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  1. M

    Languages of the NT literature

    Many of them were, but in Acts there are people in Jerusalem from "every" nation in the world. The languages represented there would have been far more numerous than Latin, Greek, and Aramaic. No, that's not what Acts is referring to. Keep in mind the visitors from other countries are said to...
  2. M

    That is me.

    That is me.
  3. M

    mormonism racist?

    Wait a minute. I thought you just said you've never personally studied the Book of Mormon. Do you mean to tell me these accusations are just what you've heard other people say? You don't know that any of this is actually accurate? Actually Heleman 7:24 explains that the Nephites are going to...
  4. M

    mormonism racist?

    Oh, sure, the church's past was definitely racist by today's standards. By the standards of the day, however, it was nothing unusual. I hope you don't intend to make the blatantly presentistic argument that today's morality can and should be used as the interpretive framework for analyzing 19th...
  5. M

    A Response to If_U_Knew: Jesus, the Law, and 1st century Judaism

    I believe that early Christianity was far more cohesive with formative Judaism than we are currently aware (but many scholars are coming around to the idea). Scholars like Daniel Boyarin and James McGrath have long espoused the idea that Christianity was not as radical a departure from the...
  6. M

    A Response to If_U_Knew: Jesus, the Law, and 1st century Judaism

    My statement was about my research foci. I do a lot of research on the relationship of formative Judaism and early Christianity. I do also spend a lot of time working with modern Judaism, although ancient Judaism is my specialization. I try to attend Seder services whenever I can (the local...
  7. M

    A Response to If_U_Knew: Jesus, the Law, and 1st century Judaism

    I didn't say it was the "first thing," and I'm not postulating a reading that might be. What I'm doing is trying to account for the presence of an anomalous reading. You've based your identification of this bit of text on the impression that it is anomalous. You insist it must have existed prior...
  8. M

    A Response to If_U_Knew: Jesus, the Law, and 1st century Judaism

    And we have a clear picture of the original texts because of Origen. You are assuming that all the texts are equally prone to corruption, which is not necessarily incorrect, but the integrity of Origen's witnesses is quite established. I don't recall saying that, but I also don't recall you...
  9. M

    A Response to If_U_Knew: Jesus, the Law, and 1st century Judaism

    Fair enough. There is little support for asserting that a later textual witness to Origen has an equal proclivity for corruption as the texts of the New Testament. Eusebius preserves much of his writing, and that's where the reference to his castration comes from. I don't really give much...
  10. M

    A Response to If_U_Knew: Jesus, the Law, and 1st century Judaism

    If you just want to discuss the views of other Jews I'm more than happy to do that. It seems to me you're going to be more comfortable dealing primarily with the NT, though. If it's metaphor, of course. It may refer to castration. This is how someone can be born a eunuch (no one voluntarily...
  11. M

    mormonism racist?

    17th century English. Please get it right. I wouldn't call it insight so much as naive wishful thinking.
  12. M

    mormonism racist?

    "Exceedingly" is a 19th century rendering of a Hebrew literary technique whereby an infinitive and a finite conjugation of the same verb appear next to each other. In the KJV it is translated with "surely," "exceedingly," and with a few other auxiliary adverbs. Joseph Smith just used one method...
  13. M

    Against AK4: Rev. 14:11 and Eternity

    Thayer is an outdated text for people who don't know Greek. Better leixcons and grammars made it obsolete even while Thayer was still alive. It's only used by people who don't want to pay for a decent grammar or don't know any better. Try Blass, Debrunner, and Funk, or even Daniel Wallace's...
  14. M

    Against AK4: Rev. 14:11 and Eternity

    One could just as easily say that this verse must be translated incorrectly because it would contradict the other verses that say he will reign forever. That's called the hermeneutic circle, and you're deep in it. You can't prioritize one part of a text over another in the itnerpretation of that...
  15. M

    mormonism racist?

    Actually it's 17th century English he was imitating, and he explained it was because it would be more readily associated with scripture that way.
  16. M

    A Response to If_U_Knew: Jesus, the Law, and 1st century Judaism

    No problem. Nor is there evidence he was not. I'm not arguing that he was definitely married, I'm just arguing that your premise seems based on some tunnel vision. I see you making the argument that Jesus most definitely was not married, not just that not all Jews were married. Can you...
  17. M

    A Response to If_U_Knew: Jesus, the Law, and 1st century Judaism

    A little more technical discussion than I'm willing to get into right now. I'll give you this one for now. I disagree. 4 Maccabees praises the martyrs up and down for letting their wisdom control their bodies and for their ascetic responses to torture. Philo does the same thing in his...
  18. M

    A Response to If_U_Knew: Jesus, the Law, and 1st century Judaism

    I don't believe Jesus espoused a type of celibacy anything like that of the Essenes. Paul can be interpreted in that manner, but I'm wary of that interpretation, and it is Paul's alone, not Jesus'. [/COLOR] Respected by other Jews? You mentioned a Roman and two Hellenized Jews. Josephus wrote...
  19. M

    Do you understand the New Testament

    I disagree. Koine Greek is far more precise than English and many other modern languages. It is not quite as intricate and prosaic as Classical Greek, but once the differences are understood it can be almost every bit as precise. I don't think it's quite as widespread as you make it out to be...
  20. M

    Languages of the NT literature

    There are few of these, and many of them are sensationalists. You're not using the word "mythology" correctly. For biblical scholarship, mythology deals with the epic drama and interplay of the gods with each other in various stock type-scenes in etiological or propagandistic texts. Strictly...
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