tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38429588696284482232024-03-05T10:33:58.318-05:00A word of tree, a whisper of stoneAndrew Stehlikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350757205936837223noreply@blogger.comBlogger481125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842958869628448223.post-75726623246812072292023-11-09T13:36:00.008-05:002023-11-09T14:12:18.694-05:00How I crashed the Open AI on my first encounter - asking questions about Greek vocabulary of love<p> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I searched the Internet for
articles on the Greek word AGAPE (love) and got really frustrated how
oversaturated it was with shallow Christian philosophising, sermonising and
unsubstantiated linguistics. I thought, now I know what is present on the
Internet, let me now ask AI (my very first try of this thing) let me see how AI
works with the stuff available to it on the Internet.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Well it struggled mightily,
it was able to filter out most of the Christian lingo, but was clearly under
the spell of those Christian resources and unable to liberate itself from
Christian pseudolinguistics, and eventually it crashed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> <br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">What
is the meaning of the Greek word AGAPE?</span></i></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The
Greek word "agape" (ἀγάπη) generally refers to selfless,
unconditional love or benevolent affection. It is often associated with the
highest form of love, characterized by sacrifice, compassion, and care for
others, regardless of their actions or circumstances. Agape love is not
dependent on personal gain or reciprocation but is driven by a genuine concern
and goodwill towards others. In some philosophical and theological contexts, it
is seen as a divine or transcendent love that goes beyond human understanding.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Is
there any other possible occasional meaning of the Greek word AGAPE beside
selfless love?</span></i></b><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Yes,
the Greek word "agape" can also be used to refer to a meal or feast.
In ancient Greek culture, an "agape" was a communal meal shared among
friends or members of a community. It was often associated with a religious or
social gathering where people came together to share food, fellowship, and
celebrate. However, it is important to note that the primary and most common
meaning of "agape" is indeed selfless love. The occasional meaning of
a meal or feast is less common and may vary depending on the specific context.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Any
other possible meaning of AGAPE besides selfless love and a meal? </span></i></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">No,
in the Greek language, the word "agape" primarily carries the
meanings of selfless love and a communal meal. These are the most commonly
recognized and used meanings of the term. However, it is worth noting that
words can sometimes have expanded or additional meanings in different contexts
or as they evolve within a language. So while it is possible that
"agape" may carry other meanings in certain specific contexts, these
would be less widely known or used beyond the primary meanings mentioned earlier.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">And
what about AGAPAO as a verb? </span></i></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">"Agape"
functions as a noun, whereas "agapao" is the verb form derived from
it. "Agapao" carries the primary meaning of "to love" or
"to show love" in a selfless and sacrificial way. It is used to
describe the act of demonstrating unconditional love, kindness, and affection
towards others. This verb form emphasizes the action or expression of love
rather than the concept or feeling of love itself. It is often associated with
the idea of active, intentional love that is not based on personal gain or
selfish motives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(NOTE - ANSWER TOOK
SUBSTANTIALLY LONGER)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Can
you compare AGAPE with other Greek words for love?</span></i></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Certainly!
In Greek, there are several words used to describe different types or aspects
of love. Here are a few notable ones:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">1.
Eros (ἔρως): This word refers to passionate, romantic love or desire. It is
often associated with the physical and sensual aspects of love.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">2.
Philia (φιλία): Philia denotes friendship or affectionate love between friends
or family members. It conveys a sense of camaraderie, loyalty, and deep
connection.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">3.
Storge (στοργή): Storge refers to natural affection or familial love,
particularly the bond between parents and children or within a family unit. It
emphasizes a sense of familiarity, protectiveness, and attachment.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">4.
Agape (ἀγάπη): As discussed earlier, agape signifies selfless, unconditional
love that is characterized by compassion, care, and sacrifice. It is a higher
form of love that is not dependent on personal gain or reciprocation.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">While
these words are distinct, it is important to note that they are not always
mutually exclusive. Love in its entirety is a multi-dimensional concept and can
often encompass various elements from these different types of love.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Can
AGAPAO be used for objects?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can you give
examples?</span></i></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">While
the primary usage of "agapao" is to describe love towards people, it
can occasionally be used metaphorically to express deep fondness or devotion
towards objects or activities. However, it is important to note that this usage
is less common and may depend on context. Here are a few examples where
"agapao" can be metaphorically applied to objects:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">1.
One may say, "I agapao this book" to indicate a deep love or
admiration for a particular book, perhaps due to its profound impact on their
life or personal attachment to its content.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">2.
Similarly, someone may say, "I agapao this painting" to express a
significant appreciation and emotional connection to a specific work of art.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">3.
One could also use "agapao" to describe love for an activity or
hobby. For instance, someone might say, "I agapao playing the piano"
to convey a deep passion and enjoyment for playing the instrument.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">It
should be noted that while the metaphorical usage of "agapao" for
objects is possible, it is not as common as expressing love towards people or
living beings.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Would
you know what was the old (Homeric and possibly pre-Homeric) meaning of AGAPAO?</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Yes,
in ancient Greek literature, particularly in Homeric and pre-Homeric texts, the
word "agapao" had a slightly different meaning compared to its later
Christian and philosophical interpretations. In these early contexts,
"agapao" was often used to convey a sense of preference, attachment,
or fondness for someone or something, rather than denoting selfless,
sacrificial love as it came to be understood later.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">In
the Homeric poems, such as the Iliad and the Odyssey, "agapao" is
used to express affection, favor, or even desire. It can refer to the love
between family members, as seen in the relationship between Odysseus and his
son Telemachus. Additionally, it may be used to describe the desire or fondness
that gods have for a mortal, or the attachment a king might have for his loyal
subjects.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Over
time, as Greek philosophical and theological thought evolved, the concept of
"agape" took on deepened significance, moving towards a more selfless
and universal understanding of love. This development is prominent in the New
Testament of the Bible, where "agape" is often associated with divine
or unconditional love.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">So,
while the early meaning of "agapao" included elements (ENDED
MID-SENTENCE)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">I
read that AGAPAO meant "fond greeting". Is it so?</span></i></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">TOOK
VERY LONG TIME - SEVERAL MINUTES AND THEN THIS MASSAGE APPEARED:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">An
error occurred. Either the engine you requested does not exist or there was
another issue processing your request. If this issue persists please contact us
through our help center at </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://help.openai.com./"><span class="SYSHYPERTEXT"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: black;"><span style="color: black; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: black;">https://help.openai.com.</span></span></span></a></span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">So I did not learn anything
new. To the contrary, the first answers were shallow and banal. When prompted
and asked about deeper meanings it struggled a little but eventually brought
some correct answers (yet not particularly poignant and revealing). And when I
asked a question it did not know, it pretended to crash...<br /><br />And here is a link to a short video about this exchange and some more information. <br /><a href="https://youtu.be/JkLIl0wQ8Rw">https://youtu.be/JkLIl0wQ8Rw</a> <br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4_g9QDj20ERRXrTGuceRGHHIeKohBbYLROZ0BFNVpIa-bprkVPALrQU2CvkbzvKiEng8tkFkoyvs6UtBRKDvaan9z9ZhwoO6nJ5OzsAhIcw2ejI5NHDECOrnZzAsmTO9Ff83H53u04RFTZk_uE1USR6wnf7Kreg0Kw57RG1Mr4Y5fNYMcPKVU-XLjYVsc/s1916/AGAPE%20open%20AI%20crashed.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1098" data-original-width="1916" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4_g9QDj20ERRXrTGuceRGHHIeKohBbYLROZ0BFNVpIa-bprkVPALrQU2CvkbzvKiEng8tkFkoyvs6UtBRKDvaan9z9ZhwoO6nJ5OzsAhIcw2ejI5NHDECOrnZzAsmTO9Ff83H53u04RFTZk_uE1USR6wnf7Kreg0Kw57RG1Mr4Y5fNYMcPKVU-XLjYVsc/w640-h366/AGAPE%20open%20AI%20crashed.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>Andrew Stehlikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350757205936837223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842958869628448223.post-55595626705743365852023-07-06T10:40:00.004-04:002023-07-06T12:52:51.176-04:00Should Women Be Silent? <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg-XNRjqCx3d2r6FHEPoQf4ZxyZbrKJ-23V0-5iSYdDI89mKJh4_tvyt0wwGpSroS2upQ7iCTVttCo1UVpXLOKCjw70D71dv2w8_h6cm8gUNtKrDX01HYNUUaldBJFC5OZrL7NdtVxWCHWKE00ZKMyjGWw75AtfczOxNSpMWd6ZXb-gmWpae7jHYqaDUlN/s1920/Rejecting%20Christian%20Misogyny.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg-XNRjqCx3d2r6FHEPoQf4ZxyZbrKJ-23V0-5iSYdDI89mKJh4_tvyt0wwGpSroS2upQ7iCTVttCo1UVpXLOKCjw70D71dv2w8_h6cm8gUNtKrDX01HYNUUaldBJFC5OZrL7NdtVxWCHWKE00ZKMyjGWw75AtfczOxNSpMWd6ZXb-gmWpae7jHYqaDUlN/s320/Rejecting%20Christian%20Misogyny.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">Apostle Paul supposedly wrote to his mission church in Corinth:</span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">Women should be silent in the churches.</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">They are not permitted to speak.</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">They should be subjugated</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">just as the Law says.</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">And if they have any question,</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">they should ask their husbands at home. </span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">Because it is shameful for a woman</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">to speak in church.</span></i><span face="Arial, "sans-serif""> (1 Cor 14:34f)</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif""></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">This is the holy mantra of all the Christian misogynists. They all use and abuse this short biblical passage of two verses, to justify their rejection of ordination of women, keeping them from being pastors or priests.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">But with biblical scholars of 19 and 20th centuries I am certain that this verse was not written by Paul.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif""> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif""><b>Firstly</b> it simply does not make sense in the historical context of Paul’s churches.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif""> We know that Paul worked closely with women. Some women were leaders in his mission churches. In the letter to Philippians he, for instance, mentions Euodia and Syntyche, two women, as church leaders.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif""> And in the letter to Romans in the final salutation he mentions several women as important members and leaders of the church. A number of whom he named as co-workers and especially there is Junia, who is being called a fellow apostle - the highest rank among the ministers of the earliest church.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif""> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif""><b>Secondly</b> it does not make sense within the context of Paul theology.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif""> Because in Paul’s eschatology driven theology - in expecting a new divine order coming any moment - Paul rejected all superficial (cultural and social) human distinction.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">There is no longer Jew or Greek,</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">there is no longer slave or free,</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">there is no longer male and female;</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">indeed all are one in Christ Jesus.</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">To quote a well known passage from the letter to Galatians 3:28</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif""> But furthermore, the simplistic argument from the Law (<i>They should be subjugated just as the Law says.</i>) does not fit at all with the Paul’s theology of the Law.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">For the genuine Paul, the Law was the theological force of the past. It was superseded by Christ. To quote Paul directly: <i>Christ is the end of the Law</i> (Rom 10:4) Or Paul from his letter to Galatians <i>Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law</i> (Gal 3:13). There is simply no other place in the genuine Pauline letters with this kind of argument from the Law.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif""> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif""><b>Finally</b>, there are serious textual reasons indicating that Paul did not write these two verses.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif""> These two verses are clearly an example of an interpolation. Some early scribe who was copying the letter inserted this misogynistic instruction into the existing text of the letter. It very likely happened in the late 2nd century. One sign that it is an interpolation is the fact that if you leave this passage out, the text actually reads better, it flows more smoothly.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">And furthermore some early manuscripts, predominantly from the western tradition, actually attach this instruction at the end<span> </span></span>of the chapter<span face="Arial, "sans-serif""><span> </span>fourteen. Such textual instability is always an indication of the early suspicions about this text’s authenticity. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif""> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">So these are <b>historical, theological, and textual reasons</b> for serious doubts about the apostolic authority of these two verses. And that is something worth repeating, repeating, and repeating to all the Christian misogynists. Because women played an important role in the early church (unlike in Hellenistic Judaism and in Orthodox Judaism until today, unlike Roman Church and Eastern Orthodox Churches, unlike Christian fundamentalists and traditionalists throughout the centuries and also until today).</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif""> In reality, the inclusion of women in the ministry was something which went back all the way to Jesus and his group of disciples. Join us this Sunday as we continue reading biblical passages unique to Luke. Among the evangelists it was especially Luke who lifted up and defended the role of women in the early church.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif""> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">Video version of this blog: https://youtu.be/vFfoJYaG8Zw <br /></span></span></p>Andrew Stehlikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350757205936837223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842958869628448223.post-61523245189375131242022-07-29T15:53:00.005-04:002022-08-01T08:15:29.066-04:00Adveniat Regnum Tuum - Your Kingdom Come<p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEojZBm6JYU3wUvNPL7eeiL7hsQ-6lvc-udjr4ue5umpeIbjbJdQt5P2jAFsPh1KRCP6he14o05wRGhRgvW37zAanLwOeFmL56pxdFkj2UqwjGiF-ae8JcetFnSRG3HdFBlzQJ2B7VJfLM8dxjpxPs0xu6931jHAhVdj3ZZOSswb1wbhb_1_pgSankRw/s1624/lords%20prayer%20luke%20sinaitucus%20txt.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1614" data-original-width="1624" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEojZBm6JYU3wUvNPL7eeiL7hsQ-6lvc-udjr4ue5umpeIbjbJdQt5P2jAFsPh1KRCP6he14o05wRGhRgvW37zAanLwOeFmL56pxdFkj2UqwjGiF-ae8JcetFnSRG3HdFBlzQJ2B7VJfLM8dxjpxPs0xu6931jHAhVdj3ZZOSswb1wbhb_1_pgSankRw/s320/lords%20prayer%20luke%20sinaitucus%20txt.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Lord's Prayer in Luke from Codex Sinaiticus<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">When
I am reading and translating the New Testament (the Greek Bible) I like to use
a method which is called dynamic equivalence. That is an approach in which we
are not translating word for word, but rather trying to capture the original
meaning and intention. Let us now try this method and translate the Lord’s
Prayer from the socio-economic context of the first century Palestine into our
modern American idiom. What prayer would Jesus teach his disciples in our days?
