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Very interesting new find very different twist on the cruxifiction
http://news.yahoo.com/shape-shifting-jesus-described-ancient-egyptian-text-114210117.html;_ylt=A2KJ2PYykmFRalMAJVfQtDMD
2000 years ago and Jesus still stirs people up.
The controversial portrait of Jesus Christ at the center of a federal lawsuit pitting the American Liberties Union against a rural southern Ohio school district was taken down on Wednesday.
The portrait had hung in the entryway of Jackson Middle School since the Truman administration.
For a few months, school officials had said they would fight the Establishment Clause-based lawsuit filed by the ACLU along with the Madison, Wis.-based Freedom from Religion Foundation on behalf of an unnamed student and two unnamed parents. (RELATED: ACLU sues to force removal of Ohio middle school’s 65-year-old Jesus portrait)
However, Columbus-area ABC affiliate reports that Phil Howard, Jackson Board of Education superintendent, decided to capitulate after the district’s insurance company refused to pay costs associated with defending the lawsuit.
“At the end of the day, we just couldn’t roll the dice with taxpayer money,” Howard said, according to Fox News. “When you get into these kinds of legal battles, you’re not talking about money you can raise with bake sales and car washes. It’s not fair to take those resources from our kids’ education.”
Howard’s stance has changed since the Freedom from Religion Foundation first threatened a lawsuit. (RELATED: Anti-religion group demands removal of Jesus portrait from Ohio middle school)
Magicians in the Near East
In previous chapters Morton Smith argues that those who opposed Jesus or remained outside his circle of followers considered him a magician. In Chapter 5 he takes a look at some of the notions of a magician as a personality type that were circulating in Palestine during the time of Jesus. First, he considers the types of magicians that stem from Greco-Roman and Persian sides of Palestinian culture of Jesus’ day. According to Smith, the common Greek word for magician at the time of Jesus was goes (goetes, plural). He relays that this term was usually but not necessarily abusive in use. Smith understands the goes to be a type of Greek shaman who functioned primarily at death rites where, after entering an ecstatic trance, he (/she?) would accompany the dead on their journey to the underworld. The author contends that the goetes where known for their persuasive abilities. Accordingly, a persuasive orator might often find him/herself being referred to as either a sophist or a goes. Apparently, the goetes were also known for their persuasive influence among the gods. According to Smith the goetes were often times thought to be able to charm the gods through sacrifices, prayers and spells. Smith also points out that the related term goeteia, which for Herodotus meant a form of magic that transformed its practitioners into werewolves, was likely associated with goetes as well. For others, goeteia was used as a general term for deceit. Thus, a goes was often identified as a deceiver or scoundrel. As a consequence, it appears that at the time of Plato a person identified as a goes was subject to arrest. A second type of magician known in the Palestinian world of Jesus’ day was the magos (magoi, plural), who, according to Smith, was a step above the goes. Smith relays that the real magoi were a priestly clan of Media that came onto the Greek scene when the King of Medes and Persians conquered the Greek cities of Asia Minor. Smith conveys that Herodotus saw the magoi as interpreters of dreams, omens and portents, as well as being instrumental as officiates in private and public sacrifices. According to Smith, the term magos, due to an increasing rationalization, became derogatory in nature much like goes. Magos could mean quack and their practice could be linked to the ingestion of drugs and the deceit of the gods. Oftentimes cannibalism and the ability to send living humans into the realm of the dead and bring them back to the world of the living was attributed to them as well. Despite the rather negative use of the term in later times, it is pointed out by Smith that the terms magos, magoi, and mageia (what magoi practice) continued to have a higher degree of prestige than goes, goetes and goeteia. This was due mainly to a lingering memory of the magoi as a priestly caste connected with ancient powers, such as the ability to placate the gods. The last of the Greco-Roman/Persian terms for magician discussed by Smith is divine man (Greek not provided). Smith points out that whereas an individual was likely to call his/her enemy a goes (or sometimes magos) the same individual would likely refer to his/her friend as a divine man. According to Smith, a divine man was either a god or demon in disguise moving about in the world in a seemingly human form. Because of his indwelling divine nature a divine man could perform magic without resorting to rituals and spells. Smith argues that it was this ability, the ability to operate ritual-free, that was the defining characteristic of a divine man. Smith points out that the dividing line between a divine man and a spell/ritual utilizing magician could at times become blurred, as the Greek magical papyri describe a number of rites by which a magician can obtain a powerful spirit as a constant companion and thereby dispense with rites and spells. Other rites intended to deify the magician either by joining the magician with some god or by changing the very essence of the magician’s soul as to make it divine. According to Smith, anyone deified in this way would for all intents and purposes be indistinguishable from a divine man. Despite this blurring of magical roles, Smith points out that the term divine man did not carry any of the negative connotations attached to the terms goes and magos. While the perceptions of the goes, magos, and divine man varied widely in Palestine ranging from scoundrel/criminal to a deity in disguise, Smith points out that a revision in the Roman law code in 82-81 B.C. (which remained valid until approximately 529 A.D.) branded the practice of magic as a criminal act punishable by crucifixion, being thrown to the beasts or burned alive. Although Smith acknowledges some squabbling as to what constituted punishable magic, he asserts that magic as a practice was, for the most part, deemed a prohibited act during Jesus’ time.
