06.30.09
Posted in Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, History, Playing the Tourist, Uncategorized at 12:39 am by Administrator
I realized that I almost forgot that I wanted to continue my post on “The Apostles Were Here.” I have a few more pictures of places where the Bible indicates that the Apostle Paul visited or were at least mentioned in the NT. Here’s a picture of Pergamum, which is also known today as Bergama.
Notice the white portion at the base of the columns. They believe that all of the structure was white like that, with the under portions being the stones that are currently shown. Not much of the ruins are left here. Actually a lot of it is now on display in Germany at the Pergamonmuseum in Berlin. I think they took the whole Great Alter of Pergamom during the time when there were no restrictions on taking artifacts out of various countries. Wiki has a picture of it. It’s believed that this is the alter that was dedicated to Zeus and which John referred to in Revelation as “Satan’s Throne.” I don’t know how accurate that really is, but that’s what wiki claims. . .
Here’s another angle of it on the other side with Andrew standing there.
This is the walkway from the library going to the theater.
About three kilometers from here is Asklepion. It was a famous hospital in ancient times and is believed to be the first psychiatric hospital. Here’s a picture of one of the columns which depicts the “medical symbol.”
The treatments included were not quite like today’s modern hospitals and is believed to have included treatments like psychotherapy, massage, herbal treatments, bathing treatments which included mud, dream interpretations, and drinking of special waters. It’s said to be more like a spa today. Here’s another shot of the “facility.”
Some of the famous people who were believed to have been treated here were Marcus Aurelius and Hadrian.
The famous Galen, who was born in Pergamum in 129 A.D., trained at Asklepion and later became an attendant for the Gladiators.
Then moving along to Hieropolis near Pamukkale is the city that is supposed to have been frequented by the citizens of Laodicea. This area has the natural thermal spas, so this location had baths, a library, and a gymnasium.
My boys and I are standing under the archway. Off to the left of the picture are some columns. Here’s another shot showing what’s behind those colums more.
This is one of the locations where the Apostle Paul started an early church. Philip the Apostle is thought to have spent the last years of his life in Hieropolis with his daughters before he was martyred by crucifixion and buried there. I’ve got some pictures of Necropolis, which is a short distance from here. I’m not sure if he was buried there, but that is a burial ground for the people at the time.
Then finally, I have some pictures of a place that is “mentioned” in the Bible, but not necessarily a place where the Apostles visited. This place is mentioned in the Book of Acts when the holy spirit comes upon the Apostles and they start to speak in tongues. It says that there were people from different places who heard the Apostles speaking in their own languages. One of those peoples mentioned were “Cappadocians.” Acts seems to indicate that they were God-fearing Jews. Cappadocia is located more centrally in Turkey and the dwelling are mostly carved into the rocks. Here’s a picture of one location.
It’s a little hard to see it in this picture as it’s shrunken down to fit the blog, but the little dark spots on the rocks are entrances to the rocks.
Here’s another shot.
And another.
And another with Aaron and me off to the side.
Those pokey rock structures are carved into and made into dwellings. Apparently the type of stone is easily carved. These particular structures are known as the “fairy chimneys.”
There was another more extensive visitor area for Cappadocia, which they did not allow photography inside, but we were able to tour inside. Here’s a pic of Brian coming down from one of the structures. If memory serves me correctly, the area Brian was coming down from was one of the communal dining areas.
And I think that’s all the pictures this one blog post will stand for, so good night for now.
Marlakins
P.S. I almost forgot to mention that the name Cappadocia means something like “land of beautiful horses.” And we did see some wild horses still roaming about there. . . Oh, and it was also here in Cappadocia where we saw camels just walking along the roads, heheh. Well, they weren’t unattended, but still was different to see camels out like you would see horses out. Eh, well yeah, camels are supposed to be out, but I’m more used to seeing horses. . .
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06.27.09
Posted in Book Reviews, Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, History, Uncategorized, knitting and crocheting at 6:32 pm by Administrator
The weather is great here in Los Angeles today! After running errands I got a chance to finish reading Sven Lindqvist’s book “Exterminate All the Brutes” One Man’s Odyssey Into the Heart of Darkness and the Origins of European Genocide. Talk about brilliant! I liked Lindqvist’s writing style, and the information he presents and the subsequent conclusions he draws is definitely food for thought. When I first started to read Adam Hochschild’s book King Leopold’s Ghost, I was amazed because like the author, I was completely unaware of any major killing grounds in Africa (aside from the more recent 1994 Rwandan genocide). Hochschild wrote how he first came to learn about this in his introduction. This is what he writes:
“I knew almost nothing about the history of the Congo until a few years ago[Hochschild's book was published in 1998], when I noticed a footnote in a book I happened to be reading. Often, when you come across something particularly striking, you remember just where you were when you read it. On this occasion I was sitting, stiff and tired, late at night, in one of the far rear seats of an airliner crossing the United States from east to west.
“The footnote was to a quotation by Mark Twain, written, the note said, when he was part of the worldwide movement against slave labor in the Congo, a practice that had taken eight to ten million lives. Worldwide movement? Eight to ten million lives? I was startled.
“Statistics about mass murder are often hard to prove. But if this number turned out to be even half as high, I thought, the Congo would have been one of the major killing grounds of modern times. Why were these deaths not mentioned in the standard litany of our century’s horrors? And why had I never before heard of them? I had been writing about human rights for years, and once, in the course of half a dozen trips to Africa, I had been to the Congo.”
