A Confusing Message of Salvation?

[Socialite]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Socialite View Post
No one said Hellenism was an exclusive influence. NT Wright does not assert that either.


Prax: I don't really care about what Wright says or did not say. This all started when you disagreed with me saying the bible was written by Hebrews to those with a Western and Eastern background. You disagreed with me saying "Western background" and brought up Hellenists. So it sounds like you are saying those of an Eastern Background were Hellenistic

Sigh... another he said she said Prax bout. I really get sick of these...

The Bible, and the Early Church, both have a ethos primarily of Easternism. This goes back to the Hebrews, and on through the Jews after the Diaspora. Jesus himself was a Jew.

We got into this more and I brought up Hellenization, which surely was sprinkled into the story --- even a little influential. However, the ethos of the Church is based in the East, not the West.

You attempted to use the terms "East" and "West" more inclusively and broad. That's fine. My use of Westernism is much more modern, including probably just before the Enlightenment. Surely, the beginnings of this cultural revolution were during the Greco-Roman times. However, the Palestinian Jesus was speaking Aramaic, and His stories are soaked in Eastern thought.

This gulf is a translators biggest challenge. Why is who your father is more important than what you do? What customs about households inform us when we hear this story or that story? I've sat in 5-hour classes where they did nothing but articulate these differences --- not to say a Western audience could never "get it," but so that we'd respect the bridge in-between us and them.

The Biblical audience was mostly Jews. The Pauline epistles started including places like Corinth, Ephesus, even Rome into the mix. Still, the cultural framework, even during this time, is far from what we know of "the West" today. To the extent of trying to make that point, is perhaps why this back-and-forth has gone on as long as it has.

As it relates to this thread, consideration of who wrote it and who it was written to is one of our most difficult challenges. We always underestimate that.