by EdenOne 21 Replies latest jw friends
Probably the most interesting apocryphal book is the Gospel of Thomas, which by its content seems to be a very early writing, and it very closely resembles one of the ‘official’ Gospels- Matthew, I think.
Elaine Pagels has written a lot about it.
But all of them are interesting, and the reason some of them ended up buried in the Egyptian desert is worth investigating, too.
dear Terry...
you said: "It was begun by the apostate MARCION who tossed out the Old Testament Jehovah and substituted the Pauline concept of merciful Jesus."...
indeed...God said: "but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments." exodus 20:6
AND THEN He sent His beloved Son and showed His mercy to all mankind who WOULD love Him and keep His commands. john 3:16-18
of course one must turn to the Light while it shines..."Then Jesus said to them, “A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” These things Jesus spoke, and departed, and was hidden from them.
But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him, that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke:
“Lord, who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the L ord been revealed?” john 12:35-38
or you can not believe..."Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again:
“He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts,
Lest they should see with their eyes,
Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
So that I should heal them.” john 12:39-40
there was a time that one was at the mercy of the "gods/judges" of this system...if no one saw the offense?...now however...Jesus magnifies the law to everyone who God has shown mercy to...ie: everyone who has heard the gospel of salvation. He who reads hearts and minds judges..."For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries...Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The L ord will judge His people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." hebrews 26-31 <cf. paul<
love michelle
I once heard from a Jewish client of mine something in this lines: "What you have today [in christianity] is the Church of Paul, who replaced the Church of Peter." He said that in a rather negative tone. Now, I have never seen a significant inconsistency between what Paul Wrote and what Peter wrote, besides the natural antipathy that I suppose Peter had for Paul. But I wonder if the answer is in the apocrypha?
Eden
Paul is much maligned by many, but the Christianity we have today is mainly from him, mixed with the Christ as presented in the gospels, written after Paul wrote. Both Paul and the other N.T writers were trying to promote a religion that would appeal to all jews and gentiles, more than likely the non-Canonical writers had a similar agenda, they were in opposition to the other god's and religions of the day.
That is why all the early christian, and non-christian, writings are of interest to those who study the period, they are part of the general milieu, which contained many contenders for which religion would end up the one favoured by Rome.
Apollonius of Tyana and others living around the time of Jesus may quite well have provided such a religion, the cult of Mithras favoured by the Roman soldiers, and thus spread across the Empire,may have served, but it became evident, at least to Constantine , that a single official religion was more likely to unite the Empire than the former syncretism, especially as the jews and christians were prepared to die rather than compromise on mono-theism.
Hence it is no surprise that after he chose "Christianity" a Canon of Scripture was decided on, not without disputes that still continue to this day, around 381/2 C.E
Constantine's choice may have ben influenced by his hyper- active Christian mother, who was always buzzing about the middle east finding bits of the True Cross etc
Without that choice I doubt that we would have thousands of "Christian" sects today, or the JW/WT enterprise (it is not a religion), but it is probable that we would have a religion that believed in Jesus of Nazareth, he achieved something that changed the world, regardless of what was written about him later.
Phizzy. "Apollonius of Tyana and others living around the time of Jesus may quite well have provided such a religion, the cult of Mithras"
"may have" or "might have" ?
Eden
Edit: Can someone please explain to me how to quote from someone's post? I can't find it.
jgnat
I read one and it was so anti-semetic I haven't re-read it. The texts selected for the bible are fairly consistent in doctrine, quote each other, and don't have extraordinary claims like miracles Jesus performed as a child. They were selected by committee, which should say a lot. IMO, the book of Revelation should have been left off.
mP:
The gospel of John is anti semitic as well, it blames the jews for killing the messiah and say its the worst thing ever done.
Sorry Eden, what I meant was he, Apollonius, had the potential if his followers had been as effective as christians were. The parallels between the stories about him and Jesus, he is even supposed to have raised the dead for example, are many.
To copy and paste from another post just copy as usual. then click on the little pad icon "paste from word" and copy into the pad that appears on the screen then press the insert button, make sure first your curser is in the bit of your post you want the quote to go.
I mean seriously - Samson?
mp:
Samson is a story about a sun god. Samson or shamash literally means sun in Hebrew and ohter arabic type languages. All the nonsense stories lion, bees, red foxes are allsymbols used by the ancient when describing the battles of the Sun against darkness etc.
Phizzy:
Hence it is no surprise that after he chose "Christianity" a Canon of Scripture was decided on, not without disputes that still continue to this day, around 381/2 C.E
Constantine's choice may have ben influenced by his hyper- active Christian mother, who was always buzzing about the middle east finding bits of the True Cross etc
mP:
Constantine didnt even believe in xianity. He simply wanted to control it for his own advantage. His mother was part of the religion game. Of course the masters of the religion always claim they are the rightful guardians and interpreters etc of that. Even today we see it everywhere. The Queen is also head of the C of E. The pope until recently actually controlled an empire, he told the knigs of europe what to do, aka Crusades, Treaty of Torsidillas, Spain and France attacking heretical- England.
Helen didn tbelieve, she wanted everyone else to beleive. Religion is and always has been a tool for the elite to brainwashthe dumb sods.
-> myelaine
You might want to examine the letters of pual for what he says about Jesus. Heres a clue, he says nothing about this apostles, miracles, virgin birth, Mary, joseph, jerusalem, 12 apostles, nothing. If you write down his knowledge about Jesus you get a single line, he was the messiah and died. Thats it.
Feel free to check for yoursef.
