Tahariri yenye Taharuri
JF-Expert Member
- Dec 23, 2017
- 416
- 499
Hamna lolote, upagani mamboleo
Tuamke, tuwaamshe mizimu wetu, katika nyakati za hatari watusaidie
Tuamke, tuwaamshe mizimu wetu, katika nyakati za hatari watusaidie
- Thread starter Fatima binti hemedi
- Start date
Tahariri yenye Taharuri
JF-Expert Member
- Dec 23, 2017
- 416
- 499
Did Saint Paul, native of Tarsus and Roman citizen as he claimed, really make the journeys ascribed to him – or are they just a frame upon which to hang his seminal epistles? Did this erstwhile Rabbi Saul, student of Gamaliel and Pharisaic Jew, really sally forth over sea and mountain – or could the story of his travels have been concocted precisely to framework missives of orthodoxy aimed at recalcitrant synagogues of the Jewish diaspora? A century of archaeology appears to confirm a few circumstantial details mentioned in his letters and yet the biblical account gives one cause to wonder.
On the Island of Love
What better way to begin the mythology of Christian triumph in the Gentile world than a spectacular conversion? For Paul's first adventure on the missionary path the chosen venue was Cyprus, a strategically placed island ruled by the Ptolemies of Egypt until annexed by Rome in 58 BC. Many of the vast number of rock-cut tombs on the island follow the peristyle fashion of Egypt. Mark Antony gave the island to Cleopatra as a wedding gift but it was restored as a Roman province after the Battle of Actium (31 BC).
Economically prized for its copper mines (half of which were awarded to Herod the Great by Augustus), in 22 BC the island became a senatorial province, under the rule of a propraetor (although granted the honorary rank of proconsul). Aside from a severe earthquake in 77 AD and a violent Jewish insurrection in 115/6, the peaceful, prosperous island barely figured in Roman histories.
But it seems that Paul's co-worker, Barnabas, was a Jew from Cyprus, so what better place to start the grand missionary tour than Barney's homeland? (Well, actually, a more obvious choice would have been the cities of the Decapolis – thoroughly Gentile and far more accessible). Paul's first journey, so it is said, began about the year 46 AD, after the apostle had passed more than 10 years in retirement at Tarsus, performing no evident work for the Lord or even maintaining contact with the brethren. Yet Paul is chosen by the church in Antioch (or rather, by the Holy Spirit) to carry the good news to Cyprus and Asia Minor. (Not that he was really the first – Acts 11.19 tells of unnamed "scattered" brethren already there, preaching to the "Jews alone". The aside is very important, as we will see).
After a stopover at Salamis the apostles "go through" the island (the cities of Citium, Amathus and Curium don't get a mention) and make straight for the Governor in Paphos, who conveniently has sent word that he wants to hear them. (Why, one wonders? Did they cause such a commotion at the other end of the island? And if so why do we not know of it?) All it takes is the spiteful blinding of a rival magician (curiously named "Bar Jesus") and Sergius Paulus, Roman aristocrat and doubtless the richest, as well as the most powerful, man on the island, is enrolled among the ranks of the Christians. "By tradition" Cyprus becomes the first country governed by a Christian, though oddly we never hear of Sergius again, and nor is there any evidence of early Christianity on the island. Hereafter, Rabbi Saul is known by his latin name Paulus (which just happens to be the name of the Governor).
One good yarn deserves another
Not only was Paul a soar away success with proconsul Sergius – he also got given a thrashing by him! Sounds a little contradictory? Well, it is another "Church tradition" so all things are possible. But for this yarn, remarkably, there is physical evidence – a remnant of the very column about which Paul was whipped! Apparently, the faithful can reconcile the two ideas by insisting Paul first was thrashed by and then converted the governor to Christianity (it will only take you a moment to dream up the movie script – speak to Mel Gibson).
The miraculous upshot of all this is that a stump of marble selected at random in modern times provides "proof" for the missionary activity of Paul and, ipso facto, "evidence for Jesus." If you can believe this, you probably believed there were WMDs in Iraq and your government would not lie to you.
If it makes you happier, you can believe that St Paul was "scourged 39 times" against this innocuous stump of a pillar before converting his tormentor Sergius Paulus.
Rather more acceptable evidence (of Sergius Paulus, that is, not St Paul) is an engraved stone found at the site of ancient Soli (Kyrenia) in northern Cyprus, at the end of the 19th century.
About the same time, a boundary stone was found in Rome from the reign of Emperor Claudius (41-54) recording the name of a Sergius Paulus appointed a curator "of the banks and the channel of the River Tiber." Was it the same man? Paul's "epistle to the Romans" fails to greet him, which suggests it was not.
Reality Check
"Paul's first missionary journey under the auspices of Antioch is narrated only by Luke ... A close analysis of this account brings to light so many improbabilities that it becomesimpossible to accord it any real confidence."
– Murphy O'Connor, Paul, His Story, p44.
In reality, the Cyprian story falls apart for a number of reasons, not least because the Governor's palace, even today, is a visible celebration of a vibrant paganism, spanning centuries of Roman occupation. The huge palace complex, measuring 120 x 90 metres, includes the normal panoply of public and state rooms, gardens and bath houses. Exquisite mosaic floors feature the major Roman-Hellenic gods – and all without a Christian icon in sight! Ancient Paphos had its theatre, agora and evenAsklepion, the shrine-cum-hospital of the ever-popular healing god Asclepius, until his overthrow by Jesus. We might also reasonably suspect a fraudster's work because of a curious similarity (yet again) between the work of "Luke" (the purported author of Acts) and the history of Josephus written in the 90s.