Another view of Jesus being a Magician
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2ZYEkkm_Eho/UBP0t50fNPI/AAAAAAAAANI/f3sKFlgQ92k/s1600/JRaiseLazarus.jpg
Notice the wand in Jesus's hand
http://www.williamhenry.net/city_jesus_miracle.jpg
Another view of Jesus
[edit]The passage and its context
A copy of the second Medicean manuscript of Annals, Book 15, chapter 44, the page with the reference to Christians
The Annals passage (15.44), which has been subjected to much scholarly analysis, follows a description of the six-day Great Fire of Rome that burned much of Rome in July 64 AD.[3]
The key part of the passage reads as follows:
"Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judæa, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind".
Tacitus then describes the torture of Christians. The exact cause of the fire remains uncertain, but much of the population of Rome suspected that Emperor Nero had started the fire himself.[3] To divert attention from himself, Nero accused the Christians of starting the fire and persecuted them, making this the first confrontation between Christians and the authorities in Rome.[3] Tacitus never accused Nero of playing the lyre while Rome burned - that statement came from Cassius Dio, who died in the 3rd century.[2] But Tacitus did suggest that Nero used the Christians as scapegoats.[12]
No original copies of the Annals exist and the surviving copies of Tacitus' works derive from two principal manuscripts, known as the Medicean manuscripts, written in Latin, which are held in the Laurentian Library in Florence, Italy.[13] It is the second Medicean manuscript, 11th century and from the Benedictine abbey at Monte Cassino, which is the oldest surviving copy of the passage describing Christians.[14] Scholars generally agree that these copies were written at Monte Cassino and the end of the document refers to Abbas Raynaldus cu... who was most probably one of the two abbots of that name at the abbey during that period.[14]
A pagans view of Jesus
One of the most detailed allegations of magic is the charge made by Celsus, a pagan philosopher writing in the late second century. Although we do not have Celsus’ original text, the philosopher and theologian Origen set out to refute many of the central tenets of Celsus’ True Doctrine in his apologetic work Contra Celsum and since he generously quotes from Celsus’ text it is possible to reconstruct his argument from Origen’s citations alone. A fervent critic of Christianity, Celsus did not doubt that Jesus was a miracle-worker but he attempted to reinterpret his life as that of a magician, referring to him as a ???? (1.71) and claiming that Christians used invocations and the names of demons to achieve their miracles (1.6). Celsus also echoes the allegations made by the Talmud regarding Jesus’ early infancy in Egypt, suggesting that Jesus stayed there until his early adulthood and it was during his stay in Egypt that he acquired his magical powers:
‘After she [Mary] had been driven out by her husband and while she was
wandering about in a disgraceful way she secretly gave birth to Jesus…
because he was poor he [Jesus] hired himself out as a workman in Egypt,
and there tried his hand at certain magical powers on which the Egyptians
pride themselves; he returned full of conceit because of these powers, and
on account of them gave himself the title of God.’
When addressing Celsus’ comparison between Jesus and the Egyptian magicians, Origen quotes at length from Celsus’ fantastical description of the illusionary tricks and bizarre magical methods employed by these magicians:
‘‘who for a few obols make known their secret lore in the middle of the
market-place and drive out demons and blow away diseases and invoke the
souls of heroes, displaying expensive banquets and dining-tables and cakes
and dishes which are non-existent, and who make things move as though
they were alive although they are not really so, but only appear as such in
the imagination.’ And he says: ‘since these men do these wonders, ought
we to think them sons of God? Or ought we to say that they are the
practices of wicked men possessed by an evil demon?’’[13]
The concluding lines of this quotation from Celsus raise a question that is of central importance to our present study; if other magicians were actively engaging in activities similar to those attributed to Jesus in the Gospels, then how are we to separate the miracles of Jesus from the wonders produced by these magicians?
Interesting find
A bowl newly discovered in Alexandria, Egypt, and dated to the period from the late second century BCE to the early first century CE bears an engraving that may be the world’s earliest known reference to Jesus Christ. The engraving reads dia chrstou o goistais, translated by the excavation team as “through Christ the magician.” According to French marine archaeologist Franck Goddio, co-founder of the Oxford Center of Maritime Archaeology, and Egyptologist David Fabre, the phrase could very well be a reference to Jesus Christ, since he was one known as a primary exponent of white magic.
The team found the bowl during their underwater excavation of the ancient harbor of Alexandria. They speculate that a first-century magus may have used the bowl to tell fortunes. They note that the bowl is very similar to one depicted on two early Egyptian statuettes that are thought to show a soothsaying ritual. Ancient soothsaying manuals describe a technique in which the fortune teller poured oil into water and then entered an ecstatic state while studying the whirling mix. In the hallucinatory state, the fortune-teller hoped to meet mystical beings that could field questions about the future. The inscription, the archaeologists theorize, may have served to legitimize the soothsaying by invoking the name of Christ, acknowledged to be a wonder-worker.
