Some of you may recall that I posted a bunch of musing on the Old Testament a year or so ago. With Easter just around the corner, I am going to try the same with the New Testament. You can follow along here. I welcome comments.
Good stuff, Dwhite. Feel free to post a link here when you make a new post.
Thanks Mig. I have just posted. And looking ahead, assuming I limit myself to 500 words per post, it will take me at least 10 posts just to get through Matthew. That book is crammed.
I started reading your blog posts. I actually find them interesting in a land of religous rellics that do not interest me at all. I like to read your thinking on the matter. The catalyst of interest being reading another individual’s thoughts on the subject matter.
I’ve always wanted to believe in scripture, in God and the Devine but my rationalization and observation of the human race, the goings-on in the world and the terrible, terrible things that happen repeatedly in nature just for continuance of the planet’s inhabitants from the tallest man to the smallest insect gives me a pessimism that I doubt will ever leave.
How could such terrible things be so devine. Interesting reading nonetheless.
Good thing you’re only working on the “published” version of the NT. Were you to include the other books like gospel of Thomas and related Nag Hammadi writings, you would get no sleep at all.
The best book I ever read on the NT/Jesus was by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh entitled “The Mustard Seed”.
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I’ve read somewhere of speculation that Jesus might have gone to Asia and was influenced by Buddhism during his “missing” years.
Rajneesh, however, is nothing more than a thug dressed in messianic clothing.
Jesus has all the hallmarks of someone who spent time with the eastern masters. If we are to believe the stories about him, what young man could resist traveling with a trade caravan to such places as India? To me, Jesus was a yogi. Which is not outside the sphere of belief, because Judaism and Hinduism are twin sons from different mothers. Very closely related. And appeared on the world stage at about the same time.
Rajneesh is an example of a person that can fall from a great height. He had not totally conquered his human side and it found an exploit within him. Say what you will, he was closer to the truth than most who walk the earth today.
I don’t put much stock in the NT. OT either. It was written by storytellers, not enlightened masters. And it shows. In fact, there is virtually no evidence to prove that Jesus ever existed. I would like to say otherwise because I like his style. But the evidence is lacking. Just stories. Passion plays. Stories that teach lessons. Which were common in the days when people could neither read or write. Like Aesop’s fables but with a religious twist.
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[quote=“DHCollins”] I would like to say otherwise because I like his style. But the evidence is lacking.
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I cannot say for certain as I have no evidence, but, I think Jesus did walk the Earth. Was he the son of God? I do not know. I am not a Christian. I have found my center with Buddhism.
Hey DWhite, According to Tony Bushby historian and academically accreditted author of ‘The secrets in the Bible’, and ‘The Bible fraud’ There are a great many very serious flaws in the entire story, starting with the Mary and Joeseph going to Nazareth, the geographic location of which according to many archeologists did not even exist until several centuries after Jesus died.
Much of what we have been taught and beieve of the texts that became the new testament have been translated no less than five times from thier original Aramaic into Hebrew, into Greek then Latin, then into either Italian or German before at last the English version we have been introduced to most recently , and we all know what happens each and every time things are translated no matter how much diligence and care was taken things are mis-understood, mis-interpreted, etc. For example, the word we came to be told meant ‘virgin’ for Mary was in fact the original word from ancient Aramaic actually was meant to be in contemporary times simply a single ‘unmarried’ woman, and not necessarilly a virgin in that context. Also the whole reference to Jesus 'of Nazareth is totally incorrect. These is evidence again from Bushby that suggests that Jesus being Jewish ( Hebrew ) who had studied to learn and become, and was actually a Rabbi of the Nazarene sect of Judaism, and his name Jesus the Nazarene was mis-tranlated into Jesus of ( or from ) Nazareth. A place thart simply did not exist during his lifetime.
So many errors, ommissions, exagerations, historic inaccuracies, to any longer hold any credibility or value other than that of just a really good clllections of stories, there is evidence to support the historic person of Jesus did in fact exist, but I am always compelled to ask what religion did he follow? Clearly the Nazaren sect of Judaism, the theology of which more closely resembles that of the ancient Celtic druids actually with elements from eastern philosophy.
The institution of the Church has manipulated and distorted the facts for so long now the contemporary version of this historic person has become awork of complete fiction to forward the very specific agenda of the incredibly corrupt and deceitful institutions ever known to mankind. More than twice the number of books were ignored or not allowed to be in the new testament that were brought forward at the council of Nicea, and voted on by the early church fathers among these was the apocraphy, the gospels of Mary Magdalene, among many others.
