Hermeneutics

Written by Robert Bruce Baird


Continued from page 1

...aimed at using philosophy, especiallyrepparttar speculations of Plato, to serverepparttar 126553 cause ofrepparttar 126554 Church, and to answerrepparttar 126555 objections of pagan philosophers on their own grounds, {But it is well to remember Plato had to answer to religious bigots or facerepparttar 126556 same fate as Socrates. This made him couch his 'speculations' in ways that could be interpreted in favour of theologians or power-mongering and hateful priests.} demonstrating that true philosophy ledrepparttar 126557 way to Christianity and not to Paganism. {They may also have co-optedrepparttar 126558 hermetic Gnostics by calling their scholars Hermeneuts at this time. It may have been through Aquinas too, I am not sure aboutrepparttar 126559 rip-off ofrepparttar 126560 title but I am sure they became gifted at creating confusion.}

Early inrepparttar 126561 second century, then, a Christian School was established in Alexandria. At first it was a school for children only, located almost atrepparttar 126562 door ofrepparttar 126563 Old Museum, from whichrepparttar 126564 majority of Christians, owing to their ignorance of science, art, and philosophy, had hitherto been debarred. Out of this grewrepparttar 126565 famous Catechetical School. Its first director was Pantaeus, a converted Stoic, who was deposed and sent to India as a missionary inrepparttar 126566 year 191. He was followed by Clement of Alexandria, whose study of Greek and Egyptian philosophy had convinced him that truth could be found even inrepparttar 126567 heathen systems. But Clement's eclecticism met with no enthusiasm from his superiors, and inrepparttar 126568 year 203 he was deposed and replaced by his pupil Origen, who was only eighteen years old atrepparttar 126569 time.

Origen's work for Christianity commenced with a deep and profound study ofrepparttar 126570 Hebrew Scriptures. Dissatisfied withrepparttar 126571 translations which were then extant, Origen determined to make his own translation. {So we have an eighteen year old 'Divinely Inspired' Scripture writer to join Jerome who was makingrepparttar 126572 Vulgate for his Roman bosses who had replaced wiser men who would not do as requested.} He brought out what is known asrepparttar 126573 Hexapala, or six-fold edition ofrepparttar 126574 Old Testament, in which he set forth, in separate columns,repparttar 126575 various versions ofrepparttar 126576 Scriptures, including his own. In addition to this, he brought out three Greek versions ofrepparttar 126577 Psalms. Some notion ofrepparttar 126578 magnitude of Origen's work (which occupied twenty-eight years of his life) is gained by an examination of some recently discovered manuscripts. One may be found inrepparttar 126579 Abrosian {Is this Ambrosian?} Library in Milan, and another inrepparttar 126580 collection of palimpsests discovered in Cairo. {Da Vinci's bicycle that shows time viewing is fastidiously avoided by academics.}

Origen's knowledge ofrepparttar 126581 Jewish Scriptures convinced him thatrepparttar 126582 orthodox Church was making a fatal mistake by denyingrepparttar 126583 authenticity of certain documents. He openly rebukedrepparttar 126584 Church for rejectingrepparttar 126585 Book of Enoch, {Hurray!} which containedrepparttar 126586 history ofrepparttar 126587 early races of mankind and completely destroyedrepparttar 126588 Jewish chronology. {Even more, it explainsrepparttar 126589 nature of psychic thingsrepparttar 126590 soul of any man can do. Thus people would think less of their saintly magicians and prophets if they too understood.} He also called attention torepparttar 126591 'esoteric' doctrines of Moses whichrepparttar 126592 Church had failed to notice. {Butrepparttar 126593 Masons call him their Master Mason because they know this important reality.} He discovered that Moses, in addition torepparttar 126594 teachings ofrepparttar 126595 Covenant, {The Ten Commandments were inrepparttar 126596 Egyptian Book ofrepparttar 126597 Dead andrepparttar 126598 Tibetan one before that.} had communicated some very important secrets torepparttar 126599 seventy elders, enjoining them to disclose these facts only torepparttar 126600 worthy. {HMMM-mm!}

Origen's fearless attitude towardrepparttar 126601 accepted Scriptures ofrepparttar 126602 Christians, as well as his openly-professed interest in Neoplatonism, arousedrepparttar 126603 wrath ofrepparttar 126604 Patriarch of Alexandria. Origen was banished fromrepparttar 126605 city inrepparttar 126606 year 232. But his thirty years of study had convinced him ofrepparttar 126607 truth of Neoplatonism, and inrepparttar 126608 School which he subsequently founded in Caesarea, Origen openly taughtrepparttar 126609 doctrines that he had learned from Ammonius Saccas.

