As someone who took an introductory course on the History of Western Civilization, I feel that I should clarify a few points that you made.

Each Abrahamic religion gained power and influence due to reasons specific to it.  For the first iteration, Judaism, it loosely translates to "The Way of Life of the Jewish People".  The Old Testament explains more than just what their religion is about, it also describes the way society is structured, what the social hierarchy is, what the laws are, etc.  From this, scholars are able to get a glimpse into what ancient Israelite society looked like.  I saw you mentioned Gilgamesh, and it's funny you bring that up.  Aside from the Great Flood that was taken from the epic, the Old Testament also seemed to have taken inspiration from Sargon of Akkad, who claimed that he had been found in a basket of reeds on the banks of the Tigris.

Christianity, on the other hand, had its own appeal amongst Roman citizens and those colonized by them.  For those who had been colonized, it gave them a reason to stand up to the establishment, to give witness to Jesus' martyrdom, and refuse to accept the power of the Roman state.  Even amongst the Romans, themselves, it found a following amongst women and the poor, who found themselves at the bottom of the ladder in their society and saw the accepting nature of the Christians as a way to be something more.  Of course, this was all reversed once Emperor Theodosius I made Christianity the official religion of the Empire, but when it was still an underground cult that was being relentlessly persecuted by the Pagan authorities, it held an allure.

As for your talk of Heaven and Hell motivating people to accept the word of God, well of course.  Why else should people worship you if they have no reason to?  How do you convince someone to shirk the traditions of his/her forefathers without making the claim that his old ways are wrong and your new ways are right?

Hazard Time, on 16 Aug 2016 - 10:34 PM, said:

As someone who took an introductory course on the History of Western Civilization, I feel that I should clarify a few points that you made.

 

Each Abrahamic religion gained power and influence due to reasons specific to it.  For the first iteration, Judaism, it loosely translates to "The Way of Life of the Jewish People".  The Old Testament explains more than just what their religion is about, it also describes the way society is structured, what the social hierarchy is, what the laws are, etc.  From this, scholars are able to get a glimpse into what ancient Israelite society looked like.  I saw you mentioned Gilgamesh, and it's funny you bring that up.  Aside from the Great Flood that was taken from the epic, the Old Testament also seemed to have taken inspiration from Sargon of Akkad, who claimed that he had been found in a basket of reeds on the banks of the Tigris.

 

Christianity, on the other hand, had its own appeal amongst Roman citizens and those colonized by them.  For those who had been colonized, it gave them a reason to stand up to the establishment, to give witness to Jesus' martyrdom, and refuse to accept the power of the Roman state.  Even amongst the Romans, themselves, it found a following amongst women and the poor, who found themselves at the bottom of the ladder in their society and saw the accepting nature of the Christians as a way to be something more.  Of course, this was all reversed once Emperor Theodosius I made Christianity the official religion of the Empire, but when it was still an underground cult that was being relentlessly persecuted by the Pagan authorities, it held an allure.

 

As for your talk of Heaven and Hell motivating people to accept the word of God, well of course.  Why else should people worship you if they have no reason to?  How do you convince someone to shirk the traditions of his/her forefathers without making the claim that his old ways are wrong and your new ways are right?

Hm I'm glad whom chose to respond is informed. And yeah I know how it happened wasn't unintelligent or anything. Just I think ignorance is a large problem these days so it comes to my mind alot lately as its a source of quite some fallacies, or motivator for some as well/rather.

So why did Nero think Christianity was evil? Was it just disrupting his order, or were they like executing people who didn't obey Sabbath or something, or are you unaware of what exactly it was that prompted Nero to act as he did?

And for the audience, Nero is '666' spelled from I think it was Hebrew's alpha-numerical system? Or roman? Anyways scholars found the book of revelations was essentially written in code to warn of Rome's persecution of them at the time.

Hm I'm glad whom chose to respond is informed. And yeah I know how it happened wasn't unintelligent or anything. Just I think ignorance is a large problem these days so it comes to my mind alot lately as its a source of quite some fallacies, or motivator for some as well/rather.

 

So why did Nero think Christianity was evil? Was it just disrupting his order, or were they like executing people who didn't obey Sabbath or something, or are you unaware of what exactly it was that prompted Nero to act as he did?

 

And for the audience, Nero is '666' spelled from I think it was Hebrew's alpha-numerical system? Or roman? Anyways scholars found the book of revelations was essentially written in code to warn of Rome's persecution of them at the time.

When Christianity first began popping up, the Romans had no idea what to do with it.  Roman culture revolved heavily around the idea of mos maiorum, or "Ways of the Ancestors".  In this way, one could consider them to have made an ideology out of cultural conservatism, looking up to that which was old and steeped in tradition as righteous.  As such, the Romans had a considerable respect for the Jews of Judea, and even after they were reduced to a colony under the direct control of Rome, the Romans never meddled with their way of life in the way the Greek Seleucids did (Banning the Torah, outlawing circumcisions, desecrating the temple of Jerusalem by sacrificing swine to Zeus, etc).

As such, when Christian communities appeared throughout the modern day Levant, North Africa, and Turkey, the Roman authorities had no respect for their rites or traditions.  In fact, up to that point, there hadn't been a precedent in Roman law that dictated how entirely new religions would be treated.  However, if there was one thing about Christianity the Romans disliked, it was the sort of "civil disobedience" it demanded.  For example, Christians refused to make sacrifices before the statues of the Roman emperors, and when threatened with torture and execution, they gladly accepted it with open arms.

In case it wasn't abundantly clear, despite their claims of being civilized folk, Roman culture was founded on violence and bloodshed.  The various provinces and colonies of the empire were kept in line by fear, as anyone who openly declared rebellion against them could expect to be tortured and executed in a public manner if they allowed themselves to be captured.  What Christianity encouraged, a desire to bear witness to the martyrdom of Jesus Christ, challenged Roman authority, and that was something they could not allow.  As such, the persecution of Christians devolved into a witch hunt as people turned on their neighbors, denouncing them to the authorities who simply asked them nicely if they were Christian.  If they said no and promised to make an offering to the emperor, they were let go, as very few Christians in those days would denounce their faith or make sacrifices to the emperor.

However, the more the Romans persecuted the Christians, the larger their population grew.  Eventually, some Christian theologists hatched the brilliant idea to try and grant their movement legitimacy and even protection under mos maiorum.  How did they hope to do this?  By co-opting Jewish heritage of course!  They opened up the Old Testament, pointed to all the passages that referred to the Hebrew people, and said, "Look!  Does it say anywhere in here that the Hebrews were Jews?  Of course not!  They were Christians!  You've been persecuting the wrong guys!"

This claim was met with mixed results, to say the least.  Still, it was just one of several events that would later widen the schism between Jews and Christians, culminating in almost two millennia of persecution and oppression.