this overview is from dw news*, a german public broadcasting service.
i thought it may be interesting to know that early jerusalem was not as large as some have thought.. .
https://www.dw.com/en/ancient-jerusalem-smaller-than-believed/a-54671258?fbclid=iwar3svoex_h_2yru0t-wnmnvweyujoxactz-jgglgmdr16vcjoahvl_e8ow4.
This overview is from DW News*, A German Public Broadcasting Service. I thought it may be interesting to know that early Jerusalem was not as large as some have thought.
https://www.dw.com/en/ancient-jerusalem-smaller-than-believed/a-54671258?fbclid=IwAR3svOEx_h_2yRu0T-wNMnvWeyuJOxaCTz-jgglGmdR16vcjoAhvL_e8ow4
*DW is a German public international broadcaster funded by the German federal tax budget.
the answer is simple, a god must impregnate your mother.. i gave this some thought, as i read the following national geographic article, having had my mind thoroughly impregnated by holy spirit in the 40 years i spent as a temple slave, serving the chief god yhwh and his side-kick jesus, who, unlike me, had been completely begotten by holy spirit.. so with interest, i read about olympias, the mother of alexander the great, who told her son (alexander) that he had been begotten by the chief god zeus, who had turned up on night in her bed and had accepted his advances,.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/magazine/2019/11-12/queen-olympias-ancient-macedonia/.
olympias is an interesting woman.
Carmichael, Thnx for you response and the useful reminder of Genesis 6:1-4, that biblical reference to 'mysterious' erotic divinities.
My own comment was simply to show what may be another possible example of an inter-cultural Hellenistic influence among the people living in what we may still call Palestine.
Since Jesus wrote nothing (that we know of) we are dependent on the writings of his followers in order to know anything about the early days of Christianity. All of his first followers were, of course, culturally Jewish, but as we are gradually learning, a Jewishness that had been influenced by the around 300 years of a dominant Hellenism. I was attempting to provoke thought concerning my original post. Why was it neccessary to think of Jesus in terms of a virgin conception? Were people (jewish) aware of the legends about Alexander, and therefore, the first Christians started to describe Jesus in terms that elevated him about ordinary men?
the answer is simple, a god must impregnate your mother.. i gave this some thought, as i read the following national geographic article, having had my mind thoroughly impregnated by holy spirit in the 40 years i spent as a temple slave, serving the chief god yhwh and his side-kick jesus, who, unlike me, had been completely begotten by holy spirit.. so with interest, i read about olympias, the mother of alexander the great, who told her son (alexander) that he had been begotten by the chief god zeus, who had turned up on night in her bed and had accepted his advances,.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/magazine/2019/11-12/queen-olympias-ancient-macedonia/.
olympias is an interesting woman.
The answer is simple, a god must impregnate your mother.
I gave this some thought, as I read the following National Geographic article, having had my mind thoroughly impregnated by holy spirit in the 40 years I spent as a temple slave, serving the Chief god YHWH and his side-kick Jesus, who, unlike me, had been completely begotten by holy spirit.
So with interest, I read about Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great, who told her son (Alexander) that he had been begotten by the chief god Zeus, who had turned up on night in her bed and had accepted his advances,
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/magazine/2019/11-12/queen-olympias-ancient-macedonia/
Olympias is an interesting woman. In a era when society had conservative notions about women's role (not dissimilar to JW standards) women, "were supposed to be quiet, passive, stay out of public life, and maintain the family," Olympias grew up believing that the Greek hero (and demi god) Achilles had impregnated her mother resulting in her (Olympias;) birth.
According to Plutarch (a Greek biographer) Olympias told her son, Alexander (Who became 'great') that she also had also experienced a divine sexual experience, when the chief Greek god, Zeus had turned up in her bed and impregnated her, leading to the birth of Alexander.
Alexander's belief was pictured by the Italian artist Giulio Romano in the 16th century fresco that he created on the the wall of the Sala di Psiche of the Palazzo del Te in Mantua, Italy. In the fresco Zeus is visualised as a sea-serpent about to have intercourse with a naked Olympias.
