I
discovered, with Renaissance images of Jesus, his family and followers. In one
respect a vast trove of Renaissance artworks inspire devotion and intensify
faith in Christianity. On another level, though, they falsify biblical history and
reinforce the divide between Christians and Jews, which has had lethal
consequences for Jews over many centuries. The falsifications were all the more
compelling because they were made subtly, by omission. What has been omitted is
Jesus' Jewish identity. You can walk through gallery after gallery in museums
around the world, as I have, and you will rarely see any evidence that Jesus
was a Jew or had any connection to Judaism or to the Middle East where he was
born and where he preached. Indeed, he is typically pictured as Northern
European in appearance, with fair skin, blond hair, and blue eyes. And you will
likely find him and his family and followers in regal attire, in palatial
Renaissance settings, surrounded by symbols of a religion -- Christianity --
that didn't exist during his lifetime. Read the complete article at -- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bernard-starr/art-can-inspire-faith-it_b_7837456.html
The witnesses, laying their coats at the feet of Saul, were the men that would cast the first stones at Stephen in Acts 7. Why did they all lay their coats at Saul’s feet? The Talmud contains a very interesting account of the act of stoning that may provide the answer. “When the trial was over, they take him [the condemned person] out to be stoned. The place of stoning was at a distance from the court, as it is said, ‘Take out the one who has cursed.’ [i] A man stands at the entrance of the court; in his hand is a signaling flag [Hebrew sudarin = sudar , ‘scarf, sweater’]. A horseman was stationed far away but within sight of him. If one [of the judges] says, ‘I have something [more] to say in his favor,’ he [the signaler] waves the sudarin , and the horseman runs and stops them [from stoning him]. Even if [the condemned person] himself says, ‘I have something to say in my favor,’ they bring him back, even four of five times, only provided that there is some substance to...
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