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11-06-2011, 10:04 AM | #21 | |||
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of course you are right. Some ideas are easily rendered across languages, others are not. However, to my mind, there is a much more serious issue with interpreting the NT in that most of the texts (all of them ?) were written for an internal community consumption, and are deliberately obscured by occult references to spiritual events which the earliest communities believed were given to them individually as the elect of God. Further, the patristic church made radical departure of these 'spirit driven' early cultures and substituted them with dogma and ritual qhich makes the earliest beliefs something akin to Russia in the eyes of Winston Churchill: a riddle, wrapped in mystery, inside an enigma. So it is really hard to cut through the later vines of theological dogmas, maxims and taboos and get at the root of the texts. And it is then a question whether the texts seem so dense because of the linguistic issues in translation from the Greek, or psychological issues in translation from an uncanny apprehension of reality (which would have been weird even to the ancients, see. eg Acts 26:24). Take for example Matthew's 6:22 : 'If your eye sees well (ἐὰν οὖν ᾖ ὁ ὀφθαλμός σου ἁπλοῦς) your whole body will be full of light (ὅλον τὸ σῶμά σου φωτεινὸν ἔσται)'. I don't care how good the interpreter's Greek is, unless he has a competent view of the neuro-psychological facets of altered mentation, his interpretation will be off by miles, in the land of fable or empty theorizing. What on earth is 'whole body full of light' ? Or is it 'whole body turning into light' ? Has anyone in the family or a friend had a body full of light ? Can the interpreter even imagine what Matthew talks about ? If not, the interpreter will not be able to penetrate the import of Mark's Jesus saying about 'hiding the lamp' in 4:21 and will be baffled by my insistence that the saying complements 8:38, the Son of Man who will be ashamed of those ashamed of Jesus and his words. So essentially, we have here the problem so well described by Allan Watts back in the 1970's : It is one thing to eat a steak, and quite another to attempt to digest a page of a menu with the word 'steak' printed on it. So, when I read Paul, I more or less take for granted that Paul had an ecstatic gnosis of (what he calls the) Lord, and that he tweaked the scripture to convince those whose knowledge of it was not as good as his but who laboured under similar afflictions, that his and their gnosis was in fact foretold by the tanakh, is fully aligned with Moses and the prophets, and thus is guaranteed to come from the highest authority. Paul does not interpret this experience via the Septuagint, he foists his experience on it; he shamelessly ditches the law and invents new concepts and semantics to account for his ecstatic moods which he interprets as being overjoyed by (the) Lord and suffering as his servant, in receiving the mystery of the incarnation. Hence my scepticism to chances of getting anything substantial by seeking grammatical or exegetical rules as key to decoding the ideas of the NT. Quote:
Best, Jiri |
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11-06-2011, 11:30 AM | #22 | ||
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11-06-2011, 05:36 PM | #23 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Just too perfect ...
