In the old days, all round the world people had great fear for their kings, or rather the power their kings represented. Therefore it was common for people to consider their kings and the kings to consider themselves as semi-gods or, even in some cases, as gods (depending on how powerful or arrogant the king got to be). If you don't believe, you can ask the Japanese on who Hirohito of World War II fame was.
Once upon a time in a land faraway (at least from where my Chinaman ancestors used to live), there was a huge and powerful empire. Because of its hugeness, it therefore had access to equally huge resources which its rulers used to satisfy their fancies. For example, they built huge structures and monuments that lasted through the eons that had passed which we still admire in awe today.
At one point in time, one of its kings became the patron of a certain cult that believed in the supremacy of the Sun God over the numerous others peddled by the various cults in the kingdom.
This king was so obsessed with his new cult that he spent huge amounts of his country resources on it. Among others, the king built a new capital for himself and his supporters at great cost. The city was beautiful and plentiful in food and other supplies.
And he gave special treatment to the people who supported his views. They for example, got to enjoy all the things their new beautiful garden homes had to offer.
These supporters in turn included people who were 'spin doctors' who were adept at making up claims and stories in support of the king and his views. It was a symbiotic relationship familiar to history.
At the same time, the king neglected the other affairs of his country resulting in great turmoil and suffering throughout the empire.
Many of his people blamed the sorry state of their great country on the king’s obsession with his one deity and his new garden city. According to them, the country’s misfortune was due to the king’s neglect of the other deities and therefore had drawn the deities’ wraths.
So, upon the king’s death the people revolted.
The new ruler was one of the dead king’s ministers by the name of Ay. For that reason, it was likely that Ay had special feelings for the ex-king’s supporters as they was his co-supporters.
But given the people’s utter hatred for what this bunch of supporters and the former king represented, the politically astute Ay had no choice but to satisfy the people’s wishes and banish the ex-king’s supporters to some far away corner of that country.
As a fellow supporter, Ay was also aware of the supporters’ threat to his new-found powers if they were not to cooperate with his compromise. In any case, it would not be a surprise if among the supporters were Ay’s relatives and perhaps even his own off-springs (throughout history, men of power are known to sow their seeds all over the place).
As their future home is at a far corner of the empire known to be under perennial attacks from external invaders, combined with the former king’s supporters fear of retribution from their other fellow countrymen, Ay had to convince the supporters to accept the idea of banishment by promising them that they will get their land (Ay's promised land?) when they get there and they will have his ‘special’ protection.
On top of that, Ay 'promised' them that when things had quieten down he would send someone (a messenger) over to get them out of the horrid barren plot of land that they were to be banished to, and these people could then return to their former spanking new city with its beautiful gardens where they used to live like in heaven (compared to the new place they were about to go to).
In that way, the ex-home that these outcasts used to enjoy life in might also be interpreted as Ay's other 'promised land'.
As proof of Ay's commitment, he perhaps had his promises recorded on clay tablets (no paper in those days) for them to bring along for the local governors of their place of exile.
Thus to these ex-supporters, Ay was not only their guarantor of survival, but Ay's 'promise' of a return to their former 'heavenly' homes became these people's perennial wish.
And Ay’s messenger would be their saviour from the barren land that they were banished to.
To get to their new home, these followers had to some rivers and perhaps some small lakes - not an impossibility for people of that time but it was nevertheless a challenge for privileged ex-city dwellers more accustomed to the comforts of their garden homes managed by someone else than to the demands of river and lake crossings. So when they made it, it was indeed a big achievement to feel proud over.
On top of that, they witnessed for the first time in their sheltered lives, the results of the rise and ebb of the tides. Though not a surprise to local fishermen, these ex-supporters once found that the waters of the river they were about to cross ‘moved out’ and they could literally walk across to the bank on the other side. It was low tide but knowing no better, they pronounced that the water had 'parted'.
At a later time, perhaps in an attempt to over-inflate this event and their own ego they were to claim that the ‘sea parted’ for them (remember, among them were likely to be 'spin doctors' of the great empire).
Their new neighbours in the promised land were obviously less cultured and less developed compared to this bunch of ex-privileged people from the 'centre of the empire'. This difference made the supporters of the ex-king arrogant – it was an easy thing to do if you lived among the less developed and had the patronage of the most powerful man in the empire.
In the meantime, Ay had consolidated his powers as the new king. So according to tradition, Ay was treated around his kingdom as semi-god or god.
