The Bible Geek Podcast 14-051

The Bible Geek Show

Re the Baha'i/Babi split, do you see the Azalis as comparable to Kharijites or perhaps closer to those Mormons who followed the Smith family as opposed to Brigham Young? Why might Augustine have been unsure whether aborted fetuses will be resurrected as fully-grown human beings at the time of the Second Coming? What is the relationship of the Black Stone of Mecca and the Black Stone of Emesa (modern day war-torn Homs in Syria)? And between the worship of the Sun god Elagabalus and the Moon god Al-ilah? Can you please comment on William Wrede's defense of the Pauline authorship of the epistles? Laodiceans/Ephesians in the Pre-Nicene NT reads: "Accordingly, renounce lying and speak the truth, each one of you to your neighbor, because we are body parts of one another. What if the hand were on fire and it should lie to the heart, saying, "I do not hurt"? Soon you should lack the hand!" Is this extra sentence about the burning, lying hand part of another manuscript tradition which was omitted from the NRSV? Or were you just in a fast-n-loose/Living Bible type mood that day? Around Luke 17:30, we read the familiar passage in which Jesus tells us that when the Son of Man comes, two will be in bed (and two will be grinding) and one will be taken while the other is left. Then in verse 37 someone asks Jesus, "Where, Lord?" I expected Jesus to reply that the ones taken from their beds would be taken to a heavenly realm, but he says, "Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather." Where and what is this 'corpse', who are the vultures, and in what way is Jesus responding to the question posed him? Re Jesus being "worshiped": The Greek word "proskyneo" simply means to show "reverence" to, or to "express respect". Right? In your experience, what happens to the amazing friendships one finds among church congregations when someone simply stops believing? In The Miracle of Forgiveness, Spencer Kimball reinforces the unnatural aspect of homosexuality and other "sexual deviancies" by quoting Leviticus 20: when people lie with animals both the man or woman and the animal must be put to death. But animals committed no sin. Could it be that the ancients feared such unions might result in hybrids like the Minotaur? Is there any validity to the book Secrets of the Exodus? What is the purpose of the raven in the story of Noah? Why was this detail included in the story, and why was it retained? Is there anything whatsoever within the New Testament that you would grant as historical? Do we need an objective, metaphysical standard of right and wrong?