Science in Antiquity

 Many modern people have a very limited view of history. They can only see or think about five or ten years into the past. They see history as boring and they think of the ancients as ignorant and backward. This was actually not true. What the ancients lacked was the modern accumulation of facts. An ancient Israelite would have been very puzzled and culture-shocked to have been dumped into the modern world, but he or she could have eventually learned to drive a car or to cook on a stove or to use a cellphone.

The ancients were just as intelligent as we are but the accumulation of scientific facts had not yet reached a critical point. Human knowledge took centuries to double, fact by fact. As knowledge accumulated, the rate of accumulation began to speed up. Every answer exposes a new question. Buckminster Fuller spoke of the Knowledge Doubling Curve which was relatively flat for centuries, then began a slow climb, and then went into an explosive upward thrust.

By the end of the 19^th Century, knowledge was doubling once per century. By about 1945, the rate of doubling was about every 25 years. By 1982, the rate was about every 12-13 months. By 2020, the doubling was occurring about every 12 hours. With at least 50,000,000,000 devices now operating and with the rise of artificial intelligence, the rate may now be in minutes.

2296 BC/BCE: Chinese scholars make the first known observation of a comet.

Ca 2600 BC/BCE: 1. Imhotep (fl ca 2980-2950 BC/BCE, WBD), an Egyptian physician, discusses the diagnosis and treatment of about 200 diseases. He was a specialist in medicine and priestly magic.

            2. An Egyptian scribe, Hesy-Re, is described in tomb inscriptions as “…the greatest of those who deal with teeth, and of physicians.”

Ca 2700 BC/BCE: 1. Land surveying appears in Egypt.

              2. In Egypt, the first written mention of dentists.

              3. Chinese scholars list 365 plants.

fl ca 2980-2950 BC/BCE: Imhotep, an Egyptian physician, discusses the diagnosis and treatment of about 200 diseases. He was a specialist in medicine and priestly magic.

Ca 3000 BC/BCE:The first historical mention of cancer occurs in Egypt. Breast tumors and ulcers are cauterized with a “fire drill.”

Ca 4000 BC: In the Upper Great Lakes area (USA), copper metallurgy is practiced.

Ca 5000 BC: Bolas are used as hunting weapons in Uruguay.

Ca 6500 BC: Early surgery (trepanation: the drilling of holes in the skull to relieve pressure) is practiced in France.

Science in Antiquity: Part 9

 Many modern people have a very limited view of history. They can only see or think about five or ten years into the past. They see history as boring and they think of the ancients as ignorant and backward. This was actually not true. What the ancients lacked was the modern accumulation of facts. An ancient Israelite would have been very puzzled and culture-shocked to have been dumped into the modern world, but he or she could have eventually learned to drive a car or to cook on a stove or to use a cellphone.

The ancients were just as intelligent as we are but the accumulation of scientific facts had not yet reached a critical point. Human knowledge took centuries to double, fact by fact. As knowledge accumulated, the rate of accumulation began to speed up. Every answer exposes a new question. Buckminster Fuller spoke of the Knowledge Doubling Curve which was relatively flat for centuries, then began a slow climb, and then went into an explosive upward thrust.

By the end of the 19^th Century, knowledge was doubling once per century. By about 1945, the rate of doubling was about every 25 years. By 1982, the rate was about every 12-13 months. By 2020, the doubling was occurring about every 12 hours. With at least 50,000,000,000 devices now operating and with the rise of artificial intelligence, the rate may now be in minutes.

 

Ca 582-ca 507 BC/BCE: Pythagoras of Samos stresses the mathematical nature of reality. He declares that “All is number.” Along with metaphysical and religious concepts, Pythagoras teaches other subjects including music, mathematics, vibrating lyre strings, and geometry.

25 May 585 BC/BCE: A solar eclipse ends a war between Lydia and the Medes during the Battle of the Eclipse. The battle stopped because of “day turning into night” and a treaty was signed. The eclipse had been accurately predicted by Thales (Ca 640-546 BC.BCE, WBD), a Greek philosopher. He is considered to have been the father of modern astronomy and geometry.

            The end of fighting resulted in a treaty of alliance cemented by the political marriage of a Lydian princess, Aryenis, to a Median prince, Astyages. 

