Ignatius's letter to the Ephesians, part three.

Sorry it's been a while since my last post. I dealt with an episode of grief and I also accidentally deleted everything I had written for this post. Not fun.

Now we are at chapter 15 of Ignatius's letter to the Ephesians, which is summed up in the first sentence. "It is better to be silent and be a christian than to talk and not be one." In other words, practice what you preach. Chapter 16 says that anyone who corrupts the faithful with "wicked doctrine" will be bound for everlasting fire. Chapter 17 says the doctrine of "the prince of the world" has a bad odor.

Chapter 18 appears to have been influenced by 1 Corinthians, referring to the cross as a stumbling block to those who don't believe, but eternal life to those who do. It also has another doctrinal type statement. "For our God, Jesus Christ, was, according to the appointment of God, conceived in the womb by Mary, of the seed of David, but by the Holy Ghost. He was born and baptized, that by His passion He might purify the water." Notice that Jesus is called god and so is god. Two gods? Somehow the holy ghost planted the seed of David in Mary. Inconceivable. ;) 

Chapter 19 claims that three mysteries were hidden from the prince of the world. 1. Mary's virginity. 2. Her offspring. 3. Jesus's death. Presuming the prince of the world was Satan. How did they keep those things hidden? Angels supposedly announced his birth in one gospel. In another, Herod killed a bunch of babies to try to kill Jesus. Not only that, Satan supposedly tempted Jesus in person. Plus, jesus supposedly jad a public trial and crucifixion. Ignatius goes on to say these three mysteries were wrought in silence. That seems to mean they happened without anyone knowing about them. 

So, if all this happened in silence, how was Jesus "manifested?" According to Ignatius, by a super bright star that shone brighter than all the others. It sounds like a super nova or maybe a comet or some other celestial explosion? The problem is there is no extrabiblical record of such an event around the time Jesus was supposed to have been conceived. (This one doesn't count because it is not an eye witness.) We definitely would have heard about it by now.  According to Ignatius, that is when god manifested in human form for the "renewal of eternal life." This leads me to think that Ignatius believed that there was a period of time when there was no eternal life expected. This would be a logical inference from reading the Old Testament. 


This manifestation of Jesus is also supposed to have destroyed every kind of magic and the bonds of wickedness, removed ignorance, and abolished the old kingdom. I don't see that that actually happened. It was supposedly a new beginning because god "meditated the abolition of death." He was seriously thinking about it. Ignatius is sounding like a bit of a whackadoodle to me.

More next time.

Mark part six

We are back to the book of Mark, just after the appointing of the twelve apostles, chapter three, verse 20.

Jesus is in a house trying to eat and a huge crowd develops. His family hears about it and thinks he's gone crazy. Teachers of the law say he's possessed by Beelzebub. He's able to drive out demons because he's in league with the prince of demons. Jesus basically says that's silly. Why would Satan oppose himself? A kingdom or house divided against itself cannot stand. (Interesting that Beelzebub, the prince of demons, and Satan are used synonymously in this passage.)

Next Jesus says no one can enter a strong man's house and take his possessions without tying him up. Presumably this is referring to Jesus being able to remove people from demon possession. This must mean Jesus has some how overpowered Satan. Then Jesus pointedly says "I tell you the truth, all the sin and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. But whosoever blasphemes against the holy spirit will never be forgiven; he us guilty of an eternal sin. Jesus said this because they were saying he has an evil spirit." So, Jesus obviously equated their words about him with blasphemy against the holy spirit.

 Because of this passage, blasphemy against the holy spirit/ Jesus/ God has come to be known in Christianity as the "unforgivable sin." Let me tell you, this fact has caused a of load trouble for people all around the world in the form of blasphemy laws. It also causes intense psychological angst for the person who thinks that just thinking forbidden words in ones head will bring a conviction of blasphemy/eternal sin from god. Do you know how hard it is not to think something once you've been told it is forbidden to think it?

