Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: dg@lakart.uucp (David Goodenough) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Trouble passages in the SOM Message-ID: Date: 17 Sep 89 18:39:44 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 65 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In message , alfalfa!fullmer@dover.sps.mot.com (Glen Fullmer) says: > A number of passages in the Sermon on the Mount bother me: > > 1. Speaking of lust, Jesus says "And if thy right eye offend thee > pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for > thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy > whole body should be cast into hell." etc. etc. etc. It's rather interesting, because just this last Sunday, the Rector at our Church spoke of some of the apparent contradictions in the Bible: Matt 16:24 "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." vs. Matt 11:28 "Come unto me all ye who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" Or Matt 12:31 "Wherefore I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men" vs. the comment above. Or Luke 14:26 "If any man come to me and hate [1] not his father and mother and wife and children and ....." Matt 15:4 "..... Honour thy father and mother ....." [1] I don't know anything of the original Greek, but I'd guess there ought to be a better word here - it's not really hate, more a case of "if it ever comes to a choice between Christ and your Father, Christ has to come first", i.e. if your Father forbids you to go to Church, you are caught in a dichotomy: do you honor Christ and go to Church, or honor your Father and stay home? In this case, go to Church. The sermon on the mount is sometimes referred to as the sermon of attitudes, in one way it can be seen in part as an "up to date" Leviticus, although it covers some other material. I would also hazard a guess that Christ said a great deal more, Matt 5-7 can be read out loud in a few minutes, and I'll bet the sermon itself took a while longer. Add to that the losses in the translation from Greek to English, and I for one can begin to see how it came out the way it did. Coming back to OUR sermon last Sunday, the final comment was "Don't take passages out of the Bible, for sometimes the context in which they are found explains a lot." I think with the sermon on the mount, this is the case - Christ tells of the blessings of Heaven, He reminds people of the law. He also provides advice on the best way to pray and to fast, and warns that they (and we) should take his advice if they (and we) want to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Taken as a whole, it's a very good sermon, on life, your relationship to God, and your relationship to others. -- dg@pallio.UUCP - David Goodenough +---+ IHS | +-+-+ ..... !harvard!xait!lakart!pallio!dg +-+-+ | AKA: dg%pallio.uucp@cfisun.cfi.com +---+ [Sorry. The Greek word really is "hate". --clh]