624-546 BC/BCE:  Thales says the Earth’s surface is curved.

635 BC/BCE: Chinese astronomers notice that a comet’s tail always points away from the sun.

780 BC: The first historical mention of a solar eclipse is made in China.

Science in Antiquity: Part 8

 Many modern people have a very limited view of history. They can only see or think about five or ten years into the past. They see history as boring and they think of the ancients as ignorant and backward. This was actually not true. What the ancients lacked was the modern accumulation of facts. An ancient Israelite would have been very puzzled and culture-shocked to have been dumped into the modern world, but he or she could have eventually learned to drive a car or to cook on a stove or to use a cellphone.

The ancients were just as intelligent as we are but the accumulation of scientific facts had not yet reached a critical point. Human knowledge took centuries to double, fact by fact. As knowledge accumulated, the rate of accumulation began to speed up. Every answer exposes a new question. Buckminster Fuller spoke of the Knowledge Doubling Curve which was relatively flat for centuries, then began a slow climb, and then went into an explosive upward thrust.

By the end of the 19^th Century, knowledge was doubling once per century. By about 1945, the rate of doubling was about every 25 years. By 1982, the rate was about every 12-13 months. By 2020, the doubling was occurring about every 12 hours. With at least 50,000,000,000 devices now operating and with the rise of artificial intelligence, the rate may now be in minutes.

 

fl 450-370 BC/BCE: The Greek philosopher Leucippus teaches that all matter is composed of identical eternally existing, constantly moving particles surrounded by nothingness between the particles.  His student, Democritus, further developed the atomic theory.  Democritus taught that everything is material and is created by combinations of eternally existing atoms.

Ca 475 BC/BCE: Death of Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher whose ideas correctly predict one of the main concepts of the modern understanding of the nature of matter. He teaches that solid matter is really made of fire (read this in the modern way as subatomic particles) which is in constant motion.

Ca 490-ca 420 BC/BCE: The Greek philosopher, Protagoras, declares that there is no objective truth and that we all have our own reality.

Ca 500 BC: 1. Cataract surgery is performed in India by Susrata, a surgeon. The use of anesthesia is not mentioned until the 1^st Century AD/CE.

              2. Iron tools appear in China.

              3. Chinese weapon makers invent the crossbow.

               4. In Babylon, mathematical calculations are used to predict the movements and positions of astral bodies.

              5. A Greek physician, Alcmaeon, discovers the Eustachian tubes.

16 July 523 BC/BCE: Ptolemy correctly predicts a lunar eclipse.

Science in Antiquity: Part 7

 

Many modern people have a very limited view of history. They can only see or think about five or ten years into the past. They see history as boring and they think of the ancients as ignorant and backward. This was actually not true. What the ancients lacked was the modern accumulation of facts. An ancient Israelite would have been very puzzled and culture-shocked to have been dumped into the modern world, but he or she could have eventually learned to drive a car or to cook on a stove or to use a cellphone.

The ancients were just as intelligent as we are but the accumulation of scientific facts had not yet reached a critical point. Human knowledge took centuries to double, fact by fact. As knowledge accumulated, the rate of accumulation began to speed up. Every answer exposes a new question. Buckminster Fuller spoke of the Knowledge Doubling Curve which was relatively flat for centuries, then began a slow climb, and then went into an explosive upward thrust.

By the end of the 19^th Century, knowledge was doubling once per century. By about 1945, the rate of doubling was about every 25 years. By 1982, the rate was about every 12-13 months. By 2020, the doubling was occurring about every 12 hours. With at least 50,000,000,000 devices now operating and with the rise of artificial intelligence, the rate may now be in minutes.

 

387-312 BC/BCE: Life of the astronomer, Heraclides of Pontus. Among his statements; Venus and Mercury revolve around the sun; the Earth rotates on its axis once per day.

388 BC/BCE: Plato teaches that the sun, moon, and the planets move in perfect circlers around the Earth.

408 -355 BC/BCE: Eudoxus, a Greek astronomer and mathematician, explains the movements of the planets and calculates that the solar year is six hours longer than the stated 365 days.

