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Thank you for the replies. I understand better now. Bananabrain why do you feel so offended so easily around here? Has somebody actually called you a liar?

Interesting. But would God seek to give people riches and money or more important things such as happiness within the self?

I admit that I am not an expert. I would however postulate that there were many general cultural similarities across the Middle East and that smaller groups would either share cultural ideals as a matter of sharing a similar landscape, or else because larger neighbours explicitly exerted a...

Please excuse my ignorance but can you explain a little more slowly how you apply your reasoning to a specific story? I am genuinely interested in the idea but am finding it not well explained at the moment. You make too many conenctions with assumed knowledge that perhaps your audience does...

I too would be interested in more information on the issue of belief in Reincarnation among the Early Christians. Are there any explicit references rather than interpretations of meaning with reference to the Early Church Fathers and apocryphal writings?

I received it here. I have only just been able to access the internet again. I am glad to have found here again.

There are enough challenges and obstacles in life without having to face them all again! Sometimes I do wonder what it would be like to experience parts of my life again. But I know I would not fare much better even with experience.

I would like to have seen how Jesus behaved towards the children. I do not know why, other than it would signify something important to myself, without being able to communicate precisely what I mean within the frame of words. I would also have liked to have been present at the birth. Somehow...

Good post Thomas. And I like bananabrain's comments about waveforms. I am glad that I am not the only one who finds the search for specific meaning in the scriptures to be such a challenge. There are so many levels that different verses can be read.

It may sound sentimental but I would hope that the universe came into being as a process and act of love, nothing more.

I would hope that prophecy is not dead. To believe so would be to argue that God no longer wishes to communciate with humanity. An argument for those who argue for literalism first perhaps? I cannot see God abandoning all communication with ourselves on the grounds that a Book can explain and...

I have heard the word Midrash various times before now but I do not know what it means. I think it relates to a certain type of Jewish story. But what does it mean? Is it related to parable, or allegory?

I agree that the missing books of early belief are simply that. I am sometimes surprised at the extent to which canonisation was so narrow. I am also seeing strange " throughout this thread. Is that an issue that was supposed to have been resolved before now?

A much discussed point about the Bible is that it should not be the literalism of the words that define belief, but the personal understanding that is found between the words.

That is interesting that you note the passages that mention James and Judes position to Jesus as in the wrong order. Is it not possible that in having been written later in a literary form, that a clear chronological order of events might not always be evident? My thinking is that if two or more...

I have been ignorant and did not see this board. I did not even know it existed having only just seen it. I apologise for making no individual welcome but make a general welcome for all if that should suffice. Peace upon all, Dave

It is always pleasing to see the small fragments of a larger jigsaw of recorded history come alive. There is much about the Bible that is both ridiculed and exonerated by various interest groups. It is interesting to note the sheer neutrality of this excavation. A welcome calm in an otherwise...

The miracle workers of any age are subject to representation by propaganda by over zealous followers and hate filled enemies. The priority of belief is to ascertain some reasonable ground inbetween.

I agree that it must be a very recent interpretation. Otherwise we would have had atheism throwing it at Christians for centuries if true.

The Tree of Life in Genesis is based on the Tree of Life from the Gilgamesh epic?