hello everyone
i am afflicted with a severe case of "cabin fever" here in northern Illinios
and having some time on my hands, this post grew out of Tibo's, Bodvar's,
Maggie's, Mary's and Jonathan's prior posts.
<<<As Maggie's starting point was "evil", your rendition of the
natives' attitude to the evil spirit was most intriguing. "A force
uncontrolled by any law.....not the harm it does, but the potential
it has for doing it because he can do anything he wants". Sounds
much like the Medieval dread of chaos, but may also apply to the
Devil. However, if there's nothing resembling the almighty and
benevolent God then Anhanga must be part of the cosmic play, much
like the goddess of destruction of Hinduism, so there's no "problem
of evil".>>>
Jonathan:
What about Judeo-Christian reference to a "Terrible" god?
(Terrible is an accurate translation of the Hebrew word "nora")?
Glove:
certainly there is a marked difference between the old and new testaments of
the bible in how God is viewed. the first five books of the Old Testament
were written around 1450 bc (there is some debate as to the dating of
Genesis, but i will not address that here) a time when the old sophists
would have been flourishing in ancient Greece.
i just happened to open my old copy of the "New Scofield Reference Bible" to
Deuteronomy (written in 1450bc) where we find God portrayed in ways which
blend both the Good and the Evil into one creation...
Deut. 4:24- For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, Even a Jealous God.
Deut. 4:31- For the Lord thy God is a merciful God...
Deut. 4:39- Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that
the Lord, he IS God in the heaven above; and upon the earth beneath. THERE
is none else.
by the time we get to Isaiah, written in the 8th century bc, we find the
vision of God has become divided, and His wrath falls on the wicked while
favoring the righteous :
Isaiah 3:10- Say to the righteous, that it shall be well with them; for they
shall eat the fruits of their doings. (11) Woe unto the wicked! It shall be
ill with him; for the reward of his hands shall be given him.
and in the last book of the Old testament, we find Malachi (written in the
5th century bc) lamenting for the old days when he says:
Malachi 1:10- Have we not all one father? Hath not one God created us? Why
do we deal treacherously, every man against his brother, by profaning the
covenant of our fathers?
in the New Testament, there is a much deeper division between Good and Evil
that is absent from the Old. God is now viewed as Good only, and Satan has
taken up the previous negativity of the Old Testament God. again, just
opening at random i find in Mark, written in a.d. 68:
Mark 4:14- The sower soweth the word. (15) And these are they by the
wayside, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh
immediately and taketh the word that was sown in their hearts.
i find it intriguing that at roughly the same time the last of the Old and
the first of the New Testaments were being written, a change was also
taking place in Western culture leading towards determinism and away from
nonpreference, the earlier sophist point of view, not only in science and
philosophy but in warfare as well. to me, the old and new testaments are a
reflection of this very fundamental shift in perception in our Western
culture that hasnt taken place in other isolated cultures like the Far East
or the Native Americans.
i only offer this as historical reference to see how different cultural
morals can be compared to our own history. thanks for all the great posts
everyone.
best wishes to all
glove
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