Aerial view of the proconsul's residence, Paphos.
Did Paul make it past the front door?
Where did they get their ideas from?
Josephus (Antiquities 20.7.2) Acts 13, 4-8
'Jewish Cypriot magician, pal of Roman governor, works a dirty deed.' 'Jewish Cypriot magician, pal of Roman governor, attempts to work a dirty deed.'
"While Felix was procurator of Judea, he saw this Drusilla, and fell in love with her; ... He sent to her a person whose name was Simon*,one of his friends; a Jew he was, and by birth a Cypriot, and one who pretended to be a magician, and endeavoured to persuade her to forsake her present husband, and marry him."
"... They sailed to Cyprus ... And when they had gone through the isle unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-Jesus: Which was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man; who called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear the word of God. But Elymas* the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith."
* But according to some manuscripts the name given by Josephus is "Atomos", itself possibly a corruption of Hetoimos (Elymas?) or a Greek word for small (as indeed is Paulus in Latin). In no way is Elymas a translation or even an equivalent of Bar-Jesus.
Not to waste a useful bit of story, Felix and his "adulterous" bride Drusilla show up later in Acts – when Paul, it seems, gave them a dressing down!
"And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee." (Acts 24.24,25)
Acts 13, 9-12
By a malicious act of cruelty, St Paul blinds his rival – and so impresses the governor that he immediately becomes a Christian.
Our noble St Paul sets the tone for two thousand years of vicious curses. The author of Acts continues his demonising of "the Jews".
The colourful spell is composed of words and phrases drawn from the Septuagint (the Greek translation of Jewish scripture).
"Then Saul, (who also is called Paul,) filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him, and said,
O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season.
And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand. Then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord."
Facing down the "children of the devil"
"Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me."
– Timothy 3.11
Rather than capitalise on the conversion of a rich and powerful acolyte in Cyprus, Saul-now-Paul sails off to Pisidia for far tougher challenges. Reaching the city of Pisidian Antioch (modern Yalvac) high in the Taurus Mountains, Paul delivers in the local synagogue "part two" of Stephen's address of Acts 7 (together, the two sermons neatly summarize Jewish history from Abraham through to John the Baptist). Like Stephen, Paul finishes his lecture by insulting his Jewish audience ("Behold, you despisers, and wonder, and perish!"– Acts 13.41) . On the next Sabbath "almost the whole city" come to hear the charismatic provocateur and "the Jews envied" Paul's pulling power.
We thus reach a crucial point in the whole Christian saga: "We turn to the Gentiles", says Paul.
"It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first, but since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we now turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord commanded us, I have set thee for a light to the Gentiles, to be a means of salvation to the very ends of the earth."
– Acts 13, 46,47.
The Jews of Antioch, after all, had had a whole week (Acts 13.44) to abandon their ancestral faith and join Paul's new sect, even if they were not treated to the spectacle of an instant blinding like our dear friend Sergius Paulus!
Pisidian Antioch.Settled with Roman veterans by Augustus in 25 BC, the city covered 14 sq. km. and had a population of perhaps a 100,000 in the 1st century AD.
Could Paul really have competed with the theatre, stadium, taverns and baths? The distortion lens of Christian belief encourages the silly notion that the apostle passed through the city like a whirlwind, overturning pagan cults and Jewish synagogue alike.
Not unexpectedly, "the Jews" had Paul and Barnabas expelled from the city. None abashed, our intrepid heroes dust themselves off and journey a hundred miles further east to the city of Iconium (modern Konya). Here the drama repeats itself (although the apostles supposedly "abode a long time" in the city). They speak "boldly" in the synagogue, divide the whole city into "believers" versus "the Jews", and precipitate threats of a stoning. Paul and Barnabas now flee south and east to Lystra(Hatunsaray) and Derbe (Kerti Hüyük).
In Lystra, a pronouncement from Paul allows a lame man to walk (the trick closely parallels Peter's healing in Acts 3). The miracle causes the locals to declare Paul to be the god Hermes, and Barnabas, oddly, to be the king of the gods, Zeus.
As it happens, the visit of Zeus and Hermes to Phrygia is to be found in Ovid's 1st century anthology of myths "Metamorphoses" but surely "Luke" didn't copy the idea?
The adulation of the apostles is short-lived, however, because Paul launches a diatribe against an imminent sacrifice to the very god Barnabas is thought to be.
The people, now stirred up "by Jews" from far off Antioch and Iconium (do they just happen to be there or have they followed the apostles for 150 miles?) stone Paul and dump his "dead" body outside the city (Acts 14.19). However, miraculously he "rose up" and returns to Lystra. By the standards of Paphos, this wondrous working of the Holy Spirit should have converted the entire city, if not the whole of Lycaonia. Yet instead of dazzling the multitude with his recovery (or is it a resurrection?), the very next day the dynamic duo make off to Derbe, a further 50 miles southeast. (They are now less than 200 miles from Paul's home town of Tarsus).
A real life stoning. What would you say were the chances of survival?
In Derbe the apostles "preached, taught and exhorted" many. They then retrace their steps through the hostile towns of Lystra, Iconium, Antioch, evangelise Perge (ignored first time round), and ordain elders "in every church" (Acts 14.23). Evidently all the earlier enmity had abated (or the story teller has run out of story) and churches had sprung up like mushrooms emerging from horse manure. An uneventful voyage home allows the heroes to regale the brethren of Antioch "how they had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles." Jolly well done. We now have Christian communities all over Asia Minor.
But is it fact or fiction?
