C.S. Lewis on This Day in History

 

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This day in history: British writer, literary scholar, and Anglican lay theologian, C.S. Lewis, was born on this day in 1898. 

In a much-cited passage from Mere Christianity, Lewis challenged the view that Jesus was a great moral teacher but not God. He argued that Jesus made several implicit claims to divinity, which would logically exclude that claim.

However, Jesus never claimed to be God. 

From wikipedia:

The argument relies on the assumption that Jesus claimed to be God, something that most biblical scholars and historians of the period do not believe to be true. A frequent criticism is that Lewis's trilemma depends on the veracity of the scriptural accounts of Jesus's statements and miracles. The trilemma rests on the interpretation of New Testament authors' depiction of the life of Jesus; a widespread objection is that the statements by Jesus recorded in the Gospels are being misinterpreted, and do not constitute claims to divinity. According to the biblical scholar Bart D. Ehrman, it is historically inaccurate that Jesus called himself God, so Lewis's premise of accepting that very claim is problematic. Ehrman stated that it is a mere legend that the historical Jesus called himself God, and that this was unknown to Lewis since he never was a professional Bible scholar.

In Honest to God, John A. T. Robinson, then Bishop of Woolwich, criticizes Lewis's approach, questioning the idea that Jesus intended to claim divinity: "It is, indeed, an open question whether Jesus claimed to be Son of God, let alone God". John Hick, writing in 1993, argued that this "once popular form of apologetic" was ruled out by changes in New Testament studies, citing "broad agreement" that scholars do not today support the view that Jesus claimed to be God, quoting as examples Michael Ramsey (1980), C. F. D. Moule (1977), James Dunn (1980), Brian Hebblethwaite (1985), and David Brown (1985). Larry Hurtado, who argues that the followers of Jesus within a very short period developed an exceedingly high level of devotional reverence to Jesus, at the same time says that there is no evidence that Jesus himself demanded or received such cultic reverence. According to Gerd Lüdemann, the broad consensus among modern New Testament scholars is that the proclamation of the divinity of Jesus was a development within the earliest Christian communities.

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The Birth of Jesus on This Day (November 17) in History

 

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According to Clement of Alexandria, an early church father, Jesus was born on November 17, 3 B.C.

Theories concerning the exact month when Jesus was born have been and still are a topic of scholarly debate. 

Here are some theories:

Dr. Colin Nicholl believes that Jesus was born on October 20, 6 B.C.,, based on the idea that the star that led the magi to Bethlehem was a comet. 

Dr. Michael Heiser believes that Jesus was born on September 11, 3 B.C., based on astronomical software and his calculation of King Herod's death in 1 B.C.

"The month of Jesus' birth has...been a point of debate, with one theory suggesting that the Star of Bethlehem may have been Venus and Jupiter coming together to form a bright light in the sky, a rare event that occured in June of 2 B.C. Another possibility is a similar conjunction between Saturn and Jupiter, which occurred in October of 7 B.C." Live Science

"The Qur'an, which is the source of Islamic tradition tells the story of Mary and the birth of Jesus (known in Islam as Messenger of God) most prominently in Chapter 19. According to verse 19:25, during labor Mary was told to shake a palm tree so that ripe dates would fall off. This description, combined with the ripening period of dates places the birth of Jesus somewhere between June and October, with later times being more likely due to dates falling off easily. In the hadith compilation Tuhaf al-Uqul, the sixth imam, Jafar As Sadiq says the following when approached about the birth of Jesus during Christmas: "They have lied. Rather, it was in the middle of June. The day and night become even [equal] in the middle of March". This statement of his does not literally mean it was on 15 June but it is in reference to a day near the spring equinox." Wikipedia

Google's AI gives this response: "The exact month of Jesus' birth is unknown, but there are several theories: 

September

One calculation suggests that Jesus was born in Tishri, which is around mid to late September. This calculation is based on the conception of John the Baptist in Sivan (June), and then counting forward nine months for Mary's pregnancy. 

December 25

Some historians believe that Jesus was born on December 25 because they thought that righteous men died on their birthdates. However, the Bible does not mention December 25 as the date of Jesus' birth. 

