curious googling

so i’m having a small online conversation about the merits of the old and new testaments, trying to put some reasoning behind the severe change in divine personality from one to the other. the old testament stars a god that deals in definite laws and severe retributions, while the new testament features a kind and benevolent deity, willing even to become human to better understand his creation. such a shift is jarring to anyone that attempts the herculean task of reading the bible from front to back, like a large chunk of the story is missing.

and perhaps it is. if nothing else, it is a given that several books and texts just didn’t quite make the cut for biblical inclusion. these are collectively known as the apocrypha. lots of reading there, enough to fill a curious afternoon or two. but should you research further and do a little searching, take a look to the ads on the right of your results page.

google_apoch.jpg

i never knew that google held such opinions…. (yeah, i know, those ads are paid for by individual and are not representative of any particular company opinion, but it is still quite odd.)

May 14, 2003 – 2:54 pm | By Thomas | Posted in Distractions | Comments (8)
  • http://www.livejournal.com/users/jolefay JO

    Now if that isn’t a statement about the state of the earth.. I don’t know what is. Still I have hope we can all change this in our own little positive and honest way. HOPE is really a big word..

  • h

    actually, there’s a denomination that keeps the books of the apocrypha in their bible. i can’t remember if it’s catholics or greek orthodoxy or who, but i do know that somebody says those books count.

  • Nikki

    The Catholics dont say they dont count, but they don’t say they do count either. They’re mostly viewed as not canon, and therefore not as reliable. They went through this whole thing at the beginning of the Catholic Church deciding what books were more “reliable” than other books. I guess they had a need for it to be coherent.

  • http://www.livejournal.com/users/jolefay JO

    It’s seems like it was the Greek Orthodox. Catholics are to staunt in their books their WAY..It seems though in highschool when I dated a greek God he would tell me of this book.

  • Nikki

    The GOC apparently uses several books of the Apocrypha as canon — http://www.spotlights.org/7.htm apparently does not agree they are actually scriptural (sorry that’s not so pretty).

    But then again, maybe we’re not talking about what we think we’re talking about — http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocrypha.

  • Anonymous

    Well I feel Thomas uses this forum to share ideas and open the door for discussion.. Alot of times it opens my mind to research. I am coming from a Buddhist standpoint of it’s not what you think you know it is accepting that you are forever learning. I thank Thomas for leaving this forum and igniting ideas. With that said my small soap box:
    H is a very smart man. HE IS basically right in the general summary of things. You are also correct to a degree and I am also to a degree. Like I said however I like to learn and expand my mind. Especially when it comes to various religious topics so I went here, here, here,and last but interesting here. Of course we could just watch this or this but the MOST IMPORTANT lesson in all this is the definition:
    Apocryphal: A category of 18 Codices (books) that are Biblical in nature but not widely or universally accepted as sound and sure God-inspired Scripture. The term ‘Apocrypha’ derives from the Greek word meaning “hidden things”; whether the term was originally a positive designation (esoteric teaching) or a negative one (books that should be hidden because they are false) remains a matter of dispute. Thus these books are to viewed cautiously, and disregarded wherever they may appear to disagree with the established text of the Old Testament Scriptures as found in the 39 books contained in the Masoretic Text of all Old Testament Bibles (Genesis – Malachi).
    ~Namaste

  • JO

    whoops must o accidentally hit the forget info button? That was my soap box by the way.

  • http://symetri.org/gray El Gray

    I keep trying to get hired as the guy who writes those ads. Anyone have a friend inside of Google?