Imagine you're visiting Jerusalem around the year 30. You're trying to get the attention of a very charismatic Jewish preacher in the crowd, so you hop off your donkey and shout, “Jesus!”
He probably wouldn't turn around.
The man Christians today call "Jesus" probably knew himself as Yeshua. His mother was Mariam or Maryam. Joseph was Yosef. Peter began life as Shim'on. James was Ya'akov. John was Yohanan.
In other words, none of these people were "white" and they most certainly did not have Western names.
People living in ancient Judea did not sort themselves into modern American racial categories, so trying to decide whether Jesus checked a hypothetical “white” box gets anachronistic very quickly. But the people at the center of the New Testament were Jews from the eastern Mediterranean, not Europeans.
You don't have to believe Jesus was the Son of God to accept that much. Christian claims about his divinity, miracles and resurrection are matters of faith. The existence of the man himself is much less controversial among historians. Bart Ehrman, an agnostic New Testament scholar, has indicated Jesus' existence is accepted by “virtually every scholar of antiquity” working in the relevant fields. The historical consensus is that a Jewish teacher named Yeshua did indeed live in the first century, he did make quite a stir, and he was eventually executed by Roman authorities.
But back to our initial question... how did Yeshua and his friends end up with names like Jesus, Peter, James and John?
The answer takes us through Greek scribes, Latin Bibles, medieval translators and several centuries of Europeans making the biblical world more linguistically familiar to themselves.
Nobody recorded these people speaking, so the pronunciations below are scholarly reconstructions. First-century Judea was also multilingual, meaning the same person might encounter different forms of their name in Aramaic and Greek.
Jesus Was Yeshua
It's strange to think about the fact that while Jesus Christ is quite probably the most famous human being of all time, very few people are aware that "Jesus Christ" wasn't his name.
Yeshua, a shortened form of Yehoshua, was a common name in Jewish communities at the time. Greek did not have all the sounds necessary to reproduce it exactly, so the Greek writers of the New Testament rendered it Iēsous. As their writings were translated into Latin, it became Iesus. Centuries later, as J developed into a distinct letter, English arrived at the familiar spelling and voilà: Jesus. Scholars of biblical languages reconstruct the pronunciation of his actual, earlier name roughly as yeh-SHOO-ah.
Here's the fun part: Jesus and Joshua are essentially the same name.
The Joshua who leads the Israelites into the Promised Land is Yehoshua, with Yeshua also appearing as a shortened form of his name. In Greek, both Joshua and Jesus become Iēsous. The King James Bible even exposes the connection in Hebrews 4:8, where it calls the Old Testament Joshua “Jesus.” Modern English translations use “Joshua” there so readers know which Iēsous is being discussed.
And so yes, had the transliteration of his name followed even a slightly different path, Christians may very well today be worshipping "Josh".
And in case it needed clarifying, Christ wasn't Jesus' last name. The Greek Christos means “anointed one,” translating the Hebrew mashiach, which comes into English as Messiah. In the Hebrew Bible, kings and priests could be anointed with oil to mark them for a sacred role. Over time, “Messiah” also came to describe an expected future ruler or redeemer, though Jewish ideas about exactly who or what that figure would be varied considerably. So “Jesus Christ” isn't a first name followed by a surname. It is closer to “Yeshua the Anointed One."
In fact, modern inherited surnames generally weren't how people in Jesus' world identified themselves. One name was often enough. When it wasn't, people could add their father, hometown or another identifying detail. That's why the New Testament gives us “Jesus of Nazareth” and “Jesus son of Joseph,” while Peter is called Simon bar-Jona, meaning Simon son of Jonah.
Jesus of Nazareth wasn't "Mr. Nazareth" or "Mr. Christ" any more than Leonardo da Vinci was "Mr. da Vinci" or Anne of Green Gables was "Ms. Green Gables."
Meet Mariam, Yosef and Shim'on
Jesus' immediate family would sound different too. His mother's name was probably Mariam or Maryam, while Joseph was Yosef. These were both extremely common Jewish names at the time.
Then there is Peter.
Peter began as Shim'on, or Simon, one of the most common Jewish male names of the period. The Gospels say it was Jesus who gave him another name: Kepha, an Aramaic word for rock or stone. The Greeks translated that into Petros, which eventually became Peter.
So one of Christianity's most imposing names, traditionally regarded by Catholics as the first pope, is actually a nickname.
Linguistically speaking, that means the first pope was Simon “The Rock.”
Dwayne Johnson showed up to reheat those nachos roughly 1,900 years too late.
James Wasn't James
Of all the biblical name distortions, James may be the strangest case.
If you could shout across a first-century Jerusalem street for “James,” the apostle probably wouldn't know you were trying to talk to him, either. In fact, his actual name was Ya'akov, roughly yah-ah-KOV.
This underlying name is the same one that would later become "Jacob". Greek rendered it Iakōbos, and after centuries of changes through Latin and French, English inherited the form James. English Bibles therefore call the Genesis patriarch Jacob but the New Testament apostles James, even though if you back up far enough both names came from the same source.
Biblical scholar Mark Wilson puts the problem more colorfully: “How did the Jewish name Ya'akov become so Gentilized as James?”
Wilson describes leading an international Bible study with participants from the Netherlands, Iran, Mexico, Moldova and Cameroon. He asked them what their Bibles called the New Testament men English speakers know as James.
Every group answered some version of Jacob.
English is the odd one out.
That changes more than pronunciation. “James, the brother of Jesus” sounds like two thoroughly familiar Western names. Ya'akov, the brother of Yeshua makes their Middle Eastern setting much harder to forget.
So Who Changed Everyone's Names?
You might be quick to point your finger at King James. However, he has an alibi.
One popular explanation claims that the translators of the King James Bible turned "Jacob" into "James" specifically to flatter the monarch. It makes a wonderfully tidy story, but the chronology kills it.
The late-14th-century Wycliffite Bible (the earliest complete translation of the Bible into English) already called the New Testament figure "James". It is traditionally associated with English theologian John Wycliffe and his followers. And importantly, it wasn't translated directly from Hebrew and Greek... its source was the Latin Vulgate, a Latin-language Bible produced in the late fourth century and used throughout Western Christianity for centuries.
So James was already James in English more than 200 years before King James was even born.
And to clarify, there was no singular meeting in which a powerful cabal of European Christians decided that Yeshua, Ya'akov and Yohanan needed more "respectable" Western names.
