Matthew pt 5

16:26
26 For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his life? Or what will a man give in exchange for his life?

And of course, the only way to gain the world is to lose your soul. There have been people who came close to having enormous sway over the world who were not compromised, but they tend to get murdered. It's never the Dick Cheneys, the Donald Trumps, the Rupert Murdochs or the Bill Gates of the world who have to die young.

28 Most certainly I tell you, there are some standing here who will in no way taste of death, until they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom."

Interesting. How's that work? Because, in the late first century, everyone really did think the world was ending, and it sort of did, because the world they knew ceased to exist. The Age of the Ram was supplanted by the Age of the Fish. Or is this one of those metaphor passages?

21:4
4 All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying,
5 "Tell the daughter of Zion, behold, your King comes to you, humble, and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey."

YES! YES! *ahem*. Do I even have to say it? Okay, nobody cares what I'm giggling about anyway.

23:1-37
13 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.
14 "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men; for you don't enter in yourselves, neither do you allow those who are entering in to enter.
15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel around by sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much of a son of Gehenna as yourselves.
16 "Woe to you, you blind guides, who say,'Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obligated.'
17 You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold?
18 'Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obligated?'
24 You blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel!
37 "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!

Seems as though many people don't even know what the difference between a Pharisee and a Sadducee is.


While little or none of their own writings have been preserved until today, they seem to have indeed been a priestly group, associated with the leadership of the Temple in Jerusalem. Some say that they were not truly descendants of the High Priest Zadok, but rather the followers of another Zadok who rebelled against his Rabbinical Teacher.

Most of what we know about the Sadducees comes from Josephus, who wrote that they were a quarrelsome group whose followers were wealthy and powerful, and that he considered them boorish in social interactions.

Modern Christians often use the word "Pharisee" to describe someone legalistic , yet hypocritical, it's an insult to be called a "Pharisee". But the Pharisees were the ones who survived to create Rabbinical Judaism and were known to actually be less harsh than the Sadducees, so the word turns into a rather inaccurate and slightly anti Semitic reference. The Sadducees were the Temple leadership, the Pharisees the common local priests, the Sadducees were the ones who had Jesus arrested. The Pharisees didn't have that kind of power, and judging from the quote below, maybe they wouldn't have felt like trying.

In general, whereas the Sadducees were conservative and aristocratic, the Pharisees were eclectic, popular, and more democratic. The Pharisaic position is exemplified by the assertion that "A learned mamzer takes precedence over an ignorant High Priest." (A mamzer is an outcast child born of a forbidden relationship, such as adultery or incest; the word is often, but incorrectly, translated as "illegitimate" or "bastard.")


They're painted as bad because they argued with Jesus, but what else would you expect them to do? Some guy shows up calling himself a prophet and you're not going to go check him out? But lots of people are taught in Sunday School that the fact that they questioned him makes them suspicious, which is basically grooming children to not ask difficult questions. It may be subconscious now, but it could have originally been done on purpose-"Jews are unworthy because they are argumentative, don't argue or you won't be worthy either".

However, just because they might be using the wrong word doesn't change the basic point of the passage.

15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel around by sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much of a son of Gehenna as yourselves.

I didn't know Jewish priests went on mission trips. Did they? Doesnt' seem like something they'd do, considering everything else we've learned about them so far says they were most emphatically not interested in anyone non Jewish and not a resident of their own land. So I think... the person who wrote Matthew had complaints about a different set of priests. Well, it doesn't matter because if this were a movie, this would be the point when Jesus breaks the fourth wall and addresses the real audience.

Have you ever followed what happens when the Right Wing of the Western churches gets into a third world country? If there were already Christian groups, they set the people against the older groups, especially if the previous group in residence there was a Catholic organization.

Women start losing their rights-although at first it looks like things will be better for them they just end up exchanging one kind of misogyny for another. The concept of the "witch in league with the Devil" is introduced, and the definition of witchcraft changes to include shamanism and folk magic. In parts of Africa dominated by the religious right, children (often little girls) accused of witchcraft are ripped from their homes, handed over to a witch hunter to be tortured for months. In Nigeria, you can be arrested for homosexuality (while technically it's not supposed to happen, the religious leaders hold incredible sway). Certain Protestant religious leaders worked with certain Catholic religious leaders to crush liberation theology in South America.



That's it for Matthew. At least, the parts I want to write about right now.

I don't know when I'll do more, I'm really wiped out with some female problems, and I have to use what energy I have to write some of my fiction.