When I read Hochschild’s book, I was amazed. It really made a lot of sense out of the little bit I knew of Africa and the little bits and pieces I would see through our media (which was hard to make any sense of). If reading his book blew my mind, the added revelations Lindqvist makes in his book, “Exterminate All the Brutes,” has left me flabbergasted. Lindqvist asserts that it’s not more information we need as we have plenty of that. What we need is “the courage to understand what we know and draw conclusions.” And Oh my God, it suddenly starts to bring more meaning to me when Jesus gave us a new commandment to “love God with all our hearts and minds, and to love one another as He has loved us.” If only Christians would truly understand what that means and do it. And I can also understand now what the ramifications of Israel asking God for their own nations lead by a “human” king would lead to and why God was so displeased with that request. I want to study the wars and the genocides mentioned in the Bible and see if what I’ve been learning helps me to understand that more.
I don’t feel ready to write all my comments on Lindqvist’s book yet. All I know is I got to the last page and thought, “Wow. I need to let this info soak in a bit.” What a powerful revelation it is to me, and while I do have another book sitting here ready for me to start into, I think I have to let Lindqvist’s book settle first. I will definitely be looking into his other books. One in particular that looks interesting is called, A History of Bombing. Maybe tomorrow I’ll start on Scott Peterson’s book Me Against My Brother: At War in Somalia, Sudan, and Rwanda.
But. . . before I log out, I also managed to finish Brian’s gansey. Here’s a pic of it as it looked just last week.
Here it is completed with Brian modeling it for me, heheh.
And this is just a side shot to show the sleeve and the shoulder strap.
Okay, dinner’s ready, so I’m off!
Marlakins
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06.26.09
Posted in Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, Historical Trivia, Uncategorized at 10:46 am by Administrator
What a shock it was to hear that Michael Jackson passed away yesterday. It was strange and sad enough to learn that Farrah Fawcett had passed, but then the same afternoon the news of Michael Jackson’s death was plastered all over the net. I remember when Farrah Fawcett was one of Charlie’s Angels. I used to watch it regularly, and so when she died, it was strange and sad. For a moment old feelings of when I was much younger watching her TV series came to mind. Then the news of Michael appeared, and although I no longer have any of his albums and know that he had a bizarre life, I felt moved to tears. I don’t really know why, but again old feelings of when I was much younger re-surfaced and it’s like a part of my history has gone. Strange, since I never personally knew Michael, but I suspect that millions of people are feeling a similar way, too. How many parties have many of us been to where Michael’s beat was electrifying the room. His Thriller album was popular while I was in high school. He had been around for so long, that I remember listening to him as a child up to even after I got married. I liken Michael’s passing to Elvis Presley’s death. I still remember where I was when I heard the news of Presley’s death–in a hotel room of Circus Circus in Las Vegas. I remember pulling out my journal and writing of his death in there. Now the world must be buzzing about Michael’s passing. How many times has his name been spoken and written down today? I would venture to say that relatively few people get world-wide recognition at their passing. Then again, how many people affect as many other people as Michael had? And to think that just recently I’ve been reading a book called, “Exterminate All the Brutes” by Sven Lindqvist where I was just thinking how many millions and millions of people have died in oblivion.
Regardless of our popularity or social status we all have a common end. In Lindqvist’s book he wrote of death when he thought he might die in a sand storm. This is what he wrote:
“Death was not included in my education. In twelve years of schooling and fifteen at various universities, I was never given any education in the art of dying. I don’t even think death was ever mention. . .
“. . .The Norwegian philosopher Tonnesen said that to think about anything except death is evasion. Society, art, culture, the whole of human civilization is nothing but evasion, one great collective self-delusion, the intention of which is to make us forget that all the time we are falling through the air, at every moment getting closer to death.
“Some of us get there in a few seconds, others in a few days, others in a few years–but that is a matter of indifference. The point in time is a matter of indifference; what is decisive is that the end awaits us all.
“What should I do during my remaining time? Tonnesen would have answered, ‘Nothing.’ He believed to be born is to jump off a skyscraper. But life is not like jumping off a skyscraper. It’s not seven seconds you have, but seven decades. That is enough to experience and achieve a good deal.
“The shortness of life should not paralyze us, but stop us from diluted, unconcentrated living. The task of death is to force man into essentials.
“That was how I felt when I was still not yet thirty and had a long way to go down to the paving stones below. I did not even see them. Now I can see them rushing up toward me and feel myself falling headlong.
“Then I realize something was missing in my education. Why have I never learned how to die?”
Of course we all know Lindqvist is right that eventually all of us will one day die. Well, technically speaking maybe a few such as those who get taken up in the rapture won’t have to suffer death. But for the most part we will have to endure passing from this life to the next. Until then what a great reminder there is in Lindqvist’s writings that “the shortness of life should not paralyze us, but stop us from diluted, unconcentated living.” While we still live and breath there is so much good we can do even if it seems insignificant at first blush. We are told in Micah 6:8 how God wants us to live our lives. And He doesn’t ask of anything too complicated from us that no matter who we are or how famous or not-so-famous we are we can all easily live as He hopes for us. I believe that if we follow the simple things God has shown us in Micah 6:8, we will live the fullest life.
“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”
Marlakins
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06.24.09
Posted in Book Reviews, Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, Uncategorized at 11:40 pm by Administrator
It took me a while, but I finally finished reading Noli Me Tangere by Jose Rizal. This book was originally written in Spanish and published in 1887. The English version I read was republished in 2006. The reason why I wanted to read this book was because it is part of Philippine history. During my trips to the Philippines my interest in Philippine history was kindled, and I learned a lot about my own native history that I never knew.
Jose Rizal is considered one of the Philippines’ revolutionaries. He believed in non-violent reform, yet his martyrdom is believed to have been the catalyst of the Philippine Revolution. Rizal was the founder of the Philippine League (La Liga Filipina), which was part of the propaganda movement in Manila. The more radical members were secessionists and wanted to break ties with Spain. This group was called the Katipunan and was known as “KKK” (Kataas-taasang, Kagalang-galangang Katipunan ng̃ mg̃á Anak ng̃ Bayan). The word “Katipunan” comes from the root word “tipon”, an indigenous Tagalog word, meaning: to “collect” or “gather together”.Spain had been occupying the Philippines since the 1500s, and the Philippines was considered a Spanish colony for 300 years. Rizal’s books, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo inspired dissent amongst the revolutionaries. These books were social commentaries on the Philippines, and as a result, he was arrested and imprisoned in Fort Santiago, and later executed on December 30, 1896 at the age of 35.
