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  • From: Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>
  • To: Karl Randolph <kwrandolph AT email.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] hell
  • Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2006 18:15:40 +0000

On 16/03/2006 17:22, Karl Randolph wrote:
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.

Thank you, Karl. What you say now is certainly an improvement. But you still seem to assume that the NT is "a discussion of how to live to be worthy in the present life". While that is not wrong, it is only a partial picture giving a distorted emphasis. Even the Sermon on the Mount, the passage most focused on ethics, is full of promises of the Kingdom of God. Better, for the NT if not the Tanakh, would be "guidelines on how to live in the present life to be counted worthy in the future life", which explains why the NT has a lot to say about attaining the future life although little about its details.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/





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