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The Student Bible NIV
Hardcover
Published January 1, 1986
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Zondervan
1,676 books100 followersZondervan is an international Christian media and publishing company. Zondervan is a founding member of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA). They are a part of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc. and has multiple imprints including Zondervan Academic, Zonderkidz, Blink, and Editorial Vida. Zondervan is the commercial rights holder for the New International Version (NIV) Bible in North America.
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October 6, 2025
Given that its name means book in Latin, it’s easily ‘the book’ that Western Civilization rests on in terms of social engineering that structures faith, morality, government, commerce, and so many other aspects of Western behavior and beyond. That said, there are divergent contexts of meaning between the texts assembled in the council of Nicaea in 325 with the real life Santa Clause known as Saint Nicolas (Buried in Rome yet living in the hearts of many to fulfill Christmas deliveries in a memetic replication of his charity). Though there are many mysteries that deserve greater scrutiny in their metaphysical and cultural contexts to extract gems for the present and future, there are also issues that haven’t been resolved that exist as unconnected pieces through the text with some historical evidence. So this diatribe is a focus on eschatology or the end of an age, judgment, and the evolution of the human soul en masse from the Western perspective.
+Revelations
This is a heavy source of anxiety in the Abrahamic consciousness and although history does rhyme as a function of ignorance of the past, it’s important to match prophecy historical events and take into account that John the Revelator could have been on magic mushrooms (Long’s “Slouching Toward’s Utopia”) which can make for much more trippy Jungian revelations than normal dream prophecy of a Joseph or Daniel.
The latter gives very clear clues on who the final empire would be to conquer the Jews before the coming of the Messiah. His vision in Chapter 8 Gabriel clearly explains the vision of the male billy goat a the Macedonians/Greeks taking down the two horned (capitalized) Persians but later being split into four, (which is what happened to Alexander the Great’s empire - Greece, Egypt, Persia, India). Specific future names aren’t given but the theme is repeated with beasts in Chapter 7 (Babylon = Lion, Persia = Bear, Greece = Leopard, Rome = Iron-Fanged Beast). The theme is displayed prior in Nebicanezor’s dream of the statue (Babylon = Gold, Persia = Silver, Greece = Brass, Roman Republic = Iron, Clay = Shift to a Roman Empire and its slow decline and destruction). Rome is the focus of the Bible it should be clear how awkward and subversive the assemblage of this text would have been in a young church established in an Empire that was the the big bad of the whole narrative.
-The Julian Calendar - Julius Cesar was the the arguably the first to create Emperor role with it ‘god’ status becoming much clearer with Octavian and later “Augustus” (Anthony Everitt) deifying his predecessor. Julius did set up a decent solar (as opposed to the Hebrew lunar) calendar in correspondence with Daniel 7:25 and Julius and his successor changed much of Roman laws just by dictation. (note sept/seven, oct/eight, nov/nine, dec/ten and they are shifted by July and August).
-August and Coinage - as with the egragores of nation/empires as memetic units, the role of Antichrist is spread out across the Bible as a figure destroying aforementioned entities by dissolving unity (Yayway = God is One, the All, Allaha, Everything is Brahman, The Most High, etc) and the New Testament is kicked off by a census which drove Joseph and Mary to Inn under the puppet ruler Herod and his allegiance to Rome and the ‘god’ king over his faith. There is is an enlightening story in Sander van der Liden’s “Foolproof” about how Octavian used coinage as propaganda to win hearts and minds against Marc Antony (the fall out of the Triumvirate) along with xenophobia for the later adopting foreign (Cleyopatria’s polyomic {Alexander's General’s lineage} egyptian ways). The coinage as a mark for mostly illiterate citizens would be a binding conscious symbol in their hands and in the decisions they made within their foreheads (the prefrontal cortex) since it’d be tough to buy and sell without them and the coin referenced on page 86 is inscribed with his face and ‘divi filius’ or ‘son of the divine.’
-Caligula and the Abomination - He was probably the best case study of a worst case scenario in concentrating power in one man’s person. Although he gave the order to erect a statue for worship in the second temple (like the idolatrous golden calf or Nebuchadnezzar's statue which displays a lack of transcendent understanding of unity… like trying to drink the word water), he was assassinated before it could be placed. Pontius Pilate had fierce resistance with installing Roman standards in the temple and Herod had a Roman eagle on the main gate but it followed “Luke 21:20” instead. Many jew and christians suffered (with the latter as a target till Constantine),he Legions amassed as foretold, the people ran to the hills (Luke 21:21 - you can visit Masada… a massive hill top that the Roman only took out by building a massive earth ramp to the top), and the the temple was torn down and desecrated to fulfill that portion of the prophecy.
