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The following informational
vignettes were initially intended solely as footnotes to
other articles. However, it was felt that some
readers might find them of interest in and of
themselves. Thus, besides pertinent links to each
item, the entire group is now listed as an article on the
Philosophy & Religion menu. Due to the primary
function of these items as footnotes, the list can be
expected to grow as new articles requiring such
references are added.
Items are arranged
roughly in the chronological order of the historical
events or scriptural references to which they pertain.
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Multiple O.T. traditions: The fact that the early books of the Old
Testament exhibit many inconsistencies is in part due to
their being a combination of three separate traditions. One of these, embodied in the "J
document" compiled about the 9th century BCE, reflected the
monotheistic legends of the kingdom of Judah. Though probably more ancient in origin, the
arguably polytheistic tradition of Israel was compiled a
century or so later in the "E document." During the Persian Period (beginning ca.
538 BCE), the
"J" and "E" legends were interwoven
with more recent and scholarly material, usually referred
to as the "P document." This process inevitably produced many of the
duplications and contradictions incorporated into the
early O.T. books as we know them today.
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The oldest book of the Bible: Deuteronomy, the "Book of the Law"
was allegedly discovered in the Temple of Jerusalem
during the reign of Josiah.
It is the only book of the Pentateuch which does not use
a style recognizable as "J," "E," and
"P" material, and is thus designated as the
"D-document" by some. The fact that the language used in that work is
significantly more modern than would be expected in a
document from the time of Moses, plus the extreme
unlikelihood of such an important artifact's having
remained intact and undetected in the Temple for three
centuries since the reign of Solomon, have led many
serious scholars to conclude that Deuteronomy was
actually written by monotheistic reformers just prior to
its suspiciously serendipitous "discovery." Unfortunately, no fragment of the original
document has survived for radiometric verification. But even in light of its likely origin in the
7th century BCE, the Book of Deuteronomy is the oldest biblical
text in its current form.
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Isaiah's anachronisms: The prophet Isaiah lived during the 8th century
BCE, yet some
prophecies ascribed to him were not rendered until
centuries after his death.
Thus much of what is ascribed to Isaiah is either
partially or wholly the work of others. (As some will astutely note, this arrangement
offers a most convenient and effective way of making
purportedly ancient prophecies, actually made much later
or even after-the-fact, appear to have miraculously come
true. The mention of Cyrus of
Persia as liberator of the Jews is an example.)
An allusion to Lucifer (Latin
translation of the Greek Phosphoros, from the
Hebrew helel or "bright one") in the
Book of Isaiah was probably a reference to a contemporary
oppressor, most likely Sennacherib of Assyria (or
possibly Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, if the remark was
inserted after Isaiah's death). The popular notion that the name Lucifer
applied to Satan is erroneous, for the concept of Satan
as a distinct entity did not arise until centuries later.
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Heaven and Hell: The dualistic concept of opposing forces of
good and evil took hold in Jewish religion during the 6th
century BCE
under the influence of the Zoroastrian tradition of
Persia. This is when the
legend of Satan (e.g., the Book of Job) began to
take shape. Prior to that
time the Hebrew belief had been that the souls of the
dead were transported to Sheol ("The
Pit"), a somber but not particularly fearsome realm
not unlike the Hades of Greek religion, without
distinction as to whether one's earthly life had been
virtuous or iniquitous. The
idea of separate afterlives of heavenly reward and
hellish retribution is a fairly recent one, formed only
during the last few centuries of the pre-Christian era.
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The Immaculate Conception: This
is the idea that Mary, mother of Jesus, was herself
conceived by her mother, St. Anne, free of original
sin. Many people (including Christians) confuse the
Immaculate Conception with the Virgin Birth, but they are
two separate episodes, the first concerning the origin of
Mary, the second the origin of Jesus. The notion of
the Immaculate Conception of Mary became an accepted part
of Roman Catholic dogma only relatively recently, within
the last couple of centuries.
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The Virgin Birth: The Gospel of
Matthew cites the prophecy of Isaiah to identify the
messiah's mother as a virgin. However, the term
which Matthew quotes as "virgin" actually means
"young woman," with no implication as to that
person's state of chastity. Isaiah's original
prophecy in fact made no mention of a virgin; if he had
actually meant "virgin," he certainly would
have used the appropriate term. The mangling of the
quote was likely intentional, for the tendency of the
author of Matthew to embellish the "facts" as
reported in other gospels is well demonstrated on more
than just this occasion (the star of Bethlehem, not
mentioned in any other gospel, being perhaps the most
glaring example). It was around this key
misinterpretation that the entire mythology concerning
the Annunciation and Virgin Birth was constructed.
The compilers of the King James Version of the Bible
later helped Matthew out in this instance, by
purposefully mistranslating the crucial word in Isaiah's
O.T. prophecy as "virgin," so as to smooth over
this little awkwardness. (Another example of the
"miracle" of prophecy cleverly doctored
after-the-fact.)
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The time of Jesus's birth: To
free Christianity from the indignity of using the
"pagan" Roman calendar, 6th-century historian
Dionysius Exiguus attempted to calculate the year of
Jesus's birth and designated it as "1 AD"
(Anno Domini, "the Year of the
Lord"). When later established in 1582, the
Gregorian calendar continued that tradition.
However, subsequent study of historical records has
revealed that King Herod died in the year 749 AUC (Roman calendar), equivalent to 4 BC by Dionysius's reckoning.
Therefore, if the biblical account of Herod's order of
infanticide is to be believed, Jesus must have been born
no later than 4 BCE and probably
before, perhaps as early as 17 BCE
by some accounts. This presents us with the awkward
reckoning of the period of Jesus's childhood and perhaps even
adolescence, using the
Christian calendar, as BC,
"before Christ."
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