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dwellordream · 3 years

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“...Livia cannot have reached Rome before late summer 39. She and her husband, Tiberius Nero, would probably have returned to their residence on the Palatine if it was still available to them. It may not have been. The Treaty of Misenum stipulated that those who had left Italy in fear for their safety would get their property back; those who, like Tiberius Nero, had been proscribed would recover only a quarter. Livia might thus have found herself in considerably reduced circumstances. Where and when she and Octavian met we have no idea, and we cannot exclude the possible irony that she might have been introduced to him through her aunt by adoption, his then-wife, Scribonia. Dio is the only source to report on how the affair began.

Octavian in 39 bc organised a lavish entertainment to celebrate the shaving of his beard (the event may have been his birthday, on September 23). Dio tells us that Octavian kept his chin smooth afterwards (although coins continue to show him bearded as late as 36). He clearly wanted to look his best because he ‘‘was already (hede) beginning to love Livia.’’ For Livia, Octavian certainly represented a good catch. There are hints that in the eyes of contemporaries she quickly recognised his interest in her and turned it to her advantage. There is evidence that Octavian was already turning to Livia for help and advice well before they were married.

Scribonia complained about her husband’s mistress—almost certainly Livia—upset not by his infatuation, a situation that Roman wives generally learned to handle, but rather by her rival’s nimiam potentiam (excessive power). Potentia is a term generally used of political rather than erotic power. Tacitus seems also to suggest that Livia may well have been active in encouraging Octavian’s attentions, when he says that Octavian took her away from her husband incertum an invitam (it is not certain that she was reluctant). But what did she have to offer him? We can certainly not dismiss the element of pure sexual attraction. Both Tacitus and Velleius speak of Livia’s beauty, forma, although such descriptions of aristocratic Roman women tend to be formulaic, and beauty in a bride may have been as much a commonplace in ancient Rome as it is today.

Tacitus asserted that Octavian was driven essentially by lust, cupidine formae, and a tradition that saw his interest as pure infatuation (amore) persisted down to the fourth century. But Livia had much more than sexual charms to offer. Certainly in his previous matches Octavian had always looked upon marriage as a means of furthering his career. He was betrothed first to Servilia, the daughter of Publius Servilius Isauricus, related by marriage to Brutus, Cassius, and Lepidus, in an engagement that was the product of a political alignment engineered by Cicero early in 43 bc. This first arrangement fell victim to the shifting political tides. When he became reconciled with Antony, to strengthen the new alliance he became engaged to Antony’s stepdaughter Claudia, the child of Fulvia (see chapter 7) and her previous husband, Publius Clodius. The marriage was postponed because of his fiancée’s youth, and the clash with Fulvia ended the arrangement.

The marriage to Scribonia followed in 40 bc. Octavian’s ties to Scribonia would similarly have been weakened when the old problems between himself and Sextus Pompeius reasserted themselves. Velleius, in fact, explicitly places the divorce from Scribonia and the fresh outbreak of hostilities with Sextus in close sequence. In fact, Livia would have seemed an ideal partner. Quite apart from any feelings of affection, she brought significant political benefits to the marriage. Octavian had considerable power. His desperate need now was for status. Although Antony’s taunt of ignobilitas might have been overstated (Octavian’s father had reached the praetorship, which would have given him a technical entrée into the nobilitas), Octavian was seen by the old nobility as something of a revolutionary parvenu, and this formidable obstacle had not yet been overcome even more than a quarter-century later, when, in 12 bc, some of the nobility declined to attend the funeral of his old friend and son-in-law Marcus Agrippa.

Ancestry was a powerful element in making a marriage advantageous. As Tacitus observed in Livia’s obituary notice, she could boast a lofty lineage (nobilitatis . . . clarissimae), and Velleius describes her father as nobilissimus. Thus she would have helped Octavian to strengthen his ties with the old distinguished families. In fact, the union would have a double advantage. It would link Octavian with the powerful and prestigious Claudii. But beyond this the connection with Livius Drusus would resonate throughout Italy and help to strengthen Octavian’s power base. It is worth noting that the names Drusus and Drusilla, both from the Livian side of the lineage, continued to be used by later generations of the family. If Livia has been correctly identified as the mistress who was the target of Scribonia’s complaints, Octavian and Livia began an affair while he was still married to Scribonia. He waited for the birth of his daughter Julia, then immediately arranged a divorce.