But now that the other ex-supporters were out of sight, and himself comfortably established as new king, Ay never bothered to keep his promise of a messenger and a return to the heavenly ex-homes for this bunch of outcasts.
In any case, these supporters still managed to live comfortably in their new land by invoking the name of Ay to get their way. That way, they got special treatment and rightfully considered themselves special.
So, even if among them were no off-springs of Ay, it would still not be a surprise for the loud mouth ones among them to have maximized the effect of Ay's patronage by claiming themselves to be special children of Ay.
In addition, they found that Ay's clay tablet was also quite useful for 'throwing weight' around.
So when one of them found that some of his people were going astray (perhaps not listening to him), he came up with the idea of going up to the mountains to bake a new tablet containing supposedly Ay's instructions on how to live ethically (or listening to him).
Thus from generation to generation, this bunch of people did the same trick on their fellow supporters and neighbours who, fearful of their mighty kings, continued to give great 'respect' to those tablets of Ay and to the ‘special status’ of these people thereby further inflating their egos.
The 'spin doctors' among them also found that the stories of their origin, journey of banishment, and Ay's promises when well-spun were convenient in shock and awe-ing the clearly less endowed and less privileged others.
So, in their stories they started referring to the beautiful garden their forefathers used to enjoy like in heaven, the 'parting of the sea' for their forefathers to cross, they being special children of Ay, Ay's 'promised land' and his saviour messenger.
Over time, the stories were also interspersed with instructions on household traditions/practices, short stories and little ditties which undoubtedly made them rather entertaining, and some times ludicrous and instructive.
As the tablets got broken from time to time, new ones were made along with the favourable new spins. And when papyrus paper got to them from the centre of the empire, the contents of the latest tablets along with the other stories and their spins were transferred onto 'paper'.
In paper form, the stories became more accessible, and made longer spins possible.
Well, there were really not many other books around the place anyway and only a privileged people could have afforded them then.
Given that it does contain some instructive ideas like the concept of compound interest, it was not difficult to imagine the descendents of the ex-king’s supporters staying ahead of their other neighbours at the fringe of Ay's empire - books are still powerful tools for transmitting knowledge and thus competitive advantage – thereby perpetuating their arrogant believe in their own supremacy.
In their words, they had more reasons to think they were indeed the ‘chosen ones’.
It was also not difficult to imagine how envious the other people living around this bunch of arrogant but undeniably better ‘endowed’ (by way of riches accumulated) folks would have been. Thus, the others started to want to be part of this story.
But alas, such privileges could not be shared without reducing the limited riches or comparative advantages of the few, not to mention the loss of the crowing rights to the privileges accorded by the stories.
Over some more generations, the name of Ay in their story got to be less relevant or rather less effective (who cares about what some king from so many generations ago promised?). So, to keep it relevant and more importantly to perpetuate the mystical effect of the story, Ay had to be replaced with something perhaps more lasting and powerful.
So some smart alec decided to change the word ‘Ay’ to ‘god’. The justification was really quite easy – weren’t all kings supposed to be semi-gods or gods anyway? So, that change was just a minor tweak. Who among the book’s owners would have argued anyway? Thus, Ay’s promises became god’s promises, and Ay’s messenger became god’s messenger.
In due course whenever they fell on hard times, some fella from among the group would re-invoke the long held dream of getting away from the rotten place they were in and returning to the great place their privileged ancestors used to live, as Ay or god promised.
But if you have to follow strictly by the script, before that can happen Ay’s or god's messenger must firstly ‘appear’. So, these fellas or their followers would have to declare someone as Ay’s or god's messenger.
That indeed was what happened time and time again.
Well, as long as the earth continues to exist you can theoretically do that an infinite number of times. Of course, this is made possible only because of the fact that despite all such claims of being Ay's or god's messenger over the eons nothing near what the 'script' said would happen actually happened i.e. Ay or god never bothered to take them back to their ex-'heaven'.
But this is really quite a serious matter since the word Ay was replaced by the word god– we are no more talking about Ay’s promises or messenger but that of a much more powerful or respectable figure.
Furthermore, it was becoming fashionable for if not anything at least the bragging rights, and the fear and respect accrued. So, different fellas were soon fighting over who were the real characters in the story.
One smarter of these fellas, upon losing the battle to be accepted as ‘the messenger’, decided to expand his support base.