</span></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><b><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Loving
God of the highest authority.</span></i></b><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">I translate “loving God” because “father” has
now way too patriarchal of an aftertaste. On the other hand Heavenly Parent of
some translations is way too familial. In the first century “father” was a
figure of authority. Loving God seems to me like a reasonable balance between
familiarity and respect. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><b><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">May
what you stand for be the measure for everything.</span></i></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">That is my attempt to convey and translate to
modern idioms the concept of holiness and divine kingdom. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><b><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">May
the world be shaped as your love will have it.</span></i></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Translating a petition which asks for the
divine rule(divine will) to come from Heaven down to Earth. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Preserve
for us and future generations enough for everyone to live:</span></i></b><b><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br />with
fresh air to breathe, clean water to drink, a blue planet to inhabit.</span></i></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">In the Ancient Near East devastating famines
were a regular occurrence and for many people in Jesus’ times their food
security was a daily concern.</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br />In our world the food security is also a
painful reality, but is caused and simultaneously overshadowed by a human
caused environmental devastation.</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><b><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">May
our society be organized fairly, without anyone crushed by debt or need.</span></i></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The original text clearly spoke about the
debt-forgiveness. All other words (sins, trespasses etc.) strive to translate
Greek <i>OFEILÉMA</i> (likely the original Aramaic root <i>HWB</i>) which was
debt/obligation/anything owed. This is my attempt to provide idiomatic meaning
of forgiveness of debts within the context of social justice. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Let
the police and courts treat people justly,</span></i></b><b><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br />regardless
of their class, nationality or race.</span></i></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The original text requested a protection from “being
handed over to judgement/trial” either to the corrupt Jewish(Herodian)
authorities or even more probably to the occupying Roman power - those were the
evil powers of those days. In our times when, prisons are disproportionally
filled with black men, the poor and the mentally ill, I believe ours is an
accurate contextual translation. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">With
thanks we now submit ourselves under your bright and loving rule for ever.</span></i></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span><b><i><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br />And
together we say - So be it!</span></i></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The closing doxology is not biblical and I took
freedom to translate it from the broader Greek context translating “kingdom,
power and glory” and final Semitic “amen”. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br />And
so here is our translation of the Lord’s Prayer. In Advent Season let us to
stop and think about and hopefully also act to bring about the coming (advent)
of the divine justice from the ideal world (heaven, divine realm) to our daily
lives.</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Loving
God of the highest authority:</span></b><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /> </span>May what you stand for<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /> </span>be the measure for everything.</span></b><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /> </span>May the world be shaped<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /> </span>as your love will have it. </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Preserve
for us and future generations</span></b><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /> </span>enough for everyone to live:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /> </span>with fresh air to breathe,</span></b><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /> </span>clean water to drink,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /> </span>and a blue planet to inhabit.</span></b><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br />May
our society be organized fairly,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /> </span>without anyone crushed by debt or need.</span></b><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br />Let
the police and courts treat people justly,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /> </span>regardless of their class, nationality or
race. </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">With
thanks we now submit ourselves</span></b><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /> </span>under your bright and loving rule for ever. </span></b>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">And
together we say – Let it be so! </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Homily on different translations of the Lord's Prayer </span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> can be found here:</span><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> <a href="https://youtu.be/eQeHWtTApCU" target="_blank">Praying Lord's Prayers</a><br /></span></b></p>
<p></p>Andrew Stehlikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350757205936837223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842958869628448223.post-22146466360895591472022-06-17T09:57:00.005-04:002022-06-17T10:34:52.610-04:00Ugaritic Yom Kippur <p style="text-align: left;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2fDkQadu6G1S10WeITRsqDkqOOYrAKT2GWjJj6Kp11OyRG-KeX-5OIIS2556KBTvlUn0XXtr9_HApLNSKiOCN4iT3iBu7BffdMuHKYlPoY59k-2DC3E9PUHTh9RXWuNfueKdttHotNCPSQG0HJCPQqBEi7rhAMerJPdBVr2Y-ZQ8dbaBQeEOhLOKlMw/s1084/Fundamentals%20ugarit%20yom%20kippur.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1084" data-original-width="1084" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2fDkQadu6G1S10WeITRsqDkqOOYrAKT2GWjJj6Kp11OyRG-KeX-5OIIS2556KBTvlUn0XXtr9_HApLNSKiOCN4iT3iBu7BffdMuHKYlPoY59k-2DC3E9PUHTh9RXWuNfueKdttHotNCPSQG0HJCPQqBEi7rhAMerJPdBVr2Y-ZQ8dbaBQeEOhLOKlMw/s320/Fundamentals%20ugarit%20yom%20kippur.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: large;"></span></div><span style="font-size: large;">Among religious texts from Ugarit is also a beautiful and deeply meaningful liturgy of communal penitence. It is a Canaanite, pagan, Late bronze version of Yom Kippur now known refered to as KTU 1.40. Thus this liturgy is more than three thousand years old and easily predates anything we have in the Bible by hundreds of years.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> In that liturgy, sons of Ugarit, citizens and resident aliens, government, including the vizier, and the king beg forgiveness from a long list of social, national, and ethnic groups. They beg forgiveness for whatever might compromise their integrity in relationships with the Qatians, the Dadmians, the Churians, the Hettites, the Cypriots, the Hebrews, all the subjects, all the poor, all the refugees, by their anger, impatience, any transgression, for any missteps in sacrifices or dues. (<i>Some of it is conjecture, but the intention of this liturgy is clear.</i>) </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> And these petitions by men are followed word-for-word in an almost absolute parity by petitions from daughters of Ugarit, including the Queen and her court.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> The clay tablet with this liturgy is unfortunately broken and badly damaged, but these petitions were clearly repeated a number of times with different sacrifices. From what we can guess, at least three times for sons of Ugarit and three times for daughters of Ugarit.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> I find this bronze age liturgy moving and deeply meaningful. Just imagine in our own times that instead of the self-congratulatory and boastful State of the Union Address we would have this tradition of an annual national holy day of repentance in which the president, all the secretaries, all the dignitaries and supreme court justices would come together and lead the nation in repentance doing nothing but humbly asking all the poor, the homeless, the immigrants, all the racial, national, cultural or gender minorities, all the international partners and enemies, expressing sadness and asking for forgiveness! Not once, not twice but six times and possibly the seventh time for good measure. And afterwards they would personally serve the people a lavish meal paid from their own pockets.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>These are the ancient pagan roots of the biblical day of Atonement, and the Jewish Yom Kippur until today. And quite likely something you might not know about the Bible and the biblical roots and background.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Join us this Sunday - we will talk about atonement and what the medieval church and after them the fundamentalists until now did and still are doing to the concept of repentance by developing atrocious dogma of substitutionary atonement. We will reject this harmful and blasphemous dogma and will seek more hopeful and healthier alternatives.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Video clip version can be watched here: <a href="https://youtu.be/M488DnmNXQo" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/M488DnmNXQo </a><br /></span></span></p>Andrew Stehlikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350757205936837223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842958869628448223.post-65091861765173274612022-02-24T19:14:00.001-05:002022-02-24T19:14:59.937-05:00God against censorship <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEifwXAuD9iLAMxefAVWJ71kU4Suve_h5eC-mPchPOOcdPxjfexj1Odn758RPIGJwWnI9i3R7o3hQ4l2kpwKNVo3JX00JBKTib9jxCezSDkZWIZhZGQl0dk-53YV16HFWFdlhThMl3JUPgGx0poxVgU8pP89C8HSjBZSm7vnNZwbeLarIefuZeUvj38aeQ=s2400" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2400" data-original-width="2400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEifwXAuD9iLAMxefAVWJ71kU4Suve_h5eC-mPchPOOcdPxjfexj1Odn758RPIGJwWnI9i3R7o3hQ4l2kpwKNVo3JX00JBKTib9jxCezSDkZWIZhZGQl0dk-53YV16HFWFdlhThMl3JUPgGx0poxVgU8pP89C8HSjBZSm7vnNZwbeLarIefuZeUvj38aeQ=s320" width="320" /></a></div></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;">American white evangelicals have been recently up in arms, yelling at teachers and being rude at school board meetings, attempting to ban books from classrooms and school libraries, demanding gagging orders forbidding teachers to talk about race or LGBT issues. Dozens of innocent books have been banned.<br /></span></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"> And it did not stop at school boards! There are now more than 150 legislative bills introduced in 38 states of our union that attempt to censor what teachers are allowed to say or teach in their classrooms.<br /> It is quite upsetting but also mildly amusing coming form specifically those groups. How come these racist fundamentalists don’t know their bibles? Or are they just hypocrites and their “Christianity” is just a cloak for bigotry and racism? In the Bible there is a story about censorship with a lesson they certainly should hear and learn.<br /> In Jeremiah 36 we hear how scribe Baruch wrote down Jeremiah’s prophecy King Jehoiakim, probably unable to read, asked it to be read to him, and as they were reading it, the king would use his knife and cut it and burn it piece by piece until he burned the entire scroll. King thought, that was the end of it.<br /> But God commanded Jeremiah: Get another scroll and write in it all the words that were in the original burned scroll. And so Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to his scribe, and he dictated and Baruch recorded all that has been burned. Only this time, it has been substantially expanded!<br /> So here you have it! The Bible itself is teaching that burning books and censorship are impotent and futile. And that is something you might not know about the bible. And that is also good news for all freedom loving people everywhere. Freedom loving, free consciousness loving, free spirit loving, freedom of speech loving. And for us in our current context there is reassurance to fight back censorship. Any racist attempts to censor black history will NOT succeed.<br /><br />And if you read this far: there is another interesting biblical exegetical aspect and theological insight.<br /> The story about the burning of a prophetic scroll from Jeremiah 36 has a close antipodal parallel in the 2 Kings 22 in a story about the discovery of the Torah scroll in the temple supposedly at the time of king Josiah.<br /> Modern scholarship suspects that both these stories are in fact much later literary fictions. They required certain conceptual and mentality preconditions among the authors as their audience. It could have been written and made sense to the readers only after they encountered and became familiar with the Babylonian legal tradition and especially after they experienced the Persian administration relaying on written documents.<br /> The Persian setting - after the time of Ezra, Nehemiah - is to me the terminus post quem and possibly a much later moment for creation of these literary fictions. They are two complementary parts of the same biblical sermon teaching something similar to this - When encountering a challenging, uncomfortable writing – we all can chose – do we want to be like Josiah embracing the text and learning from it or do we want to be like Jehoiakim burning it? <br /> Recognizing this connection and dating this dual sermon to the Persian period or even later makes this argument only stronger and more plausible. This late Persian, and possibly even Hellenistic homily about two approaches to the challenging message is another aspect you might not know about the Bible. It might be a literary fiction but at the same time a powerful encouragement not to burn, ban or censor uncomfortable books but to study them and take them seriously.</span></span>Andrew Stehlikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350757205936837223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842958869628448223.post-68178657725593416882022-01-20T14:00:00.004-05:002022-01-21T18:46:26.483-05:00Was Jesus illiterate? <div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgX3CVXBd0dEdSnHYYkaC-itztEDdWzbwB2OaxXmvTDluguRMF4XdYx3oz3l9wW9INLfbEo_jaYeLBvWMOIkNoCMl5uKe9p-0d_U0UNIJlvkIQ4zTBLXdY9hAoscu6GmFqGDWMCBWIydQt0T3Y_W3AmBmVmu4-rF1U0CxsC_2U0qYu9RzqX8UNjC48aGQ=s1600" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="867" data-original-width="1600" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgX3CVXBd0dEdSnHYYkaC-itztEDdWzbwB2OaxXmvTDluguRMF4XdYx3oz3l9wW9INLfbEo_jaYeLBvWMOIkNoCMl5uKe9p-0d_U0UNIJlvkIQ4zTBLXdY9hAoscu6GmFqGDWMCBWIydQt0T3Y_W3AmBmVmu4-rF1U0CxsC_2U0qYu9RzqX8UNjC48aGQ=w435-h235" width="435" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mapping the US book deserts. <br />A percentage of homes with at least 100 books. <br />Interactive map can be found <a href="https://www.uniteforliteracy.com/corp/esri" target="_blank">here</a>.