Sunday, January 13, 2019

Desire

Emily Bett Rickards

Desire
Knowledge
渴望知识
Kěwàng zhīshì
欲望の知識 
Yokubō no chishiki
ps36

We may be too partial to placing the fault with our faculties.
We have been granted the sense to desire the knowledge of reality.

It is the desire to learn that defines a student.
The wish to earn makes a citizen lucent.
The will to discern what earns trust reminds an official to be prudent.
The drive to build a better society forms leadership that is human.

Divine love reaches to the sky.
Faithfulness climbs to the clouds on high.

Righteousness is like the strength of mountains.
Justice shares the clear clean clarity of water in fountains.
Salvation saves man and beast in numbers countless.

We enjoy our lives
because it gives drive.

The painted sky 
is a reason why.

The Bengal tiger 
is an awesome fighter.

The eagle in flight 
is revered for sight.

The poor women by the fence
laugh together to reduce their stress.

The humble beagle is used for detection
or to direct your attention to affection. 

We must risk delight
to test for insight. 

The water for purification was in the cisterns.
It was blessed for consumption as wine by the guests and sisters.


Cisterns

Injustice can't be the only measure for attention.
It serves as a form of misdirection.

You will not be called forsaken.
Your Spirit will not be known as shaken.

Your Leadership will be grateful.
Your people will be faithful.

Your land will not be forsaken as desolate.
You will be called delightfully resonate.

The manifestation of Spirit is given to each.
The common good is within your reach.

There will be music to overcome sorrow.
The sun will come out again tomorrow.

The light of your love is a priceless thing.
It shines out from your heart as you sing.

People find refuge under the wings of security.
Thanks are given to show gratitude with maturity.

Announce reality as the mouth for the community
to serve the economy with the music of fluency.

Provision is drawn from the abundance of providence.
Meals feed family as sustenance in evidence.

We drink from the river of delight.
Reality is a disguise for paradise.


Rainbow Falls, Florida

Knowledge of language and custom builds culture
to restrain agreement to the reality of vision with color.

The well of life dwells within you.
The will to live provides drive for the animal too.

Your fire burns bright that light may be seen in you.
Magnesium sparks reactions that ignite your bio-chemical fuel.

Be kind when kindness works true.
Your favor will work for those who will favor you.

Keep the foot of the proud from your proximity.
Distance is defense from those who would harm physically.

Stand at the prow of your moving ship
to moor your vessel to the impending slip.
Anchor yourself to end your trip.

The port is yours when the ship is secure.
The waterfront holds cafes and shops de jour.

The sound of oars in the not too distant distance
establishes the worth of work in the sound of existence.


Psalm 36

5 Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens,
and your faithfulness to the clouds.

6 Your righteousness is like the strong mountains,
your justice like the great deep;
you save both man and beast, O Lord.

7 How priceless is your love, O God!
your people take refuge under the
shadow of your wings.

8 They feast upon the abundance of your house;
you give them drink from the river of your delights.

9 For with you is the well of life,
and in your light we see light.

10 Continue your loving-kindness to those who know you,
and your favor to those who are true of heart.
11 Let not the foot of the proud come near me,
nor the hand of the wicked push me aside.

12 See how they are fallen, those who work wickedness!
they are cast down and shall not be able to rise.


Isa. 62:4
You shall no more be termed Forsaken,
and your land shall no more be termed Desolate;
but you shall be called My Delight is in Her,
and your land Married;
for the LORD delights in you.

======================

You will not be called forsaken.
Your spirit will not be known as shaken.
Your land will not be forsaken as desolate.
You will be called delightfully resonate.
Your land will be faithful.
Your Leadership will be grateful.

----------------------------------------

1 Corinth. 12:7
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

=======================

The manifestation of Spirit is given to each.
The common good is within your reach.

-----------------------------------------

John 2:1
On the third day there was a wedding in Cana in Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there.

========================

Cana- Reeds
Galilee- Rolling; hilly terrain west of the lake, Cylinder; water for purification rite

The water for purification was in the cisterns.
It was blessed for consumption as wine for the guests and sisters.

-------------------------------------------

George Berkeley:

"...we may be too partial to ourselves in placing the fault originally in our faculties, and not rather in the wrong use we make of them. IT IS A HARD THING TO SUPPOSE THAT RIGHT DEDUCTIONS FROM TRUE PRINCIPLES SHOULD EVER END IN CONSEQUENCES WHICH CANNOT BE MAINTAINED or made consistent. We should believe that God has dealt more bountifully with the sons of men than to give them a strong desire for that knowledge which he had placed quite out of their reach."

========================

We may be too partial to placing the fault with our faculties
when we have been granted the sense to desire knowledge of reality.

--------------------------------------------

John Hick

Was he for a return to indulgence or an aspiration to non-sectarian religion?

