KJV
1Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
There's something so formulaic about this, to say what's going to happen before it happened. I suppose it adds a fatalistic tone, which in turn adds to the notion that all of this was prophesied, but I also wonder if this is copying some other form. There's some question about the [i]genre[/i] of the gospels. Is it an entirely new genre? I suppose it is, but one wonders on what genres it is based. As I've said before, they didn't know they were "gospels" when they were written. The "gospel" was probably an oral formulation, a few statements of creed, the "good news" in headline form.
Helmut Koester in his book [i]Ancient Christian Gospels[/i], supports the idea that gosepls are a new genre, especially since they have oral sources, like the formulation mentioned above and sayings sources, which distinguish them from "higher" literary traditions. But this cobbling would require literary elements as well, one of which he mentions is the prophet's biography, as we see in the Old Testament.
To me a line like verse one above clearly harkens to an older literary tradition. One just doesn't write like that unless one is trying to sound like something... something authoritative.
I think it's the strange cobbled-together nature of the gospels and the New Testament in general, that fascinates me so much, particularly since it's proffered as a document directly inspired by God.
God is a collagist! Abba is Dada!
p.s. "led up of the Spirit" is awkward. RSV and other translations have it as "led up by the Spirit." Notice another mention of the Spirit which could easily have been an idiom and have nothing to do with being one third of a trinity.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Matthew 3:11-17
KJV
11I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:
12Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
13Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.
14But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?
15And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.
16And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:
17And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
The sole purpose of this passage, imho, is to rewrite history and cast John the Baptist into a subordinate role to Josh. Instead of Josh's competitor, John is made into yet another herald of his greatness. Stuff like this can be a real turn off. Notice the overbearing nature of the dove flying down and God saying YES THIS GUY IS LEGIT. YOU WILL WORSHIP HIM NOW. Notice also how this makes no sense with Josh's behavior later, telling people to be quiet and not make a fuss over him. This, in fact, is so lame I wonder if "Matthew" even wrote it, or if it was stuck in later to settle some argument.
Is the "Spirit of God" the Holy Ghost? I looked at several translations and they all say "Spirit of God," which makes me think that this was written before any concept of the Trinity. I have a suspicion the entire Bible was written without any concept of the Trinity, but I'll reserve judgement on that as I read...
11I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:
12Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
13Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.
14But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?
15And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.
16And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:
17And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
The sole purpose of this passage, imho, is to rewrite history and cast John the Baptist into a subordinate role to Josh. Instead of Josh's competitor, John is made into yet another herald of his greatness. Stuff like this can be a real turn off. Notice the overbearing nature of the dove flying down and God saying YES THIS GUY IS LEGIT. YOU WILL WORSHIP HIM NOW. Notice also how this makes no sense with Josh's behavior later, telling people to be quiet and not make a fuss over him. This, in fact, is so lame I wonder if "Matthew" even wrote it, or if it was stuck in later to settle some argument.
Is the "Spirit of God" the Holy Ghost? I looked at several translations and they all say "Spirit of God," which makes me think that this was written before any concept of the Trinity. I have a suspicion the entire Bible was written without any concept of the Trinity, but I'll reserve judgement on that as I read...
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Matthew 3:1-10
KJV
1In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,
2And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
3For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
4And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.
5Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan,
6And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.
7But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
8Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:
9And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
10And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
I am fascinated by John the Baptist. From what I've read, this guy was actually Josh's biggest competitor. Unfortunately, because he didn't get his own religion, we only have this biased account. But in these 10 verses, I wonder if we get a hint of this man. If so, it's a vivid hint.
The man must have had his followers, for the gospels do much to bring these two men together. Medieval painters would go even further, with images of them as babies together... kissing cousins.
I even wonder if John was Josh's mentor, Socrates to his Plato.
Nah... I think they never met. I think they were both rabbis with some wild stuff to say. John might even have been a trendsetter in the burgeoning monk industry, which actually started a bit before Christianity.
And if you're counting prophecies, we're up to... a lot.
1In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,
2And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
3For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
4And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.
5Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan,
6And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.
7But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
8Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:
9And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
10And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
I am fascinated by John the Baptist. From what I've read, this guy was actually Josh's biggest competitor. Unfortunately, because he didn't get his own religion, we only have this biased account. But in these 10 verses, I wonder if we get a hint of this man. If so, it's a vivid hint.
The man must have had his followers, for the gospels do much to bring these two men together. Medieval painters would go even further, with images of them as babies together... kissing cousins.
I even wonder if John was Josh's mentor, Socrates to his Plato.
Nah... I think they never met. I think they were both rabbis with some wild stuff to say. John might even have been a trendsetter in the burgeoning monk industry, which actually started a bit before Christianity.
And if you're counting prophecies, we're up to... a lot.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Matthew 2:19-23
KJV
19But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt,
20Saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child's life.
21And he arose, and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel.
22But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judaea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither: notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee:
23And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.
Do you see what I see? In this gospel, Jesus isn't really from Nazareth. In fact, he seems to be from Bethlehem. The whole census thing, the whole looking for a place to stay thing, it's all missing from Matthew. In this gospel, Nazareth is an afterthought, a place he ended up due to Joseph's avoidance behavior.
But but but ... there seems to be a lot of agreement among scholars that there really was this guy Josh and he really was from Nazareth. Not total agreement, but a lot of agreement.
19But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt,
20Saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child's life.
21And he arose, and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel.
22But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judaea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither: notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee:
23And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.
Do you see what I see? In this gospel, Jesus isn't really from Nazareth. In fact, he seems to be from Bethlehem. The whole census thing, the whole looking for a place to stay thing, it's all missing from Matthew. In this gospel, Nazareth is an afterthought, a place he ended up due to Joseph's avoidance behavior.
But but but ... there seems to be a lot of agreement among scholars that there really was this guy Josh and he really was from Nazareth. Not total agreement, but a lot of agreement.
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