Theological Agenda
Viewed without the rose-tinted spectacles of Christian faith, the first voyage of Paul is as fanciful as the first voyage of Sinbad. Improbable, unlikely incidents are juxtaposed with the miraculous and the ridiculous. Faith can offer special pleas for every incongruity but logical thinking cannot.
The first missionary journey of Paul has a clear theological agenda: to portray "the Jews" as obdurate and villainous and to record the supposed successful establishment of a network of Pauline churchesamong the Gentiles. In each little drama – the contest of magicians in Paphos, the "envy" encountered at Pisidian Antioch, the "threats" of Iconium, the attempted murder in Lystra – the Jews are demonised, "just won't listen" and try to stop the "good news" of Jesus Christ reaching the ears of the Gentiles. Clearly, the Jews are the children of the Devil.
In contrast, the Gentiles everywhere, from the Governor at Paphos to the crowds of Derbe and Perge, are instantly, wildly enthusiastic – abandoning their traditional religions with alacrity. Even Jesus did not establish churches with such panache. And what does Paul have to offer them? He has no Gospels (they have not yet been written); he has no first hand reminiscences of his Lord and Saviour (he never met the guy). What can he say of the Disciples he never met ? ("But I saw no one else of the apostles, only James the brother of the Lord" – Galatians 1.19). For the story to work, Paul has indeed to be "filled with the Holy Spirit" – has to be a veritable brigade of Billy Grahams or Ted Haggards on speed. To regard it as "history" requires a suspension of all critical thought, a huge leap of faith and a large measure of self-deception.
The yarn works, but only if we view the story through Christian eyes. From the very first, everywhere they tread, the servants of the Lord carouse with kings, governors, grand dames and the leading men of their day. The Holy Spirit which accompanies them ensures their entry into all the best parties and rescues them from all the worst scrapes. But if there is no Holy Spirit then we are dealing with sacred myth not history.
On the Island of Love
What better way to begin the mythology of Christian triumph in the Gentile world than a spectacular conversion? For Paul's first adventure on the missionary path the chosen venue was Cyprus, a strategically placed island ruled by the Ptolemies of Egypt until annexed by Rome in 58 BC. Many of the vast number of rock-cut tombs on the island follow the peristyle fashion of Egypt. Mark Antony gave the island to Cleopatra as a wedding gift but it was restored as a Roman province after the Battle of Actium (31 BC).
Economically prized for its copper mines (half of which were awarded to Herod the Great by Augustus), in 22 BC the island became a senatorial province, under the rule of a propraetor (although granted the honorary rank of proconsul). Aside from a severe earthquake in 77 AD and a violent Jewish insurrection in 115/6, the peaceful, prosperous island barely figured in Roman histories.
But it seems that Paul's co-worker, Barnabas, was a Jew from Cyprus, so what better place to start the grand missionary tour than Barney's homeland? (Well, actually, a more obvious choice would have been the cities of the Decapolis – thoroughly Gentile and far more accessible). Paul's first journey, so it is said, began about the year 46 AD, after the apostle had passed more than 10 years in retirement at Tarsus, performing no evident work for the Lord or even maintaining contact with the brethren. Yet Paul is chosen by the church in Antioch (or rather, by the Holy Spirit) to carry the good news to Cyprus and Asia Minor. (Not that he was really the first – Acts 11.19 tells of unnamed "scattered" brethren already there, preaching to the "Jews alone". The aside is very important, as we will see).
After a stopover at Salamis the apostles "go through" the island (the cities of Citium, Amathus and Curium don't get a mention) and make straight for the Governor in Paphos, who conveniently has sent word that he wants to hear them. (Why, one wonders? Did they cause such a commotion at the other end of the island? And if so why do we not know of it?) All it takes is the spiteful blinding of a rival magician (curiously named "Bar Jesus") and Sergius Paulus, Roman aristocrat and doubtless the richest, as well as the most powerful, man on the island, is enrolled among the ranks of the Christians. "By tradition" Cyprus becomes the first country governed by a Christian, though oddly we never hear of Sergius again, and nor is there any evidence of early Christianity on the island. Hereafter, Rabbi Saul is known by his latin name Paulus (which just happens to be the name of the Governor).
One good yarn deserves another
Not only was Paul a soar away success with proconsul Sergius – he also got given a thrashing by him! Sounds a little contradictory? Well, it is another "Church tradition" so all things are possible. But for this yarn, remarkably, there is physical evidence – a remnant of the very column about which Paul was whipped! Apparently, the faithful can reconcile the two ideas by insisting Paul first was thrashed by and then converted the governor to Christianity (it will only take you a moment to dream up the movie script – speak to Mel Gibson).
The miraculous upshot of all this is that a stump of marble selected at random in modern times provides "proof" for the missionary activity of Paul and, ipso facto, "evidence for Jesus." If you can believe this, you probably believed there were WMDs in Iraq and your government would not lie to you.
If it makes you happier, you can believe that St Paul was "scourged 39 times" against this innocuous stump of a pillar before converting his tormentor Sergius Paulus.
Rather more acceptable evidence (of Sergius Paulus, that is, not St Paul) is an engraved stone found at the site of ancient Soli (Kyrenia) in northern Cyprus, at the end of the 19th century.
About the same time, a boundary stone was found in Rome from the reign of Emperor Claudius (41-54) recording the name of a Sergius Paulus appointed a curator "of the banks and the channel of the River Tiber." Was it the same man? Paul's "epistle to the Romans" fails to greet him, which suggests it was not.
