|
|||||||
Thursday, August 29, 2019
God's army is rising up...will you join us?
Monday, August 26, 2019
Pope Francis: Mary helps Christians enter heaven through the 'narrow gate'
‘Make every effort
to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you,
will try to enter
and will not be able to’.
Luke 13:24
The
Gospel reading at Mass this Sunday (25th August, 2019) was that terrifying
one about the difficulty for us of reaching the Kingdom of Heaven.
Luke
13:22-30 reads:
Then Jesus went through the towns
and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, ‘Lord,
are only a few people going to be saved?’
He said to them, ‘Make every effort
to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter
and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the
door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for
us.’
But he will answer, ‘I don’t know
you or where you come from.’
Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank
with you, and you taught in our streets.’
But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you
or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’
There will be weeping there, and
gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets
in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. People will come from
east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in
the kingdom of God. Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and
first who will be last’.
Catholics
have always considered true devotion to the Virgin Mary to be a most efficacious
means that God in his mercy has bequeathed to us to assist us in attaining salvation.
And
Pope Francis recalls this, with reference to Mary’s title as “Gate of Heaven”:
hare
to FacebookShare
to TwitterShare
to WhatsAppShare
to PinterestShare
to PrintFriendlyShare
to More
Vatican City, Aug 25, 2019 /
06:10 am (CNA).-
The way to heaven is difficult and the gate to enter small, but Jesus’ mother,
Mary, who herself entered through the narrow gate, will help those who ask,
Pope Francis said Sunday.
Mary can be invoked under the title “Gate of Heaven,” he
explained in his Angelus address Aug. 25.
“She welcomed [Jesus] with all her heart and followed him
every day of her life, even when she did not understand, even when a sword
pierced her soul.”
The Blessed Virgin Mary is “a gate that exactly follows
the form of Jesus: the gate of the heart of Jesus, demanding, but open to all,”
he said. “May the Virgin Mary help us in this.”
Pope Francis reflected on the day’s Gospel passage from Luke, when someone asks
Jesus, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?”
This was a highly debated issue at the time, Francis
said, and with his answer, Jesus turns the question “upside down.” Instead of
focusing on the number of people who get to heaven, he speaks of the path to
heaven, and how many will choose to follow it.
Using the present tense, Jesus invites people to take
personal responsibility, saying, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for
many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.”
“With these words, Jesus makes it clear that it is not a
question of numbers, there is no ‘closed number’ in Paradise! But it is a
question of going through the right passage, which is there, for everyone, but
it is narrow,” Francis said.
He explained that Jesus does not deceive people; he does
not say that the way to heaven is a big, beautiful highway with a large door at
the end, to not worry.
“No, Jesus tells us things as they are: the passage is
narrow,” he said.
“In what sense? In the sense that to be saved one must love God and one’s
neighbor, and this is not comfortable!
It is a ‘narrow door’ because it is
demanding, it requires commitment, indeed, ‘effort,’ that is a determined and
persevering will to live according to the Gospel.
“For us Christians, this means that we are called to
establish a true communion with Jesus, praying, going to church, approaching
the Sacraments and nourishing ourselves with his Word,” he explained.
“This keeps us in faith, nourishes our hope, revives
charity,” he continued. “And so, with the grace of God, we can and must spend
our lives for the good of our brothers, fight against every form of evil and
injustice.” ….
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-francis-mary-helps-christians-enter-heaven-through-the-narrow-gate-71056
Part Two:
Applying some biblical perspective
Dear Mr. Mackey:
Hello. I appreciate a lot
of your papers - so thank you - but in this case . . . no, Mary does not
"help us enter heaven." It's God alone who does that, as
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; the glorious Trinity. Mary, despite being a
spiritual hero of mine, is not the "Gate of Heaven."
Jesus himself - and Jesus alone - is "the gate" (John 10:7, 9).
Regards ....
.... Of course, salvation comes solely from
the most holy Trinity.
But God has chosen for Mary, the New Eve, to
be our mediator with the Divine, so that we do not approach God directly.
Just as we do not approach royalty on earth
without go-betweens.
To go to the Triune God via Mary is the more
humble way, and God loves those who are humble.
God could have acted differently, of course,
but this is the way that He chose, for the Woman to be our spiritual mother
(John 19:26).
My best wishes,
Damien Mackey.