Between 6 B.C. and 4 B.C.

Some scholars believe that Jesus was born between these years based on the biblical story of King Herod the Great. 

Other theories include:

November 18, based on the oldest written records 

Some other month, as no one knows for sure 

The celebration of Christmas on December 25 is not based on the historical date of Jesus' birth. 

Some say that Jesus' birth took place between June and October based on the description in the Bible of Mary shaking a palm tree to get ripe dates during labor. 

Some believe that Jesus was born during the Feast of Tabernacles, which took place from October 6–13 in 4 BC."

"Ian Paul is a writer who has discussed the possibility that Jesus was born in September: 

When was Jesus born?

According to one calculation, Jesus was born in September, around the middle of the month. This calculation is based on the idea that John was conceived around the beginning of June, and then adding the six months between John and Jesus, and the nine months of Mary's gestation. 

Why September?

If Jesus was born in September, it would have been close to the time of Succoth, a major pilgrim feast that commemorates the time Israel lived in tents in the wilderness. It would also have been plausible for shepherds to be outdoors in September, as the weather is usually mild at that time of year." Google's AI

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) does not have an official position on the exact date of Jesus' birth. However, many Mormons have long believed that Jesus was born on April 6, 1 BC, based on a 1915 book by Elder James E. Talmage. Talmage's book, Jesus the Christ, interpreted a verse in the Doctrine and Covenants as a revelation of Jesus' birth date. 

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Jack the Ripper on This Day in History

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This Day In History: Jack the Ripper murdered Mary Jane Kelly on this day in 1888, becoming his final victim in the Whitechapel murders.

At the time of Kelly's death, she was approximately 25 years old, working as a prostitute and living in relative poverty.

The canonical five Ripper victims are Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly.

There have been many theories as to who the Jack the Ripper might have been, including Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll, Prince Albert Victor, son of Edward VII and grandson of Queen Victoria, British artist Walter Sickert, a German sailor named Carl Feigenbaum who was executed for murdering a New York woman in 1894, and Whitechapel mortuary attendant Robert Mann. 

Some believe that Jack the Ripper was an American. Richard Mansfield, an American actor working on the London stage was one such suspect. Mansfield was performing in the London production of the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in 1888 during the time that Jack the Ripper was murdering women in London. One frightened theatre-goer wrote to the police accusing Mansfield of the murders because he could not believe that any actor could make so convincing a stage transformation from a gentleman into a mad killer without being homicidal. 

American serial killer H.H. Holmes has also been accused to being Jack the Ripper, and the timeline of his killings certainly makes that seem possible, and Holmes' great-great-grandson, Jeff Mudgett, certainly believes so, and he wrote the book Bloodstains to prove it.

Others actually believe that Theosophist Madame Helena Blavatsky may have been the killer. Even Sherlock Holmes author Arthur Conan Doyle faced scrutiny as the possible JTR.

Others, like Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle believed it might have been a woman, a Jill the Ripper, possibly a midwife. "The idea was that a midwife would be the only type of woman capable of killing in such a gory way. Rumors that Mary Kelly was pregnant at the time of her death fed into the theory, due to a midwife’s easy access to other women’s homes. No one would look twice at a midwife with blood on her clothing, and moreover she could slip away from her crime scenes unnoticed the way the Ripper was notorious for doing."~Emily Rose

Jack the Ripper is featured in hundreds of works of fiction and works which straddle the boundaries between fact and fiction, including the Ripper letters and a hoax diary: The Diary of Jack the Ripper. The Ripper appears in novels, short stories, poems, comic books, games, songs, plays, operas, television programmes, and films. More than 100 non-fiction works deal exclusively with the Jack the Ripper murders, making it one of the most written-about true-crime subjects. The term "Ripperology" was coined by Colin Wilson in the 1970s to describe the study of the case by professionals and amateurs.