The process happened in stages. Hebrew and Aramaic names entered Greek. Greek forms entered Latin Christian tradition. European languages then inherited and reshaped those forms again. By the time English Bibles developed, centuries of linguistic wear had already taken place. It was essentially a 1,000-year-long game of Telephone that got us where we are today.
Paul Really Was Paul... Kinda
Paul presents the opposite problem. Christians sometimes learn that Saul became Paul when he converted, as though Jesus issued him a new Christian name. In fact, Acts never says that. It simply introduces “Saul, who was also called Paul.” Saul, or Sha'ul, was his Jewish name; Paulus was his Roman one. A Jewish Roman citizen could bear both a Jewish and a Roman name.
Andrew and Philip complicate things further. Those are themselves Greek names, and we don't have secret Hebrew originals waiting to be recovered. Jews living in the first-century eastern Mediterranean could have realistically had Greek names themselves, as the region had spent centuries in contact with Greek language and culture.
First-century Judea was not culturally sealed off; languages, empires and identities regularly intermingled there.
From Yeshua to White Jesus
Christianity became a global religion partly because people translated its texts and names into languages they actually spoke. But even innocent linguistic evolution can still shape the pictures we carry in our heads.
Historian Joan Taylor opens her book What Did Jesus Look Like? by observing that almost everyone can picture Jesus, usually as a handsome white man with flowing hair. Her investigation of first-century Jewish remains, texts, clothing and archaeology reaches a very different picture: he was almost certainly a Middle Eastern man with dark hair, brown eyes and darker, olive-brown skin.
Art historian Anna Swartwood House is less delicate about how the Western image developed. She describes a “long tradition of white Europeans creating and disseminating pictures of Christ made in their own image.”
Putting the Middle Eastern Jesus back into that picture doesn't require Christians to abandon the European art, English names or translations they inherited... it simply reverses the direction of imagination for a moment. Instead of making Yeshua look and sound like a white guy, try to imagine what he and the people around him looked and sounded like before 2,000 years of cultural distortion.
That simple mental exercise could be much more impactful than you realize. Psychologists Simon Howard and Samuel Sommers found in controlled experiments that exposing white participants to images of a white Jesus increased anti-Black attitudes compared with showing them a darker-skinned Jesus. In another experiment, Black participants shown a white Jesus expressed stronger pro-white attitudes and greater devaluation of their own racial group. Howard argues that such imagery can reinforce associations between “whiteness with superiority and Blackness with inferiority.”
There is no evidence that simply hanging a browner portrait of Jesus on the wall will completely cure Islamophobia... but the contradiction is difficult to ignore. Some Western Christians have learned to associate Middle Eastern features with foreignness, Islam, or even threat. All the while, they are worshipping a first-century Middle Eastern Jew whose more common Westernized image has been stripped of many of those same visual cues.
Leonardo's The Last Supper invites viewers into an Italian villa full of European-looking men sitting in chairs on one side of a long rectangular table (a totally normal way to eat with your friends!). English Scripture labels them Jesus, Peter, James, John, Judas, etc.
If we could travel back in time to see the real last supper, we would likely have seen Yeshua seated on a mat on the floor around shared dishes with his buddies Shim'on, Ya'akov, Yohanan and Yehudah.
Does translating biblical names into familiar forms make Scripture more accessible, or has that familiarity made it too easy to forget who the people in it actually were?
What happens to our prejudices when we realize that the face at the center of Christianity wasn't a white one?
71 comments
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Christopher Hart
FALSE PROPHECIES & THE TETRAGRAMMATON WERE ADDED BY KABBALISTIC RABBIS .... The Tetragrammaton is the Talmudic Kabbalistic sorcery name of the 72 names of god (their god satan/ lucifer, NOT THE GOD OF ABRAHAM) The Tetragrammaton is where the names of YAHWEH, YHVH, YESHUAH, YESHUA-METATRON, YAH, El SHADDAI, EL, etc... come from. THESE NAMES WERE NOT USED IN THE 285 B.C. " Old Testament," which Jesus Christ and his Apostles quote in our New Testament. Talmudic Rabbis altered the 285 B.C. Septuagint LXX into the blasphemous Masoretic text, which they completed in 1008 AD. Not only did they remove the quotes of Jesus (like making the blind see), but they also planted false prophecies to include the return of a remnant of jew people to a location, "Israel," in the end times. This false prophecy was not in the MUCH older Septuagint LXX from 285 BC, which is the text Jesus and the Apostles quote in the New Testament. Also, the Rabbis removed the names of Josedec and his son, Jesus the high priest, from Jeremiah 23:5-6. (See Ben Born Again) Jesus is the new covenant; to say otherwise is heresy. Rabbis removed key words like Zachariah 6:11-12 in the LXX: "Josedec's son Jesus the high priest, rebuilds the House of the lord, and is crowned with gold and silver and called 'The Branch '." 521 BC-515 BC In the revised Masoretic text, the book of Jeremiah is about 1/8 longer than the ancient Septuagint. The Kabbalistic rabbis inserted 12 new verses at the end of Jeremiah 33. The manufactured false prophecy of Isreals future restoration is Jeremiah 33:14-26 which do not appear in the oldest translation of scriptures, the ancient Greek old testament Septuagint lxx which was translated over 1000 years before the Rabbis wrote their revised scripture called the Masoretic text Hebrew old testament. See the original reading of Jeremiah 33 contained in chapter 40 of the LXX, Brenton English translation. Hebrew was a lost language hundreds of years before Jesus Christ came. The vast majority of people in the world spoke Greek, and the Hebrew of that time spoke Aramaic, known by that time as the Hebrew tongue (and Greek) Judeans were never called jews; they were called Judeans. If you read the Bible, when you see the word Jew, replace it with Judeans, and you will begin to see the truth. Jesus Christ was a Judean, and the inscription put on the cross read Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Judeans. Don't mistake today's Jews for Judeans. This is almost word-for-word quotes; you can examine these FACTS yourself in visual form on the Ben Born Again yt channel, and in written form in the Brenton English translation Septuagint LXX. Update: Ben Born Again was removed by yt over telling the truth, but he has resubmitted parts of his videos, and the full version can be found on Rum, .. ble. Fyi... isNOTreal doesn't allow DNA testing for obvious reasons. Also, the modern Hebrew, which was only created after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, is a completely different language using Yiddish, Aramaic, and German. It is a language of fallen angels, in my opinion, and has nothing in common with ancient Paleo-Hebrew. The New Covenant is truth; they tell us it is replacement theology. That's a lie. GOD HAS NO NAME; Jesus ' name has never been Yeshuah. The TETRAGRAMMATON is Talmudic Kabbalistic sorcery where you'll find the names YHVH, YAY, YEHSHUAH, YESHUAH-METATRON, JEHOVAH, etc.... Please look into the demonic teaching of the 70 names of god in the Tetragrammaton, and look for YouTube video interviews of the book called Kabbalah Secrets Christians Need to Know by Deanne Loper.