The
following article by Stephen Beale attempts to add some biblical context to Mary’s
title of “Gate of Heaven” (Janua Cœli):
The Significance of Mary as the Gate of Heaven
....
The Church teaches that Mary is the way to Jesus,
but is this grounded in Scripture?
As Catholics we can point to the gospel stories
of the Annunciation, the wedding at Cana, and the cross and demonstrate through
a close, faithful readings of these texts that Mary is indeed the ‘way’ to the
Way.
But we can also look at her traditional title as
the ‘Gate of Heaven’ which is biblically based. This title serves as further
clear confirmation of Mary’s significance.
Quite literally, Mary is the ‘gate’ through which
Christ enters the world. This title is one that is actually applied to her in
Scripture. Ezekiel 44:1-3 records that, 
Then
he brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary facing east, but it was
closed.
The LORD
said to me: This gate must remain closed; it must not be opened, and no one
should come through it. Because the LORD, the God of Israel, came through it,
it must remain closed. Only the prince may sit in it to eat a meal in the
presence of the LORD; he must enter through the vestibule of the gate and leave
the same way.
What was the holy gate through the Lord entered
and which must remain closed? Who else could it be but Mary Immaculate who
remained ever virgin after giving birth to Jesus?
Church Fathers like St.
Ambrose and St.
Augustine and more contemporary authorities like St. Louis de
Montfort and Blessed
John Henry Newman all draw the obvious inference from this text.
It’s worth noting that similar prophetic language
about gates and the entrance of a divine king can also be found in Psalm
24:7 and Isaiah 26:2.
The portal to heaven
A gate is quite simply a way of getting in or out
of somewhere. Usually they are two way.
So if someone came out of a gate it’s a safe bet
that we can go where they came from using the same way.
In our collective imagination, gates can be
portals to other worlds. Ancient mythology is steeped in stories of other
worlds through which one must enter through a gate. Often the gate is as
mysterious as the other realm itself—and finding the gate is akin to
discovering the world beyond itself. In more modern times, the wardrobe of C.S.
Lewis was a gate to Narnia. In the Canadian-American television series Stargate
the so-called ‘stargates’ were portals or shortcuts through space-time to other
worlds.
Certainly these characteristics of gates apply to
Mary as Catholics understand and venerate her. St. Louis de
Montfort describes her as the shortest way to get to Christ: “the sure
means and the straight and immaculate way” and again as “the most easy, the
most short, and the most perfect means by which to go to Jesus Christ.”
Likewise, Pope St. Pius X: “There is no surer or easier way than Mary in uniting
all men with Christ.”
The biblical background of city gates teaches us
even more about what it means that Mary is the Gate.
In the ancient world in general, walled cities,
by their very nature, meant that there were limited ways of getting in and
out—the gates. People familiar with sprawling cities like Chicago, Los Angeles,
or Houston may not be able to relate, but anyone who has been to Manhattan
perhaps can—there are only so many bridges, or tunnels, leading onto and off
the island. You are dependent on them for access.
But gates were more than just important
passageways.
Gates: prophecy, justice, and mercy
The gates also served as places where important
business was done. They were seats of justice, marketplaces, public squares
from which prophets spoke, and vantage points from which the king appeared to
the public, according to the International
Bible Encyclopedia and Haaretz.
The legal-commercial function of gates is evident
in Genesis 23:17-18, where the gates of the city of Hebron are the context in
which Abraham makes a legal purchase of some land:
Thus
Ephron’s field in Machpelah, facing Mamre, together with its cave and all the
trees anywhere within its limits, was conveyed to Abraham by purchase in the
presence of the Hittites, all who entered the gate of Ephron’s city.
The city gate as a place where the ideals of
justice and mercy are to be carried out comes to the fore in Amos 5:12 and 15:
Yes, I know how many are your crimes,
how grievous your sins:
Oppressing the just, accepting bribes,
turning away the needy at the gate.
Hate evil and love good,
and let justice prevail at the gate;
Then it may be that the LORD, the God of hosts,
will have pity on the remnant of Joseph.
how grievous your sins:
Oppressing the just, accepting bribes,
turning away the needy at the gate.
Hate evil and love good,
and let justice prevail at the gate;
Then it may be that the LORD, the God of hosts,
will have pity on the remnant of Joseph.
