The light of Jesus

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INTRODUCTION

At Catholic Mass,  March 10, 2024, John 3,14-21 was read.

Pope Francis said that God knows everything and he does not condemn us. It is as I understand an allegorical interpretation of Jesus’ words to Nicodemus.

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INDEX

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The texts

( N:B. The Bible texts are taken from 
https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/_INDEX.HTM
Gospel texts below are copied from the only Bible available in pdf format without copyright limits. (christianwritingtoday.com/free_downloads/WebNT_CWTedition.pdf ) As www.christianwritingtoday.com is not visible anymore, I found this online bible  https://literalbible.com/blb.pdf  ) I am often also consulting  the Vatican version and

14 And just as Moses lifted up 5 the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
15 6 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
16 For God so loved the world that he gave 7 his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn 8 the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
18 Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
19 9 And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil.
20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed.
21 But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.

Footnotes

5 [14] Lifted up: in ⇒ Numbers 21:9 Moses simply “mounted” a serpent upon a pole. John here substitutes a verb implying glorification. Jesus, exalted to glory at his cross and resurrection, represents healing for all.
6 [15] Eternal life: used here for the first time in John, this term stresses quality of life rather than duration.
7 [16] Gave: as a gift in the incarnation, and also “over to death” in the crucifixion; cf ⇒ Romans 8:32.
8 [17-19] Condemn: the Greek root means both judgment and condemnation. Jesus’ purpose is to save, but his coming provokes judgment; some condemn themselves by turning from the light.
9 [19] Judgment is not only future but is partially realized here and now.

 

 

 

 

 

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The message

 

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conclusion

 

 

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Contact

I am thankful for all the intelligent comments that contribute to this little encyclopedia.

I am pleased to dialog live about issues published on this site. I find myself also in Mastodon as Aeolian.

Have a good day.

new view about the Gospels.

Jesus never liked to do Miracles so I doubted on the reliability of these miracle stories.

These stories also distracted my reading from the Jesus’ teaching.

But Pope Francis opened my eyes on those miracles. I discovered Rudolf Buntmann and of Alexandria way of reading the Gospels, and that the PopeFrancis intepreted the Gospel  miracles  the same way, almost ignoring the details but putting focus on the message behind a miracle.
Like for the sharing of bread and fish I said “Share your food with others”

 

Jesus never died.

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INTRODUCTION

At Catholic Mass,  March 3, 2024, John 2,13-25 is read.

 

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INDEX

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The texts

( N:B. The Bible texts are taken from 
https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/_INDEX.HTM
Gospel texts below are copied from the only Bible available in pdf format without copyright limits. (christianwritingtoday.com/free_downloads/WebNT_CWTedition.pdf ) As www.christianwritingtoday.com is not visible anymore, I found this online bible  https://literalbible.com/blb.pdf  ) I am often also consulting  the Vatican version and

John 2,13-25

13 10 11 Since the Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

14 12 He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, 13 as well as the money-changers seated there.

15 He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables,

16 and to those who sold doves he said, “Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.”

17 14 His disciples recalled the words of scripture, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

18 At this the Jews answered and said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?”

19 Jesus answered and said to them, 15 “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”

20 The Jews said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, 16 and you will raise it up in three days?”

21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body.

22 Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they came to believe the scripture and the word Jesus had spoken.

23 While he was in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, many began to believe in his name when they saw the signs he was doing.

24 But Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all,

25 and did not need anyone to testify about human nature. He himself understood it well.

Footnotes

 

 

 

 

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The message

19 Jesus answered and said to them, 15 “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”
20 The Jews said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, 16 and you will raise it up in three days?”

The Catholic church refers to the temple as his own temple and his resurrection after three days.

But we know that no one dies after 3-6 hours at the cross, his knees were never crushed and the speer traficted Jesus’ right torso releasing liquid to allo w the hearth beat.  Blood came out but that would not happen if the heat did not live and create blood pressure.  

