posted
James Henry Breasted final chapter, The Dawn of Conscience:
In law and mythology the Hebrews drew much from Babylonian civilisation; but in morals, in religion, and in social thinking in general…the Hebrews built up their life on Egyptian foundations…The fundamental conclusions that form the basis of moral convictions, and continue to do so in civilized life at the present day, had already been reached in Egyptian life long before the Hebrews began their social experience in Palestine, and those Egyptian moral convictions had been available in written form in Palestine for centuries when the Hebrews settled there…The sources of our inheritance of moral tradition are therefore far from having been confined to Palestine, but must be regarded as including also Egyptian civilization. Posts: 42930 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
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1865-1935 James Henry Breasted was one of the most widely known members of the University of Chicago faculty, a popularizer and textbook writer as well as America's first teacher of Egyptology. His field of work also captured the attention of religious-minded philanthropists like John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who were intent upon learning more about the ancient Near East. Working when serious professional archaeology was in its infancy and unconstrained by many governmental restrictions, Breasted's discoveries and purchases of artifacts helped shape the American image of past civilizations. His travels in the Near East evoked romantic images of Arab sheiks, ancient lost cities, tribal warfare, and buried treasure of the sort discovered at the tomb of Tutankhamun. In the years before oil irrevocably changed Western perceptions of the ancient Fertile Crescent, few adventures stimulated popular expectations more than Breasted's archaeological explorations.
Trained in Egyptian, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic at Yale under William Rainey Harper, and in Berlin, Breasted's interest in ancient cultures drew him first to Egypt and then to Mesopotamia. Ancient Records of Egypt, published in 1906, was a five-volume work that contained his English translation of the most important Egyptian historical texts held in Europe at that time. In addition, he conducted a pioneering epigraphic survey in Egypt during two seasons, 1905-6 and 1906-7. With the help of a photographer and an assistant, he set about recording as much as he could of the tombs and temples along the banks of the Nile. This work is recognized today as crucial to the understanding of ancient Egyptian history and culture.
Arranging for an expedition halfway around the world in 1900 was no small task. Dealing with balky porters, negotiating with foreign bureaucrats whose demands and authority were often vague, overcoming problems of weather and terrain, and surmounting the logistical difficulties of reaching inaccessible locations were some of the problems Breasted confronted on a routine basis. While in the field, he was constantly faced with shortages of funds and problems from home. To be sure, he was not helpless.
Aware of the popular interest in his work, Breasted was not averse to turning the lure of buried tombs and lost cities to his advantage. Going directly to potential donors, often without consulting University administrators, his fundraising activities were a constant point of contention. Frequently successful, if not always well loved, Breasted managed to raise the necessary funds to support his overseas expeditions as well as to help underwrite the University's Near Eastern programs on campus. Today's Oriental Institute evidences his persistence and enthusiasm and the interest he was able to cultivate in others.
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Foreword It has now become a sinister commonplace in the life of the post-war generation that man has never had any hesitation in applying his increasing mechanical power to the destruction of his own kind. The World War has now demonstrated the appalling possibilities of man's mechanical power of destruction. The only force that can success- fully oppose it is the human conscience - something which the younger generation is accustomed to regard as a fixed group of outworn scruples. Everyone knows that man's amazing mechanical power is the product of a long evolution, but it is not commonly realized that this is also true of the social force which we call conscience - although with this important difference: as the oldest known implement-making creature man has been fashioning destructive weapons for possibly a million years, whereas conscience emerged as a social force less than five thousand years ago. One development has far outrun the other; because one is old, while the other has hardly begun and still has infinite possibilities before it. May we not consciously set our hands to the task of further developing this new-born conscience until it becomes a manifestation of good will, strong enough to throttle the surviving savage in us? That task should surely be far less difficult than the one our savage ancestors actually achieved: the creation of a conscience in a world where, in the beginning, none existed. The most fundamentally important thing in the developing life of man has been the rise of ideals of conduct and the emergence of character, a transformation of human life which can be historically demonstrated to have begun but yesterday. At a time when the younger generation is throwing inherited morals into the discard, it would seem to be worthwhile to re-appraise these ancient values which are being so light-heartedly abandoned. To gain any adequate conception of the value of ideals of conduct to the life of man we must endeavour to disclose the process by which men first gained discernment of character and appreciation of its value. As we look back into human beginnings we discover at once that man began as an unmoral savage. How did it come about that he ever gained any moral dictates or eventually submitted to the moral mandate when once it had arisen? How did a world totally without any vision of character rise to social idealism and learn to listen with reverence to voices within? Over against the visible and tangible advantages of material conquests how did it eventually happen that there arose the first generation of