Moving on to verse 31, Jesus's mother and brothers are outside the house and they send someone in to get him. He replies, "who are my mother and my brothers?" He answers his own question by saying, "Whoever does god's will is my brother and sister and mother." This seems to establish that Jesus had a family and that his mother had other children, but they are not named, not even Mary. Remember there was no holy spirit conception or virgin birth narrative at the beginning of Mark. So far, Jesus appears to be fully human. His holy spirit vision upon baptism wasn't witnessed by anyone else in Mark either. Is it no wonder some people thought he was crazy?

Next, Jesus is teaching by the lake and has to get in a boat because there are such large crowds. He apparently taught them parables from the boat. One of the parables was about a farmer who sowed seed. The seed fell upon different types of soil, producing different results, some good, some poor. When the disciples got Jesus alone they asked him to explain the parables. Jesus told the disciples that he would tell them the secret meanings of the parables, but he would not tell those "on the outside,"  so that "they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven."

Wait. What?!! Do you realize that Jesus is saying he is deliberately keeping people from being forgiven? Well, if Jesus is god in the flesh, it's not the first time. That passage was quoting from Isaiah 6:9-10, where god says that to Isaiah. If the Jews hearing/reading this statement of Jesus's were familiar with the passage in Isaiah, they would know it goes on to say the peoples' non-understanding will continue "until the cities lie ruined....until the lord has sent everyone far away." Is this a foreshadowing of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the diaspora? If the author of Mark wrote later than 70 CE, he already knew what was coming.

More to come.

Mark part two

We are in Mark chapter one, at verse twelve. Jesus has just been baptized by John the baptist who was said to have been in a desert area. The spirit, which has descended on Jesus sends him "out into the desert," which must have been nearby. Jesus stayed in the desert forty days (magical number) being tempted by Satan.  Mark says he was with wild animals and angels attended him. This story is much shorter than the similar event recorded in other gospels. It includes very few details. Notice that no one else was with him as a witness. So, if this was Jesus's claim, everyone who heard it would have had to take his word that he was telling the truth. Can you think of any reason why he would lie?

From there, the text jumps  to John the baptist being in prison, after which Jesus went into Galilee telling people to repent because the kingdom of god was near, they were to believe the good news (aka gospel). Do you see that? Jesus didn't start preaching till AFTER John was out of the way. John could not publicly contradict Jesus's claims  if he wanted to. Also, the "good news" here was the approaching kingdom of god. It feels like there are so many different gospels in the new testament.

When Jesus was at the Sea of Galilee (which is actually a lake) he recruited Simon  (later called Peter) and his brother Andrew by telling the two fishermen that he would make them "fishers of men." How punny. Naturally, they dropped everything and followed him. In this same way, he also recruited James and John, who were just about to go out to fish in their father's boat. Now there are four disciples. Disciple just means student.

They all went to Capernaum. On the Sabbath (Saturday), Jesus taught in the synagogue. This is not anything special. I'm pretty sure any male Jew was allowed to get up and say something in turn. However, the text claims that what Jesus said impressed everyone, but it does not record his words on the occasion. While he was speaking, a man possessed by an evil spirit starts yelling at Jesus. He accuses Jesus of coming to destroy them and says he knows who Jesus is..."the holy one of god." (What if it was actually just some guy yelling, "Hey, I know who he is."  Then the story got stretched. It could have happened that way.) Jesus commands the spirit to be quiet and come out of the man, which it does with a shriek. Good cinema. In fact, if this actually happened, who's to say Jesus didn't plant the man in the audience. That kind of thing happens today.

The people were so gullible amazed that they began gossiping about this guy who taught like he knew what he was talking about and could exorcise demons. Naturally the news spread quickly. The five of them then went to the home of Simon and Andrew, where Jesus got rid of Peter's mother-in-law's fever. Then she began to wait on them, 'cause that's what women were expected to do after recovering from a fever and they needed someone to wait on them. Jesus did all this stuff on the Sabbath. The mother-in-law also waited on the men on the Sabbath. Was it just men who were not supposed to work on the Sabbath? Or was waiting on men not considered work?

After sunset, when it was no longer the Sabbath, people began to bring all their sick and demon possessed to Jesus to be healed. He apparently healed a lot of people with "various diseases" and exorcised many demons. (I wonder if had the same success rate modern faith healers have.) However, he didn't let any of the demons speak "because they knew who he was." Ha. That's kind of funny if you think about it. People who knew who Jesus was were not allowed to speak and were said to have demons. Hmm. There is definitely more than one way to look at that.