Reality Check
"Paul's first missionary journey under the auspices of Antioch is narrated only by Luke ... A close analysis of this account brings to light so many improbabilities that it becomesimpossible to accord it any real confidence."
– Murphy O'Connor, Paul, His Story, p44.
In reality, the Cyprian story falls apart for a number of reasons, not least because the Governor's palace, even today, is a visible celebration of a vibrant paganism, spanning centuries of Roman occupation. The huge palace complex, measuring 120 x 90 metres, includes the normal panoply of public and state rooms, gardens and bath houses. Exquisite mosaic floors feature the major Roman-Hellenic gods – and all without a Christian icon in sight! Ancient Paphos had its theatre, agora and evenAsklepion, the shrine-cum-hospital of the ever-popular healing god Asclepius, until his overthrow by Jesus. We might also reasonably suspect a fraudster's work because of a curious similarity (yet again) between the work of "Luke" (the purported author of Acts) and the history of Josephus written in the 90s.
Aerial view of the proconsul's residence, Paphos.
Did Paul make it past the front door?
Where did they get their ideas from?
Josephus (Antiquities 20.7.2) Acts 13, 4-8
'Jewish Cypriot magician, pal of Roman governor, works a dirty deed.' 'Jewish Cypriot magician, pal of Roman governor, attempts to work a dirty deed.'
"While Felix was procurator of Judea, he saw this Drusilla, and fell in love with her; ... He sent to her a person whose name was Simon*,one of his friends; a Jew he was, and by birth a Cypriot, and one who pretended to be a magician, and endeavoured to persuade her to forsake her present husband, and marry him."
"... They sailed to Cyprus ... And when they had gone through the isle unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-Jesus: Which was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man; who called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear the word of God. But Elymas* the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith."
* But according to some manuscripts the name given by Josephus is "Atomos", itself possibly a corruption of Hetoimos (Elymas?) or a Greek word for small (as indeed is Paulus in Latin). In no way is Elymas a translation or even an equivalent of Bar-Jesus.
Not to waste a useful bit of story, Felix and his "adulterous" bride Drusilla show up later in Acts – when Paul, it seems, gave them a dressing down!
"And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee." (Acts 24.24,25)
Acts 13, 9-12
By a malicious act of cruelty, St Paul blinds his rival – and so impresses the governor that he immediately becomes a Christian.
Our noble St Paul sets the tone for two thousand years of vicious curses. The author of Acts continues his demonising of "the Jews".
The colourful spell is composed of words and phrases drawn from the Septuagint (the Greek translation of Jewish scripture).
"Then Saul, (who also is called Paul,) filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him, and said,
O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season.
And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand. Then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord."
Facing down the "children of the devil"
"Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me."
– Timothy 3.11
Rather than capitalise on the conversion of a rich and powerful acolyte in Cyprus, Saul-now-Paul sails off to Pisidia for far tougher challenges. Reaching the city of Pisidian Antioch (modern Yalvac) high in the Taurus Mountains, Paul delivers in the local synagogue "part two" of Stephen's address of Acts 7 (together, the two sermons neatly summarize Jewish history from Abraham through to John the Baptist). Like Stephen, Paul finishes his lecture by insulting his Jewish audience ("Behold, you despisers, and wonder, and perish!"– Acts 13.41) . On the next Sabbath "almost the whole city" come to hear the charismatic provocateur and "the Jews envied" Paul's pulling power.
We thus reach a crucial point in the whole Christian saga: "We turn to the Gentiles", says Paul.
"It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first, but since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we now turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord commanded us, I have set thee for a light to the Gentiles, to be a means of salvation to the very ends of the earth."
– Acts 13, 46,47.
The Jews of Antioch, after all, had had a whole week (Acts 13.44) to abandon their ancestral faith and join Paul's new sect, even if they were not treated to the spectacle of an instant blinding like our dear friend Sergius Paulus!
Pisidian Antioch.Settled with Roman veterans by Augustus in 25 BC, the city covered 14 sq. km. and had a population of perhaps a 100,000 in the 1st century AD.
Could Paul really have competed with the theatre, stadium, taverns and baths? The distortion lens of Christian belief encourages the silly notion that the apostle passed through the city like a whirlwind, overturning pagan cults and Jewish synagogue alike.
Not unexpectedly, "the Jews" had Paul and Barnabas expelled from the city. None abashed, our intrepid heroes dust themselves off and journey a hundred miles further east to the city of Iconium (modern Konya). Here the drama repeats itself (although the apostles supposedly "abode a long time" in the city). They speak "boldly" in the synagogue, divide the whole city into "believers" versus "the Jews", and precipitate threats of a stoning. Paul and Barnabas now flee south and east to Lystra(Hatunsaray) and Derbe (Kerti Hüyük).
In Lystra, a pronouncement from Paul allows a lame man to walk (the trick closely parallels Peter's healing in Acts 3). The miracle causes the locals to declare Paul to be the god Hermes, and Barnabas, oddly, to be the king of the gods, Zeus.
As it happens, the visit of Zeus and Hermes to Phrygia is to be found in Ovid's 1st century anthology of myths "Metamorphoses" but surely "Luke" didn't copy the idea?
The adulation of the apostles is short-lived, however, because Paul launches a diatribe against an imminent sacrifice to the very god Barnabas is thought to be.
The people, now stirred up "by Jews" from far off Antioch and Iconium (do they just happen to be there or have they followed the apostles for 150 miles?) stone Paul and dump his "dead" body outside the city (Acts 14.19). However, miraculously he "rose up" and returns to Lystra. By the standards of Paphos, this wondrous working of the Holy Spirit should have converted the entire city, if not the whole of Lycaonia. Yet instead of dazzling the multitude with his recovery (or is it a resurrection?), the very next day the dynamic duo make off to Derbe, a further 50 miles southeast. (They are now less than 200 miles from Paul's home town of Tarsus).