426 BC/BCE: Thucydides correctly explains the cause of tsunamis.

428 BC/BCE: Death of Anaxogoras, a Greek philosopher whose students included Socrates, Pericles, and Euripides. He taught that matter is composed of tiny particles and that the heavenly bodies are large stones thrown from the Earth.

Science in Antiquity: Part 6

 Many modern people have a very limited view of history. They can only see or think about five or ten years into the past. They see history as boring and they think of the ancients as ignorant and backward. This was actually not true. What the ancients lacked was the modern accumulation of facts. An ancient Israelite would have been very puzzled and culture-shocked to have been dumped into the modern world, but he or she could have eventually learned to drive a car or to cook on a stove or to use a cellphone.

The ancients were just as intelligent as we are but the accumulation of scientific facts had not yet reached a critical point. Human knowledge took centuries to double, fact by fact. As knowledge accumulated, the rate of accumulation began to speed up. Every answer exposes a new question. Buckminster Fuller spoke of the Knowledge Doubling Curve which was relatively flat for centuries, then began a slow climb, and then went into an explosive upward thrust.

By the end of the 19^th Century, knowledge was doubling once per century. By about 1945, the rate of doubling was about every 25 years. By 1982, the rate was about every 12-13 months. By 2020, the doubling was occurring about every 12 hours. With at least 50,000,000,000 devices now operating and with the rise of artificial intelligence, the rate may now be in minutes.

 

Ca 290 BC/BCE: Aristarchus of Samos says that the Earth orbits the sun.

3^rd cent BC (300-201): The Greek physician and anatomist, Erasistratus, specialized in the study of the human circulatory and nervous systems. He differentiated between sensory and motor nerves, distinguished between the cerebrum and the cerebellum, and traced arteries and veins back to the heart. He was invented a type of catheter.

Ca 300 BC: The Mayans develop advanced mathematics and an accurate Calendar.

Ca 300 BC: Euclid, a Greek mathematician, expounds his geometrical theories of plane geometry, solid geometry, optics, optical perspective, and proportion.

Ca 340 BC/BCE: The Macedonians utilize catapults as weapons.

Science in Antiquity: Part 5

 Many modern people have a very limited view of history. They can only see or think about five or ten years into the past. They see history as boring and they think of the ancients as ignorant and backward. This was actually not true. What the ancients lacked was the modern accumulation of facts. An ancient Israelite would have been very puzzled and culture-shocked to have been dumped into the modern world, but he or she could have eventually learned to drive a car or to cook on a stove or to use a cellphone.

The ancients were just as intelligent as we are but the accumulation of scientific facts had not yet reached a critical point. Human knowledge took centuries to double, fact by fact. As knowledge accumulated, the rate of accumulation began to speed up. Every answer exposes a new question. Buckminster Fuller spoke of the Knowledge Doubling Curve which was relatively flat for centuries, then began a slow climb, and then went into an explosive upward thrust.

By the end of the 19^th Century, knowledge was doubling once per century. By about 1945, the rate of doubling was about every 25 years. By 1982, the rate was about every 12-13 months. By 2020, the doubling was occurring about every 12 hours. With at least 50,000,000,000 devices now operating and with the rise of artificial intelligence, the rate may now be in minutes.

 

Ca 240 BC: Chinese astronomers record an appearance of Halley’s Comet in Records of the Grand Historian.

262-190 BC/BCE: Apollonius, A Greek mathematician, develops the theory of conic sections.

Ca 280 BC/BCE: Aristachus of Samos calculates the first known estimate of the distance from the sun to the Earth and says that the Earth orbits the sun.

Fl 285-222 BC/BCE: Ctesibus, an Egyptian barber and scientist, studied pneumatics, siphons, air pumps, and the expansion and contraction of air pressure.

Ca 287 BC/BCE, WBD: Birth of Archimedes (Ca 287-212) in Syracuse (modern Siragusa, Italy), Greek mathematician and inventor. He studied levers, plane and solid geometry, mechanics, pulleys, hydraulics, and heat concentration using mirrors and is the first recorded person to have calculated the value of pi.

Science in Antiquity: Part 4

Many modern people have a very limited view of history. They can only see or think about five or ten years into the past. They see history as boring and they think of the ancients as ignorant and backward. This was actually not true. What the ancients lacked was the modern accumulation of facts. An ancient Israelite would have been very puzzled and culture-shocked to have been dumped into the modern world, but he or she could have eventually learned to drive a car or to cook on a stove or to use a cellphone.

