Brother AACOOLDRE : How the Stoics and Egyptians influenced Christian texts

AACOOLDRE

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HOW THE CHRISTIANS MISSED THE CORRECT DEFINITION OF LUKEWARM?

By Andre Austin

Andre Austin received a BA from Spring Arbor University in Family life Education. Recent author of Lukewarm: The Temperature of Justice www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_9_8?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=lukewarm+the+temperature+of+justice&sprefix=Lukewarm%2Caps%2C429



Abstract: The term Lukewarm is viewed as negative but early Christians had a positive view to the people it was referring to. Lukewarm is based on an Egyptian Goddess Tefnut may explain the twisted history of this obscure term.

I recently bumped into a Catholic study Bible named after Ignatius. There were several Ignatius so I don’t know if they are referring to a Bishop or a popular Saint to the Jesuits, (The Men in Black), who were heavy into establishing schools. In their notes they give under the book of Revelations chapter three they explain details about the city of Laodicea and the obscure term of Lukewarm.

“Laodicea: Laodicea was a prosperous commercial city that rebuilt itself…after an earthquake around A.D. 60. It was known for its banking establishments, its medical academy, and its exported products, such as eye ointment…

Lukewarm: Unlike nearby Colossae, Laodicea had no cold drinking water, and unlike nearby Hierapolis, it had no hot medicinal springs. On a spiritual level, the church had become so complacent that the lord promises to spit them out like a mouthful of tepid water” (The Ignatius Catholic study Bible 2010 Ignatius Press p.498).

They totally missed the entire mark of the true meaning of Lukewarm. First of all why did the 2nd century Christians decide to write about Laodicea and pseudo pen Paul’s name to it saying they were doing good works and continue looking for Judgement day? This wasn’t about drinking cold water or taking a hot bath is total nonsense, but its about the deeds of correct spiritual/physical eyes. In the right context the Lukewarm being neither Hot or cold was a positive not a negative. The people needing the salve ointment were the ones needing guidance. The Church at Laodicea had good and bad members, but commentaries have lump them all together as being negative. Luke is a pun for Look, for they sound similar.

To prove I’m not picking on Ignatius press allow me to cite from Nelson’s Illustrated Dictionary of the Bible (1986 by Thomas Nelson Publishers) p.939 on the topic eye ointment treatment:

“Salve-a medical ointment used to soothe the eyes (Rev 3:18). A popular eye medicine known as “Phrygian powder” was one of Laodicea’s sources of wealth. The medical school at Laodicea was famous for the preparation and use of this eye salve. The Lukewarm church at Laodicea, however, needed something greater than eye salve to heal its faltering spiritual vision”.

If these Bible commentaries would have looked to the Laodicea medical school and its eye treatment program they would have learned from the Stoic chronicler of encyclopedic miscellaneous facts Pliny the Elder that:

The Eyes: Nature has provided the eye with many thin membranes and hard outside coverings as a protection against cold and heat; she cleans the eyes with moisture from the tear-glands and makes them slippery and able to dislodge foreign bodies…Man alone is cured of blindness by the discharge of fluid from the eye” (Natural History Book XI: 147-149).

Therefore, when the book of Revelations chapter three said that a person was neither Hot or Cold but Lukewarm it intended to convey that those persons had correct physical/spiritual vision. This wouldn’t include the people needing salve. Even the 2nd century Christians knew when they formed a Letter of Paul to the Laodicea church, (based on Colossians 4:14-16), that Lukewarm was “good deeds, and was capable of looking for judgement day. Even Nelson’s Illustrated Dictionary of the Bible agree Paul wrote and “Addressed to the Laodiceans by Paul has apparently been lost” p.630. Well I believe the 2nd century letter is in the true spirit of the lost letter. Incidentally, the only time that a Luke & Laodicean are mentioned in the Bible is in Rev 3:14 and Colossians 4:14-16. The word Luke by its association with a doctor could imply “Healing” when combined with Lukewarm. I believe Paul letter was destroyed not lost because it was favorable to the Stoic/Egyptian term Lukewarm because the Stoic Ananias Seneca helped cure his scales that were on his own eyes in Acts 9:1-19. This is implied in another apocrypha Letter of Paul to Seneca:

“And if we show a submissive temper, we shall overcome effectually in all points, if so be they are capable of seeing and acknowledging themselves to have been wrong. Farewell”.

[Seneca would have understood this temper (temperature) as Lukewarm (healing substance for the eyes to see properly. Lukewarm=correct eyesight because the heart was neither hot or cold. Having a Cold or Hot heart was viewed very negatively in ancient Egypt in throughout the Bible (see 2 Cor 11:28-29 & Matthew 24:12) As a matter of fact on Judgement day the Egyptian soul would say “I have not eaten my heart i.e. lost their temper and become angry Egyptian Ideas of the Afterlife By E.A. Wallis budge p.131). This is the same thing in Rev 3:14-17 where souls are not eaten but spit out Lukewarm/Tefnut. A heart that eaten in Egypt goes directly to hell without collecting anything (naked). If you have a temper like the Incredible Hulk then your heart gets thrown to a green crocodile].