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Christopher Hart
Jesus Christ was a Judean, and the inscription put on the cross read Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Judeans. Don't mistake today's Jews for Judeans. This is almost word-for-word quotes; you can examine these FACTS yourself in visual form on the Ben Born Again yt channel, and in written form in the Brenton English translation of the Septuagint LXX. Update: Ben Born Again was removed by yt over telling the truth, but he has resubmitted parts of his videos, and the full version can be found on Rum, .. ble. Fyi... isNOTreal doesn't allow DNA testing for obvious reasons. Also, the modern Hebrew, which was only created after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, is a completely different language using Yiddish, Aramaic, and German. It is a language of fallen angels, in my opinion, and has nothing in common with ancient Paleo-Hebrew. The New Covenant is truth; they tell us it is replacement theology. That's a lie. GOD HAS NO NAME; Jesus ' name has never been Yeshuah. The TETRAGRAMMATON is Talmudic Kabbalistic sorcery where you'll find the names YHVH, YAY, YEHSHUAH, YESHUAH-METATRON, JEHOVAH, etc.... Please look into the demonic teaching of the 70 names of god in the Tetragrammaton, and look for YouTube video interviews of the book called Kabbalah Secrets Christians Need to Know by Deanne Loper. (YHWH: יְהֹוָה). When you see a five-letter spelling (יהשוה) with the Hebrew letter Shin (ש) inserted into the middle, it represents the Pentagrammaton. This specific five-letter variation originated in Renaissance occultism during the 16th century. Christian esoterics and mystics derived this name (often transliterated as Yahshuah The essential idea of the pentagrammaton is of an alphabetic consonantal framework Y-H-Sh-W-H, which can be supplied with vowels in various ways. (Also, the "W" can be converted into a "U" or "V", The first ones to use the name of Jesus something like "Yahshuah" were Renaissance occultists. In the second half of the 16th century, when knowledge of Biblical Hebrew first began to spread among a significant number of Christians, certain esoterically minded or occultistic circles came up with the idea of deriving the Hebrew name of Jesus by adding the Hebrew letter shinש into the middle of the Tetragrammaton divine name yod-he-waw-he יהוה to produce the form yod-he-shin-waw-he יהשוה. This was given a basic Latintransliteration JHSVH or IHSVH or IHSUH (since there was no letter "W" or sh / [š] sound in Latin, and "I" and "J" were then not yet clearly distinguished as letters of the alphabet, nor were "U" and "V"). This could not then be supplied with vowels for pronounceability. By coincidence, the first three letters of this transcription IHSVH, etc. were identical with the old original ihvh jhvh,or yhvh or yhwh ! Hebrew does not have standalone letters for "v" or "w" like the English alphabet. Instead, it uses a single letter called Vav (ו), which has shifted in pronunciation over time Hebrew speakers do not have a natural "w" sound, they recreate it Modern Hebrew has no standardized way to distinguish orthographically between [v] and [w]. occultist works, this pentagrammaton (or five-letter divine name) was frequently arranged around a mystic pentagram, where each of the five Hebrew letters י ה ש ו ה was placed at one of the points (the letter shin ש was always placed at the upward-pointing vertex of the pentagram). who added the shin ש? The idea of the pentagrammaton was funneled into modern occultism by 19th-century French writer Eliphas Levi and the influential late 19th-century Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The Golden Dawn favored the consonantal transcription IHShVH or YHShVH, and the pronunciation yahushua! The letters yod-shin-vav-`ayin. yeshu yod-hey-vav-hey God Joshua (יְהוֹשֻׁעַ, Yəhōšūaʿ), found 218 times in the Hebrew Bible, in the absence of the consonant he (ה) and placement of the semivowel vav (ו) after, not before, the consonant shin (ש). It also differs from the Hebrew spelling Yeshu (ישו) which is found in the Ben-Yehuda Dictionary and used in most secular contexts in Modern Hebrew to refer to Jesus, although the Hebrew spelling is Yēšūaʿ (ישוע). case closed Jesus is His Name! Who added the shin? https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19VT57MCbe/
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James P. Digan
It is so true, most of us only see what is inside the box what we want to see, but we all need to look outside the box and see what is truly there. Most will never make the jump!!!!
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Joseph Grieco
Jesus - Yeheshua bar Yosef (or bar Miriam, if you prefer). Peter - Shimon bar Yonah, called Cephas (Aramaic for Rock) Andrew - Andreas bar Yonah John - Yuan bar Zebidee James the Greater - Yakob bar Zebidee Philip - Phillipos - a Hellenic Jew. Bartholomew - Nathanael bar Tolomi Thomas - Yehuda T'omi Matthew - Mattai Levi James the Just - Yacob bar Yosef Jude - Yehuda bar Yacob Simon Zelotes - Shimon al Canaan
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Anita Rogers
You will required to work to get your social security that you paid into. You have already followed the process but now get a job. I retired a year ago. I was so broken down by that time I spent most of the first 2 weeks in bed. I had a horrible time trying to get my benefits. To get part 2:of Medicaid was worse. The thing is I would have been willing to stay and work part-time but a department has changed and pardon me she was crazy. She made the work environment unlivable.
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TrudieJ
The Islamophobia throw-away section: I picture an Islamic doing what the Qur'an expects them to do as being of any race. Some white red-heads are quite dangerous ones too.
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Anita Rogers
Did you know that not being too see someone through a lens of a stereotype isn't a good thing?
Did you realize there are plenty of Christians in Egypt of Egyptian heritage?
Do you see others in stereotype beliefs? Just asking not condemning.
I would never put God/Jesus in a box limiting him or anyone else as far as this is concerned. God is bigger than any box you could have.
I would pray on that. I am praying for you.
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Shawn L. Rhodes
Jesus will always be the great one. There only one God. He created heaven and earth
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Roy S. Thorpe
Man warps everything to his liking or acceptance! He has done since the beginning of time! The old expression lipstick on a pig comes to mind! Every facet of life must conform to his liking! That is why there so many religions! You don't like that religion, change it to fit your lifestyle. Man is very ego centric so the world must conform to him or he will modify it someway! Unfortunately we have those among us that want to impress their thinking upon us, sometimes by force! Love,peace, harmony, and understanding was the message! Live it!
