Posted on 05/30/2012 6:26:18 PM PDT by Morgana
In one of Dolly Parton’s books, she tells the story of when her daddy used to take her and some of her brothers and sisters to sing at the mountain churches. - Once, he took them to a new one back in the holler. They were up front singing and the preacher brought out the snakes. Dolly’s father bellowed from the back of the church, “Get those damned snakes away from my kids!!” - and he ran up front, scooped his kids up, hauled them to the car and got them out of there fast.
“I think I’ll interpret the Bible myself. After all, what could go wrong?”
Then why bother to read it at all? The original New Testament manuscripts were written in everyday forms of the Greek and Aramaic languages that could be understood by the common man. There are English translations that are quite easy to understand. The Gospel was not meant to be doled out and interpreted by a “gatekeeper”.
Don’t tell me, tell Mack Wolford.
The truth is that for First Century Jews and Christians literacy in Greek was rare and in Aramaic even rarer as it was not a literary language. Literacy among women was unheard of.
"...I have also taken a great deal of pains to obtain the learning of the Greeks, and understand the elements of the Greek language, although I have so long accustomed myself to speak our own tongue, that I cannot pronounce Greek with sufficient exactness; for our nation does not encourage those that learn the languages of many nations...." Titus Flavius Josephus — Antiquities of the Jews 20,11.2
“writing [in first-century A.D. Palestine] was in the hands of an élite of trained specialists, and reading required an advanced education available only to a few.” - W.H. Kelber
Snakes are a bitch - always ................................................................................................................... FRegards
Habitual low-dose use of arsenic can lead to a tolerance for a higher dose - and in the past people used arsenic cosmetically, to make the skin pale and translucent.
I think Agatha Christie used arsenic tolerance in one of her mysteries.
That is precisely what happened to my wife in Statesville TN at a Missionary Baptist Church revival back in the early 70s when she was a kid. Her daddy was very stern and a deacon at a church in Murfreesboro where they lived but he was from the “hills and hollows” and was a 3 war combat vet including 2 tours in Indochina.
Same thing...preacher brought out the boxes of snakes.
Carl (RIP) stood up and challenged the preacher hard in front of everyone .
Told him that tempting God was vanity and foolish and the work of Satan.
They left....never went back...it was the church he grew up in..
I never did understand the reason behind snake handling.
Like your wife’s daddy, it seems like temptation, to me.
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