Half-Life

Matthew 3:16

As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. 17And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=MATTHEW%203

Was this voice heard worldwide? Like, could the pharaoh in Egypt look up and go, "Ah, Jesus is being baptized and God is pleased with him!"

Or did God limit his opening of the Heavens to a few people in Jerusalem?

And Christians wonder why we view God as a "sky daddy." I'm sure it has NOTHING to do with the Bible portraying him that way.

motorhead

Of course it wasn't heard world wide. While Jesus probably was baptized, the rest is interpretation.

Half-Life

But, if this Christian story is 100% set in stone truth, and Jesus is God, and God is perfect, shouldn't we expect this was heard worldwide when Heaven opened?

How can anyone miss Heaven opening?

Toto

Since the world was considered to be flat at the time, the heavens opening up could be a local phenomenon, much like a local rainstorm. I think you are trying to import modern ideas of how high the sky into the first century, where they don't fit. God lived more or less at the level of the clouds or the mountains, not in orbit around the planet.

But I suspect the entire story is made up, including the baptism, although the baptism could have happened (and probably happened to someone.)

Half-Life

But, even if he lived at the level of the clouds, how could that be missed worldwide if the clouds opened and God spoke? Surely God would still be high enough in the sky that he would have to speak pretty loudly to get the folks in Jerusalem to hear it.

Since Egypt is close by to Jerusalem, how could Pharaoh not hear it and be converted?

Toto

You can't see the clouds over Palestine from Egypt. You keep thinking that God is high up in the sky, but it wasn't until after the Enlightenment that people began to get an idea of how high the sky, and it wasn't until space travel that the idea really sank in that the sky is way out there, and we haven't found god yet - where is he?

That's why modern apologists like William Lane Craig claim that God hides out in a higher dimension of quantum space-time.

WVIncagold

Of course he never really adresses why a god needs to hide.:devil1:

gstafleu

The piece of Matthew you quote is a later elaboration on the original, or at least more original, we find in Mark 1:
This is the New King James Version, and it clearly implies that only Jesus (or possibly John, but not likely, I'd say) saw the heavens parting and the spirit flapping down (a cursory lance at the Greek seems to confirm this, perhaps someone who really knows Greek can say more).

In any case, it would seem that the opening/flapping was a quite local phenomenon.

Gerard Stafleu

Half-Life

Yeah, funny how God failed to mention the higher dimension of quantum space-time in the Bible. He had to wait until technology evolved to get that idea out there!

andrewcriddle

It may be worth noting that most manuscripts of Matthew 3:16 read the heavens were opened to him . It is quite possibly the original of Matthew rather than just the heavens were opened.

Andrew Criddle