and my mouth shall still proclaim Your praise, but it’ll be really muffled and probably kind of indignant. You’re probably used to that, though, so i’ll just roll with it, i guess
when you study early christianity and realize that no one really knows what happened but you try to discover the truth anyway:
Can someone elaborate on this? Give me some info about early Christianity?
Of course! Here is a little context:
Unlike common perception, the early church was not actually unified; there were hundreds of different sects who each had their own opinion of who and what Jesus was. Each sect was, in a way, competing with each other, and it involved a shit ton of politics. In the end, the sects that won became the standard and all those that disagreed were “heretics.”
Among the first few decades after the death of Jesus, there was no actual documentation until ~50 AD, and all the written works (canon or apocryphal) were distortions of the actual “historical” Jesus. So trying to decipher the truth is near impossible.
I think it’s one of the moments in the gospels where Jesus is the most vulnerable and powerless. Like, he’s terrified. He’s literally interceding with God one last time to spare him from the horrors to come even though he knows he has to go through with it. He knows there’s no way out, at least in most interpretations. And he asks his closest friends to stay awake with him and watch for the man who is coming to betray him and the men who are coming to humiliate, torture, and kill him. And they fall asleep multiple times. Brutal. Of course they’re reconciled to Jesus after the resurrection; Jesus forgives the disciples and cooks breakfast with them and laughs with them and teaches them but man. Gethsemane was not a shining moment for Jesus’ friends.
If I was going to preach on this text I would say it highlights how we all fall asleep on God a lot. We aren’t capable or being what God needs/wants us to be all the times, and sometimes we don’t even try to be. And seeing that played out through the incarnation, where Divinity experiences the limitations, pangs, and fears of flesh makes meaningful relationships with individual humans is sobering. It’s also one of the many moments in the gospels where we see Jesus praying and I think prayer is something a lot of Christians don’t understand or have trouble doing, so it reminds us that prayer is always a good thing. God is with us even in the Gethsemanes of our lives, when the sun wont be rising for a long, bloody night yet.
No you don’t understand how frustrated I am that we always depicted the Apostles as old men, especially when it comes to during-Jesus-alive stuff.
They were probably late teens to early 20s, given the time and the description and some Biblical passages.
They were not ancient old men with long beards and wrinkles at the Last Supper.
They were young adult rebels with a cause.
where my punk-rock apostles at
I can’t remember where, but the bible says that Jesus was the only one who was old enough to pay the temple tax required by Jewish law, none of the disciples had hit that age. A quick google tells me that Jewish men pay it from the age of 20 – all of the disciples were teenagers.
Why this is possible:
Probaly they were all underage except for Peter. In Exodus 30:14-15, Jewish law states that every male over the age of 20 is to pay a half-shekel as census offering when they visit the temple of God. In Matthew 17:24-27, Jesus instructs Peter to “fish up” this tax. Peter finds a shekel in the mouth of the fish he catches; enough to pay the tax for two men, himself and Jesus. You could conclude that the others were underage and did not need to pay.
In Matthew 11:25, Luke 10:21, and John 13:33, Jesus calls his disciples little children .
We learn that Peter had a wife when Jesus healed his mother-in-law. In those ancient times, a Jewish man receives a wife after the age of 18. Again, no other disciples’ wives are mentioned, so they are unmarried and probably under 18.
Jewish children began intensive study at young ages, but education for most concluded by age 15. For those bright (or wealthy) enough, higher education consisted of studying under a local rabbi. If they didn’t find a rabbi that accepted them as a student then they entered the workforce by their mid teens.
The disciples, already working-men, must have been rejected by other rabbis when Jesus hand-picked them for further education as his disciples.
In light of this, a younger age is more probable than older. A youth would be in the mindset of continuing his education. A man over 30 leaving his trade to follow a rabbi would be counter-cultural , although not impossible.
The behavior of the disciples, as detailed in the gospels, fits well with the zealous nature and foolishness of adolescence. Picture a gang of teens instead of work-hardened men in the boat when the storm hit, fear-stricken and waking up Jesus for help. The forgetful and distracted nature of youth helps me understand how they could hear Jesus say he would die and come back to life, yet act as they did when these things happened.
