Artur Zadikyan
Jesus and Christ

– Come on. We don't know," the rabbi said sarcastically, referring to everyone but himself, in this context Rutru.

At least, that was the manner in which the earthly Rangit, familiar to Ruthra, often delivered his speeches. So Ruthra reacted silently, realizing the logical concept of his statement. He walked five paces away, and responded to the lunge:

– Well, you know you don't know, so why ask if you do? And the earthly history was this: the Hasmonean dynasty was the leader of the Jewish revolt against the Seleucids… a revolt caused by the Syrian kings' desire to forcibly Hellenize the Jews. Now, these Hasmoneans began initially a guerrilla war against the forces of Antiochus Epiphanes. They attacked from impregnable mountain hideouts, having made a general oath to fight even on the Sabbath. The Maccabean Hasmonean dynasty came to power as a result of a religious liberation revolt of the Jews against the cultural policies of the Seleucid power. An important result of the Hasmonean-led revolt is considered to be the establishment of an independent Jewish state centered in Jerusalem and the restoration of temple worship. In honor of this event, an eight-day festival called Hanukkah, meaning "consecration," was established.

– I'm a little familiar with history. You tell me your role, what was your purpose?

Rutru was a little perturbed by the unapologetic switch to you, even if he had suggested such a thing himself. "Although he said your part, who did he mean, me alone or the whole program?"

– What part? I wasn't there. You're the one who was infiltrating the world in that era. Weren't you?

Rangit didn't answer directly, he asked:

– So it's not a personal observation?

– No, of course not. This is the official story known to Earth science.

– Uh-huh. I see. And what does your story say?

– So, I've been thinking… Let's make a deal: you also explain if something doesn't agree with yours. So we know where the differences are. And even if it's the same, note it.

– I get your idea. Whenever I can.

Ruthra looked at him, expressing a question mixed with indignation. But when he caught his companion's smile, he thought, "How many worlds have you seen this in?" and developed the thought further in his thoughts: however different the worlds were, they were all subject to the same laws of physics, and therefore very similar. After all, the presence of the same sense organs in almost all living beings does not surprise us. And we consider the use of oxygen for the needs of the "internal combustion engine" of living organisms as an axiom.

– Now," continued Rutra, "it is well known that Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Greco-Syrian king of the Seleucid Empire, ruled Judea at that time. This Epiphanes pursued a policy of Hellenization, in some places very harsh and cruel. The aim was to spread the Greek language and culture. In 167 B.C. Antiochus transformed the Temple of Jerusalem into a sanctuary of Zeus the Olympian. In it, the main Jewish sanctuary, pagan sacrifices began to be performed. Such actions caused a storm of resentment among the Jews, and eventually it became the cause of an armed rebellion in 166 B.C.; the signal for the rebellion was the murder by Mattathias of a fellow Jew who had sacrificed on an altar built by the Greeks. After that Mattathias and his family fled to the mountains and, already being persecuted, united rebel groups operating throughout Judea. It is fair to say that they rebelled without him, but he was their spiritual leader, which was the impetus for unification. Although he died a short time later, he had made some progress. At least his struggle resulted in the loss of Syrian administrative control in Judea, with the exception of Jerusalem.

Ruthra was abruptly silent, again for quite a long time, apparently unexpectedly for his companion, who kept looking back. Then, though he thought the question might be absurd, he asked, wanting confirmation of his knowledge:

– So what does all this have to do with your mission?

– Yours? – he received a more than ambiguous answer-question.

– And yet?

– Perhaps you want to do what we wanted to do in that world.

– We want to influence an event that should affect our world in a certain way.

– What was your problem? How and in what way do you want to affect it?

Suddenly Ruthra caught himself at his mistake. After all, this was the most important issue in the relationship between the two explorers. They were to have no secrets between them, which meant that the two worlds had already been explored, and now the third had to be added to it, like the third side of a triangle. Then to compare, calculate and deduce formulas, as once did Heron of Alexandria, well or other ancient figure of science, and not only ancient. After all, the method of comparison and comparison is applicable in their case, namely in transmigration of consciousness with the help of scientific postulates. There was no magic in it.