The implications are immense for our
understanding of Mary. They reinforce the many titles and associated roles she
has in our lives, as a conduit of God’s mercy and lovingkindness, a place of
refuge for sinners, and a source of prophetic words.
A place for sorrow and triumph
In 2 Samuel, the gates play an intriguing role in
the drama of King David. First, in 2 Samuel 19:1, he takes to an area of the
gates seeking consolation amid his sorrow over the death of his son Absalom:
The
king was shaken, and went up to the room over the city gate and wept. He said
as he wept, “My son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead
of you, Absalom, my son, my son!”
The gate also becomes a site for David to assert
himself. A few verses later, Joab tells him to make a public appearance or his
army will desert him. Eventually, in Verse 9, David relents,
So the
king got up and sat at the gate. When all the people were told, “The king is
sitting at the gate,” they came into his presence.
As Haaretz explains, this was the key
moment in which David maintained control over the throne.
The city gates thus encompass a wide spectrum of
human experience, from sorrows to triumph.
Mary too embraces us in all our circumstances. To
her do we cry, ‘poor banished children of Eve,’ and through her we find mercy
and a vision of the blessed fruit of her womb, Jesus, as the old hymn says.
The beautiful gate
Finally, the gates were beautiful. In order to
fortify them some were solid stone, which, according to the International
Bible Encyclopedia, lent itself to rich biblical imagery about jeweled
doors:
O afflicted one, storm-battered and unconsoled,
I lay your pavements in carnelians,
your foundations in sapphires;
I will make your battlements of rubies,
your gates of jewels,
and all your walls of precious stones
I lay your pavements in carnelians,
your foundations in sapphires;
I will make your battlements of rubies,
your gates of jewels,
and all your walls of precious stones
(Isaiah 54:11-13).
The
foundations of the city wall were decorated with every precious stone; the
first course of stones was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony,
the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh
chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the
eleventh hyacinth, and the twelfth amethyst.
The
twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made from a single pearl;
and the street of the city was of pure gold, transparent as glass
(Revelation 21:19-21).
These texts point to one more role Mary has: as a
refuge, a safe place. Once inside the ‘city of God’ she ensures we stay there.
And what wonderful images Scripture has given us of her maternal protection!
Whatever it is that we are looking for, we should
fly to the Gate of Heaven, because there we can be confident we will find
Christ.
Mary, Gate of Heaven, pray for us!
✠
Wednesday, August 21, 2019
Book of Daniel has not outlived its usefulness
by
Damien F. Mackey
Part One:
Communists consider Book of Daniel “dangerous”
“The Lord heard [Susanna’s] prayer. As she was being led to execution,
God stirred up the holy spirit of a young boy named Daniel, and he cried aloud:
‘I am innocent of this woman’s blood’.”
Daniel 13:44-46
The prophet Daniel’s bold defiance of King Nebuchadnezzar and his corrupt régime finds its modern parallel in the courage and resoluteness of Christians today in communist China.
The communists consider the Book of Daniel to be most dangerous:
“In Liushi church a closed circuit television camera hangs from the ceiling, directly in front of the lectern.
"They want the pastor to preach in a Communist way. They want to train people to practice in a Communist way," said the house-church preacher, who said state churches often shunned potentially subversive sections of the Bible. The Old Testament book in which the exiled Daniel refuses to obey orders to worship the king rather than his own god is seen as "very dangerous", the preacher added”.
According to this same article:
China on course to become 'world's most Christian nation' within 15 years
The number of Christians in Communist China is growing so steadily that it by 2030 it could have more churchgoers than America
....
2:00PM BST 19 Apr 2014
It is said to be China's biggest church and on Easter Sunday thousands of worshippers will flock to this Asian mega-temple to pledge their allegiance – not to the Communist Party, but to the Cross.
The 5,000-capacity Liushi church, which boasts more than twice as many seats as Westminster Abbey and a 206ft crucifix that can be seen for miles around, opened last year with one theologian declaring it a "miracle that such a small town was able to build such a grand church".
The £8 million building is also one of the most visible symbols of Communist China's breakneck conversion as it evolves into one of the largest Christian congregations on earth.
"It is a wonderful thing to be a follower of Jesus Christ. It gives us great confidence," beamed Jin Hongxin, a 40-year-old visitor who was admiring the golden cross above Liushi's altar in the lead up to Holy Week.
"If everyone in China believed in Jesus then we would have no more need for police stations. There would be no more bad people and therefore no more crime," she added.