<br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>Video version of this blog can be found <a href="https://youtu.be/ZUc6C1FVMho">here on YouTube.</a> <br /></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Scholars and theologian are all but unanimous that Jesus and his Galilean disciples were almost certainly unable to read or write. But please, note that I did not call them illiterate! That would be a gross misrepresentation of their reality. Modern scholarship calls such people<span> </span><b>nonliterate</b>.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> There is an important distinction between illiterate and nonliterate. Illiterate are people who had opportunity to learn reading and writing and yet had never done so. Meanwhile nonliterate persons are those who never had the chance to learn these skills because they lived in a society where hardly anyone could read or write. Such a setting is being described as preliterate society.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> In our world and time illiteracy often comes with a stigma, a value judgement about the person’s mental acuity. In the preliterate society inability to read and write was common and did not come with such a stigma.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> Literacy all around the Ancient Mediterranean world was about 5%. And our best estimates of literacy among the Jews living in Palestine (from Judea to Galilee) was hardly any larger. And those literate were members of an elite class, who almost certainly did not live in a Galilean rural hamlet like Nazareth. The setting of Jesus’ movement was indeed an oral, preliterate society. And Jesus and his disciples’ inability to read did not mean they were stupid.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> On the contrary, anthropologists tell us that nonliteracy gave people some unique and special faculties. Preliterate oral cultures had a phenomenally better narrative memory. From my study of Hawaiian history and culture I am aware of early missionaries in Hawai’i reporting with astonishment the ability of nonliterate locals to reliably memorize entire biblical books. And that has been reported all over the world. Mental capacities of nonliteral peoples are not hindered by literacy. Their intellect is not under the spell of the written. They have a different, intuitive, and broader, more holistic, perception of reality.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> In addition and interestingly, to my best knowledge, all the main world religions were born in this twilight zone of literacy, inspired by nonliterate founders, and only later scriptualized - written down. In fact if Jesus and his first Galilean disciples were literate, it would had been a highly irregular and hence suspicious.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> The very fact that Jesus and his first disciples were nonliterate, the fact that there was a period of oral transmission, the fact that the Bible was written only about a generation or two later, all of it is an important factor which we normally do not fully appreciate but which was a contributing reason that we have Christianity and our New Testament Bible. And that is something you might not know about the Bible. </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;">Join us this Sunday when we will discern and contemplate the only one New Testament story about reading Jesus (Luke 4:16ff). It might be a wishful projection of a highly educated evangelist, but exactly as a projection it still contains a beautiful and powerful message of divine love and respect for everyone, and especially for those left out and forgotten. </span></span><br /></span></div>Andrew Stehlikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350757205936837223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842958869628448223.post-14939438886777759182022-01-13T18:47:00.008-05:002022-01-17T19:52:53.517-05:00Revolution in Heaven <p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"></span></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEibwFmg7c4JndJI47JuLaeuXEUPTnTKaDboXbPsAEZrkcsz70ZvAIi42VbDEyq_Z10EHereu0VwD307OE8JpplNKa7eVTvynCA2WN1zr4Ji2ExCSF4gjC7xJK7Wcdnax__x7Aop6uMJB2s_3Tkc_wOPbCbCzWiCnCry-HCaxlI9ygnkaoTkwNj-X0s2CQ=s1235" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1235" data-original-width="838" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEibwFmg7c4JndJI47JuLaeuXEUPTnTKaDboXbPsAEZrkcsz70ZvAIi42VbDEyq_Z10EHereu0VwD307OE8JpplNKa7eVTvynCA2WN1zr4Ji2ExCSF4gjC7xJK7Wcdnax__x7Aop6uMJB2s_3Tkc_wOPbCbCzWiCnCry-HCaxlI9ygnkaoTkwNj-X0s2CQ=w435-h640" width="435" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nine classes of angels in three spheres depicted in a medieval manuscript.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><br />Have you heard about the revolution in heaven? Have you heard how Jesus overthrew the heavenly hierarchy?</span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> First I need to explain the angelic hierarchy. The ancient polytheistic peoples were familiar with the notion of the divine court. Greeks situated it on Mt. Olympus. North West Semitic people looked up to Mt. Zaphon (modern Jebel Aqra). Of course the Hebrew Bible knew about Zaphon but there are also signs that Mt. Sinai, Mt. Zion or occasionally other mountains might play a similar role.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> A deepening process of monotheisation under the prophets like Isaiah or Jeremiah led to less interest in the divine court. But then, it found its way in again during the late biblical period under the influence of apocalyptic writings such as Ezekiel or Daniel. In this stage, what used to be deities were replaced with throngs and retinues of angels. The angelic hierarchy was imagined and structured according to Hellenistic Royal Courts. Later the rabbis organised angels into no less than 10 classes or ranks. But the Jewish angelic hierarchy stayed rather fluent and even a little chaotic. For instance different cabalistic schools could have one class of angels, for instance Seraphim, in the highest rank as well as lowest rank and anything in between, depending on the author.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> Roman Catholic medieval Scholasticism put angels in better order, probably inspired by needs of the medieval feudal church. Angels were organised in three large spheres and nine different classes. The highest sphere was for angels who were constantly in the presence of the divine and never left. Beneath them was the intermediary sphere of angelic functionaries mediating divine commands to the lower angelic sphere. The lowest angelic sphere was charged with execution of divine orders. Here were patrons of nations and royal houses, here were archangels in the second lowest class. Lower were only regular angels and the lowest of lowest of angels were the personal guardian angels, the blue collar angels, angelic proletarians. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> Angelic hierarchy thus reflected medieval feudal structures of power but also represented the general human desire for order in the hierarchy of power. Image of heaven in Roman Church reflected medieval feudalism, in the Biblical times it reflected Hellenistic courts, among early Jews and pagans Zaphon, Sion or Olympus were perceived like Bronze Age royal palaces. (In heaven it was as it was on earth. When you think about it, it was the very opposite of one of the petitions of the Lord's Prayer.) <br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> And then, Jesus, as was his well-established practice, turned this all upside down in one sentence. Matthew 18:10 in my loose rendition -<span> </span><i>Don’t even think to disregard and neglect the powerless, I tell you, their guardian angels have direct access to God.</i><span> </span>(My loose translation.)</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> The lowest, worldly, working angels, that angelic proletariat has direct access to God! That is revolution in heaven. As if Jesus said, Stop projecting your human corrupt power structures to heaven! Rather, change your human structures according to the egalitarian heavenly model which I bring and preach to you. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> That is what I call the revolution in heaven. The overthrow of imaginary heavenly hierarchy and by the way the utter abrogation of heavenly and earthly feudalism or any other abusive power structures which humankind is so eager to create and recreate.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> The first are last and last are first in heaven! And the first will be last and the last will be first in bright divine future. And you should start living it out now.<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif">And that is something you might not know about the Bible and Jesus’ radical angelology.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif">Video version of this article can be found on <a href="https://youtu.be/AsXSB2HeAW4" target="_blank">Rutgers Church YouTube</a>. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif">And here it is being explained to children in <a href="https://youtu.be/rWCA1_d3oio">virtual Children Message</a> <br /></span></span></p>Andrew Stehlikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350757205936837223noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842958869628448223.post-19589055848283648832021-12-30T09:55:00.002-05:002021-12-30T09:57:33.542-05:00God and her loom<p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>The Bible is full of surprising images and metaphors when it speaks about God. Take for instance Jesus’ parable of the lost coin. In it God is compared to a housewife sweeping the floor.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> The Hebrew Bible contains similarly surprising metaphors. When, for instance, Job (7:6-8) and prophet Isaiah (38:12) lament the fleeting nature of human life they use a metaphor of weaving. Job is the most evocative comparing human life to a weft, the thread swiftly flying off the shuttle.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> That is a highly surprising image because within the context it implies that God is the weaver. And here you need to understand that throughout the Middle East the spinning and weaving were activities for women. We know it from myths, documents, as well as, artwork. And it is confirmed by the bible itself. Delila is to fasten and weave Samson’s hair in her loom (Jdg 16:13). And part of the Josiah reform, we are told (2Ki 23:7), was that he threw out female weavers from the temple.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> For all the ancient middle eastern people a weaver God takes up a clearly feminine role, female household work. As much as the Hebrew Bible is predominantly patriarchal and God is portrayed as male, there are these surprising depictions of God clearly taking over female gender roles. And that is something you might not know about the Bible.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Join us this first Sunday of the year 2022, we will lift up and expound this image of a divine weaver – far from talking about a loom of gloom, it in reality contains a beautiful, illuminating and hopeful message.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>- - - - - - -</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>And for those who read this far and might be interested in understanding the Bible within the context of the Ancient Near Eastern religion here are a few more words.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> In the mythology from Ugarit (Ball cycle, KTU 1.4.ii), it is the goddess Asherah who is depicted as spinning and dyeing a yarn. And those earlier mentioned female weavers who were thrown out of the temple by Josiah, were allegedly making fabric for the same goddess. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> It is therefore possible that in the process of monotheisation of the biblical religion, this single Biblical God absorbed some attributes, functions and activities of the goddess Asherah, thus combining gender roles, and becoming biblical version of divine Herm-Aphrodite.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> Earlier we made several short videos and some blog entries linked here:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #0d0d0d; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Roboto, Noto, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">"Does YHWH Have a Womb?" </span><a href="https://youtu.be/5AYosnwrtz0"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #0d0d0d; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Roboto, Noto, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">https://youtu.be/5AYosnwrtz0</span></a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #0d0d0d; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Roboto, Noto, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