 

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conclusion

 

 

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Contact

I am thankful for all the intelligent comments that contribute to this little encyclopedia.

I am pleased to dialog live about issues published on this site. I find myself also in Mastodon as Aeolian.

Have a good day.

Samaritans-Jews relations

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INTRODUCTION

I am looking at the Israeli serie Fauda. It is curious that in the first and second season, Hamas are described as helping Israel get rid of ISIS infiltration in Gaza. I started looking back i on the Hamas and Fatah history and how and when did this Palestinian-Jew conflict start. Many say it started in the 1900th century but I have my doubts,

 

 

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INDEX

 

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Section 1- Samaria 

This is the map as shared in Wiki. The holy Samaritan area is now part of the Westbank.
Map is taken fromwalkingwithmary.org

 

Just to give an example. Mount Palestinian Nablus is situated on the southern slope of Mount Ebal and has  the former Samaritan holy Mount Gerizim on its southern side.
The right side map is taken from Google Maps.

 

 

 

That the Palestinian Westbank is on the old Samaria made me remember about the the Palestinian-Israeli conflict reminds me about  the old conflict between Samaritans and Jews. 

 

 

 

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Section 2- The Samaritan – Hebrew conflict.

 If you search for  “the Samaritan – Hebrew conflict” you find plenty of sites on Internet.

 

A good definition of who is a Samaritan can be found in https://www.britannica.com/topic/Samaritan

 

Gary N. Knoppers in “An Absolute Breach?” thinks that  saying that the 

Samaritan-Jewish relations deteriorated to the point of outright hatred, jealousy, and factionalism
is  too far-reaching. He means that “even in Roman times, there were signs of occasional interaction, communication, and respect. Both groups developed similar religious symbols, institutions (synagogues), and literary genres”.

However, John Hyrcanus’s mercenary army destroyed the  Samaritan Temple on Mount Gerizim  about  around 111–110 BCE. Destroying the Samaritan Temple on Mount Gerizim helped ameliorate John Hyrcanus’s status among the religious elite and common Jews who detested any temple to Yahweh outside of Jerusalem. (read more in Wiki )

uscatholic.org/articles/202005/why-didnt-the-jews-and-samaritans-get-along/ writes about the Samaritans that it was thought that “the non-exiles didn’t suffer with their kinfolk (ed. eciled Jews) and didn’t deserve to be counted among them.(ed the Jews)”

housetohouse.com/jews-samaritans-hate-one-another-much/
writes “Later, after Israel’s fall to the Assyrians, they began to intermarry with the Assyrians, contrary to Deuteronomy 7:3-5. This is why the Jews hated the Samaritans as “dogs,” or “half-breeds.” 

tells more about this issue

( Deuternonomy 7:1-3 ) says:

1. “When the LORD, your God, brings you into the land which you are to enter and occupy, and dislodges great nations before you – the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites: seven nations more numerous and powerful than you –
2. and when the LORD, your God, delivers them up to you and you defeat them, you shall doom them. Make no covenant with them and show them no mercy.
3. You shall not intermarry with them, neither giving your daughters to their sons nor taking their daughters for your sons

Are the otŕtodox violent Israeli still following Deuteronomy 7 Seeing the Palestine people like Smaritn dogs?

 

I found a very nice article in New York Times describing the life of Samaritans today.

