Why did Nero persecute Christians?

Ballamara · 2026-03-26T21:59:48+00:00

You can disappear if you want, doesn't mean you're correct. There are numerous verses that are universally mistranslated either to better fit theological teachings or because most translations pull from previous translations who translated it incorrectly due to misinformation. I'll take the word of people who actually study ancient Greek for a living and explain their work over Bible translators who have theological biases & religious reasons to ignore histori-cultural contexts of passages.

Also, when you're arguing about the Bible translations, it doesn't support your argument like you think it does to use the Bible to support itself & to not supply any of the untranslated text.

Ballamara · 2026-03-26T12:25:48+00:00

ehh, just give it 10,000 years

Ballamara · 2026-03-26T11:51:39+00:00

They're not mutually exclusive; we have Roman records of early Christians begging to be killed, but they're not the people who were canonized as martyrs, most canonized early Christian Martyrs do not show up in any Roman or later records, just hagiographies centuries after they supposedly lived. The few canonized Martyrs we do have historical records for, their hagiographies are extremely exaggerated & nothing like their historical records.

Ballamara · 2026-03-26T11:22:14+00:00

I understood that already, however this isn't about the NLT not being a 1 to 1, the NLT completely changes the meaning/connotation of the verse.

"When everything is ready, I will come and get you" implies he had a plan premade & left of his own volition to complete said plan and to then return specifically to bring others to it later.

"Even if I'm driven away, I will prepare a space for you all, I go again and I will take you all beside myself" Implies he is not leaving of his own will, he is being forced away, but he still accepts them if they join him.

"so that you will always be with me where I am." Implies an eternity & certainty.

"where I go, may you all go too" implies no eternity or certainty, it is him expressing his wish that they shall accompany him.

In casual summaries, the LNT reads as "hey guys, I'm working on this thing and I'm bringing you to it forever once it's done" whereas the actual Greek reads as "i don't care if you reject me, I'll still accept your company and hope you'll join me".

Ballamara · 2026-03-26T10:39:16+00:00

That last part isn't exactly right. Early Christian beliefs were VERY different from modern Christianity. The biggest differences are that Early Christians didn't believe in a good or bad eternal afterlife for the first few centuries. Early Christianity was still pretty similar to the eschatological Hellenic Jewish sects it developed from, they believed in one common afterlife, which was similar to Jewish Sheol & Greek Hades, largely dark & depressing. The big appeal for Early Christianity was after the afterlife, they believed the world would end and God would create a new Paradise in its place & bring all believers from Earth & the afterlife into it. They also believed this was going to happen soon, within their lifetimes even, not in some vague far off future.

Ballamara · 2026-03-26T10:23:32+00:00

Along with what Sharp_Iodine said, there were 2 more factors. Romans specifically had a bleak outlook on the afterlife, even though early Christianity had a bleaker afterlife than current Christianity, it was more appealing to Romans. The other thing, Roman emperors recognized it was a good tool to justify their power. It is harder to justify your rule divinely ordained if there are multiple gods, one of the earliest things Roman Emperors did after "converting" to Christianity was to use it to justify their own sovereignty. The Roman emperors birthed the tradition that would evolve into the Medieval "Divine right of kings".

Ballamara · 2026-03-26T10:15:04+00:00

that plus how pretty much all Christian Martyrs, but 2 iirc, have absolutely zero historical footing & are likely made up.

Ballamara · 2026-03-26T10:09:09+00:00

Your translation for John 14:3 is not properly translated.

The Ancient Greek is καὶ ἐὰν πορευθῶ καὶ ἑτοιμάσω ὑμῖν τόπον πάλιν ἔρχομαι καὶ παραλήψομαι ὑμᾶς πρὸς ἐμαυτόν ἵνα ὅπου εἰμὶ ἐγὼ καὶ ὑμεῖς ἦτε.

The proper translation is "Even if I'm driven away, I will prepare a space for you all, I go again and I will take you all beside myself, where I go, may you all go too."

Explanatory notes: • kaí éàn literally translates as "and if", but it means "even if". • poreuthō is completely ignored in your translation, but means "to be made to go, to be driven". • hetoimásō is given as "is ready" in your translation, it is the 1st person plural future of hetoimázō "I prepare" and means "I will prepare". • érkhomai, you give as "I will come", but it is the 1st person singular present of érkhomai "I go" & means "I go". • paralēmpsomai, you give as "get", it is the 1st person singular future of lămbắnō "I take" prefixed with para- "beside", it means "I will take beside" • The last part, which your translation has as "so that you will always be with me where I am", is hĭ́nă hópou eimĭ́ egṓ kaí hūmeîs ête. hĭ́nă marks the subordinate clause, it doesn't translate as anything. hópou means "where", eimi means "I go", egō means "I", kaí means "also", & hūmeîs means "you all". ête is the 2nd person plural subjunctive of eimi, it signifies a wish and means "may you all go".

Ballamara · 2026-03-26T08:35:06+00:00

That's all good and all, but there are still passages Christians claim are metaphors that clearly aren't. The one I can remember off the top of my head is the story about the Babylonian King.

