Is modern day Judaism the same as Ancient Judaism?
- Thread starter JohnB445
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Modern or ancient?
In this world His revealed Will,
as expressed in His Word-the Torah,
is eternal as is written;
"But the Word of our G-d shall stand forever."
"His words live and endure (eternally)"
"He will never alter or exchange His law."
In the upper spheres, the union between the soul and
G-d is eternal.
For G-d blessed be He and His Will tanscend time.
Here below however,
this union is within the limits of time,
for in this world the soul is under the dominion of time.
And the soul is united with G-d only while engaged in
Torah study or performing a mitzvah.
(Tanya)
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I think the OP was clearly using "ancient" to mean "before 70 AD," and possibly "in Old Testament times."
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Steve Petersen
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Apparently they aren't, given all the commentaries over the centuries; then there are all the extrabiblical traditions that have grown up over that interval.
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I wonder if Christianity had gotten off the ground the way it did without Paul.
Acts 9:1-9
He threw all what he valued from before, out the window.
Wonder what happened to those he was travelling with him,
they heard the voice too,
though they did not see the flash of light.
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Torah libary.
The libary of the Ponvezh Yesiva in Bne i Brak Israel
houses some 25,000, books.
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That's an interesting question. According to the narrative in Acts those traveling companions also witnessed the miraculous healing of Paul's sight when Ananias was guided by the Holy Spirit to visit and pray for Paul.
Some scholars think that the unimportant characters in the gospel who have names were people who converted to Christianity and became traveling eyewitnesses to strengthen the faith of early churches. The fact that these traveling companions of Paul are nameless suggests that they did not convert maybe.
I have noticed that people have a surprising ability to dismiss evidence that requires a dramatic change in world view. Multiple witnesses to an event ought to be pretty persuasive. Of course this story in Acts might be fictional. Historians have methods to separate historical texts from fictional texts, and I wonder what those methods say about "The Road to Damascus"?
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The one they chose instead of Judas is not named anywhere,
Acts 1:26.
The whole thing is very sketchy, too few details but big claims.
But Paul did spread it afar.
Something must have been driving him.
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I guess Acts says it was St. Matthias ( Saint Matthias - Wikipedia ), but there are other names in other sources (Tolmai, Zacchaeus, Nathanael).
I watched a documentary about Paul that mentioned some little known features of his biography. Paul might have gone to Petra for his first missionary activities. Paul also spent 14 years in his hometown of Tarsus after his conversion doing no missionary work. So something happened many years after Paul's initial conversion to Christianity that caused Paul to begin his missionary efforts. Also Acts contradicts some biographical details in the letters of Paul.
According to Bart Ehrman there are two versions of Acts surviving in manuscripts, and one version is 40% longer than the other version.
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It seems to me that the message from God is the effect produced on people rather than written words. So God might inspire Moses and somebody else might edit what Moses originally wrote and somebody else might edit that. God might actually inspire the editing to customize the original message to modern circumstances. So everything is God inspired. I might understand part of the Bible differently from somebody else, but both understandings are inspired by God and correct. ... I like to imagine that everything is going according to God's plan, because it seems more hopeful that way.
I suspect that Rahav knew that the leader of the posse had an appointment at her brothel every Friday night at 10pm. Since the posse left Wednesday morning then she was certain they would only be gone for 3 days.
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- Oct 28, 2006
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It seems to me that the longer version of Acts should be included within brackets just like the long ending of Mark - particularly where the longer version includes extra facts. Obviously there would be several bracketed sentences and phrases instead of just one in the case of the long ending of Mark, but I suspect that many modern Christians would like to have those facts available to consider.
It seems to me that the Bible translations should strive for truth. That truth might or might NOT be best represented by attempting to reconstruct the first version of these scriptures. Particularly in the case of Acts which among other things provides a history of early Christianity it seems that early Christian revisers might have just as much right as the original author to contribute overlooked facts and clarifications. Therefore these revisions should be included in brackets.
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More like 7%, but of course Bart Ehrman is not a reliable source.
To the best of my knowledge, no translation of the Bible uses the Western (longer) version of Acts, which occurs primarily in the 6th century Codex Claromontanus.
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It seems to me that the message from God is the effect produced on people rather than written words. So God might inspire Moses and somebody else might edit what Moses originally wrote and somebody else might edit that. God might actually inspire the editing to customize the original message to modern circumstances. So everything is God inspired. I might understand part of the Bible differently from somebody else, but both understandings are inspired by God and correct. ... I like to imagine that everything is going according to God's plan, because it seems more hopeful that way.
That which is permanent and unchangeable is truth
Torah is truth therefore permanent and unchangeable.
No word in Torah is outdated.
Different levels become more relevant at different times.
Some laws of Torah are no longer applied literally,
their mystical and deeper meanings are still relevant today
as ever.
Moses ascended a third time to recieve the oral Torah,
answers and explanations to all the thousands of questions
that he would be bestormed with.
I suspect that Rahav knew that the leader of the posse had an appointment at her brothel every Friday night at 10pm. Since the posse left Wednesday morning then she was certain they would only be gone for 3 days.
You are not allowed to ruin my favorite example. haha.
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Honestly, this is the first time I've run into this 'report' that Acts has two versions, a long and a short one. I'm going to have to look into this issue more deeply, and I appreciate that you brought this to our attention. It's important for me, particularly since Acts is one of my favorite books. I think I agree with you that the longer portions should be indicated in brackets, and I'm surprised that this hasn't already been implemented (let alone even mentioned) by a number of biblical scholars. I have to wonder why.
I'm afraid I have to agree with you, at least for the moment being that I'm just now 'wading into' this issue. I'm guessing there are several extenuating considerations that have driven the choices scholars have made over the ages in how to handle the book of Acts for the Christian public. I would like to think that they weren't simply being.......dishonest.
Thanks for mentioning this, Cloudy! I always like to have a new challenge that requires me to stretch my knowledge even more broadly.
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Rabbinical Judaism actually goes back to around the Babylonian Exile, predating Christianity by centuries. In fact, if we take the writings of the prophets seriously, it often stood in tension with the state religion focused on temple worship.
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