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Roy S. Thorpe
Man warps everything to his liking or acceptance! He has done since the beginning of time! The old expression lipstick on a pig comes to mind! Every facet of life must conform to his liking! That is why there so many religions! You don't like that religion, change it to fit your lifestyle. Man is very ego centric so the world must conform to him or he will modify it someway! Unfortunately we have those among us that want to impress their thinking upon us, sometimes by force! Love,peace, harmony, and understanding was the message! Live it!
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Ronald Feathers
Here in Turkey, Isa is the accepted name for Jesus. Near the southern town of Adana is a very well known group of breakfast and other establishments known as KaraIsa (Black Jesus).
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Michael Anderson
AMEN! I love this... Based in truth!
Yeshua came to preach the Father's Word, not His own. He was not starting a new religion, but preaching the foundation already laid from the beginning. Yeshua means 'Yah is Salvation'—Yeshua is Yah manifested in the flesh.
When He put Abraham into a deep sleep in Genesis 15, Yahovah alone walked through the cut pieces. In that ancient Near Eastern covenant practice, both parties walked through to state: 'If I break my covenant, may I be cut up like these animals.' Because Yahovah passed through ALONE, He was declaring that HE would personally bear the death penalty if man failed to keep the covenant.
Fast-forward to Yeshua dying on the stake for man's transgressions: Yahovah took on mortal flesh to bear that exact covenant death for us, bringing animal sacrifices to their ultimate fulfillment. We no longer offer animals for transgression; we repent of our lawlessness, turn back to His ways, and seek forgiveness through Yeshua the Messiah.
Yeshua even identified Himself as Yahovah when He said, 'Before Abraham was, I AM.' (John 8:58). As gentiles, we were meant to be GRAFTED into the olive tree of Israel (Romans 11), not create a separate tree. When you follow the Hebrew Messiah of the Hebrew Scriptures, you are joining the Commonwealth of Israel to inherit the eternal life promised. Blessed are those who do His commandments! (Rev. 22:14).
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Allen W. Sanderson
I have at least a half dozen different translations of the bible on my bookshelf, along with twice as many studies and arguements... & none of them match word for word... I've also been collecting electronic copies of illuminated manuscripts, the Dead Sea scrolls, and a great deal of the apocrophal Gnostic books... Old Coptic, latin, etc.... Careful comparision, in my opinion, is the only way to find what was likely said & done in actual events.
We follow a religion that no-one can agree on aside from a few basic 'facts'. We all follow our faith in different ways, all the while expecting to end up at the same finish lines...
So much strife through history over something that has absolutely no genuine proof... Just our faith in some soothsayer, quoted and misquoted thousands of years ago...
I have Morman friends that truly believe the angel Moroni dictated the Book of Mormon to John Smith while he stared at a rock in his hat. Or found golden plates under a tree. Ot had visions while using his seeing stone... & this all came to be in 'modern times', despite our growing scientific knoweledge at the time...
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Ari Joseph Bertine
What a bizarre concept, translating names. Names are powerful; they are the first way that someone is designated and defined, and the shape those sounds make will evoke them for as long as that name belongs to them. The utter hubris involved in changing the way a name is said, just because the original language is unfamiliar, is stunning. We humans truly think everything needs to be convenient for us. And what an admission of intellectual failure that one would have to change the sounds in a name in otder to say it, or remember it, or feel comfortable with it. This goes on the "ruined by stupid people" list along with the "do not use while sleeping" labels on hair dryers.
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Patricia Ann Gross
Ari,
People change names all the time, most notably women change their surnames when they marry. Also, many people use "nicknames," and right now with the issue of rounding up illegal immigrants including many who are fully vetted and documented, causes people to prefer "Joe" to "Jose" and "Peter" to "Pedro." It is part of the assimilation process. I totally understand and agree with your point that by doing so somehow changes one's identity, as the name is an integral part of who we are. If someone asks you, "Who you are?" your first response is likely, "My name is Ari," but to many they want to peacefully assimilate. One of the maintenence guys at my building goes by Alex, and I am pretty sure his name is really Allejandro. Yes it is a human thing, and yes it is cultural, but that doesn't make it any more bizarre than it makes it normal..
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ServantOfJudgement
A very interesting read and well written.
The biblical names in the English bible occurred via translation. The English name John for example appeared strictly from the translation of the Hebrew name into English. It did not exist unil the knowledge of Jesus Christ existed in English. Therefore, John and Jesus weren't created in the image of English, rather John, James and Jesus were created in the image of Hebrew.
Christian friends, avoid falling prey to the lust of the antichrists who seek to discredit the Bible. Absolutely investigate any claim against the Bible and let your faith strengthen as you discover the truth.
The Bible is a very unusual and unique book. A message directly from the Creator to You.
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James Riggle-Johnson
This is what I love about evangelical Christians' certainty. They don’t care about facts. Jesus must be white because we say he is. They’ve only seen pictures of him as white, and anything else is evil. When or if the day comes and they actually meet him, I think they’ll be surprised by a great many things.
I also believe that if the real Jesus actually returned today, those same people would crucify him again, calling him a liar.
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Rev. Carol M Anaski-Figurski
That's a very good article on the perspectives of what Jesus would look like & what his name & the followers would be. very good. Blest Be amen.
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Rev. Miche'al Yosef Dixon
As a child in the synagogue learning scripture in its original Aramaic-Hebrew form and also taught the culture behind the text to put what is said in context. The physical appearance of the people were secondary as I'm both Jewish and native American and by public opinion "white". 99% of modern Jews are not seen as Jewish. DNA can't tell the difference only when you test the Genetics can you pin point where someone come from. Native Americans for example are Jewish from Judea region now called Isreal. Proving the Book Of Mormon correct. But because their skin is darker it was assumed they came from Asia. Which technically the archeological data is proven correct as the ships that carried the People in The Book Of Mormons here left the Asian coast around modern Shanghai.
As to Yeshua's name, "Whould not a Rose by any other Name smell as sweet?". And have thorns in his brow all the same. As to those doubts of existence, that's never been a true issue. As Vatican has the Roman cenus records Proving Yeshua existed Born April17, 30th year of Augustus Ceasar, and married Miriam of Bethany on our calendar 27AD before the April cenus. The same Miriam wife of Yeshua gave birth to a girl named Sarah. Miriam has a temple dedicated to her in Spain just south French boarder, the Spanish Royal family line traces their blood line to her. These are facts backed by historical data, science and Scripture. But we still don't have a DNA sample from Yeshua Ha'Messiah and the shroud of Turin proven it's Lamb/Sheep blood not human and the weave is thousand years newer than from 28AD. (Not 32AD). Greogoian calendar is 4 years off. And if you want to get picky about names "Saul" is the Romanized version in Hebrew "She'al" is the word translated as "Hell" ie lateral "grave" or "tomb".
