Right On Saint Satan!
Navigator
JoinedPosts by Navigator
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8
Why does the WBTS have to try so HARD?
by SpannerintheWorks ini mean, i run a business (or three) and if i put the effort into promoting my businesses that the wbts does, i would be a billionnare!
house-to-house preaching.
the promise of life forever.
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Peculiar Sayings in the Bible
by Navigator inone of the problems in understanding the bible is the use of "idoms".
the word idiom comes from the greek word "idioma" which means peculiarity or peculiar phraseology.
scholars have estimated that there are more than 1000 idioms used in the bible.
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Navigator
Waiting
What I am suggesting is that Jesus served water to the guests. I am also suggesting that the Steward was pretty drunk himself and that the water, which probably tasted pretty good, had only changed to wine in the besotted brain of the Steward.
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Peculiar Sayings in the Bible
by Navigator inone of the problems in understanding the bible is the use of "idoms".
the word idiom comes from the greek word "idioma" which means peculiarity or peculiar phraseology.
scholars have estimated that there are more than 1000 idioms used in the bible.
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Navigator
The source material comes from works by George M. Lamsa( who compiled the Lamsa Bible) and his student Rocco Errico, Phd. Lamsa is the author of New Testament Light, and Gospel Light. He was raised in a remote, very backward valley in Syria speaking northern aramaic which had changed little since Jesus' day. His childhood scripture was in aramaic. He was shocked when he read his first english translation of the bible and realized how aramaic idioms had been mishandled and the lack of knowlege regarding aramaic customs and culture. His great contribution has been to explain idioms used in the bible and to provide the information regarding customs and culture that explain some heretofore misunderstood phrases. His student, Dr. Errico is a regular contributor to Science of Mind Magazine which is the publication of the United Church of Religious Science.
I have heard Dr. Errico speak in person. He has a very humorous talk on why Jesus instructed his diciples not to greet anyone on the road when he sent them out. It seems that middle easterners are quite nosey and, in the process of greeting, tend to get your life history and spend so much time doing this that you have to accompany them home to supper and not travel till the next day(They are also very hospitable). Jesus wanted his disciples to get the word out and knew that the "greeting process" would really slow things down.
Dr. Lamsa also has an interesting view point on the wedding at Cana which he feels was badly handled by the greek writer of John. He points out that eastern weddings were pretty much drunken brawls and went on for days. He says that the responsibility for providing the wine lay with the guests and not with the host. The groom's best friend provided the first (and presumably the best) wine. It would have been a major blunder and insult to go out of turn in providing the wine. According to Lamsa, it would have been scandalous for a Rabbi such as Jesus to provide wine to an already drunken crowd. It was customary for the Rabbi to serve water and encourage everyone to sober up. According to Lamsa, when Mary came to Jesus and said, "They have no wine", she was in effect saying, "it is your turn". Jesus disagreed, but complied with his mother's wishes, nonetheless. Having tasted some of the middle eastern wines, I would concur that water would taste pretty good when compared to the cheap stuff.
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23
Peculiar Sayings in the Bible
by Navigator inone of the problems in understanding the bible is the use of "idoms".
the word idiom comes from the greek word "idioma" which means peculiarity or peculiar phraseology.
scholars have estimated that there are more than 1000 idioms used in the bible.
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Navigator
One of the problems in understanding the bible is the use of "idoms". The word idiom comes from the greek word "idioma" which means peculiarity or peculiar phraseology. Scholars have estimated that there are more than 1000 idioms used in the bible. Anyone who has studied spanish knows that phrases used in Mexico may not be understood in Spain or Puerto Rico. Even though you understand every single word in the phrase, you may miss the meaning if you are not familiar with the idiom. It was a problem even in Jesus' day. The aramaic spoken in northern palestine where Jesus was from was differen't from the aramaic spoken in Jerusalem. When Jesus spoke to Nicodemus about being born again, Nicodemus was confused because he was not familiar with the idiom which means 'come to a new understanding". Another example is "turn the other cheek" which means "look at things from a different perspective". They weren't meant to be taken literally. Another familiar one is the phrase "easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." In aramaic, the root word for camel and hemp(the material used for rope) are the same. The greek translators of aramaic were apparently not familiar with this and used the wrong word in their translation. The phrase makes a lot more sense if the word rope is used. Nevertheless, there are tourist guides in Jerusalem today who will show gullable tourists a very small entrance and explain that it is the one referred to in the bible.
