andrewcriddle

The claim in the article that seems very dubious.

The facts seem to be that
a/ Archimedes used 153:265 as an approximation to the square root of 3.
b/ Archimedes uses this ratio in the measurement of the circle ie in estimating Pi
c/ In the 18th or 19th century CE the shape formed by the intersection of two circles became known as the Vesica piscis or fishes bladder.
d/ Since the square root of 3 is central to the geometry of the Vesica Piscis this number has become known as the measure of the fish.

The relevance of all this to John 21 seems rather small.

Andrew Criddle

Clivedurdle

Not at all. It is one upmanship with the followers of the true gods - please can we not use that perjorative term pagan?

So I blame Cyril for inserting this before he murdered Hypatia.

Lilyofthevalley

It is indeed a strange story. I've always thought it was very dream-like, as are other resurrection stories. But here especially it has a dream-like aura: the ambience of the early morning, the beach, the fried breakfast...

Imagine what Peter might have said: I dreamt I was back on the boat, early morning; there was a man on the beach; I swam to the beach: a fire burning, fish cooking (how many times had they shared breakfast like this together?). Jesus talked to me... he said ....

(there's an echo of the three times Peter disowned Jesus)

I think it can be seen as dream material (not that that debunks it - dreams can be spiritual experiences; this would be counted as a wonderful and special dream).

kcdad

Doesn't pagan mean the common folk?

kcdad

Great insight! Thanks.

Toto

Pagan refers to the rural folk in the countryside, who kept to the old religion while the cities were adopting that new fangled Christianity thing. It might have been pejorative at one point, but is not generally taken that way today.

kcdad

So does that mean it kind of has the same uneducated, unsophisticated quality of calling someone a country bumpkin? Someone who still believes in the old ways, the unscientific, unreasonable superstitions of the past?

Amaleq13

The Romans called the early Christians superstitious bumpkins and the Christians simply did the same when they obtained some power.

Toto

You are mixing up words that have no relationship to each other. In fact, I don't know what you are trying to say. "Unscientific" was not part of the equation.