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Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Johannes Pilch who wrote (16098)	11/27/1998 3:24:00 AM
From: Daniel Schuh	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 67261

Johannes, you are the last person I would care to debate here. On this particular verse, which you claim proves the "judgmental" nature of Christianity, my understanding differs. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrits! for you traverse sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. Woe to you, blind guides.... You blind fools! .... You blind men!... hypocrites!... You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!.... hypocrits! for you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of extortion and rapacity.... hypocrites! for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.... you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.... hypocrits!.... You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Who do you think the scribes and Pharisees were, Johannes? My understanding is they were codifiers of the Judaism of the time. A random web reference: The Pharisees were one of the three major Jewish religious communities during the Second Temple period. It is reported that the Pharisees had about 6,000 members and were supported by most Jews. In general, they were more popular and "middle class," whereas the Sadducees were more conservative and upper-class. They valued both the written law and the oral law, unlike the Sadducees who accepted only the written law. Some interpretation of the law to different circumstances was considered legitimate in the eyes of the Pharisees. Because of this flexibility, the Pharisees were able to be much stricter in their observance of the Law. This led to conflicts with Jesus who criticized them for their excessive focus on the external nature of the Law. Among the other beliefs held by the Pharisees are the ideas of free will and the immortality of the soul. Despite a fairly high profile during most of Jesus' life, the Pharisees did not take the lead in the final persecution of Jesus. (This, plus the fact that it is they with whom Jesus most consistently argued, has led most scholars to conclude that Jesus was himself a Pharisee.) This opposition was led instead by the Sadducees. Following the Resurrection, they were not as hostile toward the Church as the Saduccees were. In fact, a Pharisee named Gamaliel defended the Apostles before the Sanhedrin. After the fall Jerusalem in 70 C.E. the Pharisees vanish, although their influence on some teachings remained. cse.nd.edu The Saduccees and Pharisees, it seems, were two competing Jewish sects, neither of which Jesus agreed with. They were agents of the organized religion against which Jesus was reacting. This makes your use of this quote somewhat ironic, I'd say offhand. Then, we have the secondary, non-theological definition of Pharisee, which adds additional irony: 2. a sanctimonious, self-righteous, or hypocritical person. (from Random House unabridged) So, your particular chapter and verse seems dubious to me. Cheers, Dan.