Fair Cop dropping hints on Twitter

Even the begattings are quite interesting. The genealogies in Matthew and Luke are significantly different from one another and lead to/from Joseph ... who supposedly wasn't Jesus's actual father anyway. Matthew's version seems designed to align with prophecy and place Jesus in the lineage of David.

I grew up a Catholic. No matter how much I've disagreed with that environment, what it gave me was a concrete identity that I could rebel against while at the same time use as a bulwark against other ideologies that would seek to tell me how to lead my life.

I don't suppose you fancy doing a sort of 'digested read' version of the whole thing, or selected highlights, Floral? While we're waiting ...

Thanks for the tip re the whale and the tree-killing bit. I like whales. I'll have look and see if I've got one about here somewhere.

A bible, I mean. Not a whale.

Don't start at the beginning of the Bible. Read some proverbs, they be entertaining. And Song of Songs/Solomon is rather cheeky if your romantic tastes run to lots and lots of metaphors.

My favourite has always been Jonah, (he of the whale) who gets sent to warn the Ninevites to repent or God would destroy them, and then has a tantrum at God when they do repent and God is merciful. So God makes a tree grow overnight, and then kills it, and Jonah is even more hopping mad at God because now God killed the tree Jonah quite liked, and God points out what a dick Jonah is being because he cares more about a dead tree than he would have done had God killed all the Ninevites.

I feel it says something fairly profound about humanity's bloody-minded idiocy.

I grew up a Methodist, work hard, be charitable, which someone told me is how they see their Islam. I don’t really have a religion now, although I have always tried to live my life following the Sermon on the Mount.

When I visit my Catholic friend in Spain we go to Mass on a Sunday. Beautiful old church and even though the Mass is in Spanish I can usually follow what is happening. I do love a good Mass!

Yes, I feel the bible is a book I ought to have read. One could probably safely skip the begatting section, really. I think it moves on a bit after that.

(No spoilers, please!)

Place marking. I need to know.

It's very informative. Lots of interesting posts. I'm an atheist. Was never christened as my parents believed I should make that decision for myself as an adult which I agree with. However I've never really been interested in religion. I tried to read the bible once but couldn't get past all the begetting. So I'm finding these posts quite interesting.

Love this thread!

It says here that Jesus denied he was the son of god (in the Quran). Muslims see Jesus as the penultimate prophet, but say that he was saved by God, not crucified or raised from the dead.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_in_Islam

I've seen "soon day" being interpreted as Sunday so hopefully tomorrow. But that's just speculation so maybe not.

Not sure. I suspect we may be twiddling our thumbs a little while yet. It'll pop eventually.

When's the big reveal?

Yeah, there's no cognitive dissonance if you believe your book supersedes the other book, and anything in the other book which contradicts yours is just one of the many errors you know are in the other book.

Religion, baby! We can square away any old bollocks when we really want to! (Actually, that might just be humanity, tbh...)

Babcock, I think it goes along the lines of Muslims accept both Moses and Jesus as prophets. But they believe man did not listen so Allah chose another prophet, Mohammed, to spread the word and warn mortals of the dire consequences of sin.

However there are various forms of Islam, as there are of most religions, and your chances of salvation will depend on how you choose to live your life. And which arm of Islam you follow. I quite like the Sufis and dancing themselves into a trance to get nearer to Allah.

Not a Muslim but thus is the potted version from various Muslim acquaintances.

I'm not sure, Babdoc but I think there's a very straightforward explanation for that. I don't suppose the Quran records Jesus saying anything of the sort. So Muslims would think the Christian Bible was mistaken about that and lots of other stuff... except I'd guess most haven't read it as why would they? After all, they believe the Quran was directly revealed to Mohammed by Allah, whereas the bible is a collection of disparate works clearly written by humans.

It’s one of the things I love about the fwr board on MN - you can have a fab discussion about a huge range of topics, and the great majority of posters are intelligent, interesting and well informed. Not to mention also have a wicked sense of humour!
On the religious side track of the thread - can someone explain to me why Muslims regard Jesus as a prophet, if they deny his divinity? They presumably believe he was a blasphemous liar when he said “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father”?
Claiming to be Allah incarnate would have got him stoned to death rather than venerated, surely? How do Muslims resolve the cognitive dissonance?
I’m just curious - I’m a Christian myself, so don’t have a problem with his divine nature!

I thought ‘trepanation‘

I love Artemisia and her work!

...interested to see whatthe tweet means....

ThinEnd, it's an object lesson.

(Just for the hell of it)

This thread should win prizes. Starts with Faircop teasing everyone. I go away, come back and it's on Bibles. Go away again, come back, now the Koran. Then humanism. I go away again, put the kids to bed and now it is on Tony Benn and a painting.

I’m seeing a gruesome theme in her paintings. No wonder.

Great painting of Jael & Sisera by Artemisia Gentileschi.