A real life stoning. What would you say were the chances of survival?
In Derbe the apostles "preached, taught and exhorted" many. They then retrace their steps through the hostile towns of Lystra, Iconium, Antioch, evangelise Perge (ignored first time round), and ordain elders "in every church" (Acts 14.23). Evidently all the earlier enmity had abated (or the story teller has run out of story) and churches had sprung up like mushrooms emerging from horse manure. An uneventful voyage home allows the heroes to regale the brethren of Antioch "how they had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles." Jolly well done. We now have Christian communities all over Asia Minor.
But is it fact or fiction?
Theological Agenda
Viewed without the rose-tinted spectacles of Christian faith, the first voyage of Paul is as fanciful as the first voyage of Sinbad. Improbable, unlikely incidents are juxtaposed with the miraculous and the ridiculous. Faith can offer special pleas for every incongruity but logical thinking cannot.
The first missionary journey of Paul has a clear theological agenda: to portray "the Jews" as obdurate and villainous and to record the supposed successful establishment of a network of Pauline churchesamong the Gentiles. In each little drama – the contest of magicians in Paphos, the "envy" encountered at Pisidian Antioch, the "threats" of Iconium, the attempted murder in Lystra – the Jews are demonised, "just won't listen" and try to stop the "good news" of Jesus Christ reaching the ears of the Gentiles. Clearly, the Jews are the children of the Devil.
In contrast, the Gentiles everywhere, from the Governor at Paphos to the crowds of Derbe and Perge, are instantly, wildly enthusiastic – abandoning their traditional religions with alacrity. Even Jesus did not establish churches with such panache. And what does Paul have to offer them? He has no Gospels (they have not yet been written); he has no first hand reminiscences of his Lord and Saviour (he never met the guy). What can he say of the Disciples he never met ? ("But I saw no one else of the apostles, only James the brother of the Lord" – Galatians 1.19). For the story to work, Paul has indeed to be "filled with the Holy Spirit" – has to be a veritable brigade of Billy Grahams or Ted Haggards on speed. To regard it as "history" requires a suspension of all critical thought, a huge leap of faith and a large measure of self-deception.
The yarn works, but only if we view the story through Christian eyes. From the very first, everywhere they tread, the servants of the Lord carouse with kings, governors, grand dames and the leading men of their day. The Holy Spirit which accompanies them ensures their entry into all the best parties and rescues them from all the worst scrapes. But if there is no Holy Spirit then we are dealing with sacred myth not history.
Son of Gamba
JF-Expert Member
- Oct 26, 2012
- 4,720
- 6,957
This is pure nonsense and full of rubbish! Anyone but the devil himself can come up with this kind of fabricated writings to allude humans into his lies. We know the devil is the father of all lies since the beginning, in him there is no truth.
We believe what is written in the Bible is the truth and only truth. So I tell you this; "As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed".
Fillipina Bellini
JF-Expert Member
- Apr 28, 2018
- 353
- 490
Mungu sio myahudi, koma kuita maandiko ya wayahudi kazi ya Mungu
Son of Gamba
JF-Expert Member
- Oct 26, 2012
- 4,720
- 6,957
Hapo umesema kweli na mimi pia napingana sana na wale wote wanaoabudu sanamu au misalaba. Imeandikwa hivi; "MUNGU ni Roho, nao wamwabuduo watamwabudu katika roho na kweli".
Fillipina Bellini
JF-Expert Member
- Apr 28, 2018
- 353
- 490
what is the bible, can you tell us??????
Fillipina Bellini
JF-Expert Member
- Apr 28, 2018
- 353
- 490
Nonsense, msalaba namdoli wake, ni taswira kutoka kwenye biblia, usijifanye kuiruka ibada yako ya sanamu, unafiki tu
Kiby
JF-Expert Member
- Nov 16, 2009
- 6,921
- 4,683
THE FOLLOWING is a speech made by former South African President P.W. Botha to his Cabinet. This reprint was written by David G. Mailu for the Sunday Times, a South African newspaper, dated August 18, 1985.
================
" Pretoria has been made by the White mind for the White man. We are not obliged even the least to try to prove to anybody and to the Blacks that we are superior people. We have demonstrated that to the Blacks in a thousand and one ways. The Republic of South Africa that we know of today has not been created by wishful thinking. We have created it at the expense of intelligence, sweat and blood.
Were they Afrikaners who tried to eliminate the Australian Aborigines? Are they Afrikaners who discriminate against Blacks and call them Nigge*rs in the States? Were they Afrikaners who started the slave trade? Where is the Black man appreciated? England discriminates against its Black and their "Sus" law is out to discipline the Blacks. Canada, France, Russia, and Japan all play their discrimination too.
Why in the hell then is so much noise made about us? Why are they biased against us? I am simply trying to prove to you all that there is nothing unusual we are doing that the so called civilized worlds are not doing. We are simply an honest people who have come out aloud with a clear philosophy of how we want to live
our own White life.
We do not pretend like other Whites that we like Blacks. The fact that, Blacks look like human beings and act like human beings do not necessarily make them sensible human beings. Hedgehogs are not porcupines and lizards are not crocodiles simply because they look alike. If God wanted us to be equal to the Blacks, he would have created us all of a uniform colour and intellect. But he created us differently: Whites, Blacks, Yellow, Rulers and the ruled.
