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RE: What is the religious defense of this Jesus Christ quote?
August 2, 2024 at 12:16 am (This post was last modified: August 2, 2024 at 12:27 am by Ferrocyanide.)
(July 30, 2024 at 6:40 am)Vicki Q Wrote: Secondly, it's not about baldness. There is no indication anywhere that Elisha went prematurely bald, and he lived long after these events. Elijah had only just gone to heaven, and that context makes it clear that Elisha had done the ritual head shaving that was funeral custom at the time.
No one said that it is about baldness. There are a lot of details missing from the Bible and it is possible that the author chose not to state at which age Elisha began losing his hair. It is even possible that he was like Charlie Brown.
There is no mention that Elisha did any funerary custom either.
The word BALD appears 25 times in the Bible.
There isn’t a single case where it names a specific jew and says that he started to go bald.
Quote:Elijah had only just gone to heaven, and that context makes it clear that Elisha had done the ritual head shaving that was funeral custom at the time.
A shaved head is a bald head. That’s according to the language of the Bible.
Let me give you some examples:
Quote:Leviticus 21:5 KING JAMES VERSION
They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh.
^^^^^That is a commandment. It is saying do not shave your head. I don’t know why they aren’t using the word SHAVE. The word SHAVE does appear many times in the Bible.
Another example:
Quote:Micah 1:16 KING JAMES VERSION
Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee.
^^^^^Make thee bald means to shave your head. Your head is shaved and therefore, you are bald according to the language of the Bible.
Another example:
Quote:Ezekiel 27:31 KING JAMES VERSION
And they shall make themselves utterly bald for thee, and gird them with sackcloth, and they shall weep for thee with bitterness of heart and bitter wailing.
Another example:
Quote:Jeremiah 16:6 KING JAMES VERSION
Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them: {16:7} Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.
Quote:Thirdly, the Hebrew words used for 'boys' cover a spectrum from ankle biters to army ready young men. Think 'hoodie'. And lots and lots of them. Not nice if they take agin' you.
The text qualifies them as “little children”.
Anyway, whether they are 5 y old or more is irrelevant. An immoral act has taken place by the jewish god. He resorts to murder.
Quote:Fourthly, the town was a hotbed of religious tension, and the youths were on the God-disliking side. The writer is clearly telling us it's all about to kick off, with 'it' being Elisha's head.
That’s an interpretation of yours.
There is no indication that the story is fake. It is the story of Elijah and Elisha. Why would they tell us a true story, about a couple of real guys, telling us about their activities, and suddenly insert a few lines of fake story?
How does a christian decide which lines are real and which lines are made up? You gave your reasons but these are poor reasons.
Quote:At which point in the story, God intervenes to protect His servant against His enemies; a bear, which was probably in the woods for the well known reason, and didn't appreciate the disturbance, decides to demonstrate the possible consequences of excessive noise.
You said that the jewish god intervenes to protect his servant. In other words the jewish god made the decision to have the 42 little children killed.
Protect? That is an interesting choice of words here.
What would the jewish god do if someone spits on Elisha? Shove an atomic bomb down someone’s throat and blow him up?
Quote:It's a parable. It picks up on a number of key themes that occur throughout the OT. God looked after those of His people who were faithful. If God's people bring up their children to oppose God, it doesn't end well. Otherwise, nothing to see here.
If it is a parable and all of it is just parable, then the jewish god has not helped his people. He hasn’t done anything negative either.