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That’s a good one. And like all analogous formulations it’s reciprocal. We also are secret and want to be known. It’s the game of hide and seek I referred to above. Again, for me this points to the one place where the traditions truly are comparable. I think of India’s brahman/atman...

Hi Dondi. A few things. First of all, can you point to where Paul refers to the Law as “a tool” or uses some analogous term? Secondly, Jesus also didn’t recommend “thrusting” the law onto the Gentiles, but he didn’t abrogate or slander the Law the way Paul does. Love him or hate him, Paul is...

[/INDENT] Hello Seattle. I have to quibble on your intro. The passage says nothing about “taking care” of the Earth, but of subduing and having dominion over it. In the tradition of the God of obedience, it’s all about authority. I agree that this does set man up as God’s leiutenant on Earth...

(The following really belongs in the Abrahamic garden, but thinking that some there might find it an unwelcome growth, I decided to plant it in a more unruly place.) According to the Genesis account, why did God create human beings? In my outsider reading I get the sense of two distinct...

I demand mercy, not sacrifice, as Yeshua quoted. Following on what you’re saying here, it occurs to me that the persistence of sacrifice in the tradition was perhaps in part a recognition of the shortfall in the moral payments required, that in the absence of such payments some kind of...

Hi again: Regarding the relationship between (let’s say) the two textual sources of Jewish historical experience on the one hand and the direct communications of God on the other I think the way you’re putting it here seems plausible in the context. But again it seems to me to open up...

(continued from above) Well, I agree that this fits the bill in regard to some of the evasions of New Age, and to the extent New Age largely draws its inspiration from India and the East – and obviously it does – then these evasions reflect to some degree Indian religion as well. But here again...

well, remember that in terms of the written Torah itself, he's a scribe, rather than a redactor. in terms of the other stuff that makes it into the final synthesis of written and oral Torah, there are many contributors. as far as moses in concerned, remember he had been brought up in the...

Well, no. My point is more pedestrian. I'm just saying that we do have a sort of concrete reality to recognize. Call it mentality, emotional make-up, predispositions, cultural conditioning, the template of the body, the gut - the nine-tenths of the iceberg below (or beyond) our so-called faculty...

Hi BB. (response to your point 2) Would it be within the tradition to posit a Moses as already in possession of much of the tradition – particularly creations stories, stories of the patriarchs, most of mitzvot by then already traditional – before he underwent his special revelation that led to...

Okay, I'll bite. How do you? Shanti.

Well, not exactly. This was just a response to your interesting debate. And as sub-text there's always that ego-driven desire to be understood. Shanti.

Tracing these influences is probably a fool’s errand – hence, my interest. I mean it’s the whole impossible question of the mythological/philosophical soups the Hebrew/Jewish tradition passed through as it elaborated its foundational texts. Depending on the dating you accept, that’s close to...

This seems to me a kind of odd way of putting the question. Both Christianity and Islam claim to be fulfillments of the Hebrew scriptures; they both specifically and repeatedly reference these scriptures, so it's not like there is some great mystery as to the "common link". As to the content of...

Cheers, Juan. Hope all is well with you. (My own magisterium is held over a tiny expanse firmly located somwhere in the realm of fools.);)

That’s the problem with saying stuff here – you never know when someone’s going to come along and dig it up again. I’ve just read through a debate from like 5 years ago between Bob x and BB, all about Redaction Theory or the Document Hypothesis. It was an interesting debate, though as a lot of...

Hi again. When I said near the beginning of course I was talking about well before CE, at least back to the Babylonian captivity, which I understand by all accounts represented a decisive turn in the history of the tradition. But I agree that when you take an evolutionary view of things, it’s...

Thanks Dauer. But leaving aside the more tangential superstitious or mystical beliefs, there are the more important ideas about the afterlife and especially the resurrection of the dead. The afterlife I understand doesn't get near the attention it does in Christianity and is not dogmatised but...

Hi Dauer. I have heard that modern mainstream Judaism in general tends away from these elements. What it be fair to say that this stuff had some importance in early phases? Say following the Babylonian exile throught at least to the beginning of the common era? Everyone's heard of the Essenes of...

Many people believe that certain aspects of Jewish tradition were fairly late developments and were borrowed from or heavily influenced by Iranian religion, especially Zoroastrianism. I'm referring of course to ideas of heaven and hell, demons and angels, ressurection of the dead, last judgement...