-The Lake of Fire and Nero - Using Gamatria (Jewish mystical numerology) Nero’s name calculates to 666 and it is generally accepted that he burnt Rome to the ground to build the Colossium and other works in a general disregard for the would that would later consume him and the slow rot of the the Empire or Dragon (a city on seven hills).
-Constantine - Revelations 1:7 has Christ coming in the clouds which aligns with Emperor Constantine’s vision of a cross of light with ‘in hoc signo vinces’ (in this sign you will conquer) and a later appearance of Christ in his dreams at the battle of Milvian Bridge in 312. He fitted his army on the outside with the emblem and later went about setting it on their insides (symbolically in a reversal of earlier events with the body as a temple). Rome was a brutal empire in spite of all it’s ‘romanticizing’ and a millennium time out after the collapse into tribal kingdoms seems fitting for moral growth despite setbacks in other areas of civilization (better source needed).
+Saulianity
If one were to attribute the Caesars and Rome to roles in the biblical narrative (with subtle mentions of the empire it was trying to conquer and reform) to that point then a role is still missing in terms of bridging the gap of the pure Gospel to something amenable to Rome. Saul of Tarsus has a linkage with most biblical heels and seems equivalent to a foot stool or shell of a seed that is later discarded (wheat and shaft). He’s a complex figure.
-Paul - His original name resonates with King Saul, a monarch that Sameul didn’t want the people to have and spoke of God being disappointed in a similar manner… relying on top down authority rather than direct knowledge or deliberation with judges like Samual. Saul is said to be possessed by an evil spirit that David is initially able to sooth but as David increases in renowned with God’s favor for his faith and council, Saul takes the opposite path, becomes more jealous, and tries to kill David multiple times while acting as if he loves him. Paul originally persecuted christians like his name sake did David but goes through a change later.
-Jude1:11 “Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.” As stated, Saul had already fulfilled Cain’s role in killing his fellow jews but the other pieces also highlight his journey. Balaam was a sorcerer for pay who received a commission to curse the jews as they traveled from Egypt. Just like Paul, his was stopped by an opposing angel (Hebrew derivative of satan or adversary) that would not allow his donkey, similar to Paul’s blockage on the road to Damascus. Balam wasn’t able to curse the Israelites and ended up blessing them instead, but was able to corrupt them slightly (Revelation 2:14 directed at the convoluted text in chapter 8 of 1st Corinthians). Korah went against Moses in the desert and tried to coopt the Jews but perished. The situation is physically reversed but Paul did take command of much of the movement as noted in Acts.
-Revelation 12:4 - The passage speaks of a ⅓ of the angels falling to the dragon. Saul was a Roman citizen which allowed him easy passage in the empire to proselytize (It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon). A third of the chapters of the new testament are his and Christ’s parables are moral compasses rather than strict laws like the commandments. Paul’s consciousness is like that before him in a programmatic way, food preparation, marriage, public health, etc it's the letter of the law thinking so choice isn’t needed and man can be a machine. Alchemically this is like the waters or the flow of time with set and rigid procedure to follow (and a mountain of rules that build up over time). Metaphorically this baptism can lead to a better social engineering in setting up patterns and routines but it’s robotic if a last step. Thus the Holy Spirit or Alchemical Air (the realm of angels) can act on a higher level via quantum mechanics in that these scaffolding patterns can be observed and understood. Judah Pearl “Book of Why” gives an example of David being the first scientist in allowing the Babylonian ‘seers’ to eat as they like and he and his jewish seers will follow their own diet and see what the result is between the control and experimental group.
Both could be seen as different temporal patterns as time in a bottle and the air/spirit/choice is the selection one (though each would branch to create more differentiated patterns with more choice and Chinese alchemy has this permutation of reality as Wood instead). Ergo, the parables acting as moral weighing of options for a ‘spirit of the law’ sometimes fall back into rigid legalistic frameworks with those third.