....
Officially, the People's Republic of China is an atheist country but that is changing fast as many of its 1.3 billion citizens seek meaning and spiritual comfort that neither communism nor capitalism seem to have supplied.
Christian congregations in particular have skyrocketed since churches began reopening when Chairman Mao's death in 1976 signalled the end of the Cultural Revolution.
Less than four decades later, some believe China is now poised to become not just the world's number one economy but also its most numerous Christian nation.
"By my calculations China is destined to become the largest Christian country in the world very soon," said Fenggang Yang, a professor of sociology at Purdue University and author of Religion in China: Survival and Revival under Communist Rule.
"It is going to be less than a generation. Not many people are prepared for this dramatic change."
China's Protestant community, which had just one million members in 1949, has already overtaken those of countries more commonly associated with an evangelical boom. In 2010 there were more than 58 million Protestants in China compared to 40 million in Brazil and 36 million in South Africa, according to the Pew Research Centre's Forum on Religion and Public Life.
Prof Yang, a leading expert on religion in China, believes that number will swell to around 160 million by 2025.
That would likely put China ahead even of the United States, which had around 159 million Protestants in 2010 but whose congregations are in decline.
By 2030, China's total Christian population, including Catholics, would exceed 247 million, placing it above Mexico, Brazil and the United States as the largest Christian congregation in the world, he predicted.
"Mao thought he could eliminate religion. He thought he had accomplished this," Prof Yang said. "It's ironic – they didn't. They actually failed completely."
Like many Chinese churches, the church in the town of Liushi, 200 miles south of Shanghai in Zhejiang province, has had a turbulent history.
It was founded in 1886 after William Edward Soothill, a Yorkshire-born missionary and future Oxford University professor, began evangelising local communities.
But by the late 1950s, as the region was engulfed by Mao's violent anti-Christian campaigns, it was forced to close.
Liushi remained shut throughout the decade of the Cultural Revolution that began in 1966, as places of worship were destroyed across the country.
Since it reopened in 1978 its congregation has gone from strength to strength as part of China's officially sanctioned Christian church – along with thousands of others that have accepted Communist Party oversight in return for being allowed to worship.
Today it has 2,600 regular churchgoers and holds up to 70 baptisms each year, according to Shi Xiaoli, its 27-year-old preacher. The parish's revival reached a crescendo last year with the opening of its new 1,500ft mega-church, reputedly the biggest in mainland China.
"Our old church was small and hard to find," said Ms Shi. "There wasn't room in the old building for all the followers, especially at Christmas and at Easter. The new one is big and eye-catching."
The Liushi church is not alone. From Yunnan province in China's balmy southwest to Liaoning in its industrial northeast, congregations are booming and more Chinese are thought to attend Sunday services each week than do Christians across the whole of Europe.
A recent study found that online searches for the words "Christian Congregation" and "Jesus" far outnumbered those for "The Communist Party" and "Xi Jinping", China's president.
Among China's Protestants are also many millions who worship at illegal underground "house churches", which hold unsupervised services – often in people's homes – in an attempt to evade the prying eyes of the Communist Party.
Such churches are mostly behind China's embryonic missionary movement – a reversal of roles after the country was for centuries the target of foreign missionaries. Now it is starting to send its own missionaries abroad, notably into North Korea, in search of souls.
"We want to help and it is easier for us than for British, South Korean or American missionaries," said one underground church leader in north China who asked not to be named.
The new spread of Christianity has the Communist Party scratching its head.
"The child suddenly grew up and the parents don't know how to deal with the adult," the preacher, who is from China's illegal house-church movement, said.
Some officials argue that religious groups can provide social services the government cannot, while simultaneously helping reverse a growing moral crisis in a land where cash, not Communism, has now become king.
They appear to agree with David Cameron, the British prime minister, who said last week that Christianity could help boost Britain's "spiritual, physical and moral" state.
Ms Shi, Liushi's preacher, who is careful to describe her church as "patriotic", said: "We have two motivations: one is our gospel mission and the other is serving society. Christianity can also play a role in maintaining peace and stability in society. Without God, people can do as they please."
Yet others within China's leadership worry about how the religious landscape might shape its political future, and its possible impact on the Communist Party's grip on power, despite the clause in the country's 1982 constitution that guarantees citizens the right to engage in "normal religious activities".
