Comment

Comment by Little Name Atheist on February 16, 2010 at 1:05pm

How's that defrag working, Glen?

Turtle Poser: Heh. I can see doing your version, too... and for your reasons.

David Prentice: It does seem like the song pumps irony.

Comment by David Prentice on February 14, 2010 at 7:58pm

That kind of flies in the face of 'we are the light of the world' too doesn't it, since any overt sign of one's meekness was considered self promotion and would earn you eternal damnation lol

Comment by David Prentice on February 14, 2010 at 7:15pm

From what I've read, the current religious take on 'meek and humble' is actually a romanticised version, according (no surprise here) to our modern culture. Originally, it seems, Jesus actually meant that if you retaliate to an attack or resist a theft, maintain any personal material possessions or make public your righteous actions, then you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. It had nothing to do with loving your neighbour as, being a transgressor of these things, your neighbour would be going to hell anyway. It was blind conformity to the will of god to place worship of him above all other considerations. He even said that any of your friends, family or neighbours are to be treated as dead to you if they were not equally committed to worship and selflessness. Your only 'family' are fellow worshippers in the sight of god. Correct me if I'm wrong :)

Comment by Turtle Poser on February 13, 2010 at 8:02pm

Yes, I remember they used the word "men." When I sing it, I still sing it with "men" to get the full flavor of its awfulness.

Comment by Little Name Atheist on February 13, 2010 at 4:38pm

Thanks for looking that up Glen. I once picked up a hitchhiker who was a Bible scholar. He was one of the most interesting hitchhikers I've ever picked up, as he told me that things had been mistranslated, or willfully mistranslated from the original Aramaic or Greek.

So when I looked up the dictionary definition of meek, I wondered if the original sense was that of submission.

Comment by Little Name Atheist on February 13, 2010 at 5:48am

I remember that song. I sang it in the choir, but I remember it as "may our light shine before men". Maybe the word got changed at some point? In my head, I often changed words to be more inclusive.

I wonder what the original Aramaic (or early Greek) sense of "meek" was?