men with comprehension of unseen inner values? Why should not the young man or woman of today reject as outworn the inherited moral standards of the past, of whose origin neither of them has any knowledge? The ancient documents which furnish an answer to these questions, and which reveal the origins of our inherited ideals, are presented in this book in translations accompanied by enough discussion to make them fairly intelligible. They disclose the dawn of conscience, the rise of the earliest ideals of conduct, and the resulting Age of Character - a development not only wonderfully fascinating to follow step by step, but also a new vision of hope in times like these. Some of these ancient sources are delightfully picturesque oriental tales, and such the reader will traverse with ease and even pleasure. Others are not so easily assimilated and if the young reader - for this book is intended especially for the new generation - finds himself mired in rather heavy going and inclined to give it up, I suggest that he read at least the epilogue, which serves to put the amazing human development from barbarism to the Age of Character as disclosed in this book into its proper setting and against its appropriate back- ground. Like most lads among my boyhood associates I learned the Ten Commandments. I was taught to reverence them because I was assured that they came down from the skies in the hands of Moses, and that obedience to them was therefore sacredly incumbent upon me. I remember that whenever I fibbed I found consolation in the fact that there was no commandment, "Thou shalt not lie," and that the Decalogue forbade lying only as a "false witness" giving testimony before the courts where it might damage one's neighbour. In later years when I was much older, I began to be troubled by the fact that a code of morals which did not forbid lying seemed imperfect; but it was a long time before I raised the interesting question: How has my own realisation of this imperfectation arisen? Where did I myself get the moral yardstick which I discovered this shortcoming in the Decalogue? When that experience began, it was a dark day for my inherited respect for the theological dogma of "revelation." I had more disquieting experiences before me, when as a young orientalist I found that the Egyptians had possessed a standard of morals far superior to that of the Decalogue over a thousand years before the Decalogue was written. Such personal experiences have now become fading memories as I look back upon them across more than forty years of researches carried on in the endeavour to determine what evidences on this fundamental question of the origin of morals have been preserved among the ancient monuments in oriental lands. As these researches have progressed, I have been more and more convinced that the results should be made intelligible to any average reader, and that the present generation of young people, who may be troubled with such fundamental questions as I was, should be able to ascertain the facts. From time to time I have formulated historical sketches of the development of early man's higher life before the rise of civilised Europe, especially summaries of the facts drawn from the monuments of Egypt. In 1912 some of these results went into a simply written historical textbook for American schools. A more mature discussion of the moral and religious development of ancient man was presented in the same year to the students of Union Theological Seminary in the Morse Lectures, and later to the students of Cornell University in the introductory course of the Messenger Lectures under a new foundation devoted to "Evolution," established by Doctor Messenger. Of these two courses the Morse Lectures were duly published. (James Henry Breasted, The Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt. (New York, 1912). Finally at Bryn Mawr College, in the introductory course under the new foundation of the Mary Flexner Lectures, the author undertook a more developed survey of the whole subject, which, however, like the Messenger Lectures at Cornell, has never been published. Fundamental conclusions drawn from those lectures and some of the actual text of the Morse Lectures are included here without quotation marks. For assistance in the arrangement of these earlier materials, in the compilation of the illustrative scheme, and in the preparation of the index, proof-reading, etc., I am greatly indebted to Doctor Edith Williams Ware. As far back as 1912 in the Morse Lectures then published, the author stated his conviction that a group of Egyptian papyri written in the Feudal Age around 2000 B.C. were more than merely showy literary products, as the prevailing opinion of Egyptologists had at that time long considered them. In the author's opinion these compositions contained clear evidence of being social tractates, the earliest known discussions of society, written by their ancient authors as campaign propaganda in the earliest crusade for social justice. Their authors were thus the first social prophets. Over twenty years of subsequent contemplation of these documents has only confirmed the author's opinion. To accept a social interpretation of these sources is to do for the evolution of Egyptian civilisation what socially enlightened historical critics, the so-called "higher critics," had long ago done for the development of Hebrew civilisation. In the case of Hebrew civilised development, however, historical criticism was very slow to apprehend and accept this social reconstruction and interpretation. The same has been true of the author's interpretation of the social evolution of Egyptian religion and morals, especially on the basis of the above papyri of the Feudal Age. His interpretation has, however, been hospitably received in France. It was accepted and used by his lamented colleague, Georges Benedite of the Louvre and the Institut de France; and has likewise been taken up and elaborated by Alexandre Moret, Maspero's successor in the College de France, and Benedite's successor in the Institut. It can hardly be doubted that this social interpretation of the Egyptian sources and a social reconstruction of Egyptian religion as the earliest adequately known chapter in the evolution of morals and social idealism will find general acceptance, just as the analogous interpretation of Hebrew history has done. Since the lectures