I've started reading through the New Testament, I'm not sure how far I will get, but I thought I'd blog my findings. Today I started with the Book of Matthew. Now in order to be forthcoming I should tell you that I haven't "read through" (chapter by chapter) the New Testament in years (probably 12) and I'm not sure what I'm really going to find, but it could be interesting.
VS. 1-17 – A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ. Verse 17 says "Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ". I find this odd. Fourteen, fourteen, fourteen…I wanted to research this a little more and find out why 14 mattered, but instead I couldn't stop thinking about this joke my Aunt Marilly used to tell when I was very young
Once a man was walking down the street and he heard a voice on the other side of the fence singing "Fourteen, fourteen, fourteen". Curious to find out who was singing the man bent down and peeked into a small hole in the fence. As he got closer he was suddenly poked in the eye and then he heard someone singing "Fifteen, fifteen, fifteen".
That may not be funny now, but you should hear Marilly tell it, her laugh can be infectious. Anyway, I would have researched this more, but I got distracted. Moving on.
VS. 8-25 The Virgin Birth. The book kinda just cruises through the virgin birth like it was no big deal. 7 verses briefly hitting the key details…Mary was a virgin, she was "found to be with child through the Holy Spirit"…the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said don't divorce her…and then Jesus is born. (I've decided now to mark things I find odd with an asterisks point…found to be WITH CHILD through the Holy Spirit??? Asterisk on that verse. And Fourteen, fourteen, fourteen gets an asterisk as well…maybe some of you scholars want to try and explain things more clearly for us)
Verse 25 really stood out to me as one that I've read before but never really grasped it's concept.
(vs. 24) Joseph…took Mary home as his wife (vs. 25) BUT HE HAD NO UNION WITH HER UNTIL SHE GAVE BIRTH TO A SON.
I've been married almost 8 years now, I have 3 children of my own, and I know how rough "union" can be with a pregnant woman…but for 9 months? That is some serious waiting. Would it be inappropriate to insert a joke here about following the Holy Spirit in bed??? Probably…lets just mark verse 25* and move on to Chapter 2.
VS. 1-12: Jesus is born, 3 wise men go see him and drop off some gifts, King Harod wants to kill Jesus, the wisemen are warned in a dream about this, and so they leave a different way then they came.
VS 13-15 Joseph flees to Egypt to protect Jesus, AFTER being warned in a dream,… I'm curious why the so called "Wise-Men" didn't just say something. They had already had this dream. Would it have been too hard for them to just say "Hey Joe, grab your camels, you're comin' with… Harod wants to kill your baby." Instead they just leave and make Joseph have another dream. Not so wise now are they?
God seems to speak a lot through dreams…hmmmnnn, maybe my mother is on to something after all.
VS 16-18 Harod "orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under"… That's some sick sh*t right there (asterisk intended).
VS 19-23 Harod finally dies, an angel appears to Joseph (in a dream of course) and says "Go back to Israel". Joseph takes the fam to Israel and then realizes that Harod's son is ruling and he gets scared…yet another dream warning him…and he ends up in Nazareth. Not sure why he couldn't have gotten that info in his first dream, but no matter…all's well that ends well, right?
That ends chapter 2 and Jesus is safely hiding in Nazareth. In chapter 3 we get to find out about John the Baptist. I'm psyched.
For all the weird things mentioned in the first 2 chapters, Matthew just moves through them like no one would ever question things. I was raised on this stuff, so it always seemed normal to me, but I can't imagine being an adult and hearing this for the first time. I would imagine the response would be "Whoa, whoa, whoa…back up a minute…Virgin Birth…impregnated by God…can I get a little more info please?"
No.
I didn’t get your joke about poking eyes…
It can be difficult to tell a person to put a hold on their logic when it comes to reading certain areas of the Bible. Many believe that the people during that time had a primitive understanding of the things around them. Often times someone who has gone through a traumatic event in their life is more vulnerable to believe these things. Now I’m not saying that I don’t believe it didn’t happen the way that it is written. But I must admit that a lot of things in the Bible just sound crazy. But I guess in a natural world, supernatural would appear crazy. It doesn’t make it any easier.