Once people would have known that Lukewarm was positive for spiritual/physical eyesight a radar beam would be cast on that obscure term. An activity that some would probably want you to avoid. Another Stoic like Seneca studied Meteorology in Egypt and taught that a person was Level when he controlled his Hot & Cold passions. In Egypt you were forbidden to have a Hot-Heart and Cold-Heart of returning evil for evil. The Stoics taught “The best way of avenging yourself is not to become like the wrongdoer” (Meditations by Marcus Aurelius Book 6:6). The Stoics taught like the Egyptians that the soul is a warm breath. And the perquisite for having correct vision was to have a sound, light and warm operating heart that was neither Hot or Cold. For examples:

“Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8)

“Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God” ( 3 John verse 11).

The Egyptian priest in their medical schools would have immediately picked up on the spit of Lukewarm and translated it as Tefnut-Maat. Before the eyes of the sun God Ra was born he was reluctant to come up out of the water until he sent his daughter Tefnut-Maat to bring in order. Tefnut’s twin Shu, (OT Joshua), lifted up Ra. Once order was established his eye could be in its proper order and place. Tefnut held many attributes and titles like dew, moisture, Maat (Law, justice), and the “heat of heaven”. The heat of heaven nickname most likely came about when moisture is drawn up by the heat of the sun from land or sea has been only partially evaporated. People may wonder where we get the phrase of calling law enforcement “The Heat”. Tefnut was like Lukewarm it was spit out at its birth and Pharaohs considered it good and linked it with healing. Tefnut-Maat also weighs the heart on the balance scales which had to be as light as a father called Maat.

We can safely say that the spit of Jesus that cures the blind, (Mark 8:22-24), was something like Lukewarm and comes from the ancient Egyptian religion. Some people wonder why when the blind man was cured he saw men like tree’s. I think it’s a pun to the fact that Tefnut-Maat in the Old Testament was symbolic of the Tree of knowledge of good & evil (Maat). Just think when Adam and Eve ate from its fruit the first thing that happened were that their eyes went wide open and they knew it was wrong to be naked outside. For those interested in learning more on this see Gary Greenberg’s 101 Myths of the Bible p.48-51.

If we go back into the ancient Egyptian religion we can see where they copied the spit miracle:

…This Osiris Pepi, he is censed…with the saliva that comes forth from the mouth of Horus, and the spittle that comes forth from the mouth of Set, wherewith Horus was purified”

“There he spat upon the face of Horus, and did away the injury which it had received…the allusion here is to the great fight between Horus and Set, in which the former lost his eye and latter his genitals. Ra spat on the eye of Horus and healed it” (Osiris & the Egyptian Resurrection By E.A Wallis Budge Volume 1 p.105 & 159).

The ancient Egyptians were the foremost Cat Lovers. One of their main God’s was the sun god Ra whose nickname was Cat. And from the eyes of the sun of Ra we refer to different aspects of the eye from him. For example: the cataract from the eye or waterfall of tears from the source where mankind were created in one of their mythological creation stories. Or catacomb an underground subterranean cemetery were the sun (Ra) is set, sleep or dead temporarily until the rises in the morning.

Part of the ancient Egyptian culture and practice when in mourning was to cut the eyebrows when their pet cats died according to Herodotus Book 2:66. The Hebrew writers knew of this practice because they lived with the Egyptians. The Jews prohibited this practice in Deuteronomy 13:18-Deuteronomy 14:1 it states:

“I command thee this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord thy God. Ye are the children of the Lord your god: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead”.

Clearly they were copying the Egyptians because they made the prohibition. So they basically attacked the customs and practices of the ancient Egyptians by innuendo. If it wasn’t for the documentation of the historian Herodotus I wouldn’t have been aware of this trivia attack.

Right from the rip the Hebrew scribes wanted to scrap the whole entire ancient Egyptian Criminal Justice System called Tefnut-Maat but characterized as the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Good & Evil. In spite of this undeserved character assassinations many of the heroes & villains in the OT were based on Egyptian gods like Joshua was a parody the Egyptian Shu.

When we get to the New Testament much of the hostility towards Ra, Tefnut and Maat is tuned down and embraced.

When individuals, groups and institutions can get you to hate yourself and be ashamed then they end up with power over you.

Pliny the elder also wrote that when the eyes are level a person was gentle (tender/soft Hearted). The other stoic Seneca wrote that a person was level and noble when their Hearts avoided Hot and cold passions. Both of them were right and they went hand and hand with eachother.

When the Egyptians when to the Judgement Hall they declared that they were pure and that they have not eaten their heart (i.e. lost their temperament/Temperature and become angry. They expect that because they have seen the eye of Ra that no evil will befall them in the halls of Maat. They also will expect in part that they will be resurrected without their eyebrows being shaved off (see Egyptians Ideas of the afterlife By E.A. Wallis Budge p.76, 127, and 131).

Expanded details of this information can be read in my new book Lukewarm: The Temperature of Justice available on amazon.com.

www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_9_8?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=lukewarm+the+temperature+of+justice&sprefix=Lukewarm%2Caps%2C429

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