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Rev Ned
If He showed up today, ICE would probably kill him.
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Rev. Kev
I agree.
Unfortunately, some folks are not connected to reality and don't realize that the stormtroopers have swept up and unalived people who live here legally -- including citizens -- for simply being nearby or peacefully exercising their right of free speech. Blissfully unaware that, in situations where instructions were not followed, no officer has the right to pull a weapon and cause fatalities.
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Sir Lionheart
Not at all, but if he had entered the US illegally he would be subject to deportation for breaking our immigration laws. I’m sure we have already deported many with the name of Jesus anyway. 🤭
🦁❤️
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Douglas Robert Spindler
If ICE were to shoot Jesus it would be because he was resisting and not cooperating with law enforcement officers orders. Even God’s word in the Bible tells Jesus and us in Romans 13 to to obey the laws of the governing authorities. Very unchristian not to obey the laws. And you have to be pretty stupid to argue with a person with a gun and a badge.
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Anita Rogers
I realize this floats until a different article but since you brought it up...imagine you were the person on the the hand cuffed side. You are beginning arrested, you will just disappear from your family, you didn't get the same rights as other criminals such as one phone call to tell your family where you are, to say goodbye, to tell them you love them, you know this will panic your children. You have filled the paperwork with the government for asylum and are waiting for your court date, just trying to work a job to support your family and it's not like you have gotten any benefits so no one can say you stole anything. Would you resist arrest? Would you say ok deport me to whatever country you decide (we already know it might not be your country of origin).
Did you realize a big reason that these other countries are taking our detainees is that they are getting paid. Those countries are getting American money to do this?
I idea you would have Jesus arrested as he is presenting a sermon of peace and love is mystifying. Your distain for immigrants are unchristian. Did you forget Jesus talked about how to treat the foreigner. You have put the law of man before the word of Christ. Which is the most important? Wouldn't that be worshipping another God? Yes we have deported others for a long time now but they have gotten m back to their original countries. They were treated with more respect that than that. We didn't arrest people with pending asylum dates. Or temporary citizens or permanent citizens. They would have been given a date, time to make arrangements, and gather their family.
I realize we can't help everybody but 10+ years before they are citizens is too long. May you wake up to the words of Christ echoing to you... Welcome the foreigner.
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Colleen McAllister
A good article but there is no news here. Anyone who reads and studies the Bible knows all of this.
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Rev. BH
So then, Colleen, what does the bible tell us Jesus looked like? (the actual concern of this article) I missed that part.
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Dr. Zerpersande, NSC
Supernan was known Clark. Same concept.
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Sir Lionheart
I am sure there were many uneducated illiterate people back in the day willing to accept and believe anything they were told from very charismatic people, just as there are today. Look how many people today enjoy watching Benny Hinn wafting his white jacket around at the audience (loving followers) with people fainting caused by yet another human construct the “Holy Spirit”. Joel Osteen is another that people are totally taken in by. Is it any wonder people accept scam artists over the phone when someone calls and tells them they have won the lottery and their credit card number is needed to deposit the cash? 🤷
This is a great article, and it’s very possible that Jesus, Yeshua, or whatever, (assuming he was real), looked nothing like the angelic figure people like to think he was. I guess we’ll never know, unless you are one of those that I mentioned above who will be thinking otherwise, and will be thinking I am going to go to a human constructed place called Hell contrived around 725 AD, years afterwards these said events. 🤭
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Dr. Zerpersande, NSC
“I am sure there were many uneducated illiterate people back in the day willing to accept and believe anything they were told from (a) very charismatic…” fat guy with orange hair …” wafting his overlong red tie around at the audience (loving followers) with people fainting caused by yet another human construct “MAGA”.
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Sir Lionheart
You might be right, there could have possibly been charismatic people of that description back in the times of Jesus. I doubt they wore ties though, but who knows? 🤷
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Patricia Ann Gross
Sir LH,
Just like there are many who do the very same thing today. People who will likely vote, because even though the first two promises of "rebates" on the "cost savings" of DOGE and the windfalls of tariffs never materialized, third time's a charm! Am I right? Actually it amazes me that people might fall for this because when they don't, he's got a built in excuse for why it didn't happen this time. Otherwise, it's just his third lie regarding the "rebates" or "dividends." If you believe that a $5000 check will be in the mail shortly after the election if the Repubs maintain the majority of both houses, I've got a beautiful waterfall in Arizona I'm willing to sell you.
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Sir Lionheart
It’s actually more in my interest to renounce my citizenship and become an illegal alien here in California. I will get free healthcare, education, housing, mortgage relief, and basically anything else I want, all paid for by your taxes. I think that will be a lot better than the $5000 check. 🤭
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Rev. BH
Give it a shot, Lion. Then report back here as to how it all worked out.
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Sir Lionheart
I’m very tempted, but it would be just my luck for ICE to locate me and correctly send me back to the Islamic State of Great Britain. ☪️
My love for this country🇺🇸 is too strong anyway to even seriously consider it, and I’m enjoying watching our country become great again. I hope you are as excited as I am BH and Patricia.
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Rev. BH
Yeah, Lion if things get any "greater" I'll need to come out of retirement.
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Sir Lionheart
Now that’s a funny comment. 😂
But I know what you mean, I almost did that when Biden was in office with his record high inflation, but I was saved at the last minute when I became unburdened by what had been. 🤭
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Rev. BH
Nothing funny about it, Lion. The economy is disastrous. Even MAGA truck drivers and farmers are rethinking their votes. Anyone on a modest income buying two bags of groceries. Heating oil or the rent? Get real.
And another "whataboutBiden" comment. Tiresome. Anxiously await your reply + childish emojis - used to signify wit?.
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Sir Lionheart
Try not to get too upset BH, we are not even half way into correcting the fraudulent waste and financial corruption and mismanagement from our tax dollars of the past. This effort is massive and takes time. The beauty is that we have 2 more wonderful years to put things right. I’m so looking forward to it, aren’t you?
Sorry if you struggle with my light-hearted emojis. You wouldn’t by any chance be one of those that gets really upset if people get their pronouns wrong would you? If you are I’ll try and be more sensitive to your emotional needs.