-Wineskins - Christ warns about the Pharisees (Parapsychologists would label them as ‘sheep’ in terms or belief in the unseen with Sadusiees as goat with none of the woo woo) with parables about expansion and the dangers of an old ridged, legalistic belief system not being hold it with both belief (wine) and belief system (wine skins) being ruined and destroying faith (“Mathew 9:17”). If you look at the ‘red text’ it’s alchemical air can be reapplied to new situation and display equivalent ways of achieving goals by different means to be inclusive of multiple interlocking agents and systems (ability to be ‘wholey’ or holy and give understanding to generalized failures as well as success for better interpretations). Legalistic rules from the BC era could have worked reasonably well for most people with specific focus on traditional families which are the bedrock of social engineering in childhood development. Certain aspects might not change across generations in terms of human relations and the challenges of raising children, integrating them into a society, keeping the parents together, and repeating the process. However, having strict laws verse meaning behind the law can leave societies open to cultural death if body of law is ‘all or nothing’ and believers can end up converting to a new framework that satisfies more relevant expanded needs (along with some of the old) or lose faith in the whole idea of such frameworks. Modernity suffers this due to Copernicous (no longer the center of the universe), Darwin (the idolatrous version of Genesis though literal clay is somehow a better backstory than apes with a long chain back to clay despite it being metaphysical), and Freud (altering psychology {greek for study of the soul/mind} into a clinical setting and out of a theocratic one) as outlined in Stephen Michell’s “Can Love Last.” Some of that could go on the Catholic Church in bolting on Aristotle’s philosophy as a total belief system (despite contributing much to update it later on), this would be an example of the wineskins bursting with new data. Neither Paul nor Aristotle were Christ and yet the eventual failures of their proclamations come back to weaken Christianity despite the warning.
Yeast - Christ warns about the Pharisees as yeast raising/leavening the bread (Mathew 16:6). It’s a mirror problem as some of Aristotle’s or Paul’s teaching would have been state of the art for the consciousness of the time and still hold value despite not being able to contain a holistic and true narrative. That said, it’s also easy to use such a belief platform to through in whatever is desired given the authority of the teacher (best case in term of the student maturing to make their own way to truth and helping another) or leader (most probably always going to be on top and benefiting from a dependant and disempowered follower base). So Paul’s best and worst quotes make it into the same standings as Christ. The result can be the same in diminishing faith with faulty outcomes due to bad teachings that don’t really need to be addendum in or could be separate.
1st Corinthians 5:3-5: “For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this. So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.” It’s a case of incest and under current understandings, such behavior has high risk of genetic defects as well as detriments to developmental psychology which defineds harm to the individuals and potential progeny. But it’s right to the death penalty and Paul self-righteously stands in the place of Christ and makes up a decree on the spot and works with the ‘adversary.’ It’s complete escalation, no forgiveness, and judgment (not lest ye be judged)... It doesn’t fit with the Gospel theme.
John 8:44 “You are of your father the devil, for he was a murder from the beginning.” Being human is difficult and Pharaoh falls under the god king archetype with Moses seeking to free his people and elevate their consciousness with better social engineering. That said he did begin his journey by killing an Egyptian who was abusing a jew, popularized an ‘eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth,’ had many of his fellow jews killed for disobeying, gave God the perception of ‘Old Testament" fire and brimstone, and was denied the promise land because God say him lose his temper and curse while asking for water to come out of a rock. He believed and that was a step up from Pharaoh, the Jews were highly unruly (they engineered towns for murderers to flee to prevent escalation), and the whole culture had to be engineered from scratch with constant kvetching and rule coming made up on the fly to correct issues. I would not want to switch places with Moses and it’d be a miracle to do better given the state of society made of former slaves. That said, the whole point of the end of that world (Rome had similar tough love logic with mass crucifixions or gladiators/feeding people to beasts in the colosseum), it was a pretty low bar for morality in the prior age. Jesus was a Jew as well but some of Moses’s teachings are not good long term social engineering and his punishment was symbolic of that. As a be all and end all role model holy wizard, he’d have some bad habits that wouldn’t be desirable as a role model despite playing a critical role in humanities progress. Paul is a good example of that as he goes right back to Moses in pretending to be Christ with ‘off with their heads’ pseudo justice.
-1 Corinthians 7:7] “I wish all men were as I am.”
