Podcasts about aesculapius

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Best podcasts about aesculapius

Latest podcast episodes about aesculapius

Saint of the Day
Hieromartyr Artemon, presbyter of Laodicea in Syria (303)

Saint of the Day

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 13, 2025


At the time of Diocletian's persecutions, he was a very old man, having served as a reader for sixteen years, then a deacon for twenty-eight years, and finally as a priest for thirty years, for a total of seventy-four years. The pagan judge put him in the Temple of Aesculapius, where large snakes were kept and worshiped as gods. Though the judge meant for Artemon to be attacked by the snakes, the holy priest immobilized them with the sign of the Cross, brought them out of the temple and, in front of the pagan priests, breathed on the snakes, which died instantly. The chief priest, Vitalis, fell to his knees and cried 'Great is the Christian God!' Artemon baptised him along with several of his friends.   The unrepentant judge then condemned Artemon to be thrown into burning pitch, but the judge himself was thrown off his horse into the pitch and died. After this, Artemon went free for a time and spent his time teaching the Faith to his people ("accompanied always by two tame deer," says St Nikolia Velimirovic!). But he was arrested again and beheaded in the year 303.

CCR Sermons
Hold Fast to His Name

CCR Sermons

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 17, 2024 37:12


Jesus Calling Pt. 3: Holding Fast to His Name 11-17-2024 Last slide – Hold fast to that which is good.   1) Jesus is my JUDGE.   “12“And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: ‘The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword.” (Revelation 2:12, ESV)   ·       Two-edged sword = judgement.   “2He made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow; in his quiver he hid me away.” (Isaiah 49:2, ESV)   “12For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:12–13, ESV)   2) Jesus sees how INTENSE my struggle is.   “13“ ‘I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.” (Revelation 2:13, ESV)   ·       Satan's Throne (dwells) =   This city was a legal center for the district and at the same time an old stronghold of emperor worship, where already in 29 B. C. a temple had been built to the divine Augustus and the goddess Roma, which was served by a powerful priesthood. Especially abhorrent to the Christians was the local cult of Aesculapius whose symbol was the serpent, which was called “the god of Pergamum” but to Christians was the symbol of the serpent of Eden. In addition to these pagan cults there towered on the Acropolis a throne-like altar of Zeus Soter (Savior) which commemorated the defeat of the barbarian Gauls by Attalus about 240 BC. - R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. John's Revelation (Columbus, OH: Lutheran Book Concern, 1935), 103–104.   Zahn takes it to refer to the cult of Aesculapius. He points out that under Diocletian Christian stonecutters from Rome carved out in the quarries of Pannonia not only pillars, capitals, and baths, but also victories, cupids, and even the sun-god in his chariot but refused to carve an image of Aesculapius, for which refusal they were put to death as being followers of Antipas of Pergamum. So much at least is certain that the Lord himself (not John as some say) regarded Pergamum as the one city among the seven where Satan even had his throne and thus ruled as king. All seven were thoroughly pagan, this one was the worst.  R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. John's Revelation (Columbus, OH: Lutheran Book Concern, 1935), 104.   ·       Antipas -   Show picture of where he might have been executed.   3) Jesus also sees where I've FALLEN SHORT.   “14But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. 15So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.” (Revelation 2:14–15, ESV)   ·       Teaching of Balaam   Now, the Lord says, the church in Pergamum has some members that are holding to the same teaching and are running to the idol feasts and the fornication practiced in the pagan temples in order to gain immunity and pagan favor for themselves. The two aorist infinitives express actuality. This eating and this fornicating also go together. It was so in the case of the sons of Israel; it is so in the case of these members in Pergamum who were repeating Israel's folly.  - R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. John's Revelation (Columbus, OH: Lutheran Book Concern, 1935), 107.   ·       Nicolaitans -   4) I must REPENT to escape judgement.   “16Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.” (Revelation 2:16, ESV)   ·       Repent -   Strong's Concordance:   Meaning: I repent, change my mind, change the inner man (particularly with reference to acceptance of the will of God), repent.   Word Origin: From the Greek words "meta" (meaning "after" or "beyond") and "noeo" (meaning "to think" or "to perceive"), thus implying a change of mind or heart.   ·       Make war   “31Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.” (Luke 14:31–32, ESV)   5) Jesus gives the conqueror INDIVIDUALIZED rewards.   “17He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.'” (Revelation 2:17, ESV)   ·       Hidden manna -   Trench, Epistles to the Seven Churches: “There can, I think, be no doubt that allusion is here made to the manna which, at God's express command, Moses caused to be laid up before the Lord in the Sanctuary, Exod. 16:32–34; cf., Heb. 9:4. This manna, as being thus laid up, obtained the name ‘hidden.' … This ‘hidden manna' … represents a benefit pertaining to the future kingdom of glory.”… All the statements regarding the heavenly joys are given in figurative language, and one of them is our eating and drinking there—note the feast in Matt. 8:11. The symbolism of the hidden manna is most appropriate here after the eating of things offered to idols in v. 14. In John 6:30, etc., Jesus calls himself (his flesh and blood… the manna, “bread from heaven,” to be eaten by faith. The fact that in John 6:49, etc., Jesus is “the living bread,” while in Revelation “the hidden manna” indicates the heavenly bliss, causes no difficulty.  - R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. John's Revelation (Columbus, OH: Lutheran Book Concern, 1935), 109.   ·       White stone, secret name -   “16He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); 17James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder);” (Mark 3:16–17, ESV)   Ψῆφος = pebble; the adjective “white” may well imply that a diamond is referred to. “A new name having been written” on this stone, ὄνομα καινόν, means a name “new” as replacing one that is old, the perfect participle indicating that, once written, this name remains. The remarkable thing is that no one knows this name save the person who receives the pebble. We think that those are correct who take this name to be the name for the person who receives the pebble and not a secret name of God or of Christ. - R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. John's Revelation (Columbus, OH: Lutheran Book Concern, 1935), 110.  

The Popeular History Podcast
0.21h Sayings of the Savior Part VIII: The Last Gospel

The Popeular History Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 27, 2024 106:56


IMAGE DESCRIPTION Oxyrhynchus Papyrus fragment with text of John 6:8-12. 3rd century. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:POxy1596-III.jpg LINKS Words of Jesus ("All the Red Letter Scriptures"): https://www.jesusbelieverjd.com/all-the-red-letter-scriptures-of-jesus-in-the-bible-kjv/    Parallel Passages in the Gospels: https://www.bible-researcher.com/parallels.html#sect1     Miracles of Jesus reference list: https://sunnyhillschurch.com/3301/the-37-miracles-of-jesus-in-chronological-order/    Venetian folk tale of Saint Peter's mom: https://iamnotmakingthisup.net/5663/saint-peters-mom-bless-her-heart/ Judas Boo: https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/boo-6377/ Joke Rimshot: https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/rimshot-joke-funny-80325/ TRANSCRIPT   Welcome to the Popeular History Podcast: History through Pope Colored Glasses. My name is Gregg and this is episode 0.21h: Sayings of the Savior Part VIII: The Last Gospel   All of these aught episodes are made to let us build our Pope-colored glasses so we can use the same lenses when we look at history together. If you're lost, start at the beginning!   Today we continue our Sayings of the Savior series with a look at the Gospel according to John, covering everything Jesus said there that we haven't yet discussed–yes, still leaving off things like the miracles we did in 0.20 and the parables and other sayings we did in earlier Sayings of the Savior installments--once again leaving you in suspense right before the concluding few chapters discussing Jesus' death and such, which we'll cover as we finish the remaining mysteries of the rosary in future episodes of our Catholic Worldbuilding series.   Before we get into it, a quick reminder that the Gospel of John is the odd one out of the four canonical gospels, that is, the Gospels that made it into the Bible. There are other Gospels, but not others that the Catholic Church holds as part of Scripture, that is, the inspired word of God.   As you likely remember very well from the other episodes unless you're starting here for some reason, and if you're starting here because you don't know where to find the others you can check out the Catholic Worldbuilding section of my website, Popeularhistory.com, in any case, as you probably do recall the other three Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are all known as synoptic gospels, that is, Gospels that should be read together, and clearly have a close relationship, with most of all of them being found in the rest of them. Luke Is the most unique, something like 35% of its material being standalone, much of that parables, some of that is Luke's memorable infancy narrative, while the approximately 20% of Matthew that's only in Matthew is a hodgepodge including Matthew's take on Jesus' infancy, and the 3ish % of material that's unique to Mark is… well Mark is the shortest Gospel so 3% of it isn't much but even so we haven't hit the most memorable bit of that small slice of the synoptics. We'll get there, but of course not yet because like I said today is about John. And I don't mean John Mark, the guy who wrote the Gospel of Mark, which really should be called John because you know, John is his actual first name, Mark's just a second part of it, anyways, uh yes so guy named John wrote half the gospels, don't worry about it, it's fine, one's the Gospel of Mark, one's the Gospel of John. I'm sure that's not confusing anything. Anyways, ignore the fact that I haven't said much about John yet today. I needed to give the Synoptics a bit of a collective farewell before we moved on and it seemed like a bit of statistics might be just the thing to get you all ready for me to change the topic.   Now, though John's Gospel (not John Mark's Gospel) isn't one of the synoptics, there are a few parallel areas I'll flag as we go, so don't think we're leaving the other Gospels behind entirely. Even if we tried, they're a big part of looking at history through Pope Colored glasses overall, which, in case you've forgotten, is the actual main plan for this podcast. Allegedly these worldbuilding episodes are just the background materials for that.   Overall, John stands out as the most theologically sophisticated of the Gospels, which has generally led scholars to argue it's the last-written of the bunch, a stance that actually aligns with tradition that credits the Gospel of John to, well, John, the longest-lived of the Twelve Apostles. Scholars, of course, aren't so sure about that specific attribution, as we've mentioned here and there they often like to think of a school of multiple authors writing the texts attributed to John, not just the Gospel but his three letters and the Book of Revelation.   In any event, that sophisticated theology is on full display right from the beginning of the text, and the opening verses of John, often called the Prologue, are extremely well known and influential within Christianity. Which I know is a given for pretty much every section of the Gospel texts, but I mean like even more so than the average Gospel text. As in, these verses used to be read as an epilogue to nearly every Mass, something that gave it the nickname of “The Last Gospel”.   Let's take it in:   JOHN 1:1-14 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. 9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” GREGG First, I'll simply note that it would have been a straightforward enough matter for me to start the podcast here, rather than back in Genesis. In fact, the basics of Christian theology, the trinity I discussed in that first episode before launching into Genesis' actual narrative, all that is more at home in a discussion of these verses than in that creation story, because here is what makes Christian history: the Incarnation. The Word made Flesh. This word and flesh and light and darkness business is also a pretty natural tie-in to the oldest wrong theology in the history of Christianity, and it's fair enough that various commentators have seen hintings at gnosticism in the text of John's gospel. In fact, some have theorized that the Gospel of John was written as a refutation of Gnosticism, but of course I'm treating this as a start-from-scratch beginner friendly kit, so it wouldn't be right of me to just keep saying “gnosticism”, “gnosticism” without spelling out what that means. Oh, and speaking of spelling, it starts with a silent “G”, check out the transcript I'm now consistently creating for the show notes in the episode description if you'd like the full spelling. Gnosticism, in a nutshell, is the idea that the physical world is evil, created by a flawed God. To the gnostics, this evil, broken world is something to be rejected, to escape from. For many of the gnostics, Jesus is the servant of the higher God, and is our ticket out of the icky yucky material, fleshy world. The knowledge of the evil of the world and how to escape from it is the secret that gives gnosticism its name, “gnosis” being Greek for “knowledge”. Gnosticism had a habit of piggybacking off Judaism and Christianity, with Gnostics basically forming secret clubs within the already generally secret Christian communities. We'll talk plenty more about Gnosticism as we go, as it was a sort of theological cancer within the Church for many years, but there's your official high-level overview. Getting back to John 1, the first verse is probably the most famous: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The notion that Jesus has been around since the beginning, as outlined in this chapter, is ultimately what cemented the victory of Catholic theology over Arianism, another wrong belief found among some Christians, aka a heresy, this one teaching that Jesus is not God Himself but is simply a creature-an important creature sure but in the end still one of God's creatures and so not as exalted as God Himself. Like gnosticism, the The Arian refrain of “there was a time when he was not” cannot be be squared with John 1, hence the fundamental importance of The Last Gospel to Nicene Christianity. And yes, we'll talk about what “Nicene” Christianity is in the future, specifically in 0.24. But we'll need to get past the first verse of John to get there. The second verse, “He was with God in the beginning” really solidifies the anti-Arian interpretation, but believe it or not I'm actually not going to repeat the rest of the prologue, because ultimately this section, while very, very,  important to Christian history, isn't one of the sayings of the Savior we're focusing on in this series. So, when does Jesus show up? Well, after a focus on John the Baptist, Jesus appears in verse 36, and speaks in verse 38:  JOHN 1 38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” 39 “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.” GREGG This particular calling is a favorite of the tv series The Chosen, which I know I've mentioned before but am not expecting to mention again, as we're heading out of their wheelhouse, at last as far as they've gotten up to this point. But it's worth checking out if you've got the time, and let's be honest, if you're listening to this, you probably do. What's next? Andrew and Simon Peter! JOHN 1 40 Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter ). GREGG This section allows us to introduce the split between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, though first off, there's been many splits and resolutions in that relationship over the years, not just the one in 1054, and second, while there's not currently unity there's not as fundamental a split as there has been previously since the mutual excommunications were lifted sixty years ago. Oh, and we've also made some reference to the difference already, when we were talking about the differences in biblical canons back in 0.7. Anyways, that's all years in the future. For now, just know that the tie-in is that eventually St Andrew would be credited with founding the Church in what wouId become Constantinople, the chief see of Orthodoxy, while St Peter would go down as the first Bishop of Rome, the beating heart of Catholicism. Having Saint Andrew as the first-called of the two--and the first-called Apostle overall–is therefore a point of pride for Orthodoxy, and one that I daresay as I look through these pope-colored glasses is a sorely needed one given Peter's elevation on pretty much every count afterwards. Note that he's already picked up his Peter slash Rocky nickname, much earlier in John than in the other Gospels, for example in Matthew that didn't happen until Chapter 16. Before we move on, I want you to know that I tried to look into Peter and Andrew's mother, considering we featured Peter's mother-in-law already and therefore it would seem to be quite the oversight to skip his actual mother, especially since she was apparently also the mother of Saint Andrew. Plus, it happens to be Mother's day when I'm writing this. But it turns out there's surprisingly little tradition on Peter's mother. Google seems to think her name is Joanna, but she's definitely not the better-known Saint Joanna mentioned at a few points in the Gospels. In fact, she's not a saint at all, according to the one story I did find about her, from, and this is the actual name: iamnotmakingthisup.net. Which isn't exactly an authoritative source but it points to a Venetian folk tale that describes Saint Peter's mother as irredeemable to the extent that Saint Peter has no way to let her into heaven based on her deeds. Which to be clear is incorrect theology considering your deeds aren't what get you into heaven, but let's roll with it. Apparently there was a time she gave someone an onion, so she got to try to climb to heaven via a string of onion roots, an effort which failed but got her promoted to taking care of Heaven's used wine barrels, ‘cause Venice. Speaking of promotions, before Chapter 1 is out Jesus promotes two more randos to disciple status, first Philip, who He tells “Follow me”, and then Nathanael, who gets to hear “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” When Nathanael asks Jesus how He knows him, Jesus replies, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you,” to which Nathanael replies “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.” Which leads us to Jesus's reply in the last couple verses: “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” 51 He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” The next chapter begins with Jesus' first public miracle, the miracle of the wedding at Cana, turning water into wine to keep the party going, which we covered in our miracles roundup in 0.20. The next scene is Jesus driving the moneychangers from the Temple, another one that shows up much earlier in John than it did in the synoptics, and always a crowd pleaser. Here's John's version: JOHN 2 13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from  the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father's house into a market!” 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” 18 The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” 20 They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.” GREGG Considering John is already talking about the resurrection in Chapter 2, I guess my running gag of treating it as a spoiler is done. In John 3, we have the first appearance of Nicodemus, a man unknown to the Synoptics but a recurring figure in John's account. If you've ever heard the phrase “born-again Christian”, you've got this colorful exchange to thank for the imagery: JOHN 3  Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” 3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” 4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother's womb to be born!” 5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.' 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” 9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked. 10 “You are Israel's teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” GREGG If you're thinking, “gosh that last part sounds like crucifixion imagery”, good job reading ahead; if you're *not* thinking “gosh that last part sounds like crucifixion imagery”, perhaps It would be helpful if I reminded you that the bronze serpent Moses had lifted up in the wilderness was lifted up in a pole, and that anyone who looked at it, according to Numbers 21, was cured and saved from the “firey serpents” that were plaguing the grumbly Israelites at the time. Interestingly, at least to me, the dominant symbol of healthcare worldwide is another serpent on a pole, which more cautious scholars don't necessarily connect with Moses' bronze serpent as it's definitely a symbol of the Greek god Aesculapius so not a Hebrew slash Jewish thing directly, but still, serpents on poles associated with medicine has to be a relatively limited field. And yet, not as limited as you might think, as there is apparently a shocking amount of controversy over whether to use one serpent or two on a pole to symbolize healthcare. But let's get back to John 3, which doesn't assign any speaking lines to Jesus, though the next few verses are, like John's prologue, a reflection that's proven *quite* influential in the history of Christianity, especially John 3:16, which reads: JOHN 3 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. GREGG The next verse hammers the same sort of anti-gnostic point we saw in the prologue: JOHN 3 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. GREGG So yay world! It's not all bad. Though it is pretty bad. Let's hear the rest of John's reflection without further interruption: JOHN 3 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. GREGG The chapter finishes with a heavy emphasis on John the Baptist, during which John says “He must become greater; I must become less.” So we'll take that and run with it, keeping John as a side character and chasing the sayings of the Savior into chapter 4, another classic scene, this time it's the Samaritan woman at the well. The parenthetical thoughts you'll hear early on are part of John's account: JOHN 4 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” 17 “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” 19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” 25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” GREGG We've spoken about Samaritans before, though it was during my daily show experiment, specifically in the context of Samaritans Deacon Philip baptized in Acts 8. In case you missed that, in a nutshell the Samaritans are traditionally descendents of the ten “lost” tribes left behind when Assyria invaded the Northern Kingdom of Israel, though the fact that they're generally called the “lost” tribes gives an indication of how that tradition is generally received outside the community. The mountain the Samaritan woman is referencing Is Mount Gerizim, in Samaritan tradition the holiest place on earth and the proper site of worship, never mind that Jerusalem Temple business. So, yes, there are some similarities and some differences between Samaritans and Jews. Oh, speaking of Jews, next time you're talking to a Christian antisemite, remind them that here we have Jesus saying, and I quote, “salvation is from the Jews”. Also note that the woman lied to Jesus and also  had five husbands before her current non-husband partner, which is probably not something Jesus approved of. And yet, no reproach is recorded. Because you don't have to be hammering people's faults all day, every day. Of course, we did stop at an odd point, with Jesus telling the woman–who Eastern Churches know as Saint Photine and consider not only a martyr but Equal to the Apostles, a level of veneration I genuinely wasn't expecting-anyways we left with Jesus telling the future Saint Photine He is the Messiah, and then I just cut things off. Why? Well, because my bible considered that the end of the section, but of course that just begs the question still. The reason we don't see her direct reply is the Apostles show up and interrupt things. Let's continue where we left off: JOHN 4 27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” GREGG Interesting the specific call out for what they didn't ask, perhaps John wants to draw attention to how Jesus was bucking normal expectations here but the disciples were used to it. Anyways, JOHN 4 28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him. 31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” 33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” 34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don't you have a saying, ‘It's still four months until harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps' is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.” 39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers. 42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.” GREGG  One aspect of this section is it has confirmation that my Sayings of the Savior series will always be incomplete, which isn't a surprise, presumably Jesus said lots of things that weren't recorded, in fact John basically says as much towards the end of his Gospel. Perhaps he hit the Samaritans with more of his patented harvest metaphors. Whatever it was, he spent two days at it. After that, Jesus went on a healing spree with miracles I covered in 0.20, including one on the Sabbath that got him into trouble with the local Jewish leaders. Here's the aftermath of that starting in Chapter 5 Verse 16: JOHN 5 16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. 17 In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” 18 For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. GREGG Jesus has a very lengthy response to this pushback, and it's another one that helped solidify Christian theology, so brace yourselves: JOHN 5 19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. 21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. 22 Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him. 24 “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. 25 Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man. 28 “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done  what is evil will rise to be condemned. 30 By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me. 31 “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. 32 There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is true. 33 “You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. 34 Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. 35 John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light. 36 “I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, 38 nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. 39 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life. 41 “I do not accept glory from human beings, 42 but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. 43 I have come in my Father's name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. 44 How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? 45 “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. 46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. 47 But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?” GREGG The next chapter, chapter 6, opens with a couple extra familiar miracles- feeding the five thousand and walking on water- and then gets real. Like, really real. Like, prepping for some Eucharistic mysteries level real. And the Eucharistic theme is touched off by folks from the five thousand looking for more bread. When they pursue him across the lake, he gives them a big old talk about what Catholics are happy to identify as the Eucharist, which we'll obviously be talking more about as we go. JOHN 6 “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” 28 Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” 29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” 30 So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'” 32 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.” 35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” 41 At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven'?” GREGG It's worth noting how controversially this is landing. Let's continue: JOHN 6 43 “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. 44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” 52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” GREGG Controversial for sure, but Jesus certainly shows no indication of a willingness to change analogy–or clarify that he's speaking metaphorically. So believers in the Catholic understanding of the Eucharist are perfectly willing to note that he must indeed be being literal here when he says this next part: JOHN 6 “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum” 60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” 61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. 64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65 He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.” 66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. GREGG After letting many of his followers walk over this whole bread is flesh and you must eat it business, and given passages like this and the Last Supper it's no wonder most Christians are big on the Eucharist, anyways, after that, Jesus turns to the Twelve: JOHN 6 67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” 70 Then Jesus replied, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” 71 (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.) GREGG It's always nice to see Peter stepping up, and it's always fun to queue up the boos when Judas Isacriot gets a mention . In the next section, chapter seven now, we see Jesus interacting with folks in the Feast of Booths aka the Festival of Tabernacles aka Sukkot. The scene naturally starts with Jesus declaring that he will do no such thing. JOHN 7 “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. 8 You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.” 9 After he had said this, he stayed in Galilee. GREGG Wait, didn't I promise Jesus at the Festival? What gives? Well, read on! JOHN 7 10 However, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. 11 Now at the festival the Jewish leaders were watching for Jesus and asking, “Where is he?” 12 Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, “He is a good man.” Others replied, “No, he deceives the people.” 13 But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the leaders. 14 Not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. 15 The Jews there were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having been taught?” 16 Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. 17 Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. 18 Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. 19 Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?” 20 “You are demon-possessed,” the crowd answered. “Who is trying to kill you?” 21 Jesus said to them, “I did one miracle, and you are all amazed. 22 Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath. 23 Now if a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing a man's whole body on the Sabbath? 24 Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.” 25 At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn't this the man they are trying to kill? 26 Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Messiah? 27 But we know where this man is from; when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.” 28 Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own authority, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, 29 but I know him because I am from him and he sent me.” 30 At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. 31 Still, many in the crowd believed in him. They said, “When the Messiah comes, will he perform more signs than this man?” 32 The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him. 33 Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I am going to the one who sent me. 34 You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.” 35 The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? 36 What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,' and ‘Where I am, you cannot come'?” 37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. GREGG The rest of the chapter is devoted to describing various responses to this preaching, from believing Jesus and accepting Him as the Messiah to wanting to execute him. Here Nicodemus pops up, perhaps unsurprisingly recommending the authorities hear Jesus out. Chapter 8 starts out with something of a tense scene, with Jesus effectively being given power of life and death over a woman who had been caught in adultery–no mention of the man. This woman, like many others, is unnamed in the text. The most common tradition in my experience is to associate her with Mary Magdalene, but that seems to miss the mark on several accounts, not least that John seems to like spelling out connections like that like when we saw Nicodemus pop up again last chapter when he was not only called Nicodemus but also described as “Nicodemus who had gone to Jesus earlier”, which is pretty straightforward. Also, Mary Magdalene's reputation as a reformed prostitute–apparently first popularized by none other than Pope Gregory the Great–doesn't have much of a leg to stand on unless you confuse her with the other Mary of Martha and Mary fame. Anyways, Mary Magdalene or not–probably not–but Mary Magdalene or not, the woman's life is in Jesus' hands: JOHN 8 “3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”” GREGG First off, note the presence of a call to repentance here, because my point earlier was not that it should never happen, but that it does not have to happen every time. This is also the only time we see Jesus writing, which I honestly probably wouldn't be pointing out if it weren't for the fact that we have no idea what he wrote. Like none. You tell me if you have ideas, Popeularhistory@gmail.com. One surprising bit about this passage is that apparently most Scripture scholars argue that it's a later addition, not an original part of the Gospel of John. An early addition, mind you, but an addition nonetheless. From the whole Pope-colored glasses perspective it doesn't matter, the canon of Scripture is settled and this passage is part of it. As we've discussed before, from a Catholic perspective the human authorship is theologically irrelevant. Of course, the number one use for this passage in Catholic water-cooler circles is a mariology joke: “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone”... *rock whizzes by*- mom! *drum sting* In verse 12, the scene shifts abruptly, possibly due to the later addition scenario I mentioned a minute ago. Let's pick back up without any gap, and see yet another passage of John's Gospel at pains to explain Christology, which just in case I haven't said it already is the mainstream Christian theological understanding of Christ. Anyways: JOHN 8 12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” 13 The Pharisees challenged him, “Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid.” 14 Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going. 15 You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one. 16 But if I do judge, my decisions are true, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent me. 17 In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true. 18 I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me.” 19 Then they asked him, “Where is your father?” “You do not know me or my Father,” Jesus replied. “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” 20 He spoke these words while teaching in the temple courts near the place where the offerings were put. Yet no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come. GREGG It's interesting to see Jesus referencing court here, or at least the temple courts, because I've got to say there's no way the argument He's giving would hold up in court. I probably would be pretty skeptical myself if I were one of the Pharisees here. Then again, I definitely get the sense that He's not primarily talking for *their* benefit here. Anyways, let's continue: JOHN 8  21 Once more Jesus said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.” 22 This made the Jews ask, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, ‘Where I go, you cannot come'?” 23 But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.” 25 “Who are you?” they asked. “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning,” Jesus replied. 26 “I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is trustworthy, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.” 27 They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father. 28 So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. 29 The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.” 30 Even as he spoke, many believed in him. 31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” GREGG This is the high water mark for this group following Jesus. It goes very far downhill as we continue, and understandably as Jesus has some hard things to say. You might also detect some feelings Jesus has about His own fate: JOHN 8 33 They answered him, “We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” 34 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are Abraham's descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. 38 I am telling you what I have seen in the Father's presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.” 39 “Abraham is our father,” they answered. “If you were Abraham's children,” said Jesus, “then you would do what Abraham did. 40 As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. 41 You are doing the works of your own father.” “We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.” 42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. 43 Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. 44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! 46 Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don't you believe me? 47 Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.” GREGG Only after being called children of the devil do the Pharisees turn on Jesus here. Some might argue that they were never on his side to begin with, because that's how some similar accounts play out elsewhere in the Gospels, but there's no hint of that here, in fact quite the opposite, remember partway through this section John had noted that some of the Jews were starting to believe in Him and Jesus began speaking to them in particular. This is heavy stuff. Anyways: JOHN 8 48 The Jews answered him, “Aren't we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?” 49 “I am not possessed by a demon,” said Jesus, “but I honor my Father and you dishonor me. 50 I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge. 51 Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.” 52 At this they exclaimed, “Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste death. 53 Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?” 54 Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. 55 Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.” 57 “You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!” 58 “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” 59 At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds. GREGG So in the end, let it never be said that Jesus was unwilling to antagonize. Chapter 9 opens with a miracle, and the entire chapter is devoted to the fallout from that miracle. It was the case of a man who had been blind since birth, and we did cover the miracle itself and its immediate aftermath in our miracles series--now that we're making sure we hit all the sayings of the Savior it's time to cover a later portion of the chapter, after the Pharisees conduct an investigation that does not go well for the healed man. We're picking up in Verse 35: JOHN 9 35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.” 37 Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.” 38 Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. 39 Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” 40 Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?” 41 Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains. GREGG The next chapter opens with one of the closest things John has to a parable, and it's a big one: The Good Shepherd. JOHN 10 “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them. 7 Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. 11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” GREGG The image of the Shepherd is all over Christianity. Priests are called pastors, bishops carry a shepherd's crook, and archbishops' pallia are made from the wool of lambs from Tre Fontane Abbey in Rome. Of course some overtones of the imagery predate Christ's parable, with the blood of the passover lamb marking Jewish door lentils since the Exodus. More on the Lamb of God soon. Later in the chapter, Jesus gets asked a pretty blunt question, and gives a pretty blunt answer: JOHN 10 “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father's name testify about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one. GREGG And, like last chapter, this declaration is not well received: JOHN 10 31 Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, 32 but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” 33 “We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” 34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods”'? 35 If he called them ‘gods,' to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside— 36 what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God's Son'? 37 Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. 38 But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” 39 Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp. 40 Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days. There he stayed, 41 and many people came to him. They said, “Though John never performed a sign, all that John said about this man was true.” 42 And in that place many believed in Jesus. GREGG All right, I need to address how I can possibly have hope for everyone when Jesus is walking around calling many of the people he interacts with children of the devil, as he did in chapter 7, and specifically not his sheep, as he does here. It's one thing to hope for universal salvation in the face of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, John's been hitting different. And yet in John 12:32 we'll hear Jesus say “I will draw all people to myself”. How do we get there from here? Well, ultimately, from a Christian perspective, the same way we get anywhere: by the grace of God. Not only at a higher level–the ”draw all people to myself” business is framed as being part of the Crucifixion–but also at a more intimate and personal level. Yes, I am suggesting that calling folks children of the devil is intimate and personal. When my children mess up, I parent them by clearly pointing out what they've done that's wrong and contrasting it to what they should be doing. It's not the warmest, fuzziest part of parenting, but it's an important part of parenting. I submit to you that Jesus is doing the same here. Of course in the end you may well not agree with me. That's to be expected. As long as you're getting something out of listening to all this, and presumably you are since you're a good chunk of the way through episode whatever, carry on. Let's get back to John's narrative. “If you do not believe me, believe the works”, Jesus said, and the next section, Chapter 11, is dominated by one of Jesus' most famous works, the resurrection of Lazarus. Of course we covered that among the miracles, and the Savior is silent outside of that portion, so on to Chapter 12, the anointing at Bethany. Those of you that listened to the daily show and Cardinal Numbers will recall the use I got out of the Martha/Mary dynamic, and I'm not the only one to use this Gospel scene as a parable. Let's go ahead and take it from the top, where it clearly ties in to the resurrection from the previous chapter: JOHN 12 12 Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 Here a dinner was given in Jesus' honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. 3 Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5 “Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages.” 6 He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. GREGG Judas, Judas. Get yourself together, man. And so we set the stage for one of the most badly applied sayings of the Savior, see if you can spot it: JOHN 12 7 “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. 8 You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.” GREGG The interpretation I'm referring to is the idea that because there will always be poor people we should do nothing to help those in poverty. Thankfully, that's straightforwardly rebutted by the beatitudes and by every parable that shows acts of compassion for the least among us as the way to love Christ. This section is, however, a reminder that the “sell the Vatican, feed the world” position is also wrong, not only economically–you'd feed the world for a day and then what–but spiritually as well. We're a physical people, the more our senses are engaged the more fully we can participate in liturgy. And yet for someone who has an allergy to incense, incense isn't going to help them worship, and for someone who has baggage associated with one style or another, they may be served more effectively by another approach. One of the most controversial things you'll hear me say is that there are multiple right answers as far as liturgy goes. Worship is made to draw people to Christ, and people are coming from different places. As long as it's within bounds according to the Church, God can and will supply what is lacking. And sorry for getting into a “what kind of Mass is best” discussion here, that's decidedly looking into the future,  but this passage features prominently in such discussions, and you all know I like teasing things before they properly emerge, so yes, get hype for 0.31: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. John 12 continues with that standard sign that we're coming towards the end of Jesus' time on earth, the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Jesus doesn't say anything in John's account, but it's a significant scene, so let's check out John's version: JOHN 12 12 The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the king of Israel!” 14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written: 15 “Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion;     see, your king is coming,     seated on a donkey's colt.” 16 At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him. 17 Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. 18 Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!” GREGG The most particular feature is that last bit, with the frustrated Pharisees still getting a spotlight even among the triumph. John's account is really very interested in that conflict. The next section opens with a surprisingly long message chain: JOHN 12 20 Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus. 23 Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25 Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. 27 “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name!” GREGG Jesus is a bit less direct about predicting his death in John than He was in the synoptics, calling it his “glorification”, but it's definitely still there, with the talk of seeds dying to spread growth. You get the sense that it's not really His first choice with His own description of His troubled soul, something that parallels Luke 22:42, Jesus' prayer in the garden at Gethsemane, pretty closely. And, yet while we will discuss that scene and that prayer, we actually haven't gotten to it yet, as Luke has it as part of his overall Passion narrative, a passion narrative being something discussing Jesus' finale of life, patior being a Latin term meaning to suffer, or to endure. By my counting, and folks vary, we're not *quite* to John's passion narrative yet, but the overlap is a sign that we're really very close. Then, God the Father, apparently, speaks, in a first for John's Gospel as John skipped the voice-from-heaven part of Jesus' baptism: JOHN 12 Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him. 30 Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine. 31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die. 34 The crowd spoke up, “We have heard f