Intellectually, we are superior to the Blacks; that has been proven beyond any reasonable doubt over the years. I believe that the Afrikaner is an honest, God fearing person, who has demonstrated practically the right way of being. Nevertheless, it is comforting to know that behind the scenes, Europe, America, Canada, Australia-and all others are behind us in spite of what they say. For diplomatic relations, we all know what language should be used and where.
To prove my point, Comrades, does anyone of you know a White country without an investment or interest in South Africa? Who buys our gold? Who buys our diamonds? Who trades with us? Who is helping us develop other nuclear weapon? The very truth is that we are their people and they are our people. It's a big secret. The strength of our economy is backed by America, Britain, Germany. It is our strong conviction, therefore, that the Black is the raw material for the White man.
So Brothers and Sisters, let us join hands together to fight against this Black devil. I appeal to all Afrikaners to come out with any creative means of fighting this war. Surely God cannot forsake his own people whom we are. By now every one of us has seen it practically that the Blacks cannot rule themselves. Give them guns and they will kill each other. They are good in nothing else but making noise, dancing, marrying many wives and indulging in sex. Let us all accept that the Black man is the symbol of poverty, mental inferiority, laziness and emotional incompetence. Isn't it plausible? therefore that the White man is created to rule the Black man? Come to think of what would happen one day if you woke up and on the throne sat a Kaff*ir! Can you imagine what would happen to our women? Does anyone of you believe that the Blacks can rule this country?
Hence, we have good reasons to let them all-the Mandelas-rot in prison, and I think we should be commended for having kept them alive in spite of what we have at hand with which to finish them off. I wish to announce a number of new strategies that should be put to use to destroy this Black bug. We should now make use of the chemical weapon. Priority number one, we should not by all means allow any more increases of the Black population lest we be choked very soon. I have exciting news that our scientists have come with an efficient stuff. I am sending out more researchers to the field to identify as many venues as possible where the chemical weapons could be employed to combat any further population increases. The hospital is a very strategic opening, for example and should be fully utilized. The food supply channel should be used. We have developed excellent slow killing poisons and fertility destroyers. Our only fear is in case such stuff came in! ! to their hands as they are bound to start using it against us if you care to think of the many Blacks working for us in our houses.
However, we are doing the best we can to make sure that the stuff remains strictly in our hands. Secondly, most Blacks are vulnerable to money inducements. I have set aside a special fund to exploit this venue. The old trick of divide and rule is still very valid today. Our experts should work day and night to set the Black man against his fellowman. His inferior sense of morals can be exploited beautifully. And here is a creature that lacks foresight. There is a need for us to combat him in long term projections that he cannot suspect. The average Black does not plan his life beyond a year: that stance, for example, should be exploited. My special department is already working round the clock to come out with a long-term operation blueprint. I am also sending a special request to all Afrikaner mothers to double their birth rate. It may be necessary too to set up a population boom industry by putting up centres where we employ and support fully White young men and women to produce children for the nation. We are also investigating the merit of uterus rentals as a possible means of speeding up the growth of our population through surrogate mothers.
For the time being, we should also engage a higher gear to make sure that Black men are separated from their women and fines imposed upon married wives who bear illegitimate children. I have a committee working on finding better methods of inciting Blacks against each other and encouraging murders among themselves. Murder cases among Blacks should bear very little punishment in order to encourage them.
My scientists have come up with a drug that could be smuggled into their brews to effect slow poisoning results and fertility destruction. Working through drinks and manufacturing of soft drinks geared to the Blacks, could promote the channels of reducing their population. Ours is not a war that we can use the atomic bomb to destroy the Blacks, so we must use our intelligence to affect this. The person-to-person encounter can be very effective.
As the records show that the Black man is dying to go to bed with the White woman, here is our unique opportunity. Our Sex Mercenary Squad should go out and camouflage with Apartheid Fighters while doing their operations quietly administering slow killing poison and fertility destroyers to those Blacks they thus befriend. We are modifying the Sex Mercenary Squad by introducing White men who should go for the militant Black woman and any other vulnerable Black woman. We have received a new supply of LovePeddlers from Europe and America who are desperate and too keen to take up the appointments.
My latest appeal is that the maternity hospital operations should be intensified. We are not paying those people to help bring Black babies to this world but to eliminate them on the very delivery moment. If this department worked very efficiently, a great deal could be achieved.
My Government has set aside a special fund for erecting more covert hospitals and clinics to promote this programme. Money can do anything for you. So while we have it, we should make the best use of it. In the meantime my beloved White citizens, do not take to heart what the world says, and don't be ashamed of being called racists. I do not mind being called the architect and King of Apartheid. I shall not become a monkey simply because someone has called me a monkey. I will still remain your bright star."
His Excellency Botha.
Fillipina Bellini
JF-Expert Member
- Apr 28, 2018
- 353
- 490
Amazing Jewish job in you're minds, amewa destroy kabisa misukule nyinyi
Fillipina Bellini
JF-Expert Member
- Apr 28, 2018
- 353
- 490
asante sana
Fillipina Bellini
JF-Expert Member
- Apr 28, 2018
- 353
- 490
ARE JEWS THE CONTROLLERS OF THE EARTH SIMULATION?
Many people are wondering if the earth is a simulation and why it was created. Consider that Jews are running the simulation as a new hypothesis under the broader earth simulation hypothesis. Imagine that you are in a Jewish soul simulation and all others who do not have the Jewish soul are the unwitting gamers that Jews get to kill. If you are not Jewish then you are, unfortunately, a self aware meatbag in a bloodthirsty Jew simulation.
