RE: This is strange. Explaining stuff to myself.
December 11, 2016 at 7:41 pm
(This post was last modified: December 11, 2016 at 7:42 pm by Crossless2.0.)
(December 11, 2016 at 3:54 pm)purplepurpose Wrote:(December 11, 2016 at 3:14 pm)Alex K Wrote: It depends how you interpret them and what you mean by selfish. Jesus preaches to leave your family because they are not as worthy of your attention than he, and join him. Sounds pretty selfish to me.
According to the idealistic story described in the bible, Jesus, had only a "good fight" in his mind, no selfishness. He wanted only selflessness and even trough lies wanted to provoke as many people as possible to join his path.
Story is pretty, like superman fairy tale is.
Jesus had a lot more than a selfless "good fight" in mind. He appears to have believed some version of the eschatological ideas that were current in some strands of 1st Century Judaism: about the dawning Kingdom, the separation of the wheat from the chaff, and a hell from which one needed to be saved. And it was all happening -- who knows? -- really soon!
I think it is in that context that one must try to understand his thoughts on family (and perhaps ritual observance, too).
Salvation, being a child of the Kingdom rather than one of the damned . . . such concerns aren't exactly selfless.
