Net2004

Luke 19:27
But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.


when christianity was is control "slay them before me" was interpreted literally and disbelievers were put to the sword.A modern day christian evangelist interprets this as symbolical.but why?

Vivisector

Good question. The simplest answer to me involves embarrassment and discomfort. You could have picked any number of sayings attributed to Jesus (turn the other cheek, give to them that ask, drink deadly poisons) or even to Paul (women keeping silent in church) that current Christians disregard on the basis that the language was symbolic, that the saying was given to a specific audience in a specific context, etc. As far as I can tell, they basically use some sort of unwritten ad hoc methodology to differentiate between literal and figurative or audience specific, and the result of applying this methodology most often (almost always?) works out to be an interpretation that fits their comfort zone nicely.

Cheers,

V.

andrewcriddle

The passage refers to God's judgment upon those who reject Christ, it is probably put there by Luke to refer to the fall of Jerusalem in CE 70.

It is not intended to refer to the exercise of lethal force by Christian governments, which did not become an issue till 2 to 3 hundred years later.

(FWIW I don't think this verse was used much even during times of persecution by Christian governments to justify their behavior; most of the arguments from the Bible to justify persecution AFAIK used other Biblical passages. I'm sure it was sometimes (mis)used in this way but not I think very often.)

Andrew Criddle

Vorkosigan

Theological interpretations of Luke have been moved to GRD in the Luke 19:27 Split thread.

http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.php?t=109196

Boro Nut

Sorry to be pedantic, but surely, unless they slayed all the enemies first, and then slayed Luke next, this is just another example of failed prophesy.

Boro Nut