I would also like to add that you have to remember the nephilim were alive in those days. The nephilim are a result of breeding between demons and man and therefore total annihilation and not intermarrying seems to be the only way to go.

I'd really prefer it if you would post about Scripture here with references. As this statement of yours is non-Scriptural fantasy, it really is out of place.

well the citation for life shortening to 120 years and the nephilim are actually both referenced here

Genesis Chapter 6, verses 1 through 4 :

"Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.[8]

They are mentioned again in Numbers chapter 13, verses 32–33, in a description of the inhabitants of Hebron:

"So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, "The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight. [9]

Thanks, Str8 - that helps. This is from the Wikipedia entry:

I use Wikipedia so as not to always be going to Catholic sources. They have good links in a lot of these entries. Scripture, itself, doesn't tell us the real identity of Nephilim, of course.

You just had to get that in there. Im suprised you didn't say as usual.

I don't know what this means. I wanted to be clear that we only have conjecture about the word, just like we don't know what animal is being referred to when we translate some Hebrew word as "behemoth."

Harmony of the Gospel of Thomas with the Canonical Gospels

I wanted to make sure this got posted in here someplace. There's always a lot of talk about how the Gospels were written and also when. The GTh (Gospel of Thomas) is a good example of a "sayings gospel" from which the later final Canonical Gospels were redacted. I think it's interesting seeing what things were almost exactly the same, which similar and what stands alone. Here's an excerpt, each entry has two translations of the GTh and where there are parallels, Canonical Gospel citations:

The complete GTh is posted here, but I think some of the verses have parallels not included, like "seek and you will find" in this verse:
Maybe it didn't seem parallel enough.

Judges

I love Judges. I know, sounds boring, but it's so great. It's Heroes meets Hercules: the Superstars of Israel. And it's pretty funny, sometimes. I'll give some examples, but first:

From Boadt:


from the Introduction to Judges


Okay - first of all, the naming of the six judges (really tribal chieftains) as the "Major Judges" without including Deborah (Chapter 5) is just a monument to misogyny. Not only is her story as Judge of Israel told in detail and her rather famous canticle reproduced, but after she kicked everyone's butt, peace reigned for 40 years.

Here we see the sin-suffer-repent system in almost ritualized form. The Israelites believed that every bad thing was a punishment by God and every good thing a reward. This is the story of how, over a few hundred years, Israel came into soul possession of the Holy Land. Joshua implies it was one great series of military campaigns. But really, it was a lot of tribes and mixing of cultures, interspersed with battles and over time, with more and more tribes coming under the influence of the One God and Hebrew culture, the Holy Land became Israel. These people are very likely historical figures, all of their exploits may not be true in every detail. For one thing, exaggeration was just a sort of literary style, so when they say they killed every single person, or when they attribute superhuman characteristics, it's not likely.

Almost every story starts out with some version of "the Israelites offended the Lord." Usually no explanation was given. They must have, because they are in some sort of trouble, right? That trouble is almost always the threat of loss or the actual loss of some of the land, sometimes enslavement by an invading or local non-Hebrew tribe. So, then they "cry out to the Lord" and repent, and He gives them a big victory over their enemies and they get the land.

Starting in Chapter 3 we get the story of Ehud who slew the Eglon, king of Moab "who was very fat" by shoving a two foot long dagger into him so far it disappeared inside. Then he locks the king in the room, the servants don't dare bother the king, and Ehud makes his escape. Later he brings back the Israelites to attack the Moabites (who were oppressing them at the time).

This whole story is told in some detail in 24 verses followed by the story of Shamgar which I reproduce here in it's entirety:

That's it for Shamgar!

Judges is where you find Ophrah (whose name was mis-spelled on the birth certificate of a well-known talk show host) and was a place not a person. It's where Gideon blows his horn and Delilah betrays the strong man Samson and has his hair cut off while asleep. It's full of bravery and treachery and dirty tricks and sexual politics.
Here's the last verse of the book of Judges:

And that's how you get a dancing girl as a wife.

Have some fun with Scripture! Read Judges!

Ruth

I've included a few excerpts here from the USCCB site (Introduction) and the New Advent site because Ruth is a more important book with bigger implications than most people assume being it is the shortest book and also seems to just be a simple story of no great consequence. (Except that here, again, we find Orpah, this time a woman who's name begat the one worn by a familiar TV host.)

But for modern Christians, especially for those who believe all of the Pentateuchal laws must still have full force, we see through the Book of Ruth, that laws change. That even such a clear stricture as this from Deuteronomy 23:3
"Forever" seems to have only been a relatively short while as the Moabite women Ruth not only becomes a Hebrew woman, but her generations include David and, of course, Jesus.

From the USCCB Introduction:

Ruth's "salvation" was effected God even though she was not among the "chosen people." It was through her reward for that which came outside of the church that she gained entry into the church, even though old Law states neither she nor any of her descendants should ever be allowed there.

from New Advent:

Read Ruth. Its short, interesting and gives a view into the cultural practices of pre-exilic, and pre-Solomonic Israel and the evolution of the law, which everyone follows even as the book shows it has changed.



On a personal note, I'd like to point out Naomi's sacrifice at the beginning when she tries to send away her daughters-in-law when she begins the journey back. She is essentially committing suicide, as a woman alone on the road would be subject to all kinds of attacks by outlaws. She tries to save them, by freeing them of any obligation to herself. Ruth standing by her, takes the risk of death with her, showing these are both pretty heroic women. No wonder Ruth gave birth to a dynasty of kings.

hi

hi, yourself