Monthly Archives: December 2018

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of arches and ruins

women’s court
where women get the short end of the stick

men’s court
men giving da women the short end of the stick from the beginning of time

that baobab tree is humongous

and a buffalo spider

symbiotic relationship

mangrove forest

green island, somewhere in the Indian ocean

this boardwalk is not for the fainthearted

snake fish. they told me it bites

i think the driver of this lorry decided to drive through the forest

for face to face with god, this is your church

i like this tree wall relationship

i love arches

there were these several water wells

i couldn’t tell what these niches in the mosque were for

the forest is a good place

the walling in the ruins was quite well done.

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It’s that time of the year

When most people travel or buy gifts to share with relatives and friends, some of whom they don’t like the rest of the year and would rather not meet them, but they are honouring family traditions.

For the young women and men, especially in my village, there is always an auntie asking when you will introduce a significant other and shortly they will be asking about grandchildren.

And finally, there are the atheists, agnostics and many others in between who over the years have come to detest Christmas with all the lights and the ads, especially the ads. I am here to rescue all of you. You see, we have evidence I was born on 25th of Dec. We have no evidence for Jesus or was he Emmanuel. What this means therefore, is, you can, instead of buying gifts for that aunt you don’t like, you can buy me. You can also toast a bottle to my long days or something. Or you can as well call me.

And this, my dear friends, is how you must celebrate my birthday. I have the birth certificate to prove it, just in case one has any doubts. Any Christian who has doubts will have to come with Jesus’ birth certificate before they can see mine.

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was Luke Paul’s close companion?

Walter Cassels in his work, Supernatural Religion notes

As a general rule, any document so full of miraculous episodes and supernatural occurrences would, without hesitation, be characterized as fabulous and incredible, and would not, by any sober-minded reader, be for a moment accepted as historical. There is no other testimony for these miracles. Let the reader endeavour to form some conception of the nature and amount of evidence necessary to establish the truth of statements antecedently so incredible, and compare it with the testimony of this solitary and anonymous document, the character and value of which we shall now proceed more closely to examine.

it is with this background that we consider whether Luke was, first, an eyewitness to Jesus life, a companion of Paul ad the author of Acts.

As to the first point, Luke was no eyewitness. He says so himself in the first verse. HE is compiling what has come down to him from other eyewitnesses. Can his work be considered historical? I think to the extent that he writes about angels and other supernatural occurrences, that work cannot be historical.

As to whether Luke was the author of Acts, Cassels writes

After examining all the early Christian literature, and taking every passage which is referred to as indicating the use of the book, we see that there is no certain trace even of its existence till towards the
end of the second century; and, whilst the writing itself is anonymous, we find no authority but late tradition assigning it to Luke or to any other author.

And as to the final question, whether the author of Acts was a companion of Paul, the verdict, again, is negative. We cite this example, though plenty are provided for the student who wants to discover more for themselves

According to Paul himself (Gal. i. 16—18), after his conversion, he communicated not with flesh and blood, neither went up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before him, but immediately went
away into Arabia, and returned to Damascus, and only after three years he went up to Jerusalem to visit Kephas, and abode with him fifteen days, during which visit none other of the Apostles did he see “save
James, the brother of the Lord.” If assurance of the correctness of these details were required, Paul gives it by adding (v. 20): “Now the things which I am writing to you, behold before God I lie not.”

According to Acts (ix. 19—30), however, the facts are quite different. Paul immediately begins to preach in Damascus, does not visit Arabia at all, but, on the contrary, goes to Jerusalem, where, under the
protection of Barnabas (v. 26, 27), he is introduced to the Apostles, and “was with them going in and out.”

According to Paul (Gal. i. 22), his face was after that unknown unto the churches of Judaea, whereas, according to Acts, not only was he “going in and out” at Jerusalem with the Apostles, but (ix. 29) preached boldly in the name of the Lord, and (Acts xxvi. 20) “in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judaea,” he urged to repentance.

According to Paul (Gal. ii. 1 ff.), after fourteen years he went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and Titus, “according to a revelation,” and “privately” communicated his Gospel “to those who seemed to be something,” as, with some irony, he calls the Apostles. In words still breathing irritation and determined
independence, Paul relates to the Galatians the particulars of that visit—how great pressure had been exerted to compel Titus, though a Greek, to be circumcised, “that they might bring us into bondage,” to
whom, “not even for an hour did we yield the required subjection.”

Given this background, where does my new friend, pastor blue jeans get his evidence for the claim that Luke was a physician, evangelist, author of acts and close companion of Paul?

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the people

Scipio, in Cicero’s Tusculian disputations, defines the people as

a community bound together by the sense of common rights and mutual benefits.

Are members of the political class bound with the other citizens in mutual benefits and common rights or do they occupy different spheres and as such when we talk about the people, we really have different groups in mind?

 

 

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Only dead men are sincere

Every word men speak, you may presume

Is more or less a fraud because, my dear,

You’ll find us humans at our most sincere

Wrapped in our nappies, later in our tomb.

Then we are wise at last, and all is plain,

We join our fathers down below the ground

And with bare bones we rattle truth around

Though some would rather lie and live again

by Herman Hesse

Reminds me of that sage, Solon, who said

He who unites the greatest number of advantages, and retaining them to the day of his death, then dies peaceably, that man alone, sire, is, in my judgment, entitled to bear the name of ‘happy.’ But in every matter it behoves us to mark well the end: for oftentimes God gives men a gleam of happiness, and then plunges them into ruin.”