Livia for her part secured a divorce from Tiberius Nero in turn, and it is likely that in late September or early October, 39 bc, Octavian and Livia became betrothed. They do not seem to have proceeded immediately to the marriage, probably because by early October, Livia was six months pregnant. Tacitus and Dio say that Octavian sought the guidance of the pontiffs on the problem that the pregnancy raised for her remarriage. Both historians present this consultation in sarcastic terms, perhaps reflecting Antony’s propaganda. Tacitus says that the question was put, per ludibrium (in a farce), whether Livia, with a child conceived but not yet born, could legally wed. Dio provides the same question, and also records their answer: that if there was any doubt about the conception the marriage should be postponed, but if conception was confirmed, then the marriage could take place. Dio is sceptical about their finding this decision in the rules, but says that it was a moot point because they would have given the answer Octavian needed anyhow.

…But there was another bizarre twist to the event. In two places Tacitus retains a tradition that Livia was forcibly removed from Tiberius Nero, that she was abducta Neroni uxor (a wife abducted from Nero) and that Octavian aufert marito (carries off [Livia] from her husband). The cruel characterization of Octavian’s conduct may, again, have originated in Mark Antony’s propaganda. Tacitus and Suetonius refer to letters of Antony’s which apparently survived the triumvir’s disgrace and death. They are brimming with bitter invective against Octavian. The seeds of the story of Livia’s abduction may have been sown by a claim made by Antony that Octavian carried off (abductam) the wife of an ex-consul (unnamed) from her husband’s dining room before his very eyes and took her into the bedchamber, from where she returned with her hair in disorder and her ears glowing (rubentibus auriculis). Was she Livia? Suetonius seems to relate the hasty marriage and the case of the unidentified consular wife as two separate events. Also, Livia’s husband was not of consular rank.

…In fact, Tiberius Nero had always been prepared to bend in the political wind, even if he failed to benefit much from his compliance. Pliny describes him as Octavian’s enemy (hostis), and although this would not, strictly speaking, have been true after the amnesty, there would still have been an inevitable tension between the two men, whose mutual animosity went back to the time of Perusia. The marriage would have offered Tiberius Nero an ideal opportunity to bury his differences with the rising star of the state. Cicero described him as the kind of man who was excessively eager to show gratitude in return for a favour, and most of the ancient sources speak of him as the perfect model of the mari complaisant. This motive may well have been sweetened by another consideration. Octavian’s divorce from Scribonia and marriage to Livia would cause a rift with Sextus Pompeius; this would be to the advantage of Antony, to whom Tiberius Nero might have had a residual loyalty.

And we must also remember that he had received a personal snub from Sextus. Suetonius says that Tiberius Nero petenti Augusto concessit (gave her up to Augustus at his request). In fact, both Dio and Velleius allude to what seems to have been an active, even eager, role for Tiberius Nero in the union, Velleius repeating the same information in two different sections, that he was the one who pledged Livia. Dio says that he officiated at the ceremony, giving away his wife as a father would give up his daughter. It is possible that Antony’s propaganda might have exaggerated his willingness to comply. But there were historical parallels for such behaviour. When the great orator Hortensius persuaded Cato Uticensis, a man known for his upright attachment to principle, to divorce his wife Marcia so that he could marry her, Phillipus, her father, refused to betroth her to her new partner unless Cato joined with him in the formal ceremony. They betrothed her jointly.

Much later, Caligula compelled Memmius Regulus to betroth his ex-wife Lollia Paulina to him. Tiberius Nero’s eagerness to please did cause one embarrassing moment, when he chose to attend the feast following the betrothal. Present at the event was one of the pretty slave boys, the delicia, who were trained in clever and naughty comments and appeared naked as a regular feature at social events of the fashionable. These slaves were selected for their talkativeness, and were particularly appealing if they were impudent and adept at risqué language. Seneca notes that they were trained by special tutors in the art of abuse and observes wryly that because their vulgarity was a matter of professional expertise, what they said was considered not offensive but smart (nec has contumelias vocamus, sed argutias). The slave attending the betrothal feast seems to have lived up to expectations. When he saw Livia reclining next to Octavian, he told her that she was in the wrong place since her husband—as he pointed to Tiberius Nero—was in another part of the room. This would not have been a simple social gaffe, but a deliberately outrageous joke.

The story may, of course, be apocryphal, but it does at the very least suggest that relations between Tiberius Nero and Octavian were cordial enough for the discarded husband to have attended the celebratory feast. Some scholars associate this banquet with a notorious event from Octavian’s past, the cena dodekatheos (Feast of the Twelve Gods), recorded only by Suetonius. At this infamous festivity Octavian and his guests appeared in the guise of gods and goddesses (he took the part of Apollo). Suetonius reports that Antony attacked the escapade in his letters, naming the guests (the list is not provided), and there was also an anonymous and ribald lampoon which suggests that Octavian produced a burlesque about ‘‘novel debaucheries of the gods’’ (nova divorum . . . adulteria) ending with Jupiter falling from his throne. According to Suetonius, the scandal became the subject of common gossip, which was all the more avid because there was a severe famine in the city, leading to the jocular comment that the gods had eaten all the grain.