-1 Corinthians 4:15-16] “Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me”
-1 Corinthians 15: 9] “For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”
-Isaiah 14:12- 14 ”How you have fallen from heaven, O day star, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the ground, O destroyer of nations. You said in your heart: “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of assembly, in the far reaches of the north. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”
-Most of Paul’s language reminds me of the jagged teeth of a saw or crocodile switching back and force. The ego with humility zig zag is telling in being the least but working the hardest, claiming authority for the church, and the ‘I am what I am” being similar to God’s quote to Moses on his self definition. Logically, any part is a piece of the whole or All or it would not logically be the All and Paul played a value role, but so much of his additional message is emblematic of issues woven into what is known as Christianity and what list would be complete without the the embodiment of pride.
-1st John 4:3 - “And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God; and such is the spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come, and even now already it is in the world.” This one is more speculative in interpretation as Saul didn’t meet Christ in the flesh first like the Apostles and it’s his word on the road to Damascus. But the main point is the threat is contemporary to the Apostles.
Galatians 4:21–31 - Before Islam even began, Paul already has a fissure drawn between Issac (representing the Jews and eventually Christ) and Ishmael with a call to get rid of the Arabs by disposing of the slave woman Hagar. Jeramiah states throughout his book that destruction comes because the slaves were not released (slavery as an extreme because the slaves were not released (slavery as an extreme acculturation process with freedom at maturity as opposed to becoming property) and the Quran explicitly states that the Torah and Gospel (excluding Paul’s works) are cannon in the faith. Why there isn’t more unity between the Abrahamic faiths is anyone’s guess but here again Paul creates unnecessary issues.
Ephesians 2:2 and Mark 3:29 - again, unnecessary confusion with karma vs dharma.
Jeffersonian Bible - The USA was founded by Deists like the Freemasons or Rosicrucians like Thomas Jefferson whose bible was essentially just the red text. They weren’t perfect and I don’t claim to be either (the energy or Alchemical Fire of emotion overrides my better choices more than I’d like to admit) but that’s the point of Christ or the Avatar as a gilding star to be one nation 'under' God.
+Revelations
This is a heavy source of anxiety in the Abrahamic consciousness and although history does rhyme as a function of ignorance of the past, it’s important to match prophecy historical events and take into account that John the Revelator could have been on magic mushrooms (Long’s “Slouching Toward’s Utopia”) which can make for much more trippy Jungian revelations than normal dream prophecy of a Joseph or Daniel.
The latter gives very clear clues on who the final empire would be to conquer the Jews before the coming of the Messiah. His vision in Chapter 8 Gabriel clearly explains the vision of the male billy goat a the Macedonians/Greeks taking down the two horned (capitalized) Persians but later being split into four, (which is what happened to Alexander the Great’s empire - Greece, Egypt, Persia, India). Specific future names aren’t given but the theme is repeated with beasts in Chapter 7 (Babylon = Lion, Persia = Bear, Greece = Leopard, Rome = Iron-Fanged Beast). The theme is displayed prior in Nebicanezor’s dream of the statue (Babylon = Gold, Persia = Silver, Greece = Brass, Roman Republic = Iron, Clay = Shift to a Roman Empire and its slow decline and destruction). Rome is the focus of the Bible it should be clear how awkward and subversive the assemblage of this text would have been in a young church established in an Empire that was the the big bad of the whole narrative.
-The Julian Calendar - Julius Cesar was the the arguably the first to create Emperor role with it ‘god’ status becoming much clearer with Octavian and later “Augustus” (Anthony Everitt) deifying his predecessor. Julius did set up a decent solar (as opposed to the Hebrew lunar) calendar in correspondence with Daniel 7:25 and Julius and his successor changed much of Roman laws just by dictation. (note sept/seven, oct/eight, nov/nine, dec/ten and they are shifted by July and August).
-August and Coinage - as with the egragores of nation/empires as memetic units, the role of Antichrist is spread out across the Bible as a figure destroying aforementioned entities by dissolving unity (Yayway = God is One, the All, Allaha, Everything is Brahman, The Most High, etc) and the New Testament is kicked off by a census which drove Joseph and Mary to Inn under the puppet ruler Herod and his allegiance to Rome and the ‘god’ king over his faith. There is is an enlightening story in Sander van der Liden’s “Foolproof” about how Octavian used coinage as propaganda to win hearts and minds against Marc Antony (the fall out of the Triumvirate) along with xenophobia for the later adopting foreign (Cleyopatria’s polyomic {Alexander's General’s lineage} egyptian ways). The coinage as a mark for mostly illiterate citizens would be a binding conscious symbol in their hands and in the decisions they made within their foreheads (the prefrontal cortex) since it’d be tough to buy and sell without them and the coin referenced on page 86 is inscribed with his face and ‘divi filius’ or ‘son of the divine.’