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Section 3

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Section 4

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Section 5

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Section 6

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conclusion

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Sources

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Contact

If you want to become a contributor contact me
 on Mastodon

Have a good day.

the Wedding Banquet

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INTRODUCTION

At Catholic Mass,  October 15, 2023, Matthew 22,1-14 is read. Jesus shares the Parable of the Wedding Banquet

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INDEX

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The texts

( N:B. The Bible texts are taken from 
https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/_INDEX.HTM
Gospel texts below are copied from the only Bible available in pdf format without copyright limits. (christianwritingtoday.com/free_downloads/WebNT_CWTedition.pdf ) As www.christianwritingtoday.com is not visible anymore, I found this online bible  https://literalbible.com/blb.pdf  ) I am often also consulting  the Vatican version and

Matthew 22,1-14 says:

1 Jesus again in reply spoke to them in parables, saying,
2 “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast 2 for his son.
3 He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast, but they refused to come.
4 A second time he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those invited: “Behold, I have prepared my banquet, my calves and fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready; come to the feast.”‘
Some ignored the invitation and went away, one to his farm, another to his business.
6 The rest laid hold of his servants, mistreated them  and killed them.
The king was enraged and sent his troops, destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
8 Then he said to his servants, ‘The feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come.
Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.’
10 The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, 5 and the hall was filled with guests. 
11 6 But when the king came in to meet the guests he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment.
12 He said to him, ‘My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?’ But he was reduced to silence.
13 7 Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’
14 Many are invited, but few are chosen.”

Footnotes

1  This parable is from Q; see ⇒ Luke 14:15-24. It has been given many allegorical traits by Matthew, e.g., the burning of the city of the guests who refused the invitation (⇒ Matthew 22:7, which corresponds to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in A.D. 70. It has similarities with the preceding parable of the tenants: the sending of two groups of servants (⇒ Matthew 22:3, 4), the murder of the servants (⇒ Matthew 22:6 the punishment of the murderers (⇒ Matthew 22:7), and the entrance of a new group into a privileged situation of which the others had proved themselves unworthy (⇒ Matthew 22:8-10. The parable ends with a section that is peculiar to Matthew ⇒ Matthew 22:11-14, which some take as a distinct parable. Matthew presents the kingdom in its double aspect, already present and something that can be entered here and now (⇒ Matthew 22:1-10), and something that will be possessed only by those present members who can stand the scrutiny of the final judgment 
(⇒ Matthew 22:11-14).
The parable is not only a statement of 
God’s judgment on Israel but a warning to Matthew’s church.
2- Wedding feast: the Old Testament’s portrayal of final salvation under the image of a banquet (⇒ Isaiah 25:6) is taken up also in ⇒ Matthew 8:11; cf ⇒ Luke 13:15.
3. Servants . . . other servants: probably Christian missionaries in both instances; cf ⇒ Matthew 23:34.
4. See the note on ⇒ Matthew 22:1-14.
5. Bad and good alike: cf ⇒ Matthew 13:47.
6. A wedding garment: the repentance, change of heart and mind,
that is the condition for entrance into the kingdom (⇒ Matthew 3:2; ⇒ 4:17)
must be continued in a life of good deeds (⇒ Matthew 7:21-23).
7. Wailing and grinding of teeth: the Christian who lacks the wedding garment of good deeds will suffer the same fate as those Jews who have rejected Jesus; see the note on ⇒ Matthew 8:11-12.

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The message

The pope did not have an ordinary Angelus today. he dedicated his time to the war in Israel and Gasa.

The term βασιλεία in the Gospel of Matthew 22:2 translated into English as Kingdom can be interpreted both as ‘Kingdom’ and the dynamic word ‘kingship’, which means how God leads his world. (https://gupea.ub.gu.se/handle/2077/64828 )

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conclusion

 

 

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Contact

I am thankful for all the intelligent comments that contribute to this little encyclopedia.

I am pleased to dialog live about issues published on this site. I find myself also in Mastodon as Aeolian.

Have a good day.

“Following the son of man.” – chapter 1

THE NOVEL – Following the son of man

 

The birth 

It was a hot summer. The New Year was celebrated a few days earlier with the Yom Kippur fast. It was the month of Tishri but the town was too small and poor to be able to spend time on celebrations.