More to come.

Ephesians chapter 1, part 2

Starting at verse 15:

*Paul tells the recipients of the letter that he gives thanks for them continually because of the faith he heard they have. If this is a chain letter, how does he know what churches will be reading it and what their faith level is? Why does he say he "heard" about their faith, when he is supposed to have lived in Ephesus?

*Let's look at the scriptures that mention Paul in Ephesus (in Turkey). First, Acts 18: There Paul is said to have arrived in Ephesus with Pricilla and Aquila. He went to a Jewish synagogue to reason (argue?) with the Jews. He was asked to stay but left, saying he would be back, if it was God's will. He sailed back to Caesarea, which is in Israel, then travelled from there to Antioch, Galatia and Phrygia, and made his way back to Ephesus. It appeared to be in God's (Paul's ) will after all.

*While Paul was gone, a Jew named Apollos, from Alexandria (in Egypt), who knew only the baptism of John, arrived in Ephesus.  He was very knowledgable in the scriptures and began to speak boldly in the synagogue. Pricilla and Aquila were still in Ephesus and took Apollos to their home to "teach him the way of God more adequately." I find it interesting that Apollos seems to have had no idea about Jesus, the crucifixion, or the resurrection, just John the baptist and his practice of baptism. This would be at least two decades (NT timeline) after the death of Jesus. Why hadn't Apollos heard "the good news" before?

*Apollos went to Corinth, which is in Greece. Meanwhile, Paul took the road through Turkey and arrived back in Ephesus. There he found some disciples. These disciples had not been there his first visit? Disciples of whom? These disciples had never heard of recieving the holy spirit and the had been baptised with John's baptism for repentence, not the baptism into the lord Jesus. Okay, what is the difference between one dunking in water and another? -Belief in Jesus and the magic words recited when it is performed. Plus, it helps if Paul puts his hands on you so you can get the elusive Holy Spirit along with the ability to speak in tongues. Twelve men recieved the spirit this way. Ooh. Do you suppose that the number twelve is significant here? There were twelve tribes of Israel after all.

*According to Acts, Paul spent three months in Ephesus speaking in the synogogue, arguing about the kingdom of god. Some of them (Jews) refused to believe him. Good for them. So, Paul left with his disciples and had daily discussions in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. "This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord." However, not one of them wrote a single word about Paul or the new teachings. There are no contemporaneous writings about this revolution in religious thought, from that time or region That seems a little odd to me.

*It is even more odd that there are no extrabiblical records, when Acts says that extraordinary miracles were performed through Paul. (Acts19:11-12). Some Jews tried to exorcise evil spirits by invoking the name of Jesus. The evil spirits knew the difference between them and Paul and beat the Jews up. Naturally, this caused some consternation among the inhabitants of Ephesus, not to mention terror. Believers came out of the woodwork and confessed their past associations with sorcery. Then there was a public scroll burning of extremely valuable magic texts. Too bad Paul didn't just simply tell them their magic books had no power to do anything, evil or good. But he couldn't do that, could he? He had set himself up as having powers greater than  theirs.

To be continued.

Ephesians chapter 1, part one

*The book of Ephesians starts off with a greeting "to God's holy people", supposedly by Paul. A footnote says that the phrase "in Ephesus" is not in the oldest manuscripts.

*The first paragraph tries to establish that christians are indeed chosen to be God's holy people and that they were chosen before the creation of the world, or "predestined" to be his children through Jesus. Before we talk about predestination, I want to point out that this is totally contrary to the Jews' belief and scriptures, which teach that their people are the ones chosen to be God's children. The author also takes this chosenness back to before creation, earlier than the Abrahamic promise,  another strike against Jewish chosenness. This cannot be anything but deliberate.

*The author goes on to say that, through Jesus's blood, Christians are given redemption and  forgiveness of sins, things that were previously supplied by the Jewish system of sacrifices. He also states that they are given knowledge of the mystery of God's will. This appears to be another oblique stab at the Jews, implying that they were not supplied with some hidden knowledge that christians now possess.

