Revisionism in ET-Inspired Religions

2010 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Brian Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Human History ◽  
Religious Texts ◽  
The Bible

By utilizing the textual products of extraterrestrial-inspired religious thinkers like George Van Tassel, Raëël, and Patricia Cori, as well as related materials by Erich von Dääniken and Zecharia Sitchin, this article explores the concept of revisionism in ET-inspired religions. The authors examined in this article reread ancient religious texts, especially the Bible, as containing evidence of extraterrestrial influence in the course of human history. The anatomy of this "drive to revise" human history is explored, including an examination of how an improvisational millenarianism combines with a cultic milieu suspicious of authority and hegemonic narratives, and the conspiratorial intellectual maverick willing to work with "stigmatized" knowledge to produce narratives that are highly critical and suspicious of established intellectual authorities and procedures.

Le prologue du livre de Ben Sirach le Sage et la traduction des écrits sacrés

Babel ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-149
Author(s):  
Bruno Rochette
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Modern Theory ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Religious Texts ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Religious Writings ◽  
Corpus Hermeticum

Abstract Examining the prologue to the Greek Ben Sirach, this article tries to describe how the Greek translators of religious texts perceive the difficulties and the limits of their task. Conscious of the changes resulting from the passage of one language to another, they conceive their work as inspired by God. Therefore the work translated does not appear as a simple translation mechanically done, but as a new text reflecting the conception of the inspired translator whose faith is the warrant for the quality and accuracy of the translation. Two other comments on translation are taken into account : Corpus Hermeticum XVI and the Letter of Pseudo-Aristeas on the translation of the Septuagint. The examination of these texts leads to the conclusion that ancient translators of religious writings strove to show the vision of truth as they saw it in the original text to the new audience using another language. This conception of translating will be followed by Latin translators adopting, like Hieronymus, the principle of literality for the translation of the Bible, since in the Holy Scripture even the word order is mystery, as the Father says. A comparison with the modern theory and practice of translation of religious texts is also instructive for the modern translator. It can incite him to be careful of the likelihood of changing the sense of the original he is translating. Résumé En examinant le prologue de la version grecque du livre de Ben Sirach le Sage, cet article décrit comment les traducteurs grecs de textes religieux perçoivent les difficultés et les limites de leur tâche. Conscients des changements consécutifs au passage d'une langue à l'autre, ils conçoivent leur travail comme inspiré par Dieu. Par conséquent, l'oeuvre traduite n'apparaît pas comme une simple traduction, réalisée mécaniquement, mais comme un nouveau texte reflétant la conception du traducteur inspiré. Sa foi est le garant de la qualité et de l'exactitude de la traduction. Deux autres commentaires sur la traduction sont pris en compte : Corpus Hermeticum XVI et la Lettre du Pseudo-Aristée sur la Septante. L'examen de ces textes conduit à la conclusion que les traducteurs anciencs de textes religieux se sont efforcés de montrer à un public nouveau parlant une autre langue la vision de la vérité telle qu'ils la perçoivent dans le texte original. Cette manière de concevoir la traduction sera suivie par les traducteurs latins qui adoptent, comme Jérôme, le principe de littéralité pour la traduction de la Bible, car, dans l'Écriture Sainte, meme l'ordre des mots est mystère, comme le dit le Père. Une comparaison avec la théorie et la pratique moderne de la traduction de textes sacrés peut aussi etre instructive pour le traducteur d'aujourd'hui. Elle devrait l'inciter à etre attentif à la probabilité de changer le sens de l'original qu'il traduit.

Gospel Truth? Howard Brenton's Paul and the Bible

2007 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 264-271
Author(s):  
John H. Baker
Keyword(s):  
English Literature ◽  
Religious Leader ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Human History ◽  
National Theatre ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The University ◽  
University Of Manchester

In his play Paul, first staged at the National Theatre in 2005, Howard Brenton attempted a dramatic portrayal of one of the most influential and controversial figures in human history, the man many regard as the ‘founder’ of Christianity. In this article John Baker explores the complex relationship between Brenton's Paul and his Biblical counterpart, and asks what drew an avowed atheist and socialist to a dramatic consideration of a religious leader often condemned as authoritarian, anti-Semitic and misogynistic. John Baker was awarded his PhD by the University of Manchester in 1999. He currently teaches English Literature at the University of Westminster.

History of Religion as Critique of Religion?