The shepherds were in the fields watching over their flocks. They looked after their animals or processed wool, milk and cheese. The families of the village who did not own animals, had gone to collect the first olives. Silence reigned among the houses. Not even the cicadas could be heard this morning. Those few villagers who remained, were busy in their homes carding wool or preparing for the olive harvest.

Even the town midwife, Dina, had remained but she was busy with other preparations. She had promised his neighbor Mariàm to help her with the birth which was now imminent. It was the first time for Mariàm who was only 13 years old. She was scared but Dina told her that she was with Yoseph. They would help her get through this first experience. Yoseph was a man with a calm character and Mariàm had a body already mature enough to be able to give birth without major complications. Dina was happy that Mariàm and Yoseph had followed the advice not to undertake the long journey to Bethlehem, which the town’s Levite priest Nicodemus and some families in the town had done. The belly was heavy and the risk to the mother and the unborn child was too great. Being in the last month of pregnancy, Mariàm would probably have lost her baby by riding on a donkey and walking for more than 30 hours under a hot sun.

Dina, the midwife, sat on an olive trunk stool that Yoseph had given her and observed the silence in the little house while thoughts whirled in her head. She thought about the danger for Yoseph and Mariàm due to the malicious rumors that were circulating in the village about the maternity of Maryan. How would the other children in the village welcome this new baby? Gossiping is a pastime for many who have nothing else to say.

No voices could be heard outside. The dogs that normally bark between the houses were together with their owners outside the village. Dina listened to the rhythm of her breathing and heartbeat when suddenly a strong hand knocked on the door. It was Yoseph. He shouted in an anxious voice:

“Mariàm is about to give birth!”.

Dina almost jumped off her stool in fright and hurried towards the door. “I’m coming!”.

Yoseph was panting. Dina picked up a dozen pieces of fabric that she had placed next to the entrance.

“Let’s go and don’t worry,” she said in his typical, firm and calm voice. They left at a fast pace towards the house of Mariàm and Yoseph, who were on the other side of the square. Near the house, in the shade of a gigantic Benjamin ficus, stood a small group of women whispering. Dina knew these women and said in a powerful voice

“Please, go and get fresh water from the well!”

She hoped to make them do something useful instead of gossiping.
Yoseph and Dina entered the house. The women remained outside, continuing to whisper ignoring the midwife’s request.
Shortly afterwards some people with their dogs appeared in the square. They came from the olive grove with baskets full of olives. Some women came with baskets on their heads. 
They were talking and seemed happy. They approached the group of women to ask what was going on. The dogs chased each other while the children teased each other. The adults said to the children to keep quiet and still, whereupon they all stopped.
It didn’t take long until a woman’s scream was heard in the square. 
The people looked into each other’s eyes and soon after there was a shrill cry. The silence in the square became total. The dogs also stopped and pointed their ears toward the house of  Mariàm and Yoseph. One of the children asked “What happened?”
An adult replied “Mariàm’s baby has been born”.
Dina cut the umbilical cord with the obsidian knife and wrapped the newborn in the swaddling clothes she had brought.
Dina said to Yoseph: “Rinse your little finger and let the baby suck its tip.”
 “Mariàm needs to rest for a couple of hours.”
Yoseph had never done anything like this. He sat on the ground with the unborn child in his arms. He was impressed by how strongly the newborn sucked the tip of his finger. The father and his newborn son exchanged their first glances. This first glimpse of his newborn brought tears of joy to his eyes. He now felt great pride as a father and that he loved Mariàm who had given him this beautiful son. He was happy that they got a boy because the work with the wheels, yokes, plows and rakes was hard.  He earned little. Maryam preferred a girl because working with sheets paid a lot but it was difficult without help. Her sheets were in great demand in the village and by the Romans. With an extra helping hand in the family, they could live better and perhaps afford more trips to the temple in Jerusalem. 
Now that the Highest had given a male child, Yoseph hoped to have other boys with  Mariàm.
He peeked outside to see if there were people who wanted to see the child but there was no one left in the square. ‘What were those women thinking?’ thought Yoseph.