How weighty is the evidence?
• Is it "Christ" or "Good"? – The archaeologists may have mistaken one Greek word for another in their interpretation. A glance at the photograph of the cup reveals a letter between the rho ("P") and the sigma ("C"). The letter, though poorly formed, seems unmistakably the letter eta ("H"). If this identification is correct, then the lexical form of the Greek word inscribed is not christos, but chrestos, meaning "kind, loving, good, merciful."
The prepositional phrase, then, probably indicates that the bowl was a gift, given "through kindness" from some benefactor. It seems obvious that chrestou is much more likely than christou for the engraved word. Rather than referring to the power of Christ, the word chrestou might be a reference to the person who gave the cup as a gift—as we might write on a gift “from Donald with best wishes.” This explanation seems as plausible as its alternative is unlikely.
• References to christos too vague to reach certainty – Yet even if christou is the correct word, we are still far from reaching certainty that it is a reference to Jesus Christ. We must remember that the word christos was not a personal name of Jesus but a title, the Greek translation of the Hebrew word mashiach ("Messiah, anointed one"). Like its Hebrew counterpart, this Greek term could apply to any number of people. It occurs in the Hebrew Scriptures more than 60 times, designating priests, prophets, and kings, as well as the anticipated Messiah. It even describes the pagan ruler Cyrus of Persia (Isa. 45:1, LXX). Calling someone christos does not necessarily identify that person with Jesus. Even the Greek Scriptures warn that many would claim that title (Mark 13:21-22).
• The meaning of goistais – In Theological Dictionary of New Testament, Gerhard Delling defines goes, the lexical form behind goistais, as “imposter, charlatan, one who performs magic through formulae.” Its only New Testament occurrence is in 2 Timothy 3:13: “…evil men and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” Delling says that among ancient people, those who believed in demon possession tended to hold the goes in high respect, while the educated people tended to look down on such a person. (See also the entry for goes in the Liddell-Scott-Jones lexicon, which defines it as "sorcerer, wizard" and secondarily as "juggler, cheat.")
If this term goistais, therefore, were a reference to Jesus Christ, it would be most inappropriate. Jesus did not perform miracles through such formulae as abracadabra, alacazam, or presto. When He did speak, he gave simple commands, such as “Be healed!” or “Rise and walk!” Even the words ephphatha and talitha koum of Mark 5:41 and 7:34, respectively, are merely “Be opened!” and “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”, spoken in Aramaic, Jesus’ native tongue. Rather than using formulae, Jesus constantly varied the means by which he healed people—sometimes touching (e.g., Mark 1:31), or saying a few words (e.g., Mark 2:11), or healing without touch (e.g., Matthew 12:13) or even without being present (e.g., Mark 8:13). Some scholars believe He probably varied His healing procedures for the very purpose of avoiding magical associations.
The archaeologists have apparently forced their translation, as if goistais is genitive singular, like chrestou, and functions in the phrase as an appositive. Goistais, however, is dative plural, making their suggested translation impossible. The phrase dia chrestou goistais probably means "[Given] through kindness for the magicians."
• The dating is probably too early – At the time of Jesus, tens of centuries before the printing press, and two millennia before the digital age with its instant communication, events in one part of the empire often had little impact beyond the immediate vicinity. For the ripple effect of the ministry of Jesus to reach Alexandria would take some years, and at first would be felt only in Christian and then Jewish circles. For it to sweep across to pagans like the owner of the soothsayer's bowl would take even longer. And not only would the magician have to know of the miraculous power, but enough time would have to elapse for to convince him or her that customers would also be aware of Jesus.
Yet the latest date assigned for the bowl is the early first century. Given that the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ happened no earlier than 30 CE, that only allows 20 years before we reach mid-century. One hundred years or even more might be needed for the ripple to flood the pagan consciousness of Alexandria.
What can we conclude?
If the engraving did refer to Jesus Christ, it would constitute an extrabiblical confirmation that Jesus was a miracle-worker. This is similar to the impact of what is now known as the Paris Magical Papyrus, dated to about 300 CE. It describes an elaborate exorcism ritual, which begins, “I adjure you by the god of the Hebrews,” and then lists a number of mystical names, of which Jesu is the first. The adjuration continues with numerous references to biblical events and persons, some of which are garbled. The point for New Testament studies is the confirmation that in Egypt about 150 years after the resurrection, Jesus was known as a successful exorcist and called “the god of the Hebrews.” This latest discovery would make a similar argument from evidence much, much earlier.
