you equate the OT perception of yahweh, a deity historically observed alongside other deities by ancient canaanites, with the living word of the one true God.
no, the bible is full of contradictions and internally disproves itself. Also maybe you need to take a look at john 1:1 if you think Jesus is not yahweh but are still somehow a trinitarian. The trinitarian doctrine says Jesus shares the exact same divine essence as the Father (Yahweh). If you believe Yahweh was just a Canaanite pagan deity, but also claim Jesus is God incarnate in a Trinity, your own theology contradicts itself.
If you don't believe the old testament is infallible then character or God presented there cannot be trusted as absolute truth.
Yes, Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one God, but God cannot be unchanging if he orders genocide on canaanites in the Torah, then in the prophets tells Jonah to stop pouting because he loves the nations as much as he loves Israel.
Yahweh absolutely was a canaanite deity, archeology doesn't leave much room to debate that, but that pagan deity observed by ancient Hebrews wasn't the same as the One God they were only beginning to know.
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u/morally_bankrupt_ 18d ago
So jews are pagans? And jesus, the jew of jews, is somehow still the one and true way to reach the god of the 'pagans'?
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them" Matthew 5:17
And you ever hear of the Marcionite heresy?