Re: speaking of swearing - Jesus Swore

["Tim White" <tim at wildwoodagency_com>]

Ah Peter - Jesus could have spoken some Greek, but most likely he spoke
Aramaic and Hebrew.  Speaking of how important words (the word) are/is,
can you accept that Jesus might have been illiterate?  Since he was raised
in a poor
home, chances would be that he wouldn't be taught how to read, since only
about 15-20% of the Jews were taught how (and most of them were Scribes,
Pharisees, etc).  The rest of the population couldn't read or write - hence,
Scribes,
or professional writers and readers - a whole cultural class that was paid
to read
and write for people that couldn't.

The point of the greek text is that it uses the strongest vernacular for the
word
'manure' and that would denote that most likely (more probably than not)
Jesus
swore - Jesus used language as a tool to communicate just how displeasant
the
Pharisees state of their spirituality really was.  It's like when Tony
Campolo says
to largely evangelical, modern, word oriented Christians - "There are people
that
you know right now that are going to hell, and you don't give a damn about
it. And
most are you are more concerned right now that I said the word 'damn' then
you are
about that person going to hell."
Is it any wonder that the religious leaders wanted to kill Jesus?  The guy
broke all
the 'religious' standards - broke the laws, treated women on the same level
as men,
touched unclean folks, had a terrific sense of humor (which is a whole other
topic
about some of the jokes Jesus says - but evangelicals take some of them
seriously
because - well, you know, Chrisitianty can't be funny now...), and Jesus
swore.
If I was a tight-assed, controlling,
concerned-about-little-things-like-words-more-than
loving-people, religious person of the day - I would want to kill him too.
He threatened
every fricking thing I built up and built my little relgious kingdome on.
Tim White, M.Div Bethel Seminary
www.wildwoodagency.com

> The only problem with this, of course, is that Jesus probably didn't speak
> Greek.  What we read in the gospels is actually a *translation* of his
> words, which would have originally been spoken in Aramaic, and it's always
> possible the authors of the gospels adjusted his tone a little bit.  :)
>
> --- Peter T. Chattaway --------------------------- peter at chattaway_com ---



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