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Patricia Ann Gross
Sir LH,
To add to the previous statement, I forgot to include, he sighed a record number of executive orders on Day One that were supposed to put the reversal in motion, namely DOGE, which was a huge bust and only proved to disrupt the entire government by laying off all the workers who were keeping us safe in this country, namely gutting the DHS and putting an anti-vaxer in charge to the point we cannot trust anything coming out of the CDC any more. Rebates he promised never happened, inflation is still up. If you are in better shape than you were before he took office this time, it is only because you have at least a billion dollars in the bank or in investments you are sitting on. If you don't have that, you are as deranged and dillusional as you are accusing everyone else of being. --silly emojis to show I can have a sense of humor--
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Sir Lionheart
There are several different claims here Patricia that shouldn’t be lumped together as established facts.
For example, the “no tax on tips” and “no tax on overtime” provisions are real and are now being administered by the IRS. Qualified tipped workers can deduct up to $25,000 in tips, and qualified overtime has a deduction of up to $12,500 for individuals or $25,000 for joint filers, subject to income limits. Seniors 65+ also received a new deduction of up to $6,000 per person. Those aren’t promises—they are enacted tax provisions.
On inflation, “inflation is still up” is technically true, but it’s an incomplete statement. The latest BLS figures show CPI was 3.4% higher in August 2026 than a year earlier. That tells us prices are still rising; it doesn’t by itself establish who caused the increase or whether someone’s personal financial situation is better or worse.
Likewise, calling DOGE a “huge bust” is an opinion, not a measurable fact. There were substantial federal workforce reductions—GAO reports nearly 378,000 separations from 22 major agencies during 2025—but that’s very different from proving that “all the workers keeping us safe” were laid off.
And saying that nobody is better off unless they have a billion dollars in the bank isn’t an economic argument at all. It’s an unsupported generalization about hundreds of millions of individual financial circumstances.
It’s perfectly reasonable to criticize Trump’s policies. But criticism is much more convincing when we distinguish documented facts from opinions, predictions and sweeping claims.
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Patricia Ann Gross
Sir LH,
Gutted DHS and the Result: 1) Per the CDC, the outbreak of more than 3,900 measles cases in 2026 exceeds the total of all of 2025, and the first time since 1991 that it has exceeded 3,000 in one year. 2) Also according to the CDC, over 12,000 cases of cyclospora, a strange parasite that infested lettuce (interestingly the source was Mexico, not inspected properly since there are not enough USDA inspectors, by Taylor Farms, a company that contributed heavily to djt's campaign). 3) Uncontained outbreaks of foodpoisoning (Salmonilla, Listera, eColi and others) likely due to loss of inspectors in the USDA and FDA.
Yes he hit the ground running Day 1 on immigration reform and uncontrolled ICE raids disrupted farm harvests leaving crops rotting in fields, contributing to food spoilage and requiring imports which cannot be punctually or adequately inspected due to the afore mentioned gutting of the USDA inspectors.. https://www.newsweek.com/ice-immigration-raids-farms-crops-rotting-2092749
Gutting FEMA: NC is still waiting on relief, and djt (supposedly kidding) threatening to withold it unless they put his lacky in office in November. (BTW, he may have just been kidding, but to people who have been waiting on it, it certainly wasn't funny.) For a source on that, check your Newsbreaks for the past 3 days, you'll likely find it there.
Do we even have to talk about the disaster in the department of whatever it is called now, whose Secretary that is more concerned with image than running a war that has been declared a human rights violation by the Geneva Convention and brought up for impeachment, only to have the Speaker shut down and send everybody home so it can't come up for a vote. (also check your newsbreak feeds)
These are not opinions, but documented facts.
I just paid $30 for 6-1/2 gallons of gas which is more than I spent for 9-10 gallons a year ago. Fact, not opinion.
Am I glad he came through with some tax breaks for hardworking servers and those who get overtime, but what about for us who are paying the 100 percent tarrifs (yes, you read that right) on stuff imported from Europe. I just received a bill from Fed-Ex (the listed importer) for a textbook I got from the Netherlands for $19.20 on a book with a declared value of 15 Euros (about $17.17 USD). The Tarrif rebates will go to Fex-Ex (the importer) not me, and I won't hold my breath waiting for Fed-Ex to send me a refund. djt is so enamored with tariffs that he forgets that its the consumer who pays for it. It amounts to a 100 percent "sales tax" on top of any other taxes we already pay for it. Fact, not opinion.
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Sir Lionheart
I don’t think it’s accurate to dismiss all of this as “opinion,” but I also don’t think every conclusion you’ve drawn from the facts has been established.
For example, the measles numbers are real. The CDC reported 3,294 confirmed cases through September 10, 2026, compared with 2,289 for all of 2025. That’s a significant increase. But the CDC does not attribute that increase to the Trump administration or DHS cuts. It reports that 95% of the 2026 cases were outbreak-associated and that MMR vaccination coverage among kindergarteners had fallen to 92.4%. Those are relevant facts when discussing why measles has increased.
Likewise, the Cyclospora outbreak is absolutely real. The CDC ultimately reported 12,883 illnesses, 570 hospitalizations and two deaths, and traced the outbreak to iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms de Mexico. But this actually demonstrates that FDA, CDC and state authorities were investigating, tracing and recalling contaminated food. The FDA even conducted inspections and sampling in Mexico. So the outbreak itself is a fact; saying it happened because the Trump administration “didn’t inspect properly” requires evidence that hasn’t been demonstrated.
There were also real reductions in USDA food-safety staffing. USDA’s own 2026 documents say FSIS reduced its staffing from 8,303 to 8,000 positions. That’s worth debating. But again, that’s different from demonstrating that those reductions caused the Salmonella, Listeria or E. coli outbreaks being discussed.
The FEMA statement is another example where the underlying fact is real but the interpretation matters. Trump did say in North Carolina that additional FEMA money wouldn’t be sent if his endorsed Senate candidate lost, and then immediately said he was “only kidding.” That’s a legitimate thing to criticize or discuss. But saying that he actually intended to withhold the money is an interpretation of the remark, not an established fact.
And I’d question the tariff example particularly. A European textbook isn’t automatically subject to a 100% U.S. tariff. The U.S.-EU framework generally provides for a 15% combined tariff rate for EU goods, with product-specific exceptions. Your $30 FedEx bill may well contain import duties and fees, but we’d need to see the customs classification and breakdown before concluding that you personally paid a 100% European tariff.
