(February 13, 2018 at 12:43 pm)Jehanne Wrote:(February 13, 2018 at 12:00 pm)vorlon13 Wrote: What does Jesus need with a whip ?
Can't He just turn miscreants into newts or something ?
Or how about a more Biblical turn of phrase, couldn't Jesus have commanded the earth to vomit out the money changers ??
THAT would have got their attention !!!
Like the tale of Jesus' arrest in a garden, the story is not believable. For instance, cutting off someone's ear off with an ancient sword would, in and of itself, be a miracle. Swords in that time were not sharp, and the angle of attack would be impossible for anyone to make.
But, such makes for a good story, for believers at least!
Aren't you overlooking the symbolism of one of the disciples cutting off the high priest's servants ear to the story in Genesis 3:24 (NLT) = "After sending them out, the Lord God stationed mighty cherubim to the east of the Garden of Eden. And he placed a flaming sword that flashed back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life."
Yeshua is depicted as the tree of life and when the disciple cut off the servant's ear he was acting like the cherubim who was guarding the tree of life in the Garden of Eden after Adam & Eve had been expelled. And you will notice that the Yeshua incident also takes place in the garden of Gethsemane. So the later story is a repeat of the first story.
When the disciple cut off the servant's ear he symbolically prevented the servant from hearing the message from the tree of life. But Yeshua had mercy on the one who would do him harm (also repeated in numerous passages) and gave him an opportunity to hear the message of eternal life.
The thing to remember when reading the biblical stories is that even if they seem illogical and ridiculous they are all based on the Ten Commandments found in Exodus 34:12-28 and that they are all related to other stories in the Bible.
