Quote:
Originally Posted by donfriesen1
Those who say that cast not your pearls before swine does not require sub-text reading to correctly understand it, that those who do use it to correctly understand it are following gnostic wisdom, may only be showing unnecessary religious bias/bigotry leading those who quoted cast not your pearls to thinking these are the swine referred to, when telling those who say it uses gnostic wisdom to correctly understand it, that they also should have also used the same sub-text methods to correctly understand it. But this calling someone a swine would be needless use of inflammatory rhetoric which shouldn't have been done, and doesn't have a real place in a Bible discussion forum which asks for rules of decorum. Instead, the writer could have simply said, to lessen the likeliness that the resultant needless name-calling back-and-forth achieves nothing other than mud on the face and hands of both, that the purpose of the forum is Bible discussion among friends and that Jesus obviously did not mean it to be understood literally, that sub-text reading is demanded to be used or it makes Jesus look foolish if understood literally, like that which those who say no sub-text reading should be done, look like. The writer should have already known that everyone, including those who say reading between the lines should not be used to understand the Bible, that everyone already uses reading between the lines and that those who say reading between the lines shouldn't be used are not really serious when saying that it shouldn't be used in correct Bible interpretation. They can't seriously be serious, can they? Reading between the lines is so commonly done that many do it even without realizing it. Those who would seriously say it shouldn't be used have purposely put a veil over their own eyes when saying others shouldn't. This is dangerous practice, seriously. If they seriously are serious in saying it, it then demonstrates vast gaps in the correct methods of understanding the Bible. Why this waste of time and resources, in myself and others? It signifies we have issues. Lets talk about the issue raised in post 1, instead.
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Jesus saying, in
Matthew 7:6 "give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you." Or in
Matthew 15:26 "It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs." Or in
Luke 17:2 "It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones." This is what is called metaphor used in language, which is figure of speech that directly compares two unrelated things by stating one is the other to highlight shared characteristics, enhancing description and meaning. The Greek μεταφορά means to go beyond, or to cross over, and therefore illustrates what the speaker is trying to say to his or her audience. What Jesus is talking about in
Matthew 7:6 is no way "reading between the lines." His audience wouldn't of been standing dumbfounded by His metaphor, they would of totally understood what He was saying. Swine as well as dogs were unclean, and to give them holy items would then make those items unclean. Because dogs, and swine being ignorant animals have no idea what to do with the holy. No reading between the lines was necessary, because Jesus was being as clear as crystal. Again, God is clear to His devotees. Yet, the insincere grope around due to their spiritual blindness, and never come to the knowledge of truth,
Deuteronomy 28:29, 2 Timothy 3:6-8 .