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BeefyBelisarius on scored.co
1 month ago1 point(+0/-0/+1Score on mirror)
Way back when Babylon conquered Judah and carried their upper classes into captivity, they left a vacuum, which was filled by neighboring Edomites, descended from Esau. Later, after Persia conquered Babylon, they let the captives go back to their homelands, which were now part of the Persian Empire. The returning Judahite upper classes couldn't really do anything about the Edomites, since they were all Persian subjects, so everything was all mixed up and the only way to tell the difference was religious practice.
Much later, the Macabees led a revolt and forcibly converted the Edomites, destroying this distinction. Edomites like Herod the Builder moved up in the religious and secular power structures and by the time the New Testament begins, everyone was just hopelessly mixed up. Then along came Christ, splitting Judea and separating the wheat from the tares. Israelites became first generation Christians, disappearing into a sea of gentile converts (likely including the lost northern tribes Assyria destroyed) and everyone else followed the false messiah Simon Bar Khoba into picking a suicidal fight with Rome. Later, fleeing edomite pharasees regrouped in Babylon, where they invented a new religion by writing the talmud and zohar and stealing some old names. Much later there were a couple large conversions to this new religion, but other posters already covered that.
Much later, the Macabees led a revolt and forcibly converted the Edomites, destroying this distinction. Edomites like Herod the Builder moved up in the religious and secular power structures and by the time the New Testament begins, everyone was just hopelessly mixed up. Then along came Christ, splitting Judea and separating the wheat from the tares. Israelites became first generation Christians, disappearing into a sea of gentile converts (likely including the lost northern tribes Assyria destroyed) and everyone else followed the false messiah Simon Bar Khoba into picking a suicidal fight with Rome. Later, fleeing edomite pharasees regrouped in Babylon, where they invented a new religion by writing the talmud and zohar and stealing some old names. Much later there were a couple large conversions to this new religion, but other posters already covered that.