Scriptor Ignotus > Recent Status Updates

"We have progressed to the point where we know better than to treat people like things. It is now time that we learn no longer to treat even things like things..."

A true "objectification" of the world as a thing-in-itself is impossible; we never "exhaust the essence" of the things we perceive, because these reflect our own consciousness in relation to them. Objectification shrinks us; participation enlarges us.

Eisenhower successfully pressured Israel - backed by the UK and France - to withdraw from Sinai (and Gaza) during the Suez Crisis in part because the Soviet crackdown on the Hungarian uprising was happening at the same time, and Ike didn't want to appear hypocritical by supporting the freedom and sovereignty of the Hungarians while denying it to the Egyptians.

Striking parallel to the situations in Gaza and Ukraine.

"[Yehoshua] Palmon . . . expressed regret that more infiltrators [i.e. native Palestinians] had not been expelled in the immediate post-war [1948] period. ‘I opposed the integration of Arabs into Israeli society,’ he said. ‘I preferred separate development.’"


Ben-Gurion's adviser on Arab affairs borrowing a term from apartheid South Africa to describe his Palestinian policy.

During the procuratorship of Cumanus (c.52), a Galilean pilgrim was murdered while traveling through Samaria for Passover. When worshipers at the Temple heard the news, they abandoned the Feast, formed a mob, and massacred several Samaritan villages, "sparing neither infants nor the aged". The Romans restored order by crucifying dozens of perpetrators.

Sure shows the Parable of the Good Samaritan in a new light.

Antipater, Herod's eldest son, relentlessly slanders his half-brothers:

"Every word uttered in Alexander's circle was immediately repeated in Antipater's, and passed on, with additions, by Antipater to Herod. . . . All [Antipater's] own friends were either naturally secretive or induced by gifts to divulge absolutely nothing: Antipater's life might fairly be described as a mystery of wickedness."

Herod recaptures Jerusalem from Antigonus with the aid of the Roman general Sosius, who delivers a sick burn:

"At this point Antigonus, paying no regard to his past or to his present position, came down from his Palace and fell at Sosius' feet. The Roman, not in the least moved by his changed situation, laughed uproariously and called him Antigone."

Herod escapes Antigonus's Parthian-backed takeover, gets the Roman Senate to unanimously name him King of the Jews, walks out of the Senate House arm-in-arm with Antony and Octavian, reconquers Judea with Roman help, remains loyal to Antony through the Actian War (despite Cleopatra whispering against him in a scheme to take his kingdom), and so impresses Octavian that the latter allows him to remain in power.

"Worship God, and ascribe not partners unto Him. And be virtuous toward parents and kinsfolk, toward orphans and the indigent, toward the neighbor who is of kin and the neighbor who is not of kin, toward the companion at your side and the traveler, and toward those whom your right hands possess. Truly God loves not one who is a vainglorious boaster, [nor] those who are miserly..." - 4:36



Based.

"O you who believe! It is not lawful for you to inherit women through coercion, nor to prevent them from marrying [again], that you may take away some of what you have given them, unless they commit a flagrant indecency. And consort with [women] in a kind and honorable way; for if you dislike them, it may be that you dislike a thing in which God has placed much good." - 4:19

^ Perhaps not altogether different from the way in which today's Israeli policymakers appeal to a supposed set of "shared values" with the United States to procure American patronage, e.g. the claim that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East; an easy enough assertion to make when you don't have to count the 5 million Palestinians living under some form of occupation.


Not trying to be controversial tho.

"When their father [John Hyrcanus] died, the eldest of [his sons], Aristobulus, turned the constitution into a monarchy, and was the first to wear a crown, 471 years and three months after the return of the nation to their own land, set free from slavery in Babylon."

The return of monarchy to the Jews marks the end of Hyrcanus's golden age. Josephus appeals to the anti-monarchical sentiments of his Roman audience.

Kind of cute that near the end of āl ʿimrān, Muhammad is instructed to go easy on the soldiers - among them, according to some traditions, prominent Companions - who fled from the Battle of Uhud after mistakenly believing that the Prophet had been killed. Interestingly enough, though, 3:144 does not reassure the Muslims that Muhammad will not be killed, but only that his death would not thwart God's purposes.

"I trapped my breath in the bellows of my throat:
a lamp blazed up inside, showed me who I really was.
I crossed the darkness holding fast to that lamp,
scattering its light-seeds around me as I went."

- Lalla, Vakh 52



- or perhaps an Apostle describing the experience of Pentecost?

"Throughout the gospels Jesus provokes confusion [even] among his disciples. . . . [He] assumes unheard-of authority. And yet he decouples this authority from the power to judge, compel or fight—the power that makes political order possible. The kingdom of God is a manifestation of power (Mark 9:1), yet it cannot be realized by the normal mechanisms of human power (legislation, punishment, war)."