In 40 bc Sextus Pompeius had cut off the corn supply and there were popular disturbances; Octavian was even stoned. The Treaty of Misenum would have removed the root cause of these supply difficulties, but it would have taken a while for the problem to be totally alleviated, and there are reports of famine in the years 39, 38, and 36, any one of which might in fact have been the year of the banquet. Whatever the date, Livia would almost certainly have been one of the guests at this celebration. Following the betrothal it seems that Livia joined Octavian at his home on the Palatine. It is probably safe to assume that at this stage they were not yet married. There is, however, some confusion in the sources about the relationship of their wedding to the birth of Livia’s second son, Drusus. The information in Suetonius and Dio that Drusus came into the world after the marriage may have resulted from a confusion between the betrothal and the wedding. Antony seems to have been the source of this confusion, for he maliciously charged that the ‘‘wedding’’ was hasty (festinatas Liviae nuptias), probably in allusion to a hasty betrothal in early October following their initial meeting in September.

Early in 38 Drusus was born in Octavian’s Palatine home (intra Caesaris penates). The actual day can be deduced as January 14. The marriage took place very soon afterwards, in a year that began with a number of compelling omens. The hut of Romulus was burnt down on the Palatine during a religious ritual. The statue of Virtus fell on its face. A rumour spread that the Magna Mater was angry with the Romans, causing panic. Purification rites were carried out, and people were reassured when four palm trees sprang up near her temple on the Palatine and in the Forum. Dio reports that in the midst of these dramatic occurrences Octavian and Livia married. The Fasti Verulani record the date as January 17 (38 bc). It seems that Octavian had simply waited a brief while for Livia to recover from delivering Drusus, then proceeded straight to the wedding. Inevitably, these events led to considerable gossip about the true paternity of Drusus, and humorists coined a line in Greek, preserved in Suetonius and paraphrased by Dio, about some being lucky in having trimena paidia (children in three months).

This became a proverbial saying, and seems to have been parodied by Caligula, who married his last wife, Caesonia, when she was close to the end of her term so that he could beget a paidion triakonthemeron (a thirty day child). There was also a rumour that Octavian was Drusus’ real father, a belief no doubt encouraged by his deep sorrow on the young man’s death in 9 bc. This last particular ghost can surely be laid to rest. Livia must have conceived in late March or early April 39, before the Treaty of Misenum and the amnesty that brought her and her first husband back to Rome and into the company of Octavian. It may have been to discourage such gossip that after the birth Octavian sent the infant Drusus to his father and made an entry in the record (hypomnemata) of the fact that it was Tiberius Nero who was the father. But it should be noted that it was normal for a man marrying a pregnant woman to send the child to the natural father.

In the event Tiberius Nero does not seem to have made much, if any, political capital out of his compliance. When he died, some six years after the wedding, in 32 bc or the end of 33, he named Octavian in his will as guardian (tutor) to both his sons. In accordance with Roman tradition, his first son, Tiberius, now nine years old, delivered the funeral elegy. Tiberius Nero, Livia’s first husband, thus quitted the scene, a tired failure, the brilliant hopes of his youth unrealised. The scandal provoked by the unusual marriage continued to haunt Octavian. A decade later (29–28 bc), while he was exercising the power of censor, someone brought before him a young man who had committed adultery with a married woman but then had afterwards married the woman in question. Octavian was in a major quandary, but he dealt with it prudently. He suggested that they forget the quarrels of the past and look to the future.”

- Anthony A. Barrett, “Marriage.” in Livia: First Lady of Imperial Rome

#livia drusilla #livia first lady of imperial rome #anthony a. barrett #roman #ancient #history #octavian

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alphacenturian4 · 4 years

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Rachel Stephens doesn’t understand polemics, part two, deconstructing the key Holidays.

Christmas

Originally called Christ’s Mass also called Feast of the Nativity of Jesus Christ, Noel, & Dies Natalis.

The claim that holds water is that it was based on a Norse holiday celebrating the winter solstice on Dec 22nd. As the Christian high holy day was moved over to occur near the winter solstice as a way of glossing over the seemingly universal and beloved holiday for most Gentiles Cultures which took place on Dec. 20th. Not the 25th.