Original Sin
https://izquotes.com/quotes-pictures/quote-original-sin-is-that-thing-about-man-which-makes-him-capable-of-conceiving-of-his-own-perfection-reinhold-niebuhr-135640.jpg

John Hick: "[H]uman beings were brought into existence as intelligent creatures endowed with the capacity for immense moral and spiritual development. They are not the perfect pre-fallen Adam and Eve of the Augustinian tradition, but immature creatures, at the beginning of a long process of growth."

---------------------------------

The story about Adam and Eve is characterized by respect for the law against murder and slavery. Their being wasn't defined as perfect. The law didn't entertain the indulgence of murder or slavery as the knowledge of good and evil.  Adam and Eve were free to walk in the garden, but they were warned to not eat from the fruit of that tree.

While the law against murder was better in the sense that it was punishable by the death penalty, most other crimes were also punishable by death. The imposed consequence intended as punishment did not 'fit the crime.'

The consequence for theft could be repaired by returning the item or paying for the value of the item. Killing a thief doesn’t allow the offender to make repairs.

Cutting off a hand caused a deficit that couldn't be repaired. The thief could not repent from stealing as a way to obtain desired items by earning a living with the work of his or her hands. The death penalty or dismemberment were counter-productive to correction.

The code of Hammurabi was associated with belief in Marduk. Marduk was depicted as a serpentine creature with legs. The code modified punishment for the infraction of law by allowing for killing that was not motivated by malice.

The law against murder has since modified punishment according to degrees with respect for premeditation as a factor that rules out defense from imminent lethal threat.

Imminent lethal attack is a qualification of what had been intended by the consideration of killing "without malice." Defense from lethal attack is regarded as an exception to the prohibition against killing anyone.

-----------------------------------------

John Hick
born 1.20.1922, Scarborough, England
died 2.9.12, Birmingham, England

Scarborough

Scarborough is a town on the North Sea coast of North Yorkshire in England. The land for the town rises westward, north of the harbor onto cliffs. The cliffs are part of a series that reach up to look out over the sea. The town is built around the harbor. The harbor is protected by the rocky headland.

It is the largest holiday resort on the Yorkshire coast. It is the second most visited destination in England. The center holds many major shopping chains next to independent boutique shops.  The traditional week-long family vacation is being replaced with weekend and mid-week breaks.

The fishing industry is still active, though reduced in size. There is a fish market that includes a shop and wooden stalls where fresh locally caught seafood can be purchased.

The song 'Scarborough Fair' is an English folk song about a fair that took place during medieval times. The lyrics talk about an irked lover who asks a third party to tell his former love to accomplish a series of impossible tasks so she might win back his affection. She is supposed to create a seamless shirt and wash it in a dry empty well.

The herbs have a symbolic intent for the cure of lovesickness. Parsley is to remove bitterness. Sage is for strength. Thyme is for courage and rosemary for love. The consideration of these was expressed as an irony. The spices could be purchased at the fair, but they can’t cure being irked when the offended party is dedicated to being eternally irked.

Paul Simon learned the song in 1965 while he was visiting British folk singer Martin Carthy in London. Art Garfunkel adapted the arrangement. The pair added some anti-war lyrics that reflected the times. The song was used in the soundtrack of the movie "The Graduate" (1967).
The town of Scarborough is used as the context for the dialog of the men in the song.

John Hick

John Hick was born on 20 January 1922 to a middle-class family in Scarborough, England. He developed an interest in philosophy and religion in his teens. His uncle was an author and teacher at the University of Manchester. He initially pursued a law degree at the University of Hull.

He had a meaningful religious experience and converted to Evangelical Christianity while he was there. He transferred to the University of Edinburgh in 1941. He was called to military service during World War II. He chose to join the Friends' Ambulance Unit as a conscientious objector on moral grounds.

He returned to Edinburgh after the war. He developed an interest in the work of Immanuel Kant. Kant had developed a strong connection to the Greek philosophical tradition. Ethics were the ground for morality. Each person is called to consider the philosophical basis for law.

The metaphysical orientation of his philosophy questioned key points in religious fundamentalism. His concern for law was a challenge to the assertion that the kingdom of heaven is not of the world and cannot exist in it.

He completed his MA thesis in 1948. It became the basis for his book Faith and Knowledge.

He went on to complete a D.Phil. at Oriel College. Oxford University in 1950. He married Joan Hazel Bowers in 1953. The couple had four children. He was a member of the United Reform Church. He was the subject of heresy proceedings twice during his life.

He was asked whether he took exception to anything in the Westminster Confession of 1647. This confession was a founding document for the Church of Scotland.

When the English Parliament was under Puritan influence during the English Civil War (1642-49) they raised armies in alliance with the Covenanters, the de facto government in Scotland against Charles I, King England, Scotland and Ireland.

