SalotHSaR wrote:The Esmer wrote:SalotHSaR wrote:I think I said somewhere that I look up the Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic when I research. And generally, whenever I do said research the words mean what the English words suggest they do. However sometimes there's some more to it than only that. It could be that a certain word is possessive or usually past tense. But for the most part, what's there is pretty accurate.
I spend a fair amount of time in the Bible and researching the words in their original languages, so I should know.
Yes, but my point is, gently, that unless you can talk to the people who said those things, you can't possibly know what they meant. This is just as true today as it was then. Only they can provide context to the words, without which they are basically meaningless. You can't tell me can sit down with an ancient figure in the Bible and not have to have him explain what he "meant" during a simple conversation about the weather?
I just don't like your avatar.
Well, I can admit that you have a point, but wouldn't that be true about any ancient civilization? How can we know so much about the Romans if we can't understand the language of the day?
Exactly true! Put everything you read to that test, modern or ancient. Would you bet your life, or your very soul, that you do "know", to the exactness of certainty, that you can discern the "subtleties" of the sentences in the "information" we have from the past? We are still "guessing" what ancient Rome was like, and thats just a law of nature not to be challenged. Its a particularly human condition that can only be accepted, and adapted to. I don't mean to say that just because we can't read the "subtext" (brilliant reduction, A!), that we can't
learn from them, only that we can't glean the "intentions" (again, A
) of those words, and therefore
RISK misunderstanding. This RISK is
crucial, if not
fatal, and puts you in a position of extravagant danger and unlikely success.
Your fierceness for your faith, friend, and this question in particular, led me to believe that YOU believed that any mistake in your interpretation of these issues would damn you to eternal hell, and it only naturally occurred to me that you were already doomed, if that was the case, and implored you to find a different approach to resolving your dire dilemma. You
cannot know the things you seek to the
exact certitude that you require, in the manner which you are attempting. Your desire to do Gods will, and obey or please Him is about as fierce as any I have witnessed, friend, and just for that I believe your God is indeed most proud, for fierceness and determination are ultimitely required on such a journey as determing Gods will for each of us as individuals first, and humanity second, for the first guarantees the second if we do it according to our conscience and character, and learn to grow in a positive way. Just believe with
everything you are friend,
every ounce, but you must temper that force of faith with a sense of
sobriety (free from influence), that your aim and efforts are not wasted on "words" and their possible mistaken intentions. Just ask God Himself, and if he does not answer, assume you already had the answer that pleases Him. ( I use God, and Him, etc. in direct deference to you, salothsar).
SalotHSaR wrote: I just don't like your avatar.
The Esmer would request an "intervention" from the "Jaytar", or the "Edgetar" on this? Or maybe a contest to come up with an "appropriate" avatar for The Esmer? I am not confused or offended at all by your opposition to it, sal, and would consider it a humble gesture on my part to appease at least a small part of your torment to the "evidence of evil" that abounds around you.
