Bible Wrap Up

Let's start at the end. Revelations is the worst part of the bible. Yeah a lot of crazy shit happens but it ends up sounding like a drug trip more than anything. Everything in the book seems to be done by weird animal hybrids. Even Jesus described as a "lamb with seven horns and seven eyes." This is a reference to some of the visions interpreted by Samuel in the old testament but that doesn't make it any less bizarre. Revelations might mean to be a prophecy, or it might be referring to contemporary events (I'm sure most of you know that '666' is referring to Emperor Nero) All in all though, one of the books I was looking forward to the most ended up being kinda worthless.

Between revelations and the gospels lies a bunch of letters written mostly by Paul. It's an interesting glimpse into the workings and persecutions of early Christians but doesn't offer much substance beyond that. Paul reaffirms that Jesus rose from the dead and that you don't need to circumcise yourself. He makes an awful lot of comments about how women should obey their husbands. One of the most important takeaways from Pauls letters is that it's apparent that these Christians believed Jesus' return was imminent. Nobody ever mentions a date but one part that stands out to me is that Paul tells his single followers not to get married. This advice seems to be a "why bother? the end is coming" kind of deal.

The timing of the new testament is pretty interesting to me. It's placed in chronological order, but the Gospels were written after Pauls letters and preaching. Mark was the first of the Gospels and used as source material for the other three and anything that was put into Mark would have already been influenced by the teachings of Paul. Paul never mentions anything about Jesus' life aside from the crucification and resurrection so it's hard to tell what was invented about Jesus' life by the Gospels. It's interesting to note that Mark doesn't mention the virgin birth. Biblical scholars pretty much universally accept that the virgin birth is a later addition. Mark starts with the Baptizing of Jesus at which point God opens the sky and claims Jesus as his son. There are some early views that Jesus was 'adopted' by God at this point.

Mark's ending is also one of the most disputed parts of the bible. Certain stylistic changes suggest that Mark originally ended at Mark 16:8. Conveniently this is right before any mention of sightings of Jesus after the resurrection. Mark 16:8 ends with Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb which is definitely abrupt. It could be Mark (or whoever wrote this) died before he finished and an apprentice finished the work. A later scholar might have removed an ending and replaced it with the resurrection, too.  Or maybe Mark really did just want to finish the work there. This is just lost to history.

The whole New Testament is an interesting contrast to the Old. One of the biggest themes, as Sara pointed out to me, is the creation of a new covenant. This is especially apparent in Paul's letters. To me it seems as though Paul was very concerned with converting the Gentiles AKA non-jews. I can only imagine the difficulties of convincing others they need to follow Jewish law, not to mention circumcision. The new covenant seems like a convenient way to circumvent all those troublesome rules about not eating pigs and genital mutilation.

In that sense Christianity is definitely an easier religion to follow than Judaism since the only real rule is believe in Jesus. Judaism is also anything but inclusive, these are the chosen people after all. Others' faith seems to be appreciated but you never seem to have the same status. Christianity on the other hand  is willing to accept any believer and anyone can be saved. Unfortunately with Christianity you get a lot more lake of fire.

Speaking of the lake of fire, I find it really difficult to get any straight information about the Christian interpretation of hell. Of course that may just be because there is no agreed upon definition. It seems to be an even split between a disconnection from God and, y'know, mental and physical torture forever. The bible is pretty vague but Jesus definitely mentions fire. According to wiki though this might have been referring to a trash pile outside of town where they threw the bodies of sinners, so who knows.




So Bible is complete. My interest in holy books though is still well piqued and I'll probably give the Qur'an a go in the near future. I'll give you guys a break on these heavy religion blogs though. I probably find this stuff more interesting than anyone else. It was definitely a great read and I'd seriously recommend the Bible to anyone interested.

Still atheist though, sorry Jesus.

Feeling the spirits

A bottle of wine and 2 bible chapters can turn an otherwise lame Saturday into a good time.


John 19:34
 One of the soldiers stuck his spear into Jesus' side, and blood and water came out. ³⁵ We know this is true, because it was told by someone who saw it happen. Now you can have faith too.

WELL FUCK, now I know it to be true. A friend of a friend says it happened. 


John keeps bringing up "Jesus' favorite disciple" AKA (via King James) "the beloved disciple" which sounds an awful lot to me like jesus had a fuck buddy. I'm not alone here either http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disciple_whom_Jesus_loved

They're described as laying on jesus' bosom at the last supper. (John 13:23) Who might that be?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Damiane._Jesus_Christ_and_St._John_the_Apostle..jpg

oh Jesus...