The name of the unborn child
Yoseph sat on the ground for a few hours with the unborn child who was sometimes sucking and sometimes seemed to be sleeping. Mariàm was sleeping. But the very loud thunder of a storm woke her up. The thunder and the splash of the water on the stones outside shortly afterward had no effect on the sleeping baby. He continued to sleep peacefully. Yoseph and Mariàm looked into each other’s eyes, smiling in the soft light of an oil lamp. Yoseph told Mariàm with his eyes that the baby was sleeping. Yoseph approached her and asked whispering in her ear what name to give to the baby. Mariàm remained silent thinking. After further lightning and thunder, she said with a smile “Jehoshua, Yeschuah, or Yesha”. 

“Why this name?” Yoseph asked.
“Yeshuah means savior.” Mariàm invited him to come closer to her and explained:

“When my blood stopped flowing two moons after the visit to the well, Dina explained that I was pregnant and that I was expecting a child that had to be yours.”

“I thought then that the child I had in my womb perhaps one day will be our salvation. Yesha is simpler than Yeschuah. That’s why I want to call him Yesha. Maybe he will save us too one day.”

Yoseph nodded and after a moment of thought, said:

 

“It seems like a good choice to me, Mariàm. Let’s hope that the baby will also save us from the bad rumors that are circulating about you.”

Prolog ” Following the son of man”

I started 2019, July 19 writing a novel about “the son of Man” as Jesus called himself. I am at the end of the work of this book. I decided to share with you the start of this novel.
This is the prolog as it is written now.

Prolog

“The tree that aspires to touch the sky with its foliage
must have its roots in Hell» (Nietzsche)

If I had lived and written this novel in the 15th century I would have been burned at the stake together with Giordano Bruno in Campo dei Fiori in Rome.

Even the son of Man I will tell you about was sentenced to death but not to the stake because, in his time, other ways were used to get rid of dangerous madmen.

 I worked for 30 years as a technology, science, and mathematics teacher in a middle school on the outskirts of Gothenburg in Sweden. I asked myself who this great genius and prophet was. With his teaching and way of doing things, he helped me as a teacher, especially with angry students.

What kind of boy was he and how did he grow up? From what he had become, he couldn’t have been the typical boy who played dice and soccer with his friends and pulled girls’ pigtails.

His empathy and relationship with women made me understand that this man had a different type of childhood and adolescence. In what environment did this man grow and mature and what drove him to revolt against the dominant culture and dogmas of that time?
Several authors like Don Antonio Mazzi, Holger Kersten, Jonas Gardell, Notovitch, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, and others, helped me gain some insight into this man’s life.

My story illustrates the image I have now of this man.

 

Francoise Chandernagor with her splendid novel“Jude, frére de Jesus”

 made me share this human image in novel form.

For those interested, I added additional sources and information in the footnotes and in the “notes and insights” section at the end of the book.
I find the glory of Jesus not in miracles and visions of disciples but in his teaching which, for his time, was highly revolutionary.
In this novel, you will follow the childhood, adolescence, and spiritual maturation of a human being. With the son of Man that I call Yesha in the novel, you will learn about the Galilee of his time, 2000 years ago, and follow him in his life in Tibet and India. So get ready for a non-fiction narrative novel.

 

cytology

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INTRODUCTION

Reading about the  Immunosenescence investigation on  ISS I came back to the telomere issue that I read about some time ago. Telomere science explains why cell stop reproducing after a certain number of cell divisions. I add info about this in section 2 of this page.

 

 

 

Telomers

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INDEX

 

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Section 1

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Section 2 – Telomere science

Wiki says:

“A telomere (/ˈtɛləmɪər, ˈtlə-/; from Ancient Greek τέλος (télos) ‘end’, and μέρος (méros) ‘part’) is a region of repetitive nucleotide sequences associated with specialized proteins at the ends of linear chromosomes. Telomeres are a widespread genetic feature most commonly found in eukaryotes. In most, if not all species possessing them, they protect the terminal regions of chromosomal DNA from progressive degradation and ensure the integrity of linear chromosomes by preventing DNA repair systems from mistaking the very ends of the DNA strand for a double-strand break.”

