Abrahamic Religions As Neo-Assyrian "Lost Cause" Zeitgeist
Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2022 6:40 pm
I have argued that Arab civilization was effectively created by Neo-Assyrian hegemony. I think Israelite civilization (including Jewish civilization), while not created by Assyria, was irrevocably altered by it, and integrated into it. Jews and Arabs fought alongside the last Assyrian monarchs at Harran.
Thus, I would argue that the very zeitgeist of the Kingdom of Heaven, Canaanite/Babylonian messianism, is nothing more or less than an expression of Neo-Assyrian "lost cause" beliefs. From the Maccabean Book of Daniel, to Christianity, to Hatra as the City of God, to the Palmyrene Empire of Helios, to Mohammad, to Hussein and Ali, to Mahdi.
The collapse of the Empire of Iron was such a profound loss on the peoples of the Pax Assyrica - its hegemony so profound the very creation of many of these cultures - that grief over its loss has defined the sense of utopianianism in the Middle East for at least 2000 years. Maybe 3000.
Thus, I would argue that the very zeitgeist of the Kingdom of Heaven, Canaanite/Babylonian messianism, is nothing more or less than an expression of Neo-Assyrian "lost cause" beliefs. From the Maccabean Book of Daniel, to Christianity, to Hatra as the City of God, to the Palmyrene Empire of Helios, to Mohammad, to Hussein and Ali, to Mahdi.
The collapse of the Empire of Iron was such a profound loss on the peoples of the Pax Assyrica - its hegemony so profound the very creation of many of these cultures - that grief over its loss has defined the sense of utopianianism in the Middle East for at least 2000 years. Maybe 3000.