mentioned above were delivered the discovery of new documents, especially in Egypt, has not only substantially increased our knowledge, but has also made quite certain the social significance of the Feudal Age papyri. The most extraordinary revelation has been the fact that the Wisdom of Amenemope, preserved in an1l an Egyptian papyrus in the "British Museum was translated into Hebrew in ancient times and, circulating in Palestine, was the source for a whole section of the Old Testament Book of Proverbs. How many modern clergymen, requested to preach before some convention of business men, have taken as text the quotation from the Book of Proverbs "Seest thou a man diligent in business, he shall stand before kings"? It is not likely that any such clergyman ever prefaced his sermon with the observation that this text was taken by the Hebrew editor of Proverbs from a much older Egyptian book or moral wisdom. This discovery has added profound significance to the fact that civilised development in the countries surrounding Palestine was several thousand years earlier than that of the Hebrews. It is now quite evident that the ripe social and moral development of mankind in the Nile Valley, which is three thousand years older than that of the Hebrews, contributed essentially to the formation of the literature which we call the Old Testament. Our moral heritage therefore derives from a wider human past enormously older than the Hebrews, and it has come to us rather through the Hebrews rather than from them. The rise of man to social idealism took place long before the traditional theologians' "age of revelation” began. It was a result of the social experience of man himself and was not projected into the world from the outside. The fact that the moral ideas of early men were the product of their own social experience is one of profoundest meaning for thinking people of today. Out of prehistoric savagery, on the basis of his own experience man arose to visions of character. That achievement which transformed advancing life, human or animal, on our globe was one from a characterless universe, as far as it is known to us, to a world of inner values transcending matter-a world for the first time aware of such values, for the first time conscious of character and striving to at tain it. With that achievement man had discovered a new country, but he had not yet explored it. The discovery itself was an incomparably more difficult achievement than the subsequent explorations. The discovery is a recent event and the explorations have consequently but just begun. They are an unfinished process which must be continued by us - by every generation. What we of this generation need more than anything else, therefore, is confidence in man. I believe that the story of his rise is an incomparable basis for full confidence. Among all the conquests which made that rise possible the supreme achievement is the discovery of character. Not projected from the outside into a world of unworthy men by some mystic process called inspiration or revelation, but springing out of man's own life two thousand years before the theologians' "age of revelation" began, illumining the darkness of social disillusionment and inner conflict, a glorious vindication of the worth of man, the dawn of the age of conscience and character broke upon the world. No conception of a spot-light of Divine Providence shining exclusive on Palestine shall despoil man of his crowning glory of his life on earth, the discovery of character. It is the greatest discovery in the whole sweep of the evolutionary process as far as it is known to us. In the course of that evolution the position of the Hebrews is now historically established, and this volume endeavours to make that position clear. In this connection there are reasons why the author would like to call attention to the fact of his life-long interest in Hebrew studies. For years he taught Hebrew in university classes, and had among his students many future rabbis. Among modern Jews he has many valued friends. The opinions regarding the historical place of Hebrew civilisation set forth in this book are based solely on judicially minded study of the ancient documents; but in a world in which anti-Semitic prejudice is still regrettably evident it seems appropriate to state that the book was not written with the slightest anti-Semitic bias. On the contrary the author's admiration of Hebrew literature, which began in his boyhood, has always been such that his judgment of it was much more likely to be affected by a favourable bias than otherwise. The ancient civilisation of the Hebrews was a great demonstration of developing human life - of the advance of man toward new visions of character and of social idealism. It is for us now to recognise the larger human process transcending racial boundaries - a process in which the Hebrews occupied an intermediate stage - and to catch the full significance of the fact that man arose to high moral vision two thousand years before the Hebrew nation was born. James Henry Breasted. Burro Mountain Homestead, New Mexico June 28, 1933. Introduction to the Age of Conscience I believe it was Diderot who attempted to instruct his daughter in the philosophical bases of moral conduct, as she was passing from childhood into womanhood, and failing to discover any such bases, found himself in an embarrassing dilemma. As a matter of experience in actual living, however, Diderot never relinquished his dauntless belief in the value of virtuous conduct. In an age like ours, in which there are many, who, while not wholly repudiating Diderot's conviction, nevertheless insist on their own personal standards of virtue, one feels the necessity of being able to look back into the remoter reaches of the human career and to discern something of the historical origins of our ideas of moral conduct.
There was a time when man was completely unaware of conduct-when all that he did was a matter of instinct. It was an enormous advance when he first became aware of his conduct, and a still greater advance when he reached a point where he discerned conduct as something to be approved or disapproved. The appearance of this discernment was a step towards the emergence of con- science. As conscience developed it finally became a powerful social force, reacting to influence the same society, which had earlier produced it.