-Caligula and the Abomination - He was probably the best case study of a worst case scenario in concentrating power in one man’s person. Although he gave the order to erect a statue for worship in the second temple (like the idolatrous golden calf or Nebuchadnezzar's statue which displays a lack of transcendent understanding of unity… like trying to drink the word water), he was assassinated before it could be placed. Pontius Pilate had fierce resistance with installing Roman standards in the temple and Herod had a Roman eagle on the main gate but it followed “Luke 21:20” instead. Many jew and christians suffered (with the latter as a target till Constantine),he Legions amassed as foretold, the people ran to the hills (Luke 21:21 - you can visit Masada… a massive hill top that the Roman only took out by building a massive earth ramp to the top), and the the temple was torn down and desecrated to fulfill that portion of the prophecy.
-The Lake of Fire and Nero - Using Gamatria (Jewish mystical numerology) Nero’s name calculates to 666 and it is generally accepted that he burnt Rome to the ground to build the Colossium and other works in a general disregard for the would that would later consume him and the slow rot of the the Empire or Dragon (a city on seven hills).
-Constantine - Revelations 1:7 has Christ coming in the clouds which aligns with Emperor Constantine’s vision of a cross of light with ‘in hoc signo vinces’ (in this sign you will conquer) and a later appearance of Christ in his dreams at the battle of Milvian Bridge in 312. He fitted his army on the outside with the emblem and later went about setting it on their insides (symbolically in a reversal of earlier events with the body as a temple). Rome was a brutal empire in spite of all it’s ‘romanticizing’ and a millennium time out after the collapse into tribal kingdoms seems fitting for moral growth despite setbacks in other areas of civilization (better source needed).
+Saulianity
If one were to attribute the Caesars and Rome to roles in the biblical narrative (with subtle mentions of the empire it was trying to conquer and reform) to that point then a role is still missing in terms of bridging the gap of the pure Gospel to something amenable to Rome. Saul of Tarsus has a linkage with most biblical heels and seems equivalent to a foot stool or shell of a seed that is later discarded (wheat and shaft). He’s a complex figure.
-Paul - His original name resonates with King Saul, a monarch that Sameul didn’t want the people to have and spoke of God being disappointed in a similar manner… relying on top down authority rather than direct knowledge or deliberation with judges like Samual. Saul is said to be possessed by an evil spirit that David is initially able to sooth but as David increases in renowned with God’s favor for his faith and council, Saul takes the opposite path, becomes more jealous, and tries to kill David multiple times while acting as if he loves him. Paul originally persecuted christians like his name sake did David but goes through a change later.
-Jude1:11 “Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.” As stated, Saul had already fulfilled Cain’s role in killing his fellow jews but the other pieces also highlight his journey. Balaam was a sorcerer for pay who received a commission to curse the jews as they traveled from Egypt. Just like Paul, his was stopped by an opposing angel (Hebrew derivative of satan or adversary) that would not allow his donkey, similar to Paul’s blockage on the road to Damascus. Balam wasn’t able to curse the Israelites and ended up blessing them instead, but was able to corrupt them slightly (Revelation 2:14 directed at the convoluted text in chapter 8 of 1st Corinthians). Korah went against Moses in the desert and tried to coopt the Jews but perished. The situation is physically reversed but Paul did take command of much of the movement as noted in Acts.
-Revelation 12:4 - The passage speaks of a ⅓ of the angels falling to the dragon. Saul was a Roman citizen which allowed him easy passage in the empire to proselytize (It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon). A third of the chapters of the new testament are his and Christ’s parables are moral compasses rather than strict laws like the commandments. Paul’s consciousness is like that before him in a programmatic way, food preparation, marriage, public health, etc it's the letter of the law thinking so choice isn’t needed and man can be a machine. Alchemically this is like the waters or the flow of time with set and rigid procedure to follow (and a mountain of rules that build up over time). Metaphorically this baptism can lead to a better social engineering in setting up patterns and routines but it’s robotic if a last step. Thus the Holy Spirit or Alchemical Air (the realm of angels) can act on a higher level via quantum mechanics in that these scaffolding patterns can be observed and understood. Judah Pearl “Book of Why” gives an example of David being the first scientist in allowing the Babylonian ‘seers’ to eat as they like and he and his jewish seers will follow their own diet and see what the result is between the control and experimental group.
