RE: Why are Paul's writings in the Bible?
October 7, 2023 at 1:28 pm
(This post was last modified: October 7, 2023 at 2:11 pm by Bucky Ball.)
Quote:They came to Bethsaida. Some people brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village; and when he had put saliva on his eyes and laid his hands upon him, he asked him, "can you see anything?" And the man looked up and said "I can see people, but they look like trees walking." Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he looked intently and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Mark 8:22-25
Quote:At Alexandria a commoner, whose eyes were well known to have wasted away, on the advice of Serapis (whom this superstitious people worship as their chief god) fell at Vespasian's feet demanding with sobs a cure for his blindness, and imploring that the emperor would deign to moisten his eyes and eyeballs with the spittle from his mouth. Another man with a maimed hand, also inspired by Serapis, besought Vespasian to imprint his footmark on it. Josephus Histories, 4.81
Tacitus, "Those who were present still attest both miracles today, when there is nothing to be gained by lying."
Josephus thought Vespasian was the messiah, or at least as someone in Rome he got money to try to establish Vespasian was the messiah. He would not have said Jesus was a "christ" in the very same book he wrote to establish Vespasian was the messiah. Also in War 6.5.4, he claims that prophecies about the Messiah's universal rule were actually predicting Vespasian's emperorship.
The "star shall come out of Jacob" prophesy, ... This image refers to Balaam's prophecy of the star in Numbers 24:17: “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not nigh: a star shall come forth out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the forehead of Moab, and break down all the sons of Sheth” (Numbers 24:17). Vespasian, was (before he was emperor) a general in the Levant. There were a number of writers who claimed this "prophesy" referred to Vespasian, as he was in "Jacob", for a while before he was emperor.
Every religion is true one way or another. It is true when understood metaphorically. But when it gets stuck in its own metaphors, interpreting them as facts, then you are in trouble. - Joseph Campbell
Militant Atheist Commie Evolutionist
Militant Atheist Commie Evolutionist