In the life of the prehistoric hunter, struggling to survive among the fierce and terrible mammals about him, it was a profound change, a fundamental advance, when he first began to hear whispers from a new world, which was dawning within him. Here was a new trumpet call, which, unlike the tug of hunger or the panic call of self- preservation, did not stir one impulse alone while leaving all the others cold, but for the first time marshalled all the battalions of the human soul. What was the source of these new inner voices, how did they gain such mandatory power in the life of the individual man, and how did they rise to become such deep-seated and commanding forces in human society? We repeat that this whole development was a social process, the later stages of which are well within the range of our observation, for they took place within the historic age, that is, within the age of written documents. The decipherment of the lost languages of the Ancient Near East has enabled us to read the written records, which disclose the dawn of conscience, the stages by which it became a social force and produced the Age of Character, at the beginning of which we still stand. It required probably not less than a million years of human development for man to build up an enlightened life out of which began to issue the Age of Character. The slow transition to it was an achievement of yesterday, although the man of today is not yet aware that he has so recently entered a new country, which he has not yet learned to possess. His failure to discern that he is wandering in unfamiliar country, only very recently entered is in some measure due to his historians. They tell him that human history falls into great periods such as the Age of Monarchy, the Age of the Empires, the Age of Democracy, etc. - useful and instructive distinctions, which however do not penetrate far into the nature of advancing human life. Another type of historian recognises the importance of the Mechanised Age and the accompanying Industrial Revolution, while the engineers who tout "technocracy" summarise the advance of man exclusively in terms of power. The archaeologists find it convenient to divide the earlier course of human life into several periods: the Stone Age, the Copper Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age; while the palaeontologists, after enumerating an impressive series, the successive stages of rising animal life, tell us that we are now reaching the close of the Age of Mammals. Convenient or necessary as these terms all may be, they inevitably remain in some respects superficial. Even the Age of Democracy and the Mechanised Age, as terms, suggest little of the intellectual emancipation, which brought them about. Much more instructive and significant designations of the stages of human progress would be the Age of Conscience and Character. which began some five thousand years ago, and the Age of Science ushered in by Galileo over three hundred years ago. To these fundamental human developments history-writing has hitherto usually devoted but scanty attention. Man became the first implement-making creature, not later than the beginning of the Ice Age, probably a million years ago, and possibly earlier. At the same time he also became the first weapon-making creature. For perhaps a million years therefore he has been improving those weapons; but it is less than five thousand years since men began to feel the power of conscience to such a degree that it became a potent social force. Physical force, reinforced by triumphant science during the last three centuries, wielding ever more cunningly devised weapons, has been operating for something like a million years; higher and more elusive inner capacities arising from social experience have been socially at work for only about five thousand years. The Age of Weapons is thus doubtless a million years old; while the Age of Character made its slow and gradual beginning between four and five thousand years ago. It is time that the modern world should catch something of the profound significance of this fundamental fact; it is time that it should become a part of modern education. It is therefore the purpose of this book to set forth the historical facts and to present the leading ancient records from which they are drawn, showing that we are still standing in the grey dawn of the Age of Character - facts that are a fair basis for dreams of a noonday, still very far away to be sure, but nevertheless yet to follow upon that dawn. bAfter this book had been written I noticed the prophetic observation which I have placed on the title page, and which my memory of youthful reading of many years ago had failed to retain. By sheer force of intuitive vision as a philosophic seer, the High Priest of New England transcendentalism discerned what is perhaps the most significant truth in the entire range of modern life. In Emerson's day it could not have been demonstrated to be more than a belief or an impression; but since the sage of Concord has passed on, investigation of the ancient history of the Orient has disclosed it as a historical fact. It is the purpose of this volume to make accessible to the average reader the historical evidence upon which our new knowledge of this great fact is based. Quotations taken from the Dawn of Conscience by James H. Breasted Established is the man whose standard is righteousness, who walketh according to its way - The Grand Vizier Ptahhotep of Memphis, Twenty-seventh Century B.C. More acceptable is the virtue of the upright man than the ox of him that doeth iniquity - Instruction Addressed to Prince Merikere by his Pather, an Unknown Pharaoh of Heracleopolis, Twenty-third Century B.C. Righteousness is for eternity. It descendeth with him that doeth it into the grave, ….. his name is not effaced on earth, but he is remembered because of right - The Eloquent Peasant of Heracleopolis, Twenty-third Century B.C.
A man's virtue is his monument, but forgotten is the man of evil repute - Prom an Egyptian Tombstone, about the Twenty-second Century B.C.
