7 words that I wish were not in the Bible

[Duer 157099]

"The poor will always be with you."

Attributed to Jesus.

So if he said it, I wish he hadn't. Just think if instead he had said that we don't need to have any poor, ever.

[Vinnie From Indy]

1. I wish this was in the Bible

I would have liked the parable of the loaves and fishes to be the parable of "pizza and beer"!

[KansDem]

30. Make it "anchovy pizza..."

....and you've got a deal!

[Boom Sound 416]

2. Off topic

Is that number in your name from 1984?

[Duer 157099]

11. No

2004

[Boom Sound 416]

12. Very good

[NuclearDem]

3. As far as I know, that's not in the Bible.

At least not that phrasing.

[el_bryanto]

5. It is in the bible.

3 Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.

4 Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, which should betray him,

5 Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?

6 This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein.

7 Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this.

8 For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always.

John 12:3-8

[NuclearDem]

9. I stand corrected.

[LongTomH]

18. It keeps being repeated, out of context, by conservatives.

I remember seeing this quote in Letters-to-the-Editor in Tulsa papers during the discussion of LBJ's anti-poverty program (Actually JFK's; but, it was LBJ that implemented it.).

[el_bryanto]

4. That story is a bit troubling

Putting that quote back into context does help a bit; but it becomes troubling in another way.

Still Jesus also said, in Matt 19:20-21

21 Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.

22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.

Bryant

[Arugula Latte]

6. Words I wish were not in the Bible:

All of 'em. This world would have been so much better off without that book o' nonsense.

[LuvNewcastle]

24. Amen to that.

[KansDem]

34. Careful...

"Amen" is in the Bible.

[cordelia]

31. So tiresome.

[Arugula Latte]

32. Yes, a primitive book of 2,000 year old mythology that is still influential is indeed tiresome.

[NCTraveler]

7. I guess so much of it is up for interpretation.

I think it is addressed to those who are comfortable. Telling them that the poor will always be with you, do not forget. Remember those with less than you.

[HappyMe]

15. That's kind of what I was thinking.

[Duer 157099]

20. I'm going to disagree

Equating "poor" with "having less than" disrespects the very notion of poverty and is one of the semantic tools to make poverty seem less sinister than it really is.

[NCTraveler]

25. You make a very valid point and I do agree.

That being said, if I can feed my family and you can't feed yours, you are poor by the way society understands the word.

Someone could have less than me and not be poor. Someone could have less than me and still be able to feed their family.

Poverty becomes more and more sinister as we become more aware of the worlds problems.

[madamesilverspurs]

8. Back in the '90s

I decided to go back to school. The last paper I wrote was about the emergence of professional "poverty industries". It was some of the most disgusting research I'd ever done.

Anyway, the paper's first line was that particular quote, followed by "Jesus may well have been observing one of the more unfortunate consequences of human nature. Sadly, there are those who have claimed his words as the 11th Commandment, and they work diligently to adhere to it."

[Duer 157099]

17. I can't count the number of times in my life that I've heard that quote

as an excuse for why poverty must exist.

It is disgusting.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

10. no worries, I can guarantee you those exact words do NOT exist in that

two part fairy tale and collection of stories.

Despite what evangelical churches in South Carolina, Georgia, and parts of Texas teach, JC, if he even existed, did not understand a word of english, and certainly did not write in that strange, rarely used language. As importantly, Aramaic had no punctuation. So off with the quotes, the capitalization and the period. Now depending on the translation, it is likely, no, it is guaranteed that the actual words were much different, and only reached something approximating this version after the council of Nicea rewrote it for their own benefit. (over fist fights and language disputes) Add in the Council of Trent, some 1250 years later, and you can easily see that that first council resolved nothing.

[Duer 157099]

14. Yeah, not to nitpick or anything

but if I wrote them in the original Aramaic, few here would have been able to read the post..

The point remains the same.

[LuvNewcastle]

28. So many of the people who quote the Bible know little

or nothing about its history. Most of them think it dropped from the sky totally intact. It's been so picked over and re-translated and added to and redacted through the centuries that no one really knows what 'God' would want us to be reading. I wish we required reading the history of the Bible in schools. It would cut out all this bullshit about the 'inerrant word of God.'

[Lint Head]

13. I think it's because there will always be greedy assholes with us.

[gopiscrap]

16. yeah fucking business assholes and fundies:

take heed!

[PowerToThePeople]

19. Here are some others.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/unreasonablefaith/2011/08/the-wall-o-socialist-bible-quotes/

21 If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.

Matthew 19:21

24 You cannot serve both God and Money.

Matthew 6:24.

44 And all that believed were together, and had all things in common;
45 And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.

Acts 2: 44, 45

[jberryhill]

21. It was a snarky comment directed at Judas

It wasn't some sort of prophesy.

In a nutshell, Judas was upset at the attention Jesus was getting and started up with "what about the poor people?"

Jesus was basically saying, "Oh STFU, you'll always have them as an excuse for whatever you are on about."

Ripping out a sentence where Jesus is referring to "you" without the context of to whom he was speaking is pretty silly.

[Duer 157099]

22. And yet how many people use it in that context?

Almost zero. You know as well as I do that that quote is used to excuse poverty. Right? That's what I'm objecting to.

[jberryhill]

23. Because people are basically bone stupid

...and don't read things for themselves.

The "you" in that sentence is Judas. It was a statement directed at him, and not some universal pronouncement.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

27. I forget the comedian...

who said (and I'm paraphrasing), "I look at Jesus a lot like Elvis. I love the guy, but some of his fans are pretty creepy."

[left is right]

35. Judas was the group’s treasurer and he was stealing from it.

He was upset only because he would never get his hands on the monetary equivalent of the woman’ gift of anointing oil—by no means a small amount of money

[jberryhill]

36. He made out okay on a net basis, though

Went right out and made another 30 pieces of silver

[snooper2]

26. It's just a storybook it really doesn't have any real "meaning"

FYI

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

29. They are seven words that the Democratic Leadership takes to heart ...

The poor will always be with us.

So, since their votes are guaranteed mostly "D", ...

We don't actually have to do anything for those people.

[Agnosticsherbet]

33. Poor is a realtive term

If the government gave everyone a million dollars, those with only a million would be poor, and the price of goods, services and food would sky rocket out of their reach.

Even though the poor of America make far more than most of the people of the world, they remain poor because they do not make enough to meet their basic needs in Maslow's hierarchy. A man making 10,000 a year here is in the same economic boat as a man making 1,000 a year in a third world country. Neither makes enough to supply an adequate roof, food, clothing, or medical care for himself or his family.

Unless we move to some Star Trek economy where a replicator provides us with all we need and people work because the work makes them feel good about themselves, there will be poor with us.

Apparently, the person who documented those words could not visualize a world where everything isn't monetized and the good stuff isn't saved for those with the most gold.

[Hekate]

37. It's a statement of fact, not a prescription for how society should be. Elsewhere, Jesus is...

... Jesus is very explicit on how we should take care of the poor, the sick, the homeless, and those in prison. Treating each other as brothers and sisters. Those are the prescriptions for a better society.

Hekate

[NoOneMan]

38. That's your top 7?

Or just some of many? Nothing about stoning children or raped women?

[PlanetaryOrbit]

39. I read it more as a statement of fact.

I don't think He meant it like it was a good thing. I think He was just saying it factually - that there would always be poor people in the world.

I think even the most liberal and most conservative of people would probably agree that there will always be some poor people in the world.