The ancients were just as intelligent as we are but the accumulation of scientific facts had not yet reached a critical point. Human knowledge took centuries to double, fact by fact. As knowledge accumulated, the rate of accumulation began to speed up. Every answer exposes a new question. Buckminster Fuller spoke of the Knowledge Doubling Curve which was relatively flat for centuries, then began a slow climb, and then went into an explosive upward thrust.

By the end of the 19^th Century, knowledge was doubling once per century. By about 1945, the rate of doubling was about every 25 years. By 1982, the rate was about every 12-13 months. By 2020, the doubling was occurring about every 12 hours. With at least 50,000,000,000 devices now operating and with the rise of artificial intelligence, the rate may now be in minutes.

 

Ca 205 BC/BCE: In 1900 the Antikythera Mechanism is discovered off the island of Antikythera. It is a mechanical model of the solar system (with the then-known five planets) and an astronomical calculator. It can predict solar and lunar eclipses.

212 BC/BCE, WBD: Death of Archimedes, Greek mathematician, in the losing defense of Syracuse (modern Siracusa/Saragusa, Italy) against a Roman assault during the Spring of 213 until the Autumn of 212. The defense of the city included the use of weapons developed by Archimedes. His work included hydrostatics, mechanics, and the invention of a screw device for raising water.

230 BC/BCE: 1. Death of Aristarchus, who declared that the Earth revolves around the sun. He suspected that the stars were suns like ours.

Ca 240 BC: In Cyrene (modern Shahhat, Libya), Eratosthenes calculates the circumference of the Earth.

Science in Antiquity: Part 3

 Many modern people have a very limited view of history. They can only see or think about five or ten years into the past. They see history as boring and they think of the ancients as ignorant and backward. This was actually not true. What the ancients lacked was the modern accumulation of facts. An ancient Israelite would have been very puzzled and culture-shocked to have been dumped into the modern world, but he or she could have eventually learned to drive a car or to cook on a stove or to use a cellphone.

The ancients were just as intelligent as we are but the accumulation of scientific facts had not yet reached a critical point. Human knowledge took centuries to double, fact by fact. As knowledge accumulated, the rate of accumulation began to speed up. Every answer exposes a new question. Buckminster Fuller spoke of the Knowledge Doubling Curve which was relatively flat for centuries, then began a slow climb, and then went into an explosive upward thrust.

By the end of the 19^th Century, knowledge was doubling once per century. By about 1945, the rate of doubling was about every 25 years. By 1982, the rate was about every 12-13 months. By 2020, the doubling was occurring about every 12 hours. With at least 50,000,000,000 devices now operating and with the rise of artificial intelligence, the rate may now be in minutes.

 

b.80-70 – d. after 15 BC/BCE:  Life of Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, a Roman military, civil, material, mechanical, and chemical engineer, architect, artilleryman, construction expert, and acoustical engineer who designed theaters in which whispers could be heard. In Roman times he was best known for standardizing the sizes of pipes. He designed pulleys, cranes, hoists, water clocks, stucco, a type of odometer, a steam engine, catapults, and a type of central heating.

ca 99-ca 55 BC/BCE: The life of Lucretius, a Roman philosopher who was the first to describe Brownian Movement, the random movements of particles which are suspended in a gas or liquid. He speculated on what we would understand to be extraterrestrial life: “Nothing in the universe is unique and alone and therefore, in other regions there must be other earths inhabited by different tribes of men and breeds of beasts.”

120 BC/BCE: Death of the Greek scientist, Hipparchus. He was a mathematician and astronomer who compiled trigonometry tables and calculated the length of the year to within 6.5 minutes of the modern measurement. He also discovered the procession of the equinoxes. He also catalogued over 850 stars and prepared an accurate star map.

Ca 190 BC/BCE: 1. Birth of the Greek scientist, Hipparchus, in Nicaea, Bithynia (modern Iznik, Turkiye) He is a mathematician and astronomer who compiles trigonometry tables and calculates the length of the year to within 6.5 minutes of the modern measurement. He studied optics and geography, prepared star charts, and described a nova in 134 BC/BCE.

