Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>]

Peter:

You're right for jumping all over me for a poor 
choice of words. What I meant was not "important", 
but "relevant".

Further, I used the New Testament only as an 
illustration that it follows the same pattern as 
Tanakh, namely not to dwell on the afterlife.

After all, eating and drinking are important, but 
not relevant in a discussion of Hebrew philology. 
Likewise a discussion of the details of the 
afterlife is not relevant to a discussion of how to 
live to be worthy in the present life. That's why 
neither Tanakh nor the New Testament have much to 
say on the afterlife.

Karl W. Randolph.

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Peter Kirk" <peter AT qaya.org>
> 
> On 15/03/2006 20:53, Herman Meester wrote:
> > 2006/3/15, Karl Randolph <kwrandolph AT email.com>:
> >
> >
> >> The New Testament carried on the tradition that the
> >> afterlife was seldom mentioned; not because it was
> >> irrelevant, but because it was unimportant. It was
> >> theologians who really play up the issue. Even the
> >> New Testament book of Revelation finds the afterlife
> >> so important that it is described in only two of its
> >> 22 chapters.
> >>
> >
> > I guess you're right, after all it is this life, first, that we are to
> > make the best of.
> >
> >
> No, Herman, Karl is not at all right. I know it is off topic for this
> list to discuss the New Testament, but I cannot let him pass with this
> gross distortion of the message of books which I consider to be holy.
> True, they don't say much about the details of the afterlife. But the
> principle is not "unimportant" but one of the very most important things
> in every part of the New Testament. The NT just doesn't make sense if
> its teaching is only on how to make the best of this life. Rather its
> whole thrust is on how to live to please God for eternity, most of which
> is the afterlife. I could provide lots of proof of this, but I would
> rightly get in trouble for doing it here.
> 
> --
> Peter Kirk
> peter AT qaya.org (personal)
> peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
> http://www.qaya.org/

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