As a social commentary, Noli Me Tangere focused on the interaction of the local people with the Catholic priests and the government officials. The Filipino people were looked down upon by the Spaniards, especially the priests who pretty much had control over the government. To illustrate this, Rizal weaves the stories of various Filipino characters of varying social classes and how they are affected and destroyed by the authority of the Catholic priests who were representatives of Spain. Rizal does a good job of illustrating how it made no difference to the Spanish what social class one was in if he was Filipino, or as the Spanish referred to the local Filipinos, Indios. At their whim, the priests and the civil guards could ruin lives from the rich to the poor, the educated or the non-educated.
One thing that stood out to me in this book was how it’s common for some oppressed people to want to emulate their oppressors. This reminds me of a Bible passage, James 2:6, where James says, “But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?” Interestingly, this is an admonition 2000 years ago, which we still deal with today. In the book Noli Me Tangere there were characters like Dona Consolacion, the Alferez’s wife, and Dona Victorina de de Espandana, the fake doctor Tiburcio Espadana’s wife. They were so bent on “social status,” that they had no shame for their behavior. Dona Consolacion went so far as to whip a mentally deranged woman just because her status allowed her the power to do so, and Dona Victorina went to extremes to “pretend” she was upper class and even employed fake accents while speaking. Noli was written about 100 years ago, yet, I know we still have people today who want to emulate the rich, while at the same time despising the poor. People go to church and pray to God for “blessings,” which boils down to wanting monetary increases to live luxuriously. But the Bible tells us that the root of all sorts of evil is money. Why do we continue to strive for wealth and riches? I know this behavior is not limited to Filipinos as I’ve seen and read about it with other nationalities, too, such as Mexicans who like to claim that they have Spanish blood in them (Filipinos do the same thing), and from my readings on Africa, there are also Africans who try to emulate their oppressors by also wanting to become rich and rise to the “lord” status. Some explaining that they would rather be the “hunter” than the “hunted.” The U.S’s current economic woes are largely due to loans and credit advances, which again boils down to money and the aspiration of wealth. It’s the American dream. It’s the driving force of free market captialism. It’s particularly disturbing to see that despite the Biblical warning against aspiring for wealth, many mega churches have done just that–preach for money. And millions of people regularly participate in the lottery. Why? Because they want to strike it rich. . . It’s a common theme. Many of us crave the very thing that causes oppression.
For anyone interested in Filipino history, I do recommend this book. It started out a little slow for me because I didn’t like all the “social politics” involved and especially all the religious rituals that was entrenched in the Philippine culture. I find it mentally and emotionally draining to have to try to figure out what it means to behave a certain way or what a certain expression meant. It’s much easier when people are more straight forward with one another than having to play games with how something is said to try to facilitate a desired response. This was one of the games the men played during one of their town meetings, where one man was sorely disliked by one group, so knowing this he said the opposite of what he wanted to say knowing that they would reject his idea. Well, I guess that’s just the way it is in many cultures even in the U.S. So, I guess that’s not so unusual, but it did make for slower reading for me in the beginning. The latter half of the book flowed faster for me because more action started to take place. But when I got to the end, my first reaction was, “What kind of a story was that?” Then I thought it over and realized that that was the point, nothing was resolved; and if no change was made in the government and the priests, then things would continue to be the same and nothing would be resolved. In that light I could see that the book did make sense. And the sad endings for the main characters involved made it easy to stir up thoughts that change was sorely needed. I can see why Noli Me Tangere was a powerful propaganda tool.
Marlakins
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06.23.09
Posted in Uncategorized, food and restaurants at 9:36 pm by Administrator
Today it finally feels like summer weather has arrived. Even as late as this past weekend we were still having June gloom. We celebrated Father’s Day at Gladstones in Malibu and it was kinda gloomy, but humid that day. Gladstone’s is right off of PCH, but I got a picture of the ocean side of it.
Although it has the same name, the Gladstone’s at City Walk is not part of this Gladstone’s. From this picture, the gloomy weather shows pretty well. While we waited for the rest of our party, I went out and took some pictures of the birds. Here’s one I got of the seagulls.
And here’s a pic of a couple pigeons.
Here’s a pic of my sister with my boys.
And for those of you who haven’t visited Gladstone’s, but are considering it and wonder what their menu is like, here are a few of their dishes. This one is the lobster tail and filet mignon.
They have a fresh fish of the day section and one of them was mahi mahi in tempura sauce.
Another one of their fresh catches of the day was steel head trout.
Swordfish was another fresh catch of the day.
Some of the regular daily dishes were the shrimp and scallop.
Here’s another regular dish called the “sampler.”
The other guys already started digging in their dishes so I chucked the camera and started to munch, too, heheh. But I did manage to grab a shot of my sisters splitting a Sundae.
I think I can squeeze one more picture here, so here’s one with Brian and me.
That’s my mom on the other side of me. The rocks sticking out behind Brian is where I took the pictures of the seagulls.
Well, hope everyone had a nice Father’s Day! Hmmm. Now what’s the next occasion for celebration? Oh yeah, I think 4th of July is next. . . No plans arraigned for that day yet, but it’s just around the corner, so better get a move on.