Ca 200 BC:  The Hopewell Native American Culture flourishes. (USA). They had knowledge of geometry and astronomy.

Science in Antiquity: Part 2

 

Many modern people have a very limited view of history. They can only see or think about five or ten years into the past. They see history as boring and they think of the ancients as ignorant and backward. This was not actually not true. What the ancients lacked was the modern accumulation of facts. An ancient Israelite would have been very puzzled and culture-shocked to have been dumped into the modern world, but he or she could have eventually learned to drive a car or to cook on a stove or to use a cellphone.

The ancients were just as intelligent as we are but the accumulation of scientific facts had not yet reached a critical point. Human knowledge took centuries to double, fact by fact. As knowledge accumulated, the rate of accumulation began to speed up. Every answer exposes a new question. Buckminster Fuller spoke of the Knowledge Doubling Curve which was relatively flat for centuries, then began a slow climb, and then went into an explosive upward thrust.

By the end of the 19^th Century, knowledge was doubling once per century. By about 1945, the rate of doubling was about every 25 years. By 1982, the rate was about every 12-13 months. By 2020, the doubling was occurring about every 12 hours. With at least 50,000,000,000 devices now operating and with the rise of artificial intelligence, the rate may now be in minutes.

 

9 March 5 BC/BCE: Chinese astronomers describe a comet which they observed.

24 BC/BCE: Strabo visits Thebes (modern Luxor/al-Uqsur, Egypt). On this trip (24-20), he finds the ruins of Heliopolis (the biblical On). Genesis 41:45. He described the Earth as a sphere and said gravity pulled things to the center.

(b. ca 25 BC/BCE – d. ca 50 AD/CE) Aulus Cornelius Celsus is a Roman medical encyclopedist who wrote about subjects including skin disorders, fevers, kidney stones, eye anatomy, dentistry, jaw fractures, cancers, diet, surgery, and medicines. He taught correctly that fevers were the “effort of the body to throw off some morbid cause.”

10 May 28 BC/BCE: Chinese astronomers recorded the earliest known dated record of a sunspot, a black spot on the sun. Exactly how the sunspots were viewed is not known, since telescopes were not invented until the 1570’s and direct viewing of the sun will damage the eyes.

78-37 BC/BCE:  The Han Chinese genius, Jing Fang, is a music theorist, mathematician, and astronomer. He explained lunar and solar eclipses and musical octaves.

Science in Antiquity: Part 1

 

Many modern people have a very limited view of history. They can only see or think about five or ten years into the past. They see history as boring and they think of the ancients as ignorant and backward. This was actually not true. What the ancients lacked was the modern accumulation of facts. An ancient Israelite would have been very puzzled and culture-shocked to have been dumped into the modern world, but he or she could have eventually learned to drive a car or to cook on a stove or to use a cellphone.

The ancients were just as intelligent as we are but the accumulation of scientific facts had not yet reached a critical point. Human knowledge took centuries to double, fact by fact. As knowledge accumulated, the rate of accumulation began to speed up. Every answer exposes a new question. Buckminster Fuller spoke of the Knowledge Doubling Curve which was relatively flat for centuries, then began a slow climb, and then went into an explosive upward thrust.

By the end of the 19^th Century, knowledge was doubling once per century. By about 1945, the rate of doubling was about every 25 years. By 1982, the rate was about every 12-13 months. By 2020, the doubling was occurring about every 12 hours. With at least 50,000,000,000 devices now operating and with the rise of artificial intelligence, the rate may now be in minutes.

 

185 AD/CE: Chinese astronomers report a bright star which faded away after eight months. This is Supernova SN 185 which occurred 8200 years ago in the Centaurus constellation.

Ca 140 AD/CE:  A Chinese surgeon, Hua Tuo, is the first recorded to use anesthesia during surgery.

78-139 AD/CE: Zhang Heng, a Han polymath, works in seismology, hydraulics, astronomy, cartography, poetry, and politics. He invents a functional water clock.

100 AD/CE: 1.  The mathematician Theon of Smyrna says that the Earth is a sphere.

Ca 20 AD/CE:1.  Birth of the Greek scientist, Hero of Alexandria, who did work in theoretical mathematics, mechanics, and physics.  He studied the science of light reflection and invented a rotary steam engine and several pneumatic devices.