"God Our Mother" </span><a href="https://youtu.be/WssQ06JRw24"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #0d0d0d; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Roboto, Noto, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">https://youtu.be/WssQ06JRw24</span></a> <br /></span></span></p>Andrew Stehlikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350757205936837223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842958869628448223.post-57003144760334286732021-11-19T10:09:00.003-05:002021-11-21T20:58:43.900-05:00Fragrant Christ <p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirI64Yn4xiJO4yFrUwiFt3aonk6KayjcaBY7v6vcFMwqrVX7w96ynk0qHvDmlMYVcADLMhVsNYgcb6L6Sm-VqU_5P-bDwhIOjR2hOdSrBBvXYYGVbCSPpemlsr81TBDrXTR5N79B803RsW/s2700/anointing+oil+bulletin+cover.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2700" data-original-width="2700" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirI64Yn4xiJO4yFrUwiFt3aonk6KayjcaBY7v6vcFMwqrVX7w96ynk0qHvDmlMYVcADLMhVsNYgcb6L6Sm-VqU_5P-bDwhIOjR2hOdSrBBvXYYGVbCSPpemlsr81TBDrXTR5N79B803RsW/s320/anointing+oil+bulletin+cover.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br />It is a sign of biblical literacy, if not basic cultural competence, to know that “Christ” was not Jesus’ second name nor his surname. Children in the Sunday School learn that Christ is from the Greek word<span> <i>χριστὸς</i></span><span> </span>and itself is a translation of Hebrew word Messiah<i> מָשִׁיחַ</i><span> </span>and in both cases the meaning is “The anointed one”. And they also learn that anointing was an Ancient Near Eastern act of promoting persons to some high offices, to priesthood, kingship, occasionally to a role of prophet. Thus sur-name “Christ” is in fact an honorific title. Our modern theology and liturgy tries to highlight this original meaning by using expression "Jesus<span> </span><b>the</b><span> </span>Christ".<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><span><span> </span><span> <br /><span> </span></span>Nevertheless, the New testament writings and the Early Christianity were fully immersed in the Hellenistic Greek Culture and in it the inaugural anointing was not widely used and known. And thus already from the later parts of the New Testament onward the title Christ lost the meaning of an honorific title and started to function as a second name, it became part of a holy name (<i>nomen sacrum</i>).<span><br /> </span>And this early (biblical) onset of pious ignorance is something you might not know about the New Testament Bible.</span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>I mentioned that the Hebrew word messiah<span> </span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span><i>מָשִׁיחַ</i></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span><span> </span>was an honorific title indicating that the person was inaugurated into some higher-ranking position by the act of anointing - pouring fragrant oil over them. Kings, priests and prophets were called anointed. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span><span> </span>But the act of religious anointing<span> (root </span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span><i>משׁח</i></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span><span>) </span>was not reserved for people alone. Religiously anointed were also the temple furniture (ark, lampstand, incense table, utensils) even the sanctuary/tabernacle itself. Anointing was a religious ritual consecrating objects or people as holy, setting them apart for special religious functions.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span><span> </span>Anointing was in fact a liturgically enacted metaphor with several interconnected meanings. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Oils have preservative faculties that slow down rusting or rotting - thus anointing visualized and represented this desire to forestall decay. Before the invention of soap, oils played an important role in personal hygiene (rubbing oils on skin and scraping off dirt) - thus anointing was associated with cleanliness. Oils and ointments especially infused with herbs are used until now in medicine - thus anointing represented this desire to protect the health of the anointed. Oils infused with herbs were also used as perfumes, covering or repelling unpleasant odors. Here you need to understand that in ancient times it was about more than just cosmetics. Demons were believed to reek - thus anointing actualized repelling demons.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span><span> </span>Anointing was associated with preservation, cleanliness, health and repelling of demons, it was in fact apotropaic magic - a high brow religious ritual to set objects or persons apart and to express desire in protecting them from evil influences. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span><span> </span>And this deep apotropaic function of anointing is something you might not know about the Bible (biblical religion).</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>And here is a YouTube video of the sermon: <a href="https://youtu.be/BBMgrznRj3U" target="_blank">Fragrance of Loving Care.</a><br /></span></span></p>Andrew Stehlikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350757205936837223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842958869628448223.post-38536553808866636022021-11-04T20:05:00.001-04:002021-11-04T20:05:19.324-04:00Mythic Grains <p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq15Pza4kibHxl_Fu9AVvRz_c-BjMvoCcuqdZyELTS6lILYvctpw0ldE34CIBKaqJLIEXffR8qWgLKQqcjANRtgEWlSvyzBOkJ16f4ZK-q1GbbTL9NsrwJ60Yq3IXD8_SyEfxGZQM_tb_x/s4943/KTU+1-6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3236" data-original-width="4943" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq15Pza4kibHxl_Fu9AVvRz_c-BjMvoCcuqdZyELTS6lILYvctpw0ldE34CIBKaqJLIEXffR8qWgLKQqcjANRtgEWlSvyzBOkJ16f4ZK-q1GbbTL9NsrwJ60Yq3IXD8_SyEfxGZQM_tb_x/s320/KTU+1-6.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ugaritic tablet KTU 1.6 with text of part of Baal Cycle.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;">Among the Ugaritic Mythological texts, there is this interesting part of Baal myth (KTU 1.6.ii.31-37 in my translation and partly reconstructed from parallels).</span><span style="font-size: large;"><span> <br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span> Goddess Anat grasped divine Mot,</span></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span> with a trashing blades she split him,</span></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span> with a fan she winnowed him,</span></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span> with fire she parched him,</span></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span> with millstones she ground him,</span></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span> on the steppe she scattered him,</span></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span> in the furrows she sowed him.</span></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span> His remains the birds did indeed eat,</span></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span> his remnants the sparrows did consume.</span></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> Do you recognize how similar it is to the parable which Jesus said?! The one about the different seeds landing in different soils and about their different destinies.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> Well, I am not suggesting that Jesus copied ancient Canaanite myths, of course he did not. Those myths are twelve hundred years older and were buried in the ruins of the city for centuries.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> But Jesus was certainly drawing from the same treasure of religious metaphors. Those religious metaphors about grain date from great antiquity, from the beginning of farming, thousands of years before the time of Jesus or the time of Ugarit.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> And these mythical metaphors were not limited to Hebrew or Semitic people. It is likely that similar grain metaphors played an important role in the Greek Eleusinian Mysteries. And among the hairs of Celtic religion and culture are present in the ballad <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsIdhSzyx8M" target="_blank"><i>John Barleycorn must die</i></a> (A friend Neil Nash alerted me to this fact.)<br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> In the New Testament Jesus is not the only one who uses this grain metaphor. Apostle Paul reached out to the same mythic treasure when he tried to explain to the Corinthians (1Cor15) the resurrection. He used the similar metaphor of grain being buried and then rising to new life.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> And thus through Apostle Paul and the parables of Jesus we share this important, meaningful and beautiful connection with the dawn of civilization, the beginning of agriculture, and the oldest shared hopes of transcending our mortality.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"> And that is something you might not know about the Bible, about the New Testament metaphors and their deep, meaningful, mythical roots. </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://youtu.be/r9GaR_OPgbs" target="_blank">Video version of this blog can be found here.</a> </span></span><br /></span></p>Andrew Stehlikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350757205936837223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842958869628448223.post-73370914345420294642021-10-28T10:58:00.001-04:002021-11-02T18:49:09.578-04:00Martin Luther and Witches <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg64P5HCLlREHgfTyZU_Jc6dlLFemJQew6GpA0B7PQ34b-gtSrYPP2cuf6KbUJ7B8twHcR8mnATNXOVKcw9Khk14XJFp6WKBP6-7w0UB9jJRh9orZ09h25b3T1JcPxNYBlN5ZyiltepkhKM/s3018/Reformation+halloween.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3018" data-original-width="3018" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg64P5HCLlREHgfTyZU_Jc6dlLFemJQew6GpA0B7PQ34b-gtSrYPP2cuf6KbUJ7B8twHcR8mnATNXOVKcw9Khk14XJFp6WKBP6-7w0UB9jJRh9orZ09h25b3T1JcPxNYBlN5ZyiltepkhKM/s320/Reformation+halloween.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;">One of our most watched video clips on YouTube is <i>“Something you might not know about Martin Luther”</i>. It is provocative (definitely for some) but a truthful take on Luther’s visceral medieval belief in the existence of the Devil. Here is the link to this short video: <a href="https://youtu.be/-KPOMmDSPHU">https://youtu.be/-KPOMmDSPHU</a></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"> It became so “popular” because many faithful Protestants (especially Lutherans) became quite uneasy and unhappy about the content and shared their opinions and comments.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"> I was born and brought up in one of Europe’s union denominations which was composed of both Lutherans and Calvinists and thus I received a thorough Lutheran upbringing and education. That way I know that true Lutherans do not worship Luther. He certainly was not a saint, he was a father of reformation but also a son of his time and shared many diverse and dangerous prejudices of his time.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Besides the Devil or Satan, he also staunchly believed in the existence of witches. Luther is on record accusing witches of throwing charms on little children causing them such a sharp pain that they cried themselves to death. (Table talk in February and March 1533). </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;">He also accused them of spoiling milk, eggs, and butter and for these minor infractions he approved the popular opinion that they should be burned (Table talk on 25 August 1538). </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"> We all know that was not a joke and how destructive this prejudice was costing hundreds and hundreds of innocent lives of those who for many different reasons did not fit within a tightly knit & rigid medieval/early modern society.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"> But before we get all smug and finger pointing, accusing or ridiculing bigoted Luther and his superstitious times (or on the other side defending indefeasible!) - let us look where we are in our own world! </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Modern anthropologists (folklorists) find peculiarly close parallels between medieval witch prejudices and our modern anti-vaccine conspiracy theories.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"> They share similar levels of prejudice, fear, and irrationality; similar tidbits of facts chained into the most bizarre combinations; similar illogical connections and narratives; and similar dangerous/destructive consequences - costing lives. Costing lives of those ensnared by these superstitions and unfortunately costing innocent lives of people around them. </span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;">And that is something you might not know about ourselves and about our very own and dangerous superstitions and bigotry. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"> And now a word of hope and encouragement - Luther himself insisted he was not saved by his own goodness but by divine grace alone. We do not need to censor him or whitewash him. He certainly was a very conflicted and complex figure and he remains a bridge person from medieval prejudice into a more modern and more rational, enlightened paradigm.<br /> And exactly in this tension and transition between past and the future Luther can be our inspiration and our hope right where we are, tormented by our own manifold irrational political, medical and social conspiracy theories. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;">Join us as we learn from the past to reach out forward for liberation and divine grace. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;">And here is <a href="https://youtu.be/4LekNezveSc" target="_blank">a video version of this blog.</a> </span></span><br /></p>Andrew Stehlikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350757205936837223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842958869628448223.post-27474895975316667052021-09-30T14:03:00.006-04:002021-09-30T14:03:42.801-04:00New Testament Creation Story <p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBXbSqj56_9698lfCj3_XcigctEzZNcU_KQ4hI22ksUUCwEizoRXxdd1hxMtdvd6lYrZ0jzRzT5OmgLIN9_sbRaIqHxkFnV3nNslpyOMAxxM2YRy_3Vsi3zVuURPF4uBLrgkELa_qlsBV6/s2700/World+Communion+Sunday+2021+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2700" data-original-width="2700" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBXbSqj56_9698lfCj3_XcigctEzZNcU_KQ4hI22ksUUCwEizoRXxdd1hxMtdvd6lYrZ0jzRzT5OmgLIN9_sbRaIqHxkFnV3nNslpyOMAxxM2YRy_3Vsi3zVuURPF4uBLrgkELa_qlsBV6/s320/World+Communion+Sunday+2021+cover.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;">In the Acts of Apostles (chapter 17) we read about Apostle Paul preaching in Athens on Areopagus. Well, it is not really his sermon. Evangelist Luke wrote it, following the well- established custom of Hellenistic historiographers. They would simply make up speeches they considered appropriate for the occasion and their characters. So in this sermon we have what evangelist Luke thought that Paul would preach. Thus it is our window to the early Christian homiletic (preaching at the time of Luke).<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><span><br /> The opening part of that sermon is a beautiful New Testament creation story. It talks about God creating the world and everything in it, giving life and breath to all living creatures, and creating all peoples from one ancestor, and allotting them their space and time.<br /> Then the sermon makes a reference to a classical poet whom we now know was legendary Epimenides. This quotation hints the mystic panentheism - that God and creation overlap, <i>“in God we live and move and have our being.”</i><br /> When the biblical creation story is mentioned people usually think only about the book of Genesis and its well-known creation in six days. Here you have a beautiful little gem - a New Testament Creation story in addition deeply influenced by Classical Greek philosophy.<br />And this New Testament Creation Story is something you might not know about the Bible.</span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Now let us look closer at Epimenides. The quotation in the Acts of the Apostles, in what is supposed to be Paul’s sermon but we know was written by evangelist Luke - this is not the only time this legendary Cretan philosopher was quoted approvingly in the Bible.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> Epimenides is not named but is being quoted in the letter to Titus (1:12). It is a letter supposedly written by Paul but it was certainly not written by him. It was written together with the other pastoral epistles (1<sup>st</sup><span> </span>and 2<sup>nd</sup><span> </span>Timothy) about a generation or two after Paul.