Marlakins
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06.22.09
Posted in Book Reviews, Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, God, Uncategorized at 1:00 am by Administrator
Okay, so I did another one of my reading-like-an-idiot routines. I just finished reading Frank Schaeffer’s book, Zermatt, and was looking for the 3rd book in this trilogy when I found that I had just read the third part. Apparently, Saving Grandma is the second of the trilogy, not the third, so I read this out of order. Why I got that confused, I don’t know, but anyhoo, I just finished reading Zermatt and found it hilarious, but kind of sad, too. As part three of the Calvin Becker trilogy, Zermatt is a continuation of Calvin Becker’s coming of age story amidst his reformed Protestant missionary family. Normally, coming-of-age stories aren’t my first choice topics to read about, but since Calvin’s coming-of-age is intertwined with being part of a reformed Protestant family, I find the story much more interesting.
The story starts out funny enough because Calvin is part of such a bizarre family. It’s like how the Munsters are so different that the family itself is amusing to watch, and Calvin’s growing interest in females and how that conflicts with his religious upbringing just adds to the comedy. However, what I like about the story is that it goes beyond just the coming-of-age theme and delves into theological issues seen through the eyes of a young man. I also find the interplay between the male and the female characters interesting and reminds me of the book, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, especially the one dinner discussion scene where Ralph is telling the women “how men are very different from women.” I think it is widely accepted that men and women are very different and handle life situations differently, however what caught my interest even further was where Ralph’s conversation starts to point out that women want to take over or control situations. Here’s a portion of that conversation.
“‘. . . and I tried,’ Dad was saying when I tuned back in, ‘I really did, kids, but then something began to happen and I started to see how this woman, who had driven me nuts, was going to drive you kids nuts too.
“‘Well, it was already too late for my daughters.’ Dad glanced at my sisters, then looked back up to the window tops. ‘Elsa had you girls wrapped around her little finger. Then I started to watch Calvin. At first I saw Elsa and you girls were only trying to turn him into a pietistic idiot. I figured what the hell. But after that the ‘Talks’ started. And suddenly I realized what Elsa was trying to do was to turn Calvin into a girl!’ Dad looked at Mom and his voice got loud and harsh. ‘Yes! Don’t deny it! You wanted him to be a girl because women are the real leaders of the Protestant churches and have been since that bitch Carry Nation started driving men out of bars with an ax! Oh sure, you let a man preach from the pulpit, but who drags all the men to church every Sunday? Who runs the show? Who does the preacher have to please unless he wants to get kicked out?’”
That portion hit me because I have heard about comments from pastors that women are more godly than men because women tend to go to church more often than men, and it’s the women who generally drag the men to church. What piques my interest in this is the concept in the Bible that men are to be the leaders, not the women. The explanation being that women are more easily deceived than men as evidenced by Eve being deceived by the serpent. That concept coupled with my belief that church meetings should have an atmosphere similar to Paul’s description of church order in 1 Cor 14. The atmosphere should allow for men to have discussions, unlike how our modern-day churches leave no room for group discussions in favor of only one speaker, the pastor, while all the men just sit there passively and do nothing. When I think of it, why do women have to drag men to church? But no woman has to drag a man to a bar. What do men do at bars? Well, one of the things they commonly do is “converse” with each other, sharing news and other events. Men tend to want to know what’s going on, and they will gather together for that purpose “without” being dragged there by women. Maybe this is a more natural setting for men and why early churches were set up so that men could converse about the faith in a similar fashion, rather than just sit there and be “preached at.”
Another part that stood out to me was earlier in the same discussion where Ralph was pointing out the sexual nature of men. He calls to mind certain men of the Bible.
“‘But I ask you girls: Who was the man after God’s own heart?’ Dad waited. No one spoke. ‘I’m talking to you, Elsa,’ snapped Dad, and he stopped smiling.
“‘King David,’ whispered Mom.
“‘Ha! And was he some kind of eunuch? Did he talk about his ‘Little Thing’ and his ‘Precious Seeds’? No! Damn your stupid euphemisms! He charged, dick out straight into the Philistine throng, then speared himself everything in a skirt that moved! They were still bringing him virgins to warm his bed when that horny old bastard was a wrinkled geezer and lay dying! And Solomon was just like the old man. What did he have, Elsa, a thousand wives and concubines? Don’t forget the concubines, Elsa! We’re not talking about chopped liver!’”
This part brings to my mind people who think that just covering up women’s bodies makes much of a difference to men’s sexual desires. Sure I understand that men are visual and will look at female bodies especially when exposed, but who are we kidding? Even when women are covered from head to toe, men will still think about women’s bodies and wonder “what’s under all the cloth? Calvin’s character is a perfect example of that. The more the women tried to “hide” their womanly things, the more Calvin was curious about what they were hiding! Regardless of whether he was exposed to outright nudity or not, his mind was consumed with the thoughts of women and their body parts. It’s my impression that when we start to go overboard with all this modesty stuff then we’ll probably end up like the Muslim women wrapped up from head to foot with only holes for eyes. And knowing that our bodies need sunlight to be healthy it seems a contradiction that God would make our bodies require sunlight for health then turn around and require that we cover up so much that no sunlight could hit our skin. We know that one of the best sources of Vit D is sunlight to the skin. Now this is not to say that I think we should not have some discernment about what we expose ourselves to, especially our children. But I do think it says something about moderation in all things.
The part I thought was sad in the book was when Ralph thinks he’s the cause of Calvin’s “sin” and punishes himself. The poor guy is already miserable and trying to “free” himself, but ends up back where he was trying to get away from, and then living with guilt to boot. But in actuality, I would say, “Doesn’t God say to confess our sins and He is faithful to forgive us?” Then why must he flog himself? And along this thread of the story, it sure makes Elsa look horrible. What an evil and conniving women she turns out to be! Yikes! Doesn’t put a good light on Protestant women. . . yeeesh.
And finally, while there could be a few more things to discuss, I’ll just comment on one more aspect of the book–the idea that there is no truth or reality, but just words we use to describe our experiences. I will argue from the biblical standpoint that there is truth. There are actually quite a few references to truth in the Bible, but I’ll just pick out a couple.