See also: On Jack the Ripper by John E. Watkins 1919
https://thebookshelf2015.blogspot.com/2017/12/on-jack-ripper-by-john-e-watkins-1919.html

Jack the Ripper Identified
Unmasking Jack the Ripper more than 130 years after he vanished.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wicked-deeds/201401/jack-the-ripper-identified

Your's Truly, Jack the Ripper by Robert Bloch
http://www.unz.org/Pub/WeirdTales-1943jul-00083

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Constantine's Vision of the Cross on This Day in History

 

Today in history: On this day (October 27) in 312, Emperor Constantine claimed to have had a vision of a cross in the sky and heard the words "in this sign, you will conquer". This vision is said to have led to Constantine's conversion to Christianity and his victory at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge on October 28, 312.

Just how Christian was Constantine?

History is full of myths, tales in where we make mere men as gods and heroes. Molehills of moments blown into mountains of false memories. How many of us truly know that George Washington did not really cut down the cherry tree, or that Helen Keller was a communist, that the first Thanksgiving with the pilgrims didn't happen as told, that Martin Luther was an anti-Semite and John Calvin a murderer? We paint our heroes with the broad stroke of perfection, and the same goes for Constantine the Great, the first "Christian" Emperor. Some books will have you believe that Constantine was used by God, and that he was a "Saint."

Constantine, after his conversion to Christianity, was still a Sun Worshipper who killed his Son and had his wife drowned.

"To pass for a Christian would, indeed, have been a great presumption on his part. Not long after the Council of Nicaea he suddenly had Crispus, his excellent Son by his first marriage and a pupil of Lactantius, put to death at Pola in Istria (326), and soon thereafter he had his wife Fausta, daughter of Maximian, drowned in her bath." [The Age of Constantine the Great,  pp.283,284, Burckhardt]

"In modern-day terms, Constantine could hardly be considered much of a Christian. As an example, he never relinquished his title Pontifex Maximus. This was the title given to him as the head of the state pagan cult, which was either Mithraism or Sol Invictus, two distinct but similar religions. In addition, the coinage of his reign continued to depict the Sun God [Sol Invictus]. Finally, it is reported that he personally murdered one of his own sons, had his second wife drowned, had his nephew and brother-in-law killed after he had guaranteed safe passage, etc. However, during all of this he sponsored Christianity because it had been useful to him in winning a decisive battle."

[The Christian Conspiracy, p. 58, Dr. L.D. Moore]

"Some things have been established with reasonable certainty: Constantine was no intellectual giant; he took himself very seriously with regard to what he considered his mission to promote Christianity; and lacking more than one of the Christian virtues, he was on occasion cruel, ruthless, and even inhumane."  Encyclopedia Americana 2000

"Constantine was a hot-blooded man. He was wise to avoid being baptized while there were still so many sins of passion that he might yet commit." [Rubenstein, p. 49]

"Although Constantine attributed his success to the divine message that he believed he had read in the skies before the battle at the Milvian Bridge in 312, he could not officially--and privately, it seems, did not-abandon paganism at once." Encyclopedia Americana 2000

"However, until his preparations for his final campaign by 323, he did not abandon his allegiance to the Sun god, even though he regarded himself as a servant of the Christian God... Constantine's public image remained - the Sun god was the emperor's 'companion.' The liberation of Rome was attributed to the Sun on a medallion struck at the time." The Rise of Christianity, W.H.C. Frend, p.484

It is evident from the above that Constantine was no godly man in a Christian sense. This has been borne out by the violence that erupted at the time during the Nicene Controversy. The pro-Trinitarian side of the issue was led by Athanasius, "a future saint and uninhibited faction fighter, had his opponents excommunicated and anathematized, beaten and intimidated, kidnapped, imprisoned, and exiled to distant provinces." He "possessed a power independent of the emperor which he built up and perpetuated by violence. That was both the strength and the weakness of his position. Like a modern gangster, he evoked widespread mistrust, proclaimed total innocence -  and especially succeeded in evading conviction on specific charges." [When Jesus Became God, Rubenstein, pp. 6, 107]

"Constantine was a Christian of a very peculiar type, a type that would hardly be recognized as Christian at all today." Constantine the Great by Michael Grant

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Steven T. Byington (and his Bible) on This Day in History