              2. Geminus of Rhodes studies astronomy and writes The Theory of Mathematics.

8 AD/CE: Chinese astronomer Liu Xin calculates the solar year as 365.25016 days. He calculates pi as 3.154

Science in Antiquity: Part 12

 Many modern people have a very limited view of history. They can only see or think about five or ten years into the past. They see history as boring and they think of the ancients as ignorant and backward. This was actually not true. What the ancients lacked was the modern accumulation of facts. An ancient Israelite would have been very puzzled and culture-shocked to have been dumped into the modern world, but he or she could have eventually learned to drive a car or to cook on a stove or to use a cellphone.

The ancients were just as intelligent as we are but the accumulation of scientific facts had not yet reached a critical point. Human knowledge took centuries to double, fact by fact. As knowledge accumulated, the rate of accumulation began to speed up. Every answer exposes a new question. Buckminster Fuller spoke of the Knowledge Doubling Curve which was relatively flat for centuries, then began a slow climb, and then went into an explosive upward thrust. By the end of the 19^th Century, knowledge was doubling once per century. By about 1945, the rate of doubling was about every 25 years. By 1982, the rate was about every 12-13 months. By 2020, the doubling was occurring about every 12 hours. With at least 50,000,000,000 devices now operating and with the rise of artificial intelligence, the rate may now be in minutes.

 

Ca 1950 BC/BCE: Quadratic equations are solved by Babylonian mathematicians.

Ca 2000 BC/BCE: In India, fouled water is purified by boiling and subsequent filtration through

charcoal.

Ca 22 Oct. 2137 BC/BCE: A solar eclipse is recorded and described by Chinese officials.

9 May 2138 BC/BCE: Solar eclipse visible over Babylon.

24 May 2138 BC/BCE: Lunar eclipse visible over Babylon.

Science in Antiquity: Part 10

 Many modern people have a very limited view of history. They can only see or think about five or ten years into the past. They see history as boring and they think of the ancients as ignorant and backward. This was actually not true. What the ancients lacked was the modern accumulation of facts. An ancient Israelite would have been very puzzled and culture-shocked to have been dumped into the modern world, but he or she could have eventually learned to drive a car or to cook on a stove or to use a cellphone.

The ancients were just as intelligent as we are but the accumulation of scientific facts had not yet reached a critical point. Human knowledge took centuries to double, fact by fact. As knowledge accumulated, the rate of accumulation began to speed up. Every answer exposes a new question. Buckminster Fuller spoke of the Knowledge Doubling Curve which was relatively flat for centuries, then began a slow climb, and then went into an explosive upward thrust.

By the end of the 19^th Century, knowledge was doubling once per century. By about 1945, the rate of doubling was about every 25 years. By 1982, the rate was about every 12-13 months. By 2020, the doubling was occurring about every 12 hours. With at least 50,000,000,000 devices now operating and with the rise of artificial intelligence, the rate may now be in minutes.

 

Ca 805 BC/BCE: In India, Baudhayana calculates square roots and quadratic equations.

Ca 1000 BC/BCE: Egyptian mathematicians use simple fractions.

11^th Century BC/BCE: Chinese scholars describe algebra, geometry, and trigonometry.

27 December 1192 BC/BCE: A Chinese oracle bone has been found inscribed with a description of a lunar eclipse occurring between 2148 (9:48 PM) and 2330 (11:30 PM). The lunar eclipse has been confirmed by NASA to have happened on that date and time.

Ca 1486 BC/BCE: Chinese astronomers see a ten-tailed comet.

A Bent and Deformed Tree

In one of the numerous cities strung along the Alabama Gulf Coast, trees line the main highway.  This is a very intentional touch which reduces the "strip-mall" feel of the single story restaurants and stores which line the highway behind the trees.  The trees stand up straight, all the same type, all the same height.  This makes startling the one tree which grows straight out of an incline, parallel to the ground,  and then turns upward.  Someone failed to tend to this tree and it seems to have eventually turned upward of its own accord.  It now points in the desired direction, but it is gnarled and deformed.