The people of his time shall rejoice, the son of man shall make his name forever and ever, . . . Righteousness shall return to its place, unrighteousness shall be cast out - Neferrohu, Prophet of Egypt, about 2000 B.C. O Amon, thou sweet Well for him that thirsteth in the desert; it is closed to him who speaketh, but it is open to him who is silent. When he who is silent cometh, lo he findeth the Well - An Ancient Egyptian Wise Man of about 1000 B.C. Canaanite civilisation had therefore reached an advanced stage under centuries of Egyptian occupation and was tinctured through and through with Egyptian elements when the Hebrews invaded the country. The Hebrews consequently, on entering Palastine, were in immediate contact with a highly advanced composite civilisation of the Caananites, built up largely out of Babylonian and Egyptian elements. This Caananite civilisation had already passed through a long social experience during which there developed also many cultural elements due to the Canaanites themselves. Indeed it was without doubt the very language, which the Hebrews found in Palestine, the Canaanite speech, current there at that time, which the Hebrews adopted and which has descended to us as the Hebrew of the Old Testament. Unhappily we know little of the moral history of these people before the Israelitish invasion. - James H. Breasted in the Dawn of Consciece. James H. Breasted Books The Dawn of Concience The Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt A History of Egypt A History of Ancient Egyptians Right I have Loved, and Wrong I have not loved. My will was that no injustice should be done to any widow or orphan, and that injustice should be done to orphans and widows was not my will. I strictly punished the liar, (but) him who laboured I well rewarded - Extract on the tomb of Darius the Great, Persia. We think our civilization near its meridian, but we are yet only at the cock-crowing and the morning star. In our barbarous society, the influence of character is in its infancy - Emerson - Essay on Po
Posts: 42930 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
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Let me say though that God calls Egyptians his people
quote:Isaiah 19:25: Whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.
There is something though about the Hebrews coming out of Egypt a Nation. But God was in the Life of the Hebrews almost exclusively, because he Loved them.
God Rules all nations. and though the Isreali Are his chosen people. he did intervene in the lives of other Nations. He saved the Ninevites after they repented, Israels enemies.
quote: Jonah 3:4-10 4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:
8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.
9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.
He also Showed through the messages in the Bible hinting to the Isreali what their mission was:
quote:
Isaiah 45:22: Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.
quote: Psalms 117:1-2
Praise the LORD, all nations; Laud Him, all peoples! For His lovingkindness is great toward us, And the truth of the LORD is everlasting. Praise the LORD!
quote: Psalms 22:27-28 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, And all the families of the nations will worship before You. For the kingdom is the LORD'S And He rules over the nations.
quote: Psalms 148:11-13
Kings of the earth and all peoples; Princes and all judges of the earth; Both young men and virgins; Old men and children. Let them praise the name of the LORD, For His name alone is exalted; His glory is above earth and heaven.
He Chose Cyrus a Babylonian King as his Arm to save the Israeli.
quote:
Isaiah 45:1
45 Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut;
Isaiah 45:5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
He crushed Nebuchdezzar because he thought himself a God and When he repented, restored his kingdom to him.
quote: Daniel 4:25
25 That they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.
He blessed Ruth a Moabite women and made her a part of the lineage of Jesus.
quote:Ruth 1:4 4 And they took them wives of the women of Moab; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth: and they dwelled there about ten years.
See It Is probably always Gods plan to bring together the people. So He Accepted a Enemy of the Hebrews nation Ruth as being in the lineage of the Son Of God. He saved Ninevites when they were at war with the Isrealis. It all probably goes back to Jesus Christ message of Loving your enemies.
quote: Acts 10:34: Opening his mouth, Peter said: "I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, 35but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him.…
God probably separated them from the rest of the Nation so they could teach the rest of the Nations about the 1 true god after there knowledge of God grew. They did not do that, So Jesus Christ Came as the Son of God probably To teach mankind how to Become closer to God. God loved the world so much that he sent his son as an final way for the world to be saved. Remember that for 400 years before Christ God did not send prophets because Israel was wholly set on going their own way. The Prophet John was sent to prepare the way of the Lord. Then Isaiah 53 the suffering servant Jesus Christ came to close the chapter on The Acceptance of all nations to Him, John 3:16-17.
Posts: 9651 | From: Reace and Love City. | Registered: Oct 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Child Of The KING: Hebrews built up their foundation on God.
God Chose them as his peculiar people.
Let me say though that God calls Egyptians his people
quote:Isaiah 19:25: Whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.
There is something though about the Hebrews coming out of Egypt a Nation. But God was in the Life of the Hebrews almost exclusively, because he Loved them.
