• BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I’ll point out that the “Jesus and the fig tree” story is a parable. It’s made fun of a lot, but it’s a vicious lesson by someone who was very theatrical in their teaching style. The fig tree is Israel, who were expected by their god to always be in season and ready for their messiah. But when Jesus arrived, they were not in season, and so were cursed to never bear fruit again. It wasn’t an agricultural misunderstanding, it was a lesson and everything that surrounds it gives it context.

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Asked one of those “Bible is all literal truth” guys one day, “How did Jesus teach?”

      “?”

      “He taught in parables, right? Stories that aren’t true, meant to illustrate a point.”

      “Ok.”

      “Is it possible other Bible stories are parables?”

      “?”

      • BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Almost everything in there is a parable. It’s a cultural thing, because stories were only worth preserving as a lesson. The concept of preserving objective reality for its own sake is a very modern and recent ideology. It would have been seen as madness by ancient peoples.

        • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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          3 months ago

          It would’ve been madness in that region at that time. The Romans were writing entire books on natural history and that’s not even getting into something like the lost works on the Etruscan civilization. Recording things in that way fell out of favor with the Jewish people at that time due to centuries of rather brutal occupation requiring a certain level of obfuscation. Though I will say that objectivism wasn’t a concept at that point, the Garlic Wars is as much an account as it is propaganda by Caesar.

    • TeamAssimilation@infosec.pub
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      3 months ago

      Jesus: curses random tree

      Followers: Jesus, is there a problem? You can tell us directly.

      Jesus: No, everything is fine *sulks*

    • caseyweederman@lemmy.ca
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      3 months ago

      Also, in the Apocrypha, childhood Jesus turned a kid he didn’t like into a tree. Quite possibly… a fig tree.

      • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Jesus:i cast curse

        DM: roll to hit

        Jesus: nevermind i cast true polymorph

        DM: at?

        Jesus: that pesky SOB over there

        DM: the eight year old?

        Jesus: well now he’s a fig tree.

        DM: Jesus, dude…

        Jesus: I cast curse on the tree