The Westminster Assembly assembled to write documents for the reformation of the Church of England. There were 121 Puritans clergymen present. The Church of Scotland had recently rejected bishops appointed by the King to reinstate presbyterianism. This was a local form of church government that held agreement with the 'democracy' proposed by John Calvin.

The confession was a systematic exposition of Calvinist orthodoxy influenced by the covenant theology of Puritan scholasticism. The doctrine included belief in the Trinity. Jesus' sacrificial death and resurrection were associated with the Son.

Sola scriptura (scripture alone) and sola fide (one faith) were included by agreement with the Protestant Reformation. Puritan minimalism in worship was added to impose distance from the sacramental rites that had been defined as corrupt.

The pope was called the anti-Christ. It was a common statement in the 17th century. The Roman Catholic mass was identified as a form of idolatry. The civil magistrates were ascribed divine authority to punish heresy. This opened the door to witch hunts as the Puritan form for the Inquisition.

This was considered to be part of the covenant works with Adam. Marriage with non-Christians was ruled out. The Puritans argued that the assurance of salvation was not a necessary consequence for faith.

The document secured agreement with the Presbyterians to raise the army to fight against the king. It seems that the king was not aggressive enough in promoting Christianity as the only religion for the realm according to the Reformed Protestants.

Hick was asked if he took exception to anything in the Westminster Confession. He stated that several points were open to question. Some of the local ministers appealed against his reception into the presbytery.

Their appeal was sustained by the Synod. A counter-appeal was sustained a year later by the Judicial Committee of the General Assembly.

Hick had another set of experiences that dramatically affected his life and work in the late 1960's. He found himself worshiping alongside people of other faiths while working on civil rights issues in Birmingham.

He was HG Wood Professor of Theology at Birmingham University from 1967 to 1982. He had taught at Cambridge before that.

Non-Christian communities had begun to form in this community in central England. They were mostly Hindu, Muslim and Sikh. They were part of the immigration from the Caribbean Islands and Indian subcontinent. Organizations that focused on integrating the community due to the influx of peoples with different religious traditions.

Hick became a founder, as well as the first chair, for the group All Faiths for One Race (AFFOR). He served as a chair on the Religious and Cultural Panel. This panel was a division of the Birmingham Community Relations Committee. He served on these committees during his 15 years at the University of Birmingham.

He came to believe that sincere adherents of other faiths experience the Transcendent just as Christians do during this time. Religious communities develop different beliefs about the experience due to variances in cultural, historical and doctrinal factors.

His experience led him to develop his pluralistic hypothesis. This hypothesis relies on Kant’s phenomenal and noumenal distinction. It states that adherents of the major religious faiths experience that which is ineffable as the Real through their varying culturally shaped lenses.

He wrote More Than One Way? and God and the Universe of Faiths. He noted in both that as he came to know these people who belonged to non-Christian faiths, he saw in them the same values and moral actions that he recognized in fellow Christians.

This observation led him to begin questioning how a completely loving God could possibly sentence non-Christians who clearly espouse values that are revered in Christianity to an eternity in hell. Hick then began to attempt to uncover the means by which all those devoted to a theistic religion might receive salvation.

Hick’s pluralistic consideration led him to adjust his theological position. He subsequently developed interpretations of Christian doctrine on the incarnation, atonement and trinity as metaphorical or mythological claims.

Orthodox Christians have a long standing dispute with Augustine about this essentially neo-Platonic view of things. The names for God are treated as metaphorical rather than metaphysically theological. The problem with the neo-Platonic view is that the names are too interchangeable.

Hick’s underlying philosophical positions remained largely intact over the course of his long career despite the theological changes. He was dedicated to inter-faith relations in community organization.
Hick's academic positions included Danforth Professor of the Philosophy of Religion at the Claremont Graduate University, California. He taught there from 1979 to 1992.

He also held teaching positions at Cornell University, Princeton Theological Seminary and Cambridge University.

He began to ask the question "whether belief in the Incarnation required one to believe in the literal historicity of the Virgin Birth" during his teaching stay at Princeton Seminary. This questioning would open the door for further examination of his own Christology in a way that contributed to his understanding of religious pluralism.

Hick claimed that knowledge of the Real can only be known as it is being perceived. Absolute truth statements are really claims about the perception of the phenomenal not the noumenal God.

He compared the claim that the Christian religion is the one path to salvation to the Ptolemaic world view. The Ptolemaic system was geo-centric. It was believed that the evidence said that the sun, the stars and the planets revolved around the earth in perfect spheres.

Hick identified with a theology that was Copernican in the sense that he believed that all theistic religions are dedicated to the discovery of meaning with truth as revealed by the one true God. Different paths are taken to achieve the same goals.