When we age them under twenty, we can understand Jesus’ patience with them, his low expectations of their behavior, and his teaching style.
so punk rock
This changed my life.
sorry but i’m laughing as i imagine them dabbing over some simple joke while jesus looks just tired and deadpan questions some of his life choices
The things they don’t teach you in Catholic school.
Jesus Christ was a brown Jew in the Middle East, conceived out of wedlock in an arguably interracial if not interspecies (deity and human) relationship, raised by his mother and stepfather in place of his absent father. He may not have had a Y chromosome. He spent his early youth as a refugee in Egypt, where his family no doubt survived initially on handouts from the wealthy (You think they kept that gold, frankincense, and myrrh from the wise men? Hell no, they sold that stuff for food and lodging). He later returned with his parents to their occupied homeland and lived in poverty.
Trump and his administration are xenophobic, misogynistic, racist, fear-mongering, warmongering, tax-dodging, anti-Semitic, anti-choice, anti-welfare, anti-equal pay, anti-LGBTQIA+, anti-immigration, support tax cuts for the rich, support Citizen’s United, want to keep refugees out of this country, want to limit our ability to speak against the government, plan to abolish the Affordable Care Act, and they wrap all of that up behind a banner of “Christian family values.” If you support them, you have no right to call yourself a follower of Christ.
it’s so rare, yet so fulfilling, to see the J-man on my dash
If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also
Matt 5:39
This specifically refers to a hand striking the side of a person’s face, tells quite a different story when placed in it’s proper historical context. In Jesus’s time, striking someone of a lower class ( a servant) with the back of the hand was used to assert authority and dominance. If the persecuted person “turned the other cheek,” the discipliner was faced with a dilemma. The left hand was used for unclean purposes, so a back-hand strike on the opposite cheek would not be performed. Another alternative would be a slap with the open hand as a challenge or to punch the person, but this was seen as a statement of equality. Thus, by turning the other cheek the persecuted was in effect putting an end to the behavior or if the slapping continued the person would lawfully be deemed equal and have to be released as a servant/slave.
I can attest to the original poster’s comments. A few years back I took an intensive seminar on faith-based progressive activism, and we spent an entire unit discussing how many of Jesus’ instructions and stories were performative protests designed to shed light on and ridicule the oppressions of that time period as a way to emphasize the absurdity of the social hierarchy and give people the will and motivation to make changes for a more free and equal society.
For example, the next verse (Matthew 5:40) states “And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well.” In that time period, men traditionally wore a shirt and a coat-like garment as their daily wear. To sue someone for their shirt was to put them in their place – suing was generally only performed to take care of outstanding debts, and to be sued for one’s shirt meant that the person was so destitute the only valuable thing they could repay with was their own clothing. However, many cultures at that time (including Hebrew peoples) had prohibitions bordering on taboo against public nudity, so for a sued man to surrender both his shirt and his coat was to turn the system on its head and symbolically state, in a very public forum, that “I have no money with which to repay this person, but they are so insistent on taking advantage of my poverty that I am leaving this hearing buck-ass naked. His greed is the cause of a shameful public spectacle.”
All of a sudden an action of power (suing someone for their shirt) becomes a powerful symbol of subversion and mockery, as the suing patron either accepts the coat (and therefore full responsibility as the cause of the other man’s shameful display) or desperately chases the protester around trying to return his clothes to him, making a fool of himself in front of his peers and the entire gathered community.
Additionally, the next verse (Matthew 5:41; “If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.”) was a big middle finger to the Romans who had taken over Judea and were not seen as legitimate authority by the majority of the population there. Roman law stated that a centurion on the march could require a Jew (and possibly other civilians as well, although I don’t remember explicitly) to carry his pack at any time and for any reason for one mile along the road (and because of the importance of the Roman highway system in maintaining rule over the expansive empire, the roads tended to be very well ordered and marked), however hecould not require any service beyond the next mile marker. For a Jewish civilian to carry a centurion’s pack for an entire second mile was a way to subvert the authority of the occupying forces. If the civilian wouldn’t give the pack back at the end of the first mile, the centurion would either have to forcibly take it back or report the civilian to his commanding officer (both of which would result in discipline being taken against the soldier for breaking Roman law) or wait until the civilian volunteered to return the pack, giving the Judean native implicit power over the occupying Roman and completely subverting the power structure of the Empire. Can you imagine how demoralizing that must have been for the highly ordered Roman armies that patrolled the region?