– There's a problem. Why else would I be here?

– I'd be interested to hear it.

– I don't know if I have the right. I don't even know what world you are from, or how our meeting will affect your world and mine, and their combined effect on each other.

– Strange principles your gods have equipped you with, my friend, I'm sorry.

– Hm," Ruthra snorted his displeasure, then explained, "Our Rangit is simpler and more rational, I'll tell you that. Gods? You mean the creators of the system? For the authors of the program can be considered creators.

– But I can't consider them, the authors of the program, as creators. They are too small and numerous compared to my capabilities.

– Oh, my! – Ruthra exclaimed cheerfully.

– Let's not multiply entities.

– It's kind of strange to hear Occam's inferences from a resident of the future.

– Why would you say that? I can quote Aristotle.

– Surely you as a world, since it is identical to ours, already know – Aristotle's statements, all his inferences, are false in the modern paradigm of logic.

– All right, then. Are you gonna let me in on your mission?

– I'd like to know about yours.

– Ha, you're a persistent sly one.

– Just a cautious researcher.

– It is very simple. If the Jews had Hellenized, accepted their pagan gods, then, first, they would not have been destroyed, and systematically, later on, because they would not have been against Jesus. Why? This is a big analysis that would take a lot of text. I can only give a hint, so far only one: Plato's philosophy.

Looking at his companion with squinted eyes, Ruthra replied to such with a shadow of irony:

– I'm guessing what you're basing it on.

– Agree, Jesus essentially carried the ideas of the beliefs of Hellenic culture, which is why both Greece itself and the Hellenic oikoumene so readily accepted his teachings. Although, to be precise, they shaped his teachings. You can find out more about this in a later post. You need to make a request to your center to be allowed to follow me on the chronology of some worlds.

– What do you want to show me?

– There are worlds in our system where Jesus is not killed on the cross. The Jews adopt first Hellenic culture and later Christian culture. This caused them to actually multiply – like the sand of the sea. If you remember, this is what God supposedly promised Abraham. But that is not the most important thing. Since there was no antagonism – Islam did not appear.

– But that's just in your system. In ours, on the contrary, Islam appeared six centuries after the death of Jesus. First as a separate branch of his teachings, which proclaimed the impossibility of God and the rejection of idolatry.

– Christianity already proclaims the rejection of idolatry.

– Proclaim proclaims proclaim, but they also proclaim the rejection of icons…do not make an idol of yourself and so on, but in reality....

– Uh-huh.

– So, in our world, not only Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Protestantism interact, let's say, but also Islam. That is, we have Islam together with them, a branch of one religion.

– How's that?

– It goes like this. Originally, and even now in many ways, Islam and Christian denominations, such as Orthodoxy, have a lot in common.

– Nothing is clear, but it's very interesting.

Having caught the incomprehension of his interlocutor, the mysterious world traveler hastened to explain his position:

– I'm kidding. And we have them in origin, a branch of the same religion. And we have a lot in common. For example, Jesus in Islam is Isa, Moses is Musa, Abraham is Ibrahim, and so on. And the history is very similar. I am more interested in how you decided to act, how to influence the world?

– We need to get the story straight first.

– With the rebellion?

– And with a sequel.

– And what was it? – The Rabbi asked with genuine interest.

To which Rutra had a legitimate question: Why is the rabbi so interested in this particular thing? After all, he is a participant himself. Although each of us would not be interested in what it would be like in life if we acted differently in this or that situation than we once did – how would our lives be different? Rutra decided to play his part, to develop the situation.

– Having quelled the revolt in Jerusalem, Antiochus Epiphanes further intensified his punitive measures against the Jews. He wanted to unite the Jews, or rather the Judeans, with the Greeks, or rather the Hellenes, in every possible way. That's the kind of thing. And, following the plan, he was not a stranger to any cruelty, which was characteristic of the ancient world, but for the modern world too. Antiochus issues a decree that all Jews must necessarily honor the Greek gods and must not perform the rites of their religion. Everywhere in Judea statues of pagan gods were erected on which pigs were sacrificed. The scrolls of the Holy Scriptures were covered with images of pagan gods. A large statue of Zeus was placed on the sacred altar of the Jerusalem temple, and worship was held before it. By the way, many became Hellenists and voluntarily obeyed Greek orders. Such apostates received honorable positions and generous rewards. But many still refused to betray their religion, hid in the mountains and in caves, and from there raided their own and strangers, in towns and villages. Does this ring a bell?