I wish we were paying $4.60 a gallon here in Blue California. We are paying over $6 a gallon due to the ridiculous taxes imposed on us by Gavin Newsom. Hopefully the situation with Iran will be over soon so that the world can feel safer, and gas prices can be reduced.
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Patricia Ann Gross
I commented on this a bit further down. Don't have the energy to do this again.
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Patricia Ann Gross
Sir LH,
But you forget he promised it would all reverse on day One!!!! We are now 19 months in, and in worse shape than before he took office. I am also considering coming out of retirement, but I have a sick husband that need care that would interfere with me restarting, or starting a new career. My "nest egg" is not going to last me the 20 more years, if my family history is any prophecy, I can expect to live
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Sir Lionheart
Yes, I doubt he realized just how big of a problem he inherited, but hang in there, I’m confident all will be corrected for you to enjoy your nest egg.
My sincere best wishes to you and your husband. May his health see a serious improvement as soon as possible.
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Patricia Ann Gross
Sir LH,
This is the same condescending stuff you have been spewing for the past two years, and nothing has materialized yet. First it was when he finally took office and were convinced by his "Day One" promises, then it was "soon." Now it is "we have two more years ... because ..." Never mind, because I don't expect you to ever admit he was a complete failure as a politition, a president, and as a human being.
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Sir Lionheart
I’m sorry you see it this way, Patricia. Let me try and highlight just a few things he has done so far:
- Border and immigration enforcement
This is probably the clearest area in which the administration can point to a dramatic measurable change.
- Illegal crossings at the southern border fell extraordinarily sharply after January 2025.
- CBP reported only 8,725 Border Patrol encounters between ports of entry in May 2025, down 93% from May 2024.
- The administration ended the Biden-era categorical parole programs and CBP One asylum appointment system.
- It reinstated much more aggressive detention/removal policies.
- It expanded ICE and Border Patrol staffing and funding through subsequent legislation.
- The administration secured passage of the Laken Riley Act, requiring detention of certain noncitizens arrested for specified crimes.
- The administration designated several major drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
- FactCheck.org, while not endorsing the administration’s broader claims, confirms that border apprehensions remained historically low: approximately 85,000 southwest-border apprehensions during the first 12 months of the second Trump term, nearly 92% below the comparable Biden-period figure.
- The One Big Beautiful Bill Act
This is the administration’s biggest conventional legislative accomplishment.
Signed July 4, 2025, it:
- extended/modified the 2017 Trump tax cuts;
- created deductions for tips and overtime;
- created a deduction for certain Social Security income;
- increased the Child Tax Credit;
- created Trump Accounts for children;
- provided major additional funding for border enforcement;
- increased defense spending;
- funded the Golden Dome missile-defense program;
- increased domestic-energy incentives;
- changed Medicaid eligibility and financing;
- increased immigration-enforcement funding.
- Deregulation and energy production
The administration has made a major shift in federal energy and regulatory policy.
Among the significant actions:
- expanded oil and gas leasing;
- accelerated permitting;
- reversed numerous Biden-era climate regulations;
- withdrew from or reduced federal support for several clean-energy initiatives;
- increased emphasis on LNG exports;
- promoted nuclear power and conventional energy;
- launched a broad government-wide deregulation program.
- Manufacturing and investment
There has also been a substantial effort to encourage domestic manufacturing.
The administration has:
- used tariffs as leverage to encourage domestic production;
- negotiated investment commitments from foreign companies;
- encouraged semiconductor, automobile, steel, pharmaceutical and other manufacturing investment;
- promoted reshoring of production;
- expanded defense-industrial-base investment.
- Crime and law enforcement
There is another interesting measurable development here.
The FBI’s 2025 figures showed:
- violent crime down 9.3%;
- murder down 18.1%;
- robbery down 18.5%;
- aggravated assault down 7.2%;
- property crime down 12.4%.
- Military and defense policy
The administration has made substantial changes to defense policy:
- significantly increased defense spending;
- emphasized military readiness and recruitment;
- expanded investment in the defense-industrial base;
- increased emphasis on missile defense;
- established the Golden Dome program;
- reversed many Pentagon DEI policies;
- increased emphasis on conventional military capability and munitions production.
- Foreign-policy and diplomatic achievements.
There have been genuine diplomatic accomplishments, including:
- negotiations involving the Israel-Hamas conflict;
- hostage releases;
- ceasefire arrangements;
- diplomatic involvement in conflicts involving Armenia/Azerbaijan, Rwanda/DRC and Thailand/Cambodia;
- increased pressure on Iran and removed their nuclear facility.
- the Venezuela operation against Nicolás Maduro;
- a substantial effort to force negotiations over Ukraine.
- Trade policy
He has fundamentally changed American trade policy.
His administration has:
- imposed substantial tariffs;
- negotiated new trade agreements;
- used tariffs as leverage against China and other trading partners;
- pursued reciprocal tariff arrangements;
- attempted to encourage domestic manufacturing and reduce dependence on foreign supply chains.
- Social-policy changes
The administration has also made a very substantial change in federal policy concerning:
- DEI programs;
- federal gender-policy rules;
- transgender participation in women’s sports;
- federal funding relating to gender-transition procedures for minors;
- federal contracting and hiring requirements;
- education policy.
I could go on if you’d like me to. Please let me know how much you think Biden/Harris did in their first 2 years. I await your reply.
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Patricia Ann Gross
Sir LH,
Rather than trying to address each one, I will just make a statement and be done with you, because trying to get you to look at facts and see that millions of people are hurting right now is falling on deaf ears. You even admit that your prices are much higher than they were a couple of years ago, but choose to blame them on Gavin Newsom while in the same breath saying you hope that the Iran War is over soon so things can get back to normal. On this one point we agree.
You obviously do not depend on a fixed income that barely puts you above the poverty line, with threats that it will go away within the next 5-10 years, when there is one simple fix to the problem: Remove the cap on the SSA tax. Make the people making billions of dollars pay their fair share. Many of them will cap by mid-year, some earlier than that. If they paid the tax all year, like the rest of us, Social Security will stay solvent into the next century. Repubs refuse to see that.
Immigration, well, all I can say on that is, he did what he promised. You know where I stand on his methods, so we won't go there.
OBBB, don't get me started. He put some of the most disadvantaged at risk of losing healthcare and gave tax breaks to the rich, all while shutting the government down because he would refuse to sign it in pieces. Democrats didn't have the numbers to defeat the bill, and there was no compromise by the Repubs, so there you have it. A windfall for those who didn't need it, and more expenses for those who couldn't afford them.