Instant Trivia
Episode 1227 - The missing man - The reformation - The new york knocks - Last words - It sounds like

Instant Trivia

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 20, 2024 7:14


Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 1227, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: The Missing Man 1: Aboard Apollo 11:Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin. (Michael) Collins. 2: In a famous double-play combo:Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers. Frank Chance. 3: In the name of an optical products company:John Jacob Bausch. (Henry) Lomb. 4: In a legendary trio:Balthazar, Melchior. Caspar. 5: On an 1896 Republican presidential ticket:Garret A. Hobart. McKinley. Round 2. Category: The Reformation 1: This king's demand for an annulment aided the spread of the Reformation to England. Henry VIII. 2: Some reformers insisted that this initiatory rite be performed not on infants but on adults who had made a choice. baptism. 3: The Reformation's greatest leaders were Martin Luther in Germany and this Geneva-based Frenchman. Calvin. 4: Contrary to church doctrine, the Reformation declared that grace was a reward for this, not for works. faith. 5: Around 1545 the Catholic Church launched this movement to oppose the Protestants. the Counter-Reformation. Round 3. Category: The New York Knocks 1: Anyone from Boston will tell you the New England type of this, with milk, tops Manhattan's, with tomatoes. chowder. 2: The title of this Broadway musical that opened on May 5, 1955 makes its feelings about the local baseball team quite apparent. Damn Yankees. 3: Tough times at this arena, the "Mecca of Basketball", as even Pixar dunked on the Knicks in "Soul", explaining decades of futility. Madison Square Garden. 4: In their 1979 Top 40 hit "Shattered", this group sang, "Go ahead, bite the Big Apple, don't mind the maggots"... shadoobie. The Rolling Stones. 5: A Yelper on this landmark connecting Canal St. and Jersey City: a "traffic jam tunnel. If you have a small bladder like me, good luck". the Holland Tunnel. Round 4. Category: Last Words 1: This 1892 Leoncavallo opera ends with "La commedia e finita", or "The comedy is finished". I Pagliacci. 2: This term for "the end of the line" was once a god celebrated at the end of the Roman year. terminus. 3: In Clement Moore poem, what Santa said after "Happy Christmas to all". and to all a good night. 4: "Crito, I owe a cock to Aesculapius; do not forget to pay it". Socrates. 5: Founder of Communism, he said, "last words are for fools who haven't said enough". Karl Marx. Round 5. Category: It Sounds Like 1: Jay Leno's show, it sounds like how you address a letter for Sir Galahad. Tonight. 2: A cylindrical storage container for grain, it sounds like an order to exhale quietly. Silo. 3: A pitcher who comes in late in the game, it sounds like a feeling trees have in the spring. Relief. 4: It sounds like the kind of personality most likely to have a heart attack in the capital of Taiwan. Taipei. 5: A runway material, it sounds like what you do before you feather your Apple computer. Tarmac. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia!Special thanks to https://blog.feedspot.com/trivia_podcasts/ AI Voices used

BIBLE IN TEN
Acts 28:6

BIBLE IN TEN

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 6, 2024 7:28


Thursday, 6 June 2024   However, they were expecting that he would swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But after they had looked for a long time and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god. Acts 28:6   More literally, it reads, “And they expected him about to be inflamed or to fall down dead suddenly. And they, upon much anticipating, and seeing nothing unusual happening to him, having turned about, they declared him to be a god” (CG).   Paul was just bitten by a viper, which he shook off into the fire and suffered no harm. Now, Luke continues with, “And they expected him about to be inflamed.”   It is a unique word in Scripture, pimpremi. It is the usual medical word for inflammation in ancient Greek. It literally signified “to fire,” and thus a burning inflammation which includes swelling. They were sure Paul was a goner, so they watched, expecting him to be inflamed “or to fall down dead suddenly.”   This is the third and last use of katapiptó, to fall down, in the New Testament. All three uses come from Luke's writings. Those on the island were aware of this particular viper and knew its effects. Hence, they fully expected Paul to keel over and die.    Luke uses the word aphnó, suddenly, to describe their expectation. This is the third and last time it is used. It referred to the sudden coming of the Spirit in Acts 2:2 which was accompanied by sound and wind. It also referred to a sudden earthquake in Acts 16:26 when Paul and Silas were in prison and their chains were loosed.   The islanders were expecting something just as sudden with Paul, however, Luke next records, “And they, upon much anticipating.”   The word translated as “anticipating” was a word known in Greek medical writings. It signifies to watch in expectation where mental direction is employed. The people were keeping an eye on Paul, fully expecting him to have one of these symptoms. But Luke continues the thought with, “and seeing nothing unusual happening to him.”   Here, the words translated as “nothing unusual” were also used by physicians to indicate unusual symptoms of a disease, including something fatal or deadly. The use of these medical terms gives a good indication of the authenticity of Luke's authorship.   He was a carefully observant man who was able to see the same traits in others as they watched for such symptoms as well. Because nothing untoward came upon Paul, Luke next records of the people, “having turned about, they declared him to be a god.”   These words include another word unique in Scripture, metaballó. As a paraphrase, it signifies to change one's mind, but a literal translation is “to turn round” or “to turn about.” Just as a person will turn around to face another direction, so a person turns about in his mind when he changes his mind.   Instead of thinking of Paul as a murderer, they suddenly realized that he was instead rather extraordinary. Taking things a bit too far, however, they ascribed deity to him. It could be that they may have been thinking of the Greek deities like Apollo or Aesculapius who are depicted as subduing serpents.    Their minds surely raced, looking for a suitable conclusion. How could any mortal be bitten by a poisonous serpent and show no signs of it harming him?   Life application: This verse shows the fickle nature of the people which is found in all people everywhere. It is highlighted in Acts 14 as well but in the opposite sense. There, it said –   “Now when the people saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices, saying in the Lycaonian language, ‘The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!' 12 And Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. 13 Then the priest of Zeus, whose temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, intending to sacrifice with the multitudes. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard this, they tore their clothes and ran in among the multitude, crying out 15 and saying, ‘Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same nature as you, and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them, 16 who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. 17 Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.' 18 And with these sayings they could scarcely restrain the multitudes from sacrificing to them. 19 Then Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there; and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead.” Acts 14:11-19   In the eyes of those at Lystra, he went from being a god to being a dead man. On Malta, he went from being a dead man to being a god. In the case of their suddenly exclaiming Paul a god, their superstitions cannot be considered uncommon even in today's world. We simply package them up differently.   It is human nature to want to deify things we don't understand. But as Christians, we need to remember that there is one God. All else is a part of creation. We are never to ascribe deity to any created thing, we are to refrain from idolatry, and we are to promote God to His rightful position in our words to others.   In doing these things, we will be acting properly in the presence of our Creator.   Lord God Almighty, You alone are worthy of all glory, honor, and praise. You are magnificent in Your being and You are caring for Your creatures. May we respond to You accordingly, giving You alone our heartfelt worship and adoration. Yes, glory to You, O God, in the highest! Amen.

Saint of the Day
Hieromartyr Artemon, presbyter of Laodicea in Syria (303)

Saint of the Day

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 13, 2024 1:28


At the time of Diocletian's persecutions, he was a very old man, having served as a reader for sixteen years, then a deacon for twenty-eight years, and finally as a priest for thirty years, for a total of seventy-four years. The pagan judge put him in the Temple of Aesculapius, where large snakes were kept and worshiped as gods. Though the judge meant for Artemon to be attacked by the snakes, the holy priest immobilized them with the sign of the Cross, brought them out of the temple and, in front of the pagan priests, breathed on the snakes, which died instantly. The chief priest, Vitalis, fell to his knees and cried 'Great is the Christian God!' Artemon baptised him along with several of his friends.   The unrepentant judge then condemned Artemon to be thrown into burning pitch, but the judge himself was thrown off his horse into the pitch and died. After this, Artemon went free for a time and spent his time teaching the Faith to his people ("accompanied always by two tame deer," says St Nikolia Velimirovic!). But he was arrested again and beheaded in the year 303.

Saint of the Day
Hieromartyr Artemon, presbyter of Laodicea in Syria (303)

Saint of the Day

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 13, 2024


At the time of Diocletian's persecutions, he was a very old man, having served as a reader for sixteen years, then a deacon for twenty-eight years, and finally as a priest for thirty years, for a total of seventy-four years. The pagan judge put him in the Temple of Aesculapius, where large snakes were kept and worshiped as gods. Though the judge meant for Artemon to be attacked by the snakes, the holy priest immobilized them with the sign of the Cross, brought them out of the temple and, in front of the pagan priests, breathed on the snakes, which died instantly. The chief priest, Vitalis, fell to his knees and cried 'Great is the Christian God!' Artemon baptised him along with several of his friends.   The unrepentant judge then condemned Artemon to be thrown into burning pitch, but the judge himself was thrown off his horse into the pitch and died. After this, Artemon went free for a time and spent his time teaching the Faith to his people ("accompanied always by two tame deer," says St Nikolia Velimirovic!). But he was arrested again and beheaded in the year 303.

Restitutio
521 The Deity of Christ from a Greco-Roman Perspective (Sean Finnegan)

