Has anyone here actually read The Scriptures?

[Michal__]

2 hours ago, Ziran said:

You'll need the original language for that.  Gen 1:1, Psalms 1:1, and John 1:1 are reflexive, self propagating, palindromes.  This is explicitly referred to in the Sefer Yetzirah, the book of formation:  "The end is firmly wedged in the beginning, and the beginning is firmly wedged in the end." 

Thanks for the tip. I'll check it out.

[Atb210201]

7 hours ago, Ziran said:

... I have.  I'm a religious studies student working towards Rabbinic Ordination and a PHD.

Wow amazing good to have you here then.

7 hours ago, Ziran said:

It's a big task.  But, having a command of the scriptures of the 'Big 3' western religions is a potent tool for making peace.

This is why I want to read them all as well.

7 hours ago, Ziran said:

FWIW, If you're reading a translation, I recommend "The Sublime Quran" translated by Dr. Laleh Bakhtiar.  You can read about it here:  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laleh_Bakhtiar#The_Sublime_Quran_(2007)
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/254089621_The_Sublime_Quran_The_misinterpretation_of_Chapter_4_Verse_34

Thank you sir.

[Atb210201]

7 hours ago, Ziran said:

https://archive.org/details/interlinear-greek-english-new-testament-1981/mode/2up

Thank you very much.

[Ziran]

6 hours ago, Michal__ said:

Thanks for the tip. I'll check it out.

You're very welcome.  For the Book of Formation, I recommend Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan's ( OBM ) annotated translation:  https://archive.org/details/seferyetzirah00arye

1 hour ago, Atb210201 said:

Wow amazing good to have you here then.

  Likewise

9 hours ago, Ziran said:

having a command of the scriptures of the 'Big 3' western religions is a potent tool for making peace.

1 hour ago, Atb210201 said:

This is why I want to read them all as well.

Deuteronomy 23:8-9
לא־תתעב אדמי כי אחיך הוא לא־תתעב מצרי כי־גר היית בארצו׃
You shall not loathe an Edomite; for he is your brother; you shall not loathe an Egyptian; because you were a stranger in his land.

בנים אשר־יולדו להם דור שלישי יבא להם בקהל יהוה׃
The children who are fathered by them shall enter into the congregation of the Lord in their third generation.

Quran Surah 3:113-115
 لَيْسُوا۟ سَوَآءً ۗ مِّنْ أَهْلِ ٱلْكِتَـٰبِ أُمَّةٌ قَآئِمَةٌ يَتْلُونَ ءَايَـٰتِ ٱللَّهِ ءَانَآءَ ٱلَّيْلِ وَهُمْ يَسْجُدُونَ ١١٣
Yet they are not all alike: there are some among the People of the Book who are upright, who recite Allah’s revelations throughout the night, prostrating ˹in prayer˺.

يُؤْمِنُونَ بِٱللَّهِ وَٱلْيَوْمِ ٱلْـَٔاخِرِ وَيَأْمُرُونَ بِٱلْمَعْرُوفِ وَيَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ ٱلْمُنكَرِ وَيُسَـٰرِعُونَ فِى ٱلْخَيْرَٰتِ وَأُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ مِنَ ٱلصَّـٰلِحِينَ ١١٤
They believe in Allah and the Last Day, encourage good and forbid evil, and race with one another in doing good. They are ˹truly˺ among the righteous.

وَمَا يَفْعَلُوا۟ مِنْ خَيْرٍ فَلَن يُكْفَرُوهُ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ عَلِيمٌۢ بِٱلْمُتَّقِينَ ١١٥
They will never be denied the reward for any good they have done. And Allah has ˹perfect˺ knowledge of those mindful ˹of Him˺.

[kavaris]

I mean, the old testaments quite a different lineage of thought from the new testament, and the quran is yet another different thing from that, cause theres alot more material encapsulated throughout Classical antiquity, towards the Philosophico-religious and mystical, i.e., Gerarchia angelica della teologia mistica, vangeli apocrifi, etc.,* of which you'd be choosing directions such as \* Mystical Theology (which they have on pdf somewhere, and it runs parallel to some bible passages) or if you go online you can look up \* Erasmus, i.e., Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus \* LXX/Lancelot Brenton's bilingual translate of the Septuagint from \* Elpenor or Ellopos,

I mean thats just scratching the surface. The scripture could imply alot of things, as theres almost neverending scripture if you consider the Vaticans online vault / sepulchre as more scripture, and the roads you can choose just extend infinitely / so technically, no ones read "the scripture" in its entirety anyway, so dont beat yourselves up about it. Youll have to intuit the right directions in your life times, to get anywhere holistically, for yourselves.

P.s. im not big into scripture myself, but stylistically, im interested in the aesthetic and the authors, and how it lends itself to inspiring the generations after into medieval/renaissance, etc.

Edited 13 hours ago by kavaris