One Love
It’s funny when you read the earliest writing in the new testament, the stuff written by Paul and the gospel of Mark, there’s absolutely no mention of any special birth of Jesus. It’s funny how many christians just kind of merge the Matthew and Luke virgin birth accounts and don’t realize how ridiculously different they are. And how obviously fabricated they are. Human beings didn’t know about the ovum until the 13th century. Of course, to a person living in the Roman occupied times of Jesus, women could be found with child because men shot the little babies inside the women and women just incubated the baby. Maybe Matthew and Luke added the virgin birth account to what they read in Mark because they desperately wanted Jesus to be the messiah and they were convinced that he was the messiah the old testament “predicted.” Matthew even goes so far as having jesus ride in to jerusalem on 2 donkeys because of another misinterpretation he had of old testament “predictions.” At the same time, Augustus Caesar was claimed to be born of a virgin. And hundreds of other Gods before Jesus and after. To any thinking person who does a bit of research it becomes very obvious that the virgin birth isn’t historical truth. But maybe it was never meant to be. Letting go of dated creeds and literalization of ancient, rather barbaric texts can’t be anything other than liberating.
The problem is that most people who take th Bible literally never really researched what was the prevailing thoughts and beliefs of the people at that time and even prior to that time. And that goes for Jews and Gentiles a like. It’s a whole lot easier to just take what is read at face value and leave it at that. People have been told be careful of what you read. Avoid anything that is not Christian or Bible based.Be sure of what you allow in your head. If God is on His thrown and has chosen you for a purpose, that purpose will be fulfilled regardless. If he knows your beginning and your end, than there should be no fear. But there is fear. The fear that doubt may start creeping in and that the realization that maybe the Red Sea didn’t part exactly like it did in the movie the Prince Of Egypt! That maybe everything that is written in the Bible is not meant to be taken literally. Hey , I want to believe that everything in the Word is literal. But I don’t. I hope that doesn’t make me a sinner(even though I already am). And no I am not trying to go to Hell on a grease pole or take the Hell express. But my prayer is not to strengthen my unbelief. My prayer is to help me see more clearly. Even if what I am to see is dissapointing.
One Love
This conversation somehow brings John 5:39 to my thoughts. “You have your heads in your Bibles constantly because you think you’ll find eternal life there. But you miss the forest for the trees. These Scriptures are all about Me! And here I am, standing right before you, and you aren’t willing to receive from Me the life you say you want.” (The Message Bible)
It is likely that 80% of the early Christians were illiterate, yet they changed the world. It was because they knew Christ, not because of research they did.
So, whatHEsaid…
I respect your piety, and your reverence for a text that you treasure. I get it, really I do. However, if Jesus is miraculous, omnipotent, etc., I doubt that the act of research can hold Jesus down in any way. Knowledge and the acquisition thereof seems like a pretty paltry tool in comparison with someone who is said to command the stars.
If the virgin birth didn’t happen, if the bible as we know it today leads us to believe things that are off the mark, if whatever….is that really the point that makes or breaks faith? I should hope not if it’s for real. Everyone suffers disillusionment when the “absolutes” in our lives start to break down: when we discover that our parents are human, cops are sometimes just trying to make their quota rather than trying to catch bad guys, doctors don’t always know what’s wrong with you, and you have to put the oxygen mask on yourself first if it drops down while you’re in a plane. Rules don’t work all the time, and information changes based on where you’re standing when you get it. This is not a function of evil. It’s a function of life. Grownups don’t have the luxury of choosing once and for all what we know for sure and believe for sure about anything, or we condemn ourselves to lives of closemindedness and ignorance.
We have a responsibility to research, I believe…on an ongoing basis. Why? Because if “The Truth” is something bigger than us, we have to move around it to understand it more fully, which means that sometimes, we’re going to have to re-evaluate.
Good for RP for continuing to read, continuing to be curious, and continuing to move around the Big Truth, looking for the parts he couldn’t see before and using what he sees today to help make sense of what he’s seen in the past.
Well, after re-reading what I wrote last night, I can see how it came across as ‘Holier than Thou’, I’m up here…you are down there thing.
I’m sorry.
Can I try again?
It seems all too easy to get caught up in trying to ‘end run’ or get around verses or events that are hard to understand. If you spend enough time doing it, you may get to a point where you cannot see the forest for the trees.
A lot of people who post/read here have spent years studying their bible, attending meetings, listening to sermons, doing and doing and doing to try to please God. (and senior pastors?) On the other hand, I know of very few people who spend any serious time in prayer/journaling, listening to the Christ within. Maybe that is the problem with having pastors/preists to be a messenger from God for you. If you can hear from God for yourself, you don’t really need them anymore do you?
John 10:27, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me”
John 10:16, And I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they shall hear My voice”
At the Transfiguration, Matt. 17:5, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well pleased; hear Him”. This is repeated 3 times, Mark 9:7, Luke 9:35.
A relationship with Christ is available to anyone. Revelation 3:20, “Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me.”