As a result, a close watch is still kept on churchgoers, and preachers are routinely monitored to ensure their sermons do not diverge from what the Party considers acceptable.
....
Such fears may not be entirely unwarranted. Christians' growing power was on show earlier this month when thousands flocked to defend a church in Wenzhou, a city known as the "Jerusalem of the East", after government threats to demolish it. Faced with the congregation's very public show of resistance, officials appear to have backed away from their plans, negotiating a compromise with church leaders.
"They do not trust the church, but they have to tolerate or accept it because the growth is there," said the church leader. "The number of Christians is growing – they cannot fight it. They do not want the 70 million Christians to be their enemy."
The underground leader church leader said many government officials viewed religion as "a sickness" that needed curing, and Prof Yang agreed there was a potential threat.
The Communist Party was "still not sure if Christianity would become an opposition political force" and feared it could be used by "Western forces to overthrow the Communist political system", he said.
Churches were likely to face an increasingly "intense" struggle over coming decade as the Communist Party sought to stifle Christianity's rise, he predicted.
"There are people in the government who are trying to control the church. I think they are making the last attempt to do that." ....
Part Two:
Andrew Bolt’s defence of Cardinal Pell is Daniel-like
“Not one witness, nothing.” Bolt said the judge listed “an astonishing number of reasons to doubt Pell’s accuser” including assault dates changing from 1997 to 1996 and the two boys drinking stolen bottles of “a sweet red” wine when Pell actually “used white wine for
health reasons” that had been locked away.
Last night (21st August 2019) I watched on Sky News TV Andrew Bolt’s seismic reaction to the Melbourne Supreme Court’s rejection of George Cardinal Pell’s appeal of his guilty sentence to child sex offences, and then read about it again this morning (22nd August) in Bolt’s article, “‘Absurdly high hurdle’ was set for Pell”, in Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph.
Bolt’s recounting of certain discrepancies in the details of the case, most notably those concerning year dates and the colour of the wine that the choir boys drank, reminded me of young Daniel’s pointing to glaring contradictions in the case of the convicted Susanna.
Daniel, prefacing his defence with: ‘I am innocent of this woman’s blood’ (13:46) - compare Bolt’s being “shocked, just shocked” that someone could be sent to jail if it was remotely possible they had abused someone on “unsupported word” - then proceeded to re-open the case (v. 49): ‘Return to court, for they have testified falsely against her’.
Daniel’s methodology was to have the pair of accusing elders separated in order to show up the contradictions (vv. 51-62):
.... ‘Separate these two far from one another, and I will examine them’.
After they were separated from each other, he called one of them and said: ‘How you have grown evil with age! Now have your past sins come to term: passing unjust sentences, condemning the innocent, and freeing the guilty, although the Lord says, ‘The innocent and the just you shall not put to death.’ Now, then, if you were a witness, tell me under what tree you saw them together’. ‘Under a mastic tree’, he answered. ‘Your fine lie has cost you your head’, said Daniel; ‘for the angel of God has already received the sentence from God and shall split you in two’. Putting him to one side, he ordered the other one to be brought. ‘Offspring of Canaan, not of Judah’, Daniel said to him, ‘beauty has seduced you, lust has perverted your heart. This is how you acted with the daughters of Israel, and in their fear they yielded to you; but a daughter of Judah did not tolerate your lawlessness. Now, then, tell me under what tree you surprised them together’. ‘Under an oak’, he said. ‘Your fine lie has cost you also your head’, said Daniel; ‘for the angel of God waits with a sword to cut you in two so as to destroy you both’.
The whole assembly cried aloud, blessing God who saves those who hope in him. They rose up against the two old men, for by their own words Daniel had convicted them of bearing false witness. They condemned them to the fate they had planned for their neighbor: in accordance with the law of Moses they put them to death. Thus was innocent blood spared that day. ....
Here is more from Andrew Bolt: https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/he-looks-grim-andrew-bolt-says-the-outvoted-judge-in-george-pells-appeal-focused-on-evidence/news-story/05622a6ae8056a816af7a93f072764cb
‘He looks grim’: Andrew Bolt says the ‘outvoted’ judge in George Pell’s appeal ‘focused on evidence’
Columnist Andrew Bolt has again aired his shock that George Pell has returned to jail based on child abuse claims with “not one witness”.
