Galilean Gospel 4: FANFIC

Follow Along parts:

---From the first chapter of Mark:

10 On coming up out of the water he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him. 11 And a voice came from the heavens, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” 12At once the Spirit drove him out into the desert,

Matthew 3:16-17

After Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened [for him], and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove [and] coming upon him. 17And a voice came from the heavens, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”   

---I'm skipping the Luke because it's the same thing. Now listen to this:
Jerome, Late 4th century A.D.:

"According to the Gospel written in the Hebrew speech, which the Nazarenes read, I find this written:

“And it came to pass when the Lord had come up out of the water, the whole fount of the Holy Spirit descended and rested upon him, and said unto him: ‘My son, in all the prophets was I waiting for you, that you should come, and I might rest in you. For you are my rest, and you are  my first begotten son, that reigns for ever’.”

--Things get left out - things get put in:

KJV: Matthew 5:22

22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.

--Can't get it past Jerome, though. Jerome realized that sine causa was added later and thus did not include it in his translation of the Vulgate.  It is not found in any Alexandrine text, such as the Codex Sinaiaticus. Its not found in the NAB or the NIV or other translations that don''t use the late "textus receptus." 

--When scholars explain verses not included they often use this language: "Not found in the best, earliest manuscripts"  But what are those? 

• The verse is absent from the "Alexandrian family" of manuscripts, which date from 200 to 400 AD. 
• The verse is present the majority of Old Latin copies, dating from the 4th and 5th centuries and a majority of medieval (mid 5th to 14th centuries) Greek manuscripts. 
• The verse appears in the "Byzantine family" of manuscripts, which are from 500 to 1000 AD. 

The topic of  the podcast is: IF YOU DON'T LIKE WHAT JESUS SAID, JUST LEAVE IT OUT, OR MAKE HIM SAY SOMETHING ELSE. 

Or don't bother reading Him at all.

THIS PODCAST IS NOT MONETIZED. LINKS:
Contact: kyriedicentis@gmail.com
CLOUD OF UNKNOWING Evelyn Underhill edition - free
HERETIC'S REDDIT HOME
Revelations of Divine Love [free PDF] Julian of Norwich
What the Gehenna?
The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross

Transcript

Kyrie Dicentis: 0:00

Thomas Green wrote a series of books on contemplative prayer and prayer generally. One of those books, called Drinking from a Dry Well, sent me into my whole contemplative experience, I knew at the end of that this was the thing I was called to do. Recently, having decided that I needed somewhat to be living a life like an anchorite, or anchoress. But there are no cells in the walls of churches. I'm not sure I'd wall myself up that much anyway. Thomas Green wrote another book called Darkness in the Marketplace. It's supposed to be about doing this kind of work in this world we live in, this modern world. I started reading it.

Kyrie Dicentis: 0:49

Thomas Green is a modern writer, at least modern as far as I'm concerned, in the 1900s. And I noticed that he was very much about Martha and Mary, and this is the classic version of the contemplative, sitting at Jesus' feet, simply listening. Martha is running around, trying to serve everyone, which was her job. I opened this whole podcast, not this podcast, but my site, my very first probably podcast, dealing with Mary and Martha. However, this is a very short set of verses. Thomas Green attributes all kinds of thoughts and feelings and actions. None of it is in Scripture. None of it is referred to anywhere I can find outside the canon. He just made it up. If we want to characterize a certain kind of Christian, I say we do that. because we know all kinds of different people. But just as Dogma Nest of Vipers says that dogma, not all of it, but the kind that comes that has nothing to do with what Jesus said or did during the incarnation, is simply a way of keeping us from him. It's a barrier, just like vipers are.

Kyrie Dicentis: 2:19

This very well-intentioned person, erudite, in this branch of theology is making it up. This is another form of viper. Maybe it's not a viper, but it's something that looks like a viper. A lot of non-poisonous snakes will take on the coloring and patterns of vipers in order to frighten off predators like hawks. I do not criticize him in his intent or his knowledge, but we have to stop doing this. We all have to stop doing this. What did Jesus say? My followers, embrace my word and obey my commands. That is it. It's very simple. It doesn't need a lot of books. It needs us to learn where we can find what He said and what He did. We hear it from Him, what He wants from us.

Kyrie Dicentis: 3:20

If we are not mystics, if we are not contemplative, if we do not have visions, if we do not experience the direct contact, then we have writings. And we have to be judicious about those writings. But we also have to not discount the writings of mystics, the writings of apostles, the writings of those who knew apostles. We also don't accept everything that's ever been written down in history.-----

Kyrie Dicentis: 3:51

-----That Three minutes, I think it was, that you just heard, I know it stopped abruptly. It was only supposed to be a mic test in a new location. Then it got serious, and I got speechless. That was a few days ago. This is the old location, and I'm sure the background will be worse. I stopped suddenly when I realized how destructive the Just So stories are that are told about characters in the Bible. It makes them characters in the Bible instead of real people.