The Christian version was 1st established before AD 200, and was originally celebrated on May 20th. It was a Liberian Church tradition that included a midnight mass, it was eventually moved to Dec 25th to confirm to a custom of the Church of Anastasia in Rome, a favorite church of Constantine, which is where the Mythicist will get their Mithras connection from even though the dating and location of the celebration doesn’t line up nor connect. But the Christian celebration quickly faded into the backdrop of normal liturgical feasts and solemnities no more prominent than say the Feast of Anastasia which is also held on Dec 25th, or the Memorial of St Clement which was the holiday on the day when I was researching this. It wasn’t until 1226, when a Devotion by St Assisi made the celebration and holiday popular again.

The Local customs for the feast are usually Christianized folk tradition of whichever community happens to be celebrating the Feast. And while these folk customs can derive from pre-Christian practices, as they are not mandated nor relegated by the church, they can be anything and derive from anything, you can make up a family tradition right now and it will be just as legitimate as a Christmas tree, drinking spiked eggnog, a reading of A Christmas Carol, or a recitation of the Night Before Christmas.

Easter

Interesting there is no Pagan nor Heathen holiday that actually lines up with Easter, the closest two are either the Spring Equinox on march 21ts and the Celtic Sumer Festival on April 30th. Though the two celebrations were not related to each other, in a round about way the forced connection makes sense, as the Spring Celebration was a planting feast; and the Summer Festival was a harvest feast. But again they were not practices by the same cultural nor did they celebrate the same pantheons.

Easter is actually a Liturgical Season called Lent and Eastertide that includes the Holidays of Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and Trinity Sunday. The day itself, called colloquially Easter Sunday is an Obligation, but so is every Sunday if you really think about it. This vigil was originally an early Church Practice of the 1st century called an Illumination or a celebration of Lights; where a church would keep its candle lights on all night from midnight to early morning, commemorating the night Christ rose from the Dead.

Halloween

Originally called All Hallows Eve, it is the build up to All Saints Day on Nov 1st, and All Souls Day on Nov 2nd.

Said to be the Christianization of the Celtic, Gaelic, or Druid holiday of Samhain on Oct 31st. Which was the Celtic New Year’s Eve, on their Lunar calendar. But as the moon that signifies the Gaelic Lunar New Year would not be on a constant day and we have the Julian and Gregorian calendars this true fact does not hold as much weight as it proclaimers make it seem. Or I should say, it being a Gaelic New Year from pre-Roman times should have no more bearing on the coincidence than the Chinese New Year being on Feb 19th one year or Jan 29th some other year.

The Christian celebration of Halloween was initiated in AD 608 or 609, by Pope Boniface IV when he rededicated the Pantheon to the Blessed Virgin Mary and All Apostles latter changed to recognize all saints. Originally celebrated on May 13th. It was Pope Gregory III who in 837 changed the date of the observance to November the 1st, with the dedication of a chapel in the Vatican Basilica. But still the holiday wasn’t made popular among Catholic Christians until AD 998 when Abbot Odo of Cluny started making it a big deal. All saints day was originally a Greek Orthodox Feast but in a move of to show Ecumenical Unity it was added to the Latin Calendar as an act of solidarity. It is a commemoration of all the faithful departed, a rite in the church going back to the 1st Christians who held their Mass in Crypts and Necropoli. Sometimes saint names would be recited in litany’s of the mass.

While its Samhain connections are coincidental at best, its actual pagan connections stem from the Pantheon, a mega Temple dedicated to Athena/Minerva the Goddess of Wisdom and Patron goddess of Athens and Rome, and to the recognition of all the known Gods and Goddess built in the year 27 BC by Marcus Agrippa.

But that leave a question is the dates don’t really line up what are the dates of the Christan Holidays and what are those Holidays anyway. Jan 1st is the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God, Jan 6th is the Epiphany, Aug 1st is the Assumption/Dormition of the Blessed virgin Mary, Nov 1st is All Saints Day, Nov 2nd is All Souls day, Dec 8th is the Immaculate Conception of Mary, Dec 25th is the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ as two day holiday. And then there is Pentecost which is a moveable feast.

If we were going to have them fall on the four cardinal holidays of the pagan world we would need less holidays and we would have to include the Feast of John Baptist in the list of the major feast, which we don’t.

Other than Samhain, non of the pagan holidays line up. From Imblog to Yule, the dates, the practices, and the themes celebrated is not the same, and in fact their theology and morality are completely opposed to each other.

