BluePhantom
Educator (of liberals)
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- #21
It just occurred to me that one reason Jesus taught in parables so much of the time is because he foresaw the possibility of his teachings becoming corrupted by power. I mean, he saw it in the Jewish authorities right there in Judea. So by putting it all in riddles that worldly men would be intrinsically unable to understand, he insured that it would be preserved and passed along as part of Sacred Writ even though it went one-eighty degrees against what the Church taught in many cases (the authorities being unable to tell that it does). Think of the parabolic encryption as similar to the protective coating on a virus that lets it evade the body's initial defenses.
An interesting idea. I never thought of it that way. I always looked at the parables as a way to teach a very elevated principle in a way that a layman could understand. Of course Jesus is a bit of a historical problem himself isn't he? What I mean is that a Taoist looks at the Tao Te Ching and it was written by Lao-Tzu (at least presumably) so for a Taoist the doctrine comes right from the leader's mouth (or pen....whatever). Jewish theology says that Moses wrote the Torah so it came directly from him. You know, etc, etc....but with Jesus we have an interesting thing. We have nothing that came directly from Jesus. We have accounts from the disciples but at best that means we have "Matthew says this is what Jesus said". In the case of Paul, which is really the dominant author of modern Christianity, we have at best "this is what Jesus meant according to what I have heard from others who have told me what Jesus said".
When we take a step back and look at it historically and credentially...we have a real big problem here because whatever Jesus said is going to be filtered through the perceptions and the biases and the capacity for understanding of the second hand, third hand source, etc.
2 Peter chapter 3 for example issues a pretty stern warning that the writings of Paul should be largely ignored....yet Paul is the basis for modern Christian thought. Well who should we believe? Paul who never met Jesus or Peter who walked with Jesus for years? I can only say who I believe but i concede arguments can be made either way.
This is another example of why I say "don't listen to anyone else...let the Holy Spirit guide you" and if your intentions are pure and you open yourself up to the influence of the Holy Spirit fully, you will be guided to a good place.
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