 Ghyda
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Anaheim, California
Joined: Jul 2015 |
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| Beginning at the beginning, when we count with one, two three .... | |
Ghyda
| Chapter 1
Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth, had no children. According to the Gospel of Luke, "Elizabeth was not able to conceive."
Initially, I would have said that blaming Elizabeth shows that Luke saw the world through a male-chauvinist lens. However, if an omniscient Holy Spirit guided Luke's work, maybe I should give Luke the benefit of the doubt.
Gabriel, who might have been on his way to recite Quran to Muhammad, arrived and told Zechariah that he and Elizabeth would have a son, and they should name the son, John.
Baptize, which in Greek, means ceremonial submersion. It must have been something that Jews did. An archaeological site, Qumran, near the Dead Sea has big bath tubs, which might have been used for ceremonial submersion.
Six months later, Gabriel, possibly still intending to visit Muhammad some six hundred years later, talked to Mary. He told her that she would have a son, and that she should name him Jesus.
When John grew up, he lived in the wilderness.
Luke 1:5-80
In the story of John’s birth, Mary says, “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,”
Souls and spirits must have different functions.
Luke 1:46-47
A Christian friend of mine says that in common language it could become "I am born to glorify the Leader, and my breath rejoices in God my Savior,
Or it might become "My breathing self glorifies the Leader, and the my breath within me rejoices in the Good One, my savior." |
Ghyda
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Translators use the word, spirit, to translate the Hebrew or Greek word for breath or wind. I think maybe the Hebrew God must have began as the storm. Only a guess.
I know that in China, water means life. Maybe breath or wind do also. I don't know. |
Ghyda
| Chapter 2
Mary was pledged to marry to Joseph. Probably her father pledged her to Joseph because at that time her father owned her.
I should make a list of how modern and ancient culture differ. The status of women could top the list.
As a second item, I could add how ancient culture did not separate natural and supernatural. For example, when they felt the wind or their breath, a natural thing, they felt God, which modern culture would call supernatural.
Mary became pregnant. An angel of the Lord told Joseph, “Do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.”
The Greek word for Holy means different, so Holy Spirit means different wind, somehow not the same as ordinary wind.
The Greek word for angel means messenger, something like Federal Express.
The Greek word for Lord means master. This could become the third item on the list of things which differ between the modern and the ancient world. In the ancient world, everyone had a master, someone to whom they belonged.
Mary becoming pregnant fulfilled something in Isaiah.
On my different list:
Women were property and every man had a master.
No separation of natural and supernatural |
Willi
| | if supernatural is natural until someone makes it something "super". then normal is as normal believes? |
Ghyda
| @Willi Said 
if supernatural is natural until someone makes it something "super". then normal is as normal believes?
Seems strange to the modern view, but as I continue we may gain a better understanding. |
Willi
| @Ghyda Said
Seems strange to the modern view, but as I continue we may gain a better understanding.
Mary became pregnant. An messenger of the master told Joseph, “Do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife because what is conceived in her is from the different wind. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.”
? |
Ghyda
| @Willi Said
Mary became pregnant. An messenger of the master told Joseph, “Do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife because what is conceived in her is from the different wind. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.”
?
I think you have captured to sound of it. A literal translation sounds strange because we have different ideas about wind. |
Willi
| @Ghyda Said
I think you have captured to sound of it. A literal translation sounds strange because we have different ideas about wind.
a "different wind" must be different from the one that flies a kite? |
Ghyda
| @Willi Said
a "different wind" must be different from the one that flies a kite?
I think it might be like saying, "The groom has cold feet."
Most English speaking people will know that means that the groom is nervous about the wedding, but it could mean that the groom needs another pair of socks. |
Willi
| @Ghyda Said
I think it might be like saying, "The groom has cold feet."
Most English speaking people will know that means that the groom is nervous about the wedding, but it could mean that the groom needs another pair of socks.
the folks in the days of ole liked to talk in pictures.
today we know it means nervous, in a different time or culture, and you will have grooms wearing extra socks. |
Ghyda
| Chapter 3
Caesar Augustus, the Roman Emperor, ordered a census of the Roman world. Joseph and Mary went from Nazareth, where they lived, to Bethlehem, possibly their legal home, so the Romans could count them. While in Bethlehem, Mary gave birth to Jesus.
The Roman census provides a date for when Jesus walked on Earth.
Since I began arranging this information, I have learned that Jesus lived in Galilee where Galileans practiced a Judaism somehow less Jewish than that in Jerusalem. Also, somehow Samaritans occupied a social status even lower than Galileans.
We have Samaritan refugees who live around here. Also, Chaldeans and a few from South Carolina. As far as I know, no Galileans.
Angels announced the event to some shepherds, who “were terrified,” a reaction I could have if I sensed a messenger from God.
If ancient people sensed the presence of God in the wind, maybe they sensed God’s messengers as a storm. My pagan relatives may sense supernatural beings, but I have no knowledge of it happening to normal people. I should list it as another difference between the ancient and modern world.
Luke 2:1-21 |
Ghyda
| @Ghyda Said
Chapter 2
An angel of the Lord told Joseph, “Do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.”
When my mother began taking us to a Christian Church, I heard this story, and I compared it to pagan stories about gods having offspring like Hercules, Theseus. or Achilles, so it must have been a common idea in the first century.
A Christian at the church explained that Jesus did not have two parts, one part God and one part human. He had one part, all God and all human. |
Ghyda
| Chapter 4
After Jesus' birth, magi came looking for him. They met with King Herod, who told them “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
The magi found Jesus, and they went home without telling Herod. An angel told Joseph that Herod wanted to kill Jesus. Joseph took Jesus to Egypt until after Herod died.
I think maybe Herod had read Machiavelli.
Magi translates a Greek word that means sorcerer, magician, or wizard. My Christian friends often think of the Magi as representing a group of Persians who converted to Judaism during the time of the Prophet Daniel.
In school I have learned about various Magi traditions. In my seventh grade history class we read about Marco Polo. His book has information about one tradition in which three magi came to visit Jesus.
We also studied antisemitism, which included information about John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople 400 CE; who said that after the resurrection of Jesus, Thomas the Apostle went to visit the Magi and baptized them.
Matthew 2:1-17 |
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Chronology
March 25, 2016 @ 11:03:36 pm
