How can I get this across to you:
When Alexander the Great conquered the ancient world in the 4th century b.c.e. the effect on other cultures was like a Tsunami!
Think of Japan BEFORE and AFTER their defeat in WWII.
BEFORE WWII Japan was a feudal society with God as its political and theocratic leader in the person of the Emperor.
When the atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki all this was virtually wiped out in a very short span of time!!
Imagine how this must impact the psychology of people who believe their view of the world and god is entirely and absolutely true.
Pre War, the Japanese people worshipped their Emperor AS GOD on earth! After the War, their GOD surrendered to the enemy!
Think about that!
It creates an awful split in thinking! THIS INVARIABLY LEADS TO ADAPTING BY TAKING ON THE VIEWS OF THE VICTOR and BLENDING THEM with what already exists.
Japanese society could never go backward to what it was before. They have become a mirror of Western cultured by blending all things Japanese with the ethos of Western thought. Note: it is not identical with Western thought; but, swallows it whole and mutates existing Japanese thought. I posit that this is what happened to the cultures in the East when Alexander the Great defeated local armies and wiped out the illusion that God(s) was/were protecting them. BEING DEFEATED causes a rethink.****************************************************************************************************************************************************************
JUDIASM was no exception. From this point forward three things happened. 1.Greek language swallowed up Hebrew because it was vastly superior in details of expression and encompassed the science and philosophy of technology superior to primitive tribal society. 2.Greek explanations had greater scope and allowed more choices of causes and effects, thus, allowing the population at large to think and choose on a greater scale of personal freedom.3.Greek ways demonstrated success was to be wrought by actual flesh and blood heroes led by a son of God (Alexander was the "son of Zeus" and descendant of Achilles).
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A split took place in Jewish conception of how Israel was to achieve its "proper" status among all the peoples of the earth. 1.The MESSIANIC hero was held to be the savior of Israel 2.The changeover that would place Israel foremost among nations was to be Political and Military FIRST and religious SECOND. How this was to be achieved mimicked Greek success in every way. The political/religious/scientific/logical community in Israel began to absorb its young men with visions of grandeur and achievement. This is similar to what has happened in Muslim countries today. Young men are filled with heroic ideas of HOW TO ACHIEVE paradise by becoming politically radical. They become pawns for achieving the political ends of the leadership through the trappings of GOD and RELIGIOUS MARTYRDOM.THE MESSIANIC MOVEMENT was born, but, quickly split into two competing ideas.
1.Pacifists who thought of the Messiah as a tool of God and who would succeed by divine miracles on the battlefield.
2.Practical men who thought the Messiah was an earthly King/Priest/Warrior like Alexander.
The Messiah hope split the religion of Judaism forever after.
In much the same way as we see young Arab boys and other Muslim ethnicities lured into the excitement of political and religious activism leading to martyrdom--so too, in Israel the young men were lured into Messiah fever. Many a man fell into the trap of believing he might be the "chosen one" only to suffer death (martyrdom) and creating sect after sect of disillusioned followers.
One such sect after another split Judaism into competing philsophies, rituals and views of what pure worship was all about.
Among these sectarian splinters we find Gnosticism, Rabbinical Judiasm, Temple ritual sects and mystical leaders. Pharisees, Saducees and other radicals regularly argued with each other as to who was right and who was wrong. .
NOTE: All this arguing was in the style and manner of the famous Greek, SOCRATES.
SOCRATES had forever changed the art of discourse by replying to questions with a question of his own. He cut to the essence of every argument in this way. He taught his pupils be getting them to "think out loud" about what they were claiming "to know".
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Now enters Jesus.
Every thing we admire about Jesus is influenced by Greek thinking; especially his Socratic method of teaching. He is the embodiment of latter day Socratic instruction with his disciples mirroring the Platonic Academy in Athens.Two points:
1.Jesus use of the words: BODY, SOUL, and SPIRIT are Greek thoughts grafted on to Jewish theology.
2.Paul (the Hellenized Jew) used Greek Logic to explain how Jesus could fit the Greco-Hebrew conception of Messianic hope.
Finally....
The Church was able to use the IDEAL of a spiritualized Messiah TO PROP UP POLITICAL STRENGTH in the Roman empire under Constantine.
THE CHURCH WAS THE MESSIAH.
Jesus was absorbed into the CHURCH which was absorbed into the political will of the EMPEROR. The resulting theological war over WHO WAS JESUS was really a scrutiny of this THREEFOLD IDENTITY.
The TRINITY doctrine reflects this identity.