Quote:
|
1) Where did you find this history?
|
Most of this history was gained by talking to rabbis, and a religious scholar at Utah State University. (The scholar wishes to remain anonymous, because this region is heavilly religious and his position is very political... If his name were attached to some of this information, he would be fired.) The distinction between Elohim and Jehova is noticeable only in the Hebrew texts, because English translations change both names to be simply God... I really do recomend getting a dual-language bible, so that you can see what the original text was and find those concepts that don't translate completely into English. "Poisoner" (the best English translation for the original term) and "Witch" (the commonly accepted English translation) is another example of the differences.
As far as my comment about being hung on a tree, sorry, that was an euphemism... I really did mean crucification, and didn't realize that it would be taken differently. My mistake.
Quote:
|
"Christianity springs from people's interpretations of other people's interpretations of Jesus' words and deeds."
|
The reason why I said that is because Jesus didn't write anything down himself. The first interpretations come from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, which were written after Jesus' death. The second interpretation comes from whoever is reading those books... Also, there is strong evidence to suggest that many of the books in the bible had been re-written for political gain over the centuries, so there is the possibility for a third interpretation there. The original intent is still in there, that of love, service, and forgiveness, but it is not straight from Jesus' teachings, rather it is memories of his teachings that we read, then re-interpret ourselves. Fred Phelp's interpretation of the same words is vastly different from the interpretations of mainstream Christianity, just to point out an extreme example.