Since the particular things you mention do not trouble me, and seem to me adequately addressed earlier, I am not sure what to say.
The point is that if the horse had been waiting for him, it is not theft. That possibility is underscored by the assertion that the phrase about the Lord needing it would suffice to defuse a situation, as if the owner or caretaker would understand. If you were in a situation where someone had reserved a horse for you, and your emissary could deflect a confrontation by saying "Solon needs it", I would suppose you were not a thief, either.
Since swine are, within that context, unclean, they are the appropriate receptacles for demons, and their loss means nothing to the food supply. I have no idea what they were doing there, of course, but I would not be surprised if they were running wild, since no Jew would raise them.
I already explained that the fig tree incident struck me as a sort of living parable, about the accursedness of not bearing good fruit.
You find the behaviour of Jesus to be repeatedly petty and immature and disrespectful of others because you approach the New Testament antagonistically in the first place, and are unwilling to pretend that it is the account of the Christ, at least for purposes of literary appreciation. As for your disgust, since you choose your values, and presumably he chooses his, well, de gustibus non disputandum........ |