Hick was identified as a relativist by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Ratzinger would be renamed Benedict XVI when he was elected pope. He would serve from 2005 until his resignation in 2013.
Cardinal Ratzinger was the head for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

He had found that several theologians accused of relativism such as Jacques Dupuis and Roger Haight were inspired by the philosophy of Hick. Hick was an advocate for inter-denominationalism and inter-faith organization.

He was the Vice-President of the British Society for the Philosophy of Religion and Vice-President of The World Congress of Faiths. He was accepted into membership of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in 2009 to honor his many years in the reformed community.

He would eventually go back to Edinburgh for a DLitt in 1975. He received an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Theology at Uppsala University, Sweden in 1977.

He died in Birmingham on 9 February 2012. He was 90 years old.

I appreciate the dedication that John Hick showed to non-sectarian religion. Any religion can be paradise for the faithful adherent but I feel that Hick's doctrine is too indulgent to the influx of foreign influence.

Foreign influence becomes the regulatory agency in this kind of philosophy. The predominate religion has to cater to divergence in meaning according to their variation.

My objection to Hick extends to William James and his varieties of religious experience as well.

While there is reason to believe that we can learn something from other religions, it is not as though we have to dedicate our time to meeting unreasonable demands based on difference in language, culture or religion.

This said, the people in other religions are not all damned to hell for eternity for belonging to another faith.

There is a concern regarding the indulgence of destructive competition from foreign or domestic competitors with the Hick or James philosophy of religion. It may sound ridiculous but the movie
John Wick seemed to characterize the toleration of destructive competition in a way that served as a caricature for the latitude in toleration.

I have to wonder if Hick or James wasn't too ready to ask, "Why destroy another life?", when confronted with a case like negligent homicide. Negligent homicide will not generally warrant the death penalty, but it is still a kind of murder.

It still justifies the consideration of life in prison. Are we to allow the toleration of reckless endangerment as the basis for judgment in the law? The question becomes 'How negligent was the behavior that caused the death?'

Was the person observing reasonable concern for safety or was the the behavior reckless? Was it just an accident or was it an accident that could have been avoided with caution?

If the action was reckless, then long term punishment for the offender protects society from the toleration of recklessness.


John Hick
S. 约翰希克
T. 約翰希克

约  Yue   agreement        約  No kanji              Jun   じょん  ジョン   Jon 존   John
翰  han   writing               翰  kan      letter        Hik   ひっ    ヒッ       Hig  힉  zone
希  Xi      hope                  希  ki         hope        ku     く         ク     
克  ke     restrain              克  koku    overcome

====================

Knowledge of language and custom builds culture
to restrain agreement to the reality of vision with color.

--------------------------------

Reasonable Faith
https://izquotes.com/quotes-pictures/quote-reason-is-the-greatest-enemy-that-faith-has-it-never-comes-to-the-aid-of-spiritual-things-martin-luther-248523.jpg


The German and British Reformations started with different reasons to support monarchy as the form for government.

Luther made the case against indulgences. King Henry VIII defended the right to royal succession. Both supported independence for the nation state as a justification for opposition to the unity of the Roman empire.

The unity of the empire had opposed slavery on paper. Both Charles V (1500-58; r. 1519-58), the emperor, and John Locke (1632-1704), the Puritan legislator, had argued against slavery. Opposition was documented, but profit was taken from the trade and the institution. Slavery found establishment in the American colonies with Locke as a beneficiary.

Locke had admit that slavery was against natural law. It was inherently offensive to treat other people as property for forced labor. His proposal that he had the right to destroy any who would seek to destroy him however, tapped into Aristotle's justification for the enslavement of those who would rather live as slaves than risk their lives to defend their freedom.

Beyond this, the argument that the institution was necessary to stop perpetual war was used to argue that the state of war could be stopped when those who were enslaved stopped the threat of rebellion. It was thought that by this the slaves themselves would be compelled to stop the social impulse to rebellion in order to stop their being mistreated by their masters.

This was a self-indulgent argument. While Martin Luther didn't explicitly protest slavery, it wasn't legal in the Roman empire. The spirit of the time was like a regression to Babylonian or Assyrian aggression. The self-indulgent the most powerful in terms of money and influence on the world were entitled to make payments for exoneration from murder.

King Henry posed as a self-indulgent monarch to defend the independence of the United Kingdom. It was known that monarchy was being challenged by anti-monarchical and anti-patrician models for republic.

Education for the public had not been instituted as a practice. The establishment of higher education was used to promote instruction in the language at lower levels for society.

The public was still viewed in Roman terms. They were seen as bloodthirsty and ready to rebel. The public had to be frightened into submission by a larger threat of destruction. Sadly, there was evidence that the unwashed masses were ready to rebel to dispose of the king.

Self-indulgence wasn't the key principle for the capitalist paradigm as it would come to be proposed by Adam Smith. It was the basis for mercantilism insofar as slave traders were given a role in shaping international relations. Merchants came to be distrusted indirectly as 'guilty by association.'