This Jewish soul simulation is heaven for Jews and hell for you. Your only purpose is to serve them as fodder or as slave. You have no recourse but to knuckle under to their control or commit suicide. Since they want you to live so you can be abused by them, they use their holy book to condemn self termination. The Jew wishes to control your life, everything you think, your very perception of reality, the money you use, the house you live in. Everything including your life.
With this new hypothesis we can now rationally understand why things are the way they are. Why is the world so corrupt? Why are the Jews in control? Why is it that Jews always win the wars? There is a rational hypothesis for why Jews win – because they are running the simulation, they set the simulation parameters so that they rule and corrupt everything.
Religion also plays a major role in the simulation – religion keeps the Goyim avatars pacified and confused. Christians believe that Christ will return some day and rescue them from earth treachery. The Second Coming is an illusion created by the Jew to keep you pacified about your state of bondage to the Jew. As the meek Christian worker slaves lay up treasure in heaven, the Jew stacks up gold in his bank account.
Jesus, the Jewish Straw Man Worshipped as God
“Jesus never returned to save America, he didn’t and couldn’t because he’s a Jewish created fiction. Americans are unable to deal with the current crisis because the primary myth keeps their minds in a state of suspension. They are unable to think and grasp their predicament, they cling to their myth of a savior return, more convinced than ever as things get worse.”
Christ is a pacification myth of the Jewish controlled state. Even though Christians are commanded not to murder they are sent to war after war and murder for Jews. For instance millions of Americans were sent to Afghanistan and Iraq to murder the millions of Muslims for the Greater Israel project. The fact that Christians murder for Jews even though murder is prohibited by the Jew holy book seems to escape the believer’s dogmatic reality.
During the endless bloodletting, Christ never returns but the demon preachers bang the pulpit with Jewish Bibles demanding you believe that Christ is coming back any day now. But he never does because he Jesus is simply a meme the Jew uses to control the Goyim mind. Jesus is a fiction maintained by demon preachers to keep the Goy flock in line so that can be abused over and over until the end of time.
Many people are wondering if the earth is a simulation and why it was created. Consider that Jews are running the simulation as a new hypothesis under the broader earth simulation hypothesis. Imagine that you are in a Jewish soul simulation and all others who do not have the Jewish soul are the unwitting gamers that Jews get to kill. If you are not Jewish then you are, unfortunately, a self aware meatbag in a bloodthirsty Jew simulation.
This Jewish soul simulation is heaven for Jews and hell for you. Your only purpose is to serve them as fodder or as slave. You have no recourse but to knuckle under to their control or commit suicide. Since they want you to live so you can be abused by them, they use their holy book to condemn self termination. The Jew wishes to control your life, everything you think, your very perception of reality, the money you use, the house you live in. Everything including your life.
With this new hypothesis we can now rationally understand why things are the way they are. Why is the world so corrupt? Why are the Jews in control? Why is it that Jews always win the wars? There is a rational hypothesis for why Jews win – because they are running the simulation, they set the simulation parameters so that they rule and corrupt everything.
Religion also plays a major role in the simulation – religion keeps the Goyim avatars pacified and confused. Christians believe that Christ will return some day and rescue them from earth treachery. The Second Coming is an illusion created by the Jew to keep you pacified about your state of bondage to the Jew. As the meek Christian worker slaves lay up treasure in heaven, the Jew stacks up gold in his bank account.
Jesus, the Jewish Straw Man Worshipped as God
“Jesus never returned to save America, he didn’t and couldn’t because he’s a Jewish created fiction. Americans are unable to deal with the current crisis because the primary myth keeps their minds in a state of suspension. They are unable to think and grasp their predicament, they cling to their myth of a savior return, more convinced than ever as things get worse.”
Christ is a pacification myth of the Jewish controlled state. Even though Christians are commanded not to murder they are sent to war after war and murder for Jews. For instance millions of Americans were sent to Afghanistan and Iraq to murder the millions of Muslims for the Greater Israel project. The fact that Christians murder for Jews even though murder is prohibited by the Jew holy book seems to escape the believer’s dogmatic reality.
During the endless bloodletting, Christ never returns but the demon preachers bang the pulpit with Jewish Bibles demanding you believe that Christ is coming back any day now. But he never does because he Jesus is simply a meme the Jew uses to control the Goyim mind. Jesus is a fiction maintained by demon preachers to keep the Goy flock in line so that can be abused over and over until the end of time.
Fillipina Bellini
JF-Expert Member
- Apr 28, 2018
- 353
- 490
WHEN YOU SUBCONSCIOUSLY KNOW YOU ARE TRAPPED WITH NO WAY OUT
BELIEF IS THE GREEN PASTURE WHERE YOU PUT YOUR MIND TO REST
AND HOPE BECOMES THE COPE DOPE
FOR THE GOY TRAPPED IN A JEW HELL SIMULATION
In this simulation the Jews are given the edge by the programming, Jews have the advantaged because they wrote the holy text that allows them to rule. Without the Holy Bible, the Jews would be immediately exposed as frauds and killed without mercy. But with the Bible the evil Jewish parasite is divinely worshipped as a chosen one of god. The Bible is held dearly but it is really the enemy of the Goy.
Every week out of every year out of every decade out of every century and every millenia the Goy cattle are told over and over that Jesus will return. The demon preachers work this mantra magic and it keeps the Goy in line as they hope for eternal salvation and deliverance from the earth hell. But salvation is not achieved, when the body dies the soul is recycled back into a new body completing forgetting what happened in the previous lives.