This day in history: Steven T. Byington died on this day in 1957. Byington was a Christian Anarchist and a Bible translator. The Watchtower society bought the rights to his Bible in 1972. The book "So Many Versions" remarks on the association below: 

"While this translation is completely independent from the NWT, we made a comparison of the two. Since it is published by the Jehovah's Witnesses, we were especially interested in those passages where the characteristic biases of the NWT [New World Translation] were evident. In the BLE [Bible in Living English], "Jehovah" is used in the OT but is not found in the NT. The word "God" is capitalized when referring to Jesus Christ, e.g., in John 1:1; 1:18; 6:45; 10:33. Where the NWT added the article "the" in brackets in Titus 2:13 and 2 Peter 1:1 and "other" in Colossians 1:16, 17, this translation does not, so that Jesus Christ can be identified with God in these passages. Furthermore, by its punctuation in Romans 9:5 it has clearly identified Christ as God: "Whose are the fathers, and from whom in the way of flesh comes the Christ, he who is over everything, God blessed forever-Amen!"
The designation "Holy Spirit" is capitalized, contrary to the NWT, and the words "cross" and "crucify" are used instead of "torture stake" and "impale." The only apparent reason for the Witnesses' publishing this translation is the translator's use of "Jehovah" for God's name in the OT, unless they also want to tone down the idiosyncrasies of their own translation." So Many Versions by Sakae Kubo and Walter F. Specht

Reply: Much of the above is over-stated. I fail to see where Christ is identified as God at Romans 9:5, and a clear understanding of the other Scriptures listed and its context removes any divinity from Christ, specifically at John 1:18: "Nobody ever has seen God; an Only Born God, he who is in the Father's bosom, he gave the account of him." A God that is "born" is definitely held as separate from that God that cannot be seen.

Consider also other Scriptures that waters down the deity of Christ:

"I will be what I will be" Ex 3:14
"God is your throne forever" Psalm 45:6
"Jehovah framed me first in line" Prov 8:22
"his origin being from of old, from ancient days." Micah 5:2
"they will look at the one they stabbed to death" Zech 12:10
Acts 20:28 footnote points to "the Lord's church"
"let all God's angels do him reverence" Heb 1:6
"God is your throne forever and ever." Heb 1:8
"firstborn of all creation" Col 1:15
"did not regard equality with God a prize" Php 2:6
"the beginning of God's creation" Rev 3:14

Byington had high sights set for his Bible in his Translator's Preface:

"It is customary for the preface of a new translation of the Bible to say that this translation is to be used only for certain limited purposes, and for most purposes the old version, or a conservative revision of it, should still be preferred. I say the contrary: I sincerely recommend that my translation be used in preference to the old for all purposes, under all circumstances where mine is available. I do not say, observe, that mine is better than any other that can or will be made; neither do I say that it is probable that mine will become everybody's Bible. What I have more right to expect, and what I am bound to be content with, is that when a Bible is made which shall be everybody's Bible, my work will have contributed part of the material which will go into it; what I am here recommending is that when a choice is to be made between mine and the old version, and a version better than either is not available, mine be chosen rather than the old."

It also ranked more accurate than the New American Standard Bible according to Colwell's apparatus:
See http://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-new-world-translation-is-best-new.html

Byington's Bible also has some very interesting renderings and makes for a pleasant read:

"The Scriptures say that God 'has put eternity into our minds.'
(Ecclesiastes 3:11)

"wild parties," Galatians 5:19-21

"Foolishness is bliss to a brainless man, but an intelligent man will
go straight." Proverbs 15:21

"A man's ignorance muddles his affairs and he flies out against
Jehovah." (Proverbs 19:3)

"I did not flinch from . . . teaching you publicly and from house to
house."-ACTS 20:20

"So I would have younger ones marry, bear children, keep house, not
give the opponent any opening toward abusive talk."-1 Timothy 5:11-
14, Byington.