Both could be seen as different temporal patterns as time in a bottle and the air/spirit/choice is the selection one (though each would branch to create more differentiated patterns with more choice and Chinese alchemy has this permutation of reality as Wood instead). Ergo, the parables acting as moral weighing of options for a ‘spirit of the law’ sometimes fall back into rigid legalistic frameworks with those third.
-Wineskins - Christ warns about the Pharisees (Parapsychologists would label them as ‘sheep’ in terms or belief in the unseen with Sadusiees as goat with none of the woo woo) with parables about expansion and the dangers of an old ridged, legalistic belief system not being hold it with both belief (wine) and belief system (wine skins) being ruined and destroying faith (“Mathew 9:17”). If you look at the ‘red text’ it’s alchemical air can be reapplied to new situation and display equivalent ways of achieving goals by different means to be inclusive of multiple interlocking agents and systems (ability to be ‘wholey’ or holy and give understanding to generalized failures as well as success for better interpretations). Legalistic rules from the BC era could have worked reasonably well for most people with specific focus on traditional families which are the bedrock of social engineering in childhood development. Certain aspects might not change across generations in terms of human relations and the challenges of raising children, integrating them into a society, keeping the parents together, and repeating the process. However, having strict laws verse meaning behind the law can leave societies open to cultural death if body of law is ‘all or nothing’ and believers can end up converting to a new framework that satisfies more relevant expanded needs (along with some of the old) or lose faith in the whole idea of such frameworks. Modernity suffers this due to Copernicous (no longer the center of the universe), Darwin (the idolatrous version of Genesis though literal clay is somehow a better backstory than apes with a long chain back to clay despite it being metaphysical), and Freud (altering psychology {greek for study of the soul/mind} into a clinical setting and out of a theocratic one) as outlined in Stephen Michell’s “Can Love Last.” Some of that could go on the Catholic Church in bolting on Aristotle’s philosophy as a total belief system (despite contributing much to update it later on), this would be an example of the wineskins bursting with new data. Neither Paul nor Aristotle were Christ and yet the eventual failures of their proclamations come back to weaken Christianity despite the warning.
Yeast - Christ warns about the Pharisees as yeast raising/leavening the bread (Mathew 16:6). It’s a mirror problem as some of Aristotle’s or Paul’s teaching would have been state of the art for the consciousness of the time and still hold value despite not being able to contain a holistic and true narrative. That said, it’s also easy to use such a belief platform to through in whatever is desired given the authority of the teacher (best case in term of the student maturing to make their own way to truth and helping another) or leader (most probably always going to be on top and benefiting from a dependant and disempowered follower base). So Paul’s best and worst quotes make it into the same standings as Christ. The result can be the same in diminishing faith with faulty outcomes due to bad teachings that don’t really need to be addendum in or could be separate.
1st Corinthians 5:3-5: “For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this. So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.” It’s a case of incest and under current understandings, such behavior has high risk of genetic defects as well as detriments to developmental psychology which defineds harm to the individuals and potential progeny. But it’s right to the death penalty and Paul self-righteously stands in the place of Christ and makes up a decree on the spot and works with the ‘adversary.’ It’s complete escalation, no forgiveness, and judgment (not lest ye be judged)... It doesn’t fit with the Gospel theme.
John 8:44 “You are of your father the devil, for he was a murder from the beginning.” Being human is difficult and Pharaoh falls under the god king archetype with Moses seeking to free his people and elevate their consciousness with better social engineering. That said he did begin his journey by killing an Egyptian who was abusing a jew, popularized an ‘eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth,’ had many of his fellow jews killed for disobeying, gave God the perception of ‘Old Testament" fire and brimstone, and was denied the promise land because God say him lose his temper and curse while asking for water to come out of a rock. He believed and that was a step up from Pharaoh, the Jews were highly unruly (they engineered towns for murderers to flee to prevent escalation), and the whole culture had to be engineered from scratch with constant kvetching and rule coming made up on the fly to correct issues. I would not want to switch places with Moses and it’d be a miracle to do better given the state of society made of former slaves. That said, the whole point of the end of that world (Rome had similar tough love logic with mass crucifixions or gladiators/feeding people to beasts in the colosseum), it was a pretty low bar for morality in the prior age. Jesus was a Jew as well but some of Moses’s teachings are not good long term social engineering and his punishment was symbolic of that. As a be all and end all role model holy wizard, he’d have some bad habits that wouldn’t be desirable as a role model despite playing a critical role in humanities progress. Paul is a good example of that as he goes right back to Moses in pretending to be Christ with ‘off with their heads’ pseudo justice.
