Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site usfbobo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!mgnetp!ihnp4!mhuxl!ulysses!unc!mcnc!duke!ucf-cs!usfbobo!brunson
From: brunson@usfbobo.UUCP (David Brunson)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: why do you think they call it *greek*?
Message-ID: <165@usfbobo.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 28-Aug-84 15:25:34 EDT
Article-I.D.: usfbobo.165
Posted: Tue Aug 28 15:25:34 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 30-Aug-84 00:41:25 EDT
Organization: Univ. of South Florida, Tampa
Lines: 64

[]

>From: yiri@ucf-cs.UUCP (David)
>Subject: Re: Which commandments?
>Organization: UCF, Orlando, FL
>
>Having spent several years translating both the Tanakh and the
>"New Testament" (more appropriately the writings of the N'tzarim
>sect of Jews), I'm always amazed at how much confidence is placed
>in the version ordered and supervised by an anti-semitic 
>Episcopalian king of England. Certainly it should not be 
>astonishing to find that this, and subsequent versions, are
>sympathetic to the established Christian doctrines.
    ...
>                            ...  If one, rather, simply puts
>the various passages in harmony, one learns that these early
>followers of Yeshua were observant Jews some 40 years after
>the execution of Yeshua - keeping the seventh day Sabbath
>(while meeting on other days as well and collecting monies
>on the first day - certainly not Shabbat - as Jews today
>still do). They even continued to sacrifice in the Temple.

Excellent!!!  Of course, it is not necessary to know the original
languages to come to these conclusions -- a discriminating reading
of any reputable translation will reveal that Paul, for example,
remained a Pharisee even after converting.

>Christian doctrines of today originate in the paganism of
>the Roman Empire.

Specifically the Greek (originators of Western anti-semitism)
influence.  Early gentile believers such as Origen and Augustine
had problems with the Semitic roots of their adopted faith.
The "God of the Old Testament" syndrome:  parts of the OT
were abominable to these men because of their deeply ingrained
Greek values.  This led to many exercises in making belief in
the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob more palatable to the Greek
world-view.

There is a fundamentally irreconcilable difference between the
Greek and Hebrew world-views.  The invalid human activity known
as *Theology* is a futile attempt to bridge an unbridgable gap.
In the times of the early church fathers there was an attempt to describe
belief with Platonic forms.  Most of the resulting heresies are
no longer in vogue.  In modern times believers are suffering from
the efforts of Thomas Aquinas et al to make faith palatable to those
weakened by the Aristotelian disease (the, Ahem, "Faith vs Reason"
foolishness).

To Christians:
Read Galatians again.  Paul is saying that it is not necessary for
a gentile to become a Jew to receive *salvation* (a word which has
been nearly abused into oblivion).  Insofar as one desires to *adopt*
a World View, however, one is certainly wiser to adopt the Hebrew
than the Greek (or Teutonic, or Japanese, or whatever).  Observing
Kashrut, celebrating the feasts, studying the Tenach, and meditating
in the Torah is the way to start.

---
David S Brunson
(duke or decvax)!ucf-cs!usfbobo!brunson

... better understanding through higher education