"By now, even your myths have grown old … Where is Zeus? … He has grown old … See, the myth is stripped bare! … Search for your Zeus. Do not scour heaven, but earth! Callimachus the Cretan, in whose land Zeus lies buried, will tell you where his tomb is … Yes, Zeus is dead!"

- A very Nietzschian-sounding Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation 2

“Truly those who believe, and those who are Jews, and the Christians, and the Sabeans—whosoever believes in God and the Last Day and works righteousness shall have their reward with their Lord. No fear shall come upon them, nor shall they grieve.”

- (Qur'an 2:62)


Exclusivists fuming.

“The question of a limited sojourn in Hell is extremely significant, as the main body of Islamic theology accepts the possibility of believers being removed from Hell...a position adduced from passages such as 6:128; 11:107; and 78:23, [and] aḥādīth that describe intercession on behalf of the denizens of Hell that would allow them to leave it after a period of time...”

- Commentary, 2:80


Infernalists raging

"So [Iris] won over Eileithyia's heart

and they went away, stepping softly

on their feet like shy wood doves."


- Hymn to Apollo

"...And you do not will but that God wills. Truly God is Knowing, Wise (76:30); And you do not will but that God, the Lord of the worlds, wills (81:29); When My servants ask thee about Me, truly I am near. I answer the call of the caller when he calls Me. SO let them respond to Me and believe in Me, that they may be led aright (2:186)."

3/3

"...this does not nullify the prior love, which is a purely unasked-for gift. Ultimately, the 'request' for love is itself a manifestation of God's Love, in that we cannot remember God unless He 'remembers' us first. According to this interpretation, God is the mysterious author of all prayer: We are nearer o him than his jugular vein (50:16); God comes between a man and his heart (8:24); . . ."

2/

"For some mystics, such as Ibn Arabi, supplicatory prayer brings into being possibilities that would not have been manifested but for that prayer. Go's compassionate Love (Rahmah) encompasses all things (7:156), and included in that infinite range of love is the love that responds only when a request is made, as in 2:152: Remember Me, and I shall remember you; . . . "

1/

Some Qur'anic verses seem to deny the efficacy of intercessory prayer, while others seem to affirm it. One might reconcile these contrasting statements by holding that any power of intercession comes directly from God, Who is Himself the Author of all prayer. Our requests for God's mercy are themselves a manifestation of God's mercy.

"There is no coercion in religion. Sound judgment has become clear from error. So whosoever disavows false deities and believes in God has grasped the most unfailing handhold, which never breaks. And God is Hearing, Knowing." (2:256)

Islam and Christianity both claim, in some sense, to restore an original "Abrahamism," rooted in pure faith and obedience to the One God and free from the parochial squabbles and customary accretions with which it was thought to have been corrupted by successive generations. The Qur'an refers to Abraham and those like him who preceded its appearance as ḥunafā (sing. ḥanīf): renunciates.

"Say [to Jews and Christians], 'Will you dispute with us concerning God, while He is our Lord and your Lord? Unto us our deeds and unto you your deeds, and we are sincere toward Him.' Or say you that Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes were Jews or Christians? Say, 'Do you know better, or does God?' . . . Thus did We make you a middle community..."

- (al-Baqarah 2:139-140, 143)

Basmallah:

God: Divine Essence
Compassion: the summation of the Divine Attributes (general)
Mercy: the character of the Divine Acts (particular)


The Lord's Prayer:

Our Father: God, the Absolute, the Fountainhead of Divinity, etc.
Thy Name: Christ, the Logos, the perfection of all Divine Qualities
Thy Kingdom: the Life and Action of the Logos in and through the Holy Spirit

2/2

Al-Fātiḥah, the first surah, may be likened to the Lord's Prayer in the sense that both are said to encapsulate the essence of their respective religions. Intriguingly, both the basmallah ("In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful,") and the opening of the Lord's Prayer are conjectured to have a tripartite structure: 1/2

"The Quran is like an ocean into which Muslims plunge, but whose depth can never be fully reached. . . . [It] is the Quran that encompasses or 'comprehends' the reader, while the reader can never fully encompass the Quran. The Quran is like a net cast into the world of multiplicity in order to bring us back to the world of Unity, which is infinite."

- Seyyed Hossein Nasr

I've read two different English translations of the Quran before, but never in depth or with the benefit of extensive commentary. This edition seems very well put together, so I'm going to take my time reading through the text, commentaries, and accompanying essays. The journey may continue well into next year.

"Nevertheless, [God] has provided each of us with an individual guardian deity, which stays by our side and is in charge of looking after us - a guardian who never sleeps and is impossible to distract. Is there any guardian to whose care he could have committed us that is better or more vigilant?"

- Discourses (1.14.12-13)

Epictetus believed in guardian angels. How 'bout that.