Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Jerome's Interpretation

As to 1 Corinthians 7 verse 1 - 2

St. Jerome explained in his On Marriage and Virginity, From Letter XXII to Eustochium and from the treatise Against Jovinian, “If it is good not to touch a woman, it is bad to touch one, for there is no opposite of goodness but badness”.

My NIV Bible says in 1 Corinthians 7 '1Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good for a man not to marry ( or have sexual relations with a woman ). 2But since there is so much immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband.'

I understand Jerome's translation as ' ..for there's virtue but no vice in it.' If it is good not to touch a woman, it is bad to touch one, but in reality it is good to touch a woman, so it is not bad. Because there's only virtue in having sex, but no vice in it.

Not a country but a region

Social Insurance Agency lost 50,000,000 data that certifies who are eligible to receive annuity. The people who are working there are going to return a part of their bonus they got in this summer.

Building and land of Acting Embassy of North Korea located at the centre of Tokyo, recently -1 month ago bought by them are confiscated by court today. That values some 30 million US dollars for the compensation of non performing loans or bad loans the associated bank had many years ago.

Both are today's headline here in Japan. The power of politics is overwhelming other criteria.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Why Apocrypha was Apocrypha? II

The Wisdom of Ben Sira was written 180 to 175 and canonised in Catholic and Orthodox, but not in Protestant. Therefore we can read it in Septuagint, Vulgate. The reason this was taken out of canon in Protestant was probably judging from its contents. They are regarded as a copy of Proverbs.

Maccabees were written in 100 BC and those Hebrew texts were lost.

The rest of Daniel& Esther might be added later. Not found in Hebrew canon.

Book of Baruch is not found in Hebrew Bible but found both in Sepuagint and Vulgate.

Book of Tobit is not found in Hebrew Bible but found both in Septuagint and Vulgate. Therefore this book is canonised in Catholic and Orthodox Churches. This book was probably written in 2 century BC. But the contents were about 8 century BC.

Book of Judith is dominant in historical anachronism. This book is considered as a religious novel. Therefore excluded from Protestant canon.

Wisdom of Solomon was written in 2nd century BC. No Hebrew texts are found. Platonism & Stoicism can be read and we can find allusions to Gospel of Matthew. Found in Septuagint.

Prayer of Manasseh is apocryphal by all denominations. Found in Septuagint.

Esdras was written 1st century BC to 1st century AD. Canonised only in Eastern Orthodox Church.

Typical characters Apocrypha have are Not found in Hebrew canon. Written between 2nd to 1st century BC. Found in Septuagint, Vulgate. Reformation was a restoration to Jewish tradition. There was a reason for it.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Why Apocrypha was Apocrypha?

Apocrypha refers to the collection of books written between the end of Old Testament around 500 BC and the beginning of the New Testament around 50 AD. Basically the Old Testament is a record between 1300 BC to 500 BC and the New Testament between 50 AD to 100 AD. Apocrypha covers those missing links between two testaments.

During that period, Jewish cultures were on the verge of extinction. Overall Hellenisation was on the process in those Levant area. Antiochus (reigned 175 -163) was probably sarcastically called Epiphanes and went too far to proceed this movement. But many important books were written, those include

1 Esdras (Vulgate 3 Esdras)
2 Esdras (Vulgate 4 Esdras)
Tobit
Judith
Rest of Esther (Vulgate Esther 10:4-16:24)
Wisdom
Ecclesiasticus (also known as Sirach)
Baruch and the Epistle of Jeremy (all part of Vulgate Baruch)
Song of the Three Children (Vulgate Daniel 3:24-90)
Story of Susanna (Vulgate Daniel 13)
The Idol Bel and the Dragon (Vulgate Daniel 14)
Prayer of Manasses
1 Maccabees
2 Maccabees - From Wikipaedia

Those Apocrypha books were included in Catholic Canon but excluded from Protestant Bible in the Reformation in 16c.

My assumption why Apocrypha was excluded is probably because Protestant needed to establish authority against Roman Catholic and Greed Orthodox Churches. Jewish states were reigned by Ptolemaic (323 to 198) and Selucid (198 to 166). Jewish state enjoyed its independence from 142 to 63 after the Maccabean revolt in 167 and following struggle that lasted till 142. Protestant didn't like to follow Roman and Greek authority in Church, so they went too far to hide those scriptures written during that period.

Apocrypha is just hidden, God reveals as Epiphanes.

Creation? or Evolution?