John 8:31
Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; 32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
God’s Word is truth, but we can be mislead as Satan is constantly trying to mislead us. And what better trick is there than to have us believe that there is no truth? This world is too complicated to have formed by itself from nothing. So if something out there formed this world, then He has the truth.
2 Timothy 2:15
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
How do I rate Zermatt? Hmm, not a book I would have children read. . . But, I did find it entertaining and even theologically engaging. I would recommend it to any mature person who is willing to honestly look at and evaluate his/her own religious beliefs.
Marlakins
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06.19.09
Posted in Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, Historical Trivia, Playing the Tourist, Uncategorized, museums at 4:44 pm by Administrator
While writing my post yesterday of our visit to the Pompeii exhibit at the LACMA, it had dawned on me that Pompeii was a town that was contemporary with the Apostles in the Bible. I wish I had thought about that while looking at the artwork because it would have been a nice reference to think that these artifacts were the types of things that was likely commonly seen by the Apostles and even Jesus. Like a dope it only hit me while I was at home typing that Pompeii and the surrounding cities that were buried by the Vesuvius eruption around 79AD was just around the time parts of the NT were written. For instance there was a herm head of Gaius Julias Cesear and Nero, who was likely the emperor of Rome during the days Jesus walked the earth and who Paul appealed to. I believe this is the same Nero who is thought to have later killed both Peter and Paul. So in this light I wanted to continue my blog post from yesterday by putting up a few pictures we took during our trip to Turkey. These select pictures are areas from which I believe the Apostles must have visited at one point in time or at least seen similar sculptures and peoples dressed in this fashion.
Often when I think of “holy land tours,” I think of Israel. But really there are other places that are specifically mentioned in the NT such as the “seven churches of Asia” which is referred to in Revelation. These churches in Asia minor are where we know today as Turkey. One of the most popular sites is Ephesus, the location whereby Paul had written his letter to the church of the Ephesians in the NT. Here’s one of the walkways going towards the Ephesian Library.
I’m standing off to the right with with a black top, and my left hand on one of the stone carvings. Further down this path will be the Ephesus Library.
Here’s a view of what is left of the Ephesus Library.
I believe Ephesus and Alexandria were the more popular intellectual centers during their time. The Ephesians were known to be intellectuals, and the first recorded librarian was Zenodotus (284 to 260 BC) of Ephesus. However, he was librarian at the Library of Alexandria about 250 years before Jesus and the Apostles came onto the scene. I’m sure Paul must have been here at the Library at Ephesus before and walked through these roads and buildings. Here’s the sign that was posted off to the left of the Library.
I took a lot of pictures at Ephesus, but have too many to put on the blog. However, I really liked this picture of Aaron sitting at the steps of the Library at Ephesus. We were there in 2006 May, and it’s funny to see how young he looks here compared to now and it’s only been three years ago. He was about 12 in this picture and now he’s 15. What a difference three years makes on a child!
Another area we visited that was mentioned in the Bible was Colossae. In the NT Paul wrote to the church of Colosse in his epistle to the Colossians. We stayed at the Colossae Thermal Hotel and visited their hot springs at Pamukkale. The warm water apparently has a high level of calcium and thus creates their “cotton castle.” More pictures of Pamukkale can be seen at Wiki. People are allowed to walk through the hot springs as the water trickles down. We found that this is a popular vacation site for Germans and there were lots of German gals running around in the bikinis here, heheh. I didn’t wear a bikini, but I did take a walk along the springs. Here’s a pic of me with my pants slightly rolled up. All the white is the calcium deposits, and my shoes are off because there’s water streaming down which might be hard to see in this picture.
Pamukkale is very close to Colossae, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Paul had visited this place. I have no idea if it was like this back then, but who knows?
Another place Paul visited along with Barnabas was Perge or Perga as mentioned in Acts. Here’s a picture of what the ruins look like now.
The path up ahead has grooves in the walkway which is believed to have been for the chariot wheels as they passed through Perge. Many of the sculptures and statues have been removed and are now displayed in the Antalya Museum, which I’ll attach some pictures from there as well. They allowed unlimited photography, which I think is so neat. Anyway, back to Perge, they also had bath houses there. Here’s a pic of me sitting in one of the bath house areas. It can be barely seen in this picture, but I’m holding a red poppy. They were all over the place in Turkey, and I just loved them!
Okay so here’s a picture from the Antalya Museum where the sculptures from Perge were taken and are now on display. Funny how my skirt matched the wall paint, heheh. I had no idea it was going to be that color in there. . .
These were the kinds of statues that were in Perge, and what the Apostle Paul and Barnabas might have seen while walking through there. I tried to look up what the name is for those Roman skirts, and according to Hadrians.com those skirts are also known as “kilts.” Hmm. And here I thought those only referred to the Celtic kilts.
Here’s another shot of more Roman statues wearing kilts.
Out of curiosity I looked up “Roman underwear.” Just curious to know what they wore under those kilts. According to Hadrians.com they often didn’t wear underwear, yikes! Well, that’s not to say that they never wore anything underneath as Hadrians.com states that:
“The closest article of clothing to modern underwear was a pair of shorts or loincloth called a subligaculum.
“Both men and women wore the subligaculum or subligar, at least some of the time”
Well, I think I’d better start working on dinner, so will quit here for now. Come to think of it, I still have more pictures of places in Asia Minor that was mentioned in the Bible such as Pergamum. So I’ll try to continue on another post with those.
In case I don’t get back online this weekend, hope everyone has a Happy Father’s Day!
Marlakins
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06.18.09
Posted in History, Uncategorized, museums at 8:14 pm by Administrator
It’s been a while since I’ve visited the LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art), but since they are currently holding a Pompeii exhibit, we decided to go take a peek. There seems to be constant construction somewhere on the LACMA grounds. Funny how in the midst of a recession, the museum seems to be “growing.” Here’s a picture of one of their new buildings. Not sure what’s in there, yet, but maybe I’ll head back there and check it out.