#Holiday #Are Holidays Pagan #Can Christians Celebrate Holidays

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ramrodd · 4 years

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Who Wrote Hebrews? (With Dr. David Alan Black)

COMMENTARY:

Theophilus wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews. His signniture is Hebrews 13.:24

Greet all your leaders and all the saints. Those from Italy send you greetings. (https://biblehub.com/hebrews/13-24.htm).

This is in the format of a standard issue, by the numbrers Roman signals message. In the modern military bureaucracy I served in as a combat leader,, we continue to employ this method. It's not foolproof but it is a whole lot easier to use than passing around scrolls of vellum inscribed with hieroglyphics. This is the Roman MI5/MI6 talking to the rest of the clandestine Roman Christian cabal inside the Preaetorian Guards. The first sentence is what would head a military signal: Distribution and has the same purpose, this pattern of distribution, that Don Romsfeld's "Snow Flakes" and Trump's tweets, except that it security status was need to knon and the Distribution list probably contained within a modern spy network cell system: nor more than X number of people had a common source which evaporated upon reading. True MISSION: Impossible stuff, Le Carre and all the rest. That is WHY these 4 gospels exist: It's a military field manual for Christianity in the same way the Torah is a military field manual for social engineering. Trotsky said that trying to transform a culture is like trying to resurrect a cemetary. Well, Genesis, Exodus, and Numbes as the application of the social theory and Deuteronomy as the initial case study of the transformed culture.

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are a case study in the recruitment, training and tuning of what amounts to a Green Beret "A" Team created to set a permanent transformation process in motion leading to humanity going boldy where there is no humanity at the moment, starting with the Moon. Apollo 11 is a direct result, epistemologically, of the relationship between the Cross and

John 15:1313Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. https://biblehub.com/john/15-13.htm

So, this is part of the internal communication of the Italian Cohort (AKA: The Centruion Cabal) that created the Holy Roman Church Hebrews is the manifesto for moving forward that the Italian Cohort distilled from all the data they had been compiling in Quelle to try and understand just what the fuck Resurrection was all about. The Romans didn't destroy Jerusalem: Judaism devoured itself. It learned the wrong lesson from Maccabbees and a millenium and a half of Karma from being bad neighbors since David collected 100 foreskins as a dowry came to a head in 70. 3 or four years after Hebrews was written.

The 13 epistles of Paul are, indeed, the 5th gospel and it would serve Christians for all Abrahamic traditions to accept that as, well, gospel. It is clear that Paul has at least read the current version of what has become The Gospel Accrording to Mark by the time he writes Galatians because of his use of εὐαγγελίου, which I propose is the Roman military signals protocol for STATUS. in

Galatians 2:5 οἷς οὐδὲ πρὸς ὥραν εἴξαμεν τῇ ὑποταγῇ, ἵνα ἡ ἀλήθεια τοῦ εὐαγγελίου διαμείνῃ πρὸς ὑμᾶς. https://biblehub.com/text/galatians/2-5.htm

Paul is extending the narrative of the Mishnah on what Jews consider a common messianic trajectory but turns out to be The Way. Because of Hillel, Judaism can rightly claim credit for the basic ethical basis of Christianity: That which is hateful to you do not to others. The problem with Hillel, as he reflects the soul of patience, is the introversion of Judaism, generally, The Golden Rule,

Matthew 12:7 In everything, then, do to others as you would have them do to you. For this is the essence of the Law and the Prophets https://biblehub.com/matthew/7-12.htm

"For this is the essence of the Law and the Prophets" is a recapitulation of Hillel's observation that "Everything else is commentary".

Christianity is Judaism transformed by the KISS principle. Judasim and Islam make the same mistake as the 18th Amendment: it is a tyranny of folly to legislate against human nature.

Paul is very rigorous to only use the Torah as the basis for his explication of the lements of Christianity embedded in the Torah. The Jesus Followers didn't know that The Way was supposed to go to Rome because Jesus never told them because I don't think Jesus, Himself, understood how it was going to work out, except that He needed to validate the God Hypothesis through a kama-kazi intervention. The wager He had with Satan was that He could take Christianity viral with Ted Talks, intellectual engagement. and a traveling medicine show like Cat Stevens and avoid all that messy drama and inconvenience of the cross.