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> I cannot stress enough how unusual that is! To have a Greek philosopher quoted in the Bible. And in addition it is the same Greek philosopher or more precisely this semi-legendary pagan prophet. And it is in the documents written at the similar time and both pretending to be written or spoken by Paul.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> What a strange coincidence! It can certainly suggest that pastoral epistles (1&2Timoty and Titus) and the writings of Evangelist Luke (his gospel and the Acts) might share some common background, if not outright the same author’s hand. And this strange closeness of evangelist Luke and Pastoral epistles is another thing you might not know about the bible. <br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p>Andrew Stehlikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350757205936837223noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842958869628448223.post-83609915801635732252021-09-23T20:31:00.007-04:002021-09-24T13:01:55.511-04:00Biblical gender changes <p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-CA"></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6fnukdDDr4a5O9fF2J1xB9hmF1qVgVeaQ2Ufkcrep26layxH0-6KKNmIQbJsFr0dXdynQpjxsH1NNr4ud1IJqCLATiKW4cyPhG7P4wuq0p5CI5veX9eoneRuE4I0L32X3_xQtToy8x94i/s2700/who+wrote+the+bible+editors.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2700" data-original-width="2700" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6fnukdDDr4a5O9fF2J1xB9hmF1qVgVeaQ2Ufkcrep26layxH0-6KKNmIQbJsFr0dXdynQpjxsH1NNr4ud1IJqCLATiKW4cyPhG7P4wuq0p5CI5veX9eoneRuE4I0L32X3_xQtToy8x94i/s320/who+wrote+the+bible+editors.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br />The<span> </span><span>last two months we’ve been asking <i>“Who wrote the bible?”</i> In the process we made some surprising, eye opening, and liberating discoveries. Below in this blog you can check the older articles and here you can find some older <a href="https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQgV_alF2NkwaaFo0XUVeQqZX9M2wFmvs" target="_blank">videoclips</a> and <a href="https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQgV_alF2Nkw0jiM2OtfDQAEMSiwUhLOl" target="_blank">sermons.</a></span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0.5in; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>But the Bible which we have in our hands was not finished when the last ancient author put down the pen. The biblical authors were followed by editors and translators. And you might be surprised how much “creative” freedom they exercised!</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> For instance, they could invent and include an entire biblical story. Good example could be one of the best known biblical stories about a woman caught in adultery with the even more famous pronouncement<span> </span><i>who is without guilt throw the first stone</i><span>. T</span>his entire story was not in the Bible for several centuries! It is certainly absent from the earliest manuscripts. And when it was finally included, it was not always where it can be found now (in John 8). Some manuscripts had it at the end of the Gospel of John and some others in the linguistically and stylistically more fitting gospel of Luke. So, here you have an example of what editors could do! It is a beautiful story and very much Jesus-like, teaching tolerance and forgiveness, there can be hardly any opposition against it. </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> But there are also more sinister changes to the Bible. For example, those which were generated by the vicious misogyny of the later church. And so ancient editors and biblical translators (some of them until now) actively engaged in gender change of a number of biblical characters.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> In the original texts of Pauline letters were some prominent female characters like Euodia, or Synthyche (in the letter to Phillipians) or Junia (in the letter to Romans) - but by different hands at different times, by different editors and translators all three of these women were made into males. We know (because they told us) that at least some of those who did it were unable to accept the reality that proud and strong women played important roles in early apostolic church.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> And so conservative patriarchal editors and translators (among them the translators of the King James Bible) actively engaged in quite a radical activity of gender change.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>And these willful textual gender changes are something you might not know about the bible.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>------------------------------------</span></span></span></p><div class="ecm0bbzt e5nlhep0 a8c37x1j"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql lr9zc1uh a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d3f4x2em fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v b1v8xokw oo9gr5id" dir="auto" lang="en"><div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">And here are all the video episodes from this series "Who wrote the bible?" </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">Moses - "Moses In Attic - Lies about the Torah's age?" <a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl py34i1dx gpro0wi8" href="https://youtu.be/pbUz-PihKo8?fbclid=IwAR3Fee17xaUpNU5iidi1rSPsV5TdmjNjpS_iFZTlvcYxitJAWQJ2IG9IZ-k" rel="nofollow noopener" role="link" tabindex="0" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/pbUz-PihKo8</a></div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">David - "David the Hellene - was he a Jewish mercenary?" <a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl py34i1dx gpro0wi8" href="https://youtu.be/gtesJfLluC8?fbclid=IwAR19w15ZDEhRcC6Z65yCn9Vw-aj6GVQrIBsh6EoBVEvA1hnxCeSxIW5uGj0" rel="nofollow noopener" role="link" tabindex="0" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/gtesJfLluC8</a></div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">Isaiah - "Gospel In Cuneiform - Was she really a virgin?" <a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl py34i1dx gpro0wi8" href="https://youtu.be/Dp8G8Pm4nmI?fbclid=IwAR2NDVq02Remjgnfe-TK8fcR55DkggZecrOqd5KkNmgcPxYgKjgiyQwijpI" rel="nofollow noopener" role="link" tabindex="0" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/Dp8G8Pm4nmI</a></div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">Daniel - "Biblical Hopscotch - Apocalyptic Delirium?" <a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl py34i1dx gpro0wi8" href="https://youtu.be/e84fVv43gb4?fbclid=IwAR1NV7sLb2GpqGDXVs3Hj52fiFzxLO1aASLtmSbq5MvMID6t3Z3ejMT_Ij8" rel="nofollow noopener" role="link" tabindex="0" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/e84fVv43gb4</a></div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">Luke - "Hellenistic Luke - Biblical Entertainment?" <a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl py34i1dx gpro0wi8" href="https://youtu.be/F_qG1T3nSws?fbclid=IwAR0s0BC8WklcVOcyroi92FFHz1qRV8RxM2JFWsBnN7231_58KpgyZfq7phc" rel="nofollow noopener" role="link" tabindex="0" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/F_qG1T3nSws</a></div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">Not Paul - "Pauline Forgery - Biblical lies?" <a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl py34i1dx gpro0wi8" href="https://youtu.be/47H3oaPPhuk?fbclid=IwAR1JA9MSiuGF7jzc2kDR3Yt2FeRar1dWBFaOQDQDHfg-MLuAL_qDKm6eTcA" rel="nofollow noopener" role="link" tabindex="0" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/47H3oaPPhuk</a></div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">Paul's Disciples? - "Biblical Fraudster At Work?" <a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl py34i1dx gpro0wi8" href="https://youtu.be/dv1fGElAix8?fbclid=IwAR3h0lXl-6qkJknu0G_pdfW0kFnxhBYtp7FVOc-XD2LHfr9zTDwtgw7Pds8" rel="nofollow noopener" role="link" tabindex="0" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/dv1fGElAix8</a></div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;">Editors and translators - "Biblical Gender Changes" <a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl py34i1dx gpro0wi8" href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2FwnQaHFeOuhI%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR38QOH83_9jLWNcnnr07mdun9ES9ANwhVGAmvvdJhLdJBrujY3jr2v--4E&h=AT1osjzeo82du4d_5rRjedM6tKuXnO4qjgc42hFBoW8X41yQcOrDYtdUi6h3hHoJcb3Au_mHdQ95237LqIDHNG-NBnTMmUAQf_OjU4HwbcrTvC1pIZlrtntG8CX29Dlcyw&__tn__=R]-R&c[0]=AT1-LAaItuLD8N41Hy2Arud2fcdvd0MkxBuoii3GOaob5J9kHhODpxAztjxUkLd8mjCPIF7bqM0Iw_Gf_1yNRNn6J32H9rmPW580mt9eg4XCQS48pBA43UDXsyfn_qmfX9WF-Ytqt4E7fE7TW9wp0QREnoOFwjp3iixLHnp5FnY0bOM" rel="nofollow noopener" role="link" tabindex="0" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/wnQaHFeOuhI</a></div></div></span></span></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></span></p>Andrew Stehlikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350757205936837223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842958869628448223.post-60079543569058069812021-09-16T22:08:00.002-04:002021-09-17T16:23:12.721-04:00Biblical fraudster in action <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil6entMp2n4gH420zdBpXncOoR3QZttapzQ87Th4wCngwwS5ECB0PBMKgy5P8oLxqd3wcSiPnxfP_Jud5n6k5Rpo0Obsf1CCtEJFleE35eVKuSkpjh-e3vW0z31BNADHQtlaLlqgKd1-FT/s2700/who+wrote+the+bible+really+paul.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2700" data-original-width="2700" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil6entMp2n4gH420zdBpXncOoR3QZttapzQ87Th4wCngwwS5ECB0PBMKgy5P8oLxqd3wcSiPnxfP_Jud5n6k5Rpo0Obsf1CCtEJFleE35eVKuSkpjh-e3vW0z31BNADHQtlaLlqgKd1-FT/w400-h400/who+wrote+the+bible+really+paul.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;">In 2 Thessalonians (2:2) the author (supposedly the Apostle Paul) warns his readers against a fake letter written in his name and forged to deceive and mislead recipients.<br /> Wait a moment! What? Isn’t that a definition of a fraud? How could it be mentioned just that matter-of-factly? Such a blatant fraud must had been a reason for alarm! Unmasking and stopping the fraudster should have been the first item on the agenda. It should have been the primary focus of this letter. Subtle matters of theology could have waited.<br /> Well, there was a reason why it was not the primary focus. The situation was even more serious because this casual warning against a fraud letter was itself not written by Paul, it was written by a fraudster himself! <br /> From the end of the 18th century there were serious doubts about Paul’s authorship of the Second Thessalonians. And throughout the 19th century academic theologians reached the consensus; the Second Thessalonains was not written by an apostle. There are multiple reasons for it starting with vocabulary, grammar, style, theology and its tone. But beyond all this forensic linguistics, this letter also contains several recognized forgery techniques and among them is this casual warning against the fraud. It is a known fraudulent maneuver.<br /> Here you have a Biblical fraudster crying “Beware of fraud!” And that is something you might not know about the Bible.<br /><br />Now, why do I bring this up? <br /><b>Firstly,</b> because the truth and honesty is of the utmost value. <br /><b>Secondly,</b> I bring it up to defend apostle Paul. He has been accused of many faults - misogyny, militarism, support of slavery, stiff conservative values... Much of it is in those fake letters, in those, which he did not write.<br /><b>Thirdly,</b> the church, theologians but also regular ministers and church members need to face the fact that more than half of the New Testament letters are fake. And they are not innocently fake, they are like our example of premeditated deceitful forgeries. <br />Here I would like to share an archeology parable: <br />Middens - ancient rubbish-piles - are an invaluable source of information for modern archeology.<br />Archeologists can learn from the ancient garbage more than from any ancient monuments or artistic masterpieces.<br />Biblical fake letters are like those middens - garbage piles. They were created by throwing things out and piling them up. And like those piles they offer us unfiltered insight into the second century church and its struggles, the nice the neutral and the ugly. We can observe how they lived, what they valued, what they struggled about and perhaps we can learn what to do and what not to do. <br />Approaching these letters as middens is a revealing, enlightening and liberating experience. </span><br /><p></p>Andrew Stehlikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350757205936837223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842958869628448223.post-14488378025153906332021-09-09T13:37:00.004-04:002022-01-29T18:59:58.998-05:00Pauline Forgeries <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUG_nt2cJdrsPYjWS-TDH5Q1sKCFmvN_W04iJA9eyfssUDaz3tNnFxgpk6344OzJIwgSNCEkGi8Lqjj98LZLGaEst2rlaEfcTcArZUtRXyG5YXLpRj8l69sQSUxPbZtMMB6rxwszgja2AX/s4018/Colos+first+column.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4018" data-original-width="1118" height="743" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUG_nt2cJdrsPYjWS-TDH5Q1sKCFmvN_W04iJA9eyfssUDaz3tNnFxgpk6344OzJIwgSNCEkGi8Lqjj98LZLGaEst2rlaEfcTcArZUtRXyG5YXLpRj8l69sQSUxPbZtMMB6rxwszgja2AX/w207-h743/Colos+first+column.jpg" width="207" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first column of Colossians<br />from the Codex Sinaiticus<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>I vividly remember reading Colossians in Greek during my seminary studies in Prague. Right away the first chapter is just 6 Greek sentences. Very, very, very long and convoluted complex sentences. Each sentence is a paragraph long and one has as many as 158 words! Any normal modern attempt for translation had to divide those 6 sentences into smaller chunks.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> That language is simply not from Paul, NO WAY! Paul’s own sentences are usually half as long, pointed, argumentative, with a drive and his grammar and syntax were also different.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> These are all features of language which do not change easily - you can change your style for artistic reasons but it would be strange not to say contra-productive in a letter. In a letter it is desirable to come across as recognizable by the recipient(s).</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> Of course this suspicion of biblical forgeries is nothing new. There were ancient doubts about some of the writings (Hebrews) and from the end of the 18<sup>th</sup><span> </span>century there is ever growing and persuasive arguments in that direction.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> But it is one way to hear about it and read about it and it is something different to experience it first hand. From this early experience I have been convinced that Colossians, Ephesians, 2 Thessalonians, 1st and 2nd Timothy, Titus and of course Hebrews were not written by apostle Paul. They are pious forgeries. (Well, Hebrews does not claim to be by Paul - so it is not really this kind of an intentional forgery.)<br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> And that is something you might not know about the bible and quite likely something you have hardly ever heard in a church. </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Biblical forgeries will be our theme next Sunday. This Sunday will be about the genuine Pauline letters, but even they have some interesting and profound surprises.