Did Alexander believe this? As he started his Empire building wars, he took time off to visit an oracle in the Libyan desert, where he was pronounced to be the son of the Egyptian chief god, Amon, who in Greek thought was supposed to be Zeus.
Which set me to wondering how many young women in hellenised Judea thought their bed had been visited by a god? And, how many young men got to think that some god or the other was their real father?
china now!
does this mean we can start to go back to normal ?.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3ysrtdrqle.
Some more piks.
china now!
does this mean we can start to go back to normal ?.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3ysrtdrqle.
China Now! Does this mean we can start to go back to normal ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3ySrtdrqlE
That video was from CGTN (China Global Television Network)
That Wuhan Pool Party excited some sour comments on Sydney TV News today, and from the descriptions of the way some people have been sharing the virus at pubs, clubs and restaurants, in Sydney, I guess there will be some that are envious.
I understand that in Wuhan authorities haves continued to test extensively, some may even say that they were testing relentlessly, even though there have been no reported infections since mid-May. Would it be safe to go back to normal? So, let's have a party and find out. A CNN report notes: Quote: "Now, the central Chinese city of Wuhan appears to have moved on from the virus, as thousands of revelers gathered in an open air water park for an electronic music festival -- without any masks or social distancing measures in sight. Over the weekend, the Wuhan Maya Beach Water Park was filled with partygoers in swimsuits bunched together shoulder to shoulder, waving to the beat of the music while cooling down in hip-high water; others relaxed on inflatable rubber tubes that packed the pool to the brim, with little space to float around. The crowded party scene remains unthinkable in many parts of the world still grappling with the deadly virus. More than 21 million people have been infected across the globe, with tens of thousands of new cases reported every day in the United States, Brazil and India.
But in Wuhan, life has gradually returned to normal since the metropolis of 11 million people in Hubei province lifted a stringent 76-day lockdown in early April. The city hasn't reported any new cases since mid-May.
The Wuhan Maya Beach Water Park reopened in late June, but more than a month of seasonal rain had discouraged crowds from turning out. The number of visitors in early August only accounted for half of the level in the same period last year, according to Hubei Daily, a provincial Communist Party mouthpiece newspaper, citing a manager at the park.
Currently, the water park receives an average of 15,000 daily visitors during weekends, and is offering half-price discounts to some visitors, Hubei Daily reported.
....the virus made a brief reemergence in mid-May, when six new cases were discovered in a residential community in the city. Municipal authorities rolled out an ambitious citywide nucleic acid testing drive, which saw more than 6.5 million tests conducted in just nine days, according to state media. "
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/18/asia/wuhan-water-park-party-intl-hnk/index.html
i was six, not given any choice.
i remember being in the old kh, and my dad told me the brothers wanted to talk to me in the back...i was terrified.
i actually thought they knew i didn’t want to be a dub, my dad told them to just add me as a publisher, so no back room meeting.
I wish I'd been 100 when I became a publisher.
beautiful tune, great artwork, powerful scare tactics .
https://youtu.be/wccbzgjjrsk.
haha!! didn't know whether to laugh or cry thru that video - brought back so many buried memories. I used to get got so wrapped up in the talking about brothers being persecuted that I could hardly speak. And, when I had kids, the thought of them being tortured in front of me - scared me shitless. Fear can be a powerful motivator!
On the funny side (as is near always present in anything JW) at one circuit assembly, the Circuit overseer had carefuly arranged a little bit of play-acting on persecution, I was a bit player, and another young bro.was too. The scenario, had us in a cell together, we'd been beaten and that had failed, so those clever Satan inspired persecutors tried a different method, introducing a beautiful young girl (scantily dressed- now that was a difficult thing to arrange at a circuit assembly) who was supposed to seduce us ( A threesome ???? - were did the C.O get that from). We resisted!! (of course),
But after the play-acting was over - the other young bro. said to me. "I think if that was real, I'd try her out - and then I could repent. Which sent me off wondering what I would do!!
in 2002-2004 - during its first time around - that "pandemic" killed 774 people worldwide and then "evaporated.".
strange how viruses "work.
