I know, I just like to poke fun. No offense intended. I am somewhere between being agnostic and nihilistic.
Lol. -----
No, this is far less about believing or not believing, in as much as it is about fact and historical significance.
I am from a tribe; Banou Azd. They first surfaced in 200 CE. As in first documented. Their original area of living was South Western Saudi Arabia (It was not called that back then). The view is, Common religion back then was: idolism and other such religions...
OR Judaism.
Moses supposedly took a route due south of the Sinai and back up to a city called Ezion-Geber (Modern day AQABA, Jordan). At the Southern most part of their journey, you are a 100 km boat ride, to where my tribe would have been.
1 ) At Ezion-Geber (Aqaba).. you are 1200 km from that area. So, say the Jews who fled with Moses, headed in all different directions!!!!
2) My family name has tremendous links to Ezion-Geber... But that may be accidental, or decided on later.
In 300-350 CE, a branch of us, converts to Christianity. Aligns itself with the Byzantine Empire and spreads Orthodox Christianity. This would have been around the time of Constantine the Great. The first Emperor to turn the Roman empire into the Holly roman empire. The Byzantine empire is simply the derivative of the Eastern Roman Empire.
And we migrate (the new branch of the tribe) north from Saudi/Yemen. Straight to Jordan.. Ergo Ezion-Geber.
4) the Azds that remained. Made up the population of Mecca and Madena. Making the Prophet Mohamed, likely one of us. Christians that remained, were successful and guided the Mohameedens. Theory has it that the Quran was written by Christians. Ergo the adaption of Abrahamic religions. Even the Archangel that visited Mohamed in the cave are Judo-Christian ones. (Archangel Gabriel)
5) we continue North and go through Nazareth, Bethlehem, Jerusalem Granted in the 500-1000 CE.
6) Some of us land in Sothern Lebanon.. This is the more
Tricky association. A Maronite Priest (a sect of Catholicism, began in Lebanon in 350 CE) wrote a book theorizing that Christ was from Lebanon, not Nazareth/Bethlehem (modern day Israel). His theory is not universally accepted, but not debunked either.
He theorized that Qana. The city where Jesus attended a wedding and turned water into wine, is Qana Lebanon (the Lebanese have long believed that and Qana, Lebanon is deemed sacred. It is today in Huzbulalh hands and gets bombed regularly). Qana Lebanon is 25 minutes from my village.
My Village was also started by the crusaders in the 1100 time frame. And was home to a famous Crusader/Salah El Deen battle.
So, I have Moses, Christ, the Mohamed as direct connections. POSSIBLY.
I TRY VERY HARD to keep an open mind. And try very hard to walk a fine line on religion. Historically, it can be alarming to connect dots. Although, you do have to be careful that these dots are not connected incorrectly.
For any Serbs out there. Constantine the great was a Serb. Modern Christianity owes its existence to the Serbs.
Saint Paul was German. While born in modern day Turkey, everything about him suggests a German. And consider that the Romans battled the Germans, it is possible that his ancestors where brought over by the Romans.
there is the lesson on history and religion.
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