The Pompeii exhibit was not housed in the above building, but rather across the way. Here’s a pic of the “other” parts of the LACMA. The Pompeii exhibit was housed in the white building in the center behind the palm trees .
For anyone who hasn’t visited the LACMA, this is what part of the entrance looks like.
I found the exhibit very nice and enlightening, however, was disappointed that they did not allow photography in this exhibit. So like my post on the Terra Cotta Army exhibit at the Bowers, the few shots I was able to get were the murals of the Pompeii archaelogical sites such as these.
And this.
Like many others, I’ve always found the story of Pompeii fascinating. I remember the stories my history teacher spoke of regarding how during the excavation they found “holes” in the ground and didn’t know why they were there or what they were for. So they decided to pour plaster down the holes, which they later dug up after the plaster hardened. What they found was that the holes were where people had been buried in the ash from the Vesuvius eruption. Apparently, the people died there and then got covered in ash. Later as their bodies decomposed, cavities in the earth were left in the shapes of their bodies. When years later the achaeologists poured plaster down into those holes, the plaster filled those spaces and reformed the shapes of the bodies of the fallen. Wiki has some pictures of these plaster casts under their “rediscovery” section. Knowing that I might never visit the “real” Pompeii, I really looked forward to visiting this exhibit. This tour included an audio tour, which I thought was a nice touch. Aaron snuck a picture of me here at the very end of the tour just before I returned the headsets.
Fortunately, the boys seemed to enjoy this exhibit, too. The exhibit consisted of many sculptures, paintings, frescos, some jewelry, home furnishings like miniature figurines and ribbon glass (a type of mosaic glass). They also had many herm-heads on display including one of Gaius Julius Cesar and Nero. I always find it a treat to be able to “see” what these people may have looked like. I realize that these sculptures aren’t always very accurate to real life, but some do give their likeness. And so I found it interesting to see Nero’s herm-head, which was kinda chunckier than I had imagined he might have really been like. Well, I never thought what he might have really looked like, but still it was interesting. There was a fresco depiciting food, which my boys all noticed. I think they got a kick seeing the seafood array which included “squid.” I think that caught their eye because it showed them that squid isn’t just a Filipino food, heheheh. The placard read that the Greeks and Romans liked seafoods so they raised their own right in their villas. Some of their figurines are believed to have come from visiting other cities and used to decorated their houses much like we decorate our houses today with vacation souvenirs. It’s such a shame that they didn’t allow photography to share. That’s one thing I liked about Turkey and the London Museum–they allowed lots of photography.
Evidently, after Vesuvius erupted, Pompeii was one of the cities that got completely buried under the ash. It is believed that the city was buried about 60 feet under ash and due to that, many relics were well preserved. It’s amazing to me to think that Pompeii was buried and forgotten for about 1700 years until it was accidentally re-discovered. Fortunately, writings from people like Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger document much information on Pompeii and the Vesuvius eruption. Thus it is recorded that the Vesuvius eruption occurred around 79AD. That made me think of the Bible and how the NT was written around that time. Welll, actually it’s believed that the NT writings were written around 70AD, so the Vesuvuis eruption would have occurred about 10 years afterwards. But even so, that made me think that much of their living conditions would have been something the Apostles were familiar with. The people of Pompeii may have been contemporaries of the Apostles. Just that thought makes it a double shame that no pictures were allowed. . . wah. BUT now that I think of it, I do have some pictures I took in Turkey of some places where the Apostles likely visited, including Ephesus where Paul definitely walked the roads. Hmmmm. I’ll try to dig up some of my Turkey trip pictures and post that in my next post. . .
Okay, Andrew and I have a program to watch, so I’ll hunt those pictures down later and make another blog post to continue my thoughts on some areas that the Apostles must have seen during their lives here on earth. Thank God the museums in Turkey were generous enough to allow unlimited photography. . . at least I can share those.
So toodles for now.
Marlakins
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06.17.09
Posted in Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, Uncategorized, hobbies at 1:17 am by Administrator
I’m currently in between books, but I do have some on hold at the library, which I should be able to pick up soon. I found a couple titles that I’m looking forward to reading–Exterminate All the Brutes: One Man’s Odyssey into The Heart of Darkness and the Origins of European Genocide by Sven Lindquist and Me Against My Brother: At War in Somalia, Sudan, and Rwanda by Scott Peterson to name a couple. The reviews looked intriguing, so we’ll see when I get a chance to read the books if they will enlighten me more. I’m sure they should. . . I’ve always been interested in learning about different cultures, but for some reason I never really learned much about Africa, so now I’m getting my fill.
I have always found different cultures fascinating because not only do we all speak different languages, but the different cultures shape the languages we speak and thus no two languages can be translated word for word into the equivalent meanings. I ran into one example of this in the latest book I read, A Fist Full of Diamonds by John B. Robinson. On page 140 Alice and Lonny meet an injured priest who just went through a barrage of gunfire. Alice asked what he was doing there and this is the following paragraph:
“The priest responded in a flat monotone: ‘Tomorrow they hacked my congregation.’ It was unclear exactly what ‘tomorrow’ meant. Lonny could tell the priest was thinking in his own language. In Kinyarwandan, ejo means both yesterday and tomorrow. . .”
