Philosopher David Hume on the Absurdity in Religion

 

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From Essays and Treaties on Several Subjects by David Hume 1793

...where theism forms the fundamental principle of any popular religion, that tenet is so conformable to sound reason, that philosophy is apt to incorporate itself with such a system of theology. And if the other dogmas of that system be contained in a sacred book, such as the Koran, or be determined by any visible authority, like that of the Roman pontif, speculative reasoners naturally carry on their assent, and embrace a theory which has been instilled into them by their earliest education, and which also possesses some degree of consistence and uniformity. But as these appearances are sure, all of them, to prove deceitful, philosophy will soon find herself very unequally yoked with her new associate; and instead of regulating each principle, as they advance together, she is at every turn perverted to serve the purposes of superstition. For besides the unavoidable incoherences which must be reconciled and adjusted, one may safely affirm that all popular theology, especially the scholastic, has a kind of appetite for absurdity and contradiction. If that theology went not beyond reason and common sense, her doctrines would appear too easy and familiar. Amazement must of necessity be raised; mystery affected; darkness and obscurity sought after; and a foundation of merit afforded the devout votaries, who desire an opportunity of subduing their rebellious reason, by the belief of the most unintelligible sophisms.

Ecclesiastical history sufficiently confirms these reflexions. When a controversy is started, some people pretend always with certainty to foretell the issue. Whichever opinion, say they, is most contrary to plain sense is sure to prevail, even where the general interest of the system requires not that decision. Though the reproach of heresy may for some time be bandied about among the disputants, it always rests at last on the side of reason. Any one, it is pretended, that has but learning enough of this kind to know the definition of Arian, Pelagian, Erastian, Socinian, Sabellian, Eutychian, Nestorian, Monothelite, etc., not to mention Protestant, whose fate is yet uncertain, will be convinced of the truth of this observation. It is thus a system becomes more absurd in the end, merely from its being reasonable and philosophical in the beginning.

To oppose the torrent of scholastic religion by such feeble maxims as these: that “it is impossible for the same to be and not to be”, that “the whole is greater than a part”, that “two and three make five”, is pretending to stop the ocean with a bull-rush. Will you set up profane reason against sacred mystery? No punishment is great enough for your impiety. And the same fires which were kindled for heretics will serve also for the destruction of philosophers.

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"Verily I say to thee to-day, that with me thou shalt be in the Eden's garden"

 

From: Good Tidings Pertaining to the Earth and the Race as Disclosed in the Scriptures 1871

 If our readers will observe the common use of language, they will notice that all classes of persons frequently use to-day, to-night, this day, and this night, in the same sense that to-day is used in the text, provided it qualifies say. Some may object, by saying that thus arranged, to-day would be superfluous; but no more so than in many cases in the Bible. The Lord instructs Moses to say to the children of Israel, “I command thee this day.” “I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish.” Deut. 30: 11, 18. He does not mean that they shall perish that day, but makes the denunciation that day; which fact was perfectly apparent without stating it, but it is a common mode of expression. Again, the Lord says in Deut. 15: 15, “I command thee this thing to-day.” Here, to-day is used in the same sense as in Luke 23: 43,-“verily I say unto thee to-day, shalt thou be with me in paradise.” If the phrase, to-day, is superfluous in Luke 23:43, if made to qualify say, it is equally so in Deut. 15: 15. Mr. Webster, in one of his speeches said, “I speak to-day for the preservation of the Union.” All knew he was speaking that day, without his declaring the fact. Mr. Choate, on one occasion, spoke in the same style. These distinguished orators used to-day in the same sense as it is used in Luke 23:43, when the comma is placed after to-day. An intelligent minister said, "I expect to-night, to get into the kingdom.” Of course it was not understood that he expected to be in the kingdom before morning, but that he spoke of his present expectations. Similar expressions are very common. 

Again, if it could be proved that the thief went to heaven or paradise the day of the crucifixion, it was forty-three days before the Saviour ascended. The Saviour says, “thou shalt be with me in paradise.” Three days subsequent to this, after the Saviour had risen from the dead, he said to Mary, “touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my father.” He remained on earth forty days longer, and then ascended to Heaven.

4. The adverb seemeron, rendered "to-day," occurs in the Septuagint scriptures of the Old Testament, and in the Greek of the New Testament, two hundred and fifty-nine times. It is used adjectively twenty-four times, and without a verb to qualify fourteen times. It precedes the verb it qualifies fifty-one times, and one hundred and seventy times it follows the verb it qualifies; so that there are one hundred and seventy instances to fifty-one, in favor of putting the comma after to-day in this case. From a very ancient manuscript of the Syriac, written, as supposed, about the fifth century, the following rendering occurs: "Verily I say to thee to-day, that with me thou shalt be in the Eden's garden.”