Restitutio

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 9, 2023 56:33


Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts Let's face it the New Testament probably calls Jesus God (or god) a couple of times and so do early Christian authors in the second century. However, no one offers much of an explanation for what they mean by the title. Did early Christians think Jesus was God because he represented Yahweh? Did they think he was God because he shared the same eternal being as the Father? Did they think he was a god because that's just what they would call any immortalized human who lived in heaven? In this presentation I focus on the question from the perspective of Greco-Roman theology. Drawing on the work of David Litwa, Andrew Perriman, Barry Blackburn, and tons of ancient sources I seek to show how Mediterranean converts to Christianity would have perceived Jesus based on their cultural and religious assumptions. This presentation is from the 3rd Unitarian Christian Alliance Conference on October 20, 2023 in Springfield, OH. Here is the original pdf of this paper. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5Z3QbQ7dHc —— Links —— See more scholarly articles by Sean Finnegan Get the transcript of this episode Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Introduction When early Christian authors called Jesus “god” (or “God”) what did they mean?[1] Modern apologists routinely point to pre-Nicene quotations in order to prove that early Christians always believed in the deity of Christ, by which they mean that he is of the same substance (homoousios) as the Father. However, most historians agree that Christians before the fourth century simply didn't have the cognitive categories available yet to think of Christ in Nicene or Chalcedonian ways. If this consensus is correct, it behooves us to consider other options for defining what early Christian authors meant. The obvious place to go to get an answer to our initial question is the New Testament. However, as is well known, the handful of instances in which authors unambiguously applied god (θεός) to Christ are fraught with textual uncertainty, grammatical ambiguity, and hermeneutical elasticity.[2]  What's more, granting that these contested texts[3] all call Jesus “god” provides little insight into what they might mean by that phrase. Turning to the second century, the earliest handful of texts that say Jesus is god are likewise textually uncertain or terse.[4] We must wait until the second half of the second century and beyond to have more helpful material to examine. We know that in the meanwhile some Christians were saying Jesus was god. What did they mean? One promising approach is to analyze biblical texts that call others gods. We find helpful parallels with the word god (אֱלֹהִים) applied to Moses (Exod 7.1; 4.16), judges (Exod 21.6; 22.8-9), kings (Is 9.6; Ps 45.6), the divine council (Ps 82.1, 6), and angels (Ps 8.6). These are texts in which God imbues his agents with his authority to represent him in some way. This rare though significant way of calling a representative “god,” continues in the NT with Jesus' clever defense to his accusers in John 10.34-36. Lexicons[5] have long recognized this “Hebraistic” usage and recent study tools such as the New English Translation (NET)[6] and the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary[7] also note this phenomenon. But, even if this agency perspective is the most natural reading of texts like Heb 1.8, later Christians, apart from one or two exceptions appear to be ignorant of this usage.[8] This interpretation was likely a casualty of the so-called parting of the ways whereby Christianity transitioned from a second-temple-Jewish movement to a Gentile-majority religion. As such, to grasp what early postapostolic Christians believed, we must turn our attention elsewhere. Michael Bird is right when he says, “Christian discourses about deity belong incontrovertibly in the Greco-Roman context because it provided the cultural encyclopedia that, in diverse ways, shaped the early church's Christological conceptuality and vocabulary.”[9] Learning Greco-Roman theology is not only important because that was the context in which early Christians wrote, but also because from the late first century onward, most of our Christian authors converted from that worldview. Rather than talking about the Hellenization of Christianity, we should begin by asking how Hellenists experienced Christianization. In other words, Greco-Roman beliefs about the gods were the default lens through which converts first saw Christ. In order to explore how Greco-Roman theology shaped what people believed about Jesus as god, we do well to begin by asking how they defined a god. Andrew Perriman offers a helpful starting point. “The gods,” he writes, “are mostly understood as corporeal beings, blessed with immortality, larger, more beautiful, and more powerful than their mortal analogues.”[10] Furthermore, there were lots of them! The sublunar realm was, in the words of Paula Fredriksen, “a god-congested place.”[11] What's more, “[S]harp lines and clearly demarcated boundaries between divinity and humanity were lacking."[12] Gods could appear as people and people could ascend to become gods. Comprehending what Greco-Roman people believed about gods coming down and humans going up will occupy the first part of this paper. Only once we've adjusted our thinking to their culture, will we walk through key moments in the life of Jesus of Nazareth to hear the story with ancient Mediterranean ears. Lastly, we'll consider the evidence from sources that think of Jesus in Greco-Roman categories. Bringing this all together we'll enumerate the primary ways to interpret the phrase “Jesus is god” available to Christians in the pre-Nicene period. Gods Coming Down and Humans Going Up The idea that a god would visit someone is not as unusual as it first sounds. We find plenty of examples of Yahweh himself or non-human representatives visiting people in the Hebrew Bible.[13] One psalmist even referred to angels or “heavenly beings” (ESV) as אֱלֹהִים (gods).[14] The Greco-Roman world too told stories about divine entities coming down to interact with people. Euripides tells about the time Zeus forced the god Apollo to become a human servant in the house of Admetus, performing menial labor as punishment for killing the Cyclopes (Alcestis 1). Baucis and Philemon offered hospitality to Jupiter and Mercury when they appeared in human form (Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.26-34). In Homer's Odyssey onlookers warn Antinous for flinging a stool against a stranger since “the gods do take on the look of strangers dropping in from abroad”[15] (17.534-9). Because they believed the boundary between the divine realm and the Earth was so permeable, Mediterranean people were always on guard for an encounter with a god in disguise. In addition to gods coming down, in special circumstances, humans could ascend and become gods too. Diodorus of Sicily demarcated two types of gods: those who are “eternal and imperishable, such as the sun and the moon” and “the other gods…terrestrial beings who attained to immortal honour”[16] (The Historical Library of Diodorus the Sicilian 6.1). By some accounts, even the Olympian gods, including Kronos and Uranus were once mortal men.[17] Among humans who could become divine, we find several distinguishable categories, including heroes, miracle workers, and rulers. We'll look at each briefly before considering how the story of Jesus would resonate with those holding a Greco-Roman worldview. Deified Heroes Cornutus the Stoic said, “[T]he ancients called heroes those who were so strong in body and soul that they seemed to be part of a divine race.” (Greek Theology 31)[18] At first this statement appears to be a mere simile, but he goes on to say of Heracles (Hercules), the Greek hero par excellence, “his services had earned him apotheosis” (ibid.). Apotheosis (or deification) is the process by which a human ascends into the divine realm. Beyond Heracles and his feats of strength, other exceptional individuals became deified for various reasons. Amphiarus was a seer who died in the battle at Thebes. After opening a chasm in the earth to swallow him in battle, “Zeus made him immortal”[19] (Apollodorus, Library of Greek Mythology 3.6). Pausanias says the custom of the inhabitants of Oropos was to drop coins into Amphiarus' spring “because this is where they say Amphiarus rose up as a god”[20] (Guide to Greece 1.34). Likewise, Strabo speaks about a shrine for Calchas, a deceased diviner from the Trojan war (Homer, Illiad 1.79-84), “where those consulting the oracle sacrifice a black ram to the dead and sleep in its hide”[21] (Strabo, Geography 6.3.9). Though the great majority of the dead were locked away in the lower world of Hades, leading a shadowy pitiful existence, the exceptional few could visit or speak from beyond the grave. Lastly, there was Zoroaster the Persian prophet who, according to Dio Chrysostom, was enveloped by fire while he meditated upon a mountain. He was unharmed and gave advice on how to properly make offerings to the gods (Dio Chrysostom, Discourses 36.40). The Psuedo-Clementine Homilies include a story about a lightning bolt striking and killing Zoroaster. After his devotees buried his body, they built a temple on the site, thinking that “his soul had been sent for by lightning” and they “worshipped him as a god”[22] (Homily 9.5.2). Thus, a hero could have extraordinary strength, foresight, or closeness to the gods resulting in apotheosis and ongoing worship and communication. Deified Miracle Workers Beyond heroes, Greco-Roman people loved to tell stories about deified miracle workers. Twice Orpheus rescued a ship from a storm by praying to the gods (Diodorus of Sicily 4.43.1f; 48.5f). After his death, surviving inscriptions indicate that he both received worship and was regarded as a god in several cities.[23] Epimenides “fell asleep in a cave for fifty-seven years”[24] (Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 1.109). He also predicted a ten-year period of reprieve from Persian attack in Athens (Plato Laws 1.642D-E). Plato called him a divine man (θεῖος ἀνήρ) (ibid.) and Diogenes talked of Cretans sacrificing to him as a god (Diogenes, Lives 1.114). Iamblichus said Pythagoras was the son of Apollo and a mortal woman (Life of Pythagoras 2). Nonetheless, the soul of Pythagoras enjoyed multiple lives, having originally been “sent to mankind from the empire of Apollo”[25] (Life 2). Diogenes and Lucian enumerate the lives the pre-existent Pythagoras led, including Aethalides, Euphorbus, Hermotimus, and Pyrrhus (Diogenes, Life of Pythagoras 4; Lucian, The Cock 16-20). Hermes had granted Pythagoras the gift of “perpetual transmigration of his soul”[26] so he could remember his lives while living or dead (Diogenes, Life 4). Ancient sources are replete with Pythagorean miracle stories.[27] Porphyry mentions several, including taming a bear, persuading an ox to stop eating beans, and accurately predicting a catch of fish (Life of Pythagoras 23-25). Porphyry said Pythagoras accurately predicted earthquakes and “chased away a pestilence, suppressed violent winds and hail, [and] calmed storms on rivers and on seas” (Life 29).[28] Such miracles, argued the Pythagoreans made Pythagoras “a being superior to man, and not to a mere man” (Iamblichus, Life 28).[29] Iamblichus lays out the views of Pythagoras' followers, including that he was a god, a philanthropic daemon, the Pythian, the Hyperborean Apollo, a Paeon, a daemon inhabiting the moon, or an Olympian god (Life 6). Another pre-Socratic philosopher was Empedocles who studied under Pythagoras. To him sources attribute several miracles, including stopping a damaging wind, restoring the wind, bringing dry weather, causing it to rain, and even bringing someone back from Hades (Diogenes, Lives 8.59).[30] Diogenes records an incident in which Empedocles put a woman into a trance for thirty days before sending her away alive (8.61). He also includes a poem in which Empedocles says, “I am a deathless god, no longer mortal, I go among you honored by all, as is right”[31] (8.62). Asclepius was a son of the god Apollo and a human woman (Cornutus, Greek Theology 33). He was known for healing people from diseases and injuries (Pindar, Pythian 3.47-50). “[H]e invented any medicine he wished for the sick, and raised up the dead”[32] (Pausanias, Guide to Greece 2.26.4). However, as Diodorus relates, Hades complained to Zeus on account of Asclepius' diminishing his realm, which resulted in Zeus zapping Asclepius with a thunderbolt, killing him (4.71.2-3). Nevertheless, Asclepius later ascended into heaven to become a god (Hyginus, Fables 224; Cicero, Nature of the Gods 2.62).[33] Apollonius of Tyana was a famous first century miracle worker. According to Philostratus' account, the locals of Tyana regard Apollonius to be the son of Zeus (Life 1.6). Apollonius predicted many events, interpreted dreams, and knew private facts about people. He rebuked and ridiculed a demon, causing it to flee, shrieking as it went (Life 2.4).[34] He even once stopped a funeral procession and raised the deceased to life (Life 4.45). What's more he knew every human language (Life 1.19) and could understand what sparrows chirped to each other (Life 4.3). Once he instantaneously transported himself from Smyrna to Ephesus (Life 4.10). He claimed knowledge of his previous incarnation as the captain of an Egyptian ship (Life 3.23) and, in the end, Apollonius entered the temple of Athena and vanished, ascending from earth into heaven to the sound of a choir singing (Life 8.30). We have plenty of literary evidence that contemporaries and those who lived later regarded him as a divine man (Letters 48.3)[35] or godlike (ἰσόθεος) (Letters 44.1) or even just a god (θεός) (Life 5.24). Deified Rulers Our last category of deified humans to consider before seeing how this all relates to Jesus is rulers. Egyptians, as indicated from the hieroglyphs left in the pyramids, believed their deceased kings to enjoy afterlives as gods. They could become star gods or even hunt and consume other gods to absorb their powers.[36] The famous Macedonian conqueror, Alexander the Great, carried himself as a god towards the Persians though Plutarch opines, “[he] was not at all vain or deluded but rather used belief in his divinity to enslave others”[37] (Life of Alexander 28). This worship continued after his death, especially in Alexandria where Ptolemy built a tomb and established a priesthood to conduct religious honors to the deified ruler. Even the emperor Trajan offered a sacrifice to the spirit of Alexander (Cassius Dio, Roman History 68.30). Another interesting example is Antiochus I of Comagene who called himself “Antiochus the just [and] manifest god, friend of the Romans [and] friend of the Greeks.”[38] His tomb boasted four colossal figures seated on thrones: Zeus, Heracles, Apollo, and himself. The message was clear: Antiochus I wanted his subjects to recognize his place among the gods after death. Of course, the most relevant rulers for the Christian era were the Roman emperors. The first official Roman emperor Augustus deified his predecessor, Julius Caesar, celebrating his apotheosis with games (Suetonius, Life of Julius Caesar 88). Only five years after Augustus died, eastern inhabitants of the Roman Empire at Priene happily declared “the birthday of the god Augustus” (ἡ γενέθλιος ἡμέρα τοῦ θεοῦ)[39] to be the start of their provincial year. By the time of Tacitus, a century after Augustus died, the wealthy in Rome had statues of the first emperor in their gardens for worship (Annals 1.73). The Roman historian Appian explained that the Romans regularly deify emperors at death “provided he has not been a despot or a disgrace”[40] (The Civil Wars 2.148).  In other words, deification was the default setting for deceased emperors. Pliny the Younger lays it on pretty thick when he describes the process. He says Nero deified Claudius to expose him; Titus deified Vespasian and Domitian so he could be the son and brother of gods. However, Trajan deified Nerva because he genuinely believed him to be more than a human (Panegyric 11). In our little survey, we've seen three main categories of deified humans: heroes, miracle workers, and good rulers. These “conceptions of deity,” writes David Litwa, “were part of the “preunderstanding” of Hellenistic culture.”[41] He continues: If actual cases of deification were rare, traditions of deification were not. They were the stuff of heroic epic, lyric song, ancient mythology, cultic hymns, Hellenistic novels, and popular plays all over the first-century Mediterranean world. Such discourses were part of mainstream, urban culture to which most early Christians belonged. If Christians were socialized in predominantly Greco-Roman environments, it is no surprise that they employed and adapted common traits of deities and deified men to exalt their lord to divine status.[42] Now that we've attuned our thinking to Mediterranean sensibilities about gods coming down in the shape of humans and humans experiencing apotheosis to permanently dwell as gods in the divine realm, our ears are attuned to hear the story of Jesus with Greco-Roman ears. Hearing the Story of Jesus with Greco-Roman Ears How would second or third century inhabitants of the Roman empire have categorized Jesus? Taking my cue from Litwa's treatment in Iesus Deus, I'll briefly work through Jesus' conception, transfiguration, miracles, resurrection, and ascension. Miraculous Conception Although set within the context of Jewish messianism, Christ's miraculous birth would have resonated differently with Greco-Roman people. Stories of gods coming down and having intercourse with women are common in classical literature. That these stories made sense of why certain individuals were so exceptional is obvious. For example, Origen related a story about Apollo impregnating Amphictione who then gave birth to Plato (Against Celsus 1.37). Though Mary's conception did not come about through intercourse with a divine visitor, the fact that Jesus had no human father would call to mind divine sonship like Pythagoras or Asclepius. Celsus pointed out that the ancients “attributed a divine origin to Perseus, and Amphion, and Aeacus, and Minos” (Origen, Against Celsus 1.67). Philostratus records a story of the Egyptian god Proteus saying to Apollonius' mother that she would give birth to himself (Life of Apollonius of Tyana 1.4). Since people were primed to connect miraculous origins with divinity, typical hearers of the birth narratives of Matthew or Luke would likely think that this baby might be either be a descended god or a man destined to ascend to become a god. Miracles and Healing As we've seen, Jesus' miracles would not have sounded unbelievable or even unprecedent to Mediterranean people. Like Jesus, Orpheus and Empedocles calmed storms, rescuing ships. Though Jesus provided miraculous guidance on how to catch fish, Pythagoras foretold the number of fish in a great catch. After the fishermen painstakingly counted them all, they were astounded that when they threw them back in, they were still alive (Porphyry, Life 23-25). Jesus' ability to foretell the future, know people's thoughts, and cast out demons all find parallels in Apollonius of Tyana. As for resurrecting the dead, we have the stories of Empedocles, Asclepius, and Apollonius. The last of which even stopped a funeral procession to raise the dead, calling to mind Jesus' deeds in Luke 7.11-17. When Lycaonians witnessed Paul's healing of a man crippled from birth, they cried out, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men” (Acts 14.11). Another time when no harm befell Paul after a poisonous snake bit him on Malta, Gentile onlookers concluded “he was a god” (Acts 28.6). Barry Blackburn makes the following observation: [I]n view of the tendency, most clearly seen in the Epimenidean, Pythagorean, and Apollonian traditions, to correlate impressive miracle-working with divine status, one may justifiably conclude that the evangelical miracle traditions would have helped numerous gentile Christians to arrive at and maintain belief in Jesus' divine status.[43] Transfiguration Ancient Mediterranean inhabitants believed that the gods occasionally came down disguised as people. Only when gods revealed their inner brilliant natures could people know that they weren't mere humans. After his ship grounded on the sands of Krisa, Apollo leaped from the ship emitting flashes of fire “like a star in the middle of day…his radiance shot to heaven”[44] (Homeric Hymns, Hymn to Apollo 440). Likewise, Aphrodite appeared in shining garments, brighter than a fire and shimmering like the moon (Hymn to Aphrodite 85-89). When Demeter appeared to Metaneira, she initially looked like an old woman, but she transformed herself before her. “Casting old age away…a delightful perfume spread…a radiance shone out far from the goddess' immortal flesh…and the solid-made house was filled with a light like the lightning-flash”[45] (Hymn to Demeter 275-280). Homer wrote about Odysseus' transformation at the golden wand of Athena in which his clothes became clean, he became taller, and his skin looked younger. His son, Telemachus cried out, “Surely you are some god who rules the vaulting skies”[46] (Odyssey 16.206). Each time the observers conclude the transfigured person is a god. Resurrection & Ascension In defending the resurrection of Jesus, Theophilus of Antioch said, “[Y]ou believe that Hercules, who burned himself, lives; and that Aesculapius [Asclepius], who was struck with lightning, was raised”[47] (Autolycus 1.13). Although Hercules' physical body burnt, his transformed pneumatic body continued on as the poet Callimachus said, “under a Phrygian oak his limbs had been deified”[48] (Callimachus, Hymn to Artemis 159). Others thought Hercules ascended to heaven in his burnt body, which Asclepius subsequently healed (Lucian, Dialogue of the Gods 13). After his ascent, Diodorus relates how the people first sacrificed to him “as to a hero” then in Athens they began to honor him “with sacrifices like as to a god”[49] (The Historical Library 4.39). As for Asclepius, his ascension resulted in his deification as Cyprian said, “Aesculapius is struck by lightning, that he may rise into a god”[50] (On the Vanity of Idols 2). Romulus too “was torn to pieces by the hands of a hundred senators”[51] and after death ascended into heaven and received worship (Arnobius, Against the Heathen 1.41). Livy tells of how Romulus was “carried up on high by a whirlwind” and that immediately afterward “every man present hailed him as a god and son of a god”[52] (The Early History of Rome 1.16). As we can see from these three cases—Hercules, Asclepius, and Romulus—ascent into heaven was a common way of talking about deification. For Cicero, this was an obvious fact. People “who conferred outstanding benefits were translated to heaven through their fame and our gratitude”[53] (Nature 2.62). Consequently, Jesus' own resurrection and ascension would have triggered Gentiles to intuit his divinity. Commenting on the appearance of the immortalized Christ to the eleven in Galilee, Wendy Cotter said, “It is fair to say that the scene found in [Mat] 28:16-20 would be understood by a Greco-Roman audience, Jew or Gentile, as an apotheosis of Jesus.”[54] Although I beg to differ with Cotter's whole cloth inclusion of Jews here, it's hard to see how else non-Jews would have regarded the risen Christ. Litwa adds Rev 1.13-16 “[W]here he [Jesus] appears with all the accoutrements of the divine: a shining face, an overwhelming voice, luminescent clothing, and so on.”[55] In this brief survey we've seen that several key events in the story of Jesus told in the Gospels would have caused Greco-Roman hearers to intuit deity, including his divine conception, miracles, healing ministry, transfiguration, resurrection, and ascension. In their original context of second temple Judaism, these very same incidents would have resonated quite differently. His divine conception authenticated Jesus as the second Adam (Luke 3.38; Rom 5.14; 1 Cor 15.45) and God's Davidic son (2 Sam 7.14; Ps 2.7; Lk 1.32, 35). If Matthew or Luke wanted readers to understand that Jesus was divine based on his conception and birth, they failed to make such intentions explicit in the text. Rather, the birth narratives appear to have a much more modest aim—to persuade readers that Jesus had a credible claim to be Israel's messiah. His miracles show that “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power…for God was with him” (Acts 10.38; cf. Jn 3.2; 10.32, 38). Rather than concluding Jesus to be a god, Jewish witnesses to his healing of a paralyzed man “glorified God, who had given such authority to men” (Mat 9.8). Over and over, especially in the Gospel of John, Jesus directs people's attention to his Father who was doing the works in and through him (Jn 5.19, 30; 8.28; 12.49; 14.10). Seeing Jesus raise someone from the dead suggested to his original Jewish audience that “a great prophet has arisen among us” (Lk 7.16). The transfiguration, in its original setting, is an eschatological vision not a divine epiphany. Placement in the synoptic Gospels just after Jesus' promise that some there would not die before seeing the kingdom come sets the hermeneutical frame. “The transfiguration,” says William Lane, “was a momentary, but real (and witnessed) manifestation of Jesus' sovereign power which pointed beyond itself to the Parousia, when he will come ‘with power and glory.'”[56] If eschatology is the foreground, the background for the transfiguration was Moses' ascent of Sinai when he also encountered God and became radiant.[57] Viewed from the lenses of Moses' ascent and the eschaton, the transfiguration of Jesus is about his identity as God's definitive chosen ruler, not about any kind of innate divinity. Lastly, the resurrection and ascension validated Jesus' messianic claims to be the ruler of the age to come (Acts 17.31; Rom 1.4). Rather than concluding Jesus was deity, early Jewish Christians concluded these events showed that “God has made him both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2.36). The interpretative backgrounds for Jesus' ascension were not stories about Heracles, Asclepius, or Romulus. No, the key oracle that framed the Israelite understanding was the messianic psalm in which Yahweh told David's Lord to “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool” (Psalm 110.1). The idea is of a temporary sojourn in heaven until exercising the authority of his scepter to rule over earth from Zion. Once again, the biblical texts remain completely silent about deification. But even if the original meanings of Jesus' birth, ministry, transfiguration, resurrection, and ascension have messianic overtones when interpreted within the Jewish milieu, these same stories began to communicate various ideas of deity to Gentile converts in the generations that followed. We find little snippets from historical sources beginning in the second century and growing with time. Evidence of Belief in Jesus' as a Greco-Roman Deity To begin with, we have two non-Christian instances where Romans regarded Jesus as a deity within typical Greco-Roman categories. The first comes to us from Tertullian and Eusebius who mention an intriguing story about Tiberius' request to the Roman senate to deify Christ. Convinced by “intelligence from Palestine of events which had clearly shown the truth of Christ's divinity”[58] Tiberius proposed the matter to the senate (Apology 5). Eusebius adds that Tiberius learned that “many believed him to be a god in rising from the dead”[59] (Church History 2.2). As expected, the senate rejected the proposal. I mention this story, not because I can establish its historicity, but because it portrays how Tiberius would have thought about Jesus if he had heard about his miracles and resurrection. Another important incident is from one of the governor Pliny the Younger's letters to the emperor Trajan. Having investigated some people accused of Christianity, he found “they had met regularly before dawn on a fixed day to chant verses alternately amongst themselves in honour of Christ as if to a god”[60] (Letter 96). To an outside imperial observer like Pliny, the Christians believed in a man who had performed miracles, defeated death, and now lived in heaven. Calling him a god was just the natural way of talking about such a person. Pliny would not have thought Jesus was superior to the deified Roman emperors much less Zeus or the Olympic gods. If he believed in Jesus at all, he would have regarded him as another Mediterranean prophet who escaped Hades to enjoy apotheosis. Another interesting text to consider is the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. This apocryphal text tells the story of Jesus' childhood between the ages of five and twelve. Jesus is impetuous, powerful, and brilliant. Unsure to conclude that Jesus was “either god or angel,”[61] his teacher remands him to Joseph's custody (7). Later, a crowd of onlookers ponders whether the child is a god or a heavenly messenger after he raises an infant from the dead (17). A year later Jesus raised a construction man who had fallen to his death back to life (18). Once again, the crowd asked if the child was from heaven. Although some historians are quick to assume the lofty conceptions of Justin and his successors about the logos were commonplace in the early Christianity, Litwa points out, “The spell of the Logos could only bewitch a very small circle of Christian elites… In IGT, we find a Jesus who is divine according to different canons, the canons of popular Mediterranean theology.”[62] Another important though often overlooked scholarly group of Christians in the second century was led by a certain Theodotus of Byzantium.[63] Typically referred to by their heresiological label “Theodotians,” these dynamic monarchians lived in Rome and claimed that they held to the original Christology before it had been corrupted under Bishop Zephyrinus (Eusebius, Church History 5.28). Theodotus believed in the virgin birth, but not in his pre-existence or that he was god/God (Pseudo-Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies 7.35.1-2; 10.23.1-2). He thought that Jesus was not able to perform any miracles until his baptism when he received the Christ/Spirit. Pseudo-Hippolytus goes on to say, “But they do not want him to have become a god when the Spirit descended. Others say that he became a god after he rose from the dead.”[64] This last tantalizing remark implies that the Theodotians could affirm Jesus as a god after his resurrection though they denied his pre-existence. Although strict unitarians, they could regard Jesus as a god in that he was an ascended immortalized being who lived in heaven—not equal to the Father, but far superior to all humans on earth. Justin Martyr presents another interesting case to consider. Thoroughly acquainted with Greco-Roman literature and especially the philosophy of Plato, Justin sees Christ as a god whom the Father begot before all other creatures. He calls him “son, or wisdom, or angel, or god, or lord, or word”[65] (Dialogue with Trypho 61).  For Justin Christ is “at the same time angel and god and lord and man”[66] (59). Jesus was “of old the Word, appearing at one time in the form of fire, at another under the guise of incorporeal beings, but now, at the will of God, after becoming man for mankind”[67] (First Apology 63). In fact, Justin is quite comfortable to compare Christ to deified heroes and emperors. He says, “[W]e propose nothing new or different from that which you say about the so-called sons of Jupiter [Zeus] by your respected writers… And what about the emperors who die among you, whom you think worthy to be deified?”[68] (21). He readily accepts the parallels with Mercury, Perseus, Asclepius, Bacchus, and Hercules, but argues that Jesus is superior to them (22).[69] Nevertheless, he considered Jesus to be in “a place second to the unchanging and eternal God”[70] (13). The Father is “the Most True God” whereas the Son is he “who came forth from Him”[71] (6). Even as lates as Origen, Greco-Roman concepts of deity persist. In responding to Celsus' claim that no god or son of God has ever come down, Origen responds by stating such a statement would overthrow the stories of Pythian Apollo, Asclepius, and the other gods who descended (Against Celsus 5.2). My point here is not to say Origen believed in all the old myths, but to show how Origen reached for these stories as analogies to explain the incarnation of the logos. When Celsus argued that he would rather believe in the deity of Asclepius, Dionysus, and Hercules than Christ, Origen responded with a moral rather than ontological argument (3.42). He asks how these gods have improved the characters of anyone. Origen admits Celsus' argument “which places the forenamed individuals upon an equality with Jesus” might have force, however in light of the disreputable behavior of these gods, “how could you any longer say, with any show of reason, that these men, on putting aside their mortal body, became gods rather than Jesus?”[72] (3.42). Origen's Christology is far too broad and complicated to cover here. Undoubtedly, his work on eternal generation laid the foundation on which fourth century Christians could build homoousion Christology. Nevertheless, he retained some of the earlier subordinationist impulses of his forebearers. In his book On Prayer, he rebukes praying to Jesus as a crude error, instead advocating prayer to God alone (10). In his Commentary on John he repeatedly asserts that the Father is greater than his logos (1.40; 2.6; 6.23). Thus, Origen is a theologian on the seam of the times. He's both a subordinationist and a believer in the Son's eternal and divine ontology. Now, I want to be careful here. I'm not saying that all early Christians believed Jesus was a deified man like Asclepius or a descended god like Apollo or a reincarnated soul like Pythagoras. More often than not, thinking Christians whose works survive until today tended to eschew the parallels, simultaneously elevating Christ as high as possible while demoting the gods to mere demons. Still, Litwa is inciteful when he writes: It seems likely that early Christians shared the widespread cultural assumption that a resurrected, immortalized being was worthy of worship and thus divine. …Nonetheless there is a difference…Jesus, it appears, was never honored as an independent deity. Rather, he was always worshiped as Yahweh's subordinate. Naturally Heracles and Asclepius were Zeus' subordinates, but they were also members of a larger divine family. Jesus does not enter a pantheon but assumes a distinctive status as God's chief agent and plenipotentiary. It is this status that, to Christian insiders, placed Jesus in a category far above the likes of Heracles, Romulus, and Asclepius who were in turn demoted to the rank of δαίμονες [daimons].[73] Conclusion I began by asking the question, "What did early Christians mean by saying Jesus is god?" We noted that the ancient idea of agency (Jesus is God/god because he represents Yahweh), though present in Hebrew and Christian scripture, didn't play much of a role in how Gentile Christians thought about Jesus. Or if it did, those texts did not survive. By the time we enter the postapostolic era, a majority of Christianity was Gentile and little communication occurred with the Jewish Christians that survived in the East. As such, we turned our attention to Greco-Roman theology to tune our ears to hear the story of Jesus the way they would have. We learned about their multifaceted array of divinities. We saw that gods can come down and take the form of humans and humans can go up and take the form of gods. We found evidence for this kind of thinking in both non-Christian and Christian sources in the second and third centuries. Now it is time to return to the question I began with: “When early Christian authors called Jesus “god” what did they mean?” We saw that the idea of a deified man was present in the non-Christian witnesses of Tiberius and Pliny but made scant appearance in our Christian literature except for the Theodotians. As for the idea that a god came down to become a man, we found evidence in The Infancy Gospel of Thomas, Justin, and Origen.[74] Of course, we find a spectrum within this view, from Justin's designation of Jesus as a second god to Origen's more philosophically nuanced understanding. Still, it's worth noting as R. P. C. Hanson observed that, “With the exception of Athanasius virtually every theologian, East and West, accepted some form of subordinationism at least up to the year 355.”[75] Whether any Christians before Alexander and Athanasius of Alexandria held to the sophisticated idea of consubstantiality depends on showing evidence of the belief that the Son was coequal, coeternal, and coessential with the Father prior to Nicea. (Readers interested in the case for this view should consult Michael Bird's Jesus among the Gods in which he attempted the extraordinary feat of finding proto-Nicene Christology in the first two centuries, a task typically associated with maverick apologists not peer-reviewed historians.) In conclusion, the answer to our driving question about the meaning of “Jesus as god” is that the answer depends on whom we ask. If we ask the Theodotians, Jesus is a god because that's just what one calls an immortalized man who lives in heaven.[76] If we ask those holding a docetic Christology, the answer is that a god came down in appearance as a man. If we ask a logos subordinationist, they'll tell us that Jesus existed as the god through whom the supreme God created the universe before he became a human being. If we ask Tertullian, Jesus is god because he derives his substance from the Father, though he has a lesser portion of divinity.[77] If we ask Athanasius, he'll wax eloquent about how Jesus is of the same substance as the Father equal in status and eternality. The bottom line is that there was not one answer to this question prior to the fourth century. Answers depend on whom we ask and when they lived. Still, we can't help but wonder about the more tantalizing question of development. Which Christology was first and which ones evolved under social, intellectual, and political pressures? In the quest to specify the various stages of development in the Christologies of the ante-Nicene period, this Greco-Roman perspective may just provide the missing link between the reserved and limited way that the NT applies theos to Jesus in the first century and the homoousian view that eventually garnered imperial support in the fourth century. How easy would it have been for fresh converts from the Greco-Roman world to unintentionally mishear the story of Jesus? How easy would it have been for them to fit Jesus into their own categories of descended gods and ascended humans? With the unmooring of Gentile Christianity from its Jewish heritage, is it any wonder that Christologies began to drift out to sea? Now I'm not suggesting that all Christians went through a steady development from a human Jesus to a pre-existent Christ, to an eternal God the Son, to the Chalcedonian hypostatic union. As I mentioned above, plenty of other options were around and every church had its conservatives in addition to its innovators. The story is messy and uneven with competing views spread across huge geographic distances. Furthermore, many Christians probably were content to leave such theological nuances fuzzy, rather than seeking doctrinal precision on Christ's relation to his God and Father. Whatever the case may be, we dare not ignore the influence of Greco-Roman theology in our accounts of Christological development in the Mediterranean world of the first three centuries.    Bibliography The Homeric Hymns. Translated by Michael Crudden. New York, NY: Oxford, 2008. Antioch, Theophilus of. To Autolycus. Translated by Marcus Dods. Vol. 2. Ante-Nicene Fathers. Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001. Aphrahat. The Demonstrations. Translated by Ellen Muehlberger. Vol. 3. The Cambridge Edition of Early Christian Writings. Edited by Mark DelCogliano. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge, 2022. Apollodorus. The Library of Greek Mythology. Translated by Robin Hard. Oxford, UK: Oxford, 1998. Appian. The Civil Wars. Translated by John Carter. London, UK: Penguin, 1996. Arnobius. Against the Heathen. Translated by Hamilton Bryce and Hugh Campbell. Vol. 6. Ante-Nicene Fathers. Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995. Arrian. The Campaigns of Alexander. Translated by Aubrey De Sélincourt. London, UK: Penguin, 1971. Bird, Michael F. Jesus among the Gods. Waco, TX: Baylor, 2022. Blackburn, Barry. Theios Aner and the Markan Miracle Traditions. Tübingen, Germany: J. C. B. Mohr, 1991. Callimachus. Hymn to Artemis. Translated by Susan A. Stephens. Callimachus: The Hymns. New York, NY: Oxford, 2015. Cicero. The Nature of the Gods. Translated by Patrick Gerard Walsh. Oxford, UK: Oxford, 2008. Cornutus, Lucius Annaeus. Greek Theology. Translated by George Boys-Stones. Greek Theology, Fragments, and Testimonia. Atlanta, GA: SBL, 2018. Cotter, Wendy. "Greco-Roman Apotheosis Traditions and the Resurrection Appearances in Matthew." In The Gospel of Matthew in Current Study. Edited by David E. Aune. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001. Cyprian. Treatise 6: On the Vanity of Idols. Translated by Ernest Wallis. Vol. 5. Ante-Nicene Fathers. Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995. Dittenberger, W. Orientis Graecae Inscriptiones Selectae. Vol. 2. Hildesheim: Olms, 1960. Eusebius. The Church History. Translated by Paul L. Maier. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2007. Fredriksen, Paula. "How High Can Early High Christology Be?" In Monotheism and Christology in Greco-Roman Antiquity. Edited by Matthew V. Novenson. Vol. 180.vol. Supplements to Novum Testamentum. Leiden: Brill, 2020. Hanson, R. P. C. Search for a Christian Doctrine of God. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007. Hart, George. The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses. 2nd ed. Oxford, UK: Routledge, 2005. Homer. The Odyssey. Translated by Robert Fagles. New York, NY: Penguin, 1997. Iamblichus. Life of Pythagoras. Translated by Thomas Taylor. Iamblichus' Life of Pythagoras. Delhi, IN: Zinc Read, 2023. Justin Martyr. Dialogue with Trypho. Translated by Thomas B. Falls. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2003. Laertius, Diogenes. Life of Pythagoras. Translated by Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie. The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library. Edited by David R. Fideler. Grand Rapids, MI: Phanes Press, 1988. Laertius, Diogenes. Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Translated by Pamela Mensch. Edited by James Miller. New York, NY: Oxford, 2020. Lane, William L. The Gospel of Mark. Nicnt, edited by F. F. Bruce Ned B. Stonehouse, and Gordon D. Fee. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1974. Litwa, M. David. Iesus Deus. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014. Livy. The Early History of Rome. Translated by Aubrey De Sélincourt. London, UK: Penguin, 2002. Origen. Against Celsus. Translated by Frederick Crombie. Vol. 4. The Ante-Nicene Fathers. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003. Pausanias. Guide to Greece. Translated by Peter Levi. London, UK: Penguin, 1979. Perriman, Andrew. In the Form of a God. Studies in Early Christology, edited by David Capes Michael Bird, and Scott Harrower. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2022. Philostratus. Letters of Apollonius. Vol. 458. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard, 2006. Plutarch. Life of Alexander. Translated by Ian Scott-Kilvert and Timothy E. Duff. The Age of Alexander. London, UK: Penguin, 2011. Porphyry. Life of Pythagoras. Translated by Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie. The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library. Edited by David Fideler. Grand Rapids, MI: Phanes Press, 1988. Pseudo-Clement. Recognitions. Translated by Thomas Smith. Vol. 8. Ante Nicene Fathers. Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003. Pseudo-Hippolytus. Refutation of All Heresies. Translated by David Litwa. Atlanta, GA: SBL, 2016. Pseudo-Thomas. Infancy Gospel of Thomas. Translated by James Orr. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1903. Psuedo-Clement. Homilies. Translated by Peter Peterson. Vol. 8. Ante-Nicene Fathers. Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1897. Siculus, Diodorus. The Historical Library. Translated by Charles Henry Oldfather. Vol. 1. Edited by Giles Laurén: Sophron Editor, 2017. Strabo. The Geography. Translated by Duane W. Roller. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge, 2020. Tertullian. Against Praxeas. Translated by Holmes. Vol. 3. Ante Nice Fathers. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003. Tertullian. Apology. Translated by S. Thelwall. Vol. 3. Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003. Younger, Pliny the. The Letters of the Younger Pliny. Translated by Betty Radice. London: Penguin, 1969. End Notes [1] For the remainder of this paper, I will use the lower case “god” for all references to deity outside of Yahweh, the Father of Christ. I do this because all our ancient texts lack capitalization and our modern capitalization rules imply a theology that is anachronistic and unhelpful for the present inquiry. [2] Christopher Kaiser wrote, “Explicit references to Jesus as ‘God' in the New Testament are very few, and even those few are generally plagued with uncertainties of either text or interpretation.” Christopher B. Kaiser, The Doctrine of God: A Historical Survey (London: Marshall Morgan & Scott, 1982), 29. Other scholars such as Raymond Brown (Jesus: God and Man), Jason David BeDuhn (Truth in Translation), and Brian Wright (“Jesus as θεός: A Textual Examination” in Revisiting the Corruption of the New Testament) have expressed similar sentiments. [3] John 20.28; Hebrews 1.8; Titus 2.13; 2 Peter 1.1; Romans 9.5; and 1 John 5.20. [4] See Polycarp's Epistle to the Philippians 12.2 where a manuscript difference determines whether or not Polycarp called Jesus god or lord. Textual corruption is most acute in Igantius' corpus. Although it's been common to dismiss the long recension as an “Arian” corruption, claiming the middle recension to be as pure and uncontaminated as freshly fallen snow upon which a foot has never trodden, such an uncritical view is beginning to give way to more honest analysis. See Paul Gilliam III's Ignatius of Antioch and the Arian Controversy (Leiden: Brill, 2017) for a recent treatment of Christological corruption in the middle recension. [5] See the entries for  אֱלֹהִיםand θεός in the Hebrew Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (HALOT), the Brown Driver Briggs Lexicon (BDB), Eerdmans Dictionary, Kohlenberger/Mounce Concise Hebrew-Aramaic Dictionary of the Old Testament, the Bauer Danker Arndt Gingrich Lexicon (BDAG), Friberg Greek Lexicon, and Thayer's Greek Lexicon. [6] See notes on Is 9.6 and Ps 45.6. [7] ZIBBC: “In what sense can the king be called “god”? By virtue of his divine appointment, the king in the ancient Near East stood before his subjects as a representative of the divine realm. …In fact, the term “gods“ (ʾelōhı̂m) is used of priests who functioned as judges in the Israelite temple judicial system (Ex. 21:6; 22:8-9; see comments on 58:1; 82:6-7).” John W. Hilber, “Psalms,” in The Minor Prophets, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, vol. 5 of Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Old Testament. ed. John H. Walton (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009), 358. [8] Around a.d. 340, Aphrahat of Persia advised his fellow Christians to reply to Jewish critics who questioned why “You call a human being ‘God'” (Demonstrations 17.1). He said, “For the honored name of the divinity is granted event ot rightoues human beings, when they are worthy of being called by it…[W]hen he chose Moses, his friend and his beloved…he called him “god.” …We call him God, just as he named Moses with his own name…The name of the divinity was granted for great honor in the world. To whom he wishes, God appoints it” (17.3, 4, 5). Aphrahat, The Demonstrations, trans., Ellen Muehlberger, vol. 3, The Cambridge Edition of Early Christian Writings (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge, 2022), 213-15. In the Clementine Recognitions we find a brief mention of the concept:  “Therefore the name God is applied in three ways: either because he to whom it is given is truly God, or because he is the servant of him who is truly; and for the honour of the sender, that his authority may be full, he that is sent is called by the name of him who sends, as is often done in respect of angels: for when they appear to a man, if he is a wise and intelligent man, he asks the name of him who appears to him, that he may acknowledge at once the honour of the sent, and the authority of the sender” (2.42). Pseudo-Clement, Recognitions, trans., Thomas Smith, vol. 8, Ante Nicene Fathers (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003). [9] Michael F. Bird, Jesus among the Gods (Waco, TX: Baylor, 2022), 13. [10] Andrew Perriman, In the Form of a God, Studies in Early Christology, ed. David Capes Michael Bird, and Scott Harrower (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2022), 130. [11] Paula Fredriksen, "How High Can Early High Christology Be?," in Monotheism and Christology in Greco-Roman Antiquity, ed. Matthew V. Novenson, vol. 180 (Leiden: Brill, 2020), 296, 99. [12] ibid. [13] See Gen 18.1; Ex 3.2; 24.11; Is 6.1; Ezk 1.28. [14] Compare the Masoretic Text of Psalm 8.6 to the Septuagint and Hebrews 2.7. [15] Homer, The Odyssey, trans., Robert Fagles (New York, NY: Penguin, 1997), 370. [16] Diodorus Siculus, The Historical Library, trans., Charles Henry Oldfather, vol. 1 (Sophron Editor, 2017), 340. [17] Uranus met death at the brutal hands of his own son, Kronos who emasculated him and let bleed out, resulting in his deification (Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel 1.10). Later on, after suffering a fatal disease, Kronos himself experienced deification, becoming the planet Saturn (ibid.). Zeus married Hera and they produced Osiris (Dionysus), Isis (Demeter), Typhon, Apollo, and Aphrodite (ibid. 2.1). [18] Lucius Annaeus Cornutus, Greek Theology, trans., George Boys-Stones, Greek Theology, Fragments, and Testimonia (Atlanta, GA: SBL, 2018), 123. [19] Apollodorus, The Library of Greek Mythology, trans., Robin Hard (Oxford, UK: Oxford, 1998), 111. [20] Pausanias, Guide to Greece, trans., Peter Levi (London, UK: Penguin, 1979), 98. [21] Strabo, The Geography, trans., Duane W. Roller (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge, 2020), 281. [22] Psuedo-Clement, Homilies, trans., Peter Peterson, vol. 8, Ante-Nicene Fathers (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1897). Greek: “αὐτὸν δὲ ὡς θεὸν ἐθρήσκευσαν” from Jacques Paul Migne, Patrologia Graeca, taken from Accordance (PSCLEMH-T), OakTree Software, Inc., 2018, Version 1.1. [23] See Barry Blackburn, Theios Aner and the Markan Miracle Traditions (Tübingen, Germany: J. C. B. Mohr, 1991), 32. [24] Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, trans., Pamela Mensch (New York, NY: Oxford, 2020), 39. [25] Iamblichus, Life of Pythagoras, trans., Thomas Taylor, Iamblichus' Life of Pythagoras (Delhi, IN: Zinc Read, 2023), 2. [26] Diogenes Laertius, Life of Pythagoras, trans., Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie, The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Phanes Press, 1988), 142. [27] See the list in Blackburn, 39. He corroborates miracle stories from Diogenus Laertius, Iamblichus, Apollonius, Nicomachus, and Philostratus. [28] Porphyry, Life of Pythagoras, trans., Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie, The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Phanes Press, 1988), 128-9. [29] Iamblichus,  68. [30] What I call “resurrection” refers to the phrase, “Thou shalt bring back from Hades a dead man's strength.” Diogenes Laertius 8.2.59, trans. R. D. Hicks. [31] Laertius, "Lives of the Eminent Philosophers," 306. Two stories of his deification survive: in one Empedocles disappears in the middle of the night after hearing an extremely loud voice calling his name. After this the people concluded that they should sacrifice to him since he had become a god (8.68). In the other account, Empedocles climbs Etna and leaps into the fiery volcanic crater “to strengthen the rumor that he had become a god” (8.69). [32] Pausanias,  192. Sextus Empiricus says Asclepius raised up people who had died at Thebes as well as raising up the dead body of Tyndaros (Against the Professors 1.261). [33] Cicero adds that the Arcadians worship Asclepius (Nature 3.57). [34] In another instance, he confronted and cast out a demon from a licentious young man (Life 4.20). [35] The phrase is “περὶ ἐμοῦ καὶ θεοῖς εἴρηται ὡς περὶ θείου ἀνδρὸς.” Philostratus, Letters of Apollonius, vol. 458, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard, 2006). [36] See George Hart, The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, 2nd ed. (Oxford, UK: Routledge, 2005), 3. [37] Plutarch, Life of Alexander, trans., Ian Scott-Kilvert and Timothy E. Duff, The Age of Alexander (London, UK: Penguin, 2011), 311. Arrian includes a story about Anaxarchus advocating paying divine honors to Alexander through prostration. The Macedonians refused but the Persian members of his entourage “rose from their seats and one by one grovelled on the floor before the King.” Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander, trans., Aubrey De Sélincourt (London, UK: Penguin, 1971), 222. [38] Translation my own from “Ἀντίοχος ὁ Θεὸς Δίκαιος Ἐπιφανὴς Φιλορωμαῖος Φιλέλλην.” Inscription at Nemrut Dağ, accessible at https://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/mithras/display.php?page=cimrm32. See also https://zeugma.packhum.org/pdfs/v1ch09.pdf. [39] Greek taken from W. Dittenberger, Orientis Graecae Inscriptiones Selectae, vol. 2 (Hildesheim: Olms, 1960), 48-60. Of particular note is the definite article before θεός. They didn't celebrate the birthday of a god, but the birthday of the god. [40] Appian, The Civil Wars, trans., John Carter (London, UK: Penguin, 1996), 149. [41] M. David Litwa, Iesus Deus (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014), 20. [42] ibid. [43] Blackburn, 92-3. [44] The Homeric Hymns, trans., Michael Crudden (New York, NY: Oxford, 2008), 38. [45] "The Homeric Hymns," 14. [46] Homer,  344. [47] Theophilus of Antioch, To Autolycus, trans., Marcus Dods, vol. 2, Ante-Nicene Fathers (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001). [48] Callimachus, Hymn to Artemis, trans., Susan A. Stephens, Callimachus: The Hymns (New York, NY: Oxford, 2015), 119. [49] Siculus,  234. [50] Cyprian, Treatise 6: On the Vanity of Idols, trans., Ernest Wallis, vol. 5, Ante-Nicene Fathers (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995). [51] Arnobius, Against the Heathen, trans., Hamilton Bryce and Hugh Campbell, vol. 6, Ante-Nicene Fathers (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995). [52] Livy, The Early History of Rome, trans., Aubrey De Sélincourt (London, UK: Penguin, 2002), 49. [53] Cicero, The Nature of the Gods, trans., Patrick Gerard Walsh (Oxford, UK: Oxford, 2008), 69. [54] Wendy Cotter, "Greco-Roman Apotheosis Traditions and the Resurrection Appearances in Matthew," in The Gospel of Matthew in Current Study, ed. David E. Aune (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001), 149. [55] Litwa, 170. [56] William L. Lane, The Gospel of Mark, Nicnt, ed. F. F. Bruce Ned B. Stonehouse, and Gordon D. Fee (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1974). [57] “Recent commentators have stressed that the best background for understanding the Markan transfiguration is the story of Moses' ascent up Mount Sinai (Exod. 24 and 34).” Litwa, 123. [58] Tertullian, Apology, trans. S. Thelwall, vol. 3, Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003). [59] Eusebius, The Church History, trans. Paul L. Maier (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2007), 54. [60] Pliny the Younger, The Letters of the Younger Pliny, trans., Betty Radice (London: Penguin, 1969), 294. [61] Pseudo-Thomas, Infancy Gospel of Thomas, trans., James Orr (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1903), 25. [62] Litwa, 83. [63] For sources on Theodotus, see Pseduo-Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies 7.35.1-2; 10.23.1-2; Pseudo-Tertullian, Against All Heresies 8.2; Eusebius, Church History 5.28. [64] Pseudo-Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies, trans., David Litwa (Atlanta, GA: SBL, 2016), 571. [65] I took the liberty to decapitalize these appellatives. Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, trans. Thomas B. Falls (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2003), 244. [66] Justin Martyr, 241. (Altered, see previous footnote.) [67] Justin Martyr, 102. [68] Justin Martyr, 56-7. [69] Arnobius makes a similar argument in Against the Heathen 1.38-39 “Is he not worthy to be called a god by us and felt to be a god on account of the favor or such great benefits? For if you have enrolled Liber among the gods because he discovered the use of wine, and Ceres the use of bread, Aesculapius the use of medicines, Minerva the use of oil, Triptolemus plowing, and Hercules because he conquered and restrained beasts, thieves, and the many-headed hydra…So then, ought we not to consider Christ a god, and to bestow upon him all the worship due to his divinity?” Translation from Litwa, 105. [70] Justin Martyr, 46. [71] Justin Martyr, 39. [72] Origen, Against Celsus, trans. Frederick Crombie, vol. 4, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003). [73] Litwa, 173. [74] I could easily multiply examples of this by looking at Irenaeus, Tertullian, Hippolytus, and many others. [75] The obvious exception to Hanson's statement were thinkers like Sabellius and Praxeas who believed that the Father himself came down as a human being. R. P. C. Hanson, Search for a Christian Doctrine of God (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007), xix. [76] Interestingly, even some of the biblical unitarians of the period were comfortable with calling Jesus god, though they limited his divinity to his post-resurrection life. [77] Tertullian writes, “[T]he Father is not the same as the Son, since they differ one from the other in the mode of their being. For the Father is the entire substance, but the Son is a derivation and portion of the whole, as He Himself acknowledges: “My Father is greater than I.” In the Psalm His inferiority is described as being “a little lower than the angels.” Thus the Father is distinct from the Son, being greater than the Son” (Against Praxeas 9). Tertullian, Against Praxeas, trans., Holmes, vol. 3, Ante Nice Fathers (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003).