Jesus was a pacifist, but his teachings were in no way passive. There’s a reason he was practically considered a terrorist by the reigning powers, and it wasn’t because he healed the sick and fed the hungry.
Yes, and isn’t it telling that the state ultimately adopted Christianity and started teaching everyone that Jesus said to obey your parents and to just do what you’re told…else he’d send you to hell?
you know that line about “if a soldier forces you to carry his pack for one mile, carry it for two”?
there was a thing where roman soldiers could demand that civilians carry their gear, but only for a mile. obviously people did not like this. they had shit to be doing. they did not want to be some rando’s pack mule any more than people today would. also, it was kind of scary, because here’s this guy with a weapon saying “you’re my fetchit bitch or else.” and you had to go off with him wherever he wanted, up to one mile.
but jesus was all about the nonviolent resistance. i mean, sure, you could run, but then maybe they see you later and point you out to the cops, it’s a small world. maybe they chase you down and kick you around a bit. hell, maybe they show you their stabs. you gonna bring a sword of your own and make a duel out of it? that’s even worse than just carrying the damn pack.
so what you do is, you just keep carrying it.
at first they don’t notice the mile’s up. but then it starts feeling kind of long. they find themselves waiting for you to call time. but you don’t. you just keep going. they start checking the landmarks. are they lost? are they dreaming? are you stealing their shit? you can’t be, can you, since you’re right there. but you’re still HOLDING it. they’re wondering if they’re ever gonna get their centurion undies back. they could ask, but waitasec, you’re carrying their stuff, which is what they said to do, so that’s good, right?
but why are you still HERE?
are you trying to be friends? are you an assassin? are you a vet just helping a brother out? are you up to something? are you crazy? are you sleepwalking? are THEY sleepwalking? WHAT IS EVEN GOING ONNN NN N
at mile marker 2 you set the pack down and go “have a nice day!” and bail
and next time they think of handing their shit to some stranger, maybe they think again.
Yeh but you see it goes further than that. Roman law stated that any soldier could tell them to carry their pack for a mile, and that poor random person HAD do to it. But here’s the thing
They could only carry it for a mile, and if they carried it further (the assumption being that the soldier kept forcing the person to keep carrying it) the soldier could get in HUUUUUGE trouble.
So this soldier and some civilian (I believe it had to be someone who was not a Roman citizen?? I can’t quite remember) are walking along, and they hit the mile marker. The soldier demands his pack be returned.
“No no, allow me, I’m not tired!” Says the civilian, and keeps on walking.
The soldier keeps asking, maybe rather threatening, but the civilian just keeps kindly insisting to help, it’s not a problem, let me help you, etc. and continues walking.
It then gets to the point that the soldier has to be like “Hey, man c’mon, I could really get in trouble for this…please give it back”
What has just happened was a serious change in power dynamics. It went from the soldier being in control of the situation and treating the civilian as lesser, to the civilian being in control, and the soldier treating the civilian as an equal.
What Jesus was teaching was not to lay down and submit to authority, but how to passively command respect, to be treated as an equal.
I’m
It’s amazing how so many Christians have no clue just how radical Jesus was and how much they wouldn’t actually like him if he was around today.
Super interesting but is reblog it all for that last comment alone
Hello my fellow Catholic witches! So while I was looking through stuff to do for May, I came across Mary Gardens and I thought they sounded like something full of potential witchery.
What is a Mary Garden?
A Mary garden is a garden dedicated to Mary. It is full of plants relating to Mary and her son, Jesus. They also contain a statue of Mary and sometimes have benches and candles for prayer. Some people also add plants relating to other saints. Sometimes they are dedicated to a certain aspect of Mary (such as Our Lady of Sorrows). They can be as big as a park or as small as a flower pot.