Kyrie Dicentis: 4:31

When fan fiction was new, I wrote one about an actor I liked. It was just for fun. I had the story idea and cast him in it as himself, not one of the characters he played in movies and on television. My idea was for a series, a building romance murder mystery thing. It was a lark. That first story went a bit, well, viral, and I felt like crap. I'm a good fiction writer. I knew I could build a following. But it's one thing to write fanfic about Batman, and another to write one about the actors that played him. You see, it was a romance story. and it had to wind up eventually with him in bed with this woman. I'm not a subtle, suggestive writer about anything, including sex. It felt horribly intrusive, and the courts had made it legal, so I stopped and wrote other things. I'm sure Thomas Green is making or was making good points when he basically wrote fanfic about Martha but he talks about her love for Jesus. What love? Her brother is home, another one of his itinerant rabbis with his 12 friends, and Martha has to suddenly put on a banquet. We have no reason to suppose she liked Jesus, much less loved him.

Kyrie Dicentis: 6:05

I'd like you to look at what I put in the comment or the intro to the podcast wherever you are listening to this. I will read it, but look at it too. This is from the first chapter of Mark. This is verse 10 through 12. "On coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens being torn open, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him. And a voice came from the heavens, You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased." In Matthew 3: 16-17, "After Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon him. And a voice came from the heavens saying, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased." I'm skipping the Luke because it's just the same thing.

Kyrie Dicentis: 7:13

Now I'd like you to listen to this, written by Saint Jerome, late in the 4th century AD. "According to the Gospel written in the Hebrew speech, which the Nazarenes read, I find this written, 'And it came to pass, when the Lord had come up out of the water, the whole font of the Holy Spirit descended and rested upon him, and said to him, My son, in all the prophets I was waiting for you, that you should come and I might rest in you. For you are my rest and you are my first begotten son that reigns forever.'" I imagine very few have read this description of the baptism of Jesus. It's from the Gospel of the Hebrews. which is now known only from references by other early writers like Clement of Alexandria. Dated to about 80 AD, this gospel, called by this name because it was written with Hebrew letters, was reported to be used by the Nazareans. Nazarean was a common name for followers of Jesus of Nazareth. Clement often quoted from this gospel, and as a father of Christianity and a teacher of the gospel at Alexandria, he wrote extensively on Christology and how Jesus' followers spread and things happened. That gospel of the Hebrews was lost, though there are references, but we have very few words.

Kyrie Dicentis: 9:04

In the canonicals, why are there so few words? Why was it cut? because it implies very clearly that Jesus of Nazareth was not God come to earth, but a man who went to God fully, completely. It was the whole font of the Holy Spirit that came down and spoke, and the Spirit called him Son, and "rest" means to abide with. These things are paralleled in the Last Supper discourses and so many other places when Jesus says that He is in God and God is in Him and He is in them and they can do what He does if only they embrace his word and follow his commands. Jesus says to spread his gospel to all nations. Also, a phrase lifted from a longer sentence that includes, "But say no more than I have told you, and make no laws like a lawgiver, lest you be constrained by them." Smart Jesus! Those 255 dogmas of the Catholic Church declared infallible have been a real pain for later popes.

Kyrie Dicentis: 10:32

The leaving out is bad enough. The adding in is reprehensible. In the KJV, Matthew 5:22 reads, "But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment." But in scholarly works, we learn about the old Latin text. This is an old text that was running around, especially in Rome and that area, so Jerome wrote the Vulgate. The old Latin text contained the qualifier "without cause" in reference to anger in Matthew 5:22. But Jerome realized that *sine causa* was added later, and thus did not include it in his translation. That was the end of the 4th century AD. "But without cause", like many additions that ameliorate Jesus' commands, is not found in any Alexandrian text, such as the Codex Sinaiticus. It's not found in the NAB or in the NIV that don't use the Textus Receptus, which is the Byzantine version of Scripture.

Kyrie Dicentis: 12:08

When scholars explain verses not included, they often use this language, not found in the best, oldest manuscripts. And my question immediately is, well, what are those? Why is there not an asterisk below that names them anyway? So what are those? This is what I found. The verse is absent from the Alexandrian family of manuscripts which date from 200 to 400 AD. The verse is present in the majority of old Latin copies dating from the 4th and 5th centuries and a majority of mid-5th to 14th centuries Greek manuscripts. The verse also appears in the Byzantine family of manuscripts, which are from 500 to 1000 AD. But that's not what Jesus said. Jesus didn't say angry without cause. If He did, some place— you know, there are like a couple of thousand now, bits and pieces and complete books and all of these copies of the Gospels, and Acts and other parts of the New Testament that we have—this isn't there. Somebody stuck it in there.

Kyrie Dicentis: 13:45

Google AI will find you a plethora of non-scholarly arguments, some outright lies indicating the inclusion was ancient. Yet, in fact, it is in no truly ancient manuscript we have. Why did someone stick it in there? Because the hardest thing any person can do is follow Jesus' commands, to submit to the will of God. You can't get followers— if you are preaching that they cannot be angry—you cannot get them to hate if they can't be righteously furious. You can't get them to kill for you unless they are outraged. You can't be a Christian and not follow Jesus. Solution? Change Jesus.