-1 Corinthians 7:7] “I wish all men were as I am.”
-1 Corinthians 4:15-16] “Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me”
-1 Corinthians 15: 9] “For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”
-Isaiah 14:12- 14 ”How you have fallen from heaven, O day star, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the ground, O destroyer of nations. You said in your heart: “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of assembly, in the far reaches of the north. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”
-Most of Paul’s language reminds me of the jagged teeth of a saw or crocodile switching back and force. The ego with humility zig zag is telling in being the least but working the hardest, claiming authority for the church, and the ‘I am what I am” being similar to God’s quote to Moses on his self definition. Logically, any part is a piece of the whole or All or it would not logically be the All and Paul played a value role, but so much of his additional message is emblematic of issues woven into what is known as Christianity and what list would be complete without the the embodiment of pride.
-1st John 4:3 - “And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God; and such is the spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come, and even now already it is in the world.” This one is more speculative in interpretation as Saul didn’t meet Christ in the flesh first like the Apostles and it’s his word on the road to Damascus. But the main point is the threat is contemporary to the Apostles.
Galatians 4:21–31 - Before Islam even began, Paul already has a fissure drawn between Issac (representing the Jews and eventually Christ) and Ishmael with a call to get rid of the Arabs by disposing of the slave woman Hagar. Jeramiah states throughout his book that destruction comes because the slaves were not released (slavery as an extreme because the slaves were not released (slavery as an extreme acculturation process with freedom at maturity as opposed to becoming property) and the Quran explicitly states that the Torah and Gospel (excluding Paul’s works) are cannon in the faith. Why there isn’t more unity between the Abrahamic faiths is anyone’s guess but here again Paul creates unnecessary issues.
Ephesians 2:2 and Mark 3:29 - again, unnecessary confusion with karma vs dharma.
Jeffersonian Bible - The USA was founded by Deists like the Freemasons or Rosicrucians like Thomas Jefferson whose bible was essentially just the red text. They weren’t perfect and I don’t claim to be either (the energy or Alchemical Fire of emotion overrides my better choices more than I’d like to admit) but that’s the point of Christ or the Avatar as a gilding star to be one nation 'under' God.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 29, 2023
This isn't the edition of the NIV that I just completed. It was an online, Bible-only, no commentary version through the Bible App, which I read with the Bible Recap.
I think we have this version of the NIV somewhere about, so I'll choose it for my entry.
I have qualms about reviewing the Bible because it is more likely to review me!
"For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." -Hebrews 4:12
There is a great deal of comfort and guidance in the Bible:
"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. " -2 Timothy 3:16-17 NIV
If you believe, you are a servant of God whether or not you have a pulpit, and it is best to be prepared - equiped.
But most importantly,
" ... you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus."
2 Timothy 3:15 NIV
They are able to make you wise about salvation.
I have read through the Bible before, but not within a year. It generally takes me longer. This was from May to May.
Rating the NIV as a translation is outside my qualifications, but I do like this chart putting the translations on a spectrum from word for word at one end of the spectrum to complete paraphrase (and therefore most inaccurate) on the other. There are, of course, other considerations, like readability and the reader's prior knowledge of scripture.
I like that this has several charts to explain differences, with examples, and comments.
https://www.apbrown2.net/web/Translat...
I think we have this version of the NIV somewhere about, so I'll choose it for my entry.
I have qualms about reviewing the Bible because it is more likely to review me!
"For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." -Hebrews 4:12
There is a great deal of comfort and guidance in the Bible:
"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. " -2 Timothy 3:16-17 NIV
If you believe, you are a servant of God whether or not you have a pulpit, and it is best to be prepared - equiped.
But most importantly,
" ... you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus."
2 Timothy 3:15 NIV
They are able to make you wise about salvation.
I have read through the Bible before, but not within a year. It generally takes me longer. This was from May to May.
Rating the NIV as a translation is outside my qualifications, but I do like this chart putting the translations on a spectrum from word for word at one end of the spectrum to complete paraphrase (and therefore most inaccurate) on the other. There are, of course, other considerations, like readability and the reader's prior knowledge of scripture.
I like that this has several charts to explain differences, with examples, and comments.
https://www.apbrown2.net/web/Translat...
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