god jesus christ new york spotify father lord israel stories earth spirit man washington guide olympic games gospel song west nature story christians holy spirit christianity turning search romans resurrection acts psalm modern songs jewish greek drawing rome east gods jews proverbs rev letter hebrews miracles hearing philippians old testament psalms oxford ps preparation greece belief new testament studies letters cambridge library egyptian ancient olympians apollo hebrew palestine athens commentary gentiles ecclesiastes vol corruption hart israelites mat casting rom doctrine cor jupiter holmes lives apology mercury younger dialogue judaism supplements mediterranean odyssey nazareth compare idols nero recognition edited like jesus saturn springfield gospel of john philemon galilee translation readers geography hades malta logos plato zeus heb campaigns roman empire homer hanson explicit hymns yahweh hercules persian vanity demonstrations persia artemis hicks waco delhi smyrna sinai antioch grand rapids good vibes cock my father nt hermes sicily placement uranus origen convinced stoic esv blackburn professors trojan church history julius caesar fables peabody epistle homily seeing jesus altered fragments goddesses jn audio library hera ceres sicilian lk ignatius hebrew bible cicero aphrodite greek mythology christology odysseus orpheus minor prophets viewed macedonian commenting annals mohr socratic john carter greco roman heathen persians inscriptions pythagoras romulus jewish christians kronos thayer liber cotter claudius dionysus near east speakpipe ovid theophilus athanasius byzantium perseus davidic hellenistic pliny unported cc by sa bacchus septuagint irenaeus civil wars discourses treatise proteus diogenes tiberius textual deity of christ christ acts polycarp etna christological cyprian monotheism nicea plutarch tertullian heracles euripides christian doctrine thebes trajan justin martyr metamorphoses comprehending tacitus gentile christians ptolemy apotheosis cretans pythagorean parousia eusebius james miller exod early history antiochus thomas smith though jesus egyptian gods refutation roman history nicene typhon vespasian hellenists christianization domitian asclepius appian illiad michael bird telemachus pindar nerva hippolytus phrygian fredriksen markan zoroaster suetonius apollonius resurrection appearances thomas taylor ezk empedocles litwa america press james orr porphyry james donaldson celsus arrian tyana leiden brill hellenization baucis strabo pausanias pythagoreans infancy gospel chalcedonian krisa antinous sean finnegan sextus empiricus robert fagles trypho michael f bird hugh campbell paula fredriksen iamblichus autolycus see gen on prayer amphion aesculapius gordon d fee callimachus apollodorus though mary lexicons david fideler diogenes laertius hyginus mi baker academic loeb classical library ante nicene fathers adam luke homeric hymns duane w roller robin hard calchas paul l maier christopher kaiser
Word of the Day
Aesculapian

Word of the Day

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 13, 2023 0:47


Aesculapian is an adjective that means relating to medicine or physicians.  Our word of the day gets its origin from Aesculapius, the Roman god of medicine. The word entered English in the late 16th century. Here's an example: Shelly has been working as a nurse for nearly a year and her vocabulary has been peppered with all kinds of aesculapian terminology. She can barely tell me to wash my hands without using medical jargon that makes my head explode. 

english aesculapius
Saint of the Day
Hieromartyr Artemon, presbyter of Laodicea in Syria (303)

Saint of the Day

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 13, 2023


At the time of Diocletian's persecutions, he was a very old man, having served as a reader for sixteen years, then a deacon for twenty-eight years, and finally as a priest for thirty years, for a total of seventy-four years. The pagan judge put him in the Temple of Aesculapius, where large snakes were kept and worshiped as gods. Though the judge meant for Artemon to be attacked by the snakes, the holy priest immobilized them with the sign of the Cross, brought them out of the temple and, in front of the pagan priests, breathed on the snakes, which died instantly. The chief priest, Vitalis, fell to his knees and cried 'Great is the Christian God!' Artemon baptised him along with several of his friends.   The unrepentant judge then condemned Artemon to be thrown into burning pitch, but the judge himself was thrown off his horse into the pitch and died. After this, Artemon went free for a time and spent his time teaching the Faith to his people ("accompanied always by two tame deer," says St Nikolia Velimirovic!). But he was arrested again and beheaded in the year 303.

Saint of the Day
Hieromartyr Artemon, presbyter of Laodicea in Syria (303)

Saint of the Day

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 13, 2023 1:28


At the time of Diocletian's persecutions, he was a very old man, having served as a reader for sixteen years, then a deacon for twenty-eight years, and finally as a priest for thirty years, for a total of seventy-four years. The pagan judge put him in the Temple of Aesculapius, where large snakes were kept and worshiped as gods. Though the judge meant for Artemon to be attacked by the snakes, the holy priest immobilized them with the sign of the Cross, brought them out of the temple and, in front of the pagan priests, breathed on the snakes, which died instantly. The chief priest, Vitalis, fell to his knees and cried 'Great is the Christian God!' Artemon baptised him along with several of his friends.   The unrepentant judge then condemned Artemon to be thrown into burning pitch, but the judge himself was thrown off his horse into the pitch and died. After this, Artemon went free for a time and spent his time teaching the Faith to his people ("accompanied always by two tame deer," says St Nikolia Velimirovic!). But he was arrested again and beheaded in the year 303.

Classic Audiobook Collection
Pariah Planet by Murray Leinster ~ Full Audiobook

Classic Audiobook Collection

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 6, 2023 264:24


Pariah Planet by Murray Leinster audiobook. When the blue plague appeared on the planet of Dara, fear struck nearby worlds. The fear led to a hate that threatened the lives of millions and endangered the Galactic peace. But the Med Service ship Aesculapius 20 with Calhoun and Murgatroyd the Tormal aboard are on the job and have stumbled into the horrible mess caused by unreasoning hatred, quarantine, mass starvation and worse. Calhoun must use all his medical knowledge and significant skills to even understand the situation here in neglected Sector 12. Can he and Murgatroyd untangle this Gordian's knot and live to tell the tale? Maybe and maybe not. Listen and find out. 

Bible Mysteries
The Mystery Roman Empire, Part 1

Bible Mysteries

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 26, 2022 52:03


Show Notes: Ancient Roman Worship of Jupiter: Jupiter, also called Jove, Latin Iuppiter, Iovis, orDiespiter, the chief ancient Roman and Italian god. Like Zeus, the Greek god with whom he is etymologically identical (root diu, “bright”), Jupiter was a sky god. One of his most ancient epithets is Lucetius (“Light-Bringer”); and later literature has preserved the same idea in such phrases as sub Iove, “under the open sky.” Later Roman Worship of Emperors: Octavian himself took the name Augustus, a term indicating a claim to reverence. This did not make him a god in his lifetime, but, combined with the insertion of his numen and his genius (originally the procreative power that enables a family to be carried on) into certain cults, it prepared the way for his posthumous deification, just as Caesar had been deified before him. Both were deified by the state because they seemed to have given Rome gifts worthy of a god. Pergamos was a city of heathen temples and a pantheon of pagan deities. Jupiter was said to have had his origin there, and to him and other Greek and Roman gods were erected many beautiful and costly temples, giving it the name of "the city of temples." It was the metropolis of heathen deities. Temples were built and dedicated to Jupiter, Zeus, Athena, Dionysius, and Aesculapius, the Greek god of medicine, and also called "the god of Pergamum." It was also the center of emperor worship. In AD 29 a great temple was erected to the worship of Augustus Caesar, who was to be prayed to as "Lord Caesar." Domitian decreed that all peoples should address him as "Our Lord and our God.” The Temple of Zeus was the most celebrated of all the temples of Pergamos, and was dedicated to Aesculapius, "the serpent god" or "god of healing." It was also known as the Temple of Aesculapius, who was called "the Great Physician" and "the Savior." He was also given other titles showing that he was a counterfeit of Christ. In this temple a living serpent was kept and worshiped. Serpent worship was so universal in Pergamos that many coins have been found with a picture of a serpent entwined around a pole. It is unfortunate that this pagan emblem of healing has become the caduceus of the modern medical profession. In the Temple of Zeus many miracles of healing were supposed to have been performed. In connection with this temple was also a famous school of medicine. Scripture References: All Scripture references are cited from the King James Bible. Daniel 2:31-36, Daniel 2:37-42, Daniel 7:1-7, Daniel 2:44, Revelation 13:1-5, Matthew 13:10-17, 2 Thessalonians 2:7-10, Luke 4:5-7, Psalm 115:16, Genesis 1:26, Matthew 4:16-17, Acts 26:16-18, Revelation 2:12-13a Takeaway: Symbolic aspects of the Roman Empire remain all around us, but its origins are as satanic as satan himself. Rome worshipped Jupiter and the emperors, a picture of the dragon and the beast to come. Mystery Rome is alive and well, especially in the United States empire of global hegemony.  Links: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Jupiter-Roman-god https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_(mythology) https://theologycurator.com/roman-empire-during-time-jesus/ https://www.lewrockwell.com/2022/09/gary-d-barnett/a-solution-for-the-masses-does-not-exist-perceived-reality-is-in-fact-only-theatre/ Website: utbnow.com Podcast: https://bible-mysteries.captivate.fm Subscribe: https:/https://biblemysteries.supercast.com Email: unlockthebiblenow@gmail.com Donate: ttps://secure.subsplash.com/ui/access/BDJH89

Mechanista in G – Scanline Media
Mechanista in G – OZ-10VMSX Gundam Aesculapius

Mechanista in G – Scanline Media

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 5, 2022


The best thing you can have when designing a mecha is an idea. It doesn’t even need to be a…

All In, with Kirk Crossing
These Are The Words (4)

All In, with Kirk Crossing

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 2, 2022 37:29


The next church Jesus speaks to in Revelation is the church at Pergamum.  It was a large city, home to the worship of many different gods (and emperors), including Aesculapius, the god of healing.  It was the city, Jesus said, where Satan has his throne.  The church seems to have withstood an intense time of […]

UBM Unleavened Bread Ministries

Curses of Modern Medicine (Audio)  David Eells - 12/15/21  NIH and Fauci Hospital Protocols are Killing Covid -19 Patients (Video) COVID-19 is NOT a “Pandemic of the Unvaccinated.” The most appropriate term is “Pandemic of Medical Malpractice.” Hospital protocols, and not COVID-19, have accounted for a significant portion of deaths. One of the biggest culprits is the drug Remdesivir. The antiviral drug manufactured by Gilead Sciences has remained a central component of the standard hospital protocol for COVID-19 patients. But the toxic drug is responsible for catastrophic side effects like multi-organ-dysfunction syndrome and kidney failure. None other than Anthony ‘Fraudci' and his NIH cronies were behind pushing the dangerous drug for COVID-19 patients. Remdesivir Background To understand the severity of this scandal, let's briefly review some background of how Remdesivir came into use for COVID-19. Remdesivir is a nucleotide analogue prodrug originally developed for the treatment of Ebola virus. A New England Journal of Medicine study claimed that a single United States COVID-19 patient showed improvement after taking Remdesivir. Coincidentally, the Wuhan Institute of Virology sought a patent for the use of Remdesivir. But at the height of COVID-19, the NIH picked Remdesivir as the gold standard treatment for COVID-19. Anthony Fraudci cited the drug's effectiveness against Ebola as the reasoning for its use against this novel coronavirus. Fraudci used this New England Journal of Medicine study to back his claims. A closer look at this study below: Remdesivir was pulled from the study due to 53.1% of recipients dying from the drug. Who supported that study? The NIH & NIAID. Another New England Journal of Medicine study Fraudci used to push Remdesivir as a COVID-19 treatment analyzed 53 patients from the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan. This is what the study found: Seven of the 53 patients (13%) died after the completion of Remdesivir treatment, including 6 of 34 patients (18%) who were receiving invasive ventilation and 1 of 19 (5%) who were receiving noninvasive oxygen support ... The median interval between remdesivir initiation and death was 15 days (interquartile range, 9 to 17). A total of 32 patients (60%) reported adverse events during follow-up. The most common adverse events were increased hepatic enzymes, diarrhea, rash, renal impairment, and hypotension. In general, adverse events were more common in patients receiving invasive ventilation. A total of 12 patients (23%) had serious adverse events. The most common serious adverse events — multiple-organ-dysfunction syndrome, septic shock, acute kidney injury, and hypotension — were reported in patients who were receiving invasive ventilation at baseline. Despite these alarming studies, Remdesivir was pushed on the general public as the standard hospital protocol for COVID-19 patients. Cheap, off-label drugs like Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and Ivermectin were targeted in a vicious smear campaign. The patents for HCQ and Ivermectin expired decades ago, meaning they don't line the pockets of pharmaceutical companies and hospital executives. The toxicity and catastrophic kidney damage caused by Remdesivir provided the ultimate setup to blame deaths caused by the drug on COVID-19 and the federal health agencies made a fortune buying the stock of Remdesivir, an experimental drug at the time. The Blaze highlighted how Remdesivir is the greatest scandal of the “pandemic:” ... why would we run the risk of spending $3,000 a person on a therapeutic that doesn't work anyway if it may create immune escape? Which raises the question: Why are we not treating everyone early with therapeutics like Regeneron, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, and other proven safe, cheap, and effective drugs that don't case renal failure like remdesivir and don't run the risk of inducing mutations? This is particularly important for those who are immunocompromised. The last thing people who already have fragile organs should be taking is remdesivir. In many respects the fact that remdesivir was ever approved and is still the only standard of care, as it kills patients and lines the pockets of both hospitals and the maker, Gilead, is possibly the worst scandal of this entire ordeal. On Feb. 5, Reuters reported that none other than the Wuhan Institute of Virology of the China Academy of Sciences sought a patent on Gilead's remdesivir, a failed drug repurposed from treatment of Ebola, based on the alleged improvement of a single individual COVID patient reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. Incidentally, the only drug ever approved for COVID was developed by Dr. Ralph Baric's lab at UNC Chapel Hill, the same lab that applied for the coronavirus spike protein gain-of-function research and is suspected by many to be behind the creation of this virus.    Minnesota Doctor Blasts ‘Ridiculous' CDC Coronavirus Death Count Guidelines  (VIDEO) Fox News - 4/9/20 Dr. Scott Jensen, a Minnesota family physician who is also a Republican state senator, told "The Ingraham Angle" Wednesday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) guidelines for doctors to certify whether a patient has died of coronavirus are "ridiculous" and could be misleading the public. Host Laura Ingraham read Jensen the guidelines, which say: "In cases where a definite diagnosis of COVID cannot be made but is suspected or likely (e.g. the circumstances are compelling with a reasonable degree of certainty) it is acceptable to report COVID-19 on a death certificate as 'probable' or 'presumed.'”  In response, Jensen told Ingraham the CDC's death certificate manual tells physicians to focus on "precision and specificity," but the coronavirus death certification guidance runs completely counter to that axiom. "The idea that we are going to allow people to massage and sort of game the numbers is a real issue because we are going to undermine the [public] trust," he said. "And right now as we see politicians doing things that aren't necessarily motivated on fact and science, their trust in politicians is already wearing thin." Jensen gave a hypothetical example of a patient who died while suffering from influenza. If the patient was elderly and had symptoms like fever and cough a few days before passing away, the doctor explained, he would have listed "respiratory arrest" as the primary cause of death. "I've never been encouraged to [notate 'influenza']," he said. "I would probably write 'respiratory arrest' to be the top line, and the underlying cause of this disease would be pneumonia ... I might well put emphysema or congestive heart failure, but I would never put influenza down as the underlying cause of death and yet that's what we are being asked to do here." Jensen then told Ingraham that under the CDC guidelines, a patient who died after being hit by a bus and tested positive for coronavirus would be listed as having presumed to have died from the virus regardless of whatever damage was caused by the bus. "That doesn't make any sense," he said. Jensen also reacted to Dr. Anthony Fauci's response to a question about the potential for the number of coronavirus deaths being "padded," in which the NIAID director described the prevalance of "conspiracy theories" during "challenging" times in public health. "I would remind him that anytime health care intersects with dollars it gets awkward," Jensen said. "Right now Medicare has determined that if you have a COVID-19 admission to the hospital you'll get paid $13,000. If that COVID-19 patient goes on a ventilator, you get $39,000; three times as much. Nobody can tell me, after 35 years in the world of medicine, that sometimes those kinds of things [have] impact on what we do. "Some physicians really have a bent towards public health and they will put down influenza or whatever because that's their preference," Jensen added. "I try to stay very specific, very precise. If I know I've got pneumonia, that's what's going on the death certificate. I'm not going to add stuff just because it's convenient.”   Past Statistics: Deaths by medical mistakes hit records HealthcareITNews - By Erin McCann - 7/18/14  Update: Since this article below was written, accidental medical deaths have reached 440,000 a year: In July of 2014 senate hearing exposed 400,000 people each year die of medical mistakes, over a thousand a day. This is the third largest killer in U.S. Between 210,000 and 440,000 patients each year who go to the hospital for care suffer some type of preventable harm that contributes to their death. How Many Die From Medical Mistakes in U.S. Hospitals? Keep this in mind as you read the article below. All the percentages of danger below have risen dramatically. "Witchcraft" or "sorcery" in the New Testament is from the Greek word "pharmakeia"; English "pharmacy" - Healing through the use of drugs. [See etymonline.com and dictionary.com.] Of Babylon it was said: (Rev.18:23)... for with thy sorcery were all the nations deceived.    It's a chilling reality – one often overlooked in annual mortality statistics: Preventable medical errors persist as the No. 3 killer in the U.S. – third only to heart disease and cancer – claiming the lives of some 400,000 people each year. At a Senate hearing Thursday, patient safety officials put their best ideas forward on how to solve the crisis, with IT often at the center of discussions.  Hearing members, who spoke before the Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging, not only underscored the devastating loss of human life – more than 1,000 people each day – but also called attention to the fact that these medical errors cost the nation a colossal $1 trillion each year.   "The tragedy that we're talking about here (is) deaths taking place that should not be taking place," said subcommittee Chair Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in his opening remarks. [See also: EHR adverse events data cause for alarm.] Among those speaking was Ashish Jha, MD, professor of health policy and management at Harvard School of Public Health, who referenced the Institute of Medicine's 1999 report To Err is Human, which estimated some 100,000 Americans die each year from preventable adverse events.  “When they first came out with that number, it was so staggeringly large, that most people were wondering, 'could that possibly be right?'" said Jha.  Some 15 years later, the evidence is glaring. "The IOM probably got it wrong," he said. "It was clearly an underestimate of the toll of human suffering that goes on from preventable medical errors." It's not just the 1,000 deaths per day that should be huge cause for alarm, noted Joanne Disch, RN, clinical professor at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing, who also spoke before Congress. There's also the 10,000 serious complications cases resulting from medical errors that occur each day.  Disch cited the case of a Minnesota patient who underwent a bilateral mastectomy for cancer, only to find out post surgery a mix-up with the biopsy reports had occurred, and she had not actually had cancer...       "Why is it when a death happens one at time, silently, it warrants less attention than when deaths happen in groups of five or 10?" he asked. "What these numbers say is that every day, a 747, two of them are crashing. Every two months, 9-11 is occurring…we would not tolerate that degree of preventable harm in any other forum.”   In the hearing's closing questions, when Sanders inquired as to why this crisis was not constantly splashed across front page news, he was met with this: "When people go to the hospital, they are sick. It is very easy to confuse the fact that somebody might have died because of a fatal consequence of their disease, versus they died from a complication from a medical error," Jha said. "It has taken a lot to prove to all of us that many of these deaths are not a natural consequence of the underlying disease. They are purely failures of the system. Journal of The American Medical Association declared there was 450,000 deaths a year from iatropic causes. Iatropic means doctor related causes. This is from years ago. So what is it now after 750,000 people have died in the US for the same reason. But as we're going to see, it's a lot worse than this.   Recent: 40+ Jaw Dropping Medical Malpractice Statistics Etactics: By Butterfly Meltzer - 7/29/21 Medical malpractice happens more often than most might think and when it does, it's not a “cried wolf” scenario. Doctors do make mistakes, but sometimes the actions classified as malpractice are intentionally taken. Naive, inexperienced, and/or simply bad physicians, unfortunately, exist in all fields of medicine. Whether they're a surgeon, psychologist, primary care physician, or therapist, malpractice can occur across any specialist role. The result can lead to permanent injury and even death. The consequences can be severe and victims often have no choice but to take legal action. Here are over 40 statistics about medical malpractice: General Malpractice Malpractice can occur in many forms across different segments of the healthcare industry. To get a true understanding though, you need to look at healthcare as a whole.  You should probably start with the reputation of the doctor in question. Maybe previous patients have sued that doctor in the past. Maybe they have a high rate of misdiagnosis or other medical errors. From nursing homes to outpatient therapy, billing errors to misprescribing, malpractice can happen anywhere.  The average person who files medical malpractice claims is 42 years old. (University of California) 10% of all U.S. deaths are now due to medical error. (Johns Hopkins) 99% of physicians face at least one lawsuit by age 65. (New England Journal of Medicine) New York had the highest amount of medical malpractice in the US (16,688 reports) from 2009 to 2018. (NPDB) North Dakota had the lowest amount of medical malpractice in the US. (126 reports) (NPDB) 37% of malpractice claims reviewed resulted in payments (The Doctors Company) It's estimated that 7,000 to 9,000 patients die every year from medication errors. (My Medical Score) 5-10% of all physicians have had sexual contact with patients. (American Medical Association) Medical Overuse Many people agree that doctors tend to overprescribe medicines. There have been countless stories that link the opioid pandemic to overprescribing. Patients are often given too much medicine that ends up doing more harm than good. As a result, the overuse of medical practices can lead to medical malpractice. If a patient receives tests, treatment, and medication that they don't need, the patient will most likely have unnecessary expenses. 15-30% of 2000 physicians surveyed in a study believe most medical care is not needed. (Johns Hopkins) 22% of prescription medications are unnecessary 24.9% of medical tests do not need to happen 11.1% of procedures do not need to take place 30% of outpatient antibiotic prescriptions are unnecessary. (CDC) 20% to 50% of antibiotics prescribed in US acute-care hospitals are unnecessary or inappropriate. (CDC) 27% of doctors say that patients receive antibiotics when drugs won't help. (WebMD) Medical Misdiagnosis So maybe you have certain symptoms that are easily confused between those of several different issues. As a result, your doctor misdiagnoses you and gives you medicine that you don't actually need. But does that count as medical malpractice? As with most situations in healthcare, it depends.  Misdiagnosis can lead to surgeries you don't need, medicines that negatively affect your health, and treatment that can lead to permanent damage. In severe cases, medical malpractice that involves misdiagnoses can lead to death. Roughly 12,000,000 American misdiagnoses happen each year (My Medical Score) Over more than 100,000 Americans die or are permanently disabled each year due to medical diagnoses that initially miss conditions or are wrong or delayed. (Johns Hopkins) Nearly ¾ of all serious harms from diagnostic errors occur around vascular events, infections and cancers. (Johns Hopkins) 37.8% are cancers  22.8% are vascular events 13.5% are infections 21% of patients receive an outright wrong diagnosis on their first visit to a doctor. (Mayo Clinic) 66% of patients get a diagnosis that may be on the right track but isn't quite accurate or complete. (Mayo Clinic) 12% of all patients who seek second opinions end up with the same diagnosis they started with. (Mayo Clinic) 22% of malpractice claims filed by hospitalized patients were diagnosis-related. (University of Michigan) 38% of malpractice claims against physicians involving the treatment of children involved a misdiagnosis. (The Doctors Company) Around 5% of outpatients receive misdiagnosis. (BMJ Journal) Surgical Malpractice Any kind of surgery can be terrifying. That's why you should always ask questions before giving consent for surgery. When medical malpractice happens during surgery, feelings of confusion overwhelm patients. They may feel that their doctors abused their trust. Not to mention they could also be in serious pain if something during the operation went wrong. From the patient perspective, they should arm themselves with knowledge in case something goes wrong. 85% of surgeons are likely to get into a lawsuit  (The High Court) About 16.7% of 2000 physicians surveyed said that they performed unnecessary procedures for profit (John Hopkins) A little more than 4,000 surgical errors occur each year (My Medical Score) 39 surgeries per week end up with a surgical tool, like a sponge, left inside patients  20 operations per week occur on the wrong body part 20 wrong surgical procedures occur on a patient per week 59% of surgical errors only resulted in temporary injuries (My Medical Score) 40% of surgical errors resulted in permanent injuries or death (My Medical Score) Mental Health Malpractice There are many myths surrounding mental health but medical malpractice isn't one of them. Surgery usually can't fix mental health issues. Diagnosis can really only occur through the evaluation of symptoms, and many mental health issues have similar symptoms. This is especially true for children. If doctors overprescribe opioids and antibiotics, it's safe to say that that carries into mental health. Doctors also prescribe medicines that don't actually help the illness, so naturally, this can happen in the mental health world as well.   41% of US psychiatrists faced a malpractice lawsuit at least once (Medscape) ⅓ of psychiatrists managing their legal risk between 2015 and 2016 had claims involving incorrect treatment. (Sommers Schwartz) 20% were for medication issues 15% involved suicides or suicide attempts 6% percent were for misdiagnosis. More than 60% of people who receive a diagnosis of major depression don't actually have it (Johns Hopkins) Of 706 people surveyed, only 15% received a prompt diagnosis, while 85% experienced diagnostic delay (Bridges to Recovery) Among the 85% delayed, 71% said that their symptoms had become worse as a result of receiving inappropriate treatment 47.3% of 50,000 patients were correctly identified with depression by general practitioners (Bridges to Recovery)   A 2008 study found that 57% of adults diagnosed with bipolar disorder did not meet diagnostic criteria upon more comprehensive diagnostic review. (Brown University School of Medicine)  According to the table of Iatrogenic Deaths In The United States linked here , We could have an even higher death rate by using Dr. Lucien Leape's 1997 medical and drug error rate of 3 million. (14) Multiplied by the fatality rate of 14% (that Leape used in 1994 (16) we arrive at an annual death rate of 420,000 for drug errors and medical errors combined. If we put this number in place of Lazorou's 106,000 drug errors and the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) 98,000 medical errors, we could add another 216,000 deaths making a total of 999,936 deaths annually.   CDC - Iatrogenic Deaths “Disappeared" in 2020, COVID-19 Took Their Place  For decades up until 2020 CDC annual reports listed medical error (iatrogenic) deaths as the third-leading cause of death in the US. The only change in that annual "ranking" of deaths was in the last 5 years cancer sometimes overtaking heart disease as a leading cause of death in the US and most other Western ("developed") countries.  Now, the latest CDC report has completely removed the iatrogenic category  and COVID-19 deaths have taken that third place. If the CDC had simply moved the iatrogenic deaths up or down the list, it would have been at least a debatable issue. However, the complete disappearance of medical error deaths exposes directly the fraud. Iatrogenic deaths can't just vanish in a single year.  In fact, if the hospitals were full to brim with patients in 2020 then iatrogenic deaths would be much higher than prior years. Btw, the "unintentional injury" category on 4th place covers "life accidents". They are counted separately from iatrogenic deaths, so one cannot argue that iatrogenic deaths moved to 4th place. Unless I am missing something, this may be the most direct admission yet by the powers that be that the COVID-19 death numbers are completely fake. Either no COVID-19 deaths occurred in 2020 or all of them were iatrogenic in nature so one can swap the names on 3rd place. So, either we have a blatant, public, demonstrable and irrefutable lie or public admission by CDC of genocidal medical interventions for all COVID-19 patients who died in hospitals in 2020.   Attorney Thomas Renz – All New Whistleblower Information Rumble — Attorney Thomas Renz Releases Stunning Data from Never Before Seen Vaccine Injury/Death Tracking System Thanks to a Whistleblower that came forth to Attorney Thomas Renz, the public is now seeing, for the first time ever, hard data from the largest database available in the U.S. to study the COVID-19 impact including deaths & injuries; The CMS Medicare Tracking System.  During an extraordinary speech at Clay Clark's ReAwaken America Tour, Attorney Thomas Renz shocked the crowd of thousands in attendance and millions watching via livestream as he revealed: That data from the Medicare Tracking System reveals that 19,400 people less than 80 years old have died within 14 days of receiving the COVID-19 Vaccine. In addition, 28,065 people have died that are over the age of 80 within 14 days of receiving the Covid-19 vaccine. The Total number of American Citizens that died within 14 days of receiving the COVID-19 vaccine is 48,465 according to hard data revealed in the Medicare Tracking System. In July attorney Renz's whistleblower, under penalty of perjury, stated that she estimated at least 45K people had died from the Covid-19 Vaccine. USA Today Fact Checkers and other fact checking services claimed that to be “mis-information.” Today's revelations solidify that the “Trusted News Initiative” is actually the source of mis-information and propaganda, and that Attorney Thomas Renz's whistleblower was correct all along. After proving that over 45K people have died from the COVID-19 vaccine, Attorney Renz then moved his attention to focus on the amount of people that are being killed in American hospitals by Dr. Anthony Fauci's instituted protocol of Remdesivir. Attorney Renz is also in possession of Remdesivir death data from the Medicare Tracking System that has been withheld by the government from our citizens. The Remdesivir data reveals of the 7,960 beneficiaries prescribed Remdesivir for Covid-19,  2,058 died. That is 25.9%. 46% of people died within 14 days of the Remdesivir Treatment. The Remdesivir Treatment was established in U.S. Hospitals at the direction of Dr. Anthony Fauci. Serious adverse events were reported in 131 of the 532 patients who received Remdesivir. That is 24.6%. Attorney Renz says ” This begs the question… Why is this the protocol in American Hospitals? Does this appear “Safe and Effective” to you?” RENZ's NURSE WHISTLEBLOWERS REVEAL TWO TIER SYSTEM OF CARE DEPENDING ON YOUR VACCINE STATUS During Attorney Thomas Renz speech at Clay Clark's ReAwaken America Tour in Colorado Springs, Colorado Renz also talked about 2 Whistleblower nurses that revealed to him that they have seen a 2 tier system of health care depending on the patients “vaccination status.” “The nurses revealed to me that patients that are vaccinated are getting Ivermectin, which is proven to heal people. But if you are unvaccinated, they put you on Remdesivir in the hopes that you will die” said Attorney Thomas Renz. THE FDA IS TRACKING VACCINE DEATHS, ALL THE WHILE CLAIMING THE COVID VACCINE IS SAFE AND EFFECTIVE Also during Attorney Renz' speech he revealed that the FDA is actively working with CMS real-time data ( CMS Medicare database ) to gather weekly reports on Covid-19 adverse events, despite the fact that the US population is told repeatedly this vaccine is “safe and effective.” Attorney Renz says “This information has never been given to the public, and you will see why they have kept it hidden and never published. It's very damning, and this data reveals that the FDA knew what was coming, let it happen, and thousands and thousands have died or been injured.” During his speech Renz revealed in one state alone ( New York ) that the amount of people who experienced adverse events after the Covid shot were in the thousands. Adverse events experienced by people who got the Covid-19 shot in New York State included thousands of cardiovascular events, thousands of cases of people getting Covid, and thousands of deaths. At least 13 side effects are reported in the system. “Remember, these are “side effects” that the government, media, and social media continue to tell the public that are not happening. The mantra of “safe and effective” must stop after today's information” says Attorney Renz. A copy of Attorney Renz entire speech along with data from the hidden vaccine tracking system will be posted on his website at www.Renz-Law.com    Proof That They Knew! Renz said, Our data comes from a whistleblower with access to CMS data. CMS data includes billing, prescribing, treatment, and all other information related to beneficiary treatment – that is how the government knows how much money to send healthcare providers. This info was all recognized by the US Department of Defense in the presentation we found and reposted on www.renz-law.com  Our whistleblowers have searched this data to provide these numbers. This data is being hidden from be public but would be easily searchable for government analysts using the same searches we did. Our question – why aren't our elected officials and bureaucrats searching for this information and sharing it? Percentage of Americans covered by Medicare in 2019: 18.1% 59.4 Million People. 18% of 330 Million is: 59,400,000 Total Medicare Budget: $899 Billion (2020) Largest data base available in the U.S. to study COVID-19 trends. It includes all claims: vaccine dates, treatment dates, death dates, adverse events, hospitalizations. It is not self-reporting like VAERS. As you can see in the information that was excerpted from a presentation by the FDA, they are tracking the data we are presenting here. In other words they know or should know this info. The number of CMS beneficiaries who died within 14 days* of a COVID-19 vaccine are: Under 80 years old - 19,400 + Over 80 year old - 28,065 = 47,465  (*within 14 days of 1st or 2nd dose, whichever difference was lower PER THE CDC – YOU ARE NOT CONSIDERED VACCINATED UNTIL TWO WEEKS AFTER YOUR SECOND SHOT OR FIRST SHOT OF JANSEN SO THESE DEATHS DO NOT COUNT ‐ https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019‐ncov/vaccines/fully‐vaccinated.html) The FDA planned (all along) to monitor CMS data for side effects in nearly real time to watch for the safety of the COVID vaccines:   See all the adverse events including deaths from 9 different states in the latter half of this PDF: COVID Vaccine Cover Up PDF – Renz Law and COVID Pfizer Whistleblower Data – Renz Law   Dr. David Martin Explains 7 Felonies that Could Prosecute Dr. Fauci/ Felony Crimes End Big Pharma Immunity from Lawsuits Dr. David Martin has been spending the past year and a half fighting to unravel what he says is the global criminal conspiracy of coronavirus. Parties include the American and Chinese governments, the International Monetary Fund, and Blackrock. Martin says these groups are guilty of criminal conspiracy in a terrorist plot against the American people.    A brand new VAERS data analysis from 11/16/21 found hundreds of serious adverse events that were completely missed by the CDC that should have been mentioned in the informed consent document that is given to patients.  VAERS Analysis: Over 150,000 Americans killed by covid vaccines   The first half of this link below shows the hospitals are the killing fields following DS protocols. This is not for Christians who believe the Word but for those who dont. As you know we need to trust the Word. It is more dangerous for us, as believers and followers of Christ to "trust in the arm of flesh". Now you know why.  Dr. Bryan Ardis - TheRevealReport - Emergency Broadcast - Oct 12 2021  Roots of Modern Medicine David Eells  The Physicians' Original Hippocratic Oath: I swear by Apollo the Physician, and Asklepios and Hygieia, (We will discuss these three god's and godess as we go on.) and all the Gods and Goddesses that, according to my ability and judgment, I will keep this oath and this syngraphe ('contract'): to consider him who taught me this Art as dear to me as my parent, to share my substance with him, and to relieve his necessities if required; to look upon his offspring as equivalent to my own brothers, and to teach them this Art, if they wish to learn it, without fee or stipulation; and that by precept, lecture, and every other form of instruction, I will impart a knowledge of the Art to my own sons, and those of my teachers, and to disciples bound by a stipulation and oath according to the law of medicine, but to none others. I will follow that system of regimen which, according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patients and abstain from whatever is harmful and mischievous. I will give no deadly medicine to anyone if asked, nor suggest any such advice; likewise, I will not give a pessary to a woman to induce abortion. I will live my life and practice my art with purity and holiness. I will not cut persons suffering from 'the stone', but will leave this to be done by men who are practitioners of this skill. Whatever houses I enter, I will enter for the benefit of the sick, and will abstain from every voluntary act of mischief and corruption, and especially from the seduction of females or males, of free persons or slaves. Whatever I see or hear in connection with my professional practice or not in the life of men, which should not be made public, I will not divulge, considering that all such knowledge should remain secret. As long as I continue to keep this Oath inviolate, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and the practice of the Art, respected by all men, at all times. But if I should trespass and violate this Oath, may the opposite be my lot. www.csun.edu   Apollo in Greek Mythology Apollo is in many respects the paradigm of a Greek god. He represents order, harmony, and civilization in a way that most other Olympian deities cannot quite equal. One only has to compare him with Dionysos to understand how Apollo is depicted as a bright, rational counterpart to the chaotic and frenzied god of wine and women. Indeed, Apollo is most often associated with the cultivated arts of music and medicine, and his role as the leader of the Muses establishes him as a patron of intellectual pursuits. Pronunciation - {a-pol'-lo} Etymology - "Destroy or excite" Other names - Apollon (EDITOR'S NOTE: The angel of the abyss is Apollyon, meaning destroyer.) (EDITOR'S NOTE: Witchcraft or Sorcery in the New Testament is from the Greek word Pharmakia; English Pharmacy; Healing through the use of drugs. Of Babylon it was said, (Rev.18:23)... for with thy sorcery were all the nations deceived.)  In Greek mythology, Asklepios (Asclepius) was the god of healing. He was the son of the Olympian god Apollo and a mortal woman named Coronis.    Asklepios (Roman Aesculapius) The Hesiod places Aesculapius' origin in Thessaly where he lived in a subterranean cleft with both a serpent and a hound as companions. Born of the god Apollo and the mortal woman Coronis (a "former" virgin of the Lapithae), Aesculapius was raised by the centaur Chiron, from whom he learned the art of healing and became a physician. (EDITOR'S NOTE: This healer God is an imitation of Jesus. This god is supposedly born of an earthly mother and a god (Son of God) he supposedly raised the dead etc. The physicians symbol, the serpent on a rod, was an imitation of Moses serpent that was lifted up in the wilderness, which pointed to Christ the healer. This god is clearly a false Christ.)  According to Greek legend, patients seeking healing would sleep the night in the temple of Aesculapius. During the night, Aesculapius would appear to the patient in a dream, accompanied by his daughter, the goddess Hygieia, and by a serpent who followed Aesculapius wherever he went. At that point, Aesculapius would treat the patient in the dream, often by having the serpent lick his or her wounds. In the morning, the patient would awaken healed. As a result, throughout history, the symbol of the physician has been, and continues to be, the Staff of Aesculapius, a wooden staff with a SINGLE serpent entwined. Many readers, however, are probably more familiar with the Caduceus, which is the winged staff of Hermes, the messenger of the gods, with TWO intertwined serpents. His followers established temples called Asclepions, temples of Asklepios, temples of healing. The greatest asklepion was in a grove of trees south of Corinth, Greece where the sick had to spend a night while the proper remedies were revealed during a dream to the priests of the temple and the cured had to make a suitable sacrifice (usually a rooster) to the god. According to mythology, Asculapius had a number of children including Hygieia, the goddess of health (from whose name comes the word "hygiene") and Panaceia, the goddess of healing (from whose name comes the word "panacea" for a universal remedy). Today, the staff of Aesculapius is a commonly used symbol of medicine. It is the symbol of the American Medical Association (AMA) and many other medical societies. Chiron taught Asclepius the art of healing. According to Pindar (Pythian Odes), Asclepius also acquired the knowledge of surgery, the use of drugs, love potions and incantations. www.loggia.com   Physician Humor.........or is it? Original Author unknown - David's notes in red These statistics are very outdated but are far worse now and they do prove a point. Think about this: Statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners. (These numbers have now skyrocketed) a. The number of physicians in the US is 700,000. b. Accidental deaths caused by Physicians per year is 120,000. (We just proved that this number, as of the early 2,000's, is closer to 1 million.) c. Accidental deaths per physician is 0.171. (US Dept. of Health & Human Services) Then think about this: a. The number of gun owners in the US is 80,000,000. b. The number of accidental gun deaths per year (all age groups) is 1,500. c. The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is .0000188. Statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners. FACT: NOT EVERYONE HAS A GUN, BUT ALMOST EVERYONE HAS AT LEAST ...ONE DOCTOR! Please alert your friends to this alarming threat. We must ban doctors before this gets out of hand! As a public health measure I have withheld the statistics on lawyers for fear that the shock could cause people to seek medical attention.    Man's Methods or God's Glory What we've seen so far has proven that the curse of God is in trusting in man. Jer 17:5  Thus saith Jehovah: Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from Jehovah. (God has a method that never fails but it is foolishness to man.)  But God chose the foolish things of the world, that he might put to shame them that are wise; and God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong; and the base things of the world, and the things that are despised, did God choose [yea] and the things that are not, that he might bring to naught the things that are: that no flesh should glory before God (1 Cor.1:27-29). God's methods will always be considered foolish, weak, base, and despised by the world and the worldly church… In my past experiences, at the end of all of my works to save myself by man's methods, God gave me faith to see His works. God's method was faith in Him combined with my own weakness. He said, "[my] power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor.12:9). Faith is foolish, weak, and base to the world but it brings God's power... Worldly methods failed me, but faith in the promises brought the most awesome deliverance. Glory to God! Recently, I watched a report on antibacterial soaps on the national news. They reported that the net effect was that they were not wiping out bacteria, but making them resistant. What did penicillin do but make antibiotic resistant bacteria for which there is no medical cure on the horizon? Poisons on the crops, to try to destroy the curse, go into the water supply and cause a multitude of diseases. Read your toothpaste tube; fluoride is a deadly poison. The Journal of the American Medical Association Vol. 284, July 26, 2000, reported that doctors are the third leading cause of death in the U.S., causing 250,000 deaths every year from iatrogenic causes! (Now over 450,000 and this does not including the medical murders being committed because of CV-19.) Iatrogenic is defined as induced in a patient by a physician's activity, manner, or therapy, used especially of a complication of treatment. If this is what their organization admits, what is the truth? The numbers are much higher. If, as some believe, this is God's preferred method of healing today, He is surely making a lot of mistakes. I have a good doctor friend who prefers to not use drugs. He has told me how he prays for patients who will believe, with results. The problem is that most are not interested in deliverance from their curse if it takes repentance and faith so he does what he can. My mother took a drug for years. One day she was reading an article by Reader's Digest on the side effects of medicines. The side effects of the drug she was on were breast cancer and glaucoma, and she had them both. That was a terrible trade. My father's favorite doctor told him after an examination, "One thing I am sure of, you are not going to die of a heart attack. You have the heart of a much younger man". About a month later, he had a serious heart attack. I became convinced it was because of a drug he was taking to put oxygen into his blood because he lost a lung to smoking. Two close friends took a drug that had a side effect of damaging their kidneys. Their doctors admitted this in both cases. Man shifts the curse around and sometimes multiplies it, but he cannot deliver by his own efforts. If he could, then Jesus' death was for naught. I believe it is God's purpose that we understand that there is no permanent deliverance from the curse except God's deliverance through Jesus Christ. The world's deliverance is a deception, because, ultimately, their gods fail them. God wants us to see through that. We have been told that God now uses modern methods for delivering us from the curse. God's method is always free. It is salvation by grace, which is the unmerited, unpaid for, favor of God. Neither Jesus nor His disciples charged anything for healing, deliverance, provision, or any other form of salvation. The world's method always cost. The poor often go untreated until they die. In God's kingdom, all are treated on condition of faith. God desires to use the same method He used in the Scripture, the word of faith, because it is the only one that does not give glory to man. If a Christian receives a recovery from some disease while under the care of doctors and medicine, everyone wants to know what the medicine was or who the doctor was. God will not share His glory with another. I am not condemning those who use doctors or medicine. I offer the good news that Jesus has already healed you almost 2,000 years ago. Reading the New Testament once shows that God did not use the methods of man. In the coming wilderness we will need to understand this. Soon God's people will not be able to buy or sell with the world. Then all will be forced into a wilderness experience where there will be no idolatry with the gods of this world. For the people of God in the wilderness there will be a great lack of doctors, medicine, lawyers, bankers, psychiatrists, insurance, food, clean water, and public assistance of all types. Then we will see God's power in man's weakness (2 Cor.12:9-10). The churches' methods of obtaining provision today are the same as the world's methods and are therefore acceptable to it. God has a peculiar method for ministering deliverance from the curse that costs nothing, gives no glory to man, and proves His sovereignty. (1 Cor.1:28) And the base things of the world, and the things that are despised, did God choose, [yea] and the things that are not, that he might bring to nought the things that are: (29) that no flesh should glory before God We see here that God chose to use something that does not exist in the physical realm in order to destroy the things that do. The "things that are not" are the promises in the Word that we do not see fulfilled. The "things that are" are the cursed things of sin, sickness, and lack, which God wants to "bring to nought". For example, if you are sick, that is a thing that is; but "by whose stripes ye were healed" is a thing that is not in the physical realm. God chose faith in His promises "that are not" in order to bring to naught the sickness. Jesus and the disciples used God's method for dealing with the curse by calling "the things that are not, as though they were" (Rom.4:17). They just commanded it done according to the promises. They did not choose "the things that are", like doctors, medicine, psychiatrists, banks, and such to "bring to naught the things that are", like sin, sickness, torment, lack, debt, etc. The things that appear in this realm are the things that are and are all under the curse. (Heb.11:3) By faith we understand that the worlds (Greek: "ages") have been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen hath not been made out of things which appear. God's method is to use the Word and not the physical things that appear, just as in the Gospels and Acts. In anointing with oil, it is obviously not the oil but the faith that heals. Oil is just a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Paul's handkerchief did not heal; it was the power from his faith (Acts 19:12). Some might think that once Jesus also used things such as when He made clay with His spit to heal a blind man in John 9:6-7. It was not the clay that healed his eyes, but the washing it out of his eyes; clay symbolizes the Adamic nature and the things that are (Job 10:9; 33:6; Isa.29:16; 45:9) just as man was made from clay. In other words, our eyes must be cleansed of seeing through eyes of clay. We need the spiritual eyes to see the promise as done by faith. (2 Pet.1:3) Seeing that his divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life (Greek: zoe, "God's life") and godliness.... To have spiritual eyes, we must see that Jesus has already given us His life and blessings. We need to be cleansed of fleshly eyes that keep us from God's blessings. ... The natural man (of clay) receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged (Greek: "examined" or "seen") (1 Cor.2:14). By the way, the spit from Jesus' mouth symbolizes that which comes out of the mouth of the Lord that gives life to man, the Word or manna (Dt.8:3; Jn.1:13; 6:33,51). I once knew a preacher who said, "The reason Paul did all those miracles was because Luke the physician was with him". Wrong! Not in one verse do we see Luke using physician skills, which could never result in a miracle. The Greek word iatros is falsely translated "physician" but it just means "healer". Iatros is also used of Jesus as "healer". Translators put their modern ideas here. "Physician" means "one who practices medicine", which Jesus and the apostles never did. The term used for drugs or medicine in the Greek is pharmakia (English: "pharmacy") and is translated "witchcraft" or "sorcery", which Paul called a work of the flesh in Galatians 5:20. The nations are deceived with pharmakia (Rev.18:23). Luke was a healer in the same way Jesus and the other disciples were. It should seem strange to these people that Jesus and his disciples did not use "the things that are" to administer healing or deliverance. If Paul's handkerchief had the power to heal, why could it not heal before he touched it? It only acted as a medium to carry the healing anointing to the sick by faith. I have prayed over handkerchiefs, water, or people as mediums and seen healings. A brother, whose wife was very sick, came into our meeting. He was very troubled and on the edge of tears about this. The brother was not yet convinced that he needed to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Asking the Lord in my thoughts what to do, it came to me to pray over him to impart healing power to him, which we did. Then I said, "Now brother, go lay hands on your wife, and she will be healed". He was not convinced that healing was our right today, but he went home to lay hands on his wife. When he did, she was healed, and he came back excited. You see, it is not the medium; it is the healing power manifested through it, or in this case him, by faith. Jesus imparted authority to the disciples to heal before they received the Holy Spirit. So how do we use God's method of "the things that are not"? By calling "the things that are not, as though they were" (Rom.4:17). In other words, agree with the promise and call it done. God chooses to use "the things that are not, that he might bring to nought the things that are: that no flesh should glory before God" (1 Cor.1:28-29). God does not desire to use man's inventions so that only He can brag. God's salvation is not by our works. It is by getting our eyes off the problem and on the promise. 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 teaches that our affliction will be temporary if "we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen". When the Israelites got their eyes off the snake bite (curse) and on the serpent on the pole (Christ who became our curse [Jn.3:14]), they were healed (Num.21:49). As we saw, Paul's "thorn in the flesh" had nothing to do with sickness but a demon that was bringing him into humbling circumstances where he was weak to save himself so God's power was present to save him. His advice to Timothy puts a question in some concerning the use of remedies. In the text we can see that sin is the subject before and after the verse in question. (1 Tim. 5:22) Lay hands hastily on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins: keep thyself pure. (23) Be no longer a drinker of water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities (Greek: asthenia; meaning "weaknesses"). (24) Some men's sins are evident, going before unto judgment; and some men also they follow after. (25) In like manner also there are good works that are evident; and such as are otherwise cannot be hid. The word sometimes translated "infirmities" is actually "weaknesses" and is clearly seen in other texts where the same word is correctly translated. (1 Cor.1:25) ... The weakness of God is stronger than men. Now we know that God is not infirm or sick so this word has to be "weakness". (2 Cor.13:4) For he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth through the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him through the power of God toward you. We know that Jesus Christ was not crucified through infirmity, but weakness because He would not defend Himself when He was brought before Pilate and the Jewish leaders. Timothy had spiritual weaknesses for which the only cure was the spiritual wine of the nature of Jesus. The stomach or belly was spiritually considered the seat of rulership for the carnal man. It represented being driven by the lusts (Greek: "desires") of the flesh, driven by sin. (Php.3:19) Whose end is perdition, whose god is the belly, and [whose] glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. Peter called those who returned to their sins, "the sow that had washed to wallowing in the mire". The sow best identifies those who are servants to their flesh's appetites. On the other hand, wine was considered the cure for bondage to sin. Wine represents the blood of Jesus. (Mt.26:27) And he took a cup(of wine), and gave thanks, and gave to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; (28) for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many unto remission of sins. (29) But I say unto you, I shall not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. Through our own blood we have inherited the lusts of the sinful flesh and through Jesus' pure blood that nature is destroyed. (Lev.17:11) For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh atonement by reason of the life. His blood is in us to the extent that we repent and partake of the life of His Word. (Jn.6:53) Jesus therefore said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood (wine), ye have not life in yourselves. (54) He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life: and I will raise him up at the last day. Partaking of the blood or wine is a matter of walking in His Word by faith in His blood that was given to us. (1 Jn.1:7) But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin. The combined fruitful faith that resides in the true body of Christ is the answer to the question of why Isaiah commanded a cake of figs for Hezekiah's boil. (Isa.38:21) Now Isaiah had said, Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a plaster upon the boil, and he shall recover. The figs here represent the Body of Christ or Israel as in Jesus' warnings about bearing fruit. (Lk.13:6)And he spake this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came seeking fruit thereon, and found none. (7) And he said unto the vinedresser, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why doth it also cumber the ground? (Rev.6:13) and the stars of the heaven (Abraham's seed) fell unto the earth, as a fig tree casteth her unripe figs when she is shaken of a great wind. Jesus identified the righteous as being under the fig tree when He saw Nathanael there as an Israelite without guile (Jn.1:47 50). Notice that in the verse before the "cake of figs" was laid on the boil, faith was expressed to God by the body for Hezekiah's healing as the saints in the "house of the Lord" were praising God for this. It was the figs' faith that sucked the poison out of the boil. (Isa.38:20) The Lord is [ready] to save me: Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments All the days of our life in the house of the Lord. The cake of figs was a natural parable that represented a spiritual happening just as in Jesus' parables of planting wheat and corn, etc. See God's Vaccine   Please read our book Faith for all Things    