God Rules all nations. and though the Isreali Are his chosen people. he did intervene in the lives of other Nations. He saved the Ninevites after they repented, Israels enemies.
quote: Jonah 3:4-10 4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:
8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.
9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.
He also Showed through the messages in the Bible hinting to the Isreali what their mission was:
quote:
Isaiah 45:22: Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.
quote: Psalms 117:1-2
Praise the LORD, all nations; Laud Him, all peoples! For His lovingkindness is great toward us, And the truth of the LORD is everlasting. Praise the LORD!
quote: Psalms 22:27-28 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, And all the families of the nations will worship before You. For the kingdom is the LORD'S And He rules over the nations.
quote: Psalms 148:11-13
Kings of the earth and all peoples; Princes and all judges of the earth; Both young men and virgins; Old men and children. Let them praise the name of the LORD, For His name alone is exalted; His glory is above earth and heaven.
He Chose Cyrus a Babylonian King as his Arm to save the Israeli.
quote:
Isaiah 45:1
45 Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut;
Isaiah 45:5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
He crushed Nebuchdezzar because he thought himself a God and When he repented, restored his kingdom to him.
quote: Daniel 4:25
25 That they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.
He blessed Ruth a Moabite women and made her a part of the lineage of Jesus.
quote:Ruth 1:4 4 And they took them wives of the women of Moab; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth: and they dwelled there about ten years.
See It Is probably always Gods plan to bring together the people. So He Accepted a Enemy of the Hebrews nation Ruth as being in the lineage of the Son Of God. He saved Ninevites when they were at war with the Isrealis. It all probably goes back to Jesus Christ message of Loving your enemies.
quote: Acts 10:34: Opening his mouth, Peter said: "I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, 35but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him.…
God probably separated them from the rest of the Nation so they could teach the rest of the Nations about the 1 true god after there knowledge of God grew. They did not do that, So Jesus Christ Came as the Son of God probably To teach mankind how to Become closer to God. God loved the world so much that he sent his son as an final way for the world to be saved. Remember that for 400 years before Christ God did not send prophets because Israel was wholly set on going their own way. The Prophet John was sent to prepare the way of the Lord. Then Isaiah 53 the suffering servant Jesus Christ came to close the chapter on The Acceptance of all nations to Him, John 3:16-17.
Jesus Christ freed us from the myth of a chosen people that's why the Isrealites tried to have the Romans kill him.
Jesus ended the concept of religion. He did not want people to belong to a religion, as illustrated by his attack on temple worship. He taught that any man could be chosen, if he just prayed to God.
Then as now religions have been used to justify war and mistreatment of your fellow man.
Jesus wants us to have faith and pray. Always fighting against the unjust and evil. .
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Jesus ended the concept of religion. He did not want people to belong to a religion, as illustrated by his attack on temple worship. He taught that any man could be chosen, if he just prayed to God.
I noticed you didn't include women in your statement.
Temple worship is something the Egyptians were big on. The Christians call it church
And the idea that God exists and if you pray to a specifically defined single God you will be chosen and granted eternal life is a strongly religious idea.
_________________________________________
"Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." -- John 14:6
"Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” -- Acts 4:12
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." -- Romans 6:23
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast." -- Ephesians 2:8-9
"But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me." --Luke 19:27
Jesus ended the concept of religion. He did not want people to belong to a religion, as illustrated by his attack on temple worship. He taught that any man could be chosen, if he just prayed to God.
I noticed you didn't include women in your statement.
Temple worship is something the Egyptians were big on. The Christians call it church
And the idea that God exists and if you pray to a specifically defined single God you will be chosen and granted eternal life is a strongly religious idea.
Not really.
To belong to a religion you must pay dues and support the institution and religious leader.
If you are Jewish, Muslim or Christian you are not recognized as a good believer unless you regularly attend temple, mosque or church. Jesus made it clear prayer was the only requirement demanded by God to illustrate your faith.
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Tukuler
multidisciplinary Black Scholar
Member # 19944
posted
quote:Originally posted by Clyde Winters:
If you are Jewish, Muslim or Christian you are not recognized as a good believer unless you regularly attend temple, mosque or church.
Total nonsense.
Are you a converted Jew or born a member of 'Am Yisra'el that you know Hokmath Yisra'el? No.
Tarya"g
If you know nothing about Judaism then you need to hush your mouth.
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Tukuler
multidisciplinary Black Scholar
Member # 19944
posted
@ King
Jesus and the Greek Scriptures have absolutely nothing to do with Yisra'el as a people or its wisdom.
The People Israel is the son of god not some man born out of wedlock who was sired by someone other than the woman's husband or bethrothed.
The concept of conception from any spiritual creature, or whatever, on a woman is totally against what Torah teaches -- the Holy One of Yisra'el doesn't get horny nor have any actual flesh and blood descendents.
