Miracle—Something Jesus Really Did?

Last updated on: May 22, 2020 at 12:20 pm By Fellow Dying Inmate

Miracle, meaning an overriding of physical laws governing the universe, is a nice post-Enlightenment word alien to the Bible. Miracle. Jesus did many of them, right? The Synoptic Gospels, first century documents, speak of wonders and marvels, called “mighty deeds.” “John” calls these “signs” and “works.” The word miracle is not used anywhere in Scripture. Yet many Christians readily proclaim that Jesus performed miracles and that “it is right there in the Bible.” Spurious familiarity seems to be the most... Read more

Sea in the Gospels is a Person

Last updated on: May 20, 2020 at 3:06 pm By Fellow Dying Inmate

The Sea Jesus walked on is a great body of water to us, but to his contemporaries, was seen as a great other-than-human person. Sea and sky and land are all what’s according to our Western understandings. As you already know from regular English usage, a what is different than a who. The word who refers to persons, whereas what refers to things. Americans read about Jesus walking on the sea (Mark 6;45-52; Matthew 14:22-33; John 6:16-21) and take that sea to be a... Read more

Walking on the Sea

Last updated on: May 19, 2020 at 2:16 pm By Fellow Dying Inmate

Walking on the sea is a mighty deed of Jesus recorded in both the Synoptic Gospels and “John.” In recent posts, we have been exploring how God has “hardwired” us humans for experiencing God through over thirty-five alternate states of consciousness. In light of this, consider the story of Jesus walking on the sea and the experience of his disciples. A version of this story found in all the Gospels but “Luke,” who includes a similar account of Jesus calming... Read more

More Contradictions and Disagreements in the Gospels

Last updated on: May 16, 2020 at 5:50 pm By Fellow Dying Inmate

More contradictions and disagreements exist within the Gospels that Catholics and other Christians should not fear to acknowledge and explore. More contradictions and disagreements in the Bible!? Are you saying the Word of God is not true? Are you saying it is not reliable? Why are you always disparaging the faith and the Holy Bible? Above is a typical reaction from would be defenders of the faith. Lots of Catholic biblical fundamentalists these days pretend they are apologists doing apologetics.... Read more

Luke: First to Depict Mary Positively

Last updated on: May 13, 2020 at 8:41 pm By Fellow Dying Inmate

Luke expands the role of Mary positively, setting the stage for later Mariological development. Luke presents an enormous expansion of the role of Mary. Unlike the negative portrayal of Mary found in “Mark” (3:20-35), “Luke” depicts Mary proclaiming good news in her Magnificat (1:46-55). Indeed, the Lukan Mary is a chosen Israelite woman, favored and blessed by God. In contrast to the Markan Mary who attempts to obstruct Jesus’ mission, Mary is depicted throughout Luke as a disciple. Watch the... Read more

Visionary Seeing the Word

Last updated on: May 13, 2020 at 4:21 pm By Fellow Dying Inmate

Visionary and culture together interpret what God reveals in altered states of consciousness. Visionary—in the biblical sense—concerns more than just sight. A visionary sees visions and hears messages, soundtracks that go along with what he or she sees. This is reported throughout Scripture and the history of the Church and many other religious traditions. When a prophet or mystic experiences a vision or revelation, from where does the soundtrack come? What role does the human nervous system play in Biblical... Read more

Matthew and Mary: A Somewhat Nicer Picture

Last updated on: May 11, 2020 at 9:28 pm By Fellow Dying Inmate

Matthew follows Mark, but slightly improves his overwhelmingly negative picture of Jesus’ mother. Matthew makes Mary look a tad better than does “Mark.” But not by much! Last time we saw how the unknown, anonymous author called “Mark” considered Mary and the biological kin of Jesus—it was overwhelmingly negative. But “Mark” is not the only Gospel. Neither is it the only New Testament text to speak of Mary. Our attention turns to “Matthew” next, particularly his depiction of the mother... Read more

Techniques to See God

Last updated on: May 11, 2020 at 1:26 pm By Fellow Dying Inmate

Techniques exist that can tweak the human nervous system so as to induce trance and other altered states of consciousness, and these were present at the roots of Christian liturgy. Techniques to seeing the divine? Human beings have for at least 100 thousand years devised ways to enter into the sacred through visions and other altered states of consciousness. So says scholars Felicitas Goodman and John Pilch. Pilch explains there is good reason to hold that it is likely Australopithecines... Read more

“Mark” and Mary for Mother’s Day

Last updated on: May 10, 2020 at 5:29 pm By Fellow Dying Inmate

“Mark,” the earliest Gospel, does not present a flattering picture of Jesus’ biological family and mother. “Mark” doesn’t give us a nice, Mother’s Day image of Mary, the mother of Jesus (please see yesterday’s post about Mary). Indeed, the Markan portrayal of Jesus’ entire natural family can be quite shocking to Catholic Christians! Dated at around 70 CE, this is the earliest document we have that features Mary (Mark 6:3). Forty years pass since the death and resurrection and not... Read more

Seeing the Invisible God

Last updated on: May 10, 2020 at 12:45 pm By Fellow Dying Inmate

Seeing God was something experienced regularly and routinely by the community that produced “John’s Gospel” and is spoken of in this Sunday’s readings. Seeing God. Is that even possible (John 1:18; 1 Timothy 6:16)? How can human beings see holy and absolute Mystery? God is beyond all comprehension and description. It’s impossible to see God! Right?! Check out the video… And yet in this Sunday’s Gospel (John 14:1-12) Philip asks precisely for this (John 14:8)! He asks the Johannine Jesus... Read more