Such evidence opposes against claims skeptics have made for generations that Jesus' miracles all have rationalistic explanations. The eyewitnesses found sufficient proof in Jesus' works to discern the all-powerful hand of God. In the words of the Apostle Peter, Jesus "went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with Him" (Acts 10:38). Even if legitimate, this evidence would not constitute proof that Jesus was a magician, despite the claims of such books as Jesus the Magician: Charlatan or Son of God? by Morton Smith, published in 1978. (See Barry Crawford’s largely negative review, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion [10/26/1978].)
The problem, however, is that the evidence is too early and that it is too ambiguous to be credible. It seems to be another example of archaeologists attempting to grab headlines by placing their latest discovery in the same sentence with the words “Jesus Christ.” Such unwarranted coupling often contributes to unjustified conclusions about Jesus among the ignorant and the credulous.
NOTE: The Franck Goddio Society has responded to this blog.
To many Jesus was a Healer or Magician
II.THE MEDICINAL AND MAGICAL PROPERTIES OF SPITTLE (MK. 7:33, 8:23; JN. 9:6)
The authors of Mark and John report that Jesus applied spittle to the eyes of the blind and the dumb (Mk. 7:33, 8:23 and Jn. 9:6). Saliva was widely reported to have medicinal properties in the ancient world. For example, Celsus and Galen mention its healing properties and Pliny collected together many instances of its use in the treatment of boils, pains, sores, snake bites, epilepsy and eye diseases.[1] Even modern medical studies have investigated the usefulness of saliva as an antiseptic healing agent.
The merits of saliva for treating eye-diseases in particular are noted in a variety of Jewish, Greek, Roman and early Christian sources.[2] Egyptian myth tells us that Thoth healed Horus’s blind eye by spitting on it and perhaps the most documented account of a saliva healing is that of the Roman emperor Vespasian (A.D. 69) who was approached by a blind man, a follower of the Egyptian god Serapis, who asked him to ‘moisten his cheeks and his eyes with saliva.’[3] When Vespasian did so, the blind man’s eyesight was restored. R. Selare demonstrates that cures for sore eyes which require a combination of spittle and clay, perhaps directly influenced by John’s Gospel, have survived right up to the modern day.[4] However, most ancient cures involving spittle do not incorporate medical language into their instructions, but instead involve ritualistic elements which suggest that the efficacy of the result produced owes its success not to the physical properties of saliva itself, but to a symbolic usage that is based on inherent superstitions surrounding the magical employment of saliva. For example, Pliny’s writings on the ‘medicinal’ properties of spittle often take on a supernatural quality which betrays an underlying conviction in its magical potency:
‘The best of all safeguards against serpents is the saliva of a fasting human
being. But our daily experience may teach us yet other values of its use.
We spit on epileptics (comitiales morbos) in a fit, that is, we throw back
the infection. In a similar way we ward off witchcraft (fascinationes) and
the bad luck that follows meeting a person lame in the right leg.' [5]
A widespread confidence in the inherent magical powers of spittle and the act of spitting is demonstrated throughout history by the numerous ancient customs and rituals which use spitting as a basis for a covenant [8], as a means to increase luck [9] or to curse enemies and the efficacy of charms, cures and exorcisms was believed to be increased by spitting during, or after, their application. Under further investigation, most spittle cures rarely have solid grounding in medical observations, but instead rely on a charm-like quality founded upon a superstitious belief from which they take their effectiveness.
John P. Meier views the crucifixion of Jesus as historical fact and states that based on the criterion of embarrassment Christians would not have invented the painful death of their leader.[24] Meier states that a number of other criteria, e.g., the criterion of multiple attestation (i.e.,. confirmation by more than one source), the criterion of coherence (i.e., that it fits with other historical elements) and the criterion of rejection (i.e., that it is not disputed by ancient sources) help establish the crucifixion of Jesus as a historical event.[25]
Although almost all ancient sources relating to crucifixion are literary, the 1968 archeological discovery just northeast of Jerusalem of the body of a crucified man dated to the 1st century provided good confirmatory evidence of the gospel accounts of crucifixion .[26] The crucified man was identified as Yohan Ben Ha'galgol and probably died about 70 AD, around the time of the Jewish revolt against Rome. The analyses at the Hadassah Medical School estimated that he died in his late 20s. These studies also showed that the man had been crucified in a manner resembling the Gospel accounts. Another relevant archaeological find, which also dates to the 1st century AD, is an unidentified heel bone with a spike discovered in a Jerusalem gravesite, now held by the Israel Antiquities Authority and displayed in the Israel Museum.[27][28]
This article is about the historical event. For other uses, see Baptism of Jesus (disambiguation).