*Paragraph two (1:11-14) continues with the predestination theme. This and the previous passages are fundamental to the Calvinist christian belief system. In Calvinism, predestination is basically the idea that God has chosen ahead of time who will or will not be unconditionally saved through Jesus. "God has unchangeably ordained whatever comes to pass." This leaves little room for the idea of free will choice and a lot of room for fatalism.

*In other christian faiths it is the plan of salvation that is predestined, not individuals' salvation. In this way, it is that all who accept salvation through jesus are predestined to be saved. Even though God supposedly knows what the outcome will be, he is not the one who chooses which individuals will be saved. They are responsible for that themselves. If you ask me, it is a very fine difference, considering that if God knows what will happen, can the outcome be changed?

*According to verses 13 and fourteen,  those who have heard the message of salvation through christ, and believed it, are the ones included in this plan. They are given the holy spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing future redemption. There is one problem...no one is quite sure exactly what the holy spirit is and how you can tell if someone has it. There are probably  as many ideas of the holy spirit as there are believers. Many of them prefer to avoid the subject altogether, maybe because there is no demonstrable reason to believe it exists and does anything that can't be explained by natural means.

Galatians chapter 5 part 4

We will finish up the fifth chapter of Galatians with the "fruit of the spirit." The spirit in this passage is capitalized and seems to refer to god, though Paul does not define what the spirit is. If you live by this spirit, you will produce love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. "Against such things there is no law." Of course not. But what do they have to do with a mystical spirit? There are followers of many religions, and even no religion, who possess many to all of these qualities. Do they have the spirit of god? Then why become a christian?

Paul contrasts this spirit with the "sinful nature." He say those who belong to christ have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Then why are so many professing Christians found practicing the acts of the sinful nature mentioned previously? Are they not true christians? It seems to be pretty hard to find one of those true christians nowadays. I'm pretty sure many Buddhists exhibit more fruits of the spirit than some of the christians I know.

Paul does some fancy footwork and says, "since we live by the spirit, let us keep in step with the spirit. Is it possible to live by the spirit and not keep in step with the spirit? I think Paul is really saying, "Get right, church. And don't embarrass me."

Joshua chapter 15

After reading chapter 15:

*Later, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson decided to go visit his wife again. Her father would not let him see her. He told Samson that he had given Samson's wife to his friend because he thought Samson hated her. This time Samson was really mad (As opposed to the time he killed 30 men for their clothes.)and decided to get even. He caught 300 foxes (All by himself? I wonder how long that took?)  tied them together in pairs by their tails, tied a torch to every pair of tails, and let the foxes loose on the Philistines grain fields. All their fields, trees, and vinyards were burned. Upon investigating, the Philistines discovered Samson did it because his wife had been given away. So, they burnt up the wife and her father. That made Samson even madder. He took revenge by slaughtering many of them. Then he went and stayed (hid)in a cave.

*The Philistines went to the land of Judah to try to find, capture, and kill Samson. Three thousand men of Judah went to the cave (How did they know where to find him?) and chastised Samson for being rude to their Philistine rulers. He said he had only done what they did to him. Yeah but who started the whole mess? The men of Judah intended to take him back and hand him over. Samson made them swear not to kill him themselves. They tied him up with two new ropes and led him away. When the Philistines saw him coming, they shouted. That amazing Spirit of the Lord came upon him again and gave him the strength to break the ropes. After that, he picked up the jawbone of a donkey and killed a thousand men. Then he made a cute little poem about how he had made donkeys of them all.

*After all that hard work, Samson was very thirsty and cried out to Yahweh who caused a spring of water to come out of the ground. Samson drank and was revived. He then led the Israelites for twenty years. Apparently Yahweh was okay with All these events.

Joshua chapter 14

After reading chapter 14:

*Samson is now grownup up. He went to Timnah and saw a Philistine woman that he wanted to marry. His parents would have preferred he marry an Israelite woman, not a woman from those "uncircumcised Philistines." But Samson insisted that she was the one he wanted. Plus, Yahweh was secretly causing this infatuation just so there would be a confrontation with the Philistines.