You are an obvious climate change denier and clean energy opponent, so I won't even go there.
You also know where I stand on tariffs, and that you dispute my claims on the one I just paid, I take offense to. Taxes and fees on it was 15 euros, the rest of it was the shipping cost. I did not misinterpret the invoice, and I don't like the insinuation that I would lie about that.
I won't go into the rest of it because we can argue all day about crime, the war, the military, trade policy, and DEI. What you stated here only reveals who you are and what you stand for. I can't waste any more time or energy on it.
You don't have any more chance of convincing me that djt has redeeming qualities than I have of convincing you he is one dispicable human being, if you could even call him human. Thank you for the sparring event. I'm signing off.
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Rev. BH
Lion, rather try to be more sensitive to us all with adult discourse.
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Sir Lionheart
I will do my best, but sadly there are some amongst us that are extremely sensitive so its difficult to please everyone, so I try to lighten my responses in the hope it just might bring a smile to their day.
Thank you for your concern though.
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Anita Rogers
I am sure you are aware right now that there is a truckers strike luming. Oct 1st many truckers will not be bringing our groceries, hygiene supplies, other cookware like spatulas and cleaning supplies.
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Anita Rogers
That inflation was directly contributed by the prior government that fired the scientists that try to foresee disease. The administration that could move their monies into areas of health and services to profit from COVID. The administration that didn't increase the local supplies of PPE esp n95 masks. The administration that had was to stay away from shopping for groceries or being the workers ringing out the purchases of people that were symptomatic yet with COVID. We lost a lot of grocery clerks and others who were essential workers. Than is what Biden administration had to deal with. The greed over the cost of toilet paper and other necessities that should have been started Nov 2019. No, that administration knew they were gone and that president would not easily be re-elected again. That is where that inflation came from sir. Now we have a mad man behind the desk spending on Gold leaf to put on his office, on statues, and spending tax dollars instead of having programs to help autistic children, feed families, provide for those it with tornadoes and hurricanes.
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Patricia Ann Gross
Sir LH,
What Rev. BH said.
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Nicole Corrado
The Holy Spirit is Ruach HaKodesh and She is the feminine aspect of Adonai.
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Sir Lionheart
Thank you so much for explaining this human construct. It’s amazing the incredible array of words that mankind has created in the name of religion, isn’t it?
The Mormon faith has created some wonderful names of people in their religion. The Angel Moroni is just one of them.
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Nicholas J Page
How does anyone know what Jesus looked like I have always believed him to be white Dark long hair and a matching beard.Its no use to anyone of thinking Jesus could be this figure or that figure unless you have a positive proof no one alive has seen him so we just assume he is what he is.
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Rev. BH
Nicholas, as the article states, the image of Jesus was based on the physical type typical of countrymen of the time, Israel, 6 to 4 BC and to about. AD 30 and 36. Carpenter, fisherman. Probably not a lot of pasty-faced, blue-eyed white European guys looking ascetic working under a hot sun all day.
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Therese M. Boehlert
Agree, no way was Jesus a blonde haired, blue eyed, pasty-face man, and he likely did not have long, flowing hair as well as other men of that time.
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Douglas Robert Spindler
As with all art, what Jesus looked like in the eye of the artist. Same for Santa Clause, God, Easter Bunny and Leprechauns. Just like the Bible it’s all made up.
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ServantOfJudgement
Nicholas,
If you study the events directly surrounding jesus, you'll find that what you said to be a glaring truth. It's very possible that Jesus literally appeared differently to each human being. Even Judas no longer recognized him in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Very interesting indeed!
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Jimmy Moon
HE was still the LORD of LORDS and the KING of KINGS.And HE still is and always will be.
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Robert James Ruhnke
Not even then, Moon. He never wanted to be romes new god mascot. That was Paul’s doing after the fact. Your imperial creed of a religion is a disgusting farce of what Yeshua of Galilee preached about.
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Jimmy Moon
I pray you get saved before death comes. On that day you will know HE is the LORD of LORDS and the KING of KINGS. Maranatha.
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Rev. BH
Anything else on your mind, Jimmy?
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Jimmy Moon
All the lost are on my mind everyday.
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Sir Lionheart
That’s really nice of you Mr Moon. Yes, please keep praying for those Democrats. We are all hoping they eventually find their way out of the troubled mindset they are in. I’m hopeful they can make it, but there are many so deeply entrenched into their ideology that I doubt anyone can help them, but we can do our best to be pleasant to them and show them some love. Judging by their deep enmity many of them are in need of it.
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Anita Rogers
Sir we Democrats are heavily into doing the work of Jesus. We fed the poor, we want to take care of the sick and welcome the foreigner. I will appreciate all prayers to keep us strong. I am hoping that one day we can put our better thoughts together and follow Jesus together. One side is not better than another. We all have false thinking, each side of this political circus. It would be nice if Jesus would come back and straighten all of us out and we're we all have gone a stray. Let him give us the information/interpretation we all have gotten wrong.
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Sir Lionheart
I agree with much of what you’re saying about the importance of helping people who are hungry, sick, poor, or otherwise in need. But I think there’s an important distinction between Jesus teaching us how we should treat other human beings and a particular political party claiming that its policies are therefore the Christian ones.
Helping the poor, caring for the sick and treating foreigners humanely are not exclusively Democratic values. Conservatives, liberals, Christians, atheists and people of many other beliefs can—and do—believe strongly in those things. The disagreement is often over how we accomplish them: through government programs, private charity, churches, communities, families, individual responsibility, or some combination of those.
I also agree with you that neither political side has a monopoly on wisdom or virtue. If Jesus actually returned, I suspect both parties would discover that they had rather a lot of explaining to do! 😂
As for Jesus coming back to straighten us all out, I suppose that would settle the argument—but until then, we’re left with the same human problem: trying to interpret an ancient collection of writings and then deciding how those principles should apply to a complicated modern society.
So I’m perfectly happy to agree that compassion, charity and treating people with dignity are worthwhile principles. I just don’t think we should automatically attach the label “doing the work of Jesus” to one political party.
Thank you for your respectful comment. 🤗
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Dr Dennis Chevalier PhD, DDvin
Amen 🙏
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Douglas Robert Spindler
Yes, just like Joseph Smith.
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The more I read these comments the more I'm saddened by the state of the world. We disagree way more than we agree and that's amplified across all spectrums. In the age of misinformation people have embraced attacking each other over finding common ground and seeking truth. Us vs. them is still the number one belief, the only one the majority practices. Divisiveness is the major world religion.