Francesco Albani's 17th century Baptism of Christ is a typical depiction with the sky opening and the Holy Spirit descending as a dove.[1]
The baptism of Jesus marks the beginning of his public ministry. This event is recorded in the canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. John's gospel does not describe Jesus' baptism, but John the Baptist does testify of the other things in John 1:15–36.[2] [3]
In the New Testament, John the Baptist preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins (Luke 3:3), and declared himself a forerunner of he that would baptize "with the Holy Ghost and with fire" (Luke 3:16). In so doing he was preparing the way for Jesus.[4] Jesus came to the Jordan River where he was baptized by John.[4] [5] [6] [7] The baptismal scene includes the heavens opening, a dove-like descent of the Holy Spirit, and a voice from heaven saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”.[4] [8]
Most modern scholars view the fact that Jesus was baptized by John as an historical event to which a high degree of certainty can be assigned.[9] [10] [11] [12] [13] Along with the crucifixion of Jesus most scholars view it as one of the two historically certain facts about him, and often use it as the starting points for the study of the historical Jesus.[14]
Interesting view on the Gospel of Mark
Mark, The Embarrassing Gospel
Filed under: Criteria: Embarrassment,Gospel of Mark,Religion — Neil Godfrey @ 7:30 pm
The criterion of embarrassment is a “rule” commonly appealed to by scholars to argue that certain events must be historical because they were so well-known and undeniable that, although gospel authors were clearly embarrassed by them, they nevertheless could not avoid addressing them. One example is the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. Why would gospel authors say that Jesus was baptized by his inferior unless it really happened? Surely it was not in the interests of presenting Jesus as the superior to John the Baptist to publicize such an event. The only explanation could be that the event was so well known that the authors had no choice but to report it and put the best spin on it that they could muster.
(This reasoning sounds so “self-evident” that it deserves to be kept in mind when reading the scholarly explanations for why Paul does NOT mention so much about Jesus for the reason that it was “so well known that there was no need to address it” — even if to do so would (a) support his position, or (b) require spin to get around how Jesus embarrassed Paul’s position.)
But there is a problem. One of those canonical gospels demonstrates not a single ounce or gram of embarrassment over Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist, nor any of the other episodes to which spin has to be plied by the other gospels to get around various “embarrassing but unavoidable historical facts.” The Gospel of Mark simply waltzes in and unashamedly offers us a point by point account of how John the Baptist baptized Jesus (his superior)!
Could it be that three of the canonical gospels (Matthew, John and Luke) were not so much embarrassed by “historical facts” as they were by their predecessor, the Gospel of Mark?
Should the criterion of embarrassment point not to the historicity of the events themselves, but to offence at the “unorthodox” theology implicit in the original canonical gospel?
The Gospel of Mark shows no signs of embarrassment at all over the baptism of Jesus. Nor does it appear to have any trouble in suggesting Jesus could lose his temper. It even tells a story of Jesus needing two attempts to completely heal a blind man. But Mark’s account of the trial of Jesus before Pilate is most puzzling when compared against standard scholarly explanations for how the other gospel authors treated this event.
See also: Historical Jesus
Judaea and Galilee during the first century.
The question of the existence of Jesus as a historical figure is distinct from the study of the historical Jesus which goes beyond the analysis of his historicity and attempts to reconstruct portraits of his life and teachings, based on methods such as biblical criticism of gospel texts and the history of first century Judea.[29][30][31][32]
Virtually all modern scholars of antiquity agree that Jesus existed, and most biblical scholars and classical historians see the theories of his non-existence as effectively refuted.[1][3][4][9][10][11] In antiquity, the existence of Jesus was never denied by those who opposed Christianity[/color].[33][34] Robert E. Van Voorst states that the idea of the non-historicity of the existence of Jesus has always been controversial, and has consistently failed to convince scholars of many disciplines.[9] There is, however, widespread disagreement among scholars on the details of the life of Jesus mentioned in the gospel narratives, and the agreement on his existence does not include agreement on his divinity.[5][6][7][8]
Although a very small number of modern scholars argue that Jesus never existed, that view is a distinct minority and most scholars consider theories that Jesus' existence was a Christian invention as implausible.[30][8] Christopher Tuckett states that the existence of Jesus and his crucifixion by Pontius Pilate seem to be part of the bedrock of historical tradition, based on the availability of non-Christian evidence.[30] Graham Stanton states that "Today nearly all historians, whether Christians or not, accept that Jesus existed".[11]
A number of ancient non-Christian documents, such as Jewish and Greco-Roman sources, have been used in historical analyses of the existence of Jesus.[35] These include the works of 1st century Roman historians Josephus and Tacitus.[35][36] Josephus scholar Louis H. Feldman has stated that "few have doubted the genuineness" of Josephus' reference to Jesus in Antiquities 20, 9, 1 and it is only disputed by a small number of scholars.[37][38][39][40] Bart D. Ehrman states that the existence of Jesus and his crucifixion by the Romans is attested to by a wide range of sources, including Josephus and Tacitus.[41]