Until the Resurrection, Christianty, as an ethical social system, was totally an inside baseball agenda for the Romans. As Luke points out in Acts 24:22, the Roman military intelligence system in Palestine had a pretty clear picture of the anthropology of Palestine the Resurrection, which the existence of Quelle demonstrates. and Festus and Eelix inherited from Pilate (although Felix doesn't seem to me aware of Quelle nor whatever connection there is between Cornelius and Theophilus. As far as I can tell, the first Emperor who became aware of the Centurion Christian Cabal since Tiberius was Constantine, with the possible exception of Claudius. The fact is, it isn't entirely clear to me if an Prefect of the Praetorian Guard was aware of Quelle after Marcus Opellius Macrinus.committed suicide. The Centruion Cabal was spread throughout the Roman legions and they probably concealed their worship by combining elements of Caesar Worship with the fellowship of Mithra,

The fact that Hebrews exists reveals the larger Jesus conspiracy inside the core of the Roman empire. The Gospel of Mark is an abstract of Quelle as an intelligence archive of the activities of Jesus. Whereever the historic present shows up in the Greek, that is raw intelligence from the Roman spy networks, an eyewitness account. A lot of the narrative of The Gospel According to Mark comes from the debriefing Cornelius conducts with Peter described in Acts 10. Acts 10:34 - 43 is the core doctrine of the Christian ethic Cornelius transmits to Rome and, as Gary Habermas points out, this doctrine forms the basis of the Apostle's Creed and appears immediately as a result of Pentacost. As you know, this baptism of the spirit happens 4 times in Acts and is consistent with the numerology of the Bible that the Holy Spirit employs throughout scripture, beginning with Genesis, the word itself.

In addition to transforming Judaism with the KISS principle, Jesus is promoting the Holy Spirit as a an element of the ontology of The One as described in Revelation 4:2. A part of my personal commission is to promote the Holy Spirit as a capitalist tool. The Holy Spirit is a divine resource for dominion over the universe, stewardship in society and the fellowship of community. He has always exeisted, but nobody was paying any constructive attention to Him until Jesus came along and made it the only unforgivable sin to deny He's there.

I've had a relationship with the Holy Spirit since I was killed in 1954 and a working relationship with him since I abandoned a military career when Jesus said to me: "I have other plans for you than a military career. Follow me and in the fullness of time. you'll end up revealing the author of the Gospel According to Mark and some other stuff having to do with high performing systems in a Free Enterprise economic ecology of American and British constitutional capitalism".

And here I am, today.

The 4 gospels describe the creation of the tools of cultural transformation and Acts is the case study of the transformation process once it's set into motion. Jesus is a test-tube baby who must die and go to seed like a Dandelion. Unlike the Dandelion, Jesus is born-again while the Green Beret "A" Team He has been training becomes the seeds of the Sower and the rushing wind of the Spirit of God blows them all over the world.

Mark 14:72 and John 11:35 are both the result of the actions of the Holy Spirit. Josephus describes a similar action of the Holy Spirit in the life of Herod Agrippa with the appearance of the 2nd owl in his life before he is eaten by worms.

I had a similar experience in Vietnam and Jesus offered a way out. And here I am, today. Why 4 Gospels? Because the Holy Ghost wants you to discover that Cornelius is the author of The Gospel According to Mark and that there is a line of ethical transfer from the Cross to Nicea that runs straight as a laser through Hebrews and the XP on the shield of the Milvian Bridge by way of the Christian Amideh: the 4 Gospels, Acts and the 13 Epistles of Paul are fulfilled by the 19th element of the meditation, Hebrews,

In the numerology of the Bible, 7 base numerology is the organizing principle of the Mythos, when humanity first began to record its existence after cave drawings and before capitalism and pyramids , the 8 base numerology of Egypt the organizing principle of the Ethos, lwhen humanity began to record its existence with symbols and the 9 base numerology of Melcizedek is the organizing principle of the Logos, when humanity began to develop a God's Eye view of the universe. 19 is the Alpha and Omega of the mind of The One and Sura 74:30 is the clearest portrait of the mind of The One in literature.

In the Beginning was the Word, but, before the Word was, Number IS.

The reason why there are 4 gospels is to describe the qualitative difference between literature and history. Narrative proceeds beyond the horizon while history recedes as debris from the here and now. As Father James points out, the narratives of the Coptic Orthodox Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church have proceeded in parallel for one thousand years because of the Holy Spirit. The history of the Church, especially the Christian apologetics defending Solo Scriptura, reflects the post-modern deconstruction of academic historical methodogy employed more or less universally in PhD programs and is Marxist in aspect. The problem Christian apologetics has with dealing with critics like Richard Carrier and Ahmed Deedat is that you are all using variations on Dialectical Materialism, which is a very acute instrument, indeed. The Jesus Seminar is an extreme example of its analytical nature, but Thomas Jefferson was trying to do something similar by cutting out all references to God in the Bible: he was trying to get at natural law or what I call process theology, my profession.