This next section analyzes the 3rd class of passages discussed by Champion:
This leads us also to the inclusion of several other passages from the epistles of Paul, which are of rather a different nature from those mentioned above, and yet contain characteristics so similar that they must be brought into consideration:
If the doxology is intended to glorify or exalt God, why is Jesus Christ hanging about like the shy guy at the local disco (boy that probably dates me)? 1 Cor 8:6 even goes so far as to make Christ share in God's glory, as the COO to God as CEO. "What thinkest thou, Simon?" DCH Quote:
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11-06-2011, 05:40 PM | #24 | |
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DCH |
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11-06-2011, 06:20 PM | #25 | |
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Jiri,
I have nothing invested in the books of the NT (or OT, etc), so I prefer to look at them dispassionately, as raw data seeking an explanation. There is a reason why in medieval times history used to be categorized as a type of rhetoric. In my "professional" life, I spend my days examining payroll records to confirm that a company reported the right amount of payroll to workers compensation, and we basically compare two types of quarterly tax reports and payroll summary reports, and a couple more end of year wage reports. If you know what is supposed to be reported in the tax reports, you can compare and contrast them to see if anomalies pop out at you. Sometimes they tell you some company over reported payroll and thus overpaid for their coverage. Other times things go the other way. It doesn't make a difference to me either way, but I try to be as pleasant and respectful as possible. Same thing here. If a company says that their CPA can bend tax law to the very limit of legality, without crossing over, well, I'd be a tad suspicious. The CPA may well be able to do that, but I have to wonder. When confronted with tax reports that don't conform to what I expect, then I simply examine the payroll records closely. That is kind of what I am doing with the bible and early Christian literature. DCH Quote:
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11-07-2011, 08:55 AM | #26 | |
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Myself, I am a Catholic lapsed shortly after baptism. My only theological interest in Jesus in my childhood were Christmas gifts, though I did express keen curiosity in the nimbuses around the heads of the holy family, on a picture over the bed where mom and dad slept or fought. I could hear them from my bedroom adjacent. Once I even went there to help mom when she was crying for help, and saw my dad having mom in a headlock mostly under the blanket. And when they saw me they stopped fighting and told me to get out. Mom told me later that the fighting was not serious; that it was like me fighting with my sister. Which of course was a lie because me and my sister were fighting real serious. Once, I remember, my dad and mom woke me up when they were arguing. It was mostly dad who was screaming at mom, like 'for this I did not save my life'. And then there was this loud thud after he said that she should stick her - and this is really weird - her 'man of hypondria' into ...it was one of the dirty words which only women have and my sister and I were not allowed to use. I knew what the thud was. It was mum's big book with the cross on it which she always had on her night table when she was sick. My father hated it because mum would not fight with him when she had the book with the cross on her night table. I hated when my mum was sick. She did not want to talk to anyone. When mom was feeling better, the book with the cross disappeared and some other book would be beside her bed. When she was really happy, it was one of the books which my sister and I were not allowed to open and which were normally in a secret place which my sister knew but would not tell me. So, when I saw one of the books with the ladies with squinting eyes and painted faces and umbrellas, I asked mum about what dad said about the 'man of hypondria'. And she laughed her head off and called my dad 'an idiot'. It's the bible, she said (which I knew) 'not a manual of hypochondria'. I asked her what hypochondria was. She laughed again and said : 'I will tell you later, sweetie'. She never did but I found out from Tony and everything fell into place for me. BTW, my ex is a Catholic also and both my kids went to Catholic high school. My younger one is still there, in grade 9. He says Jesus never existed but got 92% on his report card in religious studies. I am ok. My 18-year old daughter wears hijab, an influence of her new girl-friend, who is Egyptian. 'It's not a moslem thing', she said, 'it's for respect. I don't like people bugging me about it.' Right. Of course if Virgin Mary were to appear again, the first thing she would have to defend is her unalienable right to wear hijab. Best, Jiri |
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11-07-2011, 08:09 PM | #27 |
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Interestingly the eastern peshitta, never uses the Lord to refer to Jesus, only my Lord/our Lord. Whenever it uses the Lord it refers to god.*
Here is an English translation of the western peshitto, which is near enough to the peshitta for this purpose. More in depth analysis can be done here.. Why the peshitta would differ in this way is slightly mysterious in light of current theories on its origin. * This occurs not only in Paul but in the gospels as well. |
11-07-2011, 08:32 PM | #28 | ||
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Appreciated comic relief in what is an otherwise an oft dull and groaning thread. |
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11-08-2011, 09:14 AM | #29 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Oops!
Mr Hindley, you son of a camel!
What you labeled as the 3rd class of passages in Champion's book was really the 4th class of passages! Skippy, your evil alter ego twin Quote:
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11-08-2011, 09:56 AM | #30 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The real section #3 from Champion
DCH, you ignorant fool.
Since you idiotically left out the real section #3, I shall supply it for you: In addition to these, similar formulas are also found in other parts of the Epistles.
The Skipster, your evil twin (I am the guy just over Dave's right shoulder) |
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