From tomorrow's Gospel, Acts 2: 44-45

[rug]

All who believed were together and had all things in common;
they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one's need.

From God's mouth to our ears.

[theredpen]

1. Gee, they never quote that verse on Free Republic

I actually read a post there where one Freeperlamented that liberal Christians, "are always quoting the Sermon on the Mount."

Yeah, just 'cause Jesus said something doesn't mean we should keep bringing it up or anything.

[Beer Snob-50]

2. what interests me is what god is the right god

the forgiving god of the new testament (per jesus' sermons) or the vengeful god of the old testament

[skater314159]

4. That's a false dilemma.

That is something that has been used for years as propaganda against Judaism. Saying "Christian God nice, Jewish G-d bad!" is very offensive to Jews and the Jewish interpretation of the Tanakh. I find it really ironic that the people who most emphasize the "vengeful god of the old testament" are Calvinists and other fundamentalist Christians, not the Jewish people whose religious text it was first. Except for some hard-core Orthodox and Hasidic Jews , most Jews don't see the Tanakh as being the "inspired, infallible, uncorruptable word of God" like right-wing Christians do.

Furthermore, people who believe will envision God in their own image, and unfortunately, most people don't have a very good understanding of theology. Add that to a less than stellar ability to visualise or be accepting of others, and well, you get assholes creating a Supreme Asshole in their own image. Several great Rabbis and Saints have commented on this - so the making God have the same emotional issues as the person projecting does spans both the Jewish and Christian faiths. Neither has a corner on that market.

I believe that as time goes on, and people reach higher levels of awareness and are more accepting of their fellow men and women on this planet, hopefully the amount of hatred, vengefulness, and insecurity will disappear. I know that not everyone will be cool - heck, I guess the universe has an asshole quota or something, but on the whole, I think we are doing better.

For me, I always choose love and peace over mean assholes any day be they Jewish, Christian, Islamic, Atheist, Hindu, or whatever have you.

[theredpen]

5. Difference in tenor?

I understand what you're saying, but is there a (relatively short), but is there a standard (or popular) theological explanation for the difference in tenor between the OT and NT? Even if you back away from the "Christian God nice, Jewish G-d bad!" stance, there is still a difference in the way interaction with God/G-d is framed.

[skater314159]

6. Thats a good way of putting it.

I think I bristled at something that wasn't in the OP ... sorry, I got defensive. Too much time around fundies! My bad!

:hippie:

Oh, and if you are asking why there is a different tenor between OT and NT, well that relates to the socio-political organisation of the Hebrew people in the OT era versus the NT era. Basically, the OT is in the Torah a story written by tribal nomadic pastoralists, the Neviim and Ketuviim - the Prophets and Writings - are more the writing, editing, and re-editing of settled people at a state level of cultural evolution. (No, that doesn't mean that one is better than the other, it is just that they are at different developmental levels or periods.) In the tribal period, you can tell that there are differnt tribal traditions (for ex Gen 1 and 2) that are trying to be a single narriative. Another thing you can spot if you read carefully is that God had a consort at one point... but I can't explain that concisely, so I'll move on.

The world of the NT is largely cosmopolitan. Judaism had been affected by Hellenism (not Hellenic thought - the first term simply means "Greek" while the second deals specifically with the Alexandrian period of Greek conquest and cultural influence.) Any time you have a monotheistic culture interacting with a polythiestic culture in close contact, you have two main choices that people will make. Either they will become sepratistic and remove themselves totally from society to avoid being "pagan" - for example the Qumran community - or they can integrate aspects of the polytheism into their own culture through assimilaiton. While there has always been henotheism in the Jewish religion, under the influence of Greek thought and Alexandrian period social influences, you see it more clearly. (Henotheism is where monothiests worship their god and see other gods as a piece or manifestation of him given to other nations to worship.)

I think that is basically what accouts for the tonal difference. I could say more, but that's probably more than you wanted/needed to know.

:hippie:

[skater314159]

3. As as Socialist Catholic this is one of my favourite verses! n/t

[rug]

7. Amen, comrade.