</span></span></span></p>Andrew Stehlikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350757205936837223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842958869628448223.post-35286024722270526132021-09-02T14:15:00.000-04:002021-09-02T14:15:22.821-04:00Hellenist Luke <p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcFWfY1XZQrZK3xVBzrrdEj1_Mlkpl2PfvyE44j08vJC6J08WiX_mJ-gGixUVzByKvMJ7PAeOC4C3wY2hb0ZreCGI074dkT_tusWqXO4C-ovCB2MGrHcW8Phkt07a9gU1BB0lQJ1phb6SV/s2700/who+wrote+the+bible+acts+iii.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2700" data-original-width="2700" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcFWfY1XZQrZK3xVBzrrdEj1_Mlkpl2PfvyE44j08vJC6J08WiX_mJ-gGixUVzByKvMJ7PAeOC4C3wY2hb0ZreCGI074dkT_tusWqXO4C-ovCB2MGrHcW8Phkt07a9gU1BB0lQJ1phb6SV/s320/who+wrote+the+bible+acts+iii.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;">According to an early Christian legend the Evangelist Luke was a physician friend of Apostle Paul. It is difficult to make any judgement about Luke’s medical training. Similarly his relationship to apostle Paul is difficult to judge. He certainly did not know Paul well enough to capture his theology and thought process.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><span><br /> On the other hand judging from Luke’s writing we know that he was a well educated Hellenistic intellectual. The Gospel of Luke is edited from earlier sources in a pleasant language, most sophisticated of all the other gospels and one of the best styles of the New Testament. And Luke’s second volume, the Acts of Apostles, is a real Hellenistic Masterpiece. Modern scholars cannot decide about Acts’ precise inspiration or its exact literary category. Is it more a Hellenistic historiography, a Hellenistic Biography or a Hellenistic Novella? Difficult to decide.<br /> It is certain it shares some characteristic features of Hellenistic literature.<br /> It contains<span> </span><b><i>periodoi</i></b>, travelogues - journeys of the main character. Hellenistic people were eager to read and learn about new distant lands, cities, cultures, customs, religions.<br /> It contains elements of<span> </span><b><i>teras</i></b><span> </span>or<span> </span><b><i>thauma</i></b><span> </span>- fascination with supra natural, miraculous or bizarre. Because Hellenistic audiences loved to be teased with religious or supra-natural mystery.<br /> Acts definitely contains<span> </span><b>aretology</b><span> </span>- lifting up virtues of the main character/s and setting him or them as examples for the audience.<br /> It also contains<span> </span><b><i>homiliai</i></b><span> </span>- made up speeches of the main characters - just like Hellenistic historiographer would insert in pivotal points believable but invented speeches.<br /> All of it is part of a highly entertaining even thrilling storytelling full of danger, suspension, jeopardy.<br /> It is really difficult to say what was the main source of inspiration, Hellenistic historiography, biography or novella. I would say that Luke like a proper creative intellectual was familiar and inspired by all the current literary styles. He used them to fit his own unique purpose, in fact he created his own and new style of THE ACTS OF APOSTLES.<br /> And that exactly what followed - after Luke and his Acts of Apostles - the early Christian literature from the mid 2<sup>nd</sup><span> </span>Century is aflush with different acts of apostles- Acts of Andrew, Acts of Andrew and Mathias, Acts of John, Acts of Paul, Acts of Peter, Acts of Peter and Paul, Acts of Peter and the Twelve, Acts of Philip, Acts of Pilate, Acts of Tekla, and Acts of Thomas. And these are just those writings which survived till now and which we know.<br /> The Evangelist Luke is the first author and the father of this thrilling Hellenistic style, highly entertaining and at the same time educating. And that is something you might not know about the bible.</span></span><p></p>Andrew Stehlikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350757205936837223noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842958869628448223.post-89106973154396950692021-08-20T09:54:00.006-04:002021-08-20T14:06:36.314-04:00Biblical Hopscotch<p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2-d97UIPKQxmEH86tJSbcxPjU5MnLmpepqAKb0apHvPwywEBaROdMDOBLw5kzOr_dHCqUO_Q6mTzZeSficqubiRdPXBQN-u78iZU6CEBQoOxTrQrYcDQ4ZQ7TMUrAcAKxaJyTMI8mWANw/s3304/004+apocalypses+slides+I.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2554" data-original-width="3304" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2-d97UIPKQxmEH86tJSbcxPjU5MnLmpepqAKb0apHvPwywEBaROdMDOBLw5kzOr_dHCqUO_Q6mTzZeSficqubiRdPXBQN-u78iZU6CEBQoOxTrQrYcDQ4ZQ7TMUrAcAKxaJyTMI8mWANw/w474-h366/004+apocalypses+slides+I.jpg" width="474" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>In our series “Who wrote the Bible” we come to the book of Daniel. It will be our introduction to the apocalyptic genre. There were earlier signs of apocalypticism in several older prophecies, but for the most part the book of Daniel is considered the beginning of the biblical apocalyptic genre - those expressionistic, ear-catching prophetic revelations how history is progressing towards the end. Daniel is an excellent early example of it, and as a book it is highly unusual, a book itself that was written in several languages, but also extremely problematic.<br /> Already in the ancient times, around the year 300 CE a Greek Philosopher Porphyry of Tire pointed out historical and authorship problems. Porphyry<span> </span><i>“denied that it was composed by the person to whom it is ascribed in its title, but rather by some individual living in Judaea at the time of that Antiochus who was surnamed Epiphanes; he further alleged that ‘Daniel’ did not foretell the future so much as he related the past, and lastly that whatever he spoke of up till the time of Antiochus contained authentic history, whereas anything he may have conjectured beyond that point was false, inasmuch as he would not have foreknown the future.”</i><br /> This is a loose quotation from Jerome, translator of the Bible into Latin (Vulgate). And we must be thankful for these apologetic disapproving quotations, because they are our only sources of this Porphyry’s book about Daniel. 100 years later, after Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, the Emperor Theodosius II ordered all the copies of Porphyry book burned, not once, but twice! In 435 and then for good measure again in 448.<br /> It took Christian theologians another 1400 years, until enlightenment, to acknowledge that Porphyry was right after all and his scholarship was sound. With the growing body of historical and archeological knowledge of the ancient Middle East it became ever more clear that Daniel is absolutely sketchy about the time when it was supposedly written. And here are some examples of blaring anachronisms and contradictions.<br />1) Daniel writes about Nebuchadnezzar “madness” but if anything such an episode is known only about Nabonidus.<br />2) Daniel treats Balshazzar as a king of Babylon, but he was never a king of Babylon, if anything he was possibly a crown prince .<br />3) Balshazzar also was emphatically not a son of Nabuchadnezzar, he was a son of Nabonidus.<br />4) Daniel claims that Dareius the Meade (this cognomen itself is anachronism) conquered Babylon while it is a well known fact that it was the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great who did it, after earlier battles Babylon opened its gates to him without a fight.<br />5) Dareius was not a son of Xerxes as Daniel claims, in reality Xerxes was a son of Dareius.<br /> Thus the Book of Daniel is not only wrong about predicting the future beyond Antiochus Epiphanes as Porphyry observed, the book of Daniel is also completely wrong about the past, when it was supposedly written and about the events which should been fresh in the memory of the author.<br /> This is, dear friends, the beginning and foundation of the apocalyptic genre. Source and inspiration of all those feverish, fiery and often bloody visions of the end of times. In reality it is a forgery and quite a sloppy forgery at that!<br /> And that is unfortunately something many Americans might not know about the Bible even now. I am singling out our religious/fundamentalist compatriots because in the last several centuries especially American fundamentalist have been a steady source of apocalyptic excesses. <br /> The Book of Daniel was the basis for Milerites (later known as Adventists) to calculate the end of the world. It played an important role for Jehovah witnesses and several other groups after them (Davidians or Peoples Temple).<br /> Imagine selling all your property, upending your lives and waiting on hills (and it can be even more sinister - drinking Kool-Aid) and imagine that somewhere at the foundation of all of that nonsense is a sloppy forgery in which Babylon is conquered by Darius, Darius! That is why education matters in all aspects of life and also in theology and in faith!<br /> On the other hand if we abandon this folly’s errand, this crazy idea that Daniel is predicting the future until now, and take a sober approach and perceive it as a literary product of a religious person (or a group of persons) who felt marginalized, alienated and attacked by a hegemonic foreign culture and religion, then the book of Daniel can offer us invaluable insights into human religious psyche and even possibly bring some sparks of hope to the extreme times and situations.<br />And that is what we will attempt to do this Sunday.</span></span></span><p></p><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi_N2fNUSvEPOJxGwD5tDHI4s44PqHHIMc0V8CJGqueFUwihfwXhyphenhyphenS3YWSscWUWSDI0Che1og3S3_0makFY4XmTqv_NUA17kfsTphySyUUAOVc4cCxYVOsf7w-CbLtk9Nwa81-qa0qpYUi/s3282/daniel+feeverish+dating.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1848" data-original-width="3282" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi_N2fNUSvEPOJxGwD5tDHI4s44PqHHIMc0V8CJGqueFUwihfwXhyphenhyphenS3YWSscWUWSDI0Che1og3S3_0makFY4XmTqv_NUA17kfsTphySyUUAOVc4cCxYVOsf7w-CbLtk9Nwa81-qa0qpYUi/w610-h344/daniel+feeverish+dating.jpg" width="610" /></a></div><br />Andrew Stehlikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350757205936837223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842958869628448223.post-14977099841602719872021-08-13T06:45:00.001-04:002021-08-14T08:33:40.226-04:00Gospel in Cuneiform<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span></span></span></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipXVA7J1GPQuDtHglc1IdiFMIuYxh-lRQvL8wMvuA_XSBzB_Fj7Dxnfw99DX1NDbEs7B7-FVnuzil_WiAS7-cFsMFuRX2TC9EsEWc3i-cYmtEBF5gHgunoL4cZt9dAa4ETJ5VqnwenIZ74/s2174/who+wrote+the+bible+isaiah.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2174" data-original-width="2174" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipXVA7J1GPQuDtHglc1IdiFMIuYxh-lRQvL8wMvuA_XSBzB_Fj7Dxnfw99DX1NDbEs7B7-FVnuzil_WiAS7-cFsMFuRX2TC9EsEWc3i-cYmtEBF5gHgunoL4cZt9dAa4ETJ5VqnwenIZ74/s320/who+wrote+the+bible+isaiah.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A recreation of KTU 1.24.7</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Among the Ugaritic cuneiform
tablets dated to 12<sup>th</sup> century BCE is also a myth about the wedding
of Yarich (moon god) to a princess called Nikal-and-Ib (KTU 1.24)</span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span><span> </span></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span><span> </span>The seventh line reads <i>hlģlmt.tldbn</i> - “Look, the
sacred bride shall bear a son...”</span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> It is almost identical (with
just minor dialectical variations and one omitted word) to what is in the prophet
Isaiah 7:14 “Look, the young woman is pregnant and shall bear a son...”</span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span><span></span></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span><span> </span>The Ugaritic word <i>ģlmt</i> and corresponding Hebrew <i>‘lmh</i>
were words for a princess, possibly with some religious function. But this
word primarily designated a young noble woman who hasn’t given birth yet (in
the medical Latin - <i>Nullipara</i>). </span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span><span></span></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span><span> </span>Originally this phrase was quite likely a linguistically
and culturally established way of announcing a birth to a new mother. (Similar
phrasing is used to about the birth of Ishamel to Hagar and Isaac to Sarah). <span> </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span><span></span></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span><span> </span>But then, when Isaiah was translated from Hebrew to Greek
<i>‘lmh</i> - “the nullipara princess” became </span>παρθενος<span> - “a
virgin”. The Septuagint was the Bible of the Church and so “virgin” found its
way to the Gospel of Matthew and indirectly to the Gospel of Luke while
simultaneously generating virginal phantasms of early church theology.<span> </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><p></p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>And this Nativity Gospel in
Cuneiform is something you might not know about the Bible.</span></span></span></p>
Andrew Stehlikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350757205936837223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842958869628448223.post-63827160985378187782021-08-04T16:43:00.010-04:002021-08-06T17:33:19.958-04:00David the Hellene <p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Closing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Message Header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Salutation"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Date"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Theme"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="List Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="List Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="List Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 1"/>
