Confusing Verses One

some people seem to be confusing and collating 2 separate verses to support their "JESUS IS THE ONLY WAY" interpretation of scriptures.

What Jesus actually said in John 3:16 is

"So (much)  for loved God the world that the son the one-begotten he gave,
that all each one ? who believe in him should not perish  but have / receive life eternal.

Monogenee gets translated as only but the actual meaning is broader.

Monos first one single person or item genee begotten born

Sole born son could also work as a translation?

Note that its jesus who is the only son.

He may have stated elsewhere he is the way  but never that he is the ONLY way?

Now John 14:1 Jesus says believe in the father and in me believe

He does say in 14:6 No one comes to the father IF NOT by me.

Not expect or unless but IF NOT BY ME

Be mindful here he is addressing his disciples.

These two verses seem to get collated and (fused) by a certain kind of Christian.

Now please go and read Romans 2:12 - 16.

Stop worrying about how many souls are being converted and be doers of the word.

The word ONLY is not a common word but rather a rare one in the New Testament!

ERRETHEE

Matthew 5:21 includes an aorist passive from of said.

Rather than just use the aorist it uses ἐρρήθη

“You have heard that it was said (by) the ancients,”

Not merely it was or is said.

But how can ἐρρήθη be the aorist passive form of λεγω?

Originally judging from Epic and Ionic forms the verb to say speak or ask was * ἔρομαι with a stem of * ero cognate with Latin (v)erbum.

That explains partly the er but why erre. Greek uses reduplication and not just in the perfect.

Greek also uses metathesis.

Plus sometimes the present tense of a verb gets replaced by another verb.

Finally the reduplication and reversal of the stem also reduces possible confusion with similar verbs with an ree stem in the aorist like rhiptoo and p(h)eoo. And r(h)gnumi.

Well those are some of the reasons. Its just proof of Heraclitus' famous saying: 

Panta rheei Everything flows! Maybe? 

Matthew 5 verses 21 to 26 on Anger

My thoughts and observations on the #gospel and #whatjesussaid 

Matthew 5: 21 to 26 

#Jesus speaks about Anger.

“You have heard that it was said by the ancients, 'You will not kill' …

Note the aorist passive errethee! (see next post) 

Whoever kills will be liable to judgement.

But Jesus expands and links this to anger.

"But I say to you that all who are angry with their brother are liable etc"

Liable is perhaps too weak a word. The greek derives from a compound verb with a subtext of strong necessity of something that has to be done.

Note the use of the middle ὀργιζόμενος.

This is passionate anger not mere annoyment or irritation!

Jesus then compares a secular court to other types of judgement.

He also points out paying a fine or making a ritual offering is not enough.

He calls on people to make peace with those they are angry with regardless of whoever started the dispute. Anger is a sin and ritual is not the answer.

You have to pay the penalty be it a fine or a prison sentence or an apology but you have to pay so it is far better to make and keep peace with person you offended.

Perhaps because anger kills your own soul too?

Some notes on the Aorist Passive

Some notes on the Aorist passive

1)   THETA MARKER

2) the theta is an Aspirated sound  t h not a fricatve which is why

3) the ending of a stem changes as well as the theta being added

so you get kh+ th

4) Because its aorist you will also get METATHESIS of a stem
such as BAL > BLEE

5) Why use passive?

Consider these statements.

The Greeks defeated the Persians by using strategy.

The Persians were defeated by the Greeks using strategy.

Passive allows word changes.

Very useful for rhetoric making use of sound effects to convey emotion and fact and poetry based on metre and syllable length.

Oh if you're planning to see the latest 300 movie please go and reread or read for the first time Aeschylus' description of the naval battle at Salamis or read Herodotus?

Snake goddess / priestess

For IWD earlier this week I shared a Russian Icon  depicting Holy Wisdom

Now here's my interpretation of a different sort of icon.

Scholars still debate over whether this is a goddess or a priestess.

If you share this with others please mention the source or include a link?

Holy Wisdom and Winged Gods

The orthodox church has an interesting iconography for Holy Wisdom showing her as a winged woman. However before I show you a couple of icons I want you to consider this: where do the images of angles as winged humanoids derive from?

Yes near eastern art was one source but I wonder if another was early Christian artists seeing images in Greek and Roman art of winged deities like Iris or Eros?

Here's Eros in flight

and here's Thanatos Death with wings

Finally Iris messenger of the gods

Now Holy Wisdom 

Remember the first missionaries to pagan KIEV were GREEK Orthodox from Byzantium.

The Sinai Madonna

For #iwd as well as my usual goddesses I thought I'ld share some early Christian and Byzantine art. There are plenty of images of Mary Queen of Heaven and Mary as Mother of Sorrows but how they are related to earlier images of Hera and Isis has been thoroughly discussed by others.

I have picked the Sinai Madonna a 6th century AD image because

a ) Mary as Theotokos

b ) I liked the expression of concern

c) she'd not the queen of heaven adorned with jewellery

this is a mother who's aware she was a very special child!

d) images like this remind us Greek art isnt all marble  statue or hyper detailed realism.

it perhaps derives its style not from the painter being a simple monk but from a folk art tradition that survived in Christian icons?

You might want to compare this to Coptic encaustic painting ?