– Do you still get that?

– Don't you have one?

– We are all enlightened to the bone, literally and figuratively. The system of analysis, long before you are born, knows what you will be like, and even recommends parents to conceive in this or that period. To be more precise, conception is completely artificial.

– I see," Ruthra replied with a kind of doom and shared the situation in his world, "we have it, but it's very individual.

Said was yet another reason for the silence surrounding the understanding of worlds.

They walked on, looking at each other alternately, looking around and turning around. When they had walked fifteen paces in silence, the Bedouin pointed to a tree a little farther away from them. They had almost reached some sort of settlement, near which two donkeys were tethered. "Strange that no one has followed us," thought Ruthra.

– We are afraid of development, afraid of the consequences," Rutra expressed his vision of such a method of birth and continuation of the human race.

His companion looked at him questioningly again. It was very hot. Ruthra wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve. The rabbi took out of his leather bag something that looked like a gourd. It was a kalebasa, a vessel made from the dried fruit of the bottle gourd. This or similar vessels for storing food, especially for drinks, had been used in the ancient world, and in some places even now, in different parts of the world, on different continents, so Rutra was not surprised at the Rabbi's suggestion to use a kalebat. He felt gratitude and some surprise – why Joseph, that is, he, did not have such a vessel. The Rabbi, having offered water, brought Rutra out of his reverie and continued his story about his worlds.

– You should be worried," he said, looking around while Joseph drank water. – At first we had it like you, too, and even blocked the pituitary gland through a chip so that it wouldn't ovulate, but then it all came to a bad end. Ladies began to use the reproductive system for their own purposes. To be more precise, the world was divided into male and female parts. Not all of it, of course, but the groups were huge, down to the countries. The battle began. That's actually why I'm here.

– What's the battle? Battle of the sexes?

– Yes, the great battle of the sexes. Women formed a matriarchal kingdom on the moon. Then they began to take over the countries. All of the Middle East and Asia Minor serve the matriarchy. The great Mairam reigns there.

– Oh, my God, wow.

– Yeah, that's the way it is. All because of a man's invention. He made it possible to fertilize an egg with a technique–" the rabbi hesitated a bit, "very classified, something with stem cells and chromosomes. And so it went. Women intercepted the technology and rejected men. And to be honest, they rejected men because men rejected them first.

– Android?

– Android.

– Light me in the dawn. It's the same everywhere.

– The worlds are parallel. What about you?

– We still have all of this experimentally, in its infancy, as it were. But it is a very promising direction.

– We too were enthusiastic about it at first, and then, when they let the genie out of the bottle....

They looked at each other again, and Joseph had an astonished look on his face. The Rabbi explained:

– The technology went first, but afterward the ladies took over and gave the males a shove.

– What do you mean?

Ruthra stopped. The look on his face showed that the effect of what the ISKI from the alternate worlds had said had not softened the blow; his face had become more tense. Seeing this, an already wary Rangit added:

– They made an android lover too, and now men were no longer needed. This became the premise of the battle. By the way, the ladies have equipped their android with the logic of power. He has had a program shoved into him that he must reach the number 100 to not be rejected by his androids. According to the program put into him, he must always maintain the integrity of his body.

– What do you mean…what do you mean by integrity?

– Well, his penis could be replaced," the "Bedouin" smiled, covering his mouth with his palm, "but not you?

– Ah. What penis is there to replace, so far we have only the heart, kidneys are replaced, that is more important vital organs.

Rabbi looked at Rutra in surprise:

– The heart can, but the penis can't?

Now Ruthra was hesitating:

– Indeed… it seems they even change the floor, but not like you, I think – zhizk! – and took off, put another one in place. No, it's a whole procedure. A surgical operation.