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</p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>David and Goliath is a beautifully crafted story. The bucolic pastoral innocence of David is alluringly contrasted with his vulgar mercenary opponent. And more is there than meets the ear of the modern reader or listener. This story has the Hellenistic heroic legend written all over it.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> Beside the idyllic pastoral setting the antiquity is further alluded by what is called the single combat. Such single combat especially when presented as a ritualized substitute for a battle has many classical echoes and was to indicate the antiquity of the story. David’s glorious<span> </span><i>spolia opima</i><span> </span>- a stripping and repossessing of the armor of the defeated enemy - was a well recognized trope and the highest rank of military achievement worthy of the dynastic founder. Similar legends circulated for instance about Romulus and other heroes of antiquity. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> Talking about Goliath’s armor, it is a clear example of a biblical anachronism. Goliath’s armor simply does not fit what is known about the late bronze age Philistines (no matter how many times the word bronze is repeated) but it closely resembles the armor of a Hellenic hoplite.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> And from the textual perspective, there is a substantial difference between the Hebrew and Greek versions. In most of the cases it is Greek Septuagint which contains textual expansions. In this case it is the other way round. The Hebrew text is half a chapter longer thus further pointing to relatively late textual developments.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> These are all signs of the Hellenistic composition of this legend. And at its center is another strong argument which might elude many modern readers. It is the very choice of David’s weapon, his sling. Modern readers can be easily lured into perceiving it, just as it is skillfully and seductively presented, as a bucolic pastoral reference. But that was certainly not the case at the time of composition.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> A sling was a regular military weapon and units of slingers were well established parts of ancient armies. There are numerous references to the military use of slingers from the time of Homer onward (Ajax, the son of Oileus). Xenophone in his Anabasis writes extensively about the deployment of the Persian as well as Greek slingers. Furthermore, the archeological finds of sling projectiles, stone, clay, and especially lead, from all around the Mediterranean Basin, further confirm the well-established and long lasting use of this serious weapon.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> Without a doubt there was a difference between a hoplite warrior and a skirmisher (light infantry) slinger. Hoplites were wealthy aristocratic citizens while slingers were often recruited from among the specific groups of peasants, for instance Hellenistic slingers were from Rhodos, while later in the Punic period the Balearic slingers gained reputation (mortally wounding Consul Paulus at the battle of Cannae). This difference of rank between Goliath and David, a hoplite warrior and a slinger skirmisher made the tale immediately understood and appreciated all around the Hellenistic world.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> David and Goliath is a well known biblical legend, but its military Hellenistic background is something not many might know about the Bible.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span></span></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPyr0YBN75ExtiqMmIKb6Rc-XfKL4UuCKcY6Cp2lkE9qMZx3-Qh0ZxvAYD0f_XTLmYoRtF7jrQ-JM51vn2G4hZFwbyPp4_sk72XjItivX4TUg6dU9cEs7Fe5zx8YjcKXKPEN9-sOLhMrA-/s2100/led+sling+projectile.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2100" data-original-width="2100" height="435" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPyr0YBN75ExtiqMmIKb6Rc-XfKL4UuCKcY6Cp2lkE9qMZx3-Qh0ZxvAYD0f_XTLmYoRtF7jrQ-JM51vn2G4hZFwbyPp4_sk72XjItivX4TUg6dU9cEs7Fe5zx8YjcKXKPEN9-sOLhMrA-/w435-h435/led+sling+projectile.jpg" width="435" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">A lead sling projectile from the collection of the British Museum. <br />The Greek text cast on it reads ΔΕΞΑΙ - "Here you go!" or "Catch this!"</span></span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span><br /> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>- - - - - - -</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: small;">Occasionally there are questions about
the academic sources of claims made in these blogs. I decided to list
some of the sources. <br />Israel Finkelstein & Neil Asher Silberman: David and Solomon, New York 2006<br />John Van Seters: The Biblical Saga of King David, Winona Lake, 2009<br />Philippe Wajdenbaum: Argonauts of the Desert, Routledge 2011</span><br /></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span><br /></span></span></p><p></p>Andrew Stehlikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350757205936837223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842958869628448223.post-37952935231326539562021-07-28T16:57:00.008-04:002021-08-11T10:50:59.117-04:00Moses in Attic<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUre1l9fMPtmG3eV9KIunbLVZd90DHWBDKu6QZh17xWk51dEQMC9JGshZtnT7e9t7-y1Ho2xq24zaBdRsQwnsVoma-rCOaGMF5xMJXEUPJcgLg3Ql-9jy7SonEBXw2BDNojke9kqyvwRT7/s2700/who+wrote+the+bible+moses.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2700" data-original-width="2700" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUre1l9fMPtmG3eV9KIunbLVZd90DHWBDKu6QZh17xWk51dEQMC9JGshZtnT7e9t7-y1Ho2xq24zaBdRsQwnsVoma-rCOaGMF5xMJXEUPJcgLg3Ql-9jy7SonEBXw2BDNojke9kqyvwRT7/s320/who+wrote+the+bible+moses.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><p><span style="font-size: large;">I hear Moses in Attic. Well, more precisely, I hear Moses speaking Attic. </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: arial;">And I do not mean he was a rich New Yorker living in a penthouse or a poor student in a mansard apartment. I mean Attic in the sense of the Classical Greek language, culture and influence. </span></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> It has been a known and well established fact for centuries that the Hebrew Bible is full of anachronisms. Those are historical and geographical realities which simply do not fit the period into which they are being cast (like Jonah meeting the king of Nineveh or Abraham having camels). But very often they do not fit even the period in which they were supposedly being written down. And so the location name <i>“Ur of Chaldeans”</i> could not possibly be given by Judean exiles in Babylon, they would know it was nonsense. </span></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> Well, Five books of Moses were written in Hebrew, just like lion share of the Hebrew Bible (not counting a few chapters in Aramaic). But in their final form they came into existence and were greatly influenced by the Greek culture. The entire idea of writing a history points towards the specific period when it became “a thing”. This desire to write history came around the time of Herodotus and not much earlier. Before that, there were monumental inscriptions, royal annals and heroic legends, but not concerted attempts on writing a narrative history. </span></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> That brings me to even a stronger argument of the literary genre. The narrative genre of these writings is important and greatly revealing. Homer wrote epic poetry while Herodotus or Xenophon wrote in prose. Ugaritic legends of King Keret or Danel were all written in epic poetry while Books of Moses are predominantly written in a narrative prose. Biblical prose is the biggest anachronism of all biblical anachronisms, staring right into our face and thus almost invisible. Biblical prose is but unique and unexplainable unless we date it to a different epoch.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> Both the desire to write a history and the style in which it is being accomplished point towards the late classical and early Hellenistic period and towards Greek cultural and intellectual influences. And thus, the Books of Moses were written in Hebrew all right, but I hear them speaking Attic in respect of their period and culture. </span></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> This is a relatively new and still developing biblical scholarship called Copenhagen or Scandinavian School. And thus it is quite likely something you might not know about the Bible.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Come this Sunday to rejoice in transformative and liberating consequences of these new theological developments. </span></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">- - - - - - - - - - -<br />Occasionally there are questions about the academic sources of claims made in these blogs. I decided to list some of the sources. <br />Did Moses Speak Attic (Jewish Historiography and Scripture in the Hellenistic Period) Edited by Lester L. Grabbe, Sheffield 2001.</span><br /></p><p></p>Andrew Stehlikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350757205936837223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842958869628448223.post-69323230325251080752021-07-23T10:46:00.004-04:002021-07-23T10:46:43.573-04:00Jonah and the Very Hungry Caterpillar<p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Just imagine for a moment this purely hypothetical scenario:</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Imagine a person or persons who present themselves as deeply religious, who know all the right religious answers, and quote the Bible up and down, but strangely remain untouched by its spirit.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> Imagine those who use religion to prop up all their resentments and prejudices, who are harsh and unforgiving towards others but love to play the victims, who on the surface might seem kind and caring, but they turn religion into a tool of vicious vindictiveness. Imagine those who are religiously self-righteous and thus unwilling and unable to change and to forgive.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> Hard to imagine such a scenario, right? Very likely you never met such people, they probably do not exist. Such people do not rule many denominations and religious organizations. They do not use religion to scale to political power and when they attain that power, they do not want to pass harsh and harmful laws and they do not hide their racism behind a holy religious facade.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> But just in the highly unlikely case that you are to meet them, what can you do? How to dissuade them from this hypocrisy and religious travesty?</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> You might not know it about the Bible but in the book of Jonah God treats this sick, sick, sick religion with humor and in the final chapter of that book God sends a very hungry caterpillar to gnaw holes into this bigoted, prejudiced, self righteous religion. That is our theme this Sunday.</span><span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf1xwPfh1CYa1qa4nXaDAjO9bSPXEtTgH6VoKRcHfoeDcq6ZkfsI5MXg1PeLfRo_17mejOSlNaWGLXNCTflZsZ9XIjQ8Jb0iAiFmHB8q0MezTaMpbMyJ30z_A-39CXZ-O-2JrkFybTVEsj/s3881/Jonah+4+in+2021.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3880" data-original-width="3881" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf1xwPfh1CYa1qa4nXaDAjO9bSPXEtTgH6VoKRcHfoeDcq6ZkfsI5MXg1PeLfRo_17mejOSlNaWGLXNCTflZsZ9XIjQ8Jb0iAiFmHB8q0MezTaMpbMyJ30z_A-39CXZ-O-2JrkFybTVEsj/w640-h640/Jonah+4+in+2021.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /> </span><p></p>Andrew Stehlikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350757205936837223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842958869628448223.post-10857464855318955992021-07-15T12:24:00.009-04:002021-07-15T12:32:28.959-04:00Biblical Anachronisms <p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>A substantial part of the Bible, especially the Hebrew Testament, was written much much later than many people are made to believe. That is to say, it is much younger than it pretends to be. The ubiquitous anachronisms are tale-tale signs.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> What is an anachronism? If I told you that on my last visit to my European homeland I saw the King of Prague you would know that something was up, that I was pulling your leg or I had lost all my marbles. The Czech Republic is not a kingdom and there has never been any king of Prague. It would be like saying the Queen of London or the King of Stockholm.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> We read something similar in the book of Jonah about the king of Nineveh. There was never a king of Nineveh! It was always a king of Assyria. Perhaps, it might be a king <i>IN</i> Nineveh, but that is not what is in the Bible.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> More over the Assyrian Empire had a number of capitals. Nineveh was perhaps the best known capital of the Neo Assyrian empire, but the dates simply don’t fit even if we take seriously the dates of legendary Jonah. It does not fit by about 100 years.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> And so the King of Nineveh in the book of Jonah might sound plausible on the surface, but when you look closer it is all an inaccurate anachronism because the Book of Jonah was written hundreds and hundreds of years later and for other purpouse than history.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> Jonah was clearly written as a parody or satire book. It is even possible that these anachronisms were part of its satirical aim (like for instance our spoofs about <a href="http://blog-andrew.stehlik.org/search/label/Manhattan%20Gospel%20of%20Henry%20Rutgers" target="_blank">The Manhattan Gospel of Henry Rutgers</a>). But primarily, the book of Jonah was written to ridicule and thus to provide a balance to chauvinism and religious intolerance of its time and of such biblical books like Ezra, Nehemia or Ester.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Jonah is a comedy book with a serious purpose - supporting a tolerant, unbiased, cosmopolitan outlook. And that is something you might not know about the Bible. </span></span><br /></span></p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd0YWFRsaaLGtvADpFO3P7tVq6L3Xa9suA4DkqCWwE5OrXXj_9UC5P-Lcdb472gfsMyXQ2EGRFGtzpLrGbaakhkiHHAe_xo8G-0U8EsviUzXlFLz-YWatiuWzLAWfWU-AaFqGePeVKqIzB/s3978/Jonah+3+in+2021.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3977" data-original-width="3978" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd0YWFRsaaLGtvADpFO3P7tVq6L3Xa9suA4DkqCWwE5OrXXj_9UC5P-Lcdb472gfsMyXQ2EGRFGtzpLrGbaakhkiHHAe_xo8G-0U8EsviUzXlFLz-YWatiuWzLAWfWU-AaFqGePeVKqIzB/w640-h640/Jonah+3+in+2021.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Andrew Stehlikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350757205936837223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842958869628448223.post-73035395924404869732021-07-08T14:40:00.005-04:002021-07-09T08:04:12.942-04:00Biblical Monsters<p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>The Hebrew Bible is surprisingly aflush with mythical primordial monsters which it shares with other Near and Middle East religions and cultures. It is especially surprising when you consider that is coming from one of the driest parts of the world full of savannas, deserts, and semi-deserts.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> Probably best known among those monsters is<b><span> </span>Leviathan</b>. In Ugaritic known as<span> </span><i>Litanu</i>. Sometimes it is paralleled with a serpent monster, possibly with seven heads.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> Next well known monster could be<span> </span><b>Behemoth</b>. Possibly a bull like amphibian beast present in water as well as on land. One is almost led to imagine it like a monstrous hippopotamus. In ancient Near East sources it might be associated with similar amphibian monsters like<i> Atik</i> and <i>Arshu</i>.