Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
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
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I had an argument with a minister (fundamentalist and Baptist) about this sort of thing ... around the time I left the Christian church (I guess I was about 15 ...). My thought back then was that even if you assumed that a god existed, I doubted that he was going to start his holy book with "In the beginning there was a immense explosion, and billions upon billions of years later, there was a coallessing of atoms ...." (I was a proponent of an expanding universe at a very early age ... steady state just didn't appeal to me.)
He actually went to our house and asked my mother to make sure I didn't come to "his" church anymore. My mother informed him that she didn't want me living with braces on my brains, so she would make certain I didn't.
Yaaaay Mom!!!