BELIEF IS THE GREEN PASTURE WHERE YOU PUT YOUR MIND TO REST
AND HOPE BECOMES THE COPE DOPE
FOR THE GOY TRAPPED IN A JEW HELL SIMULATION
In this simulation the Jews are given the edge by the programming, Jews have the advantaged because they wrote the holy text that allows them to rule. Without the Holy Bible, the Jews would be immediately exposed as frauds and killed without mercy. But with the Bible the evil Jewish parasite is divinely worshipped as a chosen one of god. The Bible is held dearly but it is really the enemy of the Goy.
Every week out of every year out of every decade out of every century and every millenia the Goy cattle are told over and over that Jesus will return. The demon preachers work this mantra magic and it keeps the Goy in line as they hope for eternal salvation and deliverance from the earth hell. But salvation is not achieved, when the body dies the soul is recycled back into a new body completing forgetting what happened in the previous lives.
kauga JR
JF-Expert Member
- Mar 4, 2015
- 3,503
- 2,078
Sawa mkuu, ila bado unatumia material za watu weupe, vipi tutajikomboa kweli??
Fillipina Bellini
JF-Expert Member
- Apr 28, 2018
- 353
- 490
NEW HYPOTHESIS: SYNTHETIC SOULS TRAPPED IN A HELL MATRIX FOR ALL ETERNITY
“The bad joke is on us, we thought our job was to get to heaven to be with the Jew father god Yahweh, but what really happened was that our fear of eternal punishment became eternal punishment on earth. We never made it to heaven in some phony afterlife, we only created hell in real time on planet earth. We are stuck in an endless loop of torture and suffering until we change our thoughts on a collective level.
We got our theology completely wrong, we wasted generations of human lives praying to Jesus for redemption in countless churches strewn across the old and new world, we gave billions of dollars to church officials in redemptive schemes and none of it was ever true. Our souls were never threatened with eternal punishment – in reality our souls are trapped in a hell matrix and afterlife is only an illusion of the trickster priests who created afterlife heavens in our minds so that we would put up with the miserable conditions on earth.”
What is really going on is that souls are trapped in a torture simulation and Jesus is a false myth pacifying the minds of Christian sheep trapped in the hell simulation. The fact that no god ever comes to our rescue doesn’t seem to diminish the hopish beliefs of the spellbound Goy. For thousands of years the Jesus delusion keeps the Goy in bondage to Jewish predation, and it has resulted in the most horrible torture and deaths imaginable.
Jesus never returned for the Apostles, Jesus didn’t return during the three centuries of witch trials, he didn’t float down during the two world wars. The delusion is holding strong in the simulation right up the bitter end. Jews are preparing to wipe out most of the earth’s population is a great nuclear holocaust. They have achieved total dominance and they have a plan for you – your death.
Many people are depressed and realizing the hypocrisy of the believers
many are turning to drugs as the Bible spell wears off
others are contemplating this realm as a simulated reality
that they are expendable pieces of meat in a soul animation
that’s there no afterlife as imagined
and this world is completely unjust Jewish organized hellhole
where Jews torture Goyim souls for all eternity
“The bad joke is on us, we thought our job was to get to heaven to be with the Jew father god Yahweh, but what really happened was that our fear of eternal punishment became eternal punishment on earth. We never made it to heaven in some phony afterlife, we only created hell in real time on planet earth. We are stuck in an endless loop of torture and suffering until we change our thoughts on a collective level.
We got our theology completely wrong, we wasted generations of human lives praying to Jesus for redemption in countless churches strewn across the old and new world, we gave billions of dollars to church officials in redemptive schemes and none of it was ever true. Our souls were never threatened with eternal punishment – in reality our souls are trapped in a hell matrix and afterlife is only an illusion of the trickster priests who created afterlife heavens in our minds so that we would put up with the miserable conditions on earth.”
What is really going on is that souls are trapped in a torture simulation and Jesus is a false myth pacifying the minds of Christian sheep trapped in the hell simulation. The fact that no god ever comes to our rescue doesn’t seem to diminish the hopish beliefs of the spellbound Goy. For thousands of years the Jesus delusion keeps the Goy in bondage to Jewish predation, and it has resulted in the most horrible torture and deaths imaginable.
Jesus never returned for the Apostles, Jesus didn’t return during the three centuries of witch trials, he didn’t float down during the two world wars. The delusion is holding strong in the simulation right up the bitter end. Jews are preparing to wipe out most of the earth’s population is a great nuclear holocaust. They have achieved total dominance and they have a plan for you – your death.
Many people are depressed and realizing the hypocrisy of the believers
many are turning to drugs as the Bible spell wears off
others are contemplating this realm as a simulated reality
that they are expendable pieces of meat in a soul animation
that’s there no afterlife as imagined
and this world is completely unjust Jewish organized hellhole
where Jews torture Goyim souls for all eternity
Fillipina Bellini
JF-Expert Member
- Apr 28, 2018
- 353
- 490
No one owns the sea
kauga JR
JF-Expert Member
- Mar 4, 2015
- 3,503
- 2,078
But destine is on our hands
Kiranga
Platinum Member
- Jan 29, 2009
- 78,790
- 128,275
Mtu ni nani? Mtu mweupe ni nani? Materials za mtu mweupe ni zipi? Kujikomboa ni nini? Kweli ni nini?
kauga JR
JF-Expert Member
- Mar 4, 2015
- 3,503
- 2,078
Wewe hujitambui.
Zeus1
JF-Expert Member
- Aug 24, 2017
- 7,152
- 9,206
Mkuu acha kuita mtu msukule,tuelimishane alafu respect imani ya mtu