DT> national Israel.  I have seen some a-mil commentators say that the
DT> 144,000 refers to 12x12x1000 to refer to perfection, but I find that
DT> lacking as 12 tribes (specific) would be multiplied by 12(arbitrary)
DT> and also by 1000(also abritrary,  but in keeping with that the 1000
DT> year reign is now and refers to a perfect period of time).  I would be
DT> interested how others have been taught.

Apparently, it's a Greek idiomatic way of saying "a great number". . .
(Revelations WAS, after all, written in Greek!)

The Watchtower Society group seems to be the only one who tries to limit this
number to being LITERALLY 144,000!  And they're the same ones who can blatantly
contradict the same book's words, "a great multitude were gathered in
Heaven..." with a simple, "That's NOT speaking about Heaven!" :P

To understand any Scripture, one must consider a few key things:
-What is the CONTEXT? ("a text taken out of context is a
PRETEXT"(Mitch Bond))
      Context means both the textual context and the cultural context
-What is the author's intended meaning?
-How did the original audience understand the words?
-Where else does this phrase/word/teaching appear in Scripture, and how do they
 compare?

These are a lost art, it seems, in Biblical exegesis! :(  Now it's all done
from a "text criticism" viewpoint, which is fine for ordinary
documents from
history, but the Bible is supposed to be something SPECIAL -- written not as an
ordinary man-created document, but the men who wrote were merely conduits for
Divine "Inspiration"(of course, we do not know what exactly that involved!)

Seems to me that it could be seen as anything from God "in-breathed"
word-for-word(or concept-for-concept) the texts, and the scribes were strictly
taking dictation, right up to the "inlpiration" a poet might get
from seeing a
flower on a foggy morning, which might inspire pages and pages of text, all
free-flowing from the writer's OWN creativity. . .

Your friend,

<+]::-{(} ("Cyberpope," the Bishop of ROM!)
Ask me how to connect with me in any of 5 Instant Messengers

        (Please quote with "gapope wrote...")
-=-
In essentials, unity;
In non-essentials, liberty;
in all things, charity.  -- Baxter quoting Augustine
-=-




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