Reason itself was viewed differently by Protestants, Reformed Protestants and Counter-Reformation Catholics. The British empiricists were skeptical about rationalism. It was from the continent. It looked alternately like it was too beneficial for Spain or the Dutch Republic.

Locke had written treatises for human understanding and civil government, but his doctrine for destruction made his philosophy for the nation state too materialistic.

Berkeley proposed a use of reason that wasn't as material in mercantilism. It wasn't as forward thinking as Adam Smith's capitalism would be, but he believed that if reason were to be directed to reasonable use even slavery could be used to train the slaves to become productive members of the society.

His proposal advocated for the induction of ten year old natives into a program of work and study on a plantation to prepare them to work as pastors for the faith among their people. The proposal serves as an indication that there were landowners who were willing to train their serfs to move up the social ladder with education.

A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge https://www.gutenberg.org/files/4723/4723-h/4723-h.htm
Text to Principles

He wrote:
"...we may be too partial to ourselves in placing the fault originally in our faculties, and not rather in the wrong use we make of them. IT IS A HARD THING TO SUPPOSE THAT RIGHT DEDUCTIONS FROM TRUE PRINCIPLES SHOULD EVER END IN CONSEQUENCES WHICH CANNOT BE MAINTAINED or made consistent. We should believe that God has dealt more bountifully with the sons of men than to give them a strong desire for that knowledge which he had placed quite out of their reach."

When Berkeley wrote to favor immaterialism, it was an advocacy for the reasonable use of the mental faculty for reason. It wasn't for self-indulgence in the reward of material success to officials and those contracted to serve them.

It was for a reasonable faith in something better than that which had been the case for society with government. He was working his reconstruction of classical consciousness towards the free market paradigm that would be proposed by Adam Smith.

Defense is part of national security. The wall or fence stands as a deterrent to illegal entry.

Fort McHenry
http://epmgaa.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/img/photos/2014/09/05/Ft.-McHenry-Web_t580.jpg?8f1b5874916776826eb17d7e67de7278c987ca33


The Battle of Baltimore

The Battle of Baltimore was fought between British invaders and American defenders in the War of 1812. American forces repulsed invasion by sea and land off the busy port city of Baltimore, Maryland. The commander of the invading force was killed.

Fort McHenry was bombarded during the night by the Royal Navy. The battle was fought from September 13-14 in 1814. The coastal pentagonal bastion fort had been built in 1798.

An American storm flag was flown over the fort during the War of 1812. It was 17 by 25 feet (5.2 m x 7.6 m) in size. It was flown over the fort during the bombardment. It was replaced earl on the morning of September 14 with a larger American garrison flag. This was 30 by 42 feet (9.1 m x 12.8 m). The larger size signaled American victory in the battle.

This inspired Francis Scott Key to compose the poem "Defence of Fort McHenry." The first stanza is well known as "The Star Spangled Banner." This has become the national anthem for the United States of America.

The Defence of MHenry
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47349/defence-of-fort-mhenry
(2d Stanza)

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
    Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze o'er the towering steep,
    As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
        Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
        In full glory reflected now shines on the stream —
            'Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave
            O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.

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Ft. McHenry was continuously used by the US Armed Forces through World War I and by the Coast Guard in World War II. It was designated a national park in 1925. It was re-designated a "National Monument and Historic Shrine" in 1939.

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Water to Wine
https://image3.slideserve.com/6873634/slide1-l.jpg


John 2:1
On the third day there was a wedding in Cana in Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there.

=====================

This passage of scripture proved to be quite surprising with respect to the simple question, “Where is Cana in Galilee?” It turns out that there a number of locations that may have served as the place alluded to by the passage.

Galilee was located to the west of the sea at the north end of the Jordan River in the time of Jesus. It is north of the West Bank, west of the Golan Heights and south of Lebanon in modern Israel.

Khirbet Qana and Kfer Canna are known locations in modern Israel. Kfer Canna has a spring for water. Pottery shards were found in Khirbet Qana. The cisterns factor into the story about the miraculous conversion of the water into wine in the gospel account. They were used to hold the spring water for the Judaic rite for purification.

The words Cana and Galilee also hold special meaning regarding the history for the location.

One of the words used to translate Cana is ‘reeds.’ It has an association with beauty. Is it the root for 'Canaanite'? It could be a homonym. The history of Canaan is relevant to understanding the context for the story in any case. It helps the reader who doesn’t have the experience of living in the region to interpret cultural sub-text.

Canaanites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Canaanite_religion

The Levant is a geographical term used to refer to the crossroads area in western Asia between the eastern Mediterranean and northeast Africa. Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Cyprus are regarded as part of the region. Egypt, Jordan and Turkey are included by some. The Levant was often an area for passage from the west to lands further east.

