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  • From: "Tim Gallant" <tim AT rabbisaul.com>
  • To: "Corpus-Paul" <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Corpus-Paul] Did Paul break the Law?
  • Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 12:05:59 -0700

Hi, George. I go into more detail on the connection in the first post
that I sent to the list this morning. But I'll pull out part of that
discussion to answer your question:

There is a closer relationship between the Aramaic 'meshia' and the
Aryan Maitreya. And this is where there is overlap between Isaiah's
'anointed' and the Zoroastrian Maitreya. Maitreya means 'friendly,
loving' and is derived from maitri which is the Sanskrit form of
Mithras.

Semantics is all about 'pointing to' as a means of communicating
concepts. Maitreya points to the same concept as Mashiach: An
anointed manifestation of Atman or the life principle.

Hope this helps..

Sorry, John, no, this does not help at all. Meshiach and Maitreya are not cognate words. They both begin with "m," but so do lots of other words. And your suggestion about "semantics" simply presupposes, rather than demonstrates, the connection between the concepts. All we need to in response is deny your presupposition and say: "No, Mashiach does not mean 'an anointed manifestation of Atman or the life principle.'"

As I suggested in my previous post, go back to the Hebrew Scriptures. "Anointed one" refers to a person ordained to an office, particularly the kingship, but also priests and occasionally prophets. It can even have reference to ordaining a foreigner, in the case of God telling Elijah to anoint Hazael as king of Syria. I assure you, neither Yahweh nor Elijah had any illusions about Hazael embodying or manifesting any sort of "life principle"! In short, in the Hebrew concept of anointing generally, or Meshiach specifically, there is no. . . er, eastern mumbo-jumbo about "life principle" or "Atman."

tim


Tim Gallant
Pastor, Conrad Christian Reformed Church

http://www.timgallant.org
tim | gallant site group





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