covid-19 united states god jesus christ american new york university california canada father lord art europe english israel spirit man body healing pandemic japan americans gospel doctors christians michigan chinese holy spirit reading western minnesota medicine single safe acts jewish scripture institute greek congress hospitals gods corinthians defense journal patients wine vaccines md human drink republicans rev mt greece senate galatians new testament billion bernie sanders cdc prevention fda public health olympians behold apollo surgery destroy pilates israelites parties physicians methods rom cheap diagnosis cor poison oil sciences sanders his word nursing medicare centers bridges cv largest anthony fauci rn accidental witchcraft ridiculous corinth whistleblowers heb btw new york state jehovah disease control colorado springs blackrock us department ebola curses digest mayo clinic lay nih oath ds num cms johns hopkins hermes lev dt worldly translators felony gilead disappeared php sorcery goddesses jn ivermectin lk american medical association unvaccinated pronunciation percentage new england journal unc chapel hill statistically adverse chiron international monetary fund virology naive million people harvard school verily preventable etymology subcommittee american citizens david martin medical malpractice regeneron us dept renz medscape iom ingraham wuhan institute partaking gilead sciences clay clark adamic jha niaid scott jensen 45k minnesota school asclepius brown university school caduceus american medical association ama thessaly iatrogenic asklepios to err attorney thomas renz china academy american hospitals trusted news initiative fraudci aesculapius panaceia pharmakia hygieia renz law
Unraveling The Words of Yahweh
Revelation Part 22 Pergamos Verse 17

Unraveling The Words of Yahweh

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 7, 2021 73:08


In this week's study, I finish up with the Church of Pergamos at verse 17Pergamos was a city in the southern part of Mysia, the capital of a kingdom of that name, and afterward of the Roman province of Asia Propria. Some of the pagan temples that were seated there are the temples of Jupiter and Diana, of Aesculapius [healing] and Venus. It is called "Satan's seat" by John, which some suppose to refer to the worship of Aesculapius, from the serpent being his characteristic emblem. Others refer it to the persecutions of Christians, which was work of Satan.He that hath an ear, let him hear = Every Christian, whoever can hear at all, should carefully listen to this. Pay special attention to the message that Yahshua Messiah is giving us!What the Spirit saith = This Holy Spirit. That driving FORCE from Yahweh, in these great and precious promises. Focus on what is being said in this book of Revelation. To the churches = “ek-kelsia” That called out assembly. Called out from what? Sin, bondage, church traditions, doctrines etc.Overcometh = “nik-ah'-o” From “nee-kay”; to subdue (literally or figuratively): - conquer, overcome, prevail, get the victory.To him that overcometh  = To him who continues steadfast in the faith, and uncorrupt in his or her life; who faithfully confesses Yahshua Messiah, and neither absorbs the doctrines nor is led away by the error of the wicked one.To eat of = most of the texts omit this phrase. However, I agree with the writers of the King James. Why? How else are we going to partake of the manna. To me it just like taking communion.Hidden = “kroop'-to” A primary verb; to conceal (properly by covering). Why does John write “hidden”? It is hidden to those that don't have the ears to hear or eyes to see. To hear and see what? The Word! The Logos! COULD this be the posititve of those false ministers that teach the souls to fly away. Ezk. 13: 18-20.Manna = The true spiritual food; the food that nourishes the soul. The idea is, that the souls of those who “overcame,” or who gained the victory in their conflict with sin, and in the persecutions and trials of the world, would be permitted to partake of that spiritual food which is laid up for the people of Yahweh, and by which they will be nourished forever. The Hebrew's were supported by manna in the desert Exod. 16:16-35; a pot of that manna was laid up in the most holy place, to be preserved as a memorial Exod. 16:32-34; it is called “angels' food” Psa. 78:25, and “corn of heaven” Psa. 78:24; and it would seem to have been symbolic of that spiritual food by which the people of Yahweh are to be fed from heaven, in their journey through this world. By the word “hidden,” there would seem to be an allusion to what was laid up in the pot before the ark of the testimony, and the blessing which is promised here is that they would be nourished as if they were sustained by that manna thus laid up before the ark: by food from the immediate presence of Yahweh. The language thus explained would mean that they who overcome will be nourished through this life as if by that “hidden manna”; that is, that they will be supplied all along through the “wilderness of this world” by that food from the immediate presence of Yahweh which their souls require. We can also think on this hidden manna as hidden truth. Amos 8:11.Don't end up like those in Hosea 4:6 ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God (Elohim), I will also forget thy children.'Join me as we go Chapter by Chapter, Verse by Verse, Unraveling the Words of Yahweh!Have any questions? Feel free to email me at utwoy@netzero.net 

Unraveling The Words of Yahweh
Revelation Part 21 Continue Pergamos

Unraveling The Words of Yahweh

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 30, 2021 70:02


In this week's study, we will continue in Chapter 2 verse 14, the Church of PergamosPergamos was a city in the southern part of Mysia, the capital of a kingdom of that name, and afterward of the Roman province of Asia Propria. Some of the pagan temples that were seated there are the temples of Jupiter and Diana, of Aesculapius [healing] and Venus. It is called "Satan's seat" by John, which some suppose to refer to the worship of Aesculapius, from the serpent being his characteristic emblem. Others refer it to the persecutions of Christians, which was work of Satan.14  Stumbling block = check this word out, “skan'-dal-on” A “scandal”; a trap stick (bent sapling), that is, snare (figuratively cause of displeasure or sin).Fornication = “porn-yoo'-o” From “por-nay”; to act the harlot, that is, (literally) indulge unlawful lust (of either sex), or (figuratively) practise idolatry:Do you realize that there are Churches, with their traditions, place stumbling blocks in front of their assemblies? I can think of the Roman Catholic Church and their bogus system. Even to the point where the Pope thinks he is a god. I won't even discuss the Masons, Moose and all those other secret lodges, where they hold their silly secret rituals of Salvation, blood rituals etc.Even though this church, Pergamos, was commended for not renouncing their faith in the very lap of Satanic worship, they had allowed false doctrines into their church.  What was outside the church had invaded the inside. 15  Nicolaitanes = A sect mentioned whose deeds were strongly condemned. They may have been identical, with those who held the doctrine of Balaam. They seem to have held that, it was lawful to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication, in opposition to the decree of the Church rendered in Acts 15. The teachers of the Church branded them with a name, which expressed their true character.16           Repent = “met-an-o-eh'-o” From “met-ah” and “noy-he-o”; to think differently or afterwards, that is, reconsider (morally to feel compunction). Again we see the warning to repent. Remember that this is spoken to the churches and to Christians. We cannot forget that. We must repent of our sins and our allowing sin in our churches without rebuke. If we do not do this then the Lord will come and rebuke us with the Word. Yahweh helps us if we do repent when we are rebuked. The Lord will fight against our enemies with the Word of His mouth, and we can also use the Word to defend the faith and teach sound doctrine. But when it is we who are living in sin, the Word turns around and rebukes us. The Holy Spirit convicts us through the Scriptures of our sin. We must then repent and turn from our wicked ways. Then the Lord can bring times of refreshing. My intention is to take this study to a deep level. Deeper than most of you are used to! I am asking no one to agree with me; however I do ask that you check every detail that I present out for yourself. Don't end up like those in Hosea 4:6 ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God (Elohim), I will also forget thy children.'But, be like those in 2Timothy 2:15 ‘Study to shew thyself approved unto God (Yahweh), a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.'Join me as we go Chapter by Chapter, Verse by Verse, Unraveling the Words of Yahweh!Have any questions? Feel free to email me at utwoy@netzero.net

Unraveling The Words of Yahweh
Revelation Part 20 Pergamos Balaam

Unraveling The Words of Yahweh

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 22, 2021 73:37


In this week's study, we will continue in Chapter 2 verse 13, the Church of PergamosPergamos was a city in the southern part of Mysia, the capital of a kingdom of that name, and afterward of the Roman province of Asia Propria. Some of the pagan temples that were seated there are the temples of Jupiter and Diana, of Aesculapius [healing] and Venus. It is called "Satan's seat" by John, which some suppose to refer to the worship of Aesculapius, from the serpent being his characteristic emblem. Others refer it to the persecutions of Christians, which was work of Satan.Pergamos served many idols, such as Zeus (god of the sky and ruler of the Olympian gods, Greek), Dionysius (god of altered states, wine, ecstasy), Athene (goddess of war, architecture, astronomy, science, etc) and others. It had many temples and altars. But this did not mark it out as Satan's throne because all the pagan cities in the Roman empire at that time worshipped idols, including the other cities mentioned in Revelation 2-3. It was the prominence of its worship of Aesculapius (god of healing and of medicine) or Asclepius as saviour, healer and preserver that made Pergamos distinctive in this regard. Asclepius was a god of healing and health. He had an impressive temple, the ruins of which can be visited in Pergamos today. People used to sleep in that temple with the idea that Asclepius would give them a dream which would be interpreted by his priest telling them how to be healed. The spring beside the temple was said to possess healing powers. Devotees would offer sacrifices or leave gifts for healing. Small terracotta body parts to represent the injured area or limb have been found near Asclepius' temple in Pergamos. Small wonder that Pergamos has been called the Lourdes of the ancient world. I discuss the teachings of Balaam and how those teachings are alive today within the church community14   Hold the doctrine of Balaam = Teachers like Balaam who seduce the true Israel into sin. Balaam showed Balak how to lead the children of Israel astray. See Num. 22:2, and Num. 31:16. In the same way there were false teachers at Pergamos who taught that Christians might join the idol feasts and in heathen fornication. Who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel = The word “stumbling-block” properly means anything over which one falls or stumbles, and then anything over which anyone may fall into sin, or which becomes the occasion of one's falling into sin. I continue my ranting on the fact that we have false ministers standing in the pulpits teaching the doctrines of Balaam.I discuss the symbolism of Starbucks logo on their cups and how it is of Satan. My intention is to take this study to a deep level. Deeper than most of you are used to! I am asking no one to agree with me; however I do ask that you check every detail that I present out for yourself. Don't end up like those in Hosea 4:6 ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God (Elohim), I will also forget thy children.'But, be like those in 2Timothy 2:15 ‘Study to shew thyself approved unto God (Yahweh), a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.'Join me as we go Chapter by Chapter, Verse by Verse, Unraveling the Words of Yahweh!Have any questions? Feel free to email me at utwoy@netzero.net  