The Levant region was inhabited by people who referred to the land as ‘ca-na-na-um’ as early as the mid-third millennium BCE. There are a number of possible etymologies for the word.

The Akkadian word “kinahhu” was used to identify the purple-colored wool dyed from the Murex molluscs of the coast. The purple fabric was a key export for the region. The Greeks came to call the Canaanites “Phoenikes.” This is the root for the English “Phoenicians.”

The mythical Greek bird the “Phoenix” was purple-red in color. The word was also used to describe the cloth for which the Greeks traded. The purple color came to represent royalty or aristocratic status.

The Romans transcribed “phoenix” to “poenus.” The descendants of the Canaanite settlers who had migrated to Carthage were called “Punic.”

The words “Phoenician” and “Canaanite” refer to the same culture. Archaeologists and historians commonly refer to the Bronze Age, pre-1200 BCE Levantines as Canaanites. Their Iron Age descendants, particularly those living on the coast, are identified as Phoenicians.

The term Canaanite has been used for the secondary Iron Age states for the interior. This includes the Philistines, the Israelites and Judeans within the same group.

This group was not ruled by Arameans. They were a separate, yet closely related ethnic group. Their language came to be commonly used in trade. Hebrew was used in worship and instruction.   

=================

Canaanite religion was influenced by its peripheral position. The leadership acted as an intermediary between Egypt and Mesopotamia. When the chariot-mounted maryannu ruled in Egypt at the capital city of Avaris.

Baal was lord of the storm and fertility. He became associated with the Egyptian, Set, the god of chaos and desert storms. Set governed the red soil. The red land was the barren desert that protected Egypt on two sides. Horus was the god of the black soil.

Baal
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a6/c5/9c/a6c59c7914936c5d0fa9604de70cf422.jpg


Baal was depicted in a posture like that for an Egyptian god. He stood with one foot set before the other. His arms were raised to the sky. He wore a crown like that which was worn for Lower Egypt. It was conical like a flame.

Set was supporting the crown on one side. Horus was on the other.

Sutekh
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f9/SethAndHorusAdoringRamsses_crop.jpg/220px-SethAndHorusAdoringRamsses_crop.jpg


Set accompanied Ra on his solar boat to repel Apep, the serpent of chaos. Baal held an association with the death of the sun as the lord of fertility. It is not difficult to imagine that the cycle wherein he was dead corresponded with his battle with chaos prior to the re-birth of the sun for the new year.

Athirat
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/08/d1/d0/08d1d03ef56e7e3f8f92dbd64792fe52.jpg

Athirat was the Canaanite earth and mother goddess. Her Hebrew name was Asherah. Athirat, Athart (Grk. Astarte) and Anat were portrayed with Hathor-like Egyptian wigs. Hathor was a consort for a number of male deities.

There are strong Hurrian and Mitannite influences upon the Canaanite religion in the Middle and Late Bronze Age. The Hurrian goddess Hebat was worshiped in Jerusalem. Baal was closely considered equivalent to the Hurrian storm god Teshub and the Hittite storm god, Tarhunt.

Canaanite divinities were similar in form and function to the neighboring Arameans to the east. The earlier Amorites distinguished between Baal Hadad and El. They invaded Mesopotamia at the end of the Early Bronze Age.

Canaanite religious influences were carried west by Phoenician sailors. The tripartite division between the Olympians Zeus, Poseidon and Hades mirrored the division between Baal, Yam and Mot.

The Labors of Hercules were modeled on the stories of the Tyrian Melqart. Melqart predated Hercules. He was the strongest of men. He used his strength to complete difficult tasks. He was a model for sailors and the adventurous.

Celebrating marriage with a feast was common to both polytheistic and monotheistic religions. The married couples were seen as participants in the marriage of their god and goddess in polytheism. Their union came to be blessed by the sanction of the Creator God in monotheism.

The word Cana held a special ancient connection to the tradition of religion in the area.  The presence of Mary as the Mother of God served as a replacement for the presence of the goddesses in the marriage feast. Her concern for the wine served to introduce the substance as an element in the celebration.

Galil
http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Galilee.html#.XDYV5VxKjIU

Rolling; cylinder; region

The verb גלל (galal I) is about rolling. It often means to roll some object on, upon or away. It is used in ideas like to whirl or dazzle in a figurative sense. Rolling oneself onto the Lord means to put trust in Him (Psalm 22:8) or to commit oneself to Him (Psalm 37:5, Proverbs 16:3).

When the verb is used to describe physically rolling something away or somewhere else, the object is usually stones (Genesis 29:3, Joshua 10:18).

The word has a slight modification in the masculine noun: גליל (galil). It denotes a supporting cylinder, rod (Esther 1:6) or ring (Song of Solomon 5:14). The word is identical to the Hebrew version for the name Galilee (Joshua 20:7, 1 Kings 9:11, Isaiah 9:1).