*The family travelled to Timnah, presumably to acquire the bride for Samson. When they came to the outskirts of the town, Samson was attacked by a lion. Samson got a rush of the Spirit of the Lord (sounds more like adrenaline to me) and tore the lion apart with his bare hands, but he didn't tell his parents about it. I don't know how they could have missed seeing it. Then he went on to the town, talked with the woman, and decided he liked her.

*Later, Samson  and his parents went back to Timnah so he could marry the Philistine woman. On the way, he decided to take a look at the dead lion's carcass and found that some bees had made a honeycomb in it. He scooped out honey with his hands and ate it as he went along. He also gave some to his parents but didn't tell them where he had gotten it from.

*There was a wedding feast which typically lasts seven days. Samson was given 30 companions, presumably similar to groomsmen. He told these companions that he was going to tell them a riddle. If they could guess the answer by the end of the feast, they would be awarded thirty complete sets of clothes. If they could not guess they would have to give him thirty complete sets of clothes. Sounds fair. Not. They foolishly agreed. The riddle was "Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet." This obviously refers to the lion and the honey. Of course no one but Samson would know that. The game was rigged.

*After three days of trying to guess the answer to the riddle, the men went to Samson's wife and threatened to burn her and her father's house if she didn't get the answer to the riddle for them. In order to get the answer, his wife played the "you don't love me if you won't tell me" card. Samson refused to tell her so she cried for the rest of the feast. On the seventh day, he got tired of her persistence and told her. She told the riddle to the men of her town. They told Samson the answer just as the feast was coming to an end. Of course he knew where they got the answer from.

*Again, Samson recieved a rush of power from the Spirit of the Lord. He went to Ashkelon, another Philistine town, killed thirty men, stole their clothes, and gave them to the men who had given the answer to the riddle. He left the wedding and went back home. His wife was given to the equivalent of the best man.

*In previous stories the Spirit of the Lord helped people to prophesy, make laws, and win wars. This time it seems to have just been used to make Samson a killing machine. It sounds to me more like Samson had anger and entitlement issues. The cheater hates to be cheated.

Judges chapter 13

After reading chapter 13:

*The  Israelites did "evil" in the sight of Yahweh, so he delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for a standard biblical length of time, forty years. Then a man named Manoah from the Danite clan had a wife who was childless. The angel of Yahweh appeared to her as a man and told her she would have a son. This son was to be a Nazarite, set apart to Yahweh from birth. The mother was not to drink anything fermented, or eat anything unclean. Also, the boy will never have a haircut. Numbers 6 describes the Nazarite vow. However, it appears to be voluntary and temporary, unlike this boy to be born, who has a permanent decision made for him.

*The woman went to her husband and told him what had happened. Manoah prayed to Yahweh to send the Angel back to teach them how to raise the boy. The angel appeared to the woman again while she was working in the field. She ran and told her husband.  Manoah followed her back to the field and spoke to the angel. He asked him for instructions. The angel basically repeated what he had originally told the woman. Manoah volunteered to prepare a young goat to eat. The angel, who Manoah seems to have thought was a prophet, turned it down. He told Manoah to make a burnt offering to Yahweh instead. Manoah asked the angel what his name was but was told he wouldn't be able to understand it.

*Manoah sacrificed a goat and a grain offering to the Yahweh on a rock, which was a clear violation of the law of  the Israelites. Sacrifices were to be done by the priests at the altar in front of the tabernacle, which was currently supposed to be in Shiloh.( Numbers 18 and 22)However, Yahweh doesn't seem to have a problem with it at this time. As the flames of the sacrifice blazed up, the angel ascended to heaven in the flame. Manoah and his wife fell with their faces to the ground. Manoah thought they were doomed to die but his wife replied practically that, if that were true, Yahweh would not have accepted the sacrifice and told them about their future son. Eventually, the boy was born and they named him Samson. One day the Spirit of Yahweh began to stir in him.

* One can't help wondering how many women of ancient times told their husbands that a god had decided she would become pregnant.

Edited.

Judges chapter 11 part 2

*Starting in verse 29, Jephthah gets that mysterious "Spirit of the lord (Yahweh)" He took his army to attack the Ammonites. Then he made a vow to Yahweh that, if he had the victory over the Ammonites, he would offer the first thing that came out of the door of his house as a burnt offering sacrifice to Yahweh. The spirit of the lord should have told him that was a bad idea, but maybe it was sleeping at the time.

