These were the times of Christ. In 38 CE Caligula was the Roman Julian Emperor, and he regarded the Jews with suspicion, he felt they were the only people who opposed him. 40% of the population of Alexandria were Jews, and there were tensions between the Jews and the surrounding population. When Herod Agrippa I, the grandson of Herod the Great, traveled to Alexandria for a visit, the population was inflamed against the Jews. Philo writes " they slew them and thousands of others with all kinds of agony and tortures, and newly invented cruelties, for wherever they met with or caught sight of a Jew, they stoned him or beat him with sticks". There would also be riots in 40 and 66 CE - today the poor relation between Jews and the surrounding population continues and may lead us to a world war. 429
Many scholars believe that the name “Moses” has Egyptian origins. It is certainly a possibility that this promised land was promised by an Egyptian Pharaoh and so-called God, in order to put in place a people to defend against invaders from the east, a people destined to be the gatekeepers of Egypt. A land populated by devout believers, charged with protecting a territory given to them by God. This would surely make them the most dedicated defenders of it. We certainly defend property with more vigor when we think it’s ours, and even more so if we believe God has given it to us. You may also consider today’s war in Palestine as no different, a people put in place in the precise location, to control the surrounding nations which may oppose the West. Who funds Israel? … little has changed. 399 B-4-4-1
The Old Testament is a war manual, the New Testament tells us to turn the other cheek and love our enemy. God says. "Go now, and attack Amalek. Wipe out everything that belongs to them. Do not spare any of them, kill men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys. ” 1 Samuel 15:3 Saul "totally destroyed" the Amalekites, he kept "the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves, and lambs and everything that was good. Samuel then hacked the king of the Amalekites to pieces before the Lord. An Old Testament rule called Herem is a mode of rendering harmless anything imperiling the religious life of the nation, the total destruction of the enemy and his goods at the conclusion of a campaign, Genocide is commanded by the Lord of the Old Testament, but is this the God of Christ, Are there two Gods? Were the Gnostics correct to think the Old Testament God was Satan? 391
