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The general consensus is that Episode #66 is a little bit awkward. Jacob lost his original recording and we re-recorded it, so some of the actual confusion was replaced with acting. You may not be able to tell the difference. Anyway…
Please enjoy Michelle Remembers, this one was a long time coming!
Much like Satan, there are many different interpretations of what a real Purple Jesus Punch is, but the one on Bar None Drinks sounds sleazy enough to be authentic. I’d normally suggest pouring yourself one before you tackle the podcast with us, but it takes 24 hours to make and your Saturday’s probably pretty full, so just consider the beverage in your inner eye.
Hell news! As of this moment there are still 22 days left to help crowdfund The Satanic Temple’s “Let Us Burn” tour, a protest tour across a number of state capitals to provide much-needed counterpoint to the “Let Us Worship” tour. Young Britons are more likely to believe in hell, according to The Guardian. How do you pronounce “Britons”? Jacob wants to know, but not enough to actually look it up. Aaand, Popular Mechanics reports on locating the entrance to hell with a combination of seismic noise tomography, ground-penetrating radar, and legends and church records. Thusfar, the back door to hell has not been opened, which may be for the best.
Onward to Satan!
A bit off topic, but honestly how would we ever know, “diabolos” is a game with a sort of double-funnel cup thing tossed about on a string. However, diabolos is also a Greek word meaning “slanderer” or “false accuser,” which rapidly became the word “devil” in the Greek translation of the Hebrew bible and the new testament…removing a lot of sublety and ultimately leading to the end of the word “satan” as a class of entity (that is, accusers/tormenting spirits) and paving the way for a single entity: The Devil, with capital letters.
The Questions of Bartholomew
(wiki) One of the Christian books that didn’t make the cut in the New Testament. Bartholomew is a conversation between Jesus and the Apostles, and talks about some of the more supernatural aspects of the Bible, including Jesus describign his own descent into hell. Salpsun, Satan’s son, is apparently unique to this book, and we are a little bit surprised he didn’t catch on. With a name like Salpsun, who wouldn’t greenlight that movie?
Apparently Bartholomew was written around 300-400 AD, so…very late in the Bible’s history, which probably didn’t help its case for canonization.. Have a translation of the Questions of Bartholomew.
New Testament Exorcisms
Apparently there are something over 60 accounts of exorcisms in the New Testament. This nice article by Robert Johnston discusses them in some detail. While only 4 or so of these were performed by Jesus himself, the NT puts some weight on how important exorcisms were to JC’s ministry. Though more of his miracles seemed to be focused on healing, so maybe that’s an after-the-fact rhetorical slant?
Some Fun Facts about Legion
Not only does Legion refer to a military unit, it may have specifically been a reference to a Roman military unit, suggesting the Jesus was stronger than Rome. But it also means “a whole lot of things,” and either use…a bunch of demons, or metaphorically the Roman military…could have been implied, “we are Legion” vs. “We are a legion.”
Something we got wrong: the piggies ran out into the sea, which is not drinkable. Wiki suggests that this is akin to pushing the demons into the abyss or otherworld.
The fact that Jesus had encountered a pig-farmer indicates that he’s operating outside Jewish territory, Working Preacher has an article on the Legion story that gives some interesting contexts: Geraseen, where the story took place, had some 80 years before been the sight of a terrible massacre,the Romans had killed a thousand men and torched the town. Jesus is actually asked to leave the area, which is held captive by the fear of the Romans and memories of their past. Another writer takes that further, suggesting that the demoniac has taken on the demons of the entire community, and lives among the tombs…another echo of the recent massacre.
Apocatastasis
1. An apocalypse that remakes the world rather than a final judgement on the world, a concept which has its origins in Origen.
2) The idea that all souls will enter heaven.
Synonyms: Origenism. So this apocalyptic universalism was clearly very tied to Origen as a figure.
Usefully, the plural of this word, SHOULD IT COME UP, is “apocatastases.”
I think Jacob already made an “Apocolocyntosis” joke, the word is a satire of apotheosis, or becoming a god. It’s from a satire by Seneca the Yuounger about the life, death, and descent to the underworld of emperor Claudius, at least according to wiki. Apocolocyntosis is one of those words that never looks like it’s spelled correctly.
Book callouts!
Satan and the Problem of Evil: From the Bible to the Early Church Fathers, by Archie Wright