Proxima Centauri

You sing praises to yourself, metaphorically. you keep imagining you are superior because of your superstitous beliefs.

Proxima Centauri

We know that platonic relationships between men and women can exist. We just don't see any reason to assume that Jebus had such relationships. Perhaps he had passionate platonic relationships with women. Perhaps he was gay and had passionate relationships with men.
Perhaps he never existed.


[ November 04, 2002: Message edited by: B.Shack ]</p>

Captain Pedantic

I know that the Bible states that we should "go forth and multiply", and before Jesus' time, anyone who was unmarried was considered a bit below anyone who was, and people who didn't have children were considered somewhat inferior.

According to a book I read (Anatomy of Desire by Simon Andrea, very good book), Jesus made the statement that God regarded anyone, married, with children, or not, as perfectly equal with one another. Again, according to the book, this was distorted over time (with the help of the apparently very repressed Paul) to mean that those who spent their lives celibate were much higher in God's estimation.

Since I think Jesus was a character based on some real person, or a collection of real people that existed around the time, I think it's as likely he would have had sex at least once as it is for anyone else. Since I don't believe Jesus, or the character(s) he was based on was/were divine, I don't think there's much chance of any special sort of self-control.

The prostitutes in those days weren't really condemned because they were having sex, but because they were having sex with the uncircumcised Romans, which was terribly unclean.

Ted Hoffman

None of the Marys existed. One is supposed to have been portrayed as a virgin that gives birth while the other is supposed to have been a prostitute.

Mary represented the fertile earth, which was impregnated by God to bring forth mankind (hence "virgin" birth). Both of the Mary's are archetypes of the same object - Earth.

Gemma Therese

[QUOTE]Originally posted by B.Shack:
[QB]


You say they are gentle sweet women who live for Christ. I was at a Convent School (A school run by nuns) for a year. Some of the nuns were gentle sweet women. Many (most) were miserable sexually frustrated women who took their frustration out on the girls.

-----

Oh, PLEASE.

Gemma Therese

Amos

sorry, nothing to add

[ November 05, 2002: Message edited by: Amos ]</p>

Bree

[quote]Originally posted by Gemma Therese:
<strong>Hey look, everyone: Gemma has the power to know if we're lying or not!

Gemma Therese

I highly doubt it.

echidna

If the person posing as GT will please bugger off & stop wasting bandwidth, some of us might want to actually discuss the OP. You can troll to your heart’s content in RRP.

There are several theories on this, some serious some not. In addition to Ronin’s post, Lunachick are you familiar with Bishop Spong (who may fall somewhere in between serious & not so, I believe) ?

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%3D0060675233/103-8615456-1750216" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%3D0060675233/103-8615456-1750216</a>
Born of a Woman: A Bishop Rethinks the Birth of Jesus

I recall another interesting Biblical observation is that in the 3 conflicting accounts of the resurrection, there are 3 varying lists of disciples who visit the tomb (in typical Biblical accuracy !). Only one name is common to the 3 lists, Mary Magdalene. Whoever she was, she seems to bear an unusually significant position in the Jesus story.

Spong proposes that Magdalene may have been married to Jesus, & how the story has been distorted around the second century. As Ronin notes, it should be remembered that in the historical context the sexual mores of Jesus’s day were far more liberated than today’s Christianity. Spong goes on that when the Church’s teachings on sexuality tightened up during the second century, the concept of a married figurehead would have been anathema & so the prostitute myth was born so the son-of-god could remain asexual. Simultaneous was the need to present the female ideal, hence the asexual Mother Mary myth was born at the same time.

To the layman it seems a plausible route for how the Church has progressively managed to marginalise women & hijack sexuality.

Largely speculative, but then again so is Jesus. Note the negative critic Ethan Magness critiques very much from the Christian perspective. Bishop Spong raises provoking ideas from his theistic background & is strongly shunned by the mainstream theists he has left behind.

Amos

Spong is wrong but to tell hims so is a waste of time.

The Church knows exactly who Magdalene was because her imagery is painted all over in their icons. For one, look at the difference in architexture between de Madleine and the Notre Dame in Paris and you will see immediatly that Magdalene is worldly and hasn't got the foggiest idea about heaven. Strikingly beautiful (I find) but flat nonetheless.

Here goes, if Jesus was the male identity of the persona Magdalene was the female identity of this same persona. From this follows that with Jesus crucified and gone Magdalene had no place to go and must remain lost at the foot of the cross.

Magdalene was the serpent also called Eve because Adam (now Jesus) called her Eve. "I will put emnity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; She will strike at your head, while you will strike at his heel."

The woman was the female identity of the subconscious mind (Tree of Life) and the serpent was the female identity of the conscious mind (Tree of Knowldge) and the offspring of woman was wisdom, food, and pleasing to the eyes (because that is what she was looking for). The offspring of Eve (Magdalene or Martha) was always temporal because Magdalene was of the temporal tree of knowledge which is the place where even bible scriptures will wilt and fade away.

But the woman (Mary) needed the serpent (Magdalene) to fetch knowledge between good and evil for her to be tied down into the Tree of Life. That is why Mary (the woman) strikes at the head of the serpent who in her turm strikes at the heel of Adam (Jesus nee Joseph here) to go and fetch power, wealth and beauty.

So Magdalene was not a cheap hooker but she was the cause of courage and stood for valor in Coriolanus under the name Valeria. She was all any human would ever want while in pursuit of happiness.