There is terrain in Galilee that has hills. There are caves in the region. Stones could be rolled in front of the caves. The region has a rectangular shape. A rectangle is a cross section for a cylinder. These factors may have been used to name the region Galilee.

There are a number of different locations associated with Cana. There is Kafr Kanna and Khirbet Qana in Israel. There is also a Qana in Lebanon.

Kafr Kanna
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kafr_Kanna

Evidence for a large Early Bronze Age settlement was excavated adjacent to the perennial Kanna spring. The excavation overlayed a site dating to the Early Chalcolithic Period. The settlement was fortified with a fortification wall.

Khirbet Qana
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khirbet_Qana

An unwalled city was partially built into the area’s hillsides at Khirbet Qana. The construction resulted in terraced houses on the hill. Larger houses were arranged around a courtyard in the flatter areas.

Researchers have identified 3 types of houses at Khirbet Qana. Terraced, side courtyard and central courtyard houses were built. Terraced houses were located on the steep eastern and western slopes of the hill.

Side courtyard houses were located in the flatter area to the north. Courtyard houses were located in the flattest areas, on the hilltop and featured large central courtyards.

Khirbet Qana included a Jewish synagogue, a later Byzantine complex (possibly a “veneration cave”) and a series of tombs in addition to residential houses.

Map
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/08/30/14/4F874CAE00000578-6114063-image-a-33_1535634803325.jpg

There is evidence of a Christian place of worship in the form of a “veneration cave.” The entire place is a series of four connected caves. The main cave has plaster walls and floors. Some distinctly Christian graffiti and inscriptions are included.

Cave
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/oNYjdwCHrJ8/mqdefault.jpg

The main cave also features benches along the walls. A possible altar is on the north side of the cave. The altar is partially formed by a sarcophagus lid that features at least one cross.

Plastered in place atop the sarcophagus lid were at least two stone vessels with one still in situ. The imprint of the second vessel remains in the plaster. Over 60 cisterns for water storage have been found throughout the excavation site.

Fields for cultivation were on the west side of Khirbet Qana. Tax records detailing taxes on crops from the 16th century serve as evidence that the community relied in part on agriculture.

Population
http://www.biblelandstudies.com/Bible-Land-Studies---Blog.html?entry=galilee-of-the-gentiles

What was the ethnicity of the Galilee during the time of Jesus? Was it predominantly gentile or was it Jewish? The accumulation of archaeological evidence over the last 30 years is giving us a different picture of the ethnicity of Galilee during the early first century CE.

Archaeological evidence has been accumulated at such sites as Capernaum, Bethsaida, Nazareth, Cana, Gamla, Sepphoris and Tiberias. Several archaeological  surveys have provided a wealth of information about the ethnicity of the people of Galilee in the first century.

Several ethnic markers have been designated to determine which towns and villages throughout Syria-Palestine can be identified as Jewish.  These Jewish markers include stone vessels carved from limestone, a lack of decorated imported pottery, stepped pools for ritual bathing called miqvaoth, lack of pig bones in the bone profile and the burial practice of secondary burial with ossuaries in local tombs.

Artifacts and features which are found together consistently in Judah, Galilee and the Golan are not found in Samaria, the Decapolis or the area of Tyre and Sidon.  The Galilee during the time of Jesus was predominantly Jewish. It was surrounded by gentile areas of the Decapolis, Samaria, Tyre, Sidon and the Hula Valley.

Even the major cities of the Galilee, Tiberias and Sepphoris, were Jewish. They were built as capital cities by Herod Antipas. They were more metropolitan than the rural villages and towns of the Galilee, but they retained a Jewish character with respect for custom.

Ritual Purification
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritual_washing_in_Judaism

Ritual washing or ablution takes two forms in Judaism. Tevilah (טְבִילָה) is a full body immersion in a mikveh. Netilat yadayim is the washing of the hands with a cup.

The Hebrew Scriptures include various regulations about bathing:

Whoever he that hath issue (a zav, ejaculant with an unusual discharge) touches without having rinsed his hands in water, he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening.

(Leviticus 15:11)

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Seven clean days are then required, culminating in a ritual and temple offering before the zav is clean of his malady:

Now in case the one having a running discharge would become clean from his running discharge, he must then count for himself seven days for his purification, and he must wash his garments and bathe his flesh in running water; and he must be clean. And on the eighth day he should take for himself two turtledoves or two young pigeons, and he must come to the entrance of the tent of meeting and give them to the priest.

(Leviticus 15:13-14)

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There are also references to hand-washing:

I will wash my hands in innocence; so will I compass Thine altar, O LORD

(Psalms 26:6)

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Philo of Alexandria refers to ritual washing in the context of the Temple and Leviticus. He also proposed that spiritual "washing" was the purpose for the ritual. Qumran basins have been identified as baths. The Dead Sea scrolls texts on maintaining ritual purity were found near the baths. The texts reflect the requirements of Leviticus.

