EssEff

I made the mistake of thinking about the Bible today (thanks to the John 3:16 thread), and I wonder if anyone can offer any thoughts about my ponderings:

The 23rd Psalm says "the Lord is my shepherd" ... making humans sheep to his shepherd role.

But then the "good" shepherd requires sacrifice of actual sheep to appease him. Is that because he'd rather see our whiny throats get slit, making sheep humans to his butcher role?

Then we jump to the life of Jesus, who is the new "sacrificial lamb" to take the place of the real lambs that are metaphorically us.

Now the sheep have now been liberated from the role of being stand-ins for humans, but have humans been liberated from the role of being stand-ins for sheep?

The Bible Thumper

When are you gonna P/M me asking me out for a date, scifinerdgirl?

EssEff

I prefer figs. More Biblical.

Anat

I suppose the authors of the HB were familiar with herding and found it a useful metaphor. Note that a few legendery leaders started their careers as shepherds - Moses, David and even Rabbi Akiva.

Integra96

I was joking with someone the other day about shepherds/sheep in the bible (don't ask!), so it's funny that I came across this thread.

I say no, that humans have not been liberated from this role. There isn't mention of it (I don't think) nor would many Christians disagree, in my opinion. I'm not sure how they'd reconcile the sacrifice thing; maybe that's where non-believers come in to play?

EssEff

It also occurred to me for the first time, that if humans are God's sheep, and God had sex with Mary to conceive Jesus, then God did the nasty with one of his ewes. ewwwww :rolling:

Integra96

Ewe have some nerve for posting that.

EssEff

Adds new meaning to "He maketh me to lie"

Vorkosigan

Had to ram that one down our throats, didn't ya?

Integra96

How can you expect people to flock to your side of things when you talk like that?