"Then I will turn the lips of all the peoples clean, that they may
all call on Jehovah's name and cooperate in his service." Zeph 3:9

"There is no thumbing your nose at God." Gal 6:7, 8

"Jehovah will exterminate slippery lips, tongues that make great propositions" Psalm 12:3

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The Disappearance of Rudolf Diesel on This Day in History

 

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This day in history: Rudolf Diesel mysteriously disappeared on this day in 1913.

Rudolf Diesel was the Elon Musk of his time, a popular person who invented an efficient new engine that revolutionized transportation and industry. He was also a distinguished connoisseur of the arts and a social theorist.

From wikipedia: On the evening of 29 September 1913, Diesel boarded the Great Eastern Railway steamer SS Dresden in Antwerp on his way to a meeting of the Consolidated Diesel Manufacturing company in London. He took dinner on board the ship and then retired to his cabin at about 10 p.m., leaving word to be called the next morning at 6:15 a.m., but he was never seen alive again. In the morning his cabin was empty and his bed had not been slept in, although his nightshirt was neatly laid out and his watch had been left where it could be seen from the bed. His hat and neatly folded overcoat were discovered beneath the afterdeck railing.

Shortly after Diesel's disappearance, his wife Martha opened a bag that her husband had given to her just before his ill-fated voyage, with directions that it should not be opened until the following week. She discovered 20,000 German marks in cash (US$120,000 today) and financial statements indicating that their bank accounts were virtually empty. In a diary Diesel brought with him on the ship, for the date 29 September 1913, a cross was drawn, possibly indicating death.

Ten days after he was last seen, the crew of the Dutch pilot boat Coertsen came upon the corpse of a man floating in the Eastern Scheldt. The body was in such an advanced state of decomposition that it was unrecognizable, and they did not retain it aboard because of heavy weather. Instead, the crew retrieved personal items (pill case, wallet, I.D. card, pocketknife, eyeglass case) from the clothing of the dead man, and returned the body to the sea. On 13 October, these items were identified by Rudolf's son, Eugen Diesel, as belonging to his father.

There are various theories to explain Diesel's death. Some, such as Diesel's biographers Grosser (1978) and Sittauer (1978) have argued that he died by suicide. Another line of thought suggests that he was murdered, given his refusal to grant the German forces the exclusive rights to using his invention; indeed, Diesel had boarded Dresden with the intent of meeting with representatives of the Royal Navy to discuss the possibility of powering British submarines by diesel engine. Another theory is that his apparent death was a ruse staged by the British government to cover his defection to the British cause, and that he then went to Canada, worked for the Vickers shipyard in Montreal and was responsible for a sudden acceleration in its ability to produce a successful Diesel engine for submarines. Given the limited evidence at hand, his disappearance and death remain unsolved.

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Capitalism in America - 100 Books to Download (Captains of Industry)

A Prime Minister Eaten by His Own People on This Day in History

 

This day in history: Dutch statesman Johan de Witt was born on this day in 1625. However, de Witt is better known for his manner of death.

During 1672, which the Dutch refer to as the Rampjaar (disaster year), France and England declared war on the Dutch Republic in the Franco-Dutch War. De Witt was severely wounded by a knife-wielding assassin on 21 June. He resigned as Grand Pensionary on 4 August, but this was not enough for his enemies. His brother Cornelis was arrested on trumped-up charges of treason. He was tortured (as was usual under Roman-Dutch law, which required a confession before a conviction was possible) but refused to confess. Nevertheless, he was sentenced to exile. When his brother went over to the jail (which was only a few steps from his house) to help him get started on his journey, both were attacked by members of The Hague's civic militia. The brothers were shot and then left to the mob. Their naked, mutilated bodies were strung up on the nearby public gibbet, while the Orangist mob ate their roasted livers in a cannibalistic frenzy. 

In Western Christianity, regicide was far more common prior to 1200/1300. Historian Sverre Bagge* counts 20 cases of regicide between 1200 and 1800, which means that 6% of monarchs were killed by their subjects. He counts 94 cases of regicide between 600 and 1200, which means that 21.8% of monarchs were killed by their subjects.

[*The Decline of Regicide and the Rise of European Monarchy from the Carolingians to the Early Modern Period]

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