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Primitive Christianity Revived, Again

1/21: Joseph dines with brothers, Jesus is doubted for familiarity

Today's passages via BibleGateway
* Genesis 4218-43:34 (Quaker Bible Index)
* Matthew 13:47-14:12 (Quaker Bible Index)
* Psalm 18:16-36
* Proverbs 4:7-10

George Fox (1674): The great controversy in Christ's time was about his flesh: "Is this the Christ, the carpenter's son, etc.?" [Mat 13:55] .... Now mark, the controversy then was about him as he was a man and took flesh upon him, and was come and suffered according to the flesh, not as he was God, but man. Now the controversy is amongst the Christians about the light which is the life in Christ. (They may crucify him again as to themselves [Heb 6:6], but he that died once dies no more [Rom 6:9].)

Barbara Blaugdone, 1691: And those that were my former acquaintance, with whom I had formerly been very conversant ... now were afraid of me, and would not come near me, but the dread of God was upon me, and it made some of them to tremble; and some said, I was a witch; and when I would go to their houses to reprove them, they were so mad that they would run away, and then their servants would come and hale me out.... So I came to witness that a prophet is not without honour, save in his own country [Mat 13:57].

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by C. Wess Daniels on 1st mo. 21, 2009 at 11:31am

What stood out to me in the Gen. passage was home much stress Joseph put his brother through before he revealed his identity. I was wondering how hard it would have been to be him in that situation and would I have revealed my identity immediately, or would I have delayed and played the "games" he did?

Permalink Reply by Martin Kelley on 1st mo. 21, 2009 at 1:03pm

Yes, well these were the guys who had sold him into slavery twenty years before, after coming close to murdering him outright. I've been assuming he's testing them to see whether they show remorse but maybe he's also enjoying watching them scrape and bow and go through contortions. But yes, I don't think it's very good or "christian" to test and play games like this and it puts pressure on the brothers to lie.

These parts of Genesis aren't good models for family behavior. Some of this feels like the next Fox reality show--look at Leah and Rachel's pregnancy wars where they brought in their servants as reinforcements. The lesson I'm drawing is that God knows and is involved in people's lives.

Permalink Reply by C. Wess Daniels on 1st mo. 21, 2009 at 1:06pm

Yeah, another thought, as I was reading your point was that while most of these folks are bad examples, they do seem to reflect many of our real-life families. Maybe that's the part of it I don't like. I'd like to read about how wonderful families work, not dysfunctional ones, I know how they do stuff.

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