I can relate to the part about “thinking in his own language” when speaking another language because since I grew up speaking English as my first language whenever I try to speak in Tagalog or Spanish I am thinking in English. And I can see why some people use the wrong words when speaking in a foreign language but still thinking in their own language. For instance years ago my Italian teacher was sharing a story of when he stayed at a friend’s house while visiting Italy. He asked the lady of the house if “he could take a shower.” And that’s how he translated it in Italian. The woman replied in Italian, “Where do you want to take the shower?” As if he was going to “take” the shower like you take a book somewhere. He had used the wrong word because he was thinking in English and was using our American way of thinking/speaking. So in that instance while he did translate “word” for “word,” the meaning was wrong. One thing I’ve noticed about Filipinos is that they tend to confuse or interchange the pronouns “he” and “she.” I think the reason for that is because they don’t commonly use “he” and “she” in Tagalog like we do in English. He or she is “shia.” I’m not sure if I’m spelling that right, but basically it’s one word for both he and she. And to say “his” and “hers” is also the same–Ang kanyia, for both male and female. Aaron has been studying Mandarin, and he has told me that they don’t have “yes” like we do. So if you ask a question like, “Are you going to the store?” Then you don’t answer yes or no like we do in English. If the answer is “yes,” then you answer, “I go to the store.” There is no “yes.”
Soooo, back to my Kinyarwandan example. Not only are words not equivalently translated from language to language, but so are “cultural ideas” not easily translated. After all, I think it’s a very foreign concept to use the “same” word in English for “yesterday” and “tomorrow.” In English those two words are very distinctly different, but apparently not in Kinyarwandan. I think about these things when reading the Bible. The New Testament was originally written in Greek, but some words are not completely interchangeable with English words. One example is the word “love.” The original Greek had two words for love–agape and phileo. Some Greek scholars claim that the difference between the two words is that phileo is a brotherly love, while agape is a deeper Christ-like love. But there are others who claim that there is “no” difference between phileo and agape and that the words can be used interchangeably. I disagree with that because no two words have the exact same meanings. Some are very similar, but they are not exacts. Particularly in the example of the Bible where Jesus asks Peter if he loved Him. John 21:15-17 reads:
15So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.
16He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
17He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
In Greek Jesus first asked Simon Peter do you “agape” me? Peter answers, “yes, I “phileo” you. Jesus asks a second time, “Simon, do you “agape” me? Peter responds a second time, “yes, I “phileo” you. Jesus asks a “third” time, Simon do you “phileo” me? Peter answers, yes, I “phileo” you. I do not think it was “accidental” or “incidental” that both agape and phileo were used in the same passage. I think a person who doesn’t understand the culture well enough would not appreciate the subtle language usage changes and think that those two words are interchangeable when they are not. Another area in the Bible that I wonder why they translated it the way they did is in 1 Cor 13 regarding the greatest gift being “love.” The Greek word used in that chapter is “agape,” yet the King James Version translated that word into “charity.” Why would they do that?
Anyway, it’s getting late and I need to get up early tomorrow so better wind this down. Oh wait, one quick thing. . . today’s drawings. . . Here’s Aaron and my drawings for the day. His is on top, and mine is on the bottom.
Here’s a closeup of Aaron’s drawings. Apparently he isn’t much interested in shells. . .
He just hurriedly sketched and ran off, ha!
Here’s mine. I still managed to get that “cartoon” look for some reason. . .
I’m a little bothered with my “cartoon” tendency, so I thought I would try drawing a little larger to try to get more detail in to see if that helped me. Here’s my second drawing today. I got tired before I could get to the second shell and had other things that I had to do, so I quit here.
Since Aaron doesn’t like shells much, I think I’ll have to figure out what else we can use for subject matter next drawing session.
Marlakins
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06.14.09
Posted in Book Reviews, Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, Historical Trivia, History, Uncategorized at 7:29 pm by Administrator
Today wasn’t as gloomy, thank God! Yesterday was very gloomy and even rained a little. Actually our yard really could use the rain, so I really should be thankful. I guess I’ve just been really looking forward to sunny days.
Today we headed out to the Hollywood Farmer’s Market to grab some veggies and some herb starters. So this afternoon I did a little transplanting, and hopefully they take well and I didn’t kill any. So far I have some sage, chamomile, peppermint, and chives. Brian picked out a couple other plants, but I’m letting him figure out what he wants to do with those, so those are still in the plastic containers. I took some cuttings from the rosemary bush out in front and am now propagating some of those for the backyard, which unfortunately is a big mess right now, so needs lots of work. Our string bean vines and crook neck squash are already bearing fruit. We have already eaten several pickings from them. We have more picked today for tonight, too. And since we went to the Farmer’s Market today we have some Chinese broccoli to add to that, too, yum.
Okay, so I finished reading two more books–Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and A Fist Full of Diamonds by John B. Robinson. I enjoyed both books. As usual, I don’t intend to write what the stories are all about. Anyone can read the storyline on any book review, so I basically just write “my” comments and what stood out to me.
While the stories of both books are very different, there are some similarities in that they are both situated in Africa. Particularly, both of them touch upon central Africa–the Congo. Robinson even refers back to “Conrad’s nightmare” when a view of the Congo River was seen from the air. Both stories are fictional, but apparently drawn from personal experiences from each author. It’s interesting so see the similarities since both books were written about 100 years apart. Not to say that the storylines were similar, because they weren’t. They were very different in tone, characters, and plot. But the corruption and evil, and downright disregard for life is still the same. It’s amazing. During Conrad’s time (1890’s), ivory was the prime commodity, but in Robinson’s time (while the book was published in 2008, the story was situated in 2001) the prime commodity was diamonds for the purpose of buying weapons. That reminded me of the movie Lord of Wars starring Nicholas Cage. It all just blows my mind, and I don’t think I’ll ever look at weapons and diamonds/jewels the same again.
As I mentioned, the plots and styles of both books are very different. Conrad’s story delved into the mind and psyche more than Robinson’s book did. But the graphic details of what they “saw” is very similar–lots of death. Another odd “slightly” similar aspect of the two books is the view of the “female.” Conrad actually doesn’t mention females much in his book, but the two areas where they do come up, I found the scenes interesting. And that is the difference between men and women and how we view life. Robinson’s book also touched on this. Now I know that these are generalizations, but still I found it interesting. I was left with the impression that they thought that women don’t see reality the way men do. Here’s a excerpt from Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Marlow’s aunt is discussing her expectations of Marlow’s trip to the Congo with him. (Marlow is Conrad’s lead character and alter ego).
