Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Is it possible, by focussing on texts, that the evidence that is around elsewhere is being missed?

I am not sure of the background of others, but I was brought up as a Pentecostal Christian, and I do have wide experience of anglican and other churches. A Pentecostal background includes loads of preaching, not only of the more recent assertive happy clappy stuff, but in detail, and an actual knowledge of the Bible.

Some Bibles do things that make things very clear. The New English Bible for example, shows the various hymns clearly and has footnotes about them.

Hymns are direct evidence of ritual, and with other things like, the church calendar, lay out of churches, how rituals are conducted, burial practices, archaeology, art, I believe actually give a very full picture of what was and still is going on. We actually have ceolocanths all over the place!

One of the key features of the rituals is the Eucharist - this is my body etc.

Why I ask about other's backgrounds is because I have a very clear Pavlovian response to these issues, and if other's haven't had this, they are actually missing the point. I am not saying you have to be a xian, but you do have to experience and understand the rituals!

The Pavlovian response is interesting. Instead of a dog getting hungry at the sound of a bell, my thoughts go down very clearly defined tracks.

I am arguing that the New Testament should be understood as like Pavlov's bell to create a response in believers - it is a critical part of the package, and somehow the point is missed if people concentrate on this or that verse or episode.

Arguably, the koran is a refinement of this, the creation of very powerful connected symphonies to guide believers' lives.

The New Testament should be understood as a collection to please various sensibilities - a series of "just so" stories tweaked to various backgrounds, some adventure, some Homer, some philosophy, some apocalyptic stuff, some theology.

The New Testament has always existed as part of a ritual context with a clear purpose, the creation of a new heaven and earth.

It is all a huge institution to put into practice a core idea - we preach Christ Crucified.

He is Risen! He is Risen indeed!

Athanasius produced Bible codices for Constantine's sons.
Here he preaches Christ Crucified .....

• Now, Macarius, true lover of Christ, we must take a step further in the faith of our holy religion, and consider also the Word's becoming Man and His divine Appearing in our midst.
  
  That mystery the Jews traduce, the Greeks deride, but we adore;
  
  and your own love and devotion to the Word also will be the greater, because in His Manhood He seems so little worth. For it is a fact that the more unbelievers pour scorn on Him, so much the more does He make His Godhead evident. The things which they, as men, rule out as impossible, He plainly shows to be possible; that which they deride as unfitting, His goodness makes most fit; and things which these wiseacres laugh at as "human" He by His inherent might declares divine.
  
  Thus by what seems His utter poverty and weakness on the cross
  He overturns the pomp and parade of idols, and quietly and hiddenly
  wins over the mockers and unbelievers to recognize Him as God.

QUESTION: Why did the Greeks deride the mystery that the Jews traduced and the Christians adored?

ANSWER: Because the Greeks were a lot more educated about the notion of God (e.g. Canonical Books and Apostolic lineage of Plato)

The ruthlessly savage Romans crucified tens of thousands of people in antiquity.

We only need to know about one, and to accept what we are told without question.

It's Orwellian.


LC

Leucius, if you're talking about nailing criminals to two-beam crosses like the kind you see in church so that they might hang and perish in torture, then the Romans never crucified. What they did was hanged (with ropes or nails) or impaled or both, on various constructions like utility poles, ship's masts (with yards), tees, impaling stakes, beams between two posts, etc. A favorite of theirs appears to be a "Priapus stake", basically a utility pole with a short spike attached to the front with a cantilever beam. The spike crucified by penetration and the whole thing was designed to make the sufferer's genitals prominent.