:-) Hey, it's been decades since I've done this proto-Marxist, liberal, liberation-theology infuenced, biblical exegesis kind of stuff - I suppose there just some things that atomatically come back to you ...!
On 16 Mai, 14:14, frantheman <[email protected]> wrote: > On 16 Mai, 12:44, e_space <[email protected]> wrote: > Jesus displayed righteous > > > indignation when "barbarians" were using a "holy temple" as a place to > > ply their trades. Lets think about this for a moment. Does it really > > matter where one makes their gold from selling frankincense and > > myrrh? > > > First of all, if "god" created heaven and earth, then all places on > > earth are holy. Secondly, Jesus didn't design or build the temple, > > wasn't a member of it, and really had no business telling the > > merchants what to do there. NO place is holier than another, except in > > perception, which of course motives a large percentage of homo- > > sapians, > > On a point of fact, e, your exegesis of this event, is based on a > factually false impression of the backround of and the actual issues > involved in the cleansing of the temple, the earliest description of > which can be found in Mark 11:15-19 (the story is also told in Mt > 21:12-17, Lk 19:45-48, Jn 2:14-16). The general consensus is that, > given the presence of congruent narratives in all the first sources, > the story has a pretty firm grounding in the earliest traditions and > has a high likelihood of factual origins. > > The basic point is that the Temple system was a massive parasitic rip- > off machine. The High Priests nominated the Temple area as sacrally > holy ground, which would prohibit the exercise of commerce within its > presincts. Given that Jews saw themselves as divinely obliged to make > pilgrimage to the Temple and sacrifice there, this was an > inconvenience to those who wished to purchase sacrificial animals (the > weren't always killed - doves were released) on the spot. The priests > upped the ante however; sacrificial animals had to be certified for > purity. So you either had to buy a certificate of purity on the spot, > or buy a ritually certified as pure, also on the spot. But commerce > was forbidden on the Mount. No problem, you just had to establish a > ritually pure temple currency - with these coins you could then trade > in the Temple area. So you had to have ritual money-changers. > Certified as ritually pure, of course. And who did all the > certification? Right, the priests. > > This is the kind of scheme worthy of comparison with Newman and > Redford in "the Sting." With the difference that it was completely > legal, not subject to any outside interest and completely in your > face. And this was the system which got Jesus pissed. This is > certainly the point emphasised in the synoptic stories. It was a > strike against exploitative corruption and also against - rather than > in favour of, as you claim - the separation of the sacral from the > secular world. One of Jesus' central teachings was the overcoming of > the sacral-secular duality - everything is sacred; so there's no > reason to prohibit the use of ordinary money on the Temple Mount. > > The Johannine version (written 70 years after the events they > described and a result of intensive meditation on, discussive and > reworking of the tradition [under strong influence of other > philosophical and religious traditions]) goes on with deeper symbolism > with the opening of deeper themes through allusions to Jesus' body as > Temple, a prophesy of the passion, etc. But, fundamentally the > Johannine tradition concurs with the synoptic trope of the overcoming > of the cesura between sacral and secular, developing this further in > the concept of Word (Logos) made flesh. > > Francis --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Minds-Eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