*Jephthah fought the Ammonites and won. He also destroyed twenty of their towns, effectively subduing them. So, Jephthah went home. What was the first thing that came out of his house? His beloved daughter, an only child. Naturally, he was distraught. He told his daughter about his vow, which was apparently unbreakable. Couldn't Yahweh have absolved him of it? I guess it wasn't top on his list of things to do that day. His daughter agreed that the vow could not be broken. (That makes for a better story than if she didn't agree and Jephthah had to force her to be sacrificed.) She only asked to be allowed to spend two months roaming the hills and weeping with her friends, because she would never marry. We all know that if a girl doesn't have a husband in this life,  she doesn't have anything.

*So, she went off for two months and then came back home so her father could do what he promised. "And he did to her as he vowed." Let's be clear. He offered her as a burnt offering sacrifice to Yahweh, and Yahweh was ok with that. Some people will try to argue that it was just a metaphorical sacrifice, or they will rationalize the event in other ways. That is only to ease their own discomfort at this passage. There is no reason to think that this is anything other than what it appears to be, a blood sacrifice.

*For some reason, importance is attached to the claim that Jephthah's daughter was a virgin. Every year in her remembrance, young women of Israel went out for four days. Those four days of freedom were probably well spent. If it happened, which is doubtful. Even my study bible says there is no other evidence of this custom, so it must have just been a local one. (Or nonexistent.)

The Nativity part 6- the miraculous conception

Well. I'm sure we all know how babies get started inside their mother's womb, but just in case, I'll refresh your memory. First there is a human woman of childbearing years who has functioning ovaries which release an egg once a month.  Then there must be a human male of appropriate age who has functioning testicles which can release enough sperm to fertilize an ocean of eggs, should they become available. Then the male and female must  have sexual relations so that at least one sperm can make its way to the one egg that has been released from the woman's ovary and is only available to be fertilized during a short window of time, perhaps a few days. Then the woman becomes pregnant.

The obvious question is "How was Jesus concieved?" Matthew only tells us Mary was found with child by the Holy Spirit. Luke, however, tells us that the Holy Spirit will "overshadow" Mary. What does that mean? Did the Holy Spirit have sex with her? We are told in both books that Mary was a virgin when she concieved Jesus, and that she had not had sex with a man. I guess the Holy Spirit doesn't count.

Seriously, there are only three options here: 1. One of Mary's eggs was caused to spontaneously reproduce without sperm from the Holy Spirit. 2. The Holy Spirit had sperm. 3. The elementary cluster of cells that would become Jesus just miraculously poofed  into existence, with the help of the Holy Spirit, but without Mary's egg. Let's look at each option.

1. If one of Mary's eggs spontaneously reproduced without any human sperm, Jesus would have been Mary's clone and a female. Most males have a Y chromosome which they get from their sperm donor father. It seems that this is out of the question.

2. If the Holy Spirit had sperm, how was it delivered? Does the Holy Spirit have other male apparatus? Sperm have genetic information provided by the human parent. The Holy Spirit is not human, does he have genes? Did the Holy Spirit provide Jesus's Y chromosome? (Assuming Jesus was a typical male.) Would Jesus have been fully human if part of his DNA came from the Holy Spirit who is not human? What genes for eye color, hair color,  and height did the Holy Spirit contribute to Jesus? This option is confusing and disturbing on many levels.

3. If the cells that would become Jesus just miraculously appeared in Mary's womb, Jesus would not have been her child at all. She would just have been a surrogate mother. Since there would have been no human egg or sperm, Jesus would not have been a human related to anyone on earth, but some kind of brand new person with unique genetics. Or maybe he wasn't human and didn't need all that microscopic stuff inside to determine his physical makeup. Maybe he was a kind of illusion performed by God.

Oh, wait! He was God. The God of the universe put himself inside a woman's womb for nine months, then acted like a regular human for another thirty years or so,  and just let the rest of the world carry on by itself. Maybe that's why there were so many demons around by the time Jesus was grown. When the cat's away, the mice will play.