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#64010 04/06/02 10:13 PM
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my authority

was the AHD


#64011 04/07/02 02:45 AM
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#64012 04/07/02 03:17 AM
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old hand
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Isn't "didymus" what one calls little mice in baby talk?

stales


#64013 04/07/02 10:04 AM
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What about the possibility that it was simply his customary designation, that he had a twin, not of The Twelve, and had acquired "Didymus" as a distinguishing appellation before running into Jesus? After all, it seems like most of the twelve had designations other than their given names, and I imagine such distinguishing tags were very necessary in the days before family names became commonplace.

Your guess is literally as good as mine, Max. It's a translation from the Hebrew or Aramaic or whatever damned language they used to write the original gospels anyway. You'd need to go back to the original manuscript to confirm that "Didymus" is actually the correct translation into Greek of whatever vowel-less Hebrew/Aramaic adjective was used in the first place. It could have been the Hebrew word for "plonker" for all we know now.



The idiot also known as Capfka ...
#64014 04/07/02 10:07 PM
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In reply to:

And guess who the twins are that are capped with epididymides.



From http://www.bartleby.com/61/73/E0177300.htm:

Greek epididumis : epi-, epi- + didumoi, twins, testicles, pl. of didumos, double; see dwo- in Appendix I.

So, the epididymides sit "upon the twins." Quite pithy, although my favorite translation of anatomical Latin remains the august-sounding "foramen magnum," which in English is merely "big hole." "Dura mater" is a funny one, too. I think it must have been originally described by somebody who lived in the projects: "tough mother."



#64015 04/07/02 10:51 PM
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years ago, a Metropolitan diary comment in the NY times, mentioned a couple with opposite tastes, he like sports, she the arts.. but the settle on an name for their dog in no time Joe Green-- the friend could understand why he liked it.. (Joe Green played football at the time) but why did she like it? -- easy, Guissepe Verdi!


#64016 04/07/02 10:59 PM
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Dear of troy: it was so long ago that I hesitate to assert it as fact, but my recollection is that Jesus gave Peter that name, joking "On this rock I will found my church."


#64017 04/08/02 03:16 AM
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Now, now Cap. The New Testament is not as much of a fairy tale, or collection of myths, or exemplar of ancient propaganda as the atheists and agnostics of the world would make it out to be. Indeed, as scholarship keep working away, more and more evidence of the historical reliability of the Gospels and the book of Acts comes to light. Not, of course, that the writers did not employ some practices which were standard at the time but that modern historians deplore.

Anyway, may I politely and unjudgmentally suggest that you would do well to inform yourself better about a subject or a text before you knock it in casual dismissiveness?

Even a cursory study of the Gospels and Acts, the historical books of the NT, would inform you that there were two sets of brothers among the 12 disciples -- Andrew and Simon, called Peter; and James and John the sons of Zebedee. Thomas was nicknamed 'Didymus' presumably because he was a twin, but nothing is said about this sibling, not even if his twin was a brother or a sister. Thomas obtained the nickname 'Doubting Thomas' from the scripture passage cited in the first post in this thread and this became a byword for one who unreasonably refuses to believe what he is told until confronted by unassailable evidence.

An interesting point for you, Jazzo -- on the roof of the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, there are statues of the Apostles. All are looking at Jesus except Thomas.




#64018 04/08/02 08:21 PM
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Anyway, may I politely and unjudgmentally suggest that you would do well to inform yourself better about a subject or a text before you knock it in casual dismissiveness?

In the 20 years-odd since I studied Phenomenology of Religion I've seen little to suggest that the "scholars" have managed to find the original texts. I must admit an interest in the contents of the Dead Sea scrolls, but the gospels? You would only convince me of their authenticity and accuracy if you presented them to me with the ink still wet and the wretch who wrote them attached!

I'm not saying that some - or even most - of the events didn't happen in some form or other. I just don't believe that the characters named were ever extant in the forms described. Or even that the ascribed authors were, in fact, the actual authors.

Scholarship has its limits. Beyond that it's a matter of belief.





The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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