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From the Literal Idiomatic Translation:

"And (kai) he enunciated (eipen) to him (autō), 'Truly (amēn) I say (legō) to you (soi) today (sēmeron), you shall cause yourself to be (esē) with (met’) me (emou) in (en) the (tō) paradise (paradeisō)!'"

See also The Eonian Life Bible New Testament and The One God, the Father, One Man Messiah Translation and Rotherham's Bible and The Kingdom of God Version New Testament by Raymond Faircloth and the New European Version Bible and the Concordant Literal Version and the 2001Translation and the Revised Version Improved and Corrected and the Twenty First Century New Testament and the New World Translation and the Updated American Standard Version.

The Execution of Bible Translator William Tyndale on This Day in History

 

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[The English Bible---the most familiar book in our language---is the product of a man who was exiled, vilified, betrayed, then strangled, then burnt.]

This Day in History: Reformation Bible translator William Tyndale was burned at the stake on this day in 1536. Tyndale's work in Bible translation was so effective that Bible versions today work on a foundation that he started. One study found that Tyndale's words account for 84% of the New Testament and for 75.8% of the Old Testament in the King James Bible.

As well as individual words, Tyndale also coined such familiar phrases as:

fall flat on his face

go the extra mile

my brother's keeper

knock and it shall be opened unto you

a moment in time

fashion not yourselves to the world

seek and ye shall find

ask and it shall be given you

judge not that ye be not judged

the word of God which liveth and lasteth forever

let there be light

the powers that be

the salt of the earth

a law unto themselves

it came to pass

the signs of the times

filthy lucre

the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak  

There were words that Tyndale used in his Bible that the Church in his day disapproved of. Words such as "overseer", instead of "bishop", "elder" for "priest", and "love" rather than "charity". Tyndale, citing Erasmus, contended that the Greek New Testament did not support the traditional readings. More controversially, Tyndale translated the Greek ekklesia as "congregation" rather than "church". It has been asserted this translation choice "was a direct threat to the Church's ancient – but so Tyndale here made clear, non-scriptural – claim to be the body of Christ on earth. To change these words was to strip the Church hierarchy of its pretensions to be Christ's terrestrial representative, and to award this honour to individual worshipers who made up each congregation." ~Brian Moynahan

Tyndale's translation was also the first English Bible to draw directly from Hebrew and Greek texts, the first English translation to take advantage of the printing press, the first of the new English Bibles of the Reformation, and the first English translation to use Jehovah ("Iehouah") as God's name.

Bible translations were also a threat to Church authorities, for it made people question church doctrines:

"Wyclif's manuscript translations of the Bible had been widely circulated from about 1380 on, and it is said that some of his followers were tinged with Antitrinitarianism; but this Bible had to be read in secret, as did Tyndale's first printed New Testament of 1525, for fear of the law. In 1535, however, the English Bible began to be accessible to all, and many were reading it for the first time. First and last the influence of this book, when read in comparison with the creeds, has underlain all others leading men to reject the doctrine of the Trinity. Some of the most notable of the early English Unitarians declared they had never read nor heard the Unitarian doctrine, but had come to it solely through reading their Bibles."~Earl Morse Wilbur

It is tempting to say that Tyndale was killed for translating the Bible into the vernacular English, but that is only partially true. Tyndale also criticized King Henry VIII’s annulment and subsequent marriage to Anne Boleyn. In the previous year, the same fate befell Thomas More for the same reason.

See also: The History of the English Bible, 125 PDF Books on DVDrom (or to download)

The Meaning of the Word Parousia, by Moses Hull

 

From The Christs of the Past and Present 1901

The second coming of Christ, of course refers to the first. Christ once came in the person of Jesus, enabling him to do good works and to say many good things, so he will come in the person of others enabling them to do wonderful works and say wonderful words.

If I have been right thus far in my expositions, the coming of Christ does not refer to the personal advent of some person, but to the presence of a power. The word “coming” generally signifies "presence,” or “manifestation.” There are several words used in the Greek Testament, which are so rendered into English as to make some who have not studied much on the matter, believe in the personal, that is, the bodily return of the man of Nazareth. No idea could be more wild or farfetched. One of the words used in this connection is the word parousia, and signifies not, "coming," but presence.