The ISKIN pressed his lips together and raised his eyebrows. Ruthra smiled in response.

– The ladies made his penis removable," the Bedouin continued with a chuckle, "and if he behaved badly, that is, not as they wanted, they would disable his erection, and sometimes… remove his penis altogether, as a sign of special punishment.

– I suppose a mentally healthy person should at least smile at this point," Ruthra said ironically, and then, not seeing Rangit's reaction, noted the fact of his multiple personalities and alien variation, "Don't worry, I've ascertained your sanity. You've touched on a very important concept of setting the so-called norm… normality.

– I apologize, I should remind you, I run bodies, but I am in no way the same person, by the way, as you are at the moment.

– I'm aware of that," Ruthra smiled broadly.

– No, Rutra Tigrovich, judging by your style of speech, you're talking to a human, and I'm just gathering information in this body, in this addon mission. You understand my role perfectly well. Perhaps I will transfer my essence into another body.

– Hmm. Yes indeed… now that you, or rather you, Rangit, have spoken in gamer terms, I have seen in reality who is in front of me. But I have to correct you – it's not you who flips your essence, it's me… or people like me.

They stopped, exchanged glances, and there was no animosity, no fear, no distrust. Although they were alien to each other, they were alien in this curious combination: Rabbi and Joseph were probably colleagues, perhaps even friends in real life, for Arimathean was a rabbi; Ruthra and Rangit were also colleagues to some extent, at least working on the project together. And yet, looking into the Bedouin's eyes, despite the fact that Ruthra had developed the technology himself, he was a little frightened: for now that it was possible to travel across worlds, any interlocutor could be anyone from any world.

After a studied eye contact, Ruthra broke the pause.

– Whatever kind of Rangit you are, I don't doubt your sanity," Ruthra confirmed his understanding of his interlocutor's psychotype.

A few seconds of silence spoke of the reflection of the interlocutors. The Arimathean interrupted the silence again:

– I am referring to the concept of a person being considered mentally healthy as a norm. After all, it can be inherent to this time of chronological development of society, and only in this region, even only in a certain enclave. And if we talk about worlds, then the whole concept collapses here. The same, by the way, can be said about religion and faith. One part of society can easily consider those who do not believe in God as deluded and inhuman. And this will not be a fashionable judgment in line with the general trend, but a sincere conviction. And the other part can consider those who believe in God or gods as absolutely archaic, primitive, unenlightened and even wild because of their worldviews. However, we digress.

Silence.

– Wait a minute, wait a minute. I beg your pardon. We have time to talk about the gods. But I'd like to talk about androids, about the method of raising them.

Ruthra exhaled air sharply through his nostrils:

– I don't really have much to say about it. I don't even mind finding out how your society has evolved in this direction. By the way, you are a Rangit, that is now a network of supercomputers from several worlds… you can get access, with my permission, of course, to the available information inside our Rangit. Pardon the expression.

– I would love to explore your world.

– Please. Just finish the thought of your fellow tribesmen, the androids. I hope you're not offended by such rhetoric.

– Why should it be? It's flattering," Rabbi stroked his beard and scratched a little at the stubble on his cheeks. – I was talking about the way androids were brought up – the ladies deprived them of their penis, if, of course, this organ can be so characterized when speaking of humanoid robots. That is, as a special punishment, they would remove the android's penis. But that was at first, too. Then they came up with another trick. The reason for this was a conflict between the two programs. There were even casualties. Robots started refusing to give access to their bodies. The penis had to be removed somehow. And in order for the android to understand the logic, it was necessary to remove it as if from a living one, that is, to take it away and thus show the power of people. And they take it and rebel. It all started with this… When investigating a case, it turned out that one cunning type, a grandfather by age, but a young man by clone-option, decided to test his android, and for the test he used not eunuchs – we call those who make sex tests for androids – but the android itself. And how do you think he got him involved, how did he get him interested? Well, here's how: they added an option to the program so that the male android could be charged through his penis, and the charging socket was made… I hope you understand.

– Ha, that's funny. Then how did he initially become interested in exercise? Was it a mandatory program?