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> Besides these two well-known water monsters there was also<span> </span><b>Tannin,<span> </span></b>known in<b><span> </span></b>Ugaritic as<span> </span><i>Tunnanu</i>. There are signs it was perceived like a monstrous crocodile but likely with two tails. This monster eventually made it to the Greek language as Tuna fish and thus also into our tins. ;-)</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> Then there was a monster called<span> </span><b>Rahab</b><span> </span>known possibly just from the Bible. But there might be two instances of it in broken and obscure Akkadian texts. It is also likely that this monster was known under its descriptive names like for instance “Seven-headed Serpent”, or “Encyrclerer”. </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span> <span> </span></span></b><span>Finally there was<span> </span><b>Tehom</b><span> </span>known from Babylon as<span> </span><b>Tiamat,<span> </span></b>a monster of primordial chaos. In the Bible <i>Tehom</i> is often demythologized as "the ocean deep", but there are also well documented instances where it is clearly a divine or semi-divine demonic figure (for instance in Job 28:14 or Pslam 42:8).</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span><span> </span>And the presence of all these mythical monsters in the Hebrew Bible is something you might not know about it.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>- - -<br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>All these sea monsters are clear vestiges of a rather complex creation mythology. The world was created and made habitable by all these monsters being slain, vanquished or at least captured and kept under check. </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> The first battle happened at the beginning of time. The forces of chaos were defeated and an orderly and civilized world came into being.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> Unfortunately, some of these monsters, or the forces they represented, were only rebuffed or perhaps they escaped. They need to be constantly under check. That is the source of persistant anxiety as well as a reason for many prayers. And in this context we can observe these monsters being linked with historical enemies: Egypt, Babylon, Hellenistic kingdoms or later in the New Testament Rome.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> But the final and complete victory is coming. These monsters will be decisively defeated at the end of time. This part of the myth is for instance present in the biblical book of Revelation in its vision of the final victory over the dragon. </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span><span> </span>As you can see, this is a rather complex tripartite monster-mythology embracing the entirety of time. Its presence in the Bible is another thing you might not know about the Bible.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>- - -</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>All of this is, as you can recognize, quite a dense mythological material. It does not fit neatly with biblical monotheism and its program of toning down old mythological references. And so the biblical scribes and editors used several strategies to make it fit with their overarching program.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> Firstly they re-naturalized these monsters. They attempted to return them back to the beasts from which they most likely originated. There are clear attempts to portray Behemoth as hippopotamus, Tanin as a crocodile, and Leviathan as a whale.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> Secondly and somehow overlapping with the previous strategy, these monsters were “domesticated”. They were made less horrifying and even portrayed as playful. For instance, Psalmist (Psalm 104:26) describes Leviathan as created by God to romp in the sea.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> The next step was when a sea monster was made to faithfully serve divine purpose. In the book of Jonah a sea monster follows divine command and swallows a rebellious prophet. Being thusly swallowed by a monster must had been the stuff of horrid nightmares! But then we realize that the monster had a hard time keeping the rebellious prophet inside. And as soon as God allowed, it vomited him on shore (Jonah 2:10).</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span><span> </span>Such use of a mythical sea monster for parody and comic effect was the last stage of the biblical demythologization of monsters. And that is yet another, third thing, you might not know about the biblical monsters.<br /><br /><br /></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib_1HbQZkq8UZaFCQVwJcKoeQkxFXMfOf7wZrdYgFUcX5gAQpZn_o0aMalONoytduLdGQH1Aq4JjowvXt3_0_42IGXTYbYx5Auo77rNI7G6TF2nZx9029s51QRrrH4ESc0khDhqTERBnj9/s3957/Jonah+2+in+2021.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3859" data-original-width="3957" height="603" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib_1HbQZkq8UZaFCQVwJcKoeQkxFXMfOf7wZrdYgFUcX5gAQpZn_o0aMalONoytduLdGQH1Aq4JjowvXt3_0_42IGXTYbYx5Auo77rNI7G6TF2nZx9029s51QRrrH4ESc0khDhqTERBnj9/w618-h603/Jonah+2+in+2021.jpg" width="618" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>Andrew Stehlikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350757205936837223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842958869628448223.post-5991512312575516502021-07-01T09:53:00.002-04:002021-07-04T09:58:37.509-04:00Hilarious Bible<p style="text-align: left;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>The ability to laugh at oneself is a sign of a healthy self-esteem. And for religion it is an important sign of healthy faith.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> Consider for instance the book of Jonah. It is a marvelously crafted religious parody. No, I am not speaking about that tall story about a bloke surviving three days in the stomach of a big fish. That had been a focal point for millennia and is a minor issue. In myths and legends something like that can happen every day. With Jonah, the entire book is written like a joyful and irrelevant inversion and parody of a self-obsessed, pretentious, buffoonish religiosity.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> You don’t need to take my word for it. It is an understanding of current biblical scholarship. The main disputes are now whether it is a satire or irony, a comical folk story or intellectual parody.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> One thing is for certain. Humour permeates the vocabulary, grammar, and style even its penchant for quoting and inverting older texts, concepts, and expectations. The entire story is written in the sensational style of yellow journalism. Take for instance the word “great” (<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: times;">גָדוֹל</span></span> in Hebrew) - no other biblical book has a similar density of this word. (And biblical Hebrew is rather frugal with adjectives). I would argue that it should be translated as "HUGE", because everything in Jonah is larger than life.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> Similarly, many sacred religious concepts and words are mercilessly inverted and satirized. This book pokes holes in self-assured religiosity at every turn in order to liberate us from self-obsessed religion and deliver important messages. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> Among them are cosmopolitan sentiments and interreligious understandings while at the same time undermining egotistic religion and religious chauvinism. And all of it is achieved with great humour. Indeed, the book of Jonah is one entire humourous book with very important and serious messages. And that is something you might not know about the Bible.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Now, for the month of July, each Sunday we will take one chapter of this unique book to enlighten us with its humour and its wit. But don’t despair, there will be not only a pontificating pastor boringly explaining biblical jokes and their significance. Each Sunday on the bulletin cover we will have one original cartoon drawn for us by a friend of our church and New Yorker cartoonist, Barbara Smaller. So come to church this Sunday to get the hard copy of this cartoon made just for our church.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTRTII6Q84PwsYlXUhyphenhyphenCz7IwCDoqMtPZXZsFFGbpF_WGcDkg7H1WzksgR_pJ-85isdgsusDLhDTE1e4An_7sZ8SUxRffWs1kDKL1wEfceoUZyfMGx8Z6E_BYW0c0vflGyodseHi7jWyb37/s3875/Jonah+1+in+2021.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3875" data-original-width="3875" height="470" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTRTII6Q84PwsYlXUhyphenhyphenCz7IwCDoqMtPZXZsFFGbpF_WGcDkg7H1WzksgR_pJ-85isdgsusDLhDTE1e4An_7sZ8SUxRffWs1kDKL1wEfceoUZyfMGx8Z6E_BYW0c0vflGyodseHi7jWyb37/w470-h470/Jonah+1+in+2021.jpg" width="470" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /> </span><p></p>Andrew Stehlikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350757205936837223noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3842958869628448223.post-15973710651254267402021-06-17T14:16:00.006-04:002021-06-24T15:58:04.208-04:00Biblical Chaoskampf<p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwSrrnj5Meu6lG6irNJMn6iI3v27Q4bJ8LhFs_YLcBUexf2w7dCSxWBBmhp4kxICcHgi7pCkJ7WoMmxQvDh9dNBWHOBXIrHZZUzjSxlmfcsXuQINjS25H97HVs6B8mamVRGy0ahGujDuuP/s4164/3Ugarit+05+baal+stele.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4164" data-original-width="1730" height="920" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwSrrnj5Meu6lG6irNJMn6iI3v27Q4bJ8LhFs_YLcBUexf2w7dCSxWBBmhp4kxICcHgi7pCkJ7WoMmxQvDh9dNBWHOBXIrHZZUzjSxlmfcsXuQINjS25H97HVs6B8mamVRGy0ahGujDuuP/w382-h920/3Ugarit+05+baal+stele.jpg" width="382" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;">Can you walk on water? I would doubt it! Such skill is reserved only for deities!<br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Prophet Isaiah (43:16) speaks about YHWH</span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> <i>who makes a way in the sea,</i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span> a path in the mighty waters.</span></i><span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>And similarly Psalmist (77:19) sings about YHWH:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span>Your way was through the sea,</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span> your path, through the mighty waters;</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span> yet your footprints were unseen.</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>And for those who might be a little slow in understanding the Psalmist spells it out and drops a direct hint:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> <span> </span><i>You led your people like a flock</i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span> by the hand of Moses and Aaron.</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Of course, those walking-on-water reports are actually references of Exodus and the Israelites escaping from Egypt across the sea. The Hebrew Bible, especially the poetical parts, seems to have plenty of these direct and indirect hints of God subduing, defeating and controlling unruly waters while at the same time liberating and protecting God’s faithful people. And, of course, that image is picked up in the New Testament when Jesus calmed the stormy sea and even walked on it. All these biblical passages are hinting, alluding and reenacting the Exodus - this formative and quintessential event of the people of faith - both Jews and Christians.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> But then... then there is a problem. Actually an entire mound of problems, big problems</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>because such references and allusions are not limited to the Bible. There are many renditions of this image of calming, subduing or walking on an unruly sea which are predating not only the Hebrew Bible - they also predate the theoretical date of Exodus whenever you might think of placing it. These Ancient Near East examples predate anything in the bible by hundreds and even thousands of years.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> In the Babylonian myth<span> </span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span><i> <i><i lang="akk-Latn" title="Akkadian-language romanization">Enūma Eliš</i></i></i><span> </span>god Marduk defeats, crushes and tramples on the watery monster Tiamat and you can find similar stories throughout the Ancient Near East. Among the scholars of religion this mytheme is called<span> </span><i>Chaoskampf</i><span> </span>- struggle, fight against the powers of Chaos. And there are also many iconographic examples - cylinder seals, engravings and other depictions from all over the ancient Near and Middle East. On an attached picture is a stela of god Baal from the late bronze age city of Ugarit. You can see Baal standing, trampling and thus dominating waves of the sea. Just like we read in the Psalm or in prophet Isaiah.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> These could not be allusions of Exodus because that was still in the distant future for many of these examples. And hardly any orthodox Jewish and Christian theologian would claim these instances were pagan prophesies foretelling the birth of those religions.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> But strangely, in a special, unique way, these might very much be exactly something like that! Those Bronze Age Babylonian and Syrian myths can be seen as foreshadowing the future. They were preparing a building material for the future, for the birth of the biblical religion.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> And the authors of the Hebrew Bible and later of the Christian New Testament took over those myths and used them, adapted them to tell their own stories about their own heroes and their victories over chaos and creation of the new world, new people. But most importantly, their re-purposed stories had the same function and purpose - reassuring audiences, listeners and readers of ultimate divine victory and thus bringing hope to the midst of chaos and uncertainty.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> When Jesus walks on the billows of the sea and calms the raging waves or when we hear about Moses leading people from slavery through the sea to freedom - in these dearly beloved biblical stories – we hear that God will act the same way again. And while listening we are actually touching something very precious. We share our hopes and our stories with people at least 4,500 years ago and we are connected with the dawn of the civilization, almost as far back as the written records go. In these formative stories of our faith we encounter deep archetypal fears and also hopes. And that is something you might not know about the Bible.<br /><br /><a href="https://youtu.be/pmStkagVyaE" target="_blank">There is also a YouTube video clone of this blog.</a> <br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Join us this Sunday, we will rejoice in the New Testamental reworking and reshaping of this powerful ancient theme.<br /><br /><a href="https://youtu.be/T_klx5rrZ0Y" target="_blank">And here is a video from the worship.</a> <br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"> </p>Andrew Stehlikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04350757205936837223noreply@blogger.com0