For centuries Western civilization was under the fist of Rome which from the beginning was the antithesis of Jerusalem. The Romans themselves were the antithesis of the Hebrews. As far as collectivism and fascism go, Rome was an author of both. On the other hand, the Hebrews authored individual rights, liberty, freedom and justice for all. This puts the two foundations of belief in direct opposition.
American Founders also attested to the Hebrew roots of liberty and justice, for example:
“The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations.” – John Adams
It was John Adams also along with Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson who recommended the first design for the official seal of the United States which depicted the Israelites crossing the Red Sea with the motto: “Resistance to Tyrants is Obedience to God.”
This line of thought was common in America before and during that era, and in fact, the influence of the ancient Israelites was so great at the time that there were discussions in Congress on replacing English with Hebrew as the language of the United States.
In 1781, Robert Aitken petitioned Congress to authorize and endorse an edition of the Old and New Testaments in English for the use of citizens and for use in schools, which they did in 1782 stating:
[Congress] “….highly approve[s] the pious and laudable undertaking…,” “….. and “recommend[s] this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States,…” [Congress also] “…authorize[d] him to publish this Recommendation….”
On the other hand, the Roman system was based on the fasces (a symbol of many rods bound by cords to an ax) The bonds made them one but the ax was the superior and could chop the rods to pieces.) This symbolized a collective civilization made up of many people bound to the authority of Rome as one. Mussolini built his fascism on this concept and even revived the fasces for the symbol of his party. In Washington D.C. you can find the evidence of influences of both the ancient Romans and ancient Hebrews; today the US is becoming much more “Romanistic” and eliminating biblical influences in government.
Ancient Rome is an icon of collective power under human authority and Jerusalem is the icon of freedom and liberty under God. That was the conflict then between the Jews and the Romans when Judea was under Roman authority and it is the conflict we see in the world today. The whole world is presently in turmoil in the continuing ideological struggle between the Jewish model and the Roman model of thought.
Having been dispersed abroad for the last 2000 years many Jewish people, like the Gentiles they live among have come to embrace and cleave to the Roman model of thought. They are willing to entrust complete power in the hands of politicians to control our destiny and solve all of the world’s problems.
Today there exists basically two separate veins of “Christianity” (athough some Christians are influenced by both to varying degrees.) One vein stems from the roots of Rome, the Church or a man is the authority. This is the base of the large mainstream churches and from this vein antiSemitism flows. The other vein is based on the belief that God is judge and ruler of all men as recorded by the Hebrews. He is the author of rights and liberty and foremost we only need be concerned with answering to him.
When Christianity spread through Europe, it was based on Roman philosophies after having been adopted by the Roman Emperor who made it the official religion of Rome and used it to enhance political power. Rome was still Rome remaining and ruling an oppressive collectivist civilization, but now with dimensions of both political and religious power.
When biblical scripture started to become available the common people (many were executed for this) the reformation began to break the bonds of the Roman model and many Europeans slowly began to come to embrace the foundation laid by the Hebrew writers of scripture. The collective power of the Church began to be broken and the individual began to gain freedom and power. The response from the Roman Church was the Inquisitions. Since that time there has been a schism in Christianity and as you see today, the liberal churches (based on the Roman model) as they did then, diametrically oppose the pro-Israel Evangelical Christians who are drawn to the Jewish people and their original roots. These Jewish roots draw Gentile believers to the Jerusalem model of thought and this is where many Jews and Gentiles are meeting on a foundation of common principles and values, even if beliefs of faith differ.
However, Western civilization has always been a mix of the two ideologies and has never come to fully understand or fully embrace the Jewish model completely – but to the extent it has and to the extent some Christians have, they have prospered. Nonetheless, what we see now as Europeans go secular their society goes down and they become more anti-Semitic.
Islam ties into this also since Roman paganism had roots in Babylonian paganism – and though many people are not aware of it, Mohammad was raised for a time by a Catholic nun during in his formative years and was taught Catholicism and developed Islam in part on it – but I digress.
There are two basic foundations of thought for civilization, the collective society and the society of free individuals – And they are in constant conflict.
I think Gibbon’s already written this book 🙂
nice to find a classicist amongst the WordPressers. I’m fascinated as you are re the interface between religion and politics. And it is as alive now as it has ever been. All about power.
Top notch article.
ggw