Forgotten Bible Lessons

[gmattson]

Like many forumites, I 've been reading the "rights" thread and learning quite a bit about a subject I don't have much interest in.

As a youth, I used to be fascinated by different religious groups who would knock on our front door, asking for a few minutes to explain the bible to our family.

Since a large part of the "rights" argument supposedly comes from the bible, I got a kick out of a Globe editorial this morning concerning other "rights" covered in the bible, which we should probably discuss while using the bible to justify anti gay sentiments:
1. Ephesians says, "Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church. . . . Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands.

2. Ephesians also says: "Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as you obey Christ. . . Render service with enthusiasm, as to the Lord."

Derrick Z. Jackson goes on to comment:
"Funny, these ministers have conveniently forgotten the passage from Numbers, which says:

'As for the assembly, there shall be for both you and the resident alien a single statute, a perpetual statute throughout your generations; you and the alien who resides with you shall be alike before the Lord.

You and the alien who reside with you shall have the same law and the same ordinance.' The Christian ministers have forgotten the words from Galatians that among the baptized, 'there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female.'"

That's what I like about the bible.... look long enough and you will find a passage that you will like.

[NEB]

I am not an expert in the Bible, but I do have a question about this passage: who, praytell, is the alien? It seems to me a strange choice of words. Why not "neighbor", or, something more specific than "alien".

By that I mean that Jesus would speak of people(s) directly by name if it was handy to do so to illustrate a salient point.

Just a question.

nb

[Gene DeMambro]

"Alien" in this case most likely means a person from another country or land. One would have to read the Greek translations or the original Hebrew to be for sure.

Numbers is a book in the Old Testament, written long before the days of Jesus and the text, to my knowldge, does not contain any quotes from Him.

Gene