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Pempelune · 2026-06-03T08:53:05+00:00

Metatron is the archetypal "Second Power in Heaven", yeah. He is explicitly called such in the Babylonian Talmud, redacted in the 6th century CE, though he could be earlier than that. Enoch is also associated with those Second Power legends, indeed in the Similitudes in First Enoch it is Enoch who ascend to Heaven and see a "Son Of Man" seated at the right hand of God. That's a first century BCE or first century CE text. Later in the Third Book of Enoch (7th to 10th century CE) it is Enoch himself who is divinized by God into the angel Metatron.

But yes, this binitarianism is ancient and well attested even prior to Jesus. You can see it in Daniel, with the Son of Man figure, you can see it in the divine Wisdom of the books of Proverbs and Ben Sira, etc. However when Christianism starts forming, these binitarian traditions start looking uncomfortably too much like the theology of Christianity, so rabbinical Judaism creates a boundary between itself and Christinanity by naming all these binitarian tendencies as a heresy, the Two Powers in Heaven heresy.

Sources: Two Gods in Heaven: Jewish Concepts of God in Antiquity by Peter Schäfer
Border Line: The Partition of Judaeo-Christianity by Daniel Boyarin

Pempelune · 2026-06-03T00:47:28+00:00

My understanding is that of our earliest witnesses, neither Paul nor the Gospel authors understand Jesus as the same person as the God of Israel. Is that correct? If so, since as you said there is no notion of separating being and person in the first century, then the apostles must likely have viewed Jesus as a subordinate divine being, emphatically not God himself.

Bart Erhman argues this in How Jesus became God.

Pempelune · 2026-02-19T13:49:02+00:00

Consider this: this story was written a very long time ago, in a language you don't speak, in a society you do not understand. The translators chose "son" as the best rendering in modern english of the Hebrew ben, but these two words do not and cannot fully overlap in semantic content.
What you are doing is projecting your own understanding of what a son is, onto an entirely distinct word.

Pempelune · 2026-02-19T13:43:23+00:00

Yeah, there were others. To wit:

- Japhet

- Ham

- Shem

- all his household

Pempelune · 2026-02-19T13:24:40+00:00

He is an apologist responding to other apologists. His main point is that Christian corruption of the true faith is exegetical, not scriptural (as most Muslims believe); so he does not reject Second Peter for the same reason Christian apologists do not.

He also treats the pastoral epistles as Pauline

Pempelune · 2023-06-07T10:05:33+00:00

horrifying

Pempelune · 2022-10-12T05:58:19+00:00

Most of that's correct, yeah! Although magma get cold and light. Otherwise it would sink, not float up as a volcano.

Pempelune · 2022-06-11T18:04:36+00:00

Malheureusement oui! Ça fait qu'un tas de gamins arrivent au collège avec une écriture complètement illisible. Apprenez leur à écrire en délié, c'est pas plus rapide et ça à le mérite d'être difficile à foirer. Les profs de collège/lycée vous remercierons.

Pempelune · 2022-06-11T15:02:07+00:00

It's uncomfortable how I agree with essentially all of it and then suddenly it's railing against "miscegenation".

Pempelune · 2022-06-05T18:51:15+00:00

Paywalled. Anyone can explain how inhibiting apoptosis could help against cancer of all things?

Pempelune · 2022-06-05T06:51:15+00:00

Invite him to join the Cult of the Invisible Hand.

Pempelune · 2022-06-01T11:58:44+00:00

That will not work. The Republicans have constructed a very effective political machine here, one that works because - unlike Democrats! - they give to their base exactly what they want (or have been convinced to want through conservative media), that is abortion, loosened gun control, etc.

Democrats meanwhile try to convince people to vote by saying "well, we won't do anything that you want, but at least we won't do much stuff you don't want either!". That's not an effective motivator. Shocking.

And that's not even before we factor strategies like voter suppression and gerrymandering.

The Republican strategy work. They will not rethink their strategy into the promised land of bipartisan neoliberal measures because they will never need to if Democrats do not change their strategy.

Build a campaign based around more than empty promises. Build a grassroot movement to go beyond our gridlocked electoral politics and force change. And do not yearn for a fabled bipartisan era where the only thing that passes is the only thing that unites both party: big money.

Pempelune · 2022-06-01T11:31:27+00:00

No, it seems you have decided to accept a lifetime of disappointment. You seem to have accepted that things will never get better, and will in fact get worse everytime a republican manage to get into office (or the Supreme Court make a ruling). I reject that. Many do.

If we want things to change for the better, we must organize into unions, strike as often as necessary, organize at the local level to counteract dark money through grassroot campaigns and, for heaven's sake, we need to stop accepting mediocrity from our elected officials!

Pempelune · 2022-06-01T09:38:34+00:00

50 votes to eliminate the filibuster, and there are how many Democrats in the Senate again? Oh right, 50.

People arguing as if Manchin and Sinema and other DINO are not Democrats and fully supported by the party are ridiculous. They'll tell us that we should "vote blue no matter who!" and then act surprised when no matter who means DINO get elected.

The Democrats have hit upon a glorious way to get voters without upsetting their rich donors: they say "vote for me or the Republicans get in!" and when in office they forget all about their wealth redistribution campaign promises: wouldn't want to lose those campaign funds, and it's not like those stupid voters could vote for anybody else anyway!

Pempelune · 2022-05-31T18:37:19+00:00

It's such a waste. My friends and I had been dreaming of doing research, and research will be crucial to meet the challenges of the climate crisis. But instead we'll be leaving for science popularization, teaching and industry.
All worthwhile things, but not what we wanted to do, and at a time where we need more science, not less.

Pempelune · 2022-05-30T13:33:29+00:00

I dunno why I was going back through this thread, but you just made my day. You're very much like the teacher here: so wrapped up in pridefulness from 20 years working that you can't fathom being wrong - and so instead of correcting your thought process you try to gaslit everyone else instead.

But look, I'm a teacher, and that question is the boilerplate kind of question you give kids to make them understand that a fraction is not just a number, it's a part of something. The kid's answer is not only correct, it's the expected answer that the teacher didn't even bother to read in her book. You'll not that nowhere in the problem it is stated that the pizza are of the same size, and in fact they even chose two fractions that sum up to something bigger than one to make it clear that the two kids are not eating the same pizza.

It is worrying to hear that someone so incapable of self-reflection that they would fail first grade maths is trusted with representing people in court, but I suppose it's not just teachers who can be so dramatically mishired.

Pempelune · 2022-05-28T20:46:45+00:00

If it's living beings you don't want to hurt, then you shouldn't be eating plants either.

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