John 6:53 has Jesus saying "Verily, verily, I say unto you. Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you". John then reports "then many of his disciples who heard it were saying: This is a difficult saying! Who can listen to it? Yet modern day Assyrians and Chaldeans still use this idom which refers to one's own body and blood according to Rocco Errico, Phd. They would say "I have eaten my body and drunk my blood" which means "I have worked long and hard and suffered greatly." According to Errico, another common saying is "I have eaten the body of my dead people" and refers to "working under great hardships".
The statement of Jesus can then be properly understood in this manner: Unless you incorporate my teachings into your daily living and be willing to work long and hard; and be ready to endure difficulty, opposition, and great sufferings (which will be the result of this teaching), you will have no life in yourselves.
Although the greek translators of the now lost aramaic accounts were faithful in their renderings, their unfamiliarity with aramaic culture, customs, and idoms may have caused much of the original meaning to be lost. The situation is further compounded when the greek is further translated into other languages. One should therefore be cautious about taking the wording in the bible literially. You may be dealing with an idiom.
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A Political Consideration For You
by Francois ini'm sure you've heard tom daschel, al gore, richard gephardt and other prominent democrats wheezing and moaning about talk radio.
you can bet your boots that within the next 12 to 14 months, the democrat party is going to attempt to reinact some form of the old "fairness doctrine" which said that if you allowed one political point of view to be aired on your radio or tv station, that you had to provide equal time for the expression of the opposing point of view.
i was employed in the radio/tv bidness during the years of the "fairness doctrine" and i can tell you the objective was never fairness.
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Navigator
Gee Francois, what a scary thought! I do recall the chilling effect that the "so called" fairness doctrine had on political expression, but I never was sure of what the objective was. Being a texan, however, I am familiar with the heavy handed tactics of Lyndon Johnson. As I recall, the premise of the "fairness doctrine" was that monied interests could control the media and influence political outcomes. I 've heard that it was an adminstrative nightmare and could put some broadcast licenses in jeopardy. Wouldn't trying to muzzle talk radio, even temporarily, be a "tough sell" in the courts?
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Why Did You???
by kelpie inwhy did you choose the nickname you did for this forum??
also who do you think has the coolest/funniest/weirdest name on the board?
i choose kelpie because that is my partner's nickname for me as my initials are klp.
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Navigator
I chose Navigator because that is what I did for a living when I was in the U.S. Air Force.
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The Trinity
by meadow77 intop reasons the wts is lying about the trinity.
their translation of john 1:1 is not only a complete farce but falls apart upon closer examination of their own beliefs.
the insertion of the phrase a god, instead of god is just a clear misinterpretation.
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Navigator
Dakota Red & Joseph Malik
As you have pointed out, Trinitarians must resort to improbable word matches to justify their belief in Trinity. One of these deals with Jesus' reply to those questioning whether or not he knew Abraham. His reply "before Abraham was, I AM", often used by Trinitarians to suggest Jesus is claiming to be God, is sometimes translated "before Abraham was, I have been". This may simply have been a claim to have existed before Abraham. The belief in reincarnation was prevalent in Palestine during Jesus' day despite attempts by the bible editors to remove all such references. When Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?", their reply included some luminaries long since dead. Jesus did not rebuke them. Nor did the disciples indicate that the responses were out of line.
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740
The Trinity
by meadow77 intop reasons the wts is lying about the trinity.
their translation of john 1:1 is not only a complete farce but falls apart upon closer examination of their own beliefs.
the insertion of the phrase a god, instead of god is just a clear misinterpretation.
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Navigator
I think that Swedish Chef, having been blown out of the water on his Trinity doctrine, is trying to start a flame war on the KJV accuracy. Actually, the KJV was an excellent translation for its day, but that day was almost 400 years ago. A great deal has been learned since then. Many more and earlier manuscripts are now known that were not available to the KJV scholars. This has allowed the pin pointing of numerous errors in the KJV.
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The Trinity
by meadow77 intop reasons the wts is lying about the trinity.
their translation of john 1:1 is not only a complete farce but falls apart upon closer examination of their own beliefs.
the insertion of the phrase a god, instead of god is just a clear misinterpretation.
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Navigator
Undisfellowshiped
Come on now, Jesus referring to himself as the Good Shepherd is hardly a claim to be God!. That is way too big a stretch.
Edited by - Navigator on 28 November 2002 6:17:57
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Spousal Abuse Thoughts
by DakotaRed ini have been having an ongoing discussion with a friend about spousal abuse.
she has come to accept and believe that i have never hit a woman in my life, but feels that i am a rarity.
i contend that i am not, that although too many men still hit their wives, they are in the minority.
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Navigator
I have never hit a woman and never would. I suspect that it is learned behavior. I cannot imagine my Dad ever hitting my mother.