The limit of how many times a cell can replicate is called the Hayflick limit

Wiki says about this limit:

The typical normal human fetal cell will divide between 50 and 70 times before experiencing senescence. As the cell divides, the telomeres on the ends of chromosomes shorten. The Hayflick limit is the limit on cell replication imposed by the shortening of telomeres with each division.”

“The concept of the Hayflick limit was advanced by American anatomist Leonard Hayflick in 1961,[3] at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Hayflick demonstrated that a normal human fetal cell population will divide between 40 and 60 times in cell culture before entering a senescence phase.”

May stress contribute to a faster rate of neural cell replications and consequently enter the senescence phase earlier starting e.g. dementia?

 

says:
“Stress affects the immune system, which is known to play an important role in the development of dementia.

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Section 3

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Section 4

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Section 5

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Section 6

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conclusion

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Sources

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Contact

I am thankful for all the intelligent comments that contribute to this little encyclopedia of mine.
You reach me also on Mastodon

Have a good day.

 

Have a good day.

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INTRODUCTION

At Catholic Mass,  July 16, 2023, Matthew 20,1-16 is read.

3

INDEX

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The texts

( N:B. The Bible texts are taken from 
https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/_INDEX.HTM
Gospel texts below are copied from the only Bible available in pdf format without copyright limits. (christianwritingtoday.com/free_downloads/WebNT_CWTedition.pdf ) As www.christianwritingtoday.com is not visible anymore, I found this online bible  https://literalbible.com/blb.pdf  ) I am often also consulting  the Vatican version and

Matthew 20,1-16 says:

1 “The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. 1
2 After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard.
3 Going out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace,
4 and he said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.’ 2
5 So they went off. (And) he went out again around noon, and around three o’clock, and did likewise.
6 Going out about five o’clock, he found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’
7 They answered, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard.’
8 When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Summon the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and ending with the first.’ 3
9 When those who had started about five o’clock came, each received the usual daily wage.
10 So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also got the usual wage.
11 And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner,
12 saying, ‘These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day’s burden and the heat.’
13 He said to one of them in reply, ‘My friend, I am not cheating you. 4 Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? 4
14  Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? 5
15 (Or) am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous?’
16 Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.” 6

Footnotes

1 [1-16] This parable is peculiar to Matthew. It is difficult to know whether the evangelist composed it or received it as part of his traditional material and, if the latter is the case, what its original reference was. In its present context its close association with ⇒ Matthew 19:30 suggests that its teaching is the equality of all the disciples in the reward of inheriting eternal life.
2 [4] What is just: although the wage is not stipulated as in the case of those first hired, it will be fair.
3 [8] Beginning with the last . . . the first: this element of the parable has no other purpose than to show how the first knew what the last were given (⇒ Matthew 20:12).
4 [13] I am not cheating you: literally, “I am not treating you unjustly.”
5 [14-15] The owner’s conduct involves no violation of justice (⇒ Matthew 20:4, ⇒ 13), and that all the workers receive the same wage is due only to his generosity to the latest arrivals; the resentment of the first comes from envy.
6 [16] See the note on ⇒ Matthew 19:30.

 

 

 

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The message

 

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conclusion

 

 

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Contact

I am thankful for all the intelligent comments that contribute to this little encyclopedia.

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The right moral conduct

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INTRODUCTION

At Catholic Mass,  September 10, 2023, Matthew 18,15-20 is read. Jesus tells us how to do when someone is behaving badly. It reminds me a lot about Buddhist moral conduct. 

