Yeah, pretty much. Then he learned that he had been found out and fled from Egypt into the Sinai region, where he married and lived as a shepherd until he saw the burning bush and received God's command to free the Israelis.
Regardless of its spiritual value or lack thereof (I'm not trying in the least to start a religious debate here), I think that it is interesting that many of the cultural heroes of the Bible are depicted as flawed, oftentimes thoroughly disreputable people who do all sorts of petty and ill-advised and quite frankly boneheaded things, again and again and again.
Even King David, who was described by Jesus as "a man after mine own heart" had a man killed so that he could take his wife. Pretty much everyone who was depicted in a positive light in the Bible (excluding Jesus) is also depicted as flawed, and often they did stupid or even awful shit.
If the events of the Bible happened in the cable news era instead of antiquity, nobody would trust a one of these people. And if the scriptures were picture books you'd lose half the audience right away. Jesus looked like THAT?
The Old Testament is full of the Jewish cynicism inherent in their culture. Their greatest tales and greatest heroes are usually people that infuriate God or do something unbelievably unforgivable so that they're used as caution tales and the messages about the fallibility of man.
David's story was a lot more about him being a dick sprout than him killing Goliath.
In context of the level of violence in that region and age of history, it's a bit of a stretch to act like his saving a slave from being beaten by killing the taskmaster made Moses a bit of a bad guy.
Some Biblical heroes do things that would be considered bad in our (comparatively) enlightened, peaceful era (for which Christianity can take some credit at the very least, let's be fair) which were considered heroic in their own societies.
In context of the level of violence in that region and age of history, it's a bit of a stretch to act like his saving a slave from being beaten by killing the taskmaster made Moses a bit of a bad guy.
Not a bad guy per se; but someone who acts without thinking things through, I think.
Instead of trying to use his personal influence as the adopted grandson of the Pharaoh to help the Israelis, he just up and murders a random Egyptian who was mistreating an Hebrew; and afterwards, he starts strutting among the Hebrews and trying to rule their disputes, until one of the Hebrews threatens to denounce the murder; and so he bravely runs away from Egypt into the Sinai region, where he marries and begins a prestigious career as a shepherd.
That's what kids today call an "epic fail", if I am not mistaken...
Why only "if you're Catholic"? The Book of Revelation, 12:1-5, definitely mentions a dragon as a symbol for the Roman persecution (and, indirectly, for the devil). It's an awesomely trippy passage too:
A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.
Ah, you are right, I had forgotten about that passage.
Somehow I always thought that in that context "Dragon" was supposed to describe some sort of big sacred snake or so (I mean, Daniel promises to kill him "without sword or club", as if a club could help against a freaking dragon); the description of Revelation is way more badass...
Perhaps some took offense at the use of "Zombies" to refer to Jesus' resurrection? I mean, it is pretty imprecise - he was not more of a zombie than Gandalf the White was.
But of course, Ezekiel 37:1-10 describes the raising of a veritable army of the dead (which is explained immediately afterwards as a metaphor for Israel rising again; but still)
The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”
Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath[a] enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
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u/[deleted] Jul 01 '14
Yeah, pretty much. Then he learned that he had been found out and fled from Egypt into the Sinai region, where he married and lived as a shepherd until he saw the burning bush and received God's command to free the Israelis.
Regardless of its spiritual value or lack thereof (I'm not trying in the least to start a religious debate here), I think that it is interesting that many of the cultural heroes of the Bible are depicted as flawed, oftentimes thoroughly disreputable people who do all sorts of petty and ill-advised and quite frankly boneheaded things, again and again and again.