The Mishnah (c. 200) may refer to Jesus and reflect the early Jewish traditions of portraying Jesus as a sorcerer or magician.[42][43][44][45] Other possible references to Jesus and his execution may exist in the Talmud, but they also aim to discredit his actions, not deny his existence.[46][47][42]
Scholars generally agree that Jesus was a Galilean Jew who was born between 7 and 2 BC and died 30–36 AD.[12][13] However, in a review of the state of modern scholarship, Amy-Jill Levine stated: "Beyond recognizing that 'Jesus was Jewish' rarely does scholarship address what being 'Jewish' means."[48]
Most scholars hold that Jesus lived in Galilee and Judea.[15][16][17] The Talmud refers to "Jesus the Nazarene" several times and scholars such as Andreas Kostenberger and Robert Van Voorst hold that some of these references are to Jesus.[47][49] Nazareth is not mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian gospels portray it as an insignificant village, John 1:46 asking "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?"[50] Craig S. Keener states that it is rarely disputed that Jesus was from Nazareth, an obscure small village not worthy of invention.[50][51] Gerd Theissen concurs with that conclusion.[52]
The languages spoken in Galilee and Judea during the first century include the Semitic Aramaic and Hebrew languages as well as Greek, with Aramaic being the predominant language.[18][19] Most scholars agree that during the early part of the first century, Aramaic was the mother tongue of virtually all women in Galilee and Judea.[20] Most scholars support the theory that Jesus spoke Aramaic and that he may have also spoken Hebrew and Greek.[18][19][53][54]
Most scholars reject that there is any evidence that an adult Jesus traveled or studied outside Galilee and Judea.[55][56] Robert Van Voorst states that modern scholarship has "almost unanimously agreed" that claims of the travels of Jesus to Tibet, Kashmir or India contain "nothing of value".[57]
Something to think about
"Let me tell you about a person whose name is Jesus." This, again, is what I would say to our hypothetical space traveler who wants to know about Christianity. I would begin by telling stories about Jesus, the same stories that the apostles and their followers told and wrote down and that have come down to us today. To tell anyone what Christianity is, we must begin with Jesus — with the Jesus who lived in our midst, with "the historical Jesus."
Jesus .. Man or God....it's all in your view of who is Jesus?
Who is Jesus? Depends on who you ask.
Tensions are rising between North Korea and the rest of the world, as the notoriously secretive nation reportedly prepares medium-range missiles for launch.
South Korean news agency Yonhap reported last week that North Korea has loaded the two missiles onto mobile launchers; in response, South Korea sent destroyers to its northern neighbor's coast. The North Korean government also says it plans to restart a major nuclear reactor it shut down as part of an international deal five years ago. And leader Kim Jong-un ordered rockets readied to strike U.S. military bases in the Pacific, not to mention the U.S. mainland. (It's not clear that North Korea's missiles have that kind of range.)
Amid this brinksmanship, North Korea remains remarkably shut off from the rest of the world. Read on for what's known about the hermit country. [Nuclear Security: Best & Worst Countries (Infographic)]
1. Isolation nation
The Korean peninsula has long been a battlefield for the world powers nearby. Japan controlled Korea (then one nation), until the end of World War II; after Japan's surrender, the United States and Soviet Union sliced the country along the 38th parallel, with the United States administering the south and the Soviet Union controlling the north.
This division became permanent after the United Nations failed to negotiate a reunification in 1948. The first president of North Korea, Kim Il Sung, declared a policy of "self-reliance," essentially shutting the nation off diplomatically and economically from the rest of the world.
It's a philosophy called iuche, or self-mastery. The idea is that the North Korean people must rely on themselves only. This philosophy, according to Kim Il Sung, required North Korea to maintain political and economic independence (even in the face of famine in the 1990s) and to create a strong national defense system.
2. Mythical leaders
North Korea's ruling dynasty has always cast itself as somewhat supernatural. Founder Kim Il Sung was known as Korea's "sun," and claimed control of the weather. Along with his son Kim Jong Il's birthday, Kim Il Sung's birthday is a national holiday. After his death, Sung was embalmed and still lies in state in Pyongyang.
Kim Jong Il's mythology is no less extensive. His birth was hailed as "heaven sent" by propagandists, and state media has often touted impossible feats: He scored a perfect 300 the first time he tried bowling, and shot five holes-in-one the first time he played golf. Upon his death in 2011, the skies about the sacred mountain Paektu in North Korea allegedly glowed red. [Supernatural Powers? Tales of 10 Historical Predictions]
Kim Jong Un, Kim Jong Il's son and successor has yet to have quite so many tall tales told about him, but the news media have described the new leader as "born of heaven" upon his ascension to head of state. In December 2012, North Korean state media declared the discovery of a lair supposedly belonging to a unicorn ridden by Tongmyong, the ancient mythical founder of Korea. The story wasn't an indication that North Koreans believe in literal unicorns, experts said, but a way to shore up Kim Jong Un's rule and North Korea's cred as the "real" Korea.
3. National prison
All the fanciful and funny myths about North Korea's dictators cover up a disturbing truth, however: Some 154,000 North Koreans live in prison camps, according to South Korean government estimates. (Other international bodies put the number at closer to 200,000). There are six camps, surrounded by electrified barbed wire. Two camps allow for some "rehabilitation" and release of prisoners, according to "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" (Viking, 2012). The rest are prisons for life.
