I wasn't personally there but I'd hazard a guess that Jesus wasn't referencing a Roman practice for humiliating those newly enslaved by conquest by reducing them to a psychological animal state.
"The yoke of the Law" was already a concept familiar to his audiences of Jews and Gentile God-fearers, one which would entail high expectations for service but was associated with ennoblement out of an animalistic state and freedom from enslavement to passions.
Given the importance of the Exodus story (we were slaves in Egypt and God brought us to freedom) I would suspect that if he'd been comparing either the Law or new vision of the inward Law to actual degrading Roman slavery practices his audience would've turned heel in disgust and Jesus would not be so much as a footnote in history.
I like this piece a lot - Regarding the section where you say that the lord's prayer is more accurately translated as referring to "debts" rather than "trespasses" : is this simply a way of saying that you believe that this gets the concept across more clearly(which is very interesting on its own), or is there etymology that also supports this idea?
Powerful. I don't want to suggest that you should write on drugs more often, but... well done.
I'll pray for speedy recovery, Yoshi
Yeah, if this was the drugs speaking, I'd like a prescription...
Agreed!
I wasn't personally there but I'd hazard a guess that Jesus wasn't referencing a Roman practice for humiliating those newly enslaved by conquest by reducing them to a psychological animal state.
"The yoke of the Law" was already a concept familiar to his audiences of Jews and Gentile God-fearers, one which would entail high expectations for service but was associated with ennoblement out of an animalistic state and freedom from enslavement to passions.
Given the importance of the Exodus story (we were slaves in Egypt and God brought us to freedom) I would suspect that if he'd been comparing either the Law or new vision of the inward Law to actual degrading Roman slavery practices his audience would've turned heel in disgust and Jesus would not be so much as a footnote in history.
Hi,
I like this piece a lot - Regarding the section where you say that the lord's prayer is more accurately translated as referring to "debts" rather than "trespasses" : is this simply a way of saying that you believe that this gets the concept across more clearly(which is very interesting on its own), or is there etymology that also supports this idea?
We are entertained!
Well done Yoshi, a great service to all of us who enjoy the spirit of *proper* history.
I loved this. Great stuff.