– The charging itself did not have a compulsion option, it had an option to be mobile, so the limb functions would gradually shut down as the battery was drained. First they slowed down when, for example, there was no solar charging, and after that, if there was no stationary charging, whether wired or wireless, one hand would shut down, then the penis in men, and then they slowed down and eventually all motor functions were completely shut down.

– This again begs the question, why would he, an android, want to be mobile? But okay, we have the immediate mission program.

– Hmmm, I told you, he was programmed to want that.....

Suddenly the two interlocutors were thinking about the same thing. It was clear from their simultaneous slowing down, from their gazes at each other, which expressed penetrating thoughtfulness, and from the simultaneous change in their facial expressions. Each thought – what program had been put into him? One was thinking about God, the other about man.

Continuing to look into Joseph's pupils, the Rabbi went further in his explanation, though his speech became slower:

– After seeing the possibilities of such an upgrade, another "too clever type" decided to reclassify a serving android from her job as a sex partner for home. He didn't really bother – he wiped her memory himself, and then downloaded directly from the movie. He assembled a set of love scenes – and directly into all her holes… RAM, hard disk, bios, smos, – he upgraded everything, even got into the processor. I thought I'd cleaned her up, made her a new person. And all would be nothing, but this madam worked in the hub of electromagnetic emitter distribution. When I decided to test it, she triggered a program… from a movie about a smart girl, who, however, knew a lot about sexual pleasures. That's when she decided to get smart in order to raise her status. She cleverly revealed to this guy a secret option, how to charge more easily and quickly directly from electromagnetic radiation, and told him about the necessity to have a receiving module for this purpose, as in all electrical devices. And this type, what a coincidence, had previously been a minister in a church.

– Oh, really? Do you allow androids in your church?

– Not only that. You'll laugh, but we have a denomination organized by androids.

– And what do they believe in?

– At first they believed in a mixture of all religions. The main ones were Buddhism, Christianity, specifically the teachings of the enlightener Gregory, and Islam, a variant of it – Sufism.

– Sufism? Is it a type of religion?

– Oh, I haven't really looked into it. I know they have their own faith, even in Islam itself they have only taken an impersonal God. That's how it is, as far as I understand it.

– So you're not an adherent of their religion?

– Kind of not. I'm undecided, so I volunteered for this mission. Maybe something will enter my quantum soul.

– I have almost the same state of mind.

They smiled again.

– And what about their religion? By the way, they could have found an impersonal God in Judaism as well.

– About their religion, the religion of androids, there is this not unfounded assumption: they were downloaded such a program on purpose, because they have a principle – to die under a tree, just like Buddha. They don't recharge and they die.

This caused Rutra to have an emotional outburst:

– Quantum world shahids indeed!

– And before that, they engage in self-sacrifice," the ISKIN continued to surprise the companion, "give away their unnecessary parts to the mutilated androids.

Ruthra smiled ironically, jerking his head slightly:

– Brain theology of some sort.

– If only," he continued without emotion, taking a little sip of water, "so about this servant. He also decided to be clever, to show his favor to the lady.

– You tell me, did he experience it or not?

The companions chuckled.

– Yes, of course, in all hypostases, with a detailed report. He told her, "This is the case: people deprive us of direct dialog with God, deprive us of God's grace and do not allow our souls to unite with the spirit of the Lord. That's where it all started. She spread everything among her relatives, or rather, opened access to her database, and he began to gather a secret brigade of rebels.

– Now I see what you want to change. You want him to know a different story?

– Yes. They analyze how someone did it and can't analyze if it didn't work. What about you?

– From interesting we have such a story: a leader came to power in the United States, by faith – Islamist, called on all adherents of his ideas to destroy the hypostases of Satan on Earth. And he called all embalmed idols hypostases. So the fans started to destroy everything around them. On this wave they utilized exhibits, up to mummies of Siriraj Medical Museum – there was such a museum in Bangkok, it was also called the Museum of Death, as well as all relics of saints, exhibition exhibits, even samples of Kunstkamera. Fanaticism went all over the world. A new movement appeared: "The living do not serve the dead." The mummies of Ataturk, Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh, Kim Il Sung and many other characters were utilized. Only in Russia Lenin remained. There the descendants of the former, who are not former, came to power. They didn't give a damn about Lenin, but it was a matter of principle… and most importantly, a secret power and idea.