2021 ◽  
pp. 10-30
Author(s):  
Hans Joas
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Natural History ◽  
David Hume ◽  
Religious Texts ◽  
History Of Religion ◽  
Universal History ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Literary Character ◽  
History Of

The Scottish eighteenth-century philosopher and historian David Hume can be considered a pioneer of the “natural history of religion” in the sense of a universal history of religion that is not based on theological presuppositions. This chapter offers a characterization of his methodological achievements and a reevaluation of his empirical claims concerning monotheism, polytheism, religion and tolerance. It also interprets the German reception of Hume in Herder and other eighteenth-century thinkers as a serious critical continuation that is free from Hume’s anti-Christian motives. This continuation opens the perspective of a serious study of the literary character of religious texts, in this case of the Bible. All simple contrasts between Enlightenment and religion are overcome as soon as we take this interaction of thinkers into account.

scholarly journals MEMBACA TEKS KEKERASAN DALAM YOSUA 11 DAN IMPLIKASINYA BAGI KEKERASAN ATAS NAMA AGAMA DI INDONESIA

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefanus Suheru
Keyword(s):  
Social Development ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Religious Texts ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Divine Warrior ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
The Image Of God

AbstractThis research addresses the problem of violence in the name of religion increasingly widespread in Indonesia. Ironically, the violence is getting legitimacy of scriptural texts, including the Bible. This means, that violence is not only driven by external motives such as political, economic and social development. Internal motives can also make a major contribution, even a major problem. Violence has theological roots, one of them, related to the interpretation of religious texts which, when understood literally, is able to present the figure of a violent religion. Solutions offered in this study is the reading of narratives of violence, with the text of Joshua 11 as an example, using the method of narrative analysis. The results showed that the text of Joshua 11 violence can not justify a Christian to be violent. The image of God as the Divine Warrior is ambiguous, kherem implementation that does not ignore the grace of salvation for outsiders to be insiders, and Israel's war put the violence in the name of religion in a position that is not relevant to the lives of Indonesia plural. Violence texts as core testimonies need to be matched with texts of peace as counter testimonies.AbstrakPenelitian ini membahas masalah kekerasan atas nama agama yang semakin marak di Indonesia. Ironisnya, kekerasan ini mendapatkan legitimasi dari teks-teks kitab suci, termasuk Alkitab. Hal ini berarti, kekerasan tidak hanya dipicu oleh motif-motif eksternal seperti kepentingan politik, ekonomi dan sosial.  Motif internal juga dapat memberikan kontribusi yang besar, bahkan merupakan masalah utama.  Kekerasan memiliki akar teologis, yang salah satunya, terkait dengan interpretasi teks-teks keagamaan yang ketika dipahami secara literal, mampu menghadirkan sosok agama yang penuh kekerasan. Solusi yang penulis tawarkan dalam penelitian ini adalah pembacaan narasi kekerasan, dengan teks Yosua 11 sebagai contoh, dengan menggunakan metode analisis naratif. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa teks kekerasan Yosua 11 tidak bisa dijadikan pembenaran orang Kristen untuk melakukan kekerasan. Citra Allah sebagai Divine Warrior yang ambigu, pelaksanaan kherem yang tidak menutup anugerah keselamatan bagi outsiders sehingga menjadi insiders, dan perang Israel yang bersifat kasuistik, menempatkan kekerasan atas nama agama pada posisi yang tidak relevan dengan kehidupan Indonesia yang majemuk.Teks-teks kekerasan sebagai core testimony perlu ditandingkan dengan teks-teks perdamaian sebagai counter testimony.

scholarly journals Semiotyczne ograniczenia zakresu modernizacji dawnych przekładów biblijnych

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 31-44
Author(s):  
Henryk Duda
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Specific System ◽  
Religious Texts ◽  
Natural Language Text ◽  
The Bible ◽  
System A ◽  
Religious Text ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Catholic Churches

