James Mixon, whatever one were to say about that, it would be mere speculation. We don't have any evidence. Maybe Joseph was Jesus' father. Or maybe she had an affair. Probably the latter since we know that Mary and Joseph had a fight because of her pregnancy. Maybe Joseph chose to forgive willingly? Maybe he wasn't fed with any excuses? Who knows... Either way, he likely was not told that Mary was impregnated by God since our earliest accounts do not have the virgin birth story. Somehow he chose to forgive her for her affair.
Saename
JoinedPosts by Saename
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32
What was Jesus last name???
by James Mixon injesus in hebrew means "savior' and christ in greek means "messiah".
these are identifiers --not names in jesus case.. where did the name christ come from, his parents???
?i can see the name jesus (first name) but christ.
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32
What was Jesus last name???
by James Mixon injesus in hebrew means "savior' and christ in greek means "messiah".
these are identifiers --not names in jesus case.. where did the name christ come from, his parents???
?i can see the name jesus (first name) but christ.
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Saename
This is how Bart Ehrman tries to trick his students: by asking the question, "What was Jesus' (or Paul's) last name?" The fact is that people in Antiquity did not have last names. They were usually identified as "[name] son of [the person's father's name]" or "[name] of [place of birth]." This is why Jesus is often referred to as Jesus of Nazareth. (There is strong evidence indicating he wasn't born in Bethlehem.) At times, he is also called Jesus son of Joseph (John 6.42) and Jesus son of Mary (Mark 6.3).
In addition, in Antiquity, some people had sort of nicknames, or cognomina (cognomen in singular form), given to them, which is why Jesus is most often called Jesus Christ (the latter part of his name being the cognomen.) A cognomen was initially a nickname given to someone because of a certain characteristic this person exhibited. This characteristic was supposed to differentiate the person from others. Since Jesus was known among his disciples as the anointed one (christos in Greek, maschiah in Hebrew, Christ/messiah as English transliterations), he was given the cognomen christos. It was later translated into Latin christus, which then was transliterated into English Christ.
Having said that, I am convinced Jesus' parents did not give him this nickname. In our earliest gospel, gospel of Mark, Jesus' family thinks that he is out of his mind because he began to preach (Mark 3.21)! (This verse also indicates that the author either didn't know of or didn't believe in the virgin birth story. This has led scholars to believe that the virgin birth story was a later invention.)
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An E-mail Exchange with an Elder
by Saename inever since i had become an atheist and started to listen to podcasts such as the one by sam harris or shows like the atheist experience, i began to think that it is my responsibility to believe as many true things and as few false things as possible.
in order to ensure that my beliefs are rationally justified, i started to follow logic, reason, and evidence.
i cannot say that all my beliefs are true, but i can definitely say that i make the efforts to ensure that they are at the very least reasonable.. i also became willing to debate people.
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Saename
That's simple; they thought they could somehow "save" me. As soon as they saw I was beyond "saving," they of course ceased to talk to me. If you think I'm making this up, that's your prerogative. I cannot defend myself against such criticism as I have not recorded my first "debate" (or more appropriately a conversation) with the elder who was once a circuit overseer. When it comes to this e-mail exchange, I can provide you with screenshots of my e-mails, but I wouldn't be able to do the same with respect to his e-mails as I don't want to violate his sense of privacy. Think of it what you will.
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Man robbed bank to get away from wife....
by James Mixon inkansas man who robbed a bank last september told police that he was hoping to get caught (he waited for the police) so he would get prison time to escape his wife, was sentenced tuesday 12th to six months of home confinement.
he had no prior criminal history...poor guy....
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Saename
Home confinement? What a sense of humour... God must look at him and feel jealous.
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An E-mail Exchange with an Elder
by Saename inever since i had become an atheist and started to listen to podcasts such as the one by sam harris or shows like the atheist experience, i began to think that it is my responsibility to believe as many true things and as few false things as possible.
in order to ensure that my beliefs are rationally justified, i started to follow logic, reason, and evidence.
i cannot say that all my beliefs are true, but i can definitely say that i make the efforts to ensure that they are at the very least reasonable.. i also became willing to debate people.
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Saename
smiddy, I also don't see why it matters. Technically, I "disassociated" myself in the sense that I no longer associate myself with this religion. Whether I was baptised or not seems inconsequential to me.
tepidpoultry, there won't be any more updates to this topic. The elder I talked to hasn't responded to my last e-mail which I sent on June 4th. I take it to mean that he will not continue this conversation, which is not a big surprise. He, like many other Witnesses, lives in his own small world.
Having that said, I have yet to schedule another conversation with a different elder who also wishes to discuss certain things with me. If our conversation ever takes place, I will create another topic about that.
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Elder "D": Catholics No Longer Believe in a Trinity
by Saename inso in this topic, i mentioned i had a conversation with an elder "d." this elder said that the catholic church admitted the trinity is unscriptural.
i'm pretty sure this is not true.
the doctrine of trinity is the most fundamental belief in the catholic church.
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Saename
mentalclarity, thanks for your comment. That's what I pretty much assumed.
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My New Fascination - Evolution!
by pale.emperor insince leaving watchtower i kind of hit the "reset" button in my mind and reevaluated what i thought i knew, what i believe and i require proof for every idea put before me before i commit to it.
lately i've been fascinated with evolution.
as a jw i never even looked at the subject, dismissing it as "just a theory".
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Saename
Thanks, cofty. I'll see the video, and later on I'll probably read the book as well.
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My New Fascination - Evolution!
by pale.emperor insince leaving watchtower i kind of hit the "reset" button in my mind and reevaluated what i thought i knew, what i believe and i require proof for every idea put before me before i commit to it.
lately i've been fascinated with evolution.
as a jw i never even looked at the subject, dismissing it as "just a theory".
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Saename
cofty, you said that there is a lot of progress going on in abiogenesis. Is there any book or article you would recommend which would provide a good summary of what is known by scientists about abiogenesis? I don't have time to read books/articles about each discovery separately, which is why I need a summary―sort of like the trade books that Ehrman writes. Unfortunately, I am pretty ignorant about abiogenesis, so that ought to be rectified at some point.
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An E-mail Exchange with an Elder
by Saename inever since i had become an atheist and started to listen to podcasts such as the one by sam harris or shows like the atheist experience, i began to think that it is my responsibility to believe as many true things and as few false things as possible.
in order to ensure that my beliefs are rationally justified, i started to follow logic, reason, and evidence.
i cannot say that all my beliefs are true, but i can definitely say that i make the efforts to ensure that they are at the very least reasonable.. i also became willing to debate people.
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Saename
tepidpoultry - Am I to understand that an elder is going to debate a disassociated person, I apologize if I've misunderstood something,
An unbaptised publisher who disassociated himself. I'm not sure whether the term "disassociated" is applicable to me, but this is what the elder called me, so that's what I'm going with.
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An E-mail Exchange with an Elder
by Saename inever since i had become an atheist and started to listen to podcasts such as the one by sam harris or shows like the atheist experience, i began to think that it is my responsibility to believe as many true things and as few false things as possible.
in order to ensure that my beliefs are rationally justified, i started to follow logic, reason, and evidence.
i cannot say that all my beliefs are true, but i can definitely say that i make the efforts to ensure that they are at the very least reasonable.. i also became willing to debate people.
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Saename
Wasanelder Once - Just for kicks, notice how many replies you have, could it be because its too long and has too much to deal with?
Again, I don't care about how people react to the length of my posts. If they think they're too long and so decide not to read them, that's fine with me.