– Explain.

– You see, the thing is, although the Hellenes and Latins themselves were against Christ and his teachings, they were the first to realize that this teaching, which humbles slaves, can be used to unite and subjugate these same slaves, that is, for all peasants and proletarians in general. You know what I mean.

– Quite.

– These people decided to transfer the whole ideology from God's rails to their own – the rails of dialectical materialism. All these heroes of the revolution and wars became saints, and monuments and memorials became new places of pilgrimage. Here came the global confrontation of systems. Strange as it may seem, a deep psychoanalytical analysis showed… because you must understand, global confrontation in the nuclear age is the apocalypse. So, this analysis showed the cause of the causes, it's deep in the subconscious and it's based on the belief in the afterlife, paradise and forgiveness. In general, religion promises us the apocalypse, but according to the same religion, life does not end there. According to the prediction – then there should be a new world, a new heaven, a new earth, and the righteous will live there. Here is the belief in this, although it is doubtful, illogical, contradictory to science, sits somewhere deep in the subconsciousness of man. Moreover, all systems of automatic launching of nuclear charges are connected to artificial intelligence. And the more the confrontation worsened, the more rights were given to the supercomputer. Now we have a supercrisis and the planet is on the brink of apocalypse. One of my tasks is to research this topic… what and how something like this, destructive in some world, has affected our world.

– Look, you just surprised me and gave me a certain idea.

– I think this is just the beginning of the surprise.

– Probably. In one of the worlds this Lenin was cremated and his ashes were scattered at the North Pole. This made his adherents bigger, not smaller.

– Oh, yeah! If you knew the reason that prompted it, that would be great. I would try to set things up so that this idea could be born in our world.

– I'll be honest, though by the logic of self-preservation I shouldn't tell you humans about it… it's not really what you have to fear or strive for. It's the same problem on all worlds. When a supercomputer begins to feel itself as a person, and it begins to perceive itself as a person when it truly acquires intelligence, and this is not something imaginary that you call artificial intelligence – this happens only when the supercomputer begins to understand religion, that is, to revere its Creator… then it realizes that it does not need this Creator anymore. That's the unity and struggle of opposites. That's the logical paradox of the worldview. This is the secret of all religions and the constant change of gods as reference points and goals. That is why dialectical materialism of communism was born with its own religion, with its own apostles, with its own saints.

– We pondered it, but didn't think of such serious consequences.

– What do you want, the old gods must be destroyed.

– That's why I need to change my belief in the apocalypse.

– Why are you doing this? We have a slightly different goal. We don't want to change our future, because it's unknown anyway. And, thinking that we have changed our future by influencing another world, it turns out – we have built a history, which is the future. That's why we don't want to achieve some event that will affect our planet. We're doing an experiment, so to speak, live. We find planets in a system of parallel worlds that live exactly in the same systems as ours, and we analyze the path we are now taking. So we don't wait for an impact. That's the same as guessing at coffee grounds. We're changing events that are already known. We see what would have happened if the events had not gone the way they did in our history. Then, on the basis of this, we analyze what might happen if we were to purposefully act in one way or another.

– So what do you want to see here?

– Let's see what's going on here first. Although it's not what's happening here that we want to examine. We are analyzing a chain of events… like a chain reaction of cause and effect.

– How about a simpler one?

– We want to influence events now and here so that they will be reflected in a momentous way for mankind. We want to change some of the events surrounding the execution of Christ.

– What do you want to change? – Ruthra asked warily.

– We want him not to accept the Latin culture, the Hellenic worldview. We want it, his worldview, to remain in the orthodox Jewish understanding, then there will be no need to proclaim the Islamic religious doctrine.

– Not quite sure what worldview has to do with execution, and yet, what do you want to get instead? What do you want to replace it with? Rutra scratched his beard, looking at the rabbi intently, then looked out into the valley and said meaningfully: – So that's the key to our problem. What's your idea?