The most important translations of the Bible into Polish, i.e. the Catholic Jakub Wujek Bible (1599) and the Protestant Gdańsk Bible (1632) were written at the end of the reformation period and were renewed and used in catholic churches and protestant communities until the first half of the 20th century. The reprints were systematically updated. In the 20th century the need to translate again the Holy Scripture into Polish was recognized. There were a few attempts at that in the second half of the previous century. They were always accompanied by heated debates which referred to the need of new translations as well the ways translators adopted to render in Polish selected books, sentences or even words. A religious text functions in a specific system of a higher level, i.e. religion. Religion is understood here as a culture text according to the Tartu-Moscow Semiotic School. Owing to this interpretation, religion has its own language built onto natural language. Text in natural language constitutes only a fragment of a bigger sign entity. To put it most simply, since a natural text is a subcomponent of a semiotic religious text, any change introduced in the former disrupts the coherence of cultural meaning on a higher level. Because of “a secondary modeling system” (a term coined by Yuri M. Lotman) the language of religious texts is always a bit archaic. This very modeling system prevents the propellers of modernization from a more thorough linguistic update of old biblical translations in Poland and, more often than not, does not let translators depart too far from the translation tradition.    Translated by Agnieszka Bryła-Cruz

Biblical Questioning

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
James A. Diamond
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Human History ◽  
Highest Good ◽  
Garden Of Eden ◽  
Book Of Job ◽  
Independent Investigation ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Biblical Narratives

Questions posed by God and biblical characters in the Hebrew Bible are often philosophically empowering moments. They transpire from the very inception of human history, according to the Bible’s own reconstructed version of it. Rather than divinely imposed law, biblical questioning is a vital tool initiating the decisive biblical way toward truth through independent investigation. Questions then recur throughout various biblical narratives, revealing the Bible’s philosophical dimension. As such, they may indicate the Bible’s conception of the essential expression of humanity, or where the Bible locates the beginning of serious thought, and how it suggests proceeding in the search for truth and the highest good. This chapter explores specific episodes where questions are posed, beginning with the Garden of Eden and ending with the book of Job.

Christian Biblical Tradition in the Jing Chinese Culture

2021 ◽  
pp. 494-510
Author(s):  
Yanrong Chen
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Culture ◽  
History Of Christianity ◽  
Religious Texts ◽  
Sacred Texts ◽  
Christianity In China ◽  
Protestant Churches ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Classical Studies ◽  
History Of ◽  
Christian Literature

Most studies of the Bible in China focus on Protestant churches starting in the nineteenth century, as a Chinese Catholic Bible was absent during the first two-hundred-year history of Christianity in China until an official edition was published in the twentieth century. In fact, despite the absence of a full translation, the Bible was rendered into a wide variety of genres corresponding to the native Chinese culture of sacred texts called jing in Chinese. This essay provides a broadened view of the Bible reception in China by presenting a range of Chinese Christian sacred texts from the late sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. These texts conveyed biblical words and messages to Chinese audiences of the time, and they creatively integrated genres from the European Church’s convention of Christian literature and the Chinese literary courses of classical studies and religious texts. This overview demonstrates major examples and organizes them according to their compositions. The diverse types form a spectrum of Chinese Christian sacred texts, in which most individual Chinese Christian works studied in this volume can find a proper place to fit.

Kādas ādas atrodam 17. gadsimta latviešu rakstu avotos

2020 ◽  
pp. 52-63
Author(s):  
Anna Frīdenberga
Keyword(s):  
17Th Century ◽  
Religious Texts ◽  
Word Group ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Unique Word ◽  
Word Writing ◽  
Free Word

In the article, the word āda, which is the entry for the Historical Dictionary of Latvian (16th–17th centuries), as well as other formatives with this word and word groups, are discussed. In the 17th century’s texts, the word āda is frequently used in two meanings – ‘skin (human or animal)’ and ‘leather’; there are also characteristic word groups with this word. Writing the Historical Dictionary, different problematic questions appear, this time mainly connected with the semantics of word groups, derivatives, or compounds. It is difficult to distinguish the free word groups from idioms, namely, to determine when the transfer of the sense has happened. In Latvian, the source of many idioms is the Bible, especially the first translation at the end of the 17th century (1685–1694) carried out by Ernst Glück. Therefore, considering Latvian texts of the 17th century, often a question appears, whether the word group is used in its direct meaning or it is an idiom, for example, āda niez ‘skin itches’, ādu dīrāt ‘to skin’, ādu noplēst ‘to rip off the skin’ etc. The word āda has some interesting derivatives and compounds in the early texts, for example, priekšāda ‘foreskin’, ādminis ‘skinner’, ādainis ‘made from leather’ etc. To discuss the semantics of words, word groups of the religious texts, a comparison with later translations of the Bible is very useful. The word āda in the 17th century’s texts is a component of such a unique word group as takas āda, meaning ‘leather of unknown animal’. To make conclusions about the name of this animal it probably would be useful to study the Bible texts in original languages.

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