me taters & me tantrums


All
our religious
people have been
living together for many ages
and still they tend to misunderstand each other,
but of course you don't have to be religious to do so:
any living being can find itself in conflict with almost any other fellow human?
In August last year we have been writing about Rabbi Eleazar Ben Dama & 'snake bites':
any bible text or for that matter any part of holy scriptures can fuel disagreement as well as agreement about life's situations & variations through the ages
by sages with and/or
without wages!

It all depends how we use our stories:
with what intention we manage to practice our explanation & judgement!
In that Palestinian text from the third century A.D. shocking stories are told of Pharisees arrested
during the Trajanic persecutions of Christianity around 70 years after 'the Crucifixion'.
In all countries around the Mediterranean Sea Jews, Greeks, Romans & heathen
barbarians were living together in overcrowded cities.

In this last story
we have just another instance of a tale about about very close contact indeed between an early Rabbi
and the same {fictional} apostle of jesus whom we have already met in the Tosefta almost six
months ago.

There,
he offered to Rabbi Eliezer some pleasant and profitable words of Torah.
Later on he offers healing in the name of Jesus, his teacher.
Papias related on the authority of the daughters of Philip that Barsabas,
who was also entitled to the name Justus, was forced by unbelievers to drink poison of a snake
but in the name of Christ was preserved from harm
{Polycarp}.

In Eusebius's version of this story,
there is a deadly poison, but snake venom is not specified.
See also Mark 16:8 ~
nachshim yisu biydeihem we'im-yishtu sam-hamawet lo yawikeem
al-cholim yasimu et-yedeihem weyitav lahem!

And they went quickly,
and fled from the sepulchre;
for they trembled and were amazed;
neither said they anything to any [man];
for they were afraid!

Now when he was risen early
the first of the week, he appeared to Miryam haMagdalit,
out of whom he had cast seven devils: she went & told them that had been with him,
as they mourned & wept.

And they,
when they had heard that he was still alive, and had been seen of her,
believed not.

After that he appeared in another form unto two of then,
as they walked, and went into the country. And they went and told unto the residue:
neither believed they them.

Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat,
and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them
which had seen him after he was risen.

And he said unto them,
Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature!
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned!
And these signs shall follow them that believe;
In my name
shall they cast out devils;
they shall speak with new tongues;
They shall take up serpents;
and if they drink any deadly thing,
it shall not hurt then, they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover!

So then after the Lord had spoken unto them,
he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of G d
{Psalm 110:1}
and they went forth,
& preached every where,
the Lord working with [them],
& confirming the word with signs following!
~~~
Elegant support
for this interpretation has been offered,
suggesting Qohelet [Ecclesiastes] {Prediker} Rabbah 10:8
(paralleled by Bereshit Rabbah 79:6) for in that story,
a man is punished for violating a rabbinically ordained precept regarding the aftergrowth
of the Sabbatical year.

Such rabbinically ordained additional precepts are frequently referred to as a "fence around the Torah."

According to the narrative,
the one who pronounces the curse of Ecclesiastes 10:8 {see August 25th last year 2007}
upon the violator is none other than Rabbi Shimeon,
who himself had disagreed with the institution
of this "fence."

As elegantly put
"having the condemnation come from the very rabbi who is said to have opposed the majority
halakhah is a perfect device for whowing that rabbinic authority
(rather than halakhic truth]
is the issue!"

Interestingly enough
only just a century later Chrysostom would be fervently fulminating against Christians
who went to the Jews in search of miraculous cures.

Anyway,
in other words:
receiving the cure of a Christian in the name of Jesus is,
accordingly, an offense similar to that of Rabbi Eliezer's receiving Jesus's Torah.
In neither case is it the question that the Torah itself is false or wrong,
or mutatis mutandis that the cure is ineffective but since both come from mouths of sectarians
they must be avoided like snake bite!

ALL
of these
definitions & interpretations
are [still] up to our
own [present]
explanation
...

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05 jan 2008 - meld ongepast verhaal
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