INDEX

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The texts

( N:B. The Bible texts are taken from 
https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/_INDEX.HTM
Gospel texts below are copied from the only Bible available in pdf format without copyright limits. (christianwritingtoday.com/free_downloads/WebNT_CWTedition.pdf ) As www.christianwritingtoday.com is not visible anymore, I found this online bible  https://literalbible.com/blb.pdf  ) I am often also consulting  the Vatican version and

Matthew 18,15-20 says:

15 “If your brother sins (against you), go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother.
16  If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that ‘every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.’
17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church. 14 If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.
18 Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
19 Again, (amen,) I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father.
20 17 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

Footnotes

11 [15-20] Passing from the duty of Christian disciples toward those who have strayed from their number, the discourse now turns to how they are to deal with one who sins and yet remains within the community. First there is to be private correction (⇒ Matthew 18:15); if this is unsuccessful, further correction before two or three witnesses (⇒ Matthew 18:16); if this fails, the matter is to be brought before the assembled community (the church), and if the sinner refuses to attend to the correction of the church, he is to be expelled (⇒ Matthew 18:17). The church’s judgment will be ratified in heaven, i.e., by God (⇒ Matthew 18:18). This three-step process of correction corresponds, though not exactly, to the procedure of the Qumran community; see 1QS 5:25-6:1; 6:24-7:25; CD 9:2-8. The section ends with a saying about the favorable response of God to prayer, even to that of a very small number, for Jesus is in the midst of any gathering of his disciples, however small (⇒ Matthew 18:19-20). Whether this prayer has anything to do with the preceding judgment is uncertain.
12 [15] Your brother: a fellow disciple; see ⇒ Matthew 23:8. The bracketed words, against you, are widely attested but they are not in the important codices Sinaiticus and Vaticanus or in some other textual witnesses. Their omission broadens the type of sin in question. Won over: literally, “gained.”
13 [16] Cf ⇒ Deut 19:15.
14 [17] The church: the second of the only two instances of this word in the gospels; see the note on ⇒ Matthew 16:18. Here it refers not to the entire church of Jesus, as in ⇒ Matthew 16:18, but to the local congregation. Treat him . . . a Gentile or a tax collector: just as the observant Jew avoided the company of Gentiles and tax collectors, so must the congregation of Christian disciples separate itself from the arrogantly sinful member who refuses to repent even when convicted of his sin by the whole church. Such a one is to be set outside the fellowship of the community. The harsh language about Gentile and tax collector probably reflects a stage of the Matthean church when it was principally composed of Jewish Christians. That time had long since passed, but the principle of exclusion for such a sinner remained. Paul makes a similar demand for excommunication in ⇒ 1 Cor 5:1-13.
15 [18] Except for the plural of the verbs bind and loose, this verse is practically identical with ⇒ Matthew 16:19b and many scholars understand it as granting to all the disciples what was previously given to Peter alone. For a different view, based on the different contexts of the two verses, see the note on ⇒ Matthew 16:19.
16 [19-20] Some take these verses as applying to prayer on the occasion of the church’s gathering to deal with the sinner of ⇒ Matthew 18:17. Unless an a fortiori argument is supposed, this seems unlikely. God’s answer to the prayer of two or three envisages a different situation from one that involves the entire congregation. In addition, the object of this prayer is expressed in most general terms as anything for which they are to pray.
17 [20] For where two or three . . . midst of them: the presence of Jesus guarantees the efficacy of the prayer. This saying is similar to one attributed to a rabbi executed in A.D. 135 at the time of the second Jewish revolt: “. . . When two sit and there are between them the words of the Torah, the divine presence (Shekinah) rests upon them” (Pirqe Abot 3:3)

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The message

 

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conclusion

 

 

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Contact

I am thankful for all the intelligent comments that contribute to this little encyclopedia.

I am pleased to dialog live about issues published on this site. I find myself also in Mastodon as Aeolian.

Have a good day.

Notebook of a pluralist

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