It would require more space than I have at command to refer to every place where this word occurs in the Greek Testament. It is generally wrongfully rendered "coming.” It occurs several times in Matt. xxiv, and is always rendered "coming." In verse 3, the disciples are, by our rendering, made to ask, “What shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world?” What they really did ask was: “What shall be the sign of thy presence and of the end of the age?"

The same word is wrongfully rendered coming in verse 37, which says: “As the days of Noe were so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." Verse 39 says: "And knew not until the flood came and took them all away, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be." In each of these instances the original word is parousia, and signifies, presence, not coming.

Modern Adventism has interpreted the text to signify “What shall be the sign that your coming is not very far in the future?" The fact is, they wanted to know the sign of the presence of this power, known as mediumship.

In I Cor. xv. 25, Paul says, "Those that are Christs at his coming." The word rendered at, in that instance is the Greek word en, and should be rendered in; the word rendered coming is the word parousia, and should be rendered, not "coming," but presence. The true rendering would be, “Those of the anointed in his presence.” The word parousia is rendered presence in a few places. In II Cor. x. 10, his bodily presence is weak." In that instance, it would not do to say, "his bodily coming is weak."

In Phil. ii. 12, Paul says: "Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence (parousia) only, but now much more in my absence (apousia) work out your own salvation with fear and trembling."

It would make rather bad work to render the word parousia coming, or the word apousia going away in that instance.

In II Pet. i. 16, Peter speaks of the power and coming of our Lord. If you would read what Peter said instead of what the translators made him say, you would read as follows:

“For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of his majesty"

The New American Bible on This Day in History

 

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This Day in History: The Catholic New American Bible was published on this day in 1970. The 1986 Revised NAB is the basis of the revised Lectionary, and it is the only translation approved for use at Mass in the Latin-rite Catholic dioceses of the United States and the Philippines, and the 1970 first edition is also an approved Bible translation by the Episcopal Church in the United States.

The NAB was a reworking of the the Confraternity Bible, a translation of the Vulgate by the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine. The Vulgate however was based on the Latin, not the Greek and Hebrew original languages of the Bible.  Pope Pius XII's 1943 encyclical Divino afflante Spiritu changed all that and the New American Bible is the first popular Catholic Bible published using the Greek and Hebrew. It should be noted that James A. Kleist, SJ, and Joseph L. Lilly, SJ produced a Catholic New Testament that was published in the 1950's, using the Greek Text. 

It is interesting to note that many Traditional Catholics reject the New American Bible, preferring either the old Douay-Rheims Bible or, oddly enough, the Protestant Revised Standard Version. The primary complaint was that the New American Bible did not have "Hail, full of grace" at Luke 1:28 as it reads in the Douay Rheims Bible (see also Knox and the Confraternity Bible).

The Douay-Rheims Bible uses the Latin Vulgate which has Gratia Plena here, of which "full of grace" is a proper translation. But the NAB Bible text of Luke, like most modern Bibles, is translated from the Greek, and the Greek word here is KECARITWMENH which most Bibles translate as "favored." The Douay Bible does though often translate Gratia(m) as "favor" (see Acts 2:47, 7:10, 25:3 and numerous times in the Old Testament).

The NAB does however have "full of grace" at Acts 6:8, but, this reading is different in the Greek than it is at Luke 1:28. Acts 6:8 has PLHRHS CARITOS* while Luke 1:28 has KECARITWMENH. From even a cursory examination PLHRHS CARITOS lends itself better as a translation of "full of grace" which leads one to wonder why those two words were not used at Luke 1:28 if the text was really meant to say "full of grace" in regards to Mary.

Additionally, the closing words at Luke 1:28, "blessed art thou among women" (Douay, KJV) appear to be a later interpolation. To go even further, some do not even consider the first 2 chapters of Luke authentic at all:

"The first two chapters of Luke were wanting in the gospels of the first century. They were also wanting in the Gospel of the Hebrews, or Nazarenes, about A. D. 125, as well as in the Gospel of Marcion, A. D. 145. They first appeared in the Protevangelion, about A. D. 125, and were probably not deemed by Marcion, authentic." History of the Christian Religion By Charles Burlingame Waite 1881

Another criticism of the NAB Bible is that it translates Genesis 1:2, "the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters" as opposed to the text in the Douay Bible: "And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved over the waters." Many do not like that the word "spirit" is not in the NAB. Did you notice that the word "spirit" in the Douay-Rheims Bible is not capitalized. Why is this? It is because something other than the Holy Ghost is referred to here.