Missing link is a hypothesis there might have existed the pre humans that connect apes to modern humans. The reason of this claim is as follows. Although we can find many species closer to each other in the case of other animals, we can't find a closer species to modern humans. So assumption here is we must have had pre humans that were much closer to modern humans but we haven't found them -that is called ' missing link'. And the archaeological evidence that proves the existence of pre humans are not found yet. Missing link is used somehow to explain human's unique existence from other species. Missing link is supportive to creationist' s insistence.

Even if some result proves man's existence merely dated back to 6000 years ago, that doesn't tell anything whether humans existed before 6000 years ago.

Evolution was led from many scientific experiments and partly from archaeological evidence, but not entirely from artifacts. Lack of evidence in artifacts has nothing to do with the support of any theories.

So whatever the reason some believe a man was created by God around 6000 years ago.

But I believe 4.57 billion years ago the Earth was born and 3.7 billion years ago life on Earth started. 200,000 years ago current humans were born. 6000 years ago human civilisation started.

As to the reply to your question, yes, I think so. Our species were originated from a common human ancestor that appeared in some part of Africa 200,000 years ago. The number of our ancestors was considerably fewer than now.

And most important thing is here.

Creation? or Evolution? That's an obsolete dichotomy. It is unknown whether life was born by itself or created by God. But life evolves. If you are a creationist, you can say ' humans are a form of life that were brought by God on the Earth some 3.7 billion years ago.' If you are an evolutionist, you can say ' humans are a form of life that were born on the Earth some 3.7 billion years ago. ' Life evolves, but nobody knows the origin of life was spontaneously appeared or brought by some intelligent Being with intention.

Monday, June 11, 2007

Incest was not taboo

Incest was forbidden because it was the easiest way for mating. Probably before civilisation, many humans kept on practicing this for too many years. Incest became taboo mainly from economic reasons. Suppose if we got married to one of our parents, we can inherit their property. But remember we can automatically inherit their property because we are their child, so we don't have to get married to them in order only to inherit their property.

If we got married to a person from other family, we can inherit property that belongs to other family. From the same reason even if we got married to one of siblings, we find no economical merit on this since our siblings merely inherit a part of our parents' property. That's why we are always encouraged to get married to a person from other family that owns more property than us anyway.

Prostitution

I thought about why prostitution is prohibited legally here. Because it is the easiest way to get money, everyone would be trying to do this job if it is permitted by law. That must be destroying the country's economy. Because so many people will be engaged in this job, few can work in more productive field.

Battle of conscience

In the end it's the patient's freedom to see a doctor who honors his direction or change a doctor who ignores his wish. Of course he can choose not to go to see a doctor in the first place or in the end. A doctor can merely suggest a better way to take but he can't force his patients to undergo his way.

Respectable believers won't sue any doctor even if he did what his patients feel detested. But once lawsuits were held, the doctors won't win. He needs to pay compensation for the psychological loss of the patients. But the amount of compensation might be significantly lower in comparison with the benefit the doctor brought. In short, lawsuits are counterproductive and less beneficial. What was important was not keep away from blood itself, but what he did to avoid them. His conscience won't question himself if he did best what he could before his conscience.

For example, as to blood transfusion, products. It's better for him to emphasise the sacredness of blood rather than the risks blood has. Medically speaking, blood products or transfusion has more risks than other treatment. However probably Moses prohibited it from the health risks blood has. First successful blood transfusion was reported after blood type was found in 18c and blood products are a result of modern medicine. Moses won't prohibit the use of blood in medical purpose for this health reason if now.

Usually people without faith are eager to live just longer, but people like you don't want to live against your faith, instead want to live well in accordance with God's will. Society, doctors ought to respect the patient's wish first. The most important thing is the doctor won't be under inquisition for the allegation of euthanasia even if it involved the cases of life and death. Because he did his best to save the life of patients within a range all he allowed to do.

Euthanasia often take places in hospice and it's not illegal these days when the patients themselves wished firmly. Even if the cases that involve the vegetable man, who has lost his consciousness and just live through the life maintenance apparatus. If the patient's family wished to take away the apparatus, some doctors do with this consent. This medical act is not publicly admitted yet, but it has been held these days under the tacit consent with society, law enforcement.

Refusal to transfusion ought to be understood in line with this current movement in society. The happiness of the individuals ought to be determined by each individuals, this is not a matter people other than himself have a say.

Martyr

Religious people more or less believe in life after death though the notion varies. So they are not afraid of death, or rather they are eager to start another life after their death. Martyr is their ideal form of death. Because otherwise they can't expect another life they hope for. Some religious people are willing to welcome this way to reach death. The desire to martyr shows itself in some refusal to current medicine.

Monday, June 4, 2007

Delusion




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Sunday, June 3, 2007

Delirium




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