Also
Mark 10:17-25
The Rich Man
As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’ ” He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions. Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
That was Palm Sunday lol. Fuckin murdered the guy later that week.
Nothing Christians hate more than people who are doing the exact same shit their supposed prophet did.
Almost like they’re worshipping the cross rather than anyone who died on one.
100% and they try to change the word “mamon” to “money” in “the love of
moneymamon is the root of all evil.”Which they further interpret as “well, i don’t love money. I just love the things it gets. Therefore, its all good.”
I mean, if Jesus meant money, he would have used the Hebrew word for money and wouldn’t have switched to an aramaic word that means “wealth, over and above what you need to exist.”
However, you can’t reconcile its actual meaning with American style supply-side Jesus.
Another interesting thing is how the bible tries to blame the Rabbis for Jesus death, doing it via the Romans. If the Rabbis wanted Jesus dead, they would have killed him and they would have done so by stoning him to death.
The Romans almost exclusively used crucifixion only on pirates, slaves or insurrectionists. Last I checked, there were no reports of Jesus being a slave or a pirate.
Palm Sunday was seen as the start of a movement and the Romans conspired to kill him for it and nip it in the bud. The rest is spin. Presuming Jesus was real in the first place, of course.
I think I agree on the first part Mamon represents a personification of wealth/greed which a Priest might say is really just another way of saying a love of self (e.g. pride). A message in this parable is “to whom much is given much will be required”. As well as the “a man cannot serve two masters” bit.
Jesus existed. He’s perhaps the most documented pre-modern figure.
Romans crucified serious offenders. That includes the categories you provided as well as thieves, murderers etc
The Pharisees brought Christ to the Romans because they considered him a heretic and demanded his execution. Pontius Pilate found no fault in him and offered Barrabas instead. The Pharisees rejected Barrabas and Pilate, fearing rebellion, granted their wish and washed his hands of it all. While the Romans crucified Christ the Pharisees were his accusers.
This. The Pharisees were the 1% of their time and place. They had it all. Wealth, power, political clout. And only they were permitted to enter the Holy of Holies and lay eyes upon the Word of God. They prayed in public, gave public alms, claimed to be the most pious and righteous of all and preached a message about how they were the chosen ones and everyone else should serve them. Then, along comes this barefoot guy from across the Galilee who is believed to be born of a virgin, claiming to be the Son of God. They’re all waiting for him to place crowns upon their heads and cement their position as God’s Chosen. Then he goes and does the exact opposite. He preaches a message counter to their narrative, calls them out for their false piety, tells them God is pissed at them for their showy displays, and the masses are just eating it up. They couldn’t let that stand!
Could you imagine someone, anyone, doing that today? In the US, many politicians and celebrities claim to love and serve God. They make huge displays of their holiness, and pray in public, and give to the poor in full display, and spin this narrative of being more virtuous than everyone else. Then someone comes along with a counter message. That man/woman/person would be dead within a week!
What we need to do here is find a way to liquify the camel’s body and increase the diameter of the eye of the needle. Then it’s really just a matter of patience.
Perhaps we can simply process the camel and spin it into string?
Once that’s over with we can use the same method to mass-produce Camel McNuggets.
You sonovabitch, I’m in!
A rope through the eye of a needle, I think they realised it was a mistranslation.
Edit: Biblical Greek “kámēlos” (camel) written in place of Biblical Greek “kámilos” (anchor rope/mooring cable). Neither are going to thread a needle, so I’m not sure what’s bothering everybody.
Possibly also “the eye of a needle” meant a gate in Jerusalem. Regardless, it doesn’t mean what people think it means when they first hear it. Still has the same message, just less stupid.
No, it doesn’t. This is a bullshit lie spread by rich fucks. The words are meant literally - the animal camel through the tiny eye of an actual needle.
I mean, in the context of the passage it’s pretty fucking clear that it isn’t an easy thing to do. It doesn’t matter if the saying was slightly off, the message is “give away all your possessions in order to follow Christ”.
No, it’s right there in the text. “Sell”, not “give”. You can be rich, you just can’t have stuff.
Checkmate camels
Blessed are the cheese makers. 🙏
“I’m God, your great great […] great grandmother did something i didn’t like so i hate you and plan to torture you for all eternity. Please execute me slowly and painfully so that i can forgive you!”
Everything about this is theologically incorrect.
We live with the consequences of Adam’s sin (death) which is a mercy because it means we can become sanctified and enter the kingdom of God instead of being eternally fallen. God loves you but hates your sin. God does not torture you. The experience of God is heaven for those that are sanctified but hell for those that are not. A poor analogy would be that a football game is the same for everyone but only those for a certain team are happy with the outcome. (Just to give an idea of how a shared experience can be different for different people) Finally Christ didn’t ask anyone to execute him but he knew they would. He lived a perfect, sinless life. His death allowed him to enter hades and conquer death thereby freeing man from the damnation of sin and grafting all of mankind into the new covenant which allowed all to be saved through Christ.