Traditional religious and secular scholars agree that ritual washing in Judaism was derived by the Rabbis of the Talmud from a more extensive set of ritual washing and purity practices in use in the days of the Temple in Jerusalem. The practices were based on various verses in the Hebrew Scriptures and received traditions. There is disagreement, however, about the origins and meanings of these practices.

Mikveh
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikveh

Mikveh is a bath used for the purpose of ritual immersion in Judaism to achieve cleansing from impurity. The person being cleansed was submerged in the tub as needed. Full immersion was most likely used for conversion much like the Baptismal rite for Christianity.

The mikveh's main uses remained as follows after the destruction of the Temple:

Cleansing from bodily discharge from sex
Cleansing from menstruation
Conversion to Judaism
Blessing new utensils
Immersion of a body as part of the preparation for burial (taharah)

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Most forms of impurity were nullified through immersion in any natural collection of water. Some impurities such as a zav required "living water." This kind of water came from springs or groundwater wells.

The mikveh is designed to simplify this requirement by providing a bathing facility that remains in ritual contact with a natural source of water.

It is conceivable that the cisterns at Cana held living water from the spring at Kafr Kanna. Proximity to the spring made the storage of water from that source likely.

Knowledge of language and custom contributes to understanding culture as the sub-text to the text about the wedding feast at Cana. The story is about the assimilation of certain religious rites into the Christian religion.

Marriage was treated as a sanctified event in the story. The element of wine is also significant with respect for the celebration of the Eucharist. The water was converted to wine to celebrate the sanctity of the marriage.



Yaguchi Mari 1.20.83  Kanagawa, Japan
矢口真里
马利燕古驰

马 Ma   horse        矢 Ya       arrow       Ma  ま  マ         Jeug  즉  in other words                   
利 li       profit       口 kuchi   mouth      ri    り  リ         Ya     야  hey
燕 Yan  swallow    真 Ma       reality     Ya   や  ヤ         gu    구  phrase
古 gu    ancient      里 ri         village     gu   ぐ  グ         chi    치  tooth
驰 chi    gallop                                      chi   ち  チ

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Announce reality as the mouth for the community
to serve the economy with the music of fluency.

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Kanagawa

The prefecture of Kanagawa is located in the Kanto region of Honshu. It is part of the greater Tokyo area.

The western part features the Tanzawa Mountain Range with the Hakone Volcano. The eastern part has the hills of Tama and the Miura Peninsula. The central part has flat stream terraces and low lands around major rivers. The Sagami, Sakai, Tsurumi and Tama rivers flow through this area. About a quarter of the total land area was designated as Natural Parks.

The Tama River forms much of the boundary between Kanagawa and Tokyo.

It is a relatively small prefecture in the southeastern corner of the Kanto Plain. It is wedged between Tokyo in the north, the foothills of Mount Fuji on the northwest, the Sagami Bay on the south and Tokyo Bay to the east. The eastern portion is comprised mostly with plains. It is heavily urbanized and includes the large port cities of Yokohama and Kawasaki.

Commodore Matthew Perry landed in Kanagawa in 1853 and 1854. The Convention of Kanagawa was signed to open Japanese ports to the United States. Yokohama was opened to foreign ports in 1859 after several years of foreign pressure. It eventually developed into the largest trading port in Japan.

Yokosuka was closer to the mouth of Tokyo Bay. It was made a naval port. It now serves as the headquarters for the US 7th Fleet and the fleet operations for the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.

Mari Yaguchi

Mari Yaguchi was born in Yokohama on January 20, 1983.

Yaguchi became a member of Morning Musume along with Yasuda Kei and Ichii Sayaka during the second generation auditions in 1998. She was often perceived to be the short one that did not stand out much.

She was made the leader of the sub-group Minimoni in 2000. The members for the sub-group were 4 ft. 11 in. (1.5m) in height or shorter. Kago Ai and Tsuji Nozomi were original members along with American born Mika Todd.

She became famous for her “Sexy Beam!” line from a Morning Musume single. She had become one of the most active members of the group by the time the 4th generation members joined. She was appointed sub-leader of Morning Musume in 2003 when Yasuda Kei graduated.

She became the leader of the group when Iida Kaori graduated in 2005. She resigned without a graduation ceremony in April of the same year when it was discovered that she was in a relationship.

She went on a trip to Iceland to film a movie, “What is a Japanese Woman Doing Here?” along with Natsumi Abe.

She has been a television personality since she resigned from Morning Musume.

She was married to Masaya Nakamura in 2011. They were divorced in 2013.

She announced that she had married again in 2018.

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