David & I went to the Da Vinci Code on Saturday. I am one of the few people I know that hasn’t read the book, but sometimes I’m like that. When everyone else wants to read a book and really likes it, I don’t want to read it until the hype dies down, if ever. So, I hadn’t read it and David had, and we both enjoyed the movie a lot. Whether or not there is any truth to the idea of there being a massive coverup of descendants of Christ by the Catholic church is quite irrelevant to me, though interesting to think about. What I find more interesting is the obvious picking and choosing that was involved in establishing the New Testament as we now know it. Obviously, as Bibles were all hand-transcribed in that day, I’d be more surprised if they’d included all the “Gospels according to....” of which we are currently aware. That’s a LOT of work for the poor scribes. I’d start editing myself if it were my job.
But the most interesting thing to me is the fact that the Catholic church would feel so threatened by Jesus’ humanness. I understand, well not really but kind of, the whole “one in three, three in one” thing, but to actually wrap my brain around that would require a lot more mental gymnastics than I currently exert reconciling, say, the First Vision of Joseph Smith. I don’t think Jesus being mortal makes him any less divine. Why can’t He be both? Otherwise, why send Him down here? “Here I am, God embodied, and since you are all mortals you have no chance of ever being like me, but boy it was nice to see how crummy your lives are on this earth I created for you.”
I love the idea of Jesus being married to Mary, and would LOVE to have an inkling of his interactions with her, and hers with him. If you’re married to a perfect individual, doesn’t that make it really annoying when you have a quarrel with him. “Well, it’s OBVIOUSLY not his fault....dammit!”
Regardless, even with the obvious selective passing on of the gospels, there is still plenty of good left in the New Testament as we know it. Christ is an obvious exemplar of good, and I find much inspiration in reading of his teachings and actions. Though I am planning on reading some of the other Gnostic Gospels because I’m interested in what they say.
2 comments:
I think it's hilarious to think about the way those arguments would go down. It'd be like when you're in one of those arguments where you're the only one arguing, and the fact that the other person isn't arguing back just makes you even more upset. Or am I the only one that's been in that situation?
Ha ha!! Today actually the reverse happened. At church we were actually agreeing with this woman in a roundabout way (kind of playing devils advocate, but pointing out how the opposing stance was stupid) and she kept saying, "No, that's not right..." but we consistently agreed with her. I think she was just too used to explaining herself and arguing her point with people who disagree with her. She got really worked up, and I felt kind of bad because we really did agree with her.
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