".
This is a link to a long discussion about the possible existence of Covid19 (the disease caused by this particular coronavirus,
The author is Otto Kolbl - described as:
It was published on a web-site called Medium, which seems to be have been started by the person who started twitter. A Wikipedia entry describes it:
"Medium is an online publishing platform developed by Evan Williams and launched in August 2012. It is owned by A Medium Corporation.[3] The platform is an example of social journalism, having a hybrid collection of amateur and professional people and publications, or exclusive blogs or publishers on Medium,[4] and is regularly regarded as a blog host.
Williams, previously co-founder of Blogger and Twitter, initially developed Medium as a way to publish writings and documents longer than Twitter's 140-character (now 280-character) maximum."
i find it ironic that jw.org publishes an article about homosexuality on the day i received july 2020 issue if the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints magazine "ensign" which also has an article on same-sex attraction.
.
regardless, the lds article comes across as more caring than the jw article although in the end members in good standing cannot act upon their same-sex attraction in either religion..
The ancients were not fully knowledgeable about huamn sexuality , they saw homosexuality as a detestable sin not something inherently biological.
Mr. Finkelstein, I appreciate the sentiments you express, and agree with the exception of the generalisation implied with the term "the ancients."
Sexuality in most ancient cultures did not see same sex sexualty as a 'detestable sin,' Its true that in Graeco-Roman culture some individual writers may have condemned homosexuality, but in general it was not condemned.
in 2002-2004 - during its first time around - that "pandemic" killed 774 people worldwide and then "evaporated.".
strange how viruses "work.
".
SBF - "Lots of meat markets are disgusting, in China and elsewhere (how we store and transport pigs and chickens, as examples) but if there’s good evidence that this virus originated from wild animal meat sold in a meat market (rather than from the laboratory in Wuhan which specialised in bat coronavirus research) then I’m very interested to hear it."
Wet markets and what I call semi-wet markets are common throughout the world. This ABC article (the Aussie govt owned ABC, not the USA ABC) describes them. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-17/what-are-wet-markets-in-china/12159920
I sometimes shop at one in Sydney in Ausstralia (located in Flemington) - here's a pik.
This is the main F & V market in Sydney and on saturdays it transforms into a retail market. Sells a lot of seafood that's why I'd call it a semi-wet market.
It used to be located close to the city. I worked there when I was a pioneer, much less hygienic in those days, When I was even younger I used to trap rabbits the family would eat the rabbits and I'd sell the skins to a guy who used to travel around to buy them. Lot's of rabbits then, the English released them in Australia and they become a pest. The govt. released the myxoma virus and that got rid of the English rabbit problem. I also recall my father catching and caging (to fatten them) a fruit bat and a black swan, so we could eat them,
Australia has also had some good luck escaping corona viruses on two occasions, The worst outbreak came from infected horses who caught it from bats. See the WHO description - https://www.who.int/health-topics/hendra-virus-disease#tab=tab_1
But you asked, " ... if there’s good evidence that this virus originated from wild animal meat sold in a meat market (rather than from the laboratory in Wuhan which specialised in bat coronavirus research) then I’m very interested to hear it."
I think that its a bit early to know too much (and also too close to political questions rather than biological questions) but I noted this news item today, on the web-site of one of Australia's media units.
"Spanish study finds coronavirus traces in March 2019 sewage sample."
If this study can be replicated it may confirm that the reports of 'mysterious" flu symptoms that may have been the corona virus affecting the world.
There's also reports (from a few months ago) that research at Cambridge University indicated that this virus came from further south than Wuhan. This report from the Hongkong based South China Morning Post.
Quote: "The first outbreak of the coronavirus could have happened further south than the central Chinese city of Wuhan as early as September, according to a team of scientists led by the University of Cambridge."
"