The 4 gospels are material debris from the life of the Living God and Son of Man as recorded by people who smelled His farts. The number 4 refers to the material world, as in "Mind" and "Matter". The Gospels are what Ayn Rand would call "Man Made" in that they exist on paper and contain the Metaphysical evidence of "Mind" in operation. The reason why there are 4 Gospels is because that was how the Holy Spirit guided the narrative and the mundane numerology, the literal chpater and verse numberin added a millenium after they became canon is even more magical. The Holy Spirit fairly drips out of the narrative of the Gospels and Acts. but the history can't catch it because it's magic. Magic conveys in literature: it's, at best, a conjecture in Marxist historical analysis: vote a red bead, yeah, a black bead, nay, and the opinion of scholarship in pink and grey, in between.

It makes sense that Paul's gospel is the 5th Gospel. The number 5 has to do with man qua human, archetecture and the interior line, which has a military aspect to it. .Paul presents the strutures of Shammai, the Law of Moses as harsh reality, but with the embedded aspects of Christianity extrapolated and transformed for the military audience of the Praetorian Guard. Along with the Quelle archive in Palestine, the case studies of Jesus in the Gospels, the history of the Dandelion seeds of Pentacost in Acts and the Septuagent, the result is the finding of Hebrews that launched Acts 10:34 - 43 2000 years into the future.

The Epistles of Paul have the same relationship to Hebrews that the Federalist Papers have with the US Constitution: they represent the state of the art in social engineering at the time, but the resulting dynamics have characteristics totally unanticipated in the original intent. The 19th Amendment is just one example. And, the fact is, arriving at the 19th Amendment was the original intent of the Framers in the same way the US Constitution is the original intent of the Epistles to the Romans.

Like George Smiley in La Carre's MI6, Theophilus took all this data in and, digested it and arrived at Hebrews. The important loop he closes is with Melchizedek, the Maji in Matthew and the 7 Etruscan kings from which emerges the fushion of the democratic socialism of Athens with the SPQR and the subordinate republican socialism of Sparta in the Preaetorian Guards.

Here's the thing to understand about Marx and the limits of Dialectical Materialism. Marx wanted to remove all the contradictions in society he believed money and the profit motive created, so he devised a methodology for slicing the ideal away from matter. The problem is that the contradictions he proposes to eliminate are actually paradox and the dynamics required to sustain the paradox is what keeps society resilient and progressive. Supply Side economics is an example of a paradox being devolved to dilemma and a system based on a false choice devised that denies the synergies that make it socially valuabe, if not metaphysically necessary.

Paradox does not convey, historically, only the effects.

In constrast, paradox is the leading edge of narrative, which is what Father James points out to you in comparing the Coptic narrative to the Eastern Orthodox narrative. Hebrews captures the paradox contained in the Holy of Holies like the scolls in the Arc of the Covenant and delivers it, in the fullness of time, to mankind as the final gift of the Magi.

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Roman Pantheon

Facts About the Pantheon in Rome

By Austin Cline

Once a Roman Temple, Now a Christian Church

The original Pantheon of Rome was built between 27 & 25 B.C.E., under Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. It was dedicated to 12 gods of heaven and focused on Augustus' cult. Romans believed that Romulus ascended to heaven from this spot. Agrippa's structure was destroyed in 80 and what we see is a reconstruction from 118 under emperor Hadrian. The focus of the Pantheon in Rome is above: the great eye, or oculus.

Today a Christian church, the Pantheon is the best preserved of all ancient Roman buildings and has been in near-continuous use since Hadrian’s reconstruction. From a distance the Pantheon is not as awe-inspiring as other ancient monuments — the dome appears low, not much higher than surrounding buildings. Inside, the Pantheon is among the most impressive in existence. Its inscription, M·AGRIPPA·L·F·COS·TERTIUM·FECIT, means: Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, consul for the third time, built this.

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Origin of the Pantheon in Rome

The original Pantheon of Rome was built between 27 & 25 BCE, under the consulship of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. It was dedicated to 12 gods of heaven and focused on Augustus’ cult and Romans believed that Romulus ascended to heaven from this spot. Agrippa’s structure, which was rectangular, was destroyed in 80 CE and what we see today is a reconstruction done in 118 CE under the leadership of emperor Hadrian, who even restored the original inscription on the facade.

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Architecture of the Pantheon

The identity of the architect behind the Pantheon is unknown, but most scholars attribute it to Apollodorus of Damascus. The parts of Hadrian’s Pantheon are a columned porch (eight massive granite Corinthian columns in front, two groups of four behind), an intermediate area of brick, and finally the monumental dome. The Pantheon’s dome is the largest surviving dome from antiquity; it was also the largest dome in the world until Brunelleschi’s dome on the Duomo of Florence was completed in 1436.