I mean, he and his closest followers/the apostles really thought the world would be ending sometime in the next hundred years and that his resurrection was step one of the Jewish apocalypse (which would eventually include a physical kingdom of God on earth)
The messages of kindness, love, and redistribution of wealth are great, but they’ve kinda been muddied since I found out it was started as a doomsday cult.
That being said: be kind, love one another, and distribute your wealth anyway
He also said he’s the son of God. If you say that today in the right place, you’ll still die for it.
Actually he did not. The whole “Jesus is the literal son of god” thing was invented by the churches some hundreds of years after Jeus was dead. In the same wake Jesus never spoke about the trinity, that god would have three aspects. That is also an invention of the churches to make christianity more palateable to polytheist pagans, in the same way that christmas was put next to the winter solstice and easter onto spring where it was mixed with pagan fertility deities, quite literally being named after the Germanic goddess of spring Eostre in Englisch or Ostera in German where easter is called Ostern.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Son_of_God_(Christianity)
Can’t wait for season 3!!
Is season 3 even coming?
Tis. Gaiman has said he’s writing it now. Will come out next year with any luck…
Which show is it?
That would be from good omens season 2 (positive its good omens 70% sure it’s season 2 edit, it was season 1.), it’s produced and released by Amazon, based on works by Patchett and Gaiman (they had all 3 seasons storyboarded before patchett passed, and everything is produced with Gaimans final approval iirc) they are incredibly different stories, and both entirely consuming to watch.
“Good Omens” on Amazon Prime - originally a book by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman!
And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables; And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house a house of merchandise.
— John 2:15–16
And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.
— Matthew 21:12–13
"Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.
— James 5:1-6
Glory to God
Does “be kind to each other” include attacking them with a whip?
Yes. He was justified in exposing their corruption and hypocrisy in a way they would understand. His house of worship was turned into a “den of thieves” where merchants were taking advantage of poor widows etc
where merchants were taking advantage of poor widows etc
Where are you getting that from? The bible says nothing of the sort. It says “And He entered the temple area and began to drive out those who were selling and buying on the temple grounds” Both selling and buying. Jesus cast out the poor old widows who just wanted to worship the way God told them to. The vendors were selling offerings that people could burn as part of their worship and animals to be sacrificed. They were providing goods that were necessary for worship at the temple. It is not at all clear what Jesus was complaining about.
If we take it literally, I see two options:
- He did not like that there were burnt offerings and animal sacrifices, but Jesus alludes to the temple being a house of prayer, which is a reference to Isaiah 56:7 “their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all people.” The burnt offerings and animal sacrifices were intended by God.
- He just didn’t like commerce within the temple. He complains about the temple being turned into a den of thieves, not about there being thieves at all. Which means as long as the den of thieves was outside the temple Jesus would have been fine with it.
As far as I see, neither of these justify assault.
Where are you getting that from?
Luke 20:45-47 Beware of the Scribes 45 Then, in the hearing of all the people, He said to His disciples, 46 “Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, 47 who devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation.”
If we take it literally, I see two options:
Poor exegesis incoming… I recommend getting an Orthodox Study Bible and reading the footnotes that follow along with each verse. The interpretation from the Church isn’t isolated to scripture but includes church tradition and the analysis of the Church Fathers.
The short version, however, is that the “money changing” was an exploitative racket the Pharisees used to enrich themselves.
who devour widows’ houses
OK, I’ll give you that. It’s a full chapter after he drove out the buyers and sellers, with only irrelevant preaching in between, but it’s in there.
Poor exegesis incoming
Of course it is poor exegesis, I started with “If we take it literally”.
Orthodox Study Bible
What? Because orthodox is the one true version of Christianity. You say it yourself it is an interpretation, and no interpretation is more authoritative than any other.
“money changing” was an exploitative racket
You could make the argument that any business is exploitative, inside the temple and outside the temple, but he just kicked them out of the temple, he didn’t outright ban commerce. This is leaning toward option 2. Now, how does that justify assault?
What? Because orthodox is the one true version of Christianity.
Yes exactly. It is the one true church of apostolic origin and is over 2000 years old. It is the supreme authority on the interpretation of text. When you read about the Pentecost Christ ascends into heaven and leaves the apostles in charge of his body (e.g. the church). The patriarchs of the Orthodox church can trace their episcopate origins back to those very same apostles. You can look it up.
Of course it is poor exegesis, I started with “If we take it literally”.
You don’t have the historical, theological, philosophical, anthropological or linguistic expertise to begin to properly exegete the text. You and many others are simply taking a modern perspective and forcing it onto a document that was a contemporary of Nero. Since the days of Christ Church Fathers have spent their lives reading, translating and exegeting texts. Misinterpretation isn’t just a problem with those outside the faith but also heterodox Protestants and to a lesser extent Catholics. Mormons think they have the right interpretation for example. People don’t realize that there is and always has been a final authority on the scriptures and it’s the Orthodox church and it’s traditions. You can read the canons from early synods and ecumenical councils if you want to see what I mean.
