Sunday, March 18th, 2012
The Gospel of Mary, recovered in fragments in Greek (Papyrus Berolinensis 8502, Rylands III 463) and Coptic (BG 8502) is part of the Nag Hammadi Library (Robinson, J.M. (1990 revd. edn.) NHL, Harper Collins, pp. 523-7. Intro: K. King, tr: G. W. MacRae & R. McL. Wilson) and is generally ...
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Sunday, February 26th, 2012
It is said that Enoch ‘walked with God, and then was no more; for God took him’ (Gen. v, 24.) At some stage it became accepted that after his assumption Enoch was transformed into an angel called Metatron. And this angel was also the result of several other amalgamations and ...
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Thursday, February 23rd, 2012
The theory of Seven Heavens is derived from astrological speculation on the 7 visible regularly moving celestial objects. In the 2nd C BCE the Greeks developed the “Chaldean” order for these objects: Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, which generally replaced the older Babylonian and Egyptian orderings. These ...
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Tuesday, February 14th, 2012
Lists of early apocalyptic writings may be found in DS Russell (1964) Method and Message of Jewish Apocalyptic, London: SCM, pp 37f; C Rowland (1982) The Open Heaven, London: SPCK, p 15. Examples of the genre may be found in J. Charlesworth (ed.) (1983) OTP:1, 2. Of the works ...
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Monday, February 13th, 2012
We can discover the necessary elements of the Ascension story.
By comparison of the various particular texts in which the Ascension plotline occurs.
Take the following to be the primary documents[1]:
Dante, Commedia Divina: Paradiso;
Ibn Ishaq, Sirat rasul Allah; (ibn ...
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Sunday, February 12th, 2012
In the ascension stories of the developed religions we very often find that the progress of the protagonist and his guide is impeded at each heaven by spirits determined to test his worthiness. For example, in Bistami’s mi’raj at the First Heaven:
[H]e continued to show me dominion that would wear ...
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