HIATUS
God's best to you & yours.
The rantings and musings of a student of life, the Bible, & the Constitution. Pour yourself a nice Scotch on the rocks, have a cigar, and pull up a comfy chair by the fireplace. It looks like we're in for a long, rough night...
.JERUSALEM (AP) — A dull-looking chart projected on the wall of a university office in Jerusalem displayed a revelation that would startle many readers of the Old Testament: the sacred text that people revered in the past was not the same one we study today.
An ancient version of one book has an extra phrase. Another appears to have been revised to retroactively insert a prophecy after the events happened.
Scholars in this out-of-the-way corner of the Hebrew University campus have been quietly at work for 53 years on one of the most ambitious projects attempted in biblical studies — publishing the authoritative edition of the Old Testament, also known as the Hebrew Bible, and tracking every single evolution of the text over centuries and millennia.
And it has evolved, despite deeply held beliefs to the contrary.
For many Jews and Christians, religion dictates that the words of the Bible in the original Hebrew are divine, unaltered and unalterable. For Orthodox Jews, the accuracy is considered so inviolable that if a synagogue's Torah scroll is found to have a minute error in a single letter, the entire scroll is unusable.
The scholars note where the text we have now differs from older versions — differences that are evidence of the inevitable textual hiccups, scribal errors and other human fingerprints that became part of the Bible as it was passed on, orally and in writing.
A Microsoft Excel chart projected on one wall on a recent Sunday showed variations in a single phrase from the Book of Malachi, a prophet.
The verse in question, from the text we know today, makes reference to "those who swear falsely." The scholars have found that in quotes from rabbinic writings around the 5th century A.D., the phrase was longer: "those who swear falsely in my name."
In another example, this one from the Book of Deuteronomy, a passage referring to commandments given by God "to you" once read "to us," a significant change in meaning.
Other differences are more striking.
Considering that the nature of their work would be considered controversial, if not offensive, by many religious people, it is perhaps surprising that most of the project's scholars are themselves Orthodox Jews.
"A believing Jew claims that the source of the Bible is prophecy," said the project's bearded academic secretary, Rafael Zer. "But as soon as the words are given to human beings — with God's agreement, and at his initiative — the holiness of the biblical text remains, even if mistakes are made when the text is passed on."
Labels: Word of God
Labels: government encroachment
We are more incensed with expression than we are the boy-raping murderers who worship the memory of that bearded child-molester. This is the same sophistry that gave us "don't fight back against the rapist because you will make him mad".
We are not temporarily calming a perp so we can get to our hideout gun. We are, unbelievably, discussing mollification of an avowed enemy, so that they might not riot and murder? They are continually murdering and slaughtering. The dude in Florida has actually very little to do with it despite protestations to the otherwise. They would have happily found another excuse, or dropped the excuse altogether and killed the victims as their holy text commands them to. Make no mistake, those people were going to die at the hands of these dogs, period.
The pastor is "accountable" because men of evil wait with baited breath for ANY AND EVERY excuse to butcher and maim?
The pastor is "accountable" for an act that is neither immoral, unethical, nor illegal?
I'm converting to Islam tonight so that I can make sure those abusive, narcissistic pieces of crap aren't offended.
Have we never encountered the mindset of a bully? Just as Gavrilo Princip said before his death, "The Germans would have found another excuse."
It is OK to do this if 5000 churches do it? But not if it is just 1 church does it?
Do we honestly think that these deranged thugs would be intimidated if 500,000 churches did it?
No, they would start strapping explosive belts on their favorite donkeys, giddy with the chance to avenge their slighted sensibilities.
When a population is praying for the chance to rape your daughter as they saw off her head, you had better not play this obscene pacification garbage. Because, if you do, the inbred grandchildren of these demons-in-human-skin are most certainly going to be running a rusty knife through the throats of your descendents, that is if your grandkids haven't already converted.
We've become too accustomed to allowing vipers free roam of our neighborhood. Rather than chop their heads off out on the lawn, we've taught our children to speak softly so they don't startle the snakes.
Until you get it through your head that the "vicious deadly animals" need to be killed, then your friends will get eaten no matter what. "Vicious deadly animals" will find a reason to eat whether you rattle their cage or not.
While being all "Let's not rock the boat" sounds good to whipped males who have forgotten their culture and carry some sort of guilt complex for the whole of the world may be en vogue these days, to those animal such thinking just makes you a weak fool to be used until it's your turn at the headman's block.
Wake up people. Some guys get it.
May great Fuck be upon Hadji, Islam, and mohammed the goat raping, pedophile, drug addicted piece of shit that can go choke on a bag of dicks.
I'm so sick of this pandering politically correct bullshit. . . I pray by the end of my life that I get a chance for revenge for 911.
I liked what John Travolta's character said in Swordfish when asked "who are we at war with?"
Anyone who impinges on America's freedom. Terrorist states, Stanley. Someone must bring their war to them. They bomb a church, we bomb ten. They hijack a plane, we take out an airport. They execute American tourists, we tactically nuke an entire city. Our job is to make terrorism so horrific that it becomes unthinkable to attack Americans.
Fuck this nice guy shit and lets destroy these animals.
American Flags are probably burned more than Unholy Korans at a ratio of more than 1000 to one.
I don't see Americans killing anyone over it.
The US fedgov burned many Bibles in Afghanistan, yet there were no riots or killings.
Labels: muslim mayhem
Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) this weekend called on Congress to reinstate the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004.
Lugar is the first GOP senator to call for increased gun control following the Tucson tragedy that killed six people and wounded 13 others, including Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. But Lugar, who supported the initial 10-year-long assault weapons ban when it passed in 1994, said he's not optimistic about the chances for passing gun control legislation this Congress.
“I believe it should be, but I recognize the fact that the politics domestically in our country with regard to this are on a different track altogether,” Lugar told Bloomberg Television’s Al Hunt Jan. 14.
Lugar also noted the increase in ammunition sales since the shootings, which he suspected was out of fear that Congress might pass far-reaching gun control legislation in wake of the tragedy.
A couple of lawmakers floated gun control legislation last week in wake of the tragedy, including one of Congress's fiercest gun control advocates, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.). Her bill takes the assault weapon ban slightly further by banning the sales and transfer of high-capacity magazines that the Arizona gunman used.
Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) suggested legislation making it illegal for anyone to knowingly carrying a loaded gun within 1,000 feet of certain high-ranking public officials, including members of Congress.
Neither measure is expected to go anywhere. An aide to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told POLITICO last week that he was not expected to support either effort.
Nonetheless, Lugar is going out on a limb by expressing his support for bringing back the now-defunct assault weapons ban – especially because local Tea Party activists have promised to field a primary challenger for the six-term senator. Lugar has a reputation for working across party lines in the Senate, and his support for gun control legislation would likely put him at odds with a more conservative GOP challenger.
Lugar also said in the Bloomberg interview that a Tea Party challenge is “not one that I welcome, but nevertheless, this is a democracy.”
Labels: Enemies Of Liberty
Labels: government encroachment, Sons Of Liberty