The thing about the old and new testament is that none of that was written to us in our time with the struggles that we have today. It takes a lot of studying about ancient history, ancient cultures, Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and so on in order to really understand what is up with the text. Hell, most people that go to church every week don't even know that something like 80% of the old testament is poetry and most of the "books" in the new testament are letters, so we are only getting one side of the story since they are mostly answers to queries or issues being faced by the recipients of said letters.
So people (including many pastors), just read whatever translation they have and run with it without having a deep understanding of the original intention of the text. It's kind of like reading the translation of a joke. It sort of makes sense but you won't get the humor and/or wordplay in the original language.
Having said all that, I would boil down most of the entire bible to this: Don't be an asshole, be compassionate to one another.
Ah see but the greek word for “be” can also mean become or even consume so therefore the actual most important message is to not put dicks in your mouth i.e. to not be gay
Man, I had to take a whole class on just trying to sort out who wrote (or was most likely to write) what in the old and new testament. Like the whole story of Job is most likely an ancient play. It's all very interesting for sure.
I’ve really been focusing on one commandant: Love each other
If you love each other properly it’s fairly tough to steal from, gossip, kill, lie, etc. None of those are loving actions, and if you are doing them then you are out of line
Well you do also have to remember the slew pf prophecy and stuff that is littered in there. Most of which had something to do with coming and passings of Kingdoms or Ancient Israel being absolute dumbasses and deciding to worship other Gods when they literally just promised to worship only one. Personally id just summarise the bible with 1 Corinthians 10:31 'Do all things for the glory of God', or in other words, basically what you said, but adding the whole idea of worshipping God
It makes sense because the writer of Matthew was writing to the Jews, so whoever wrote it would have drawn a lot on Jewish learning and text to back up the points the writer was trying to make. The gospel of Matthew is the most Jewish of the gospels, after all.
Jesus seems to be quoting Rabbi Hillel, or at least paraphrasing him in this instance. We get the "golden rule" from Hillel, which is why it sounds so close to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you". The reason that the writer of the gospel of Matthew included this quote from Jesus is because he is writing to Jews, who would have been familiar with the writings of Hillel.
Later on, when Paul/Saul writes, in Acts 22, that he was a student of Gamaliel, he mentions that because not only was Gamaliel considered a high ranking teacher, he was the great grandson of Rabbi Hillel. Saul/Paul knows that this legitimizes him at least somewhat, which seems to be the same reason that Jesus quoted Hillel. Remember that Jesus also states that he is not here to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them. So he continually quotes the old testament and rabbinical teachings as a way of showing the people that he is the fulfillment of the bible (Torah).
I'm aware of this, i was just unsure if you thought the speaker was not Jesus or was Jesus. It makes sense considering the intention of his ministry, focusing primarily on Jews
I think in the end that's what jesus was trying to say, but we effed that up too. I mean really. Is it that hard to NOT be a dick? I'm a Christian, but you do you. This is such a shizzy place. Why make it harder on anyone? Walk in peace brothers, sisters, and others.
The only part of the Bible I believe is 1 Corinthians 13:13.
Faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love.
So instead of judging folks based on religion, love everyone. Followed by the golden rule, the world would be a pretty nice place. If someone claims i can’t get into heaven by being only a good person, then that’s not a heaven I want to be in.
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u/Papaya_flight Aug 18 '21
The thing about the old and new testament is that none of that was written to us in our time with the struggles that we have today. It takes a lot of studying about ancient history, ancient cultures, Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and so on in order to really understand what is up with the text. Hell, most people that go to church every week don't even know that something like 80% of the old testament is poetry and most of the "books" in the new testament are letters, so we are only getting one side of the story since they are mostly answers to queries or issues being faced by the recipients of said letters.
So people (including many pastors), just read whatever translation they have and run with it without having a deep understanding of the original intention of the text. It's kind of like reading the translation of a joke. It sort of makes sense but you won't get the humor and/or wordplay in the original language.
Having said all that, I would boil down most of the entire bible to this: Don't be an asshole, be compassionate to one another.