Unraveling The Words of Yahweh
Revelation Part 19 Pergamos

Unraveling The Words of Yahweh

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 14, 2021 68:30


In this week's study, we will continue in Chapter 2 verse 12, the Church of PergamosPergamos (“height, elevation, fortified”) was a city in the southern part of Mysia, the capital of a kingdom of that name, and afterward of the Roman province of Asia Propria. Some of the pagan temples that were seated there are the temples of Jupiter and Diana, of Aesculapius [healing] and Venus. It is called "Satan's seat" by John, which some suppose to refer to the worship of Aesculapius, from the serpent being his characteristic emblem. Others refer it to the persecutions of Christians, which was work of Satan.12) angel = This messenger could either be “Antipas [like the father] or Caius”.Sharp sword with two edges = This title is used partly to show, that the only weapon this church, and the true ministers and members of it had, to defend themselves against the growing corruptions of antichrist, who in this interval rose up by degrees, and was revealed, and came to the height of his power, was the word of Yahweh, the Scriptures of truth;Heb 4:12 For the word of Yahweh is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. So the sword from the mouth of Yahshua Messiah is the Word of Yahweh. Yahshua is the Word.  The Bible is not a dead book. When it comes forth as truth it judges men's thoughts and attitudes. This happens when we read the Word and learn from Yahshua, the Word made flesh. It convicts us of our sinful thoughts and motives. Ultimately Yahshua Messiah will also judge the nations for He is coming to rule and judge. 13) know thy works = once again, nothing can be hid from Him.Satan seat = throne. Pergamos was a city very much given to idolatry, here Satan reigned while it was Pagan, and so was a fit emblem of the idolatrous Church of Rome.And thou holdest fast my name = They had professed the name of Yahshua Messiah; that is, they had professed to be his followers, and they had steadfastly adhered to him and his cause in all the opposition made to him.I go into a rant comparing the world today and how Satan is the prince of this world. PLEASE READ John 15 where Yahshua Messiah tells us that we are His friends IF we follow the commandment set forth by Him and that we are NOT of this world, but of that Heavenly world. I go into some events of today showing how Satan tries to control the souls of the unbelievers.2Co 4:3  But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 2Co 4:4  In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of the Messiah, who is the image of Yahweh, should shine unto them. My intention is to take this study to a deep level. Deeper than most of you are used to! I am asking no one to agree with me; however I do ask that you check every detail that I present out for yourself. Don't end up like those in Hosea 4:6 ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God (Elohim), I will also forget thy children.'But, be like those in 2Timothy 2:15 ‘Study to shew thyself approved unto God (Yahweh), a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.'Join me as we go Chapter by Chapter, Verse by Verse, Unraveling the Words of Yahweh!Have any questions? Feel free to email me at utwoy@netzero.net

Metamorphoses: a Retelling of Ovid's Tales
Reading the Metamorphoses: Book 2 Lines 401-875

Metamorphoses: a Retelling of Ovid's Tales

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 24, 2021 29:18


I read a translation of the Metamorphoses. This time, the second half of Book 2. The translation is by Brookes More and is available via the  Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License. Twitter: @MetamorphosesK Tumblr: key-metamorphoses Email: metamorphoses.key@gmail.com Website: metamorphoses.buzzsprout.com Music: Underwater Exploration - Godmode; In 3 - Godmode; Amber - VYEN; Sleepy Hollow - E's Jammy Jams; Ammil - The Tides; Pure Potentiality - Benjamin Martins; Dream Escape - The Tides; Whispering Streams - E's Jammy Jams; Somnolent - The Tides; Checkmate - Nathan Moore

Metamorphoses: a Retelling of Ovid's Tales
Book 2 Episode 4: Snitches Get Stitches

Metamorphoses: a Retelling of Ovid's Tales

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 12, 2021 9:14


This episode a raven gets a colour change, a princess gets turned into a crow and another girl gets turned into an owl. Many birds here! Oh, and Apollo gets slightly mad at his lover, but they still have a child. And Mercury steals some cows. CW/TW: attempted assault. Twitter: @MetamorphosesK Tumblr: ket-metamorphoses Email: metamorphoses.key@gmail.com Website: metamorphoses.buzzsprout.com Music: Vishnu - Patrick Patrikios; Traversing - Godmode; Away - Patrick Patrikios

Saint of the Day
Hieromartyr Artemon, presbyter of Laodicea in Syria (303)

Saint of the Day

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 13, 2021 1:28


At the time of Diocletian's persecutions, he was a very old man, having served as a reader for sixteen years, then a deacon for twenty-eight years, and finally as a priest for thirty years, for a total of seventy-four years. The pagan judge put him in the Temple of Aesculapius, where large snakes were kept and worshiped as gods. Though the judge meant for Artemon to be attacked by the snakes, the holy priest immobilized them with the sign of the Cross, brought them out of the temple and, in front of the pagan priests, breathed on the snakes, which died instantly. The chief priest, Vitalis, fell to his knees and cried 'Great is the Christian God!' Artemon baptised him along with several of his friends.   The unrepentant judge then condemned Artemon to be thrown into burning pitch, but the judge himself was thrown off his horse into the pitch and died. After this, Artemon went free for a time and spent his time teaching the Faith to his people ("accompanied always by two tame deer," says St Nikolia Velimirovic!). But he was arrested again and beheaded in the year 303.

Life 66
Episode 35 The Revelation 2`12-17

Life 66

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 30, 2021 26:42


“The Letter to the Church at Pergamum: Be Separate! Revelation 2:12-29 Background of Pergamum Present city - Bergama Pergamos/Pergamum - both used. Pergamos - great religious center. Intellectual center. 60-70 miles north of Smyrna, 15 miles inland from the Aegean Sea. Alter of Zeus here. God of healing - Aesculapius (scalpel) was worshipped here with the idol - serpent on a pole. Caduceus - official emblem of the city. Symbol of our present medical services. Persecution of Christians caused growth of the church. Pergamos - mixed marriage Background of Babylon The Heritage of Nimrod Babylon founded by Nimrod - the first world dictator. Wife - Semiramus; Son - Tammuz - associated with the Sun god. Yule log, Christmas tree, mistletoe, all trace their origins to Babylon. Names of days, names of months, calendar, 60 minutes in an hour, 60 seconds in minute all from Babylon. The Seat of Satan Persians conquer Babylon, the center of Babylonian influence shifts to Pergamos Persians conquered by Greeks and Greeks conquered by the Romans. Center of pagan influence then shifts to Rome. Constantine and the beginning of compromise 312 ad - Constantine gains control of Roman Empire and declares Christianity the state religion. Under Roman rule and persecution, Christianity has grown. Pagan and Christian cultures clash as Christianity is now acceptable. What Satan could not do by persecution he does by mixing Christianity with paganism. The first Pontifus Maximus is put in place and we have now the concepts of celibate priests, crucifix, purgatory, worship of Mary. All trace their roots to Babylon. The one with the sharp, double-edged sword Vs 12 The sword is the word of God. Heb. 4:12, Eph. 6:17 From Revelation 1:16, 19:15 Out of His mouth comes the sharp sword The only way to combat deception is with the absolute clear understanding of the word of God. I know you live where Satan lives Vs 13 The emphasis is not on the works of the church but on where they dwell. Satan's spiritual throne is here. Reference to the fact that the Babylonian paganism is central there. Two commendations: 1. You remain true to my name. 2. You did not renounce your faith in the time of trials. I have a few things against you. Vs 14-15 1. Balaam - “not of the people”. Numbers 22-25, 31 Principle of Balaam - through fornication the people will fall. Fornication used two ways - 1. physical sexual adultery 2. Idolatry, spiritual fornication. The way of Balaam is religious compromise - 2 Peter 2:12-16, Jude 11 2. The Nicolaitans Ephesus – hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans. Pergamos – hold to the teachings of the Nicolaitans. Nico - rule, control laity - the people Separation of laity and clergy. Repent and be separate! Vs 16 Repent - change your mind and your behavior will change. Turn about 180 degrees. All churches are told to Repent except for Smyrna and Philadelphia. Repent or else! 1. He will come soon to you. 2. He will fight against them with the sword of His mouth. The weapon of God's warfare is His word. Manna and a new name on a white stone Vs 17 1. Hidden manna - the manna hidden in the ark to remind Israel of God's provision in the wilderness. Jesus is the manna, the bread of life. John 6 He will be no longer hidden. We'll see Him face to face. 1 John 3:2, 1 Cor. 13:12 2. White stone with a new name on it - a) Stones used in judgment. A white stone was acquittal, and black stone guilty as charged. b) A stone different than the 12 in the breastplate of the priest. This stone is new. c) Roman practice: when a certain person was a victor in a contest or challenge he was given a white stone with his name on it as a ticket to gain entrance to a special feast or party afterward. A VIP ticket. d) The stone has a name on it only known by the bearer and God. When God calls your name you will be the only one He is calling. Beautiful intimacy.

Saint of the Day
Hieromartyr Artemon, presbyter of Laodicea in Syria (303)

Saint of the Day

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 29, 2020


At the time of Diocletian's persecutions, he was a very old man, having served as a reader for sixteen years, then a deacon for twenty-eight years, and finally as a priest for thirty years, for a total of seventy-four years. The pagan judge put him in the Temple of Aesculapius, where large snakes were kept and worshiped as gods. Though the judge meant for Artemon to be attacked by the snakes, the holy priest immobilized them with the sign of the Cross, brought them out of the temple and, in front of the pagan priests, breathed on the snakes, which died instantly. The chief priest, Vitalis, fell to his knees and cried 'Great is the Christian God!' Artemon baptised him along with several of his friends.   The unrepentant judge then condemned Artemon to be thrown into burning pitch, but the judge himself was thrown off his horse into the pitch and died. After this, Artemon went free for a time and spent his time teaching the Faith to his people ("accompanied always by two tame deer," says St Nikolia Velimirovic!). But he was arrested again and beheaded in the year 303.

Fabulous Folklore with Icy
Need healing? You Need Aesculapius, Roman God of Medicine

Fabulous Folklore with Icy

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 1, 2020 14:51


Aesculapius was the Roman God of Healing and Medicine (Asclepius in Greece). But who is he and why is he such a fascinating figure in the study of ancient Greece and Rome? And what does he have to do with Ophiuchus, the 'missing' 13th star sign? Let's meet him in this episode of Fabulous Folklore. See the images or get the blog post transcript here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/aesculapius/ Get your free guide to home protection folklore-style here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore Become a Patron for bonus content at https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595 Enjoyed this episode? Buy Icy a coffee at: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick Tweet Icy at https://twitter.com/IcySedgwick Follow Icy on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/icysedgwick 'Like' Icy Sedgwick on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/miss.icy.sedgwick 9ghaaa9g

Fabulous Folklore with Icy
Need healing? You Need Aesculapius, Roman God of Medicine

Fabulous Folklore with Icy

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 1, 2020 14:51


Aesculapius was the Roman God of Healing and Medicine (Asclepius in Greece). But who is he and why is he such a fascinating figure in the study of ancient Greece and Rome? And what does he have to do with Ophiuchus, the 'missing' 13th star sign? Let's meet him in this episode of Fabulous Folklore. See the images or get the blog post transcript here: [https://www.icysedgwick.com/aesculapius/](https://www.icysedgwick.com/aesculapius/) Get your free guide to home protection folklore-style here: [https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore](https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore) Become a Patron for bonus content at [https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595](https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595) Enjoyed this episode? Buy Icy a coffee at: [https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick](https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick) Tweet Icy at [https://twitter.com/IcySedgwick](https://twitter.com/IcySedgwick) Follow Icy on Instagram at [https://www.instagram.com/icysedgwick](https://www.instagram.com/icysedgwick) 'Like' Icy Sedgwick on Facebook at [https://www.facebook.com/miss.icy.sedgwick](https://www.facebook.com/miss.icy.sedgwick) Tweet Icy at https://twitter.com/IcySedgwick Follow Icy on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/icysedgwick 'Like' Icy Sedgwick on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/miss.icy.sedgwick

Fabulous Folklore with Icy
Need healing? You Need Aesculapius, Roman God of Medicine

Fabulous Folklore with Icy

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 1, 2020 14:51


Aesculapius was the Roman God of Healing and Medicine (Asclepius in Greece). But who is he and why is he such a fascinating figure in the study of ancient Greece and Rome? And what does he have to do with Ophiuchus, the 'missing' 13th star sign? Let's meet him in this episode of Fabulous Folklore. See the images or get the blog post transcript here: [https://www.icysedgwick.com/aesculapius/](https://www.icysedgwick.com/aesculapius/) Get your free guide to home protection folklore-style here: [https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore](https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore) Become a Patron for bonus content at [https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595](https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595) Enjoyed this episode? Buy Icy a coffee at: [https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick](https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick) Tweet Icy at [https://twitter.com/IcySedgwick](https://twitter.com/IcySedgwick) Follow Icy on Instagram at [https://www.instagram.com/icysedgwick](https://www.instagram.com/icysedgwick) 'Like' Icy Sedgwick on Facebook at [https://www.facebook.com/miss.icy.sedgwick](https://www.facebook.com/miss.icy.sedgwick) Tweet Icy at https://twitter.com/IcySedgwick Follow Icy on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/icysedgwick 'Like' Icy Sedgwick on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/miss.icy.sedgwick

Fabulous Folklore with Icy
Need healing? You Need Aesculapius, Roman God of Medicine

Fabulous Folklore with Icy

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 1, 2020 14:51


Aesculapius was the Roman God of Healing and Medicine (Asclepius in Greece). But who is he and why is he such a fascinating figure in the study of ancient Greece and Rome? And what does he have to do with Ophiuchus, the 'missing' 13th star sign? Let's meet him in this episode of Fabulous Folklore. See the images or get the blog post transcript here: [https://www.icysedgwick.com/aesculapius/](https://www.icysedgwick.com/aesculapius/) Get your free guide to home protection folklore-style here: [https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore](https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore) Become a Patron for bonus content at [https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595](https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595) Enjoyed this episode? Buy Icy a coffee at: [https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick](https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick) Tweet Icy at [https://twitter.com/IcySedgwick](https://twitter.com/IcySedgwick) Follow Icy on Instagram at [https://www.instagram.com/icysedgwick](https://www.instagram.com/icysedgwick) 'Like' Icy Sedgwick on Facebook at [https://www.facebook.com/miss.icy.sedgwick](https://www.facebook.com/miss.icy.sedgwick) Tweet Icy at https://twitter.com/IcySedgwick Follow Icy on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/icysedgwick 'Like' Icy Sedgwick on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/miss.icy.sedgwick

The Tale of Rome
Episode 048 - 300k

The Tale of Rome

Play Episode Listen Later May 19, 2020 33:45


Episode 48 – 300k— “Do you declare, from your heart, to possess a wife?”A census and a wedding. Rome passes 300 thousand inhabitants, and the Samnites are beaten at Aquilonia.Parcial TranscriptHello, this is Abel, speaking from Beijing, China. Welcome to my podcast.The Tale of Rome, Episode 48 — 300k.When Lucius Eugenius, Spurius Attius, and young Tatius got a glimpse of the hills surrounding Rome, their spirits went up.All three made the walk home, all the way from the north — and all three were now war veterans.For a Roman — and ordinary Roman — that's no small feat!And so, once they were down with all the military formalities and once they showed up on their home street,, their women, their children, their slaves, they all walked out to welcome them home!The DOMUS — house — Lucius Eugenius managed to build with their work, spanned two homes next to each other, a corral for raw materials, and a workshop, right across the street.Plus, a small garden behind the second house.This was a piece of real estate that Lucius managed to buy right after the Big War, from an impoverished Patrician.And of course, we are not counting that around 50 slaves were now working at the workshop, and a dozen or so were busy tending to the needs of the ever growing family.Life wasn't that bad, after all!And after they all settled back in, and once Lucius sat in his favorite reclining chair — Laurentia, his wife, reminded him in a casual tone:— “In five days we have to walk to the Field of Mars, husband. Town criers have been announcing the event, for days, now…”Lucius sighed.Another census.Everyone hated a census.The tables of the censors, they so-called Tabulae Censoriae in Latin, were piling up in forums already, to be taken to the field, the day of the census. From Equestrians and Senators, down to the last and lowest Roman, if you were in one of those five social levels, designed by long-gone King Tullius Servius, you had to go.Plebe or Patrician, everyone had to be there.— “We'll take Julia this time,” old Lucius said. “And Spurius, too.”— “What about his fiancee?” asked Laurentia.Lucius paused for a second. Good question. Then he replied.— “No. We haven't finished all the arrangements, yet. All this fighting. Let her go with the Furnii. The censors will be liking that — looks more respectful.”In his mind, Lucius cursed the constant wars Rome had, but he knew he couldn't do a thing about them.Besides, WARS were making him rich.Quite rich indeed.And this richness allowed for Spurius to soon-to-be-wedding a girl of the Furnii, a respectable — even though Plebeian— family.The Furnii were also one of the oldest families, according to the annals of ancient Rome.And according to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, a man named Gaius Furnius — that's F — U — R — N — I — U — S — came to be a tribune of the plebes, back in the year 445 BC, and that was something Lucius Eugenius respected a lot.And so — in a few week's time, Spurius Attius, the young veteran of the Battle of Sentinum, would take a daughter of the Furnii as his wife.Not bad for the family!All right, my dear listeners.As you can see, today we have two topics.A wedding and a census.And that means, that after our Latin Word of this episode, we'll see how Romans went about having a census, and then — how they organized a wedding in those not-so-high circles of society.The society of ancient Rome.Now, please be aware that both — weddings and censuses — have had their fair share of evolution in the one thousand years of Roman history, which means that I tried my best — to keep these two events, match the times we are living in, right now.Which is the beginning of the third century BC.Oh, and after that, we have the next battle against the Samnites, the battle of Aquilonia, and here goes a little spoiler in the story that follows.Let me explain.Right after the battle of Aquilonia, a plague will break out in Rome — one of the larger ones — and we'll be talking about how a new deity named Aesculapius — adopted from its Greek counterpart named Asclepius, became a world-wide symbol, today — recognized by a serpent bent over a fountain or wrapped around a staff, as if spilling its venom — to be used as an antidote — as a cure.This serpent can be seen almost all over the world, in pharmacies, hospitals, medical centers, Centers for Disease Control, and even as part of the logo of the WHO — World Health Organization.The other spoiler is that we'll soon have the result of our upcoming census, and hey — we'll know just how many people lived in Rome. Those numbers used to be published on plates all over Rome, especially in the Roman Forum.[…]

Saint of the Day
Hieromartyr Artemon, presbyter of Laodicea in Syria (303)

Saint of the Day

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 13, 2020 1:28


At the time of Diocletian's persecutions, he was a very old man, having served as a reader for sixteen years, then a deacon for twenty-eight years, and finally as a priest for thirty years, for a total of seventy-four years. The pagan judge put him in the Temple of Aesculapius, where large snakes were kept and worshiped as gods. Though the judge meant for Artemon to be attacked by the snakes, the holy priest immobilized them with the sign of the Cross, brought them out of the temple and, in front of the pagan priests, breathed on the snakes, which died instantly. The chief priest, Vitalis, fell to his knees and cried 'Great is the Christian God!' Artemon baptised him along with several of his friends.   The unrepentant judge then condemned Artemon to be thrown into burning pitch, but the judge himself was thrown off his horse into the pitch and died. After this, Artemon went free for a time and spent his time teaching the Faith to his people ("accompanied always by two tame deer," says St Nikolia Velimirovic!). But he was arrested again and beheaded in the year 303.

Saint of the Day
Hieromartyr Artemon, presbyter of Laodicea in Syria (303)

Saint of the Day

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 22, 2020


At the time of Diocletian's persecutions, he was a very old man, having served as a reader for sixteen years, then a deacon for twenty-eight years, and finally as a priest for thirty years, for a total of seventy-four years. The pagan judge put him in the Temple of Aesculapius, where large snakes were kept and worshiped as gods. Though the judge meant for Artemon to be attacked by the snakes, the holy priest immobilized them with the sign of the Cross, brought them out of the temple and, in front of the pagan priests, breathed on the snakes, which died instantly. The chief priest, Vitalis, fell to his knees and cried 'Great is the Christian God!' Artemon baptised him along with several of his friends.   The unrepentant judge then condemned Artemon to be thrown into burning pitch, but the judge himself was thrown off his horse into the pitch and died. After this, Artemon went free for a time and spent his time teaching the Faith to his people ("accompanied always by two tame deer," says St Nikolia Velimirovic!). But he was arrested again and beheaded in the year 303.

Saint of the Day
Hieromartyr Artemon, presbyter of Laodicea in Syria (303)

Saint of the Day

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 21, 2020


At the time of Diocletian's persecutions, he was a very old man, having served as a reader for sixteen years, then a deacon for twenty-eight years, and finally as a priest for thirty years, for a total of seventy-four years. The pagan judge put him in the Temple of Aesculapius, where large snakes were kept and worshiped as gods. Though the judge meant for Artemon to be attacked by the snakes, the holy priest immobilized them with the sign of the Cross, brought them out of the temple and, in front of the pagan priests, breathed on the snakes, which died instantly. The chief priest, Vitalis, fell to his knees and cried 'Great is the Christian God!' Artemon baptised him along with several of his friends.   The unrepentant judge then condemned Artemon to be thrown into burning pitch, but the judge himself was thrown off his horse into the pitch and died. After this, Artemon went free for a time and spent his time teaching the Faith to his people ("accompanied always by two tame deer," says St Nikolia Velimirovic!). But he was arrested again and beheaded in the year 303.

Bible Questions Podcast
Episode 6: Who were the Nephilim in Genesis 6? Were they the Offspring of Angels and Humans? Reading: Genesis 6, Ezra 6, Matthew 6 and Acts 6.

Bible Questions Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 6, 2020 42:41


Today's reading is Genesis 6, Ezra 6, Matthew 6, and Acts 6. It may be that our focus reading for the day should continue in Matthew 6, because Jesus' teaching there is so majestic and beautiful that no passage should really overshadow it. If you will indulge me a bit, we will return to Matthew tomorrow for our focus, but today - we are going to discuss the Genesis passage. Genesis 6 has long been one of my favorite passages in the Bible. It is fascinating, scary, and very, very mysterious. I wrote a book last year called Angels, Ghosts and other Bible Mysteries (on Amazon) that is very focused on many of the mysteries that are brought up in this passage. If you like this discussion, you will probably enjoy that book. If not, then skip the book! Before we get to the question and answer section, however, let's mine some spiritual gold from this passage. Here is a powerful and encouraging word from our friend and mentor, Charles Spurgeon: My brethren, how displeased the great God has been with men. He said that it repented him that he had made men upon the earth. That was a striking expression which is used in Genesis 6:6: “It grieved him at his heart.” He seemed to grow so weary of man's wanton wickedness that he was sorry that he ever made beings capable of so much evil. Yet he is so well content with his beloved Son, who has assumed our nature, that we read of him, “The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness' sake: he will magnify the law, and make it honourable.” (Is. 42:21). The Lord looks down upon those who are in Christ with an intense affection, and loves them even as he loves the Son, for that is the meaning of this word, “In whom I am well pleased.” All who are in Christ Jesus are pleasing to God; yea, God in Christ looks with divine satisfaction upon all those who trust his Son: he is not only pleased, but well pleased. If you are pleased with Jesus, God is pleased with you: if you are in the Son, then you are in the Father's good pleasure C. H. Spurgeon, “The Voice from the Cloud and the Voice of the Beloved,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 29 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1883), 355–356. I would say that Genesis 6 presents us with one of the top five mysteries in the Bible - especially if you read it in the King James Version! Check this out: And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. Genesis 6;1-4, King James Version SO MANY QUESTIONS! What is going on here? Are angelic beings having relations with human women (apparently...) were the offspring of those unions giants (maybe...but that's not the best translation.) did God send the flood because heavenly beings and earthly beings were having relationships?! These are all tough questions and likely too big for our short little podcast to cover, but I'll try to at least give a short answer to some of them. (maybe we'll do a special episode on this chapter at some point) Question #1: Are heavenly beings in Genesis 6 actually having children with human females? The answer to this question depends on who, exactly, the "sons of God" are in Genesis 6. There are three main theories. The first is that they are powerful men and leaders that were human - maybe significantly above average humans. Think body-builders, great/tall athletes, charismatic politicians, etc. Theory #2 is that these 'sons of God' are descendants of Seth, thus making the 'daughters of men,' primarily descendants of Cain. This theory is the one I have heard most at seminary and in academic circles. Theory #3 is that 'sons of God' are some type of heavenly creature - an angel, or something like an angel. I personally see no grammatical or historical evidence of theory #1. All of the sudden these guys realized that human females were beautiful (vs. 2)? This theory doesn't seem to fit the context of the verse very well, and theory #2 even less so. There is literally NOWHERE in Scripture that suggests that the daughters of men were of the line of Cain and the sons of God were of the line of Seth. Seth is mentioned ten times in the Bible, and only twice after Genesis 5. (Once in a genealogy in Luke and in 1st Chronicles) Cain is mentioned only 3 times after Genesis 5, and all three times are in the New Testament, and do not discuss his descendants at all, but only his murder and his wrong-offering. Genesis six mentions neither Cain nor Abel, so this theory - and it is a popular one - simply has no biblical support whatsoever that I can find. Which brings us to theory #3 - the sons of God are some type of heavenly creature. Believe it or not, this theory has the most textual support by far. The phrase 'sons of God,' occurs three times outside of Genesis in the Old Testament. All three times are in the book of Job, and all three times are clearly speaking of heavenly creatures - angels, or something like angels. That is a strong bit of evidence in favor of viewing these sons of God as Heavenly beings. Vs. 2 is also strong contextual evidence in favor of theory 3. Consider this verse, "The sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful." if that verse is simply talking about human males, the descendants of Seth, or whomever, then it is a strange, strange passage. Did it really take hundreds (or thousands!) of years for human males to realize that human females were beautiful? Frankly, I think that is silly. I believe the biblical text is pointing us to theory #3 that these beings were heavenly. One more bit of evidence, and this evidence is weak, but worth noting. The Book of Enoch is not a biblical book, and was not written by the Enoch spoken of in Genesis. It was not canonical, and I do not believe it to be inspired. It is, however, a very old book and it was read by people in the early church, and many early church fathers. Scholars' best guess is that the book of Enoch dates to around 100-300 years before the birth of Jesus, though some sections could be older. That book is very, very clear about who the 'sons of God' in Genesis 6 were. Listen to this!  Book of Enoch –  Enoch 15: And He answered and said to me, and I heard His voice: 'Fear not, Enoch, thou righteous man and scribe of righteousness: approach hither and hear my voice. And go, say to the Watchers of heaven, who have sent thee to intercede for them: "You should intercede" for men, and not men for you: Wherefore have ye left the high, holy, and eternal heaven, and lain with women, and defiled yourselves with the daughters of men and taken to yourselves wives, and done like the children of earth, and begotten giants (as your) sons? And though ye were holy, spiritual, living the eternal life, you have defiled yourselves with the blood of women, and have begotten (children) with the blood of flesh, and, as the children of men, have lusted after flesh and blood as those also do who die 5 and perish. Therefore have I given them wives also that they might impregnate them, and beget children by them, that thus nothing might be wanting to them on earth. But you were formerly spiritual, living the eternal life, and immortal for all generations of the world. And therefore I have not appointed wives for you; for as for the spiritual ones of the heaven, in heaven is their dwelling. And now, the giants, who are produced from the spirits and flesh, shall be called evil spirits upon the earth, and on the earth shall be their dwelling. Evil spirits have proceeded from their bodies; because they are born from men and from the holy Watchers is their beginning and primal origin; they shall be evil spirits on earth, and evil spirits shall they be called. [As for the spirits of heaven, in heaven shall be their dwelling, but as for the spirits of the earth which were born upon the earth, on the earth shall be their dwelling.] And the spirits of the giants afflict, oppress, destroy, attack, do battle, and work destruction on the earth, and cause trouble: they take no food, but nevertheless hunger and thirst, and cause offences. And these spirits shall rise up against the children of men and against the women, because they have proceeded from them. One objection that many have to theory #3 is from Matthew 22:30, " 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven." I do not believe this objection holds much water for two reasons: #1 Genesis 6 seems to be talking about intimate relations and not necessarily marriage. It is possible to have relations and not be married. #2, Jesus specifically mentions "angels in Heaven," and Genesis 6 is quite obviously dealing with beings that are on earth. Perhaps angels in Heaven do not marry, but the beings in Genesis 6, be they human or angels are not at all in Heaven, and don't seem to be concerned with the rules of Heaven. Another objection might say that Heavenly beings are without gender, but I don't see that in Scripture either. There are Heavenly beings in Zechariah 5 that are female (not necessarily angels) and the Heavenly beings in Genesis 18 are clearly male. Can heavenly beings procreate? The only bit of biblical evidence in favor of that possibility would seem to be here in Genesis 6 and I see nothing anywhere else that gives me the idea that they are incapable of such things. Question #2: Is Genesis 6 telling us that giants used to exist on the earth? Not necessarily - the Hebrew word there is the word Nephilim. It is a difficult word to translate because it only appears in one - or two - other places in the entire Old Testament. Reference #1 is from Numbers 13 and is probably where the King James translators got the inspiration to use the word, "giant." 30 Then Caleb quieted the people in the presence of Moses and said, “Let's go up now and take possession of the land because we can certainly conquer it!”31 But the men who had gone up with him responded, “We can't attack the people because they are stronger than we are!” 32 So they gave a negative report to the Israelites about the land they had scouted: “The land we passed through to explore is one that devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw in it are men of great size. 33 We even saw the Nephilim there—the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim! To ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and we must have seemed the same to them.” Numbers 13:30-34 So - these Nephilim are clearly quite big and impressive...but are they giants? I live in Salinas, California - about an hour from where the Golden State Warriors play basketball. If I went over to practice one day, and somehow, someway got a chance to shoot around with those guys, I'd probably come home and tell my family that I felt like a grasshopper. I'm 6'1, but compared to Kevin Looney (6 feet, 9 inches) or Willie Cauley-Stein (7 feet!) I'm quite short. I believe that these Nephilim were the offspring of heavenly beings and human females, so it is certainly possible that they possessed traits that were above human capability, but we just can't be sure about their size at all, beyond saying that they were likely significantly larger than the Hebrews. Question #3: Did God flood the earth because of human-angelic relationships? If definitely seems like there is a subtle relationship between God flooding the world and whatever was going on with these sons of God and daughters of men. Could 2nd Peter 2 be giving us a clue about this? 4 For if God didn't spare the angels who sinned but cast them into hell and delivered them in chains of utter darkness to be kept for judgment; 5 and if he didn't spare the ancient world, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others, when he brought the flood on the world of the ungodly; 2 Peter 2:4-5 That passage is quite interesting, but also fairly obscure. I'm not sure we should build a lot of theology on it. The fact is, however, that the first part Genesis 6 seems to indicate that the sins of humans grieved God in the context of the flood. 5 When the Lord saw that human wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time, 6 the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth,and he was deeply grieved. 7 Then the Lord said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I created, off the face of the earth, together with the animals, creatures that crawl, and birds of the sky—for I regret that I made them.” 8 Noah, however, found favor with the Lord.... Genesis 6:5-8 The second part of Genesis 6, however, seems to make room for more than humans to be involved in the judgment. 11 Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with wickedness. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth was, for every creature had corrupted its way on the earth. 13 Then God said to Noah, “I have decided to put an end to every creature, for the earth is filled with wickedness because of them; therefore I am going to destroy them along with the earth. Genesis 6:11-13 So, my conclusion to the question is a weak 'maybe.' If the sons of God are indeed heavenly beings, as I suspect they are, it would appear that their dalliance with human females had at least a small part to play in the flooding of the earth. We might go too far past the text if we say much more than that. I'll close with the conclusions of Jonathan Edwards - probably American's foremost theologian - on the question of the giants/nephilim: “And there were giants in the earth in those days,” etc. “Pausanias, in his Laconics, mentions the bones of men of a more than ordinary bigness, which were shown in the temple of Aesculapius at the city of Asepus; and in the first of his Eliacs, of a bone taken out of the sea, which aforetime was kept at Pisa, and thought to have been one of Peleps'. Philostratus, in the beginning of his Heroics, [says] that many bodies of giants were discovered in Pallene, by showers of rain and earthquakes. Pliny, Bk. 7, ch. 16, says, ‘That upon the bursting of a mountain in Crete, there was found a body standing upright, which was reported by some to have been the body of Orion, by others, the body of Eetion. Orestes' body, when it was commanded by the oracle to be digged up, is reported to have been seven cubits. And almost a thousand years ago, the poet Homer continually complained, that men's bodies were less than of old.' And Solinus, ch. I, ‘Were not all that were born in that age, less than their parents?' And the story of Orestes' funeral testifies the bigness of the ancients, whose bones, when they were digged up, in the 58th Olympiad at Tegea, by the advice of the oracle, are related to have been seven cubits in length. And other writings, which give a credible relation of ancient matters, affirm this, that in the war of Crete, when the rivers had been so high as to overflow and break down their banks, after the flood was abated, upon the cleaving of the earth, there was found a human body of three and thirty foot long, which L. Flaccus, the legate, and Metellus himself, being very desirous of seeing, were much surprised to have the satisfaction of seeing, what they did not believe when they heard.” Grotius, De Veritate, Bk. 1, sec. 16, notes. “Josephus, Bk. 5, ch. 2, of his ancient history. ‘There remains to this day some of the race of the giants, who by reason of the bulk and figure of their bodies, so different from other men, are wonderful to see, or hear of. Their bones are now shown, far exceeding the belief of the vulgar.' Gabinius, in his history of Mauritania, said that Antaeus' bones were found by Sertorius, which, joined together, were sixty cubits long. Phlegon Trallianus, in his 9th chapter of Wonders, mentions the digging up [of] the head of Ida, which was three times as big as that of an ordinary woman. And he adds also, that there were many bodies found in Dalmatia, whose arms exceeded sixteen cubits. And the same man relates out of Theopompus, that there were found in the Cimmerian Bosphorus, a company of human bones twenty-four cubits in length.” Le Clerc's notes on Grotius, De Veritate, Bk. 1, sec. 16. “We almost everywhere in the Greek and Latin historians meet with the savage life of the giants, mentioned by Moses. In the Greek, as Homer, Iliad 9, and Hesiod in his Labors. To this may be referred the wars of the gods, mentioned by Plato in his Second Republic, and those distinct and separate governments, taken notice of by the same Plato, in his third book of Laws. And as to the Latin historians, see the first book of Ovid's Metamorphosis, and the 4th book of Lucan, and Seneca's third book of Natural Questions, Ques. 30, where he says concerning the deluge, ‘That the beasts also perished, into whose nature men were degenerated.' ” Jonathan Edwards, Notes on Scripture, ed. Harry S. Stout and Stephen J. Stein, vol. 15, The Works of Jonathan Edwards (London; New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), 506–508. By the way, Augustine - writing all the way back in the 300s! Makes a case contra the above, and believes that the sons of God were merely men. His reasoning is that there are at least two men in the Bible that are designated as angels/messengers that were obviously human, and that is likely what is going on here too. I respect and admire Augustine, but disagree with him here, noting that "sons of God" does not, of necessity, equate to angels. WHETHER WE ARE TO BELIEVE THAT ANGELS, WHO ARE OF A SPIRITUAL SUBSTANCE, FELL IN LOVE WITH THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN, AND SOUGHT THEM IN MARRIAGE, AND THAT FROM THIS CONNECTION GIANTS WERE BORN In the third book of this work (c. 5) we made a passing reference to this question, but did not decide whether angels, inasmuch as they are spirits, could have bodily intercourse with women. For it is written, “Who maketh His angels spirits,”4 that is, He makes those who are by nature spirits His angels by appointing them to the duty of bearing His messages. For the Greek word ἄγγελος, which in Latin appears as “angelus,” means a messenger. But whether the Psalmist speaks of their bodies when he adds, “and His ministers a flaming fire,” or means that God's ministers ought to blaze with love as with a spiritual fire, is doubtful. However, the same trustworthy Scripture testifies that angels have appeared to men in such bodies as could not only be seen, but also touched. There is, too, a very general rumor, which many have verified by their own experience, or which trustworthy persons who have heard the experience of others corroborate, that sylvans and fauns, who are commonly called “incubi,” had often made wicked assaults upon women, and satisfied their lust upon them; and that certain devils, called Duses by the Gauls, are constantly attempting and effecting this impurity is so generally affirmed, that it were impudent to deny it.5 From these assertions, indeed, I dare not determine whether there be some spirits embodied in an aerial substance (for this element, even when agitated by a fan, is sensibly felt by the body), and who are capable of lust and of mingling sensibly with women; but certainly I could by no means believe that God's holy angels could at that time have so fallen, nor can I think that it is of them the Apostle Peter said, “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.”1 I think he rather speaks of these who first apostatized from God, along with their chief the devil, who enviously deceived the first man under the form of a serpent. But the same holy Scripture affords the most ample testimony that even godly man have been called angels; for of John it is written: “Behold, I send my messenger (angel) before Thy face, who shall prepare Thy way.”2 And the prophet Malachi, by a peculiar grace specially communicated to him, was called an angel.3 But some are moved by the fact that we have read that the fruit of the connection between those who are called angels of God and the women they loved were not men like our own breed, but giants; just as if there were not born even in our own time (as I have mentioned above) men of much greater size than the ordinary stature. Was there not at Rome a few years ago, when the destruction of the city now accomplished by the Goths was drawing near, a woman, with her father and mother, who by her gigantic size over-topped all others? Surprising crowds from all quarters came to see her, and that which struck them most was the circumstance that neither of her parents were quite up to the tallest ordinary stature. Giants therefore might well be born, even before the sons of God, who are also called angels of God, formed a connection with the daughters of men, or of those living according to men, that is to say, before the sons of Seth formed a connection with the daughters of Cain. For thus speaks even the canonical Scripture itself in the book in which we read of this; its words are: “And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair [good]; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord God said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became the giants, men of renown.”4 These words of the divine book sufficiently indicate that already there were giants in the earth in those days, in which the sons of God took wives of the children of men, when they loved them because they were good, that is, fair. For it is the custom of this Scripture to call those who are beautiful in appearance “good.” But after this connection had been formed, then too were giants born. For the words are: “There were giants in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men.” Therefore there were giants both before, “in those days,” and “also after that.” And the words, “they bare children to them,” show plainly enough that before the sons of God fell in this fashion they begat children to God, not to themselves,—that is to say, not moved by the lust of sexual intercourse, but discharging the duty of propagation, intending to produce not a family to gratify their own pride, but citizens to people the city of God; and to these they as God's angels would bear the message, that they should place their hope in God, like him who was born of Seth, the son of resurrection, and who hoped to call on the name of the Lord God, in which hope they and their offspring would be co-heirs of eternal blessings, and brethren in the family of which God is the Father. Augustine of Hippo, “The City of God,” in St. Augustin's City of God and Christian Doctrine, ed. Philip Schaff, trans. Marcus Dods, vol. 2, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1887), 303–304.