"Escape from Camp 14" tells the story of Shin Dong-hyuk, the only person known to have escaped from one of these camps and to have made it to the outside world. Shin was born in the camp; his father was imprisoned because his brother had abandoned North Korea for South Korea decades earlier.
Torture, malnutrition, slave labor and public execution are ways of life in the camps, which are known from satellite imagery. An Amnesty International report in 2011 estimated that 40 percent of camp prisoners die of malnutrition.
4. Daily life in North Korea
Given North Korea's secrecy, it's hard to imagine what daily life in the country is really like. In the book "Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea" (Spiegel & Grau, 2009), journalist Barbara Demick interviewed North Koreans who escaped to South Korea. They describe a society tied by family (during the famine of the 1990s, parents and grandparents starved first, trying to save food for their children) and inundated with propaganda.
"In the futuristic dystopia imagined in 1984, George Orwell wrote of a world where the only color to be found was in the propaganda posters. Such is the case in North Korea," Demick writes.
It's not clear how many North Koreans buy into this propaganda. Interviews with North Koreans in China by the New York Times suggested that smuggled DVDs from South Korea have enabled average North Koreans to get a glimpse of the world outside their borders.
Very recently, foreign journalists on supervised trips in Pyongyang have been allowed 3G connections on mobile phones, enabling real-time pictures of daily city life.
5. Difficult adjustments
With such limited access to the outside world, North Koreans who do make it out often struggle to adjust. Many are paranoid, a skill that served them well at home where anyone could turn anyone else in to the police for saying the wrong thing. Some are cognitively impaired by early malnutrition. And few know anything about world history outside of North Korean propaganda. [Top 10 Controversial Psychiatric Disorders]
"Education in North Korea is useless for life in South Korea," Gwak Jong-moon, principal of a boarding school for North Korean refugees, told Blaine Harden, the author of "Escape from Camp 14." "When you are too hungry, you don't go to learn and teachers don't go to teach. Many of our students have been hiding in China for years with no access to schools. As young children in North Korea, they grew up eating bark off trees and thinking it was normal."
According to Harden, the suicide rate for North Korean refugees in South Korea is two-and-a-half times that of the rate for South Koreans.
Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.
I think so too. They have enough artillery to choke a horse.
So do you think North Korea will attack?
Touché!
Any Walking Dead Fans out there?
Can't forget this one
"A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin." -
-- H. L. (Henry Louis) Mencken
Good post! Amen!
I think the VA does great things......not like when your dad went thru.
"Cynic, n: a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be." -
-- Ambrose Bierce
That's why I love it...Christians put too much fairy dust on it.
Cancer is just a "bad" cell that multiplies faster than normal cells. We all have cancer....our bodies just kill them.
Satan I rebuke thee!
How so?
Met a WWII black vet fought on Okinawa ......shook his hand and thanked him......thought of your dad too.
NRA = Idiots.
NRA response to kids shot in schools....more guns.
Just pissed off teenagers....being rebellious. By the way, how was the " I kick puppies" convention? Asshole. Ps. I missed you. XXXOOOOs
Jewish Wisdom is awesome.
3 people died....quite in a muck here.... She served her time but?
Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai taught: “If you have a sapling in your hand and someone tells you the Messiah has arrived, first plant the sapling and then go out to welcome the Messiah” (Avot d’ Rabbi Natan B31). This teaching by one of our most important sages is certainly counterintuitive. Before running out to greet the long-awaited Messiah, one must first do the seemingly mundane work of planting a tree. Rabbi Yochanan highlights the spiritual nature of tree-planting, grounding the action in the redemption of the world.
The spiritual and practical nature of trees and tree planting is celebrated most fully during the holiday of tu bishvat, the 15th of Shevat (this year February 7-8). In ancient Israel, the 15th of Shevat marked the beginning of the tax year for the tithing of fruit trees. Ten percent of all produce was set aside for the support of the poor and the landless Levites and priests.
God is a Greenie
New International Version (©2011)
Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed.
Waverly Brown
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Waverly L. Brown (1935–1981) was a Nyack, New York, police officer who was killed in the line of duty during an infamous 1981 armed robbery of a Brinks Armored Car, along with fellow Nyack officer Edward O'Grady II and Brinks security guard Peter Paige. The event garnered national headlines and led the arrest and imprisonment of several people involved, many of whom were members of the Weather Underground and Black Liberation Army.
Prior to his law enforcement career, Brown served in the United States Air Force and participated in the Korean War. In 1966, he became the first African American member of Nyack's police department [1]. By 1981, he had served with the department for 15 years. Nicknamed "Chipper", he was well liked by his fellow officers, and often cooked meals for them during his shift [2].
[edit]1981 armed robbery
On October 20, 1981, heavily armed members of the Black Liberation Army ambushed a Brinks armored car parked in front of the Nanuet Mall in Nanuet, NY. One guard was killed and another was severely wounded. Following the attack on the guards, the robbers took several bags of cash and fled the scene, ditching their van and entering a waiting U-Haul truck in a nearby parking lot, driven by Weatherman Underground members. An alert college student saw the robbers entering the U-Haul and called the police, triggering an intense police search for the truck.
