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Originally Posted by desertgrandma
"interpreting" the scriptures? I think thats the problem in the first place. Every civilization, King, Pope, Messiah wanna be has put their own spin on it..we will never know what was truly written
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Even if we're fairly certain we have the original text, there's still the question of interpretation.
Consider the line "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live", that was the justification of things like the Salem Witch Trials. One question is what "witch" meant when it was written, and I've seen a suggestion that it properly refers to a poisoner. In a semi-arid area where water is the scarce resource and wells are critical things, anyone who might poison a well can certainly expect fatal responses from those around them.
Also, "witch" as used by the Salem folks meant someone who sold their souls to Satan. Satan is the Christian church's source of evil and great enemy of God, but that conception probably wasn't there back when that line originated. The early Jews weren't even monotheists. They recognized the concept that there were other Elohim. Yahweh was simply
their Elohim, who required that he be given precedence. The story of Moses besting the Pharoah's magicians can be read as "My god can beat your gods!", which Moses' god proceeded to do.
A background interest of mine is when the Jews
became monotheists, and when and how Satan got designated as chief bad guy and opponent of God.
As a side note, I believe Islam recognizes Shaitan, too, but has a different account of his fall. Christians believe he was guilty of the sin of Pride, and refused to bow before man when commanded because he considered himself superior. Islam believes Shaitan acted out of love. He loved God so much he simply couldn't bring himself to bow before anyone except God.
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Dennis