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If we have to have Bible quotes in public buildings...

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
... why not this one?

Isaiah 10:1-4:
Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.

What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your riches? Nothing will remain but to cringe among the captives or fall among the slain.
 

Vouthon

Dominus Deus tuus ignis consumens est
Staff member
Premium Member
I've heard and read that a bunch, always very rambling. Could you possibly succinctly define that?

Thought the biblical quote was a bit on the ranting side.

In sum: the passage is denouncing 'the powers that be' in ancient Israelite society, for passing and enforcing laws that benefit the privileged few, rather than the downtrodden masses - especially the weak and vulnerable, whom the prophet Isaiah claims have suffered as a consequence of these policies.

It then proceeds to make a prophetic oracle about a day of imminent redistributive justice; in which the elites holding the reins of power will be divested of their wealth and fall under the sovereignty of a foreign empire that will reduce them to servitude, thus letting them know what it felt like for the poorer classes when they were in charge. On that day, they will be the ones who are helpless and so the tables shall be reversed. 'The world turned upside down' (Isaiah 29:16), as the prophet declares in another later verse.

It's the kind of passage I can envisage a young Jesus being both enthralled and inspired by. The New Testament authors and the early church adored Isaiah, even more so than the other books of the Nevi'im.


A lot of the Bible is like that.

Well, it was by express literary design.

The conventions of the prophetic literature demanded this kind of exaggerated oratorical style, which was meant to convey divine outrage at social abuses.

It was done for effect, with the hope of eliciting an emotive response that would prompt a change of heart in the reader/listener.
 
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metis

aged ecumenical anthropologist
Let me also add to the excellent post above that what is often reflected in the NT, especially by Paul, is the Hellenized use of dualism: white/black; sun/darkness, good/evil, etc. When Paul wrote to obey all authority because authority is from God, one would be making a mistake to take that literally.
 

Jumi

Well-Known Member
That's a good quote, but you think the so-called evangelicals even read those parts of the Bible or would have heard of it?
 

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
I'd support that. Unfortunately it would go against your entire legal system so yeah I don't think they'll be doing that.
*My* legal system? Which one do you think that is?

Of course, my first choice is to have no Bible quotes at all, but if we have to have, say, the Ten Commandments, why not also Isaiah?
 

74x12

Well-Known Member
*My* legal system? Which one do you think that is?
Well the one in your country/state.

Of course, my first choice is to have no Bible quotes at all, but if we have to have, say, the Ten Commandments, why not also Isaiah?
Why do atheists make such a big deal about Bible quotes? It's just the culture; it's not as if anyone is codifying the 10 commandments into law. I wouldn't even want that. ;) And I love Isaiah so by all means do so.
 

Vouthon

Dominus Deus tuus ignis consumens est
Staff member
Premium Member
*My* legal system? Which one do you think that is?

Of course, my first choice is to have no Bible quotes at all, but if we have to have, say, the Ten Commandments, why not also Isaiah?

To be fair, Isaiah is by all accounts the most popularly referenced and historically influential book of the Old Testament.

I don't know of anyone hailing from a Christian background who wouldn't be able to draw to mind at least some powerful images or verses from it:


Book of Isaiah - Wikipedia


Isaiah was one of the most popular works in the period between the foundation of the Second Temple c. 515 BCE and its destruction by the Romans in 70 CE.[12]

The Book of Isaiah has been immensely influential in the formation of Christianity, from the devotion to the Virgin Mary to anti-Jewish polemic, medieval passion iconography, and modern Christian feminism and liberation theology. The regard in which Isaiah was held was so high that the book was frequently called "the Fifth Gospel".[13] Its influence extends beyond the Church and Christianity to English literature and to Western culture in general, from the libretto of Handel's Messiah to a host of such everyday phrases as "swords into ploughshares" and "voice in the wilderness".[14]...

Isaiah seems always to have had a prominent place in Jewish Bible use, and it is probable that Jesus himself was deeply influenced by Isaiah.[48] Thus many of the Isaiah passages that are familiar to Christians gained their popularity not directly from Isaiah but from the use of them by Jesus and the early Christian authors – this is especially true of the Book of Revelation, which depends heavily on Isaiah for its language and imagery.[49]
 

metis

aged ecumenical anthropologist
... why not this one?

Isaiah 10:1-4:
Exactly, and this is what bothers me so much with so many of these fundamentalists, namely that they throw "the social gospel" under the bus because it doesn't fit into their conservative paradigm that is secular, not theological. It's like the Sermon On the Mount and the Parable of the Sheep & Goats (Matthew 25) don't even exist.
 

Vouthon

Dominus Deus tuus ignis consumens est
Staff member
Premium Member
Exactly, and this is what bothers me so much with so many of these fundamentalists, namely that they throw "the social gospel" under the bus because it doesn't fit into their conservative paradigm that is secular, not theological. It's like the Sermon On the Mount and the Parable of the Sheep & Goats (Matthew 25) don't even exist.

Gospel of St. Reagan, the Servant of God Ayn Rand and the Glorious Equal-to-the-Apostles Donald Trump.
 

metis

aged ecumenical anthropologist
Gospel of St. Reagan, the Servant of God Ayn Rand and the Glorious Equal-to-the-Apostles Donald Trump.
Yep, but I have to disagree with you on the latter because Trump says he doesn't need God's forgiveness on anything and that he doesn't need to pray, therefore he must be sinless and superior to the apostles.:rolleyes:
 

Vouthon

Dominus Deus tuus ignis consumens est
Staff member
Premium Member
Yep, but I have to disagree with you on the latter because Trump says he doesn't need God's forgiveness on anything and that he doesn't need to pray, therefore he must be sinless and superior to the apostles.:rolleyes:

Yes, "bigly".
 
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