To do so, he was mindful not to offend his own internal supporters who thought of themselves as ‘special children of god’. So, with a stroke of creative genius, he created the lesser term ‘children of god’ and used that as enticement for the outsiders whose backing and power this fella needed to call upon.
The simple logic is this: since the other suckers could not be ‘special children of god’, they just might be happy being mere ‘children of god’. Surprisingly, it worked. And this fella, with his hugely expanded support base, managed to overwhelm the other fellow claimants.
To accomodate their new powerful patrons, this renegade bunch had to 'add on' to the old story the new concepts they used to capture their patron's imagination and support - there is always a cost for everything. So a new book was introduced to not just augment the first one, but be the final update on and therefore overrides the former.
And removing Ay from the texts was also both timely and convenient since Ay was from a bygone era and a different super-power from the current patron. Anyhow, this Ay never kept his promise anyway.
Actually, the story was much more than that…
Not to be outdone, the orignal group smartly decided that it was perhaps okay to let this expanded bunch be. Probably they figured that whatever happens, the latter, if they were stupid enough to follow strictly by the old script, would have to accept that as mere ‘children of Ay’ they were really a tad lower than the ‘special children of Ay’.
Indeed, it was infinitely better for things to be that way rather than not! Better that my book remains 'book one' and yours 'book two' than for it not figuring in your scheme of things at all.
So, this episode really made everyone happy (as long as the foolish ones don’t realize it) – which explains why the ‘arrangement’ remained so for so long.
As time moved further on, an egoistical fella among the subsequent followers of the newly expanded group decided to upgrade his own status to that of an 'apostle'.
Of course, not everyone would be happy with such selfish changes – who are you to start changing the story and elevating yourself, the others would say.
But this fella smartly figured that he could 'slip' his more godly status in along with another more significant one with the help of overwhelming ‘fire-power’, and over time no blind follower would ever argue with the changes anyway.
Thus he suggested that his leader’s messenger status be changed to that of the son of god, and himself one of his disciples or apostles. This gave rise to a momentous dispute.
Actually it was very simple: according to the script, the world was supposed to end and every one was supposed to 'go back to heaven' soon after the appearance of 'the messenger'. But 'the messenger' had come and gone for a few hundred years and yet that 'let's all go to heaven' never happened. In that sense, our fella's opponent might have a case.
But luckily for the progenitor, his changes had the support of the king of the then super-power of the land (who cares what happen to heaven when you have a super-power to help you dictate what happens on earth?).
So when this king got all the differing fellas at a place called Nicene and told them to agree on one version of the story once and for all, this fella's version won. In their words, their version is 'the truth' while the other's is a 'heresy' (never mind if it was won by sheer fire power. Anyway which gullible future idiot will bother with that?).
Actually it wasn't as congenial as it seemed. The losers in this particular dispute were actually banished – much like those of the time of Ay. But, things did not end there.
The followers of the losers in this particular dispute soon decided that they too could make some small changes here and there, and come up with their own story more accommodating to their wishes!
In their version of the story, they appointed one of their own rank outsiders as god’s ‘latest messenger’ - the previous 'the messenger' turned 'son of god' was merely 'one of god's messengers'.
To add to its appeal, special privileges for the original selected few from Ay's time were revoked (ha, now every one is at least more equal).
In fact, they had a whole new book that had 'new updates' and 'selected' extracts from the 2 previous ones.
Given that it was a 'selection', it was therefore not difficult to then assume that it was therefore better than the rest too.
Anyway, those 2 other books were written by 'arch enemies' and contained too many inconsistencies to be credible. Not to mention, 3 books was probably too much to lug around on those poor camels.
It is not difficult then to see how this would be bad news to the winner of the previous dispute, and the special ones they out-muscled earlier.
So, those two got together and tried to go at the latest story-tellers ('you mean our 2 books are not as good as your 1?' was probably how the logic went).
But by then, things were really more equal - the super-power of the land is no more that of the guy that underwrote the previous story change. Now, it was really free for all.
So since then, the people in Ay’s promised land had lived happily ever after – happily fighting and killing each other for the right to call their own version of the Ay story the ‘final one’.
And while Ay had been forgotten to all these fools' convenience, more fools from further afar are today also stupidly joining in thinking that 'believing in the story' will somehow bring them to the 'heavenly home' that Ay promised long time ago to a bunch of outcasts.
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