Plants for a Mary Garden
Relating to Jesus
Grapes- His blood
Wheat- His Body
Hyssop- Used at the Crucifixion
Begonia- Heart of Jesus
Geranium- Heart of Jesus
St. John’s Wort- Jesus’ Blood
Snapdragons- the Child Jesus’ shoes
Passion flowers- Christ’s Passion (the stamens and pistils look like the nails and the crown of thorns)
Red Roses- Christ’s Passion (as the crown of thorns and the five petals are Christ’s five wounds)
Plants with thorns- the crown of thorns
Dogwood- the Crucifixion
Relating to Mary
All flowers are associated with Mary but here are some that have more specific associations.
Roses- The Marian flower. Said to be found in her tomb, and appear in most of her apparitions. Used during May Crowning. Their colors symbolize her as follows:
White – Mary’s Purity
Red- Mary’s Sorrow
Gold- Mary’s Glory
Lilies- Said to be found in her tomb and given to her by the angel Gabriel at the Annunciation
Forget-Me-Nots- Our Lady’s Eyes
Baby’s Breath- Our Lady’s Veil
Bachelor’s Buttons- Our Lady’s Crown
Bleeding Hearts- Mary’s Heart pierced by swords
Iris- the swords that pierced Mary’s Heart
Marigolds- Mary’s gold
Violets- Our Lady’s Modesty
Lavender- one legend says this plant got its scent when Mary laid Jesus’ clothes out to dry on it
Lily-of-the-Valley- Said to have grown from Mary’s tears as she stood at the foot of the cross
Damask Roses- the roses Our Lady of Guadalupe told St. Juan Diego to gather
English Daisy- Mary’s Love
Maidenhair Fern- Mary’s Hair
Field Bindweed- Our Lady’s Cup (from a German legend that Mary freed a wine seller’s cart after giving her a drink. Because he did not have a cup, Our Lady used the flower of Field Bindweed instead)
Morning Glory- Our Lady’s Cloak
Hawthorn- traditionally used during May Crowning
Honeysuckle- Our Lady’s fingers or Our Lady’s stick
Hydrangea- Ave Maria
Jasmine- Mary
Larkspur- Mary’s tears
Moonflower- Our Lady of the Night
Primrose- Mary’s candlestick
Juniper- Our Lady’s Shelter, said to have hidden the Holy Family during the flight to Egypt
Snowdrops- used at Candlemas
Sweet Alyssum- Blessed by Mary
Tulip- Mary’s Prayer
Water lily- Our Lady of the Lake or Stella Marius
Parsley- Our Lady’s Little Vine
Sage- Mary’s shawl
Thyme- Mary’s humility
Fennel- Our Lady’s Fennel
Spearmint- Mary’s mint
Horehound- Mother-of -God’s tea
Dandelion- Mary’s bitter sorrow
Catnip- Mary’s nettle
Valerien- Our Lady’s Needlework
Chamomile- Maiden’s weed
Other plants
These relate to saints or to God.
Columbine- the Holy Spirit (because they look like doves)
St John’s Wort- Named after one of the many St. Johns
Chicory- the Heavenly way
Coriander- St. John’s head
Dill- Devil away
Tarragon- Named for St. Martha’s dragon
Shamrock- St. Patrick
Lilies- St. Joseph’s staff
Peony- Pentecost Rose
Nasturtium- St. Joseph’s flower
Tritium- the Holy Trinity
Ivy- Where God has Walked
Hollyhock- St. Joseph’s staff
Gladiolus- 12 Apostles
Grape Hyacinth- St. Joseph’s bells
Basil- St. Anthony of Padua
Cosmos- St. Michael’s flower
Aster- Michaelmas daisies
Chrysanthemum- All Saint’s flower
Cherry- used on St. Barbara’s feast day
Pussy willow- used on Ash Wednesday
Palm- used in Palm Sunday
Pansies- the Holy Trinity
Blackberries- last gathered on Michaelmas
What does this have to do with witchcraft?
Well, many of these plants are commonly used in witchcraft. They can be used to call upon a certain saint for help (doing a protection spell, use Cosmos- St. Michael’s flower). Or they can be used based on their association (Maidenhair fern for beauty spells because it’s associated with Mary’s hair).
bennu rising 