Sarah McPhee
'Absurdly high hurdle' was set for Pell: Andrew Bolt
Sky News host Andrew Bolt notes 'there were no tears for Pell' after he lost his appeal against his conviction for abusing two 13-year-old choir boys two decades ago. On Wednesday the Victorian Court of Appeal upheld George Pell's conviction of child sex offences. ....
Andrew Bolt is ‘shocked, just shocked’ that George Pell will remain behind bars after his convictions were upheld by a 2-1 majority judgment in Victoria’s Court of Appeal.....
Controversial columnist Andrew Bolt said he was shocked and astonished that George Pell will remain behind bars “on someone’s unsupported word”.
Opening Wednesday night’s episode of The Bolt Report, the Sky News broadcaster delivered an impassioned response to the earlier day’s events.
Victoria’s Court of Appeal upheld Pell’s convictions for child sexual abuse by a 2-1 majority.
Bolt asked viewers to turn their eyes to Justice Mark Weinberg, who was captured on a live stream from the courtroom as the disgraced cardinal’s appeal was dismissed.
“Take a look at the judge on the right, sitting there looking grim,” Bolt said.
“If you think he looks grim, maybe that’s because he was outvoted.
“He does think Pell was jailed unfairly.”
Pell was convicted in December and later jailed for five charges relating to the rape of a 13-year-old choirboy and sexual assault of another boy at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne in 1996.
One of Pell’s victims died in 2014 but the other gave evidence at trial.
“Having reviewed the whole of the evidence, two of the judges of the Court of Appeal — Justice (Chris) Maxwell, President of the Court of Appeal and I — have decided that it was open to the jury to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Cardinal Pell was guilty of the offences charged,” Chief Justice Ann Ferguson said, reading from a summary of the judgment.
“Justice Maxwell and I accepted the prosecution submission that the complainant was a very compelling witness, was clearly not a liar, was not a fantasist and was a witness of truth.”
Justice Weinberg’s dissenting judgment, however, comprised more than 200 of the 325 pages.
Bolt said the judge “instead focused on the evidence” and listed “improbabilities” within the victim’s testimony at length.
“One thing that struck Justice Weinberg very strongly is, he said, that this is a case that depends entirely on the claim of Pell’s accuser being accepted beyond reasonable doubt,” Bolt said.
“Even though this is without there being any independent support for it. Not one witness, nothing.”
Bolt said the judge listed “an astonishing number of reasons to doubt Pell’s accuser” including assault dates changing from 1997 to 1996 and the two boys drinking stolen bottles of “a sweet red” wine when Pell actually “used white wine for health reasons” that had been locked away.
“(Justice) Weinberg repeated there was no independent support for the complainant’s account,” Bolt said. “So, how could you convict a man of that? How?” ....
Whilst George Cardinal Pell is who he is, Susanna and her husband, Joakim, may have biblical alter egos. See e.g. my series:
“And Mordecai the Jew was next in rank to King Ahasuerus. He was a man held in respect among the Jews, esteemed by thousands of his brothers, a man who sought the good of his people and cared for the welfare of his entire race”. Esther... more
-
Now there was a man that dwelt in Babylon, and his name was Joakim: And he took a wife whose name was Susanna, the daughter of Hilkiah, a very beautiful woman, and one that feared God. For her parents being just, had instructed their... more
-
According to Rabbinic traditions, the two lustful elders who accused Susanna were the same persons as two wicked judges referred to and named by the prophet Jeremiah (29:21-23).
-
The German orientalist, Georg Heinrich August Ewald (d. 1875), had thought that the account of the two lustful elders who were infatuated with Susanna must have been inspired by a Babylonian tale involving the goddess of love and two old... more
Commentators have picked up some striking likenesses between the story of Susanna (in the Book of Daniel) and the drama surrounding Queen Esther.
-
Having previously (Part Four) touched briefly upon the similarities between the story of Susanna (in the Book of Daniel) and the drama narrated in the Book of Esther, I take matters a step further here, testing a possible identification... more
Susanna, living as she did during the Babylonian captivity of the Jews, would seem to have been far too early for her - according to conventional estimations - to be identifiable as Queen Esther, supposedly living deeply into Persian... more
My conclusion in this series has been that the Susanna in Daniel became Queen Esther. But this conclusion now presents us with three names: Susanna, Hadassah and Esther, since, as we are informed (Esther 2:7): “… Hadassah … was also... more
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)