The Eternal let it be known that Yisra'el (the people) is His "son the firstborn."
Being Shemi the Muhammedan Arabs also understand that the Holy One begets NOT, NOR is He begotten.
This Son o' God deal is not part of Hokmath Yisra'el. Cf here.
If you are not a righteously (orthodox or Sepharade) converted Jew or born a member of the People Yisra'el you need to keep your comments on us and our literature to yourself and most important of all keep all Greek Scripture references well away from Hokmath Yisra'el of which you know not one thing. This isn't religion it's a total way of life that western Xians simply can't comprehend.
Another much abused notion is that of the Chosen People. No non-Jews want to understand it refers to Yisra'el being chosen to receive and implement what is in Torah and yes certain Hasidim also abuse the concept in same way non-Jews do but Yisra'el was chosen to be a "nation of priests" IF they stick to the covenant.
Cf here.
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posted
^^^ And what is your opinion of the Breasted remark that opens the thread
also according to the bible why did God bring the ten plagues upon Egypt?
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Tukuler
multidisciplinary Black Scholar
Member # 19944
posted
I have written here often enough about "Israel's Debt to Egypt" and listed three books I used to vend that detail what in Hokmath Yisra'el was borrowed from Egyptian spiritual ideas.
Exposition of the Exodus as an historic event is outside of rational discourse. There are plenty of Jewish works you can consult if you want to know the Observant Jewish Idea about things but the text of B*reshiyth lists a few. Go read your Bible or better still try the written Torah or Tana"kh.
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If you are Jewish, Muslim or Christian you are not recognized as a good believer unless you regularly attend temple, mosque or church.
Total nonsense.
Are you a converted Jew or born a member of 'Am Yisra'el that you know Hokmath Yisra'el? No.
Tarya"g
If you know nothing about Judaism then you need to hush your mouth.
quote:Originally posted by Tukuler:
quote:Originally posted by Clyde Winters:
If you are Jewish, Muslim or Christian you are not recognized as a good believer unless you regularly attend temple, mosque or church.
Total nonsense.
Are you a converted Jew or born a member of 'Am Yisra'el that you know Hokmath Yisra'el? No.
Tarya"g
If you know nothing about Judaism then you need to hush your mouth.
...
Temple worship is also required in Hebrewism. This is evident the Torah section of the Birchot Hashachar, or the Morning Blessings. Here the believer is reminded to ," visiting the house of study morning and night"
Please, Adonai, our God, sweeten the words of your Torah in our mouths and in the mouths of your people, the House of Israel. May we and our children and our children’s children, your people, the House of Israel–all of us–know your name and study your Torah for its own sake. Bless your, Adonai, our God, teacher of Torah to your people, Israel.
Bless you, Adonai, our God, King of the world, for you chose us from amongst all the peoples and gave us your Torah. Bless you, Adonai, giver of Torah.
These are things one is rewarded for in this life, but for which the principal reward is in the world to come: Honoring father and mother, acts of loving kindness, visiting the house of study morning and night, welcoming the stranger, visiting the sick, providing for a bride, accompanying the dead, deep prayer, making peace between a man and his friend, and Torah study is equal to all of these.
Jesus and the Greek Scriptures have absolutely nothing to do with Yisra'el as a people or its wisdom.
The People Israel is the son of god not some man born out of wedlock who was sired by someone other than the woman's husband or bethrothed.
The concept of conception from any spiritual creature, or whatever, on a woman is totally against what Torah teaches -- the Holy One of Yisra'el doesn't get horny nor have any actual flesh and blood descendents.
The Eternal let it be known that Yisra'el (the people) is His "son the firstborn."
Being Shemi the Muhammedan Arabs also understand that the Holy One begets NOT, NOR is He begotten.
This Son o' God deal is not part of Hokmath Yisra'el. Cf here.
If you are not a righteously (orthodox or Sepharade) converted Jew or born a member of the People Yisra'el you need to keep your comments on us and our literature to yourself and most important of all keep all Greek Scripture references well away from Hokmath Yisra'el of which you know not one thing. This isn't religion it's a total way of life that western Xians simply can't comprehend.
Another much abused notion is that of the Chosen People. No non-Jews want to understand it refers to Yisra'el being chosen to receive and implement what is in Torah and yes certain Hasidim also abuse the concept in same way non-Jews do but Yisra'el was chosen to be a "nation of priests" IF they stick to the covenant.
Tukuler, No need to disrespect Jesus Christ Conception. If God can make a Donkey Talk like a Human, and Make a Whale Eat and spit out Jonah. Then he can Do Whatever He chooses since he is GOD and not MAN. Is anything too Hard For Him?