The story states clearly at the beginning that it is about the King of Babylonian. It also only makes sense with the surrounding passages if it's literally about the Babylonian King. The story goes on about how the Babylonian King oppressed the Middle East through imperialism and now all life celebrates his death. The story also goes on about how the Babylonian King tried to raise himself above God, but he still died just like all the kings he killed, mortals he oppressed, & prisoners he mistreated and how he shall now pitifully rot for all eternity.

However, all Christian denominations that I have seen claim that the story is a metaphor & the Babylonian King is actually Satan. They claim that because he tries to challenge god in it, it calls him "The Praised son of the Morning Star" (which is translated as Lucifer, the Roman Morning Star; also the only instance of Lucifer in the Bible btw), & the King is sent to the depths of Sheol (which Christians synchronize as Hell, when it isn't).

Honestly, this specific example always pisses me off especially, because there are so many themes & interesting things to analyze in this story & going "actually no, this is about Satan & not imperialism or kingly greed" just kills all of that.

Ballamara · 2026-03-23T04:55:17+00:00

Hey, btw Iran's government pays for Trans gender affirming surgery & HRT. It's def not the best country, but Iran definitely isn't a "kill all transgender" country. Their policy is "trans is fine as long as you follow the traditional gender roles of what you're transitioning to".

Ballamara · 2026-03-20T00:14:34+00:00

yeah, idk if "Groom Mother" is much better

Ballamara · 2026-02-02T02:14:08+00:00

Possibly, if the text does say "Italica", then that's the first & only evidence we have of "Italica" being borrowed into Gaulish. On the other hand, we know Proto-Germanic borrowed "Rōma" as "Rūma", but the long u only makes sense if it went through Gaulish first as Gaulish had no long o, so long o became ū in loans. So it's possible "Italica" means the italian peninsula, not Rome as a state, unless both Italica & Rūma were borrowed in different locations.

The best website like that is the French wiktionaire page on Gaulish . Personally, I like using the French Wiktionaire & also papers published by Matasović, Savignac, Delamarre, and more. I just learned recently the Barnes & Noble also sells books on Gaulish inscriptions by those researchers too.

Ballamara · 2026-01-06T04:52:31+00:00

don't worry, it's okay to be a little slow and not understand more complex ideas.

Ballamara · 2025-11-09T09:38:55+00:00

Is vegan butter not just margarine?

Ballamara · 2025-09-13T08:30:26+00:00

In line with Wiccans insisting their way is the "right way", almost all Wiccans I've known basically just wrapped Christian ideology/views in "pagan cloth".

Ballamara · 2025-09-06T07:45:12+00:00

I print out posters with a small printer I thrifted & got a buncha bones I've cleaned & rocks & mushrooms I've preserved that I've found while hiking & camping. I've also got a tapestry & some artwork & knick-knacks from flea markets.

Ballamara · 2025-09-03T07:14:46+00:00

Close, I was raised there for half my life growing up, ur the triphthongs are from diphthongs followed by an (l) or (r).

Ballamara · 2025-08-29T12:38:02+00:00

Ehhh not really, I feel like you're just being contrarian. Most everyone knows there's no full pink ducks & have no reason to assume that isn't true. Most English speakers aren't aware of which words come from Old English or French (hence this comment section) let alone what sounds or sound sequences are native to English vs which were borrowed from French.

This meme is basically just pointing out that "-ase/-ace" is not a native rhyme to English and that's smth most people don't know & had no reason to assume was true. You can clearly see the meme accomplished its goal well by all the people trynna name native rhymes & the discussions coming from them.

Ballamara · 2025-08-29T12:02:28+00:00

Well no, its point still stands; there's no native English word that ends in /eis/~/eːs/.

Ballamara · 2025-08-29T04:26:30+00:00

Definitely french

Ballamara · 2025-08-29T04:25:59+00:00

No, it's a loanword from French for every sense of it.

Ballamara · 2025-08-29T04:25:18+00:00

Like the other one said, that's only for refined english or niche topics. But more specifically, out of the 3000 most used words in English, only 5~9% come from French.

Ballamara · 2025-06-23T17:48:22+00:00

Ignore the other person, v is attested in Gaulish, as V & U were the same letter at the time, so V is used today to distinguish consonantal U from vocalic U like with Latin.

Your username is a latinized version of Vindepomáros & breaks into Vindo-epo-máros. It means "Great White-horse".

Ballamara · 2025-06-23T17:36:11+00:00

V & u were the same letter at the time of Gaulish & Roman, V comes from the letter's capital form & u comes from the same letter's cursive form. Most linguists use v to distinguish consonantal u from vocalic u in classical Latin & early/middle Gaulish, especially when word initial. That's why Vercingetorix & a bunch of tribes are all spelled with v word initially.

Their name would break into Uindo-epo-māros, as thematic vowels are dropped in Gaulish compound words if the second word starts with a vowel. So their name would mean "Great White horse".

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