Bible Reading Podcast
Episode 6: Who were the Nephilim in Genesis 6? Were they the Offspring of Angels and Humans? Reading: Genesis 6, Ezra 6, Matthew 6 and Acts 6.

Bible Reading Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 6, 2020 42:41


Today's reading is Genesis 6, Ezra 6, Matthew 6, and Acts 6. It may be that our focus reading for the day should continue in Matthew 6, because Jesus' teaching there is so majestic and beautiful that no passage should really overshadow it. If you will indulge me a bit, we will return to Matthew tomorrow for our focus, but today - we are going to discuss the Genesis passage. Genesis 6 has long been one of my favorite passages in the Bible. It is fascinating, scary, and very, very mysterious. I wrote a book last year called Angels, Ghosts and other Bible Mysteries (on Amazon) that is very focused on many of the mysteries that are brought up in this passage. If you like this discussion, you will probably enjoy that book. If not, then skip the book! Before we get to the question and answer section, however, let's mine some spiritual gold from this passage. Here is a powerful and encouraging word from our friend and mentor, Charles Spurgeon: My brethren, how displeased the great God has been with men. He said that it repented him that he had made men upon the earth. That was a striking expression which is used in Genesis 6:6: “It grieved him at his heart.” He seemed to grow so weary of man's wanton wickedness that he was sorry that he ever made beings capable of so much evil. Yet he is so well content with his beloved Son, who has assumed our nature, that we read of him, “The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness' sake: he will magnify the law, and make it honourable.” (Is. 42:21). The Lord looks down upon those who are in Christ with an intense affection, and loves them even as he loves the Son, for that is the meaning of this word, “In whom I am well pleased.” All who are in Christ Jesus are pleasing to God; yea, God in Christ looks with divine satisfaction upon all those who trust his Son: he is not only pleased, but well pleased. If you are pleased with Jesus, God is pleased with you: if you are in the Son, then you are in the Father's good pleasure C. H. Spurgeon, “The Voice from the Cloud and the Voice of the Beloved,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 29 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1883), 355–356. I would say that Genesis 6 presents us with one of the top five mysteries in the Bible - especially if you read it in the King James Version! Check this out: And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. Genesis 6;1-4, King James Version SO MANY QUESTIONS! What is going on here? Are angelic beings having relations with human women (apparently...) were the offspring of those unions giants (maybe...but that's not the best translation.) did God send the flood because heavenly beings and earthly beings were having relationships?! These are all tough questions and likely too big for our short little podcast to cover, but I'll try to at least give a short answer to some of them. (maybe we'll do a special episode on this chapter at some point) Question #1: Are heavenly beings in Genesis 6 actually having children with human females? The answer to this question depends on who, exactly, the "sons of God" are in Genesis 6. There are three main theories. The first is that they are powerful men and leaders that were human - maybe significantly above average humans. Think body-builders, great/tall athletes, charismatic politicians, etc. Theory #2 is that these 'sons of God' are descendants of Seth, thus making the 'daughters of men,' primarily descendants of Cain. This theory is the one I have heard most at seminary and in academic circles. Theory #3 is that 'sons of God' are some type of heavenly creature - an angel, or something like an angel. I personally see no grammatical or historical evidence of theory #1. All of the sudden these guys realized that human females were beautiful (vs. 2)? This theory doesn't seem to fit the context of the verse very well, and theory #2 even less so. There is literally NOWHERE in Scripture that suggests that the daughters of men were of the line of Cain and the sons of God were of the line of Seth. Seth is mentioned ten times in the Bible, and only twice after Genesis 5. (Once in a genealogy in Luke and in 1st Chronicles) Cain is mentioned only 3 times after Genesis 5, and all three times are in the New Testament, and do not discuss his descendants at all, but only his murder and his wrong-offering. Genesis six mentions neither Cain nor Abel, so this theory - and it is a popular one - simply has no biblical support whatsoever that I can find. Which brings us to theory #3 - the sons of God are some type of heavenly creature. Believe it or not, this theory has the most textual support by far. The phrase 'sons of God,' occurs three times outside of Genesis in the Old Testament. All three times are in the book of Job, and all three times are clearly speaking of heavenly creatures - angels, or something like angels. That is a strong bit of evidence in favor of viewing these sons of God as Heavenly beings. Vs. 2 is also strong contextual evidence in favor of theory 3. Consider this verse, "The sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful." if that verse is simply talking about human males, the descendants of Seth, or whomever, then it is a strange, strange passage. Did it really take hundreds (or thousands!) of years for human males to realize that human females were beautiful? Frankly, I think that is silly. I believe the biblical text is pointing us to theory #3 that these beings were heavenly. One more bit of evidence, and this evidence is weak, but worth noting. The Book of Enoch is not a biblical book, and was not written by the Enoch spoken of in Genesis. It was not canonical, and I do not believe it to be inspired. It is, however, a very old book and it was read by people in the early church, and many early church fathers. Scholars' best guess is that the book of Enoch dates to around 100-300 years before the birth of Jesus, though some sections could be older. That book is very, very clear about who the 'sons of God' in Genesis 6 were. Listen to this!  Book of Enoch –  Enoch 15: And He answered and said to me, and I heard His voice: 'Fear not, Enoch, thou righteous man and scribe of righteousness: approach hither and hear my voice. And go, say to the Watchers of heaven, who have sent thee to intercede for them: "You should intercede" for men, and not men for you: Wherefore have ye left the high, holy, and eternal heaven, and lain with women, and defiled yourselves with the daughters of men and taken to yourselves wives, and done like the children of earth, and begotten giants (as your) sons? And though ye were holy, spiritual, living the eternal life, you have defiled yourselves with the blood of women, and have begotten (children) with the blood of flesh, and, as the children of men, have lusted after flesh and blood as those also do who die 5 and perish. Therefore have I given them wives also that they might impregnate them, and beget children by them, that thus nothing might be wanting to them on earth. But you were formerly spiritual, living the eternal life, and immortal for all generations of the world. And therefore I have not appointed wives for you; for as for the spiritual ones of the heaven, in heaven is their dwelling. And now, the giants, who are produced from the spirits and flesh, shall be called evil spirits upon the earth, and on the earth shall be their dwelling. Evil spirits have proceeded from their bodies; because they are born from men and from the holy Watchers is their beginning and primal origin; they shall be evil spirits on earth, and evil spirits shall they be called. [As for the spirits of heaven, in heaven shall be their dwelling, but as for the spirits of the earth which were born upon the earth, on the earth shall be their dwelling.] And the spirits of the giants afflict, oppress, destroy, attack, do battle, and work destruction on the earth, and cause trouble: they take no food, but nevertheless hunger and thirst, and cause offences. And these spirits shall rise up against the children of men and against the women, because they have proceeded from them. One objection that many have to theory #3 is from Matthew 22:30, " 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven." I do not believe this objection holds much water for two reasons: #1 Genesis 6 seems to be talking about intimate relations and not necessarily marriage. It is possible to have relations and not be married. #2, Jesus specifically mentions "angels in Heaven," and Genesis 6 is quite obviously dealing with beings that are on earth. Perhaps angels in Heaven do not marry, but the beings in Genesis 6, be they human or angels are not at all in Heaven, and don't seem to be concerned with the rules of Heaven. Another objection might say that Heavenly beings are without gender, but I don't see that in Scripture either. There are Heavenly beings in Zechariah 5 that are female (not necessarily angels) and the Heavenly beings in Genesis 18 are clearly male. Can heavenly beings procreate? The only bit of biblical evidence in favor of that possibility would seem to be here in Genesis 6 and I see nothing anywhere else that gives me the idea that they are incapable of such things. Question #2: Is Genesis 6 telling us that giants used to exist on the earth? Not necessarily - the Hebrew word there is the word Nephilim. It is a difficult word to translate because it only appears in one - or two - other places in the entire Old Testament. Reference #1 is from Numbers 13 and is probably where the King James translators got the inspiration to use the word, "giant." 30 Then Caleb quieted the people in the presence of Moses and said, “Let's go up now and take possession of the land because we can certainly conquer it!”31 But the men who had gone up with him responded, “We can't attack the people because they are stronger than we are!” 32 So they gave a negative report to the Israelites about the land they had scouted: “The land we passed through to explore is one that devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw in it are men of great size. 33 We even saw the Nephilim there—the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim! To ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and we must have seemed the same to them.” Numbers 13:30-34 So - these Nephilim are clearly quite big and impressive...but are they giants? I live in Salinas, California - about an hour from where the Golden State Warriors play basketball. If I went over to practice one day, and somehow, someway got a chance to shoot around with those guys, I'd probably come home and tell my family that I felt like a grasshopper. I'm 6'1, but compared to Kevin Looney (6 feet, 9 inches) or Willie Cauley-Stein (7 feet!) I'm quite short. I believe that these Nephilim were the offspring of heavenly beings and human females, so it is certainly possible that they possessed traits that were above human capability, but we just can't be sure about their size at all, beyond saying that they were likely significantly larger than the Hebrews. Question #3: Did God flood the earth because of human-angelic relationships? If definitely seems like there is a subtle relationship between God flooding the world and whatever was going on with these sons of God and daughters of men. Could 2nd Peter 2 be giving us a clue about this? 4 For if God didn't spare the angels who sinned but cast them into hell and delivered them in chains of utter darkness to be kept for judgment; 5 and if he didn't spare the ancient world, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others, when he brought the flood on the world of the ungodly; 2 Peter 2:4-5 That passage is quite interesting, but also fairly obscure. I'm not sure we should build a lot of theology on it. The fact is, however, that the first part Genesis 6 seems to indicate that the sins of humans grieved God in the context of the flood. 5 When the Lord saw that human wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time, 6 the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth,and he was deeply grieved. 7 Then the Lord said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I created, off the face of the earth, together with the animals, creatures that crawl, and birds of the sky—for I regret that I made them.” 8 Noah, however, found favor with the Lord.... Genesis 6:5-8 The second part of Genesis 6, however, seems to make room for more than humans to be involved in the judgment. 11 Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with wickedness. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth was, for every creature had corrupted its way on the earth. 13 Then God said to Noah, “I have decided to put an end to every creature, for the earth is filled with wickedness because of them; therefore I am going to destroy them along with the earth. Genesis 6:11-13 So, my conclusion to the question is a weak 'maybe.' If the sons of God are indeed heavenly beings, as I suspect they are, it would appear that their dalliance with human females had at least a small part to play in the flooding of the earth. We might go too far past the text if we say much more than that. I'll close with the conclusions of Jonathan Edwards - probably American's foremost theologian - on the question of the giants/nephilim: “And there were giants in the earth in those days,” etc. “Pausanias, in his Laconics, mentions the bones of men of a more than ordinary bigness, which were shown in the temple of Aesculapius at the city of Asepus; and in the first of his Eliacs, of a bone taken out of the sea, which aforetime was kept at Pisa, and thought to have been one of Peleps'. Philostratus, in the beginning of his Heroics, [says] that many bodies of giants were discovered in Pallene, by showers of rain and earthquakes. Pliny, Bk. 7, ch. 16, says, ‘That upon the bursting of a mountain in Crete, there was found a body standing upright, which was reported by some to have been the body of Orion, by others, the body of Eetion. Orestes' body, when it was commanded by the oracle to be digged up, is reported to have been seven cubits. And almost a thousand years ago, the poet Homer continually complained, that men's bodies were less than of old.' And Solinus, ch. I, ‘Were not all that were born in that age, less than their parents?' And the story of Orestes' funeral testifies the bigness of the ancients, whose bones, when they were digged up, in the 58th Olympiad at Tegea, by the advice of the oracle, are related to have been seven cubits in length. And other writings, which give a credible relation of ancient matters, affirm this, that in the war of Crete, when the rivers had been so high as to overflow and break down their banks, after the flood was abated, upon the cleaving of the earth, there was found a human body of three and thirty foot long, which L. Flaccus, the legate, and Metellus himself, being very desirous of seeing, were much surprised to have the satisfaction of seeing, what they did not believe when they heard.” Grotius, De Veritate, Bk. 1, sec. 16, notes. “Josephus, Bk. 5, ch. 2, of his ancient history. ‘There remains to this day some of the race of the giants, who by reason of the bulk and figure of their bodies, so different from other men, are wonderful to see, or hear of. Their bones are now shown, far exceeding the belief of the vulgar.' Gabinius, in his history of Mauritania, said that Antaeus' bones were found by Sertorius, which, joined together, were sixty cubits long. Phlegon Trallianus, in his 9th chapter of Wonders, mentions the digging up [of] the head of Ida, which was three times as big as that of an ordinary woman. And he adds also, that there were many bodies found in Dalmatia, whose arms exceeded sixteen cubits. And the same man relates out of Theopompus, that there were found in the Cimmerian Bosphorus, a company of human bones twenty-four cubits in length.” Le Clerc's notes on Grotius, De Veritate, Bk. 1, sec. 16. “We almost everywhere in the Greek and Latin historians meet with the savage life of the giants, mentioned by Moses. In the Greek, as Homer, Iliad 9, and Hesiod in his Labors. To this may be referred the wars of the gods, mentioned by Plato in his Second Republic, and those distinct and separate governments, taken notice of by the same Plato, in his third book of Laws. And as to the Latin historians, see the first book of Ovid's Metamorphosis, and the 4th book of Lucan, and Seneca's third book of Natural Questions, Ques. 30, where he says concerning the deluge, ‘That the beasts also perished, into whose nature men were degenerated.' ” Jonathan Edwards, Notes on Scripture, ed. Harry S. Stout and Stephen J. Stein, vol. 15, The Works of Jonathan Edwards (London; New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), 506–508. By the way, Augustine - writing all the way back in the 300s! Makes a case contra the above, and believes that the sons of God were merely men. His reasoning is that there are at least two men in the Bible that are designated as angels/messengers that were obviously human, and that is likely what is going on here too. I respect and admire Augustine, but disagree with him here, noting that "sons of God" does not, of necessity, equate to angels. WHETHER WE ARE TO BELIEVE THAT ANGELS, WHO ARE OF A SPIRITUAL SUBSTANCE, FELL IN LOVE WITH THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN, AND SOUGHT THEM IN MARRIAGE, AND THAT FROM THIS CONNECTION GIANTS WERE BORN In the third book of this work (c. 5) we made a passing reference to this question, but did not decide whether angels, inasmuch as they are spirits, could have bodily intercourse with women. For it is written, “Who maketh His angels spirits,”4 that is, He makes those who are by nature spirits His angels by appointing them to the duty of bearing His messages. For the Greek word ἄγγελος, which in Latin appears as “angelus,” means a messenger. But whether the Psalmist speaks of their bodies when he adds, “and His ministers a flaming fire,” or means that God's ministers ought to blaze with love as with a spiritual fire, is doubtful. However, the same trustworthy Scripture testifies that angels have appeared to men in such bodies as could not only be seen, but also touched. There is, too, a very general rumor, which many have verified by their own experience, or which trustworthy persons who have heard the experience of others corroborate, that sylvans and fauns, who are commonly called “incubi,” had often made wicked assaults upon women, and satisfied their lust upon them; and that certain devils, called Duses by the Gauls, are constantly attempting and effecting this impurity is so generally affirmed, that it were impudent to deny it.5 From these assertions, indeed, I dare not determine whether there be some spirits embodied in an aerial substance (for this element, even when agitated by a fan, is sensibly felt by the body), and who are capable of lust and of mingling sensibly with women; but certainly I could by no means believe that God's holy angels could at that time have so fallen, nor can I think that it is of them the Apostle Peter said, “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.”1 I think he rather speaks of these who first apostatized from God, along with their chief the devil, who enviously deceived the first man under the form of a serpent. But the same holy Scripture affords the most ample testimony that even godly man have been called angels; for of John it is written: “Behold, I send my messenger (angel) before Thy face, who shall prepare Thy way.”2 And the prophet Malachi, by a peculiar grace specially communicated to him, was called an angel.3 But some are moved by the fact that we have read that the fruit of the connection between those who are called angels of God and the women they loved were not men like our own breed, but giants; just as if there were not born even in our own time (as I have mentioned above) men of much greater size than the ordinary stature. Was there not at Rome a few years ago, when the destruction of the city now accomplished by the Goths was drawing near, a woman, with her father and mother, who by her gigantic size over-topped all others? Surprising crowds from all quarters came to see her, and that which struck them most was the circumstance that neither of her parents were quite up to the tallest ordinary stature. Giants therefore might well be born, even before the sons of God, who are also called angels of God, formed a connection with the daughters of men, or of those living according to men, that is to say, before the sons of Seth formed a connection with the daughters of Cain. For thus speaks even the canonical Scripture itself in the book in which we read of this; its words are: “And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair [good]; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord God said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became the giants, men of renown.”4 These words of the divine book sufficiently indicate that already there were giants in the earth in those days, in which the sons of God took wives of the children of men, when they loved them because they were good, that is, fair. For it is the custom of this Scripture to call those who are beautiful in appearance “good.” But after this connection had been formed, then too were giants born. For the words are: “There were giants in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men.” Therefore there were giants both before, “in those days,” and “also after that.” And the words, “they bare children to them,” show plainly enough that before the sons of God fell in this fashion they begat children to God, not to themselves,—that is to say, not moved by the lust of sexual intercourse, but discharging the duty of propagation, intending to produce not a family to gratify their own pride, but citizens to people the city of God; and to these they as God's angels would bear the message, that they should place their hope in God, like him who was born of Seth, the son of resurrection, and who hoped to call on the name of the Lord God, in which hope they and their offspring would be co-heirs of eternal blessings, and brethren in the family of which God is the Father. Augustine of Hippo, “The City of God,” in St. Augustin's City of God and Christian Doctrine, ed. Philip Schaff, trans. Marcus Dods, vol. 2, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1887), 303–304.

Saint of the Day
Hieromartyr Artemon, presbyter of Laodicea in Syria (303)

Saint of the Day

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 13, 2019 1:28


At the time of Diocletian's persecutions, he was a very old man, having served as a reader for sixteen years, then a deacon for twenty-eight years, and finally as a priest for thirty years, for a total of seventy-four years. The pagan judge put him in the Temple of Aesculapius, where large snakes were kept and worshiped as gods. Though the judge meant for Artemon to be attacked by the snakes, the holy priest immobilized them with the sign of the Cross, brought them out of the temple and, in front of the pagan priests, breathed on the snakes, which died instantly. The chief priest, Vitalis, fell to his knees and cried 'Great is the Christian God!' Artemon baptised him along with several of his friends.   The unrepentant judge then condemned Artemon to be thrown into burning pitch, but the judge himself was thrown off his horse into the pitch and died. After this, Artemon went free for a time and spent his time teaching the Faith to his people ("accompanied always by two tame deer," says St Nikolia Velimirovic!). But he was arrested again and beheaded in the year 303.

Dove Creek Bible Church's Podcast

Christians have differed over what is and what is not appropriate for Christians to participate in since the founding of the church. Consider the problems faced by new Christians in the Roman Empire. What if you were a stone mason who worked for a business involved in the building of the walls of a heathen temple or a seamstress who worked for tailor who made robes for heathen priests? Should you look for another job? What if you worked for an incense maker or a silversmith or goldsmith who primarily made his money through idolatry? What if you were a sailor who worked on a ship dedicated to some sea god? What if you were a doctor? Should you work with the sick found in hospitals dedicated to the god, Aesculapius? New Christians were trying to determine where and when to draw the lines. Christians then, as now, drew their lines differently. So how should I respond to you if your list of do's & don't's is different from mine? Paul gives us the answer in Romans 14.

Dove Creek Bible Church's Podcast

Christians have differed over what is and what is not appropriate for Christians to participate in since the founding of the church. Consider the problems faced by new Christians in the Roman Empire. What if you were a stone mason who worked for a business involved in the building of the walls of a heathen temple or a seamstress who worked for tailor who made robes for heathen priests? Should you look for another job? What if you worked for an incense maker or a silversmith or goldsmith who primarily made his money through idolatry? What if you were a sailor who worked on a ship dedicated to some sea god? What if you were a doctor? Should you work with the sick found in hospitals dedicated to the god, Aesculapius? New Christians were trying to determine where and when to draw the lines. Christians then, as now, drew their lines differently. So how should I respond to you if your list of do's & don't's is different from mine? Paul gives us the answer in Romans 14.

Love, Life & All Things Weird ~ Megan Sillito & Suzanne Stauffer

Love, Life & All Things Weird Radio Show When meditation, energy work, questions and pod and poc-ing are not shifting the energy, it's time to sound it out. Did you know that if you listen to a gong for 11 minutes it dissipates all thought? Did you also know that it is thought that creates suffering, not what happens but what we think about it that determines how it feels? So anything that can get us out of our head and into a different space where we can perceive our awareness and create new thought has the capacity to change everything. “Healing with sound dates back as far as ancient Greece… Apollo was the god of both music and medicine. Aesculapius was believed to cure mental disorders with songs. Native American culture used both song and dance to heal the sick Come play with us this Wednesday at 10am MST where we will help you sound out what ever is drowning you out. (PS. We will more than likely have a surprise magical musical guest) Hear More from the Maka Mamas, here - https://www.makamamas.com/   ~ More About Love, Life & All Things Weird ~ What if you really can have it all? No–really? What if everything you THINK you desire is only a starting point for the life you are truly capable of creating? On Love, Life, & All Things Weird, we will explore topics from magic to practical step by step processes, and everything in between. There’s no place we won’t go, nothing too ridiculous or weird in the quest to live as grand a life as possible. Hosts Megan Sillito and Suzanne Stauffer are the embodiment of “opposites attract”. Collectively, they’re the summation of Megan’s big vision coupled with Suzanne’s knack for details. Partnered in love and in business for the last five years, they’re taking co-creation to a whole new level. Join Megan and Suzanne for Love, Life, & All Things Weird, where we will talk about living a life that’s inspired, overflowing, and completely awesome. Together, they’re the embodiment of “opposites attract”, and the result is true synergistic power. Collectively, they’re the summation of Megan’s big vision coupled with Suzanne’s knack for the details, Megan’s universal wisdom punctuated with an exclamation point by Suzanne’s incisive truth, and Megan’s playful meanderings subtly sorted by Suzanne’s practical step-by-step approach.  So what does this means for you? In true “two birds, one stone” fashion, you’ve found a one stop shop for invoking inspiration, unearthing tools for transformation, and having two crazy-weird chicks who will stop at nothing to support you in HAVING IT ALL! http://www.MeganSillito.com      http://livingyoursoultruth.com Join our fun Facebook group where we give additional tips and tools and continue the conversation after the show:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/1615639452040672/ AND COME PLAY with Live Your Magic, LIVE - Anywhere in the world!!  Find Dates & Details HERE - http://tinyurl.com/LiveYourMagicNow To get more of Love, Life & All Things Weird with Megan Sillito and Suzanne Stauffer, be sure to visit the archives page for replays of all their shows here: https://www.inspiredchoicesnetwork.com/podcast/love-life-all-things-weird-megan-sillito-suzanne-stauffer/  

Revelation: The End -- and a New Beginning
The Poor-Rich Church (Revelation 3:14-21)

Revelation: The End -- and a New Beginning

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 24, 2018


The city of Laodicea was located about 100 miles directly east of Ephesus, the first city to which these seven letters were addressed. Laodicea was part of a tri-city area, closely associated with the cities of Colossae (to which the letter to the Colossians was written), and Hierapolis. Laodicea was noted throughout the Roman province of Asia for its wealth, its commercial life, and its medical practice. As the banking center of Asia, it was the most prosperous of the seven cities. Many large, beautiful homes were built in this city, the ruins of which are still visible, and probably some of them were owned by Christians. Laodicea also had a flourishing clothing industry. A particular breed of black sheep were raised around this area, and the glossy, black wool was woven into special clothes that were sold here. The city was also noted for its medical practice, especially for its eye and ear salve. The medical cult of Aesculapius was located here. Incidentally, doctors in the military services of the United States still wear the symbol of a staff with entwined serpents around it, the symbol of Aesculapius. Laodicea was thus a kind of Bank of America, Macy's Department Store and Mayo Clinic all rolled into one. That will explain some of the references we find in this letter to the church there. As in all the letters, our Lord introduces himself in a very significant way. His opening description form the key to what the church needs.