Also I don't think religion defines Christians, We have a personal Relationship With Jesus Christ. Religion can't save. It's salvation through Jesus Christ that Saves.
I understand what you say by the Israelis being chosen as "Nation of Priest". But I really believe that God wanted the Israelis also to show the other Nations the 1 true God and unite the people to Serve the Most High. The verses posted, are not different from the Jewish Scriptures of the same.
Malachi was the final prophet of the Hebrew's. in the Tanakh he states Elijah would come before the Lord's awesome day. This was Israelis final Prophet. This was 400 years before Jesus Christ.
Why Did God not send anymore Prophets after Malachi if the Israeli nation was pleasing to God?
23. Lo, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord, כג. הִנֵּה אָנֹכִי שֹׁלֵחַ לָכֶם אֵת אֵלִיָּה הַנָּבִיא לִפְנֵי בּוֹא יוֹם יְהֹוָה הַגָּדוֹל וְהַנּוֹרָא:
24. that he may turn the heart of the fathers back through the children, and the heart of the children back through their fathers-lest I come and smite the earth with utter destruction.
^^This Link is Malachi 3:23-24 from the Jewish Tanakh. It mentions Elijah coming before the Lord coming. Why would God send another Prophet before the Coming Messiah of his day, Since Jewish belief is that the messiah is only a Man?
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Tukuler
multidisciplinary Black Scholar
Member # 19944
posted
Your questions are typical of someone who has absolutely no idea of what Judaism is or what it teaches.
Anybody can raise unfounded questions about anything they can't begin to intellectually grasp. Doesn't mean a thing.
Demi-gods fathered on mortal women by spirit beings is just pagan mythology. The Xian Scriptures are in Greek. Why?
Salvation through a condemned hanged child of a bethrothed woman impregnated by other than her espoused? Don't make me laugh.
Jews don't seek salvation. It's automatic. It comes only from the Eternal. All Israel have a share in the world to come (as do the righteous among the nations -- keepers of Noahhide Law).
Chabad TN"K. S'okay I guess but give me the JPS put up by Teimani Jews please.
Chabad??? A subsect of European Hasidic Ashkenazi Jews who, unlike Xians, are in error assuming a dead man who never fulfilled requirements of THE messiah is he, or even Y"Y forgive me is God Himself.
Jewish law allows the nations to have a partner alongside the Eternal but Jews are not. It's called shituph.
I'm not entertaining a Xianity vs Judaism debate with you. I could care less who or what you worship or believe to be the god. But I tire of non-Jews like you and Clyde writing what they know not.
Instead of accepting the Jewish explanation which has nothing to do with any 'believer' notions he replied to show further ignorance proving he has no idea that a beth hamidrash -- house of study is not the Beth hamiqdash -- the Temple or that several other houses exist (beth kenesset -- house of assembly; synagogue, beth tefillah -- house of prayer) and the beth tefillah can even be the property of an endowed individual, and that the Parnas not the Rabbi is man number 1 in a synagogue or that in the formative stages of Judaism rabbis were not paid and today's rabbis are paid only to compensate the money they'd make persuing their degreed profession (all rabbis are not synagogue officials, the majority are not).
People who don't know what they're talking about should shut up. If they really want to know they should ask to learn. Asking as a refutation or vindication is bigotry not an attempt to understand just a fake out way of saying MY dog's better than your dog.
The only reason you wrote your first post was to defend Xianity not to explain what relation Judaism and earlier pre-Judaism Israelite spirituality bears to Egyptian spirituality. You did it because your religion can't stand on its own but relies on borrowing, intact, Hebrew Scripture and distorting it with willful mistranslations to allign it with and use as proof of Greek notions of a demi-god savior.
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Tukuler
multidisciplinary Black Scholar
Member # 19944
posted
Well Lioness have you read any of Israel's Debt to Egypt yet? That link is a PDF of the GK Osei edition I used to sell.
Yes, its old but a good enough beginning. I have more current writings on the topic but more detailed for an intro.
What do you make of the Literature section of the book, the parallels between Egypt's "Wisdom Literature" and certain Proverbs, Psalms, etc.
The parallels should come as no surprise for as King pointed out per Hebrew Scripture the deity recognizes Ancient Egyptians as 'My people'. And there are other passages where deity reminds Israel that other nations were also helped out by the God of Israel no less than Israel itself and that a certain subset were considered a ransom for Israel.
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Tukuler
multidisciplinary Black Scholar
Member # 19944
posted
King
You may be interested in the rationalist Judaic principles of Maimonides (some Sepharadiym and all Teimaniym still pasqen by him), for interpretive balance particularly as regards angels and miracles like talking asses.
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