Ammonius, who later becamerepparttar 126610 teacher of both Clement and Origen, received his early education inrepparttar 126611 children's school which precededrepparttar 126612 Catechetical School. He was born in Alexandria aboutrepparttar 126613 middle ofrepparttar 126614 second century. His parents were very poor, andrepparttar 126615 boy was obliged to add his share torepparttar 126616 family earnings by working as a porter onrepparttar 126617 docks located inrepparttar 126618 Egyptian, or Rhakotis portion ofrepparttar 126619 city. There he saw ships from far-off lands, he heard queer dialects and met many strange people. Perhaps he gained his first acquaintance withrepparttar 126620 philosophies ofrepparttar 126621 East from some Hindu sailor. The Song of Krishna is always onrepparttar 126622 lips ofrepparttar 126623 son of Hindustan.

The parents of Ammonius were devout Christians, and Ammonius was sent torepparttar 126624 Christian School, where he learned aboutrepparttar 126625 Christian Christ. He must have heard that Krishna, too, had been immaculately conceived, was persecuted by a wicked King, and had finally died upon a cross. Why wererepparttar 126626 stories ofrepparttar 126627 two Christs so similar? Could it be possible that both were legends? If that wasrepparttar 126628 case, there must be other legends of Christ in other lands. The priest told him there was only 'one' Christ. Allrepparttar 126629 others were imposters. The priest told him to 'believe' but he wanted to 'know'. So he leftrepparttar 126630 Christian School, and started out upon his journey of honest investigation.

When he grew older he attended some ofrepparttar 126631 lectures inrepparttar 126632 pagan schools and eventually became acquainted withrepparttar 126633 basic ideas underlying allrepparttar 126634 great philosophies. {He would have been a couple of centuries too late to study with Cleopatra atrepparttar 126635 feet of a man real scholars think taught Jesus.} He pondered overrepparttar 126636 profound statements that he heard, and often inrepparttar 126637 night their meaning, it is said, was revealed to him in dreams and visions. Inrepparttar 126638 course of time people began to speak of him as 'theodidaktos',repparttar 126639 "god-taught". But Ammonius was a modest man, and called himself merely a 'Philalethian', or lover of truth. He startedrepparttar 126640 Neoplatonic School in Alexandria inrepparttar 126641 year 193 A.D." (1)

Columnist in ES Press Magazine Author of Diverse Druids Guest Writer at World-Mysteries.com


Your Focus Determines Your Reality

Written by Caleb Osborne


Continued from page 1

What do most Christians focus on? What do most preachers preach on? What you can't do! Am I right? The only result that can come from focusing on what you can't do is you doing exactly that! Most Christians think in terms of what they can't do--the law.

The Bible goes so far as to say that we would not even know about sin if it wasn't forrepparttar law:

"Onrepparttar 126552 contrary, I would not have come to know sin except throughrepparttar 126553 Law; for I would not have known about coveting ifrepparttar 126554 Law had not said, "YOU SHALL NOT COVET. But sin, taking opportunity throughrepparttar 126555 commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind" Romans 7:7-8

Likewise we would not even haverepparttar 126556 desire to do what we're not supposed to do if we weren't focused on not doing it. (just read it again, It'll make sense).

So it is clear that by fixating our attention on what it is we are trying to avoid, we are actually setting ourselves up for failure. You can't focus on what you don't want and get what you want.

But you need to focus on something! And like our diet example,repparttar 126557 right way to focus is on what you do want! Just likerepparttar 126558 diet works if you focus onrepparttar 126559 good foods, your Christian life will work if you focus on what is good--Jesus Christ and his life that he gave you.

Focusing on Christ and allowing him to express himself through you daily isrepparttar 126560 key to success in your Christian life. Pay no heed to what you're not supposed to do, "out of sight-out of mind!".

So I guess ole Qui Gonn was right, "your focus does determine your reality"!

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** Attn Ezine editors / Site owners / everyone ** Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine or on your site so long as you leave all links in place, do not modifyrepparttar 126562 content and include our resource box as listed above.

Caleb Osborne, a native of Virginia, is an up and coming author who has just completed publishing his first book--Christ Through Me. He is now in the process of working on other projects and running his website at www.ChristThroughMe.com where he has a FREE email newsletter that all are encouraged to sign up for.


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