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The Pantheon and Roman Religion

Hadrian seems to have intended his rebuilt Pantheon to be a sort of ecumenical temple where people could worship any and all gods they wished, not just local Roman gods. This would have been keeping with Hadrian’s character — a widely traveled emperor, Hadrian admired Greek culture and respected other religions. During his reign, an increasing number of Roman subjects either didn’t worship Roman gods or worshiped them under other names, so this move made good political sense, too.

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Interior Space of the Pantheon

The Pantheon has been called a “perfect” space because the diameter of the rotunda is equal to that of its height (43m, 142ft). The purpose of this space was to suggest geometrical perfection and symmetry in the context of a perfect universe. The interior space could fit perfectly either in a cube or in a sphere. The massive interior room is designed to symbolize the heavens; the oculus or Great Eye in the room is designed to symbolize the light- and life-giving sun.

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Hadrian on the Pantheon in Rome

Hadrian wrote about the Pantheon he had reconstructed: “My intentions had been that this sanctuary of All Gods should reproduce the likeness of the terrestrial globe and of the stellar sphere...The cupola...revealed the sky through a great hole at the center, showing alternately dark and blue. This temple, both open and mysteriously enclosed, was conceived as a solar quadrant. The hours would make their round on that caisson ceiling so carefully polished by Greek artisans; the disk of daylight would rest suspended there like a shield of gold; rain would form its clear pool on the pavement below, prayers would rise like smoke toward that void where we place the gods.”

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Oculus of the Pantheon

The central point of the Pantheon is far above visitors’ heads: the great eye, or oculus, in the room. It looks small, but it’s 27 feet across and the source of all light in the building, serving as a symbol of the sun as the source of all light on Earth. Rain that comes through collects in a drain in the center of the floor; the stone and moisture keep the interior cool through the summer. Every year, on June 21st, the rays of the sun at the summer equinox shines from the oculus through the front door.

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Construction of the Pantheon

How the dome has been able to bear its own weight has been a matter of great debate — if such a structure were built today with unreinforced concrete, it would quickly collapse. The Pantheon, though, has stood for centuries. No agreed-upon answers to this mystery exist, but speculation includes both an unknown formulation for the concrete as well as spending a lot of time tamping the wet concrete to eliminate air bubbles.

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Changes in the Pantheon

Some lament the architectural incoherence in the Pantheon. We see, for example, a Greek-style colonnade on the front with a Roman-style interior space. What we see, however, is not how the Pantheon was originally constructed. One of the most significant changes was the addition of two bell towers by Bernini. Called “asses’ ears” by Romans, they were removed in 1883. In a further act of vandalism, Pope Urban VIII had the bronze ceiling of the portico melted down for St. Peter’s portico.

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Church Myths

According to Dan Brown in The Da Vinci Code, round churches became forbidden and cruciform churches the imposed standard. This was never true and the existence of the Pantheon as a round church is hard evidence of Brown’s error. The idea that round churches were forbidden seems to have been developed because several Templar churches were round — but only because they got the idea from the domed structure built by Constantine over the Tome of Christ in Jerusalem.

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The Pantheon in Rome as a Christian Church

One reason why the Pantheon has survived in such remarkable shape while other structures are gone may be the fact that Pope Boniface IVI consecrated it as a church dedicated to Mary and the Martyr Saints in 609. This is the official name which it continues to bear today and masses are still celebrated here. The Pantheon has also been used as a tomb: among those buried here are the painter Raphael, the first two kings of Italy, and first queen of Italy. Monarchists maintain a vigil at these latter tombs.

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Influence of the Pantheon in Rome on Western Architecture

As one of the best-surviving structures from ancient Rome, the influence of the Pantheon on modern architecture almost cannot be underestimated. Architects from all over Europe and America from the Renaissance through the 19th century studied it and incorporated what they learned into their own work. Echoes of the Pantheon can be found in numerous public structures: libraries, universities, Thomas Jefferson’s Rotunda, and more.

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Pantheon in Rome and Western Religion

Its possible that the Pantheon has had an impact on Western religion: the Pantheon appears to be the first temple built with general public access in mind. Temples of the ancient world were generally limited only to specific priests; the public may have taken part in religious rituals in some fashion, but mostly as observers and outside the temple. The Pantheon, however, existed for all the people, a feature which is now standard for houses of worship in all religions of the West.

https://www.learnreligions.com/pantheon-in-rome-4123024?utm_campaign=shareurlbuttons_nip&utm_medium=social&utm_source=pinterest

#Roman Pantheon

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