Realize that our children are like these trees.  Raised and trained properly they will often stay within the faith.  Left to their own devices, they may stray.  Some will eventually return to the faith but only after receiving numerous scars and deformities.  They need loving gardeners.

 “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6

Children learn values by watching their parents. There is a phrase, "Show, don't tell." Explain rules, do not just impose them. One thing which I taught my son and my grandchildren: "Don't be afraid, just be smart." Love unconditionally and predictably.  Do not "smother" your children's individuality. Your children do not need or want to be little clones of you.

This is ancient knowledge known by the Jews long before there were any Christians.  Christians often fail to remember our Jewish origins. In its strictest sense, “Torah” means the first five books of the Bible.  The word “Torah” תּוֹרָה

translates as “teaching,  or “instruction.” Read this web page written by the Chabad-Lubavitcher Rabbi Eliezer Shemtov of Montevideo, Uruguay.  Though I would interpret this in a Christian context, I agree with every word spoken here by the rabbi.

A Response to "God Blames Us for His Mistakes"

To the question I posed yesterday, I would answer that this is a case that there are ways of knowing beyond that which can be seen, heard, and felt.  The empiricist/naturalist would say that if something cannot be observed or measured, it does not exist.  They are unable to see what is demonstrably directly before them. (Romans 1:20)

I will make the assertion that Christians can and do understand things which non-Christians cannot.  This is because we, as members of the Body of Christ, have the Mind of Christ.  Though it may seem alien, even to some Christians, the closer we are to Christ the more we think with one mind, the Mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:16)  Non-believers, expecially those who totally dismiss any idea of the supernatural,  are incapable of understanding or believing this.

The non-believer looks at Christ standing right in front of him or her and does not see Him.  I believe that they cannot see Him. Christians, whose minds have been “renewed,” see Jesus in every situation.  (Romans 12:12)

Tomorrow, I will amplify my answer to this question.

What Does It Mean? Jot and Tittle

"For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Matthew 5:18

A "jot" is an "iote" (found in early King James Version editions), "iota," "ἰ," the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet and similar to the י
"yodh," the smallest Hebrew letter.  Think of the English apostrophe ('); something considered to be almost insignificant.

A "tittle"is a horn shaped mark used in Hebrew as an accent mark.  The Greek word used is κεραία, a "horn."


Jesus here declared that the Mosaic Law is still in effect and will not pass away, even in its smallest parts, until the fulfillment of time.     If a person kept the entire law, with never a single lapse, they would be saved, but, all have sinned and fallen short.  (Romans 3:23)  "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." James 2:10

The Law is in fact a gift from God which points us toward God's grace. "Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." Romans 3:20.  "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." Ephesians 2:8-9

On the Human Knowledge of Christ, Part 4

The question of Jesus' human knowledge is important in much of modern Christology, especially in that centered on Phillipians 2:5-11, the "kenosis" passage.
Thomasius (1655-1728) declared "he emptied himself" (εκενωσεν) to mean that Jesus emptied himself of the "relative attributes" of divinity (omniscience, omnipotence, etc) and retained only his "essential attributes" (holiness, love, justice, etc). The assumption is that, upon his ascension, Jesus resumed his divine attributes. If pushed to far, this could imply that Jesus was God, became man, and then ceased to be man in order to once again become God.
In response to Thomasius, H. Brash Bonsall, who defines an attribute as an essential characteristic, says that if Jesus gave up any of the divine attributes, he ceased to be God. Bonsall feels that the incarnation involved the temporary laying aside of the divine attributes and prerogatives but not the abnegation of the possession of them (John 17:5; Philippians 2:6-8; Hebrews 2:5-10.) This idea is based on the orthodox christology od The Council of Chalcedon (Jesus has two has two distinct and unmingled impersonal natures in one person with a communion of the attributes of the two. The twoo natures could not be mixed without changing the nature of each. Therefore, if Jesus as a man did not have limited knowledge then he was not truly a man. If, as God, he did not have full divine knowledge, he was not God.
Before discussing two general categories of Bible verses implying either limited knowledge or superhuman knowledge on the part of Jesus, it would be good to zero in especially on two "problem areas."

