Quotes
on Bible - Love is patient, love is kind
“For
the only reason (I came to think) for God to inspire the Bible would be so that
his people would have his actual words; but if he really wanted people to have
his actual words, surely he would have miraculously preserved those words, just
as he had miraculously inspired them in the first place. Given the
circumstances that he didn't preserve the words, the conclusion seemed
inescapable to me that he hadn't gone to the trouble of inspiring them.”
―
Bart D. Ehrman
“Polytheistic
Greek mythology includes some stories that tell of intervention by Zeus in
human affairs but others that tell of Zeus’s life among his fellow gods. In the
Bible, God, being the only god, does not have that second kind of action
through which to present himself. But the peculiarity of God’s character does
not end there. God could conceivably engage in some kind of demonstrative
action that would serve his own self-presentation apart from any interaction
with man: miraculous displays, cosmic disruptions, the creation of other
worlds. But in fact he refrains from all such activity. Not only does he lack
any social life among other gods but he also lacks what we might call a private
life. His only way of pursuing an interest in himself is through mankind.”
―
Jack Miles, God: A Biography
“The
people who wrote down the Bible and the people who wrote down the Mahayana
sutras were artists. They used images to express their insights.”
―
Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Battles: Modern Commentary on the Teachings of Master
Linji
“But
the Bible narrative is all about creativity bursting forth from the true self,
the true you.”
―
Jamie Winship, Living Fearless: Exchanging the Lies of the World for the
Liberating Truth of God
“The
Quran's relationship to Tanakh and the Bible differs from that of the New Testament
to Tanakh. Whereas the New Testament reinterprets Tanakh and incorporates it
into the Bible as the Old Testament, the Quran refers to the Jewish and
Christian scriptures while remaining independent of both.”
―
Charles L Cohen, The Abrahamic Religions: A Very Short Introduction: A Very
Short Introduction
“Love
is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not
proud." — 1 Corinthians 13”
―
Christian Bible, The Christian Bible
“Mankind
seeks to destroy that which challenges its supremacy. Therefore, if God doesn’t
exist and Biblical principles are irrelevant, why does mankind spend so much
time seeking to destroy both?”
―
Craig D. Lounsbrough
“In
its mythology, Mithra, the Persian god of light and wisdom, was born of a
virgin in a cave on the 25th December and later, as an adult, undertook long
voyages for the purposes of illuminating mankind. His disciples were twelve; he
was betrayed, sentenced to death, and after his death, he was buried in a tomb
from which he rose from the dead. The Mithrian religion also states that at the
end of all time, Mithra will come again to judge the living and the dead. In
this religious cult, Mithra was called the Saviour and he was sometimes
illustrated as a lamb. Its doctrine included baptism, the sacramental meal (the
Eucharist), and the belief in a saviour god that died and rose from the dead to
be the mediator between God and mankind. The adherents of this religion
believed in the resurrection of the body, universal judgement, and therefore in
heaven and hell.”
―
Anton Sammut, The Secret Gospel of Jesus, AD 0-78
“Mari
[Mary Magdalene] possessed a remarkably coherent understanding of what
following The Way [Rahasya] meant. She believed that this spiritual philosophy
taught that the world represented Man's mystic school from whence each person
ultimately graduated by reaching the Enlightened State. Therefore, according to
this spiritual discipline, human suffering is very subjective and manifested
itself according to every person's personal karma or attitude to life. This
meant that every life a person experienced imparted a certain number of
spiritual lessons that may not have been experienced before in other lives.
Ultimately, every experience could be relived and bring about spiritual growth,
assisting the individual to move continually closer to the Enlightened State.”
―
Anton Sammut, The Secret Gospel of Jesus, AD 0-78
“At
the time that she came to live with Jesus's mother, Mari [Mary Magdalene] had
no inkling about how she would be greeted by her since their cultures were
radically different from each other. The pleasure of her surprise was therefore
boundless when Jesus's mother heartily welcomed her with open arms, despite the
cultural difference in their religious beliefs. In all fairness, Mari did not
make it difficult for Mary to accept her; if anything, she invited Mary to
teach her the social habits and local traditions of her people down to the most
minor detail especially since she would find them very useful later on in her
public life with Jesus.”
―
Anton Sammut, The Secret Gospel of Jesus, AD 0-78
“One
of the main reasons Jesus wanted Mari [Mary Magdalene] to start her own
following of female disciples was because in those times, Jewish women had no
probative value in society and were therefore not even given a basic education.
Their intellect was considered decidedly inferior to men's and apart from this,
women's far superior intuition was interpreted as a characteristic that
associated them to the devil since the men could not quite understand this
inner knowledge or find a plausible explanation for it...”
―
Anton Sammut, The Secret Gospel of Jesus, AD 0-78
“This
is why Jesus would urge Mari [Mary Magdalene] to look after the women noting,
''Cultivate their regard for you because those women who are naturally drawn to
you are exceptional people, sensitive women who are very close to spiritual
freedom. However, before they can achieve this ultimate goal, you must first
tend to their psychological wounds, the visible and the invisible lesions they
have experienced at the hands of men, just as we once did in your homeland. It
is only if these existential traumas are healed properly that these women can
finally reach equanimity of spirit and heart.”
―
Anton Sammut, The Secret Gospel of Jesus, AD 0-78
“And
so Jesus continued to preach in those lands and one day, when he was in the
city of Pataliputra or modern-day Patna, close to the River Ganges, Jesus met a
beautiful young woman whose name was Mari, better known today as Mary
Magdalene: an attractive woman who was some ten-years younger than Jesus was.”
―
Anton Sammut, The Secret Gospel of Jesus, AD 0-78
“Then
it happened that whenever he began to see Mari's [Mary Magdalene] passionate
enthusiasm, her eyes emanating a light that amply showed how contended she was
aiding so many people, Jesus could not help but be proud of his most-beloved
disciple. Mari, likewise, felt indebted and grateful to Jesus as she saw her
fellow sisters gradually being saved on all counts, some even going on to
become some of Jesus's staunchest disciples...”
―
Anton Sammut, The Secret Gospel of Jesus, AD 0-78
“What
happened to Jesus after he was crucified?
A
historical reconstruction
It
is an undeniable fact that the New Testament Gospels present the crucifixion
and the resurrection as the pivot upon which Christianity is based. However,
this notion is most surprising when we take into consideration that this
postulation was never part of Jesus's teaching. Certainly the evangelists
'Mark' and 'Matthew' do hint at these strange happenings, but it is a noted
fact amongst the majority of the biblical scholars that these sequences were
added several centuries after the original Gospels were written, and this was
done so that the political editors of these Gospels could adapt the writings
according to their political and theological needs...”
―
Anton Sammut, The Secret Gospel of Jesus, AD 0-78