I think we all too clealy associate the completely seperate things, the existance of God, whatever we as individuals percieve that to be, and that of ‘Church’, which is wholey and entirely an institution of mankind and not of god. numerous times thruought the early history the church with it rather extensive military force, collected all known copies of the existeing bible of the time and these were burned and the new 'church approved volumes and texts were re-circulated to the masses, to standardize the elimination of certain passages and wording and replace many other to reinforce the churches very specific agenda. It is no wonder this has become the worlds oldest and greatest conspiracy theories .
But on a lighter note relating more directly to the advent of Easter, and the contemporary celebration of it. Do you know why the Easter Bunny hides easter eggs?
The answer is that he does not want anyone to know that he has been fucking chickens. LOL
Oh, translational errors abound.
Camel going throught the eye of a needle? Should be rope, not camel. It certainly makes more sense. Virgin birth. It was also another way of saying that a highly evolved soul incarnates on earth by his own will to do so. An Israelite is a spiritual title. Has nothing to do with a country called Israel.
The words Jesus, Jew, and Judea did not exist in olden times because there is no “J” in ancient Aramaic, Hebrew, or Greek.
Much of what we’ve been taught as “truth” is so much hot air really. History always did belong to those who got to the publisher first…
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Just a comment on the discussion above. I am blogging the Bible to see what can be gained from it if anything. Most of you know my biases and that is why I will trying really hard to read it through as if I were reading it for the first time.
Anyway, it is Sunday so today’s sermon is on the mount.
[quote=“DHCollins”]Oh, translational errors abound.
Camel going throught the eye of a needle? Should be rope, not camel. It certainly makes more sense. Virgin birth. It was also another way of saying that a highly evolved soul incarnates on earth by his own will to do so. An Israelite is a spiritual title. Has nothing to do with a country called Israel.
The words Jesus, Jew, and Judea did not exist in olden times because there is no “J” in ancient Aramaic, Hebrew, or Greek.
Much of what we’ve been taught as “truth” is so much hot air really. History always did belong to those who got to the publisher first…
x[/quote]
The “needle” mentioned in the Bible is a gateway in a walled city. To ensure an attacker couldn’t bring camels or horses through this gateway easily it was of such a height that it was necessary for a rider to dismount to enter the city. The camels actually had to walk through it on their knees.
Another Bible quote I use to show its inaccuracy is “Thou shall not suffer a witch to live.” The witch reference was a mis-translation of the Aramaic word which means a person who makes poisons for an assassin. Not a witch, but one who colludes with a murderer to commit his crimes.
It has taken a week, but I am half way through Matthew.
A couple of you already have commented on the site, but if you didn’t realize you could, there is a tiny link to comments under each post. It is set so that anybody can comment without having to register to anything.
I have added three or four posts in the past week and I have a couple more before I complete Matthew. I guarantee I will be done by Sunday. Clarification: I will be done Matthew by Sunday. That gives me two weeks to get through the other three books.
It took me 13 posts and just over two weeks, but I have finally finished Matthew. Lately I have been posting everyday and I think it will require me to do so for the next two weeks if I hope to finish the other three books by Easter. Mark is much shorter and there are many common events in all the gospels so I should be able to go a bit more quickly.
It only took me three days/three posts to get through the shorter Mark. Luke is longer but it, too, has several overlaps (and discrepancies) with the first two gospels.
I wanted to try to read these books with fresh eyes, but I fear that I am falling into the trap of looking for inconsistencies in the text rather than ignoring those problems and trying to figure out what these books might have to offer - even for an unbeliever like I am.
The NT itself is a trap. Because spiritual seekers are like thirsty people in the desert. You ignore all those bleached bones around the mirage and try to drink anyway.
Let’s assume Jesus was a real person and not a character from a passion play. The disciples would have written about him several years after the fact.
And as we all know, recollection is not so perfect. Following a spiritual master does not make you one yourself. So we have writings by men, who unless they were God realized themselves, could not possibly write from a divine perspective. So the Gospels were written by…ordinary men who were still grounded in a worldly perspective.
Yet, these have been assembled into a holy book that a billion people call the truth. How do you know this exactly? The answer of course is… you don’t. But you find something within it that satisfies you on an intellectual level. And it’s reinforced by emotional likeminded believers. “Enablers”. Put all these folks under one roof, you have a congregation. And the leader of this congregation is…drumroll…wait for it…an ordinary person. Who without a book to read from, wouldn’t have the slightest idea about “God”.
Blind leading the blind? You decide.
Because you’ve already heard about what happens to such people.
Think I’ll pop some corn, sit under the shady tree, and watch it all unfold.
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Sunday Morning: I have added four posts in the last four days. At the rate I am going (a post a day) I will get through Luke but probably not John by Easter.