Re: I have been CHALLENGED. . .

zebeej@xxxxxxxxx writes:
Shmuel Metz <spamtrap@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

While I am no expert on Christian scriptures, I don't believe that there
is any passage directing people to go to their priest for interpretations
rather than reading the text for themselves.

Especially as there aren't any books which see themselves as books to be
consulted. They are a combination of stories written down, and letters.

Considering how many of the writers were Jews I would expect that if
they thought about interpretation at all that they'd expect people to
do it the Jewish way.


There are a couple of problems with that. The majority of the letters
were written to churches with a high population of non-Jews in Asia Minor,
Greece and Italy. Also, the gospels of Mark and Luke (and the Acts of
the Apostles) show evidence they were written for predominantly non-Jewish
readers.

By my non-rigorous count, there are 16 New Testament books that were most
likely written for non-Jews, 5 most likely written for Jews, and 6 where
you can't tell.

In his letter to the Colossians, Paul asks them to see that the letter
is also read to the church in Laodicea, and that their letter is read in
Colossae. That suggests to me that he expected the letters to be consulted
as guidance for believers.

-Greg
--
::::::::::::::: Greg Andrews :::::: gerg@xxxxxxxxx :::::::::::::::

Hardware, n.: The parts of a computer system that can be kicked.

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