Chris Weimer

Matthew 24:34 "Verily I saw unto you, this generaton shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled."

maddog

I'm not a Bible student. Others will know better than I. In fact, I think there was a debate or discussion thread recently somewhere, wasn't there, about just when Jesus said he was coming back? Anyway, I think the correct citations are in Matthew 10:23 and 16:28, Mark 13:28-13:30, and Luke 9:27. The gist of each one is that the end of the world and God's kingdom are coming and I'm coming back, and you who hear me now shall not pass away or shall not taste of death before you see me again. Something like that.

I took a lecture series about the NT, also, and the professor was explaining that the Gospels eventually came to be written, and were written long after Jesus's death, because the new Christians were starting to figure out that Jesus WASN'T coming back right away, and the generation who knew Jesus were dying off. She also explained that that was part of Paul's letters; one of the communities was asking whether it was a good idea to get married, because, after all, Jesus was coming right back. Paul wrote back, saying that staying celibate was "better," but since it looked like Jesus's return was delayed, maybe the Christians could go ahead and get married.

Anyway, that's what I'm basing my impression on. As I say, the scholars will know better than I.

#1010

Chris Weimer

maddog - the Paul quote you are referring to is 1st Corinthians 7, but it doesn't say anything about Jesus' delay, instead it was referring to those who could not control themselves that it would be better to marry than to be promiscuous.

maddog

Right (thanks for the cite btw), but IIRC, the professor was explaining why the question would even come up, i.e., why that community was trying to resist getting married. It had something to do with their expectation that Jesus was coming back soon, so they shouldn't be concerned with worldly things. So the question was how to conduct themselves in the meantime. If you couldn't be celibate ("best") while waiting for Jesus, then it's "better" to be married than to have sex w/o marriage ("not good").

#1011

Chris Weimer

Well, that's certainly one way of looking at it, another would be a question of whether or not getting married is righteous, as early Essene culture indicates that everyone in the commune were to abstain from sexual activity for purity reasons, so too can that be related to Christianity.

Sign Related

So you'd go get the antonym. As in invert the written sayings of his found in the gospels. Go see my thread in elsewhere on "Ever heard the saying..."

And check this inversion:

Matthew 26:31
Then saith Jesus unto them, All (You,) ye shall be offended (off-ended or pleased) because (be-cause or be-consequence) of me this night (day): for (fro) it is (was) written (spoken), I (we) will (,forced,) smite (relieve) the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered (gathered) abroad (a-broad or here or at home).

^^^This is a bombshell truth (since you know Jesus only spoke--and since you know the antonym of 'spoken' is 'written'). At home is at yourself. So look at it as basic, general, and specific. Haha, you, in basic, in general, and in specific; might as well put your name where it says "You," in that inverted quote. It's that clear on an addressing truth!

^^^This be the truest donation ever wrote! The Gospel truth is free while the Gospel front is sold.

seven8s

First, who’s to say he didn’t? Scholars, theologians? What do they know? Squat. I do think it is feasible to entertain the idea that he did. Anyway, you have to think before you write and the existence of the text suggests that someone, at some point in time was a very cleaver tinker, but of course I mean thinker.................

And so the Divine comedy is what, it’s true?

Damian

Um, it's kind of hard to write when you have nails through your hands/wrists. They didn't have dictaphones back then.

Toto

With God, All Things Are Possible.

Seriously, Damian, Jesus did not have nails through his hands for most of his life, and while there were no dictaphones, there was a well established profession of scribe - someone who writes down the words of another. Paul's letters are assumed to have been dictated to a scribe.

StaticAge

Could the answer be that Jesus lacked the perspective of sinful human existence and that the bible is supposed to be "the word of god," yes, but also able to appeal to sinful humans? Using human authors, the bible retains the human element, something people could identify with if they chose to. Being imperfect, the writers faced trials and pressures similar to our own, in some cases writing about their own feelings and struggles. Who but an imperfect human could write about such things?