Ryan’s Show & Tell…
Sep24
on 09/24/2015
at 12:01 am
Chapter: Longing and Other Inconveniences
Location: Cypress City, the apartment
Ryan seems to have had a very interesting trip to Cologne, Germany.
So did I, on my last Euro-vacation. It was a very short stay… less than a day… but in that time, we found it to be a lovely old city with much to see and not enough time to see it in. The photos on this page are my own from that adventure. I would like to explore that city in much greater depth sometime.
They had a better burial than Jesus, but then again he didn’t stay in his tomb for long.
Agreed… Jesus didn’t stick around long in the land of the dead. I bet there was some interesting conversation down there during those few days. Anyhow… yah, no tomb for Jesus.
The Gospel of Nicodemus covers that period, usually refered to as “The Harrowing of Hell”. Although non-canonical, it was not considered heretical and thus was quite well known at one time.
Interesting! Nicodemus had trouble with the idea of being “born again”… yes? THAT Nicodemus?
That or the Nicodemus who was a talking rat with glowing eyes and a beard.
Yes. He is also mentioned as assisting Joseph of Aremethia [sp?].
It must be nice to get to haul out some fun memories and instead of distracting you FROM work, they are INCLUDED. Also: All things come to she who waits, including opportunity.
Yes, timing is everything… the right time will come and it will be better than to have forced the issue at a bad time.
Wait… did someone say coffee? S’cuse me… no bad time for coffee.
Well, unless you’re desperately trying to sleep!
Agreed.
Don’t you just love how those segues just naturally pop up?
Yes, indeed…
The bones of the magi, huh? I wonder how many there were. The gospel of Matthew does not say how many other than in the plural. (Two or more.) The assumption has always been three, but only because three gifts were brought.
Still, while it would be interesting to see, I’m reminded of the words of the CHARACTER Martin Luther in the movie Luther: “But there are relics elsewhere in Christendom. Eighteen out of twelve apostles are buried in Spain.”
The Box of the Bones of the Magi was so incredibly golden-shiny… I saw it live in-person at the Cathedral there… It made me reflect on Jesus’ burial… a borrowed tomb… which was good because He didn’t stay long.
And I think the three Wise guys makes sense in that there’s one for the Father… one for the Son… and one for the Holy Ghost.
Hmmm… 18 huh? wait… math no right.
Actually there was at least one other member of the Magi, a man named Artoban. He brought three jewels, but each village he stopped in he sold one to give the money to the poor so they could eat, and after his third one he felt he had nothing to present so he turned around to go home. Apparently angels told him Jesus appreciated the charity more than the jewels anyways, but he’s not mentioned a lot despite apparently being a recognized wise man of his age (and in modern stories, just considered an unimportant footnote). He also breaks the christian symbolism since everything isn’t done in fours.
Artoban has a Wikipedia page… but is stated that it is an add on (“addition and expansion) to the Gospel of Matthew (I checked Matt). It’s fiction… nice fiction, but fiction.
They call these things “reliquaries.” The Shrine of the Three Kings is said to be the largest reliquary in the world. There’s an excellent article on Wikipedia about that, too, which is where I cribbed all that from.
I tend to take the approach of ‘nice fiction’ with pretty much everything in religious literature. I mean, besides the work of Dalai Lama and the Pope and other living or recently living types. Even if it WAS true at some point, a thousand years of legendry, prose, and rewriting has made it all very murky. As a writer, I know how much writers like to fiddle with fine details!
Still, it has inspired some awfully interesting artwork and the like. Jenn was a huge fan of christian architecture and I’m pretty impressed by the scale and detail of what she showed me (If anyone ever finds her collection of photos I’ll get them scanned and sent your way, but I think she lost most of them in one of her frequent moves around europe)
Love the look on Randie’s face when she can finally talk about her scooter!
She’s sooo excitable, ain’t she?
Robert… gotcha… thanks for the info…
Trev… believing religious “fiction” as you put it, is a matter of faith… The Pope wouldn’t be a very good Pope if he didn’t believe the Word. And I won’t fault anyone for being on their own path. But I will tell you how I look at the Word. If God is infallible, He would not leave his important instruction manual and living word in the hands of people who would change it willie-nillie. I am believing that God inspired its writing and further interpretations (which makes sense as people of the world evolve… I mean, Greek NEEDED to be translated, yah? and they call it the Living Word … it lives throughout the centuries)… but again, this is my faith… And I won’t force it on anyone. This is what I believe.
And I love me some Churches! Oh, the beautiful European Cathedrals and stained glass… I get all misty thinking about them.
Even the pope doesn’t take the bible literally word for word, considering the great number of translations and passage of time. Faith is a lovely, resilient thing, isn’t it? I don’t use the phrase religious fiction insultingly and I quite agree with much of your view. I say fiction in the sense that God probably knows people learn more from thinking about metaphors than being handed a laundry list (creator of the psyche and all, I would suspect he’s a psych major of sorts!). You’re welcome to your faith and have my jealousy for having any degree of religious conviction! I’m not one for believing, nor disbelieving, but am stuck in a permanent state of re-evaluation. That said, the bible is a pretty good read with some very good ideas and some rather inspiring characters (I find King Solomon so at least, and Job’s endurance in adversity is excellently portrayed). If nothing else, the effect the stories in the bible have had on society is well worth putting faith in, and even with continued re-interpretation by flawed human understanding it still offers a good guiding light.
Favorite Cathedral? Mine’s the Cathedral of St. Vasily the Blessed, AKA St. Basil’s Cathedral (how could a guy like Ivan the Terrible get something so impressive made!?), though I have to admit a close tie with the Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Sebastian (64 meter tall stained glass windows! That is a serious feat), and I know Jenn’s was the Primate Cathedral of Saint Mary of Toledo. For the record, she visited her favorite, I’ve never made it to visit mine (I’ve had to settle for studying the designs and various videos and pics, sigh)