John L. McKenzie S.J., who was once regarded as "the best Catholic theologian...in the United States" wrote of the Spirit:

"In summary, the spirit in the OT [Old Testament], originally the wind and the breath, is conceived as a divine dynamic entity by which Yahweh accomplishes his ends, it saves, it is a creative, charismatic power, and as an agent of His anger it is a demonic power. It remains impersonal. Like the wind, neither its origin nor its course can be discovered..." Dictionary of the Bible by John L. McKenzie S.J. (1965)

Monsignor Ronald A. Knox, who translated from the Latin Vulgate renders Genesis 1:2 as "Earth was still an empty waste, and darkness hung over the deep; but already, over its waters, stirred the breath of God."

Another complaint levied against the New American Bible is that has replaced the word "virgin" at Isaiah 7:14 with "young woman." That's not true for older editions, and the footnotes in the newer editions give "virgin" as an alternate rendering.

The NAB seemingly translated texts that went contrary to their own theology but retained a fidelity to the best Greek Testaments at hand. Some argue that that Catholics can be freer with the details of the text because they don’t have to pretend to find their theology in it in full-blown form. 

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*Many Greek mss have PISTEWS here instead of CARITOS, but the NAB remained true to better Greek texts.

Unitarians and Witches on This Day in History

 

The last hanging of a convicted witch during the Salem Witch Trials happened on this day in 1692, and today is the day that Unitarian John Biddle died in 1662 from an illness contracted during his fourth term in prison.

Some estimate that there may have been 40,000 to 50,000 executions for witchcraft in Europe in the past, and 19 so-called witches were hung in Salem. Some like to say that 50-68 million heretics were killed by the Church, but that number is grossly over-blown. Also, most Unitarians (people who denied the Trinity teaching) were killed by Protestant authorities, or at least with the recommendation of Protestant clergy.  One Unitarian, Norbert Capek, founder of the Czech Unitarian Church was even killed at the Dachau concentration camp in 1942.

Perhaps the first witch executed was Theoris of Lemnos (before 323 BC) in ancient Greece. Using magic was not prohibited in Greece at the time, but she was condemned as a murderer in a poisoning death.

The first Unitarian martyred was possibly William Sawtrey in 1401 (that's if we are not including any anti-Trinitarians killed during the Arian controversy of the 4th century). 

See also: Twelve Arguments Refuting The Deity Of The Holy Spirit by John Biddle

Peter Gunther, Unitarian Martyr

The Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches) in a Nutshell

Accusations of Witchcraft in History

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Lant Carpenter on the Plural Words in the Hebrew

 

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Genesis 1:1 - In the beginning God (Elohim) created the heaven and the earth. 

The Hebrew word for God is Elohim and it is in the plural form. It is a common practice of the Hebrew Language to put in the plural form, words that express dominion, dignity, and majesty : and, farther, when a plural noun is used to denote a single object, the verb is regularly put in the singular, though it is sometimes put in the plural, owing merely to the termination of the noun. These indisputable facts, at once solve the grammatical difficulty, and it is nothing more, If the doctrine which it is supposed to favour, had any solid foundation in the Scriptures, this Hebrew idiom could afford it no support.-When Jehovah says to Moses, 'I have made thee a god to Pharoah,' the original word is Elohim or Aleim. The plural form is employed in reference to the one Golden Calf, Ex. xxxii. 4. 8. 31; to Dagon, Judges xvi. 23; to the Sidonian deities Ashtoreth, Chemosh, and Milcom, each separately. 1 Kings xi. 33. &c. &c. In like manner, Abraham, Pharoah, Joseph, &c. are called Adonim, Lords.--The argument has been rejected by many of the most learned Trinitarians. Even Calvin denies that the plural termination is any evidence of a plurality of Persons in the Godhead.

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Genesis 1:26 - And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...

The Supreme Being is in these passages represented as using the language of dignity, according to the practice of earthly sovereigns. Examples of this practice occur in the Scriptures; e. g. 1 Kings xii. 9. Ezra iv. 18. The only wonder is, that it is found in so small a number of instances. In the Koran, God is continually represented as speaking in the plural number, We did-We gade-We commanded; yet the Muslims are strict believers in the Divine Unity. The Jews themselves inferred nothing from this phraseology respecting a plurality of Persons in the one God. In fact, if it taught plurality at all, it would teach that there are more Gods than one, which, in words at least, all Christians, deny.

See also: How do modern day Rabbis view the word Elohim

The Word's Elohim and One in Hebrew do NOT Prove the Trinity Doctrine

How to Understand the Plural Word "Elohim" By William Laing 1901

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