The peculiar case of the mustard seed and "the nest"

[mlinssen]

The usual way to get over your midlife crisis is to get a new toy, be that a sports car, a young girlfriend, or both - yet I seem to have drawn the short straw ROFL

I can relate! There is something about "being in the driver's seat" both literally and metaphorically that consoles one in midlife. And I could go on about the attraction of a young girlfriend, emphasis on young. I'm 60.

But I drew the short straw a long time ago, in my early 30s, when it slowly became clear my wife's body was not giving us children. When I opted to stay with the wife of my youth (who is a wonderful lovable person who happens to be a well-read scholar), and accept childlessness, I was given a lot of free time that people with children don't have. It was in those years that I discovered internet as a place to discuss scripture, and happened onto Crosstalk where Stevan L. Davies was leading a study of Mark/Thomas parallels.

Years later, I began reading Paul's third heaven story, which lead to "the thorn in the flesh" and to Paul's use of flesh phrases in Galatians. I was truly disoriented when I realized I was seeing things that made sense in the Greek, but that were not in the standard Galatians commentaries. I was further surprised, when I was able to consult with a leading Paul scholar who was good enough to read my exegesis of the flesh phrases of Gal 4:12-14, and he said "your grammar is good." My Greek grammar is lousy, in general, but on that passage, after a long enough period of time, it was indeed good enough. When he suggested I look at the passage in the context of Galatians as a whole, my heart sank. I was not interested. But he made it clear that if I didn't do it, nobody would. He, himself was not going to take on the project and neither was he interested in further consultation with me.

I'm outside the academy with a flesh phrases of Galatians project that nobody is interested in but me.
Nevertheless, I'm pressing on to the goal of a coherent reading of the flesh phrases of Galatians as if the Greek New Testament were a sports car, and as if Paul's flesh phrases were a young girlfriend in the passenger seat.

Thank you, gryan. Interesting that we both "spill our guts" at the same time, cosmic karma...
I'm Austrian, really, my parents adopted me at the age of a few weeks, it was all pre-arranged. I'm happy they did because otherwise I likely would have ended up in the bin (or loo)

Hesitated whether to have kids myself, I have little patience and kids require an awful lot. But people change, sometimes for the better, and I decided to take my chances. It was mostly fun, they're out of the house now leading their own lives, and I sometimes wonder how I would have ended up without kids. A lot more money, a lot more time, and some of my friends decided not to have kids for no other reason than being able to make that choice.
It's always better to be able to make a choice, of course

I'm interested in your flesh project, gryan. Sarx - I've seen it so often now that I'll never forget it. Flesh, body, spirit, soul: there is something there in Thomas and the NT and I haven't got my head around it yet. Thomas is perfectly ambiguous of course:

28. said IS : did I stand to foot in the(F) middle of the World and did I reveal outward to they in Flesh did I fall to they all [they] they being-drunk
did-not I fall to anyone in they he be-thirsting
and did my(F) Soul give pain upon the(PL) child of the(PL) human :
some(PL) blind-persons are in their heart/mind and they see not :
have they come to the World they empty they seek also that they come from the World they empty
Nevertheless now they being-drunk Whenever if they "should" cast-off their wine Then they will make-be Perceive-afterwards

Have you ever read it that way? John 1:14 is the wrong interpretation, in my eyes:

14 Καὶ (And) ὁ (the) Λόγος (Word) σὰρξ (flesh) ἐγένετο (became) καὶ (and) ἐσκήνωσεν (dwelt) ἐν (among) ἡμῖν (us)

"The word dwelt among us in flesh" is how I read Thomas - and it is evident that John also did that, and that everyone else did interpret it along with him

Have you seen viewtopic.php?p=118522#p118522 - might come in handy

[gryan]

I'm a slow reader. I like meditating on texts--Going back to the same few words over and over again.

My working hypothesis is that an actual man named Jesus had special powers to give hope to the poor, and he had a gift with words too. He had "disciples" who mediated on his words and traveled about sometimes by spirit leading, not knowing where their next meal would come from or where they would spend the night. I think they admired the birds for their ability to find a relatively safe dwelling place on the branches of trees. They may have envied the birds, and wished they too could make do that way--make a tent without a tent.

[mlinssen]

I'm a slow reader. I like meditating on texts--Going back to the same few words over and over again.

My working hypothesis is that an actual man named Jesus had special powers to give hope to the poor, and he had a gift with words too. He had "disciples" who mediated on his words and traveled about sometimes by spirit leading, not knowing where their next meal would come from or where they would spend the night. I think they admired the birds for their ability to find a relatively safe dwelling place on the branches of trees. They may have envied the birds, and wished they too could make do that way--make a tent without a tent.

Lovely story, quite romantic too, and with a(n Egyptian) touch of magic...
And when one watches contemporary magicians, hey - magic surely exists, doesn't it?
The power of words definitely surrounds Jesus, and words are very, very powerful indeed

There's too much Egypt around Churchianity anyway, and particularly Josephus' Against Apion is a marvel

I could take it metaphorically of course, the encamping, and it would imply that the birds "encamp" in the tree like the average "encamper" in the Tanakh "encamp" there...