On the Human Knowledge of Christ, Part 1

     For the next few days I will be posting, with slight editing and in short manageable segments, a paper I submitted on 3 Dec 1976 in Dr. Frank Stagg's New Testament Theology class at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.  My personal inclination is to take the Bible at face value but the issues discussed in the paper are important because others do not always do so.

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     "There is nothing more negative than the result of the critical study of the life of Jesus."  So says the highly respected Albert Schweitzer.  Many modern theologians have felt this same way.

     There is a problem in recovering the exact words of Jesus but to declare that nothing can be known of Jesus or of his mind is a mistake.  It is also an error to declare that everything possible is known about the mind of Jesus.

     Dr. Frank Stagg, for many years a professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary spoke to the issue; "The student of the New Testament cannot afford to be intimidated by what has been written in disparagement of a 'self-interpretation of Jesus.'  It is not naive to understand Jesus as concerned with his own identity and mission."

     It is also not naive to attempt to study the question of Jesus' personality, especially that part of the subject dealing with his human knowledge.

     Inherent in any study of Jesus' human knowledge is the question of Christology.  One part of this question which must necessarily come up is the problem of whether admitting that Jesus did not have absolute knowledge is also to declare that he could be in error.

     Traditional Roman Catholic scholastic theology attributed to Jesus a human knowledge of all created things of the past, present, and future, at least as far as these things were related to Jesus' work in salvation.  The scholastics also believed that Jesus possessed the beatific vision  from the moment of His conception in Mary's womb.  "Scholastic theology is not content that the soul of Christ knows all, but will have it that it knows all in all ways."  Earlier, Jerome, Augustine, Clement of Alexandria, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Cyril of Alexandria all attributed no ignorance and no mental development to the Christ-child.

     The Catholic Fathers all rejected the apocryphal Childhood Gospels but they did not attack or condemn the portrayal of Jesus' childhood as being one of absolute perfection.

     The New Testament writers seem to have felt this same reluctance to attributing any sort of limitation to Jesus, especially concerning His inward nature.  They do admit that He underwent moral and spiritual growth.  They seem to regard Him as statically perfect.  This is the ground on which the Fathers and the later scholastics built.

     There is a middle view spoken of by Benjamin Warfield, "One fresh from reading the gospel narrative will certainly fail to understand the attitude of those, who we are told exist, who for example, 'admit his growth in knowledge during childhood,' 'yet deny as intolerable the hypothesis of a limitation of his knowledge during his ministry."

     Some theologians, such as E. L. Mascall and C. K. Barrett, believe that Jesus was in error on some points.  Barrett said it was necessary for Him to be in error to be fully human.

 

 

Christianity is Not Anti-Intellectual

     What do Glenn Beck, Bill Gates, Walter Cronkite, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Robert Novak, and William Safire all have in common?  Yeah, they were/are all white American men.  What else?  This: none of them graduated from college.  And yet, all of them attained great success in their individual fields, all of which required "smarts."

     Christianity is often accused of being anti-intellectual, a totally ludicrous charge.  In fact, during the Dark Ages, the only educated people were the clergy.  The names of Christian intellectuals are too numerous to mention but they include the Apostle Paul, Thomas Aquinas, Augustine of Hippo, Karl Barth, and C. S. Lewis.  

     Christian wisdom is attained by studying the Word of God under the leadership of the Holy Spirit.  A college degree is not required but advanced education can do nothing but enhance the Christian's abilities to make informed judgements.

     Numerous places in the Bible the value of education and knowledge is affirmed.

Education is for everyone.

"7"Also in the third year of his reign he sent to his princes, [even] to Benhail, and to Obadiah, and to Zechariah, and to Nethaneel, and to Michaiah, to teach in the cities of Judah.

8And with them [he sent] Levites, [even] Shemaiah, and Nethaniah, and Zebadiah, and Asahel, and Shemiramoth, and Jehonathan, and Adonijah, and Tobijah, and Tobadonijah, Levites; and with them Elishama and Jehoram, priests.

9And they taught in Judah, and [had] the book of the law of the LORD with them, and went about throughout all the cities of Judah, and taught the people. 2 Chronicles 17: 7-9.

Knowledge is of more value than money.

For wisdom [is] a defence, [and] money [is] a defence: but the excellency of knowledge [is, that] wisdom giveth life to them that have it.
 Ecclesiastes 7:12.