Musical Worship - Priests - Soothsayers
- Musicians - Prostitutes: The first
clergy system began in Babylon and consisted of priests, soothsayers,
musicians and prostitutes. These, often sexually and emotionally
abnormal people had the "talent" to rant, rave, play music, dance and
fall into charismatic fits. They claimed that they had contact with
the gods who said for you to pay them big time "seed money."
Chalal
(h2490) khaw-lal'; a prim. root [comp. 2470]; prop. to bore, i. e.
(by impl.) to wound, to dissolve; fig. to profane (a person, place or
thing), to break (one's
word), to begin (as if by an "opening wedge"); denom. (from 2485) to
play (the
flute): - begin (* men
began), defile, * break, defile, * eat (as common things), * first, * gather the grape thereof, * take
inheritance, pipe, player on instruments, pollute, (cast as) profane (self),
prostitute, slay (slain), sorrow, stain, wound.
You will have to decide how this fits into the
often commercial religion in the battle for crowds and money. My
interest is simply to find the information to recognize ancient
patterns when I see them.
"The rectangular
central shrine of the temple, known as a 'cella,' had a brick altar
or offering
table in front of a
statue of the temple's deity. The cella was lined on its long ends by
many rooms for priests
and priestesses. These mud-brick buildings were decorated with cone
geometrical mosaics, and the occasional fresco with human and animal
figures. These temple complexes eventually evolved into towering
ziggurats.
"The temple was
staffed by priests, priestesses, musicians, singers, castrates and hierodules. Various public rituals, food sacrifices, and
libations took place there on a daily basis. There were monthly
feasts and annual, New
Year celebrations.
During the later, the king would be married to Inanna as the
resurrected fertility god Dumuzi..." - Christopher
Siren, "Sumerian
Mythology
It was common for performers who worshiped
for the
spectators to believe that God gave them some spiritual talent. "If He
did not want it used in church then why did He give it to me?" The
implication, inherent in a common Hebrew word for "praise," was that
my self-boast, even if it seems unnatural, has more power than the
unity-creating unison, Word filled, teaching of the "audience."
These talents--speaking, singing,
attractiveness--has always been part of the mysteries imposed upon
the ignorant for the honor of the talented:
"The flash of
insight that enabled an individual to achieve an original act of creation, whether in art or in technology, was always mysterious, and for
early mankind it could be due only to the intervention of a god. Long
after the advent of civilization, in fact, poets continued to believe that they
wrote from divine dictation; inventors attributed their discoveries to divine
aid." (Parkes, Henry Bamford, Gods and Men, p. 34).
People still believe that their songs and books
are equal to God's revelation. This is why there is little connection
between these songs and the literal Spirit-breathed Word.
"What primative
men... wanted from the gods was health and strength, riches and long
life, and they hoped to attain these things chiefly by
ritual and sacrifice rather than by good
conduct. The methods
of early religion always remained largely magical, and its motivations thoroughly materialistic." (Parkes, p. 36).
At the same time, Parkes notes that these
skilled ecstasy-producers were often emotionally and
sexually
abnormal. After all, (in the movies) didn't the American Indians kill
the medical doctor and worship his drooling, rolling and falling,
insane-jesturing, and incessantly jabbering sidekick?
In time, these abnormal men and women found
that they could build a pyramidal
marketing plan. If they hired ten more
"gifted" people they could expand the "ministry" and get a "cut of
the take." Even today, "attendance building" demands a bigger cut.
Then, if he is going to contact the gods for you to keep them from
harming you, or to bring
you into contact with the gods,
it is important to build a
temple-state. All surplus energy is devoted to the "institution" and
if you got a spare moment he could, because he was idle, plan a new
"program" to make the "involvement minister" look good. This exactly
describe ancient religion which sought to control all thought, action
and money through the pyramid which ended with the king-priest at the
top nearest the gods.
The "anxiety from religious ritual" was the
burden these professionals placed on you as "pack animals."
Therefore, the highest goal of Jesus was to "get them off your back"
by removing the "middle man" so that you could contact God yourself
without getting zapped. Those "lading" the people down were priests
and the Judas episode hints that some Jews were acting as soothsayers
along with their usurped task of being temple musicians.
However, there is always a new "tele-marketer"
at the other end of your telephone:
"Conquering tribes
of herdsmen established themselves as ruling aristocracies and then
decayed, each of them in turn bringing new languages and new
religious beliefs;
urban merchants and money-lenders devised methods of exploiting the
food-producers and
tried to impose
their
own rationalistic modes
of thinking."
Don't get fooled
because:
Nothing is clearer
in history than the adoption by successful rebels of the methods they
were accustomed to condemn in the forces they deposed.
--Will and Ariel
Durant
A symptom of the revival of Babylonian idolatry is the
felt-need to rush to another new model of the church hoping for the
magic to kick in and solve your problems. The fact is that these
rituals are often idolatry and the effect is to create such anxiety
that you rush from the building and do not know why you are trying to
escape.
Jesus would say, "Come aside and find that your
prayers work just as well taking a walk in the woods and I will not
impose a temple tax and insist that you must not ask questions."
Jesus loves those who ask "why?"
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