David Hoffmeister & A Course In Miracles
The Circle - After Movie Talk with David at the Temple of Aesculapius

David Hoffmeister & A Course In Miracles

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 16, 2017 21:03


This is a great movie for getting at the fear of intimacy. It exposes the ego's desire for privacy, the belief in need for privacy versus transparency and openness. There's a great fear of true joining, true intimacy, true sharing and transparency. The fear of the ego is that something in the world will be misused in a destructive way. Is what's being presented in form good or evil, safe or not safe? But this is form versus content. There's no solution in trying to find the right form, the right balance between autonomy and personal freedom, the good of the individual versus what's for the good of society. Both the individual and society are illusions. There is no balance, both are concepts in the mind.

New Books Network
Douglas R. Skopp, “Shadows Walking” (CreateSpace, 2010)

New Books Network

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 15, 2013 66:53


“First do no harm.” Every doctor in the Western medical tradition swears to observe this basic principle of the Hippocratic oath before he or she receives a license to practice. Yet in Nazi Germany, doctors who had sworn to heal participated in grotesque medical experiments on concentration-camp prisoners, conducted sterilization campaigns against their fellow-citizens, refused treatment to terminally ill patients, and supported euthanasia, eugenics, and antisemitism. How did they justify such a perversion of their calling? This is the question that Douglas R. Skopp addresses in Shadows Walking (CreateSpace, 2010), his extensively researched account of the intertwining lives–like the snakes on Aesculapius’s staff–of two fictional German doctors, the boyhood friends Johann Brenner and Philipp Stein, from 1928 to their final meeting near the end of World War II. The novel opens in Nuremberg in 1946, with Johann working under an alias as a janitor in the Palace of Justice, where the Allied trials of Nazi war criminals are underway. A chance meeting with his estranged wife–furious to discover that her husband has been hiding in the city for months–sparks in Johann a desire to explain in a letter the crimes he has committed since he last saw her, the reasons why he has allowed her to believe that he died in the last days of the war. Every paragraph of his letter leads into a flashback that reveals a segment of his past and pushes Johann farther down the road to Nazism and Auschwitz. Meanwhile, Philipp, as a German Jew, experiences the shrinking horizons and worsening abuse that Nazism inflicted on its victims. Because of its subject matter, Shadows Walking is not easy to read, but it is an important book, well worth the investment of time and energy. Skopptraces the path by which fundamentally decent people can descend into barbarism if they forget the importance of compassion. It could happen in Germany–and did. It could happen here. It could happen anywhere. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New Books in Historical Fiction
Douglas R. Skopp, “Shadows Walking” (CreateSpace, 2010)

New Books in Historical Fiction

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 15, 2013 66:53


“First do no harm.” Every doctor in the Western medical tradition swears to observe this basic principle of the Hippocratic oath before he or she receives a license to practice. Yet in Nazi Germany, doctors who had sworn to heal participated in grotesque medical experiments on concentration-camp prisoners, conducted sterilization campaigns against their fellow-citizens, refused treatment to terminally ill patients, and supported euthanasia, eugenics, and antisemitism. How did they justify such a perversion of their calling? This is the question that Douglas R. Skopp addresses in Shadows Walking (CreateSpace, 2010), his extensively researched account of the intertwining lives–like the snakes on Aesculapius’s staff–of two fictional German doctors, the boyhood friends Johann Brenner and Philipp Stein, from 1928 to their final meeting near the end of World War II. The novel opens in Nuremberg in 1946, with Johann working under an alias as a janitor in the Palace of Justice, where the Allied trials of Nazi war criminals are underway. A chance meeting with his estranged wife–furious to discover that her husband has been hiding in the city for months–sparks in Johann a desire to explain in a letter the crimes he has committed since he last saw her, the reasons why he has allowed her to believe that he died in the last days of the war. Every paragraph of his letter leads into a flashback that reveals a segment of his past and pushes Johann farther down the road to Nazism and Auschwitz. Meanwhile, Philipp, as a German Jew, experiences the shrinking horizons and worsening abuse that Nazism inflicted on its victims. Because of its subject matter, Shadows Walking is not easy to read, but it is an important book, well worth the investment of time and energy. Skopptraces the path by which fundamentally decent people can descend into barbarism if they forget the importance of compassion. It could happen in Germany–and did. It could happen here. It could happen anywhere. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The History of the Christian Church

We're changing gears a bit to begin a series of podcasts considering the impact Christianity has had on the world. We'll unpack how the Faith has left its imprint on society. The Title of this episode is The Change - Part 1: The Sanctity of Life.Knowing my fascination with history and especially the history of Rome, a few years ago, someone recommended I watch a mini-series that aired on a cable network. While it was dramatic historical fiction, the producers did a good job of presenting the customs & values of 1st C BC Roman culture. While the series was suspenseful & entertaining, it was difficult to watch because of the brutality that was commonplace. And it wasn't put in merely for the sake of titillation or to make the shows more provocative. It was an accurate depiction of the time. More than once, I found myself near tears, broken over just how lost the world was. Several times I said out loud, "They needed Jesus!"Exactly! THAT was the very era Jesus was born into & the culture the Gospel spread in. How desperately the Roman Empire needed the life-affirming message the Early Church preached & lived.There's an old saying, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” When the early Christians came to Rome, we can be thankful they DIDN'T do what the Romans did. On the contrary, slowly but surely, with fits & starts, they eventually transformed the Greco-Roman world from rank paganism to a more or less Biblical worldview. Nowhere was that seen more clearly than in the change that was made to the sanctity of human life.During the early days of the Roman republic, the high value put on the family unit formed a moral base that lent a certain weight to the value of the individual. But as the idea of the State grew during the late republic, then blossomed in the Empire, people were evaluated in terms of what they could contribute to the State. That meant people on the bottom of the social scale had little to no value. The poor, women, and slaves became chattel; property to be used. Life became cheap. And the pagan gods bequeathed no real moral virtue into the Roman world. They were understood to be whimsical & selfish at the best of times, cruel in the worst.The Christian value of the sanctity or specialness of human beings was based in the Jewish view of man as created in God's image. There was a healthy Jewish population in the City of Rome itself & scattered throughout other major cities of the Empire. Early on, the unique Jewish view of man had infiltrated the Roman world where ever Jews were to be found. So different was this view of man from the paganized Greco-Roman worldview that many of the more enlightened Greeks & Romans had begun attending Jewish synagogues. If they stayed, they became known as God-fearers; Gentiles who believed in the God of the Bible, but hadn't become full converts to Judaism by being circumcised, baptized, & keeping kosher. They occupied a section in many synagogues, sitting by themselves to hear the teaching of Scripture. The book of Acts tells us some of Paul's most fruitful work was in this God-Fearer section of the synagogue.The Jewish idea of men & women being created in God's image took on new potency when the Gospel was preached, for it told of God becoming man. And becoming a man so He could go to the cross to ransom lost men & women; translating them from a destiny in hell to the glory of heaven. All this spoke of God's view of the value of human beings. If He would endure the passion & cross, it meant life was of inestimable value. Rather than life being cheap, it was to be honored and protected at all costs, regardless of its station or quality.One way the early Christian demonstrated this was the church's opposition to the widespread practice of infanticide. It was common to expose unwanted children soon after birth, either by drowning or leaving them on exposed where the elements or wild beasts would finish them. They were left to die for physical deformities, for being of the wrong sex, or simply because the parents couldn't afford another mouth to feed.Abandoning unwanted infants was quite common in the Greco-Roman world. In fact, the founding myth of Rome begins with 2 infant boys being tossed into the Tiber River. Romulus & Remus both survived to be suckled by a she-wolf, then raised by an elderly shepherd. It was their later struggle that founded the city of Rome, named for one of the brothers - Romulus.So in the city of Rome itself, parents would regularly leave unwanted children at the base of the Columna Lactaria. In later times, Roman parents would abandon their infants there to show grief over some national calamity, like the death of a beloved emperor. To put that in modern terms, imagine someone dropping off their 2 week old infant at a memorial for 9/11 - and just walking away; thinking that somehow shows solidarity with everyone's shock & grief. Yet that's what many Romans did with their newborns when calamity struck.Greeks also practiced infanticide by abandoning infants. They did so because it was woven into their mythology. The well-known Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex revolves around Oedipus who at only 3 days was abandoned by his father King Laius of Thebes. Ion, founder of Ionia was abandoned as an infant by his mother. Poseidon, Aesculapius, & Hephaistos were all abandoned infants. Even Paris who started the Trojan War was abandoned as a child. In Sparta, every newborn was brought before the elders for inspection. If the child was deemed weak in any way, it was abandoned.As shocking, is realizing in all the literature come to us from that time, nowhere is there a shred of evidence infanticide was wrong, or even questioned.Infanticide wasn't practiced just among the Greeks & Romans; other ancient societies practiced it as well. Plutarch said the Carthaginians had made infant sacrifice a regular occurrence. When building a new house or wall, they mixed the blood of an infant with the mortar, thinking it made the wall stronger. If a wealthy family had no new-born to offer, they'd buy one off a poor mother. Though we don't have a record of what was on the 12 Tablets that formed the basis of Roman Law & civilization, we know a good deal of what was in them from the quotes of later Romans. Cicero says it was part of Roman law to expose deformed infants. In the 1st C AD, Seneca, remarks in passing, without batting the proverbial eye, that deformed infants were routinely drowned. Infanticide was so common in the later Greek era that in the 2nd C BC, Polybius blamed a population decline on it. Because infanticide was so common, large families among both Greeks & Romans was rare. An inscription found at Delphi reveals that in a 2nd C sample of 600 families, only 1% had more than 1 daughter! Infanticide was practiced in India, China, Japan, Africa, the rainforests of Brazil, among the Inuit, & among the native North & Central  Americans.Early Christians balked not at calling infanticide, murder. To them, infants were creatures of God who bore His image no less than their mature counterparts. They'd heard of Jesus' attention to little children in Matthew 19. That passage is interesting because the disciples thought the children approaching Jesus weren't worthy of His august attention. In their attitude toward the little ones, contrary as it was to Jesus' own perspective, we catch of glimpse of how the Greco-Roman culture had influenced them. The pre-Roman Jewish culture put a huge emphasis on children. They were regarded as a great blessing from God. Children were God's promise of a future! Yet in the disciples' shooing the children away from Jesus, we see how the Greco-Roman devaluing of life had infected them.We ought to reflect on how the modern abortion debate may have affected our valuation of human life. The parallels to the current population decline among ethnic Europeans ought to be obvious & a sign of how the Judeo-Christian worldview has been gutted from Western civilization.The Didache, the standard catechism used by the Church in the 1st C tells Christians, "You shall not commit infanticide." It's condemned in the Epistle of Barnabas, written about 130. In AD 222, the 1-time slave turned bishop of Rome, Callistus expressed his dismay at the widespread practice of exposing unwanted infants.It was this & the very vocal Christian opposition to it that helped fuel the persecution the early church faced in so many places around the Empire. The Romans placed great stock in tradition and looked with suspicion on anyone who sought to change it. The Christians were doing just that with their radical ideas about how to treat the unwanted.While Christians opposed infanticide, they were unable to do anything about it as a social policy while they were an outlawed group. It wasn't until the Edict of Milan in AD 313 that they were able to even speak to official policy. Then, only 60 years later Emperor Valentinian, at the urging of Basil of Caesarea, outlawed the wicked practice of infanticide.But while they waited for the laws to change, early Christians didn't sit on their hands. They regularly went out to the hillsides where children were left exposed and took them into their homes, raising them as their own children. In Rome, Bishop Callistus organized people to roam the streets in the late evening, looking for abandoned children. He then placed them in the homes of parents wanting them. As far as we know, this was the first organized adoption agency, even though it was done on the sly. The famous martyr Polycarp's protégé, Benignus of Dijon, recused & nurtured abandoned little ones, ministering to the needs of children who'd been deformed because of botched abortions. Afra of Augsburg, a notorious prostitute before her conversion to Christ, began a ministry to the abandoned children of prisoners, thieves, smugglers, pirates, runaway slaves, and all sorts of ne'er-do' wells.No one should get the impression from this that following Valentinian's outlawing of infanticide & child-abandonment, there was an immediate, overnight end to the practice. Far from it. People in Europe & the Eastern Empire continued to off their off spring in large numbers. And Christians continued to adopt them. But as the influence of the Christian worldview spread, there was a deep & fundamental shift that took place in the way people viewed human life; all of it from cradle to grave. And where that respect for life settled in, infanticide evaporated. It got to the point where a single abandoned infant became a shocking event the news of which spread like wild-fire. And when desperation moved some young mother to abandon her child, where did she leave it? Not on a hillside to let it die. No. She left it on the doorstep of the local church because she knew her child would be taken care of.So it ought to be with the deepest kind of grief that we hear now about newborns being left in dumpsters & gas station restrooms. It seems we've regressed, not progressed; devolved, not evolved. Society has at any rate. And to think - there are people who actually rejoice that the Christian worldview has been cut loose from modern society.We have abortion, which is really just an earlier form of infanticide. Partial birth abortion isn't even that! If a woman doesn't make the appointment to rid herself of the unwanted before it's born, no problem; when in Rome, do as the Romans do.What's next? Gladiatorial combat? Oops - too late. // Slavery? Again, too late. It's already here.We'll be taking a look at many more ways the Christian Faith has impacted culture & civilization in the weeks to come.

The History of the Christian Church

This episode continues our series examining the impact Christianity had on history & culture. Today we consider how the Faith impacted the world's view of Charity & Compassion.Early Christians quickly gained a reputation for their concern for the poor & disenfranchised. Unlike paganism with its acceptance of fate & the Greco-Roman enforcement of social classes, the Gospel viewed all human beings as created in God's image & of equal value. Having its roots firmly in Judaism, Christianity considered justice to include a healthy dose of mercy & compassion. The Law of Moses regulated the treatment of slaves so they retained their dignity. It required the corners of fields be left unharvested so the poor could glean. And it required an annual tithe to be set aside specially for the poor & needy. All of this was unheard of in the pagan world.Building on this base of Jewish charity was the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 25 who said that taking care of the hungry, the sick & prisoners was a kindness shown to none other than Himself.The parable of the Good Samaritan was one of the favorites of the Faith & shaped the Church's mindset toward the needy.In the mid 3rd C, Tertullian in North Africa records that Christians had a common fund to which they voluntarily contributed. No strong-arm fundraising was needed; believers were glad to add coins to the box whenever they could. This fund supported widows, the disabled, orphans, the sick & prisoners jailed for their faith. It was also on occasion used to bury the poor & to purchase a slave's freedom.All of this stands in marked contrast with the Greco-Roman attitude toward the poor. They practiced what was known as liberalitas. This was assistance a wealthy benefactor showed to a someone in need, with an eye to their repaying the favor someday, somehow. In Roman society, the upper classes rose in status by having lots & lots of clients who supported you. They shouted your name when cued to do so at some public event. The louder your name was shouted, the more supporters you had & so the more prestige you garnered. So a wealthy Roman would help someone who was needy only if that person could go on to add his voice to his support base. It wasn't genuine charity; it was buying support. I'll help you today, if you shout my name tomorrow real loud and get all your family & friends to do the same. The motive was selfish.Charity just for the sake of helping someone in need was officially considered by both the Greeks & Romans as being weak & counter-productive. Someone who'd fallen onto hard times & couldn't rescue himself was pathetic, not worthy of concern. And who knows; their poverty or illness might be the work of the gods, punishment for some foul sin. So don't alleviate their suffering or you might incur the wrath of the fickle deities who controlled the fate of mere mortals.I just said that charity wasn't officially allowed in pagan society for these reasons. But history tells us while Paganism didn't practice it, some pagans occasionally did. Almost all cases we know of where people reached out to help others in need was when some catastrophe like an earthquake struck of fire swept a city. Then the suffering was so widespread & in everyone's face people couldn't avoid helping in some way. But generally, in day to day life, all giving to the needy had a self-serving end.Christians didn't practice the selfish liberalitas of the Romans. They practiced caritas – compassionate caring. There was no thought of what one was going to get out of such care. It was done simply because the person receiving the help needed it. The motive was to glorify God.Believers were moved by the words of 1 John 4:10–11 – “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”They remembered what Paul had written in Philippians 2:4 – “Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.”In the 5th C, Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, sold the treasures & ornaments of the church to provide relief for starving people and in the 10th C, the bishop of Winchester sold all the gold & silver vessels of the cathedral to relieve the poor during a harsh famine. He justified his actions saying, “There is no reason the temple of God should abound in riches when the living temples of the Holy Spirit starve.” Historian Christopher Dawson recorded that nearly every local church had an official list of widows & the needy they supported and the sums given by those with means was substantial.Christians didn't just keep their charity to themselves; they met the needs of those outside the church as well. Both the Didache & the 2nd C letter called the Shepherd of Hermas called believers to meet the needs of all those who had genuine need. Providing such charity turned into risky business. By the 3rd C Christians had gained a reputation for their selfless love and this attracted even more to them. So 2 Emperors forbade prisoners from receiving outside help – which was a death sentence since their food came from what family & friends provided. Though it was against the law, Christians continued taking care of prisoners. Thankfully, few jailors enforced the Emperors' edicts since they didn't want their prisoners dying.The charity of the early Christians flowed from the wider sense of compassion Jesus had consistently demonstrated throughout His life. The Gospels regularly comment on how Jesus was moved with compassion and reached out to take care of poor & needy souls. Since being a disciple meant being just like their Rabbi, the Christians sought to install compassion as one of their key virtues.Yet as with charity, in paganism, compassion was not esteemed. The formative Greek thinker Plato said that a poor man, & especially a slave, who was no longer able to work because of sickness or age ought to be left to die. The famous Greek physician Aesculapius refused treatment to patients he deemed not worthy of surviving. The Roman philosopher Plautus said, “You do a beggar bad service by giving him food and drink; you lose what you give and prolong his life for more misery.”In the 5th C BC, the Greek historian Thucydides [thoo-sid-a-dees] reported when a massive plague struck Athens during the Peloponnesian War, unaffected Athenians fled, leaving the sick behind to tend themselves. In the mid-4th C AD, the Emperor Julian the Apostate, who, as his name implies, hated Christians, couldn't help but give them grudging respect that they alone stayed to tend the sick when a plague struck the Empire. He wrote, “The impious Galileans (his word for Christians, whom he called impious because they refused to worship the pagan gods) These impious Galileans relieve both their own poor and ours. It is shameful that ours should be so destitute of our assistance.”Of course, we need only look back a few episodes to be reminded of the shocking lack of compassion Roman society had when we consider the popularity of the gladiatorial games. Compassion runs thin when life is cheap.The compassion & charity of Christians stood out all the more when it was seen against the backdrop of a brutal Roman culture. Jesus had said, “Greater love has no one than this; that he lay down his life for his friends.” Christians sought to demonstrate that love in the streets & byways of the Empire. And it had a profound effect in drawing people to faith in Christ.The story of Pachomius is just one of many examples.  Pachomius was a pagan soldier in Emperor Constantine's army. He watched while Christians brought food to his fellow soldiers afflicted with famine & disease & was profoundly moved.  When he learned they were motivated by a religion called Christianity he became curious to understand a doctrine that inspired them to such love & generosity. So he began to study the faith and was soon a convert. Something similar to that was duplicated tens of thousands of times all across the Empire.Pachomius and others were moved by the compassionate acts of the Christians because Greco-Roman culture just didn't see the hungry, sick, and dying as worthy of assis­tance. The worth of a human being was determined by external & acci­dental circumstances in proportion to the position one held in the community or state. A human being only had value as a citizen, but very few people qualified as citizens. So the sick, poor, & lower classes like slaves, artisans, & other manual workers for whom the Christians had compassion, weren't citizens in the eyes of freemen. Non-citizens were defined as having no purpose and so not worthy to be helped when their lives were in jeopardy. In their dire condition they received no food or physical protection.So it's understandable why Christianity spread most rapidly in the early centuries among, can you guess who? Yeah – the poor & needy, among slaves & the disenfranchised. That's why it came under the scrutiny of officials & scorn of the elite. Now, to be sure, there were both highly placed believers as well as some of the ancient world's most intelligent & erudite. But generally, officials feared that Christianity would rally the lower classes to rebel while the unbelieving elite shunned it as a religion for the pathetic.They were wrong then. They're wrong still. In truth, today's liberalism is but a secularized version of Christian charity & compassion. But without the God who declares life sacred, liberalism's commitment to compassion will be traded in for paganism's utilitarianism. A process already well under way.

The History of the Christian Church

This is episode 6 in a series examining the impact Christianity has had on history & culture. Today we continue our look at the impact The Faith had on the world's view of Charity & Compassion, specifically in the founding of hospitals & health care.In an earlier episode we noted how so many of what are called liberal ideals of modern society had their roots in the Christian transformation of culture, specifically in Western Civilization. Those ideas flowed from the Faith's high view of the sanctity of human life, which was a radical departure from the pagan view of man and the strict classism that dominated the ancient world. The dilemma today is that secular liberalism wants to keep the advantages and rights Christianity brought w/o the moral and spiritual core that empowered them. Christianity's exalted view of man is based on its higher & prior exalted view of God. Gut society of that view of God and its view of man is destined to decline. Which is precisely what we're seeing in modern Western societies today. As one philosopher posed the question: “Can man be good without God?” The answer is; “Not for long.” As my pastor said years ago, “Is it any wonder that when schools tell children they are nothing but the chance result of random chemical reactions and descended from apes, they then begin to act by the law of the jungle while they live in Los Angeles, or London?Those who assume modern charity and compassion, whether it be government welfare or voluntary assistance, developed on its own without the energizing influence of Christianity are misinformed. People need to understand that “civilization” isn't some kind of mystical force that happens on its own. It's not the product of social evolution where man keeps getting better & better. Christianity WAS the premier civilizing influence that shaped the modern world and gave Western civilization the benefits that have meant advancement.The German historian C. Schmidt, a century ago said to disregard Christianity's influence in civilizing the ancient world is “blind to the history of nations, and to the history of the Human heart. Both proclaim loudly that charity cannot be the product of egoism, nor a humility of pride; that without the intervention of God no new spirit could have regenerated individuals in the world.”Carlton Hayes wrote, “From the wellsprings of Christian compassion our Western civilization has drawn its inspiration, and its sense of duty, for feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, looking after the homeless, clothing the naked, tending the sick, and visiting the prisoner.”Who built hospitals? Who founded rescue missions in decaying inner cities? Orphanages? Soup kitchens? Who founded charitable societies, taught literacy, worked tirelessly to end slavery, campaigned for equal rights, ended child labor? Christians! Men & women who understood the sanctity of human life & the urgency of guarding human dignity - that's who.It's been interesting watching the assault the New Atheists have leveled on religion in general and Christianity in particular. They say the Faith is standing in the way of human progress. Yet virtually every support that makes it even possible for them to say that was provided by Christians living out their Faith. Where, pray tell, are the atheist rescue mission and orphanages. Where are the atheist founded & funded hospitals?Jesus was concerned for people's bodies as well as their souls. In commending the faithfulness of the disciples in Matthew 25, Jesus lauded their feeding & clothing the needy. The Gospels tell us as part of His ministry Jesus went all over Israel healing illness & disease. The blind, deaf, palsied, lame and even the socially outcast lepers were all healed by Him. Indeed, Jesus' ministry seemed to pulse between these 2 poles – teaching & healing. Frequently the text tells us He was moved with compassion as he looked on the crowds coming to Him. Since the goal of a disciple is to be just like his rabbi, when Jesus sent His boys out on their own ministry exercise, they went forth teaching & healing. When they returned they were stoked about the miracles they'd seen God work thru them.Later, when the Apostles went out to continue Jesus' mission of preaching the Gospel, they carried on the wholisitc task of expanding the Kingdom of God by both preaching & healing. This personal, literal, physical touch was a far cry from the cult of Gnosticism that a century later would reduce the Gospel to an esoteric message utterly divorced from the physical.The Greco-Roman world the early Christians lived in was void of care for the sick & dying. Oh sure, there were doctors, there were even healing centers. But these were exclusively for the service of the rich & powerful. Dionysus, a Christian pastor of the 3rd C described the behavior of the people of Alexandria in a plague in 250 AD. He said they “thrust aside anyone who began to be sick, and kept aloof even from their dearest friends. They cast the afflicted out onto the public roads half dead, and left them unburied. The sick were treated with utter contempt when they died.” But the Christians, he reported, came to the aid of the sick and dying. They ignored the danger to themselves. He wrote –“Very many of our brethren, while in their exceeding love and brotherly kindness, did not spare themselves, but kept by each other, and visited the sick without thought of their own peril, and ministered to them assiduously and treated them for their healing in Christ, died from time to time most joyfully... drawing upon themselves their neighbors' diseases, and willingly taking over to their own persons the burden of the sufferings of those around them.”As I noted in a recent episode, the Emperor Julian, who wanted to roll back the ground Christianity had made in the Empire, & reinstall paganism, lamented that pagans could not come close to the charity & compassion exhibited by even the humblest of Jesus' followers. In truth, Romans considered helping the sick as a sign of weakness. They thought it manly to resist the inner urge to pity. When Christians stayed to help the sick during plague, it unmasked the Roman idea as weak while showing compassion was courageous.Christians of the 1st thru 4th Cs rejected the callous & inhumane cul­ture of the Greco-Roman world. They considered everyone as having an eternal & potentially-redeemable soul. It pleased God to tend to anyone, regardless of social status. Because eternal life awaited those who believed in Christ, life on earth wasn't the ultimate value. If someone died while caring for the sick, a far better life lay ahead. And if a sick person came to faith in Christ because of the charity shown them, another soul was gained for heaven. That kind of thought & behavior was foreign to paganism.Few of those early Christians who risked their lives to tend the ill had their names recorded for posterity. Few, but not none. One name that is known is Benignus of Dijon, a 2nd C Christian martyred in Epagny because he “nursed, supported, & protected a number of deformed & crippled children that had been saved from death after failed abortions and exposures.” Rescuing frail, unwanted children was an insult to the Romans. It violated their cultural norms. Remember the words of Seneca, the 1st C Roman philosopher: "We drown children who at birth are weakly and abnormal.”Because of the pagan low-regard for human life and their de-valuing of the sick by not caring for them, there were no hospitals for the treatment or care of the general populace. A careful student of history may object & query, “What about the nearly 300 temples to Aesculapius, the god of healing? Weren't those ancient hospitals?”The answer is, Not really. Sick people went there but not to be tended by a doctor or receive treatment. They went there to ask the deity for healing and that he'd reveal to them what treatment might help. But no medicine was applied there. There were other places where doctors could be asked for assistance. But while people might be told what treatment to seek, they weren't nursed at the temple of Aesculapius. The few places were the ill could convalesce were limited only to the recovery of people deemed worthy because of some benefit they provided society or their master. So there were treatment centers for wounded gladiators and soldiers. But there was NOTHING for the treatment & recovery of the lower classes; simply nothing.In India of the 3rd C BC, King Asoka commanded that hospitals be constructed. But it's not known who or what they were for. Because while the command was given, it was never carried out. When Europeans arrived in the 18th C, there were no hospitals in the land.Simply stated, charity hospitals for the poor & needy did not exist prior to Christianity introducing them.During the first 3 centuries, when Christians were the object of frequent and severe persecution, the most they could do was care for the sick where they found them or in extreme cases, take them into their homes. After Constantine removed the ban on the Faith in the early 4th C, Christians were able to direct more attention toward caring for the sick and dying. At the Council of Nicaea in 325 bishops were directed to set up hospices in every city with a major church.Many of the early Christian hospitals were not what people understand by them today. While their most important function was to nurse and heal the sick, they also provided shelter for the poor and lodging for Christian pilgrims. These hospitals, known as xenodochia were prompted by Christ's command to care for the physically sick and by the early apostolic teaching that Christians be hospitable to strangers and travelers.The first real hospital was built by St. Basil in Caesarea of Cappadocia about AD 369. It was part of a large complex that included houses for physi­cians and nurses, workshops, and schools.  The rehabilitation buildings and workshops gave those with no occupa­tional skills opportunity to learn a trade while recovering. The compound's comprehensive nature reveals additional humanitarian awareness. It's difficult to argue this awareness had nothing to do with the spirit of Christ alive in St. Basil, the good bishop of Caesarea.After St. Basil's hospital was built in the East and another in Edessa in 375, Fabiola, a wealthy widow and associate of Jerome, built the first hospital in the West in Rome in about 390. According to Jerome, Fabiola donated all of her con­siderable wealth to construct it. She then brought in the sick from the streets. They later built another such hospital in the port of Ostia 50 miles from Rome.Since this isn't a podcast on the history of hospitals, I'll drop the chronicle there. Suffice it to say more were built & staffed throughout the Empire & world, where ever Christianity gained a foothold.While the Age of Discovery was more often than not a purely commercial enterprise, whenever new realms were opened, Christian missionaries followed and established bases to bring physical relief as well as spiritual light.The 1st mental institutions were built & ran by Christians. Their later devolution into the hands of secular psychologists saw some of the most bizarre & inhuman treatments of the mentally infirm.It's important to note that nursing as a profession had its origin completely in the Christian impetus to help the sick & infirm and provide dignity for the dying. Florence Nightingale is world renowned in her care for the sick and wounded. At great personal peril & cost, she ministered to the physically needed – all in the compassion of Christ & for God's glory.In 1864, Jean Henri Dunant along with 4 others started the International Red Cross. While Dunant was a sometimes fierce critic of the organized church, he was driven by Christ's example and call to take care of the physical needs of the poor, weak, sick and needy.This brief review of hospitals & health care is enlightening in terms of what it says about the current health care system & debate. Modern society has come to view healthcare as virtually a RIGHT. Many believe it's the government's duty to provide healthcare as a basic privilege of citizenship. That's a far cry from the Greco-Roman roots many of those people say they want to return to. It was Christianity, especially the Faith that developed during the Middle Ages to infiltrate & season Western civilization, that bequeathed to the modern world it's exalted view of medical care – all based on the sanctity of human life, which rests on the foundation of a conviction man is created in God's image.One additional remark: As I record this episode, the United States, where I live, is engaged in a rather acrimonious debate over Radical Islam and terrorism. A mass shooting in San Bernardino took place just days ago a couple hours from where I live. The Syrian Refugee dilemma is in the news daily. President Obama held a national speech from the Oval Office of the White house to address these issues. He labored to make a distinction between Radical Jihadists and the larger religion of Islam.Many of the listeners to CS are aware Islam has a long and checkered past. In the history of medicine, it has been a handful of Muslim physicians who've advanced the medical arts and bequeathed practices that shaped the origins of modern medicine. By digging a little deeper, we discover these Muslim doctors learned a good part of their practices from earlier Christian schools in the East at places like Edessa & Gundashpur. Those schools were conquered by Muslim invaders and their works were translated in Arabic.As we end this episode, I want to say thanks to the many new subscribers to CS, for referring others to the podcast, and to all those who've popped by the Facebook page to give us a like.