At the intersection of Route 59 and Mountainview Ave., Nyack Police Officers Waverly Brown, Brian Lennon, Sgt. Edward O'Grady, and Detective Artie Keenan pulled over the truck and ordered the driver to exit the vehicle with their guns drawn. A woman later identified as Kathy Boudin subsequently exited the truck with her hands in the air, feigning innocence, and pleaded with them to put down their guns.
At this point, the officers started to wonder if they had the wrong truck, but suddenly the rear door of the U-Haul flew up, the robbers stormed out, and immediately opened fire on the startled police. Officer Brown was killed almost instantly. Sgt. O'Grady managed to fire all 6 shots from his service revolver, but was hit multiple times by M16 fire and died shortly after being transported to a local hospital. The other officers survived the shootout with minor injuries, while the suspects fled the scene in multiple directions.
[edit]Aftermath
Boudin along with fellow Weathermen Judith Alice Clark and David Gilbert, and BLA member Samuel Brown were all arrested while attempting to escape the scene of the crime.
On October 23, NYPD detectives in Queens, New York attempted to pull over a car bearing a license plate that was linked to a getaway vehicle used in the Brinks robbery. The two suspects, Samuel Smith and Nathaniel Burns, in the car tried to evade the police, but Smith was killed in a shootout after firing on the pursuing officers, while Burns was arrested after his own gun jammed.
An ensuing investigation carried out by the police and FBI led to the arrest of several more suspects charged with involvement in the robbery, including senior BLA member Donal Weems (A.K.A. Kuwasi Balagoon), and Marilyn Buck, who supplied the robbers with weapons and let them use her apartment to plan the robbery. The last suspect to be arrested was the ringleader of the robbery, Jeral Williams, in 1986.
Clark, Brown, Gilbert, Williams, and Weems were all sentenced to terms of 75-years to life in prison. Unlike her fellow Weatherman members, Boudin decided to recognize the legitimacy of the court system and work out a plea bargain. She was sentence to a term of 20-years to life and was paroled in 2003. Buck was sentenced to 50-years to life for her role in the robbery and several other charges.
Brown was survived by his mother and three children, all of whom also served in the Air Force just as their father did. His son, Gregory, followed in his father's footsteps, joining the United States Postal Police [3].
[edit]External links
Detailed story of the Brinks robbery
Officer Down Memorial page tribute to Brown
O'Grady - Brown Memorial Scholarship Fund
Categories: Murdered African-American peopleMurdered American police officers1935 births1981 deathsPeople murdered in New YorkAfrican-American military personnelAfrican-American police officersUnited States Air Force airmenAmerican military personnel of the Korean WarDeaths by firearm in New YorkTerrorism deaths in the United States
The 60s were crazy
Rockland County Legislator Ed Day, R-New City, a candidate for Rockland County executive, today called on Columbia University and the Columbia School of Social Work to immediately terminate the adjunct professorship of Kathy Boudin, the paroled radical convicted of murder for her role in the Oct. 20, 1981 Brinks robbery and murders in Rockland County.
Nyack Police Officer Waverly Brown and Sgt. Edward O'Grady were killed at a road block at the entrance to the New York State Thruway on Mountainview Avenue in Nyack, and Brinks guard Peter Paige was killed in the armored truck robbery outside the Nanuet Mall.
“I come to this both as a former police officer and parent of a Columbia student,” said Day. “Kathy Boudin should never have been paroled in 2003, and she certainly should not be educating students. She was directly responsible for the deaths of those police officers, asking them to lower their weapons so her compatriots could ambush and kill them, and she was only eligible for parole at all because she managed to cop a plea deal.”
The Brinks robbery, beyond the murders, had a lasting impact on Rockland County and New York State. The incident led to improved communications among local police departments in and improvements in weapons and protective gear - bulletproff vests - used by local police officers. In Rockland, the cost of the Brinks case in part led to the launch of a sales tax in Rockland County to help fund county government.
Day noted that the Brinks robbery gang was armed with automatic weapons.
“At issue here,” Day continued, “is not whether there should be academic diversity or a broad spectrum of life experiences amongst the faculty at a university. At issue is that there are certainly dozens, if not hundreds, ofpotential professors just as qualified for the job, but who never took part in the killing of innocent people in an attempt to fund a revolution.”
Although the Nyack Police Department no longer exists, every year a memorial service at 4 p.m. on Oct. 20 at the site of the Brinks slayings in Nyack brings together survivors of that day along with family members of the victims and hundreds of local, state, regional and national law enforcement officials. A scholarship named in honor of O'Grady and Brown is awarded annually to support Rockland County students seeking a career in law enforcement.
Day added that he supports integration of rehabilitated criminals who have completed their sentences into society, but that someone convicted of such a heinous crime and sentenced to a life sentence should not have been paroled, and “should not be in a position to shape the views of our youth in any capacity.”