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Goodbye Jesus

Hebrew


Dhampir

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Well, I don't know much about Hebrew. I know a few words, and some other grammatical aspects of the language. Most importantly, I know that Hebrew is a very limited language. So many of the words to be found in it can mean so many things, and oftentimes there aren't words to completely encompass certain concepts. Take this for example:

I want to stop here to see if I'm on track with your question. In the meantime, the Hebrew word does not necessarily mean "rib" but can mean "side". I have no problem with God using Adam's DNA as a template (a biopsy?) for woman. God often does things symbolically and parabolically. I can see how the whole "rib" thing can throw someone off unless he sees the theistic significance and the linguistic alternatives.

Really, he's jumping through hoops, but that doesn't make his point any less valid. And that's the problem: How can a book, which through the mercurial nature of the language alone, not even taking into account the other questionable aspects, is open to such wild speculation be relied upon to convey one of the most important messages ever to humankind?

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That's my biggest problem with the bible - well the OT anyway. We don't have correct translations. I don't think we ever will. So how can a Christian put so much faith in it?

 

One of the things that has always annoyed me are people who continually pull out words from the scriptures and go back to the original Hebrew meanings so they can bring their slant onto what that scripture means. It's funny that they can have so much faith in the the bible, but yet don't want to rely on the English interpretations as they are. Or otherwise, they know that it's wrongly interpreted, but yet most of it they take at face value.

 

Makes you wonder why God chose Hebrew in the first place huh?

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My brutha be da coolest cat own'da block!

Hebrew his own beer'n shit.

'An dat shit'll fuck yo ass up!

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  • 3 weeks later...

not only does Hebrew have translation issues... they didn't even add vowels to the language until the early Middle Ages (800's CE Masoretes)

 

 

 

although, personally, if I wanted to be a mysterious god I'd write my book in an obscure and difficult language too!

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Once Convinced,

 

You said:

 

"One of the things that has always annoyed me are people who continually pull out words from the scriptures and go back to the original Hebrew meanings so they can bring their slant onto what that scripture means. It's funny that they can have so much faith in the the bible, but yet don't want to rely on the English interpretations as they are. Or otherwise, they know that it's wrongly interpreted, but yet most of it they take at face value...."

 

Yes!! Thank you thank you, thank you for this part of this post!!!

 

Christians will point out from the Bible that people like me are hopeless and quote me chapter and verse to prove it. But when I quote them chapter and verse back, they go (this is my peeve) to the "Original Greek", as if the scholars that translated the whole rest of their Bible were competent mostly, but not on that one verse.

 

In the "Original Greek", that word can also mean... then they pick out the alternate meaning that says what they want the verse to say, while ignoring the others. Maybe some of these preachers/teachers should get together with a Strong's Concordance, and give us a new version of the Holy Writ?

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What's more is that many versions of the bible have been translated from Aramaic and Hebrew (for the OT) , to Latin, to Greek. Talk about a game of "telephone"!

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Guest defcon kate

One of my friends who's planning on going into the ministry has been taking Hebrew for a couple years now and my favorite quote from him on this subject is this: "Hebrew is such a *cute* language."

 

That said, it's one of my joys to read about the incredible three-dimensionality of Hebrew words. For example, the word Shalom is so complex in its meaning that I spent one January obsessing about it and it changed set me on my deconversion process by opening my eyes to how much LARGER the truth is than Christianity has been telling me. Call me juvenile but I got the word tattooed on my foot after a full year of having the word "shalom" rock my paradigm and I've never regretted it. Each Hebrew word is more like a sphere than a rectangle (English words are more like rectangles). You can plunge into a word and come out years later with your life completely upside down.

 

The practice of reinterpreting the Bible via the "original Hebrew/Greek/Aramaic" was what kept me in the faith for decades. Eventually, though, I reinterpreted my way right out of religion. I should probably warn my pastor friends about this danger...

 

One more thing about Hebrew: it's weird that an entire major world religion is founded on a Bible that was mostly written by and to a very small, exclusive ethnic group with an extensive and complex oral tradition. Just... weird that so many people have latched onto it.

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