Sunday, April 6, 2008

Alvine discharges...

As for Jesus being in the shit, it may seem pretty irreverent.

"And He said to them, "Are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him,
because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?" (Thus He declared all foods clean.)" (Mark 7:18-19, NASB)


The word translated here as 'eliminated' is from the Greek aphedron which is, according to Thayer's (Unitarian that he was), "the place into which alvine discharges are voided." Or, from Strong's, "a place where the human waste discharges are dumped." It's a polite way of saying latrine or, in modern parlance, the crapper. Jesus wasn't afraid to go there to make his point.

Metaphorically, if you wish, Jesus went among those who were, in the eyes of 'higher' society, including those of the Pharisaical elite, basically living in the latrine. He went among society's waste products. Jesus went into the world's shit. So there ya' go.

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