You think the Bible is little more than pious fairy stories? That’s probably because you’ve 1. been listening to Christians, which is always a mistake and to be frank they shouldn’t be let any near the scripture or 2. you’ve read too many ‘clever’ refutations of the bible by some intellectual.
Anyway I get sick of people spouting crap about the Bible here so I thought I’d give you all a little example of what can happen
when you actually read the fucking book the same way you’d read a newspaper.
You know the bit about how Satan tempts Christ? You probably seen pictures like
THIS
Well that’s what happens when artists listen to Christians.
So lets read this together. I’ve put in some explanations. I have purposely avoided adding scholarly sources, if you’re that interested then its all out there . I have just tried to explain things the way I would if we were discussing a newspaper article…although I have spared you a transliteration of my cockney vowels :P
Matthew 4
Quote:
quote:1Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
2And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
|
Leaving aside the identity of the devil for a moment (I’ll come back to that) what we have here is a fairly bog standard cleansing/preparation ritual, common to all cults of the time. Jesus fucks off to some lonely place, fasts and contemplates his navel or whatever. Nothing mystical really. The only point to notice is that it was
planned
Quote:
quote: 3And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
4But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
|
Its interesting that the ‘devil’ is actually referred to here as ‘the tempter’. Remember please that in the entire bible there is no Uber evil being known as Satan. ‘Satan’ simply means ‘the enemy or adversary. Nothing supernatural about it. So at the moment we see no reason to assume that the ‘tempter’ is anything but a normal mortal.
So lets now look at the Question and Answer session. Without wanting to go too deep in the theology and history of this, what we basically have here is a ritual. A testing of any prospective ‘messiah’.
Quote:
|
quote: 5Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
|
Please, please , please could we forget about all those ‘Children’s Bible’ pictures of Satan bearing Jesus aloft and flying around Israel! Read what it says: The tempter
took or ‘led’ him to Jerusalem and they went up to the top (the ‘pinnacle’) of the Temple, where we know there was a balconey/viewing gallery. Nothing supernatural here.
What however is important to note is that the ‘tempter’ had access to the temple. This tells scholars things, that I won’t bore you with now, about the identity of the ‘devil’ in this piece.
Quote:
quote: 6And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
7Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
|
More ritual Q&A’s, the passages quoted are of interest to scholars but please don’t assume that Jesus was answering ‘off the cuff’. Chances are that these were fairly standard responses for any would be messiah.
Quote:
quote: 8Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
9And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
|
Once again NOWHERE is flying mentioned! They fucking walked! I’ve never had the chance to stand on top of the highest mountain in that area but I’m betting on a clear day you can see most of the Kingdoms of the ‘world’ from it. You must remember that the ‘world’ was defined very differently back then and that definition depended on who you were. A Roman defined the world as basically the countries of the Med. A Jew usually meant the Near East , as we know it today.
So not really anything supernatural there either.
Quote:
quote:10Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
11Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.
|
Yet more Q&A’s, all very clever and all very standard type of ritual. And his work being done the ’tempter’ buggers off again and ‘angels’ (ie nice people who followed Jesus) came and fed him. Nowhere are winged beings with halos mentioned.
So what do we have now?
Jesus performs a ‘test’.All very common and believable for the time and place. Nothing supernatural and is infact probably a fairly accurate historical account.
No fairy story about a flying devil and esoteric crap like that. Just history, like any other historical document. The Bible is fine (to a large extent) what isn’t is the way people place meanings on things that the original authors could never have dreamed of.
Next time you hear Christians spouting some paranormal shite then just take the time to actually read the book for yourself. Just read it the way you’d read any historical document. Google up stuff you don’t understand.
You may be surprised.
(btw for those sad people who are interested , the clever money is on the ‘Devil’ being a high priest ..maybe even Caiaphas himself)
[This message has been edited by jackketch (edited 12-11-2006).]
Linear Mode
