Jesus was a Jew and the rabbi of a large sect of Jews. All the early Christians were Jews. He was a contemporary and the Essenes wrote about contemporary happenings. The Qumran community existed during the time of the ministry of Jesus, yet none of the Scrolls refer to him, nor do they mention any of his follower's described in the New Testament.
I TOTALLY AGREE with that! The question was asked to those that think the bible is factual truths. But since your the only one that answered, I'll pose this question to you. Faithly (in my best steve perry voice, jk) do you believe in everything that is in the bible?
I don't over analyze something that is outside my realm of understanding. I fully acknowledge that my feeble human brain is incapable of understanding all of God's mysteries...and I'm fine with that. Once I'm in heaven, and after I'm chastised for my tailgating activities, maybe I'll get some answers to some difficult questions...but I don't worry about that right now. I just pray that God truly is a Tiger Fan and will understand why we do the things we do. :thumb:
Nice answer! And if God doesnt forgive tailgating acts, Hell is gonna be one purple and gold colored place!
Don't you believe the bible is meant to be attempted and understood, at least to as much degree as each person can individually understand it? I believe each person is responsible for understanding as much as he can.
I over analyse everything and it has given me great understanding and a far from feeble brain. If God is my creator and he has given me the abilities to question, test, analyse, conclude and become wiser, is that not God's gift? How could God show ancient peoples the physics of the universe and the basic sciences and natural sciences that explain life? No, it had to be explained by them in simple and sometimes magical beliefs within the limited realms of their knowledge. If I, in my century, recognize ancient mythology for what it is and also recognize that science and civilization have brought us to a better understanding of how life and the world around us actually works, am I not using God's own gifts to become more enlightened than illiterate bedoin tribesmen 5,000 years ago? If God is omniscient and controls all, then is our scientific enlghtenment not God's plan? If we have taken this enlightenment and discovered a universe that is vastly larger and more complex than we could have possibly understood as primitive people, is that not the proper way of things? I'm quite sure that I'm incapable of understanding all of God's mysteries . . . and I'm fine with that, too. But tomorrow, by using the reason that has been provided for me, . . . I'll understand a little bit more of it.
But we must understand, and accept, that some things are "outside our realm of understanding" red. That is all. I never said we should not become wiser.
hence the "sort of" they mention the messiah in ways more consistent with the NT than the Nevi'im. some believe that is supportive of the NT messiah account and some [many] believe the qumran texts predate jesus. its funny because if they do predate jesus, you cant use the lack of reference to jesus as evidence against the existence of jesus
Of course . . . but our realm of understanding continues to grow. And I am not constrained to understand only what my ancestors believed.