“. . . She talked about ‘weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways,’ till, upon my word, she made me quite uncomfortable. I ventured to hint that the Company was run for profit.
“‘You forget, dear Charlie, that the labourer is worthy of his hire,’ she said, brightly. It’s queer how out of touch with truth women are. They live in a world of their own, and there has never been anything like it, and never can be. It is too beautiful altogether, and if they were to set it up it world go to pieces before the first sunset. Some confounded fact we men have been living contentedly with ever since the day of creation would start up and knock the whole thing over.”
At the end of Heart of Darkness the second female character is introduced. She was Kurtz’s “intended.” Marlow was delivering letters from the late Kurtz to her after a year since his passing. She is still dressed in mourning clothes and the conversation had turned to how well connected she was to Kurtz. That she knew Kurtz better than anyone even himself. She then commented how Marlow was with Kurtz to the very moment he died, and so she wanted to know what his last words were. Marlow didn’t have the heart to tell her what his real last words were, and instead said that Kurtz’s last words were her name. . . In reality his last words were “The horror! The horror!” And it didn’t appear to have anything to do with his “intended,” but perhaps more to do with the store of ivory he had for himself that he didn’t want to give to the “Company.” It’s not completely clear what the “horror” was all about, but it could have been “how” his ivory was collected as well. Anyway, what I saw in that was the “female” again was “out of touch with reality.” Somehow I think she would have been horrified to know what Kurtz was capable of doing and had been doing down in the Congo. Whether Conrad meant it to be that way or not, I don’t know, but that’s what it essentially boiled down to.
In Robinson’s book, the character Alice also seemed to have a degree of naivete as well. She didn’t seem to believe or grasp how evil people can be. And the main character’s (Lonny) soon to be ex-wife, Cass, also had a strange view of reality in that she didn’t even care what it took for her comforts. I liken it to a mafioso’s wife, who doesn’t care and doesn’t want to know where the money is coming from so long as she can continue living luxuriously. Who cares attitude of how many people have to die or what people have to do so that you can have that diamond ring.
Now I know that may not be the view of all men about women, but there is an interesting trend. This reminds me of past conversations I’ve had with Brian where he feels that men are sometimes more evil than women are because they “know” they are doing things wrong, and continue to do them, while women tend to “think” they’re doing right, so inadvertently do things wrong. Eh, again, I know that’s a generality since I’m sure there are a lot of evil women out there who know exactly what they are doing! But I’m just thinking this in line of what the Bible says about women and why men should lead because the woman (Eve) was deceived, but the man (Adam) was not. Even though Adam was not deceived, he sinned anyway. . . And interesting how the “woman” can influence men to sin. . . Anyway, I thought it interesting.
So that was sort of a “detour” from the main plots of the two books. . . so back to the books. There is another part in Robinson’s book that stood out to me, and that was when he was describing the “tour” of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The pictures on his “map guide” were said to be very graphic of the murders during the genocide. At the sites skulls and bones were piled up in heaps six feet high. Other sites had the bodies still in the same place where they fell six years prior. In one location Lonny couldn’t bear it anymore. They were touring a church where hundreds of people who were trying to take refuge in the church were massacred. This is an excerpt from that scene as Lonny imagined the phantom figures of those massacred:
“. . . He waded through the phantoms, imploring, “Pardon,” until he reached the light. The sugary, sickly odor of the church filled his nostrils. His throat was tight and dry. His temples throbbed with sharp spiders of pain.
“He burst though the door and past the pyramids of skulls. The spirits did not follow him. It was only then he understood the odd smell that had saturated his clothing from the moment he stepped off the plane in Kigali: death. The odor of decomposed flesh, rotten blood, drying marrow. It hung over the entire country like a mist. Millions of souls fertilized the red dirt with their bodies. Even when their rib cages and pelvises were carted to landfills, the enormity of the crime could not be erased.”
This scene reminded me of Cain and Abel when after Cain had murdered his brother Abel, the Lord came to him and asked him where Abel was. The Lord said, “His blood cries out to me from the ground.” I never really thought about how blood could “cry out,” but it’s true that there is a smell to it. I remember when I was in the hospital for aplastic anemia. I was in one of the BMT wards, and one of the BMT nurses was telling me how she didn’t like the smell of marrow. She said it had a distinct odor. And that seems to fall in line with blood sacrifices. Animals were sacrificed to the Lord in the OT. For instance after the flood, Noah built an altar and made animal sacrifices to God. It was described as a “sweet aroma to the Lord.” And from that God said that he would not curse the ground for man’s sake.
One last comment, is that in addition to Robinson’s book being interesting and entertaining (it was like a modern-day action, thriller movie, which I wouldn’t be surprise to see come out on the big screen one day), I learned something I didn’t know. And that is that after the 1994 Rwandan genocide, it didn’t end there. I knew that many more people died afterwards after being displaced. But I thought it was due to unsanitary conditions and lack of food and all. But according to Robinson, after the 100 days of Hutus murdering the Tutsi, the Tutsi’s got the upper hand and chased the Hutu out towards Uganda. But it didn’t stop there because the tables just got turned and the Tutsi started to take revenge and massacre the Hutus. This second genocide of the Hutus we don’t normally hear about. So not only was Robinson’s book entertaining (the inner workings of diamond trading was interesting), but I found Robinson’s book enlightening. I will never look at diamonds and weapons the same again. I don’t ever plan to ever buy another diamond in my life. I can see why the Bible tells us not to adorn ourselves with costly goods. And little by little I think I’m starting to get a better understanding of the mysteries of Central Africa. That is “mysteries” to me. There have been so much that I didn’t understand, so Robinson’s book is another piece of the puzzle for me.
I give two thumbs up for both Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and A Fist Full of Diamonds by John B. Robinson.
Marlakins
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