text:
7 Ridiculously Outdated Assumptions Every Movie Makes
Have you ever watched a movie set in the present where a guy was, say, using a pay phone, and thought, "Man, how old are these writers? Use your cellphone!"
The thing is, writers often reference not real life, but the shows they grew up watching as kids. So they wind up writing scenes that made sense in the 1970s, but are hopelessly out of date today. That's why in movies and TV ...
#7. Psychiatrists Make You Talk About What Your Dreams Mean
As Seen In: Analyze This, Bones, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Sopranos, Two and a Half Men, Desperate Housewives, Numb3rs, Dexter
What Movies and TV Say:
People in movies and TV visit psychiatrists for a variety of reasons: Maybe he or she is a cop who was traumatized after a shooting, or someone dealing with repressed childhood memories, or (in a surprising number of cases) a notorious crime boss with mommy issues ...
Yes, two times absolutely counts as "a surprising number of cases" for this.
Whatever the problem, they'll always end up sitting or lying on a psychiatrist's chair, talking about themselves and what their dreams symbolize for an implied hour until the shrink says something profound that leads to a life-altering realization. It's mostly stuff about the character's mother, and wanting to bang her.
Sometimes the psychiatrist even becomes a permanent member of the cast, offering insights into the psychosexual stages of childhood or quipping about Freudian slips (like in Bones).
That expression is not a coincidence.
The Reality Today:
How many times have you heard a movie psychiatrist say "Our hour is up" when there's still so much to talk about? If you've actually been to one, however, you know that most psychiatrist appointments in America today last only 15 minutes ... and don't involve a lot of talking.
"The first three sessions involve no talking, just rape-eyes."
Even if you do manage to find a psychiatrist or therapist to listen to you monologuing, it still won't be the familiar TV fare about dreams and secretly wanting to bone everyone in your family. Concepts like Oedipus complexes, repressed urges and psychosexual stages -- in other words, the 1920s-era psychology of Sigmund Freud -- are now viewed by most psychiatrists and mental health professionals as about as scientifically valid and useful as Freud's cocaine use. These days, between 75 and 90 percent of psychiatric practice is based not on talking about your problems, but on drug therapy. When you do get to talk to somebody, you'll find they prefer "evidence-based" treatments like cognitive behavioral therapy, a short-term treatment that focuses on changing unhealthy behavior and thought patterns.
"Absolute nonsense. Now show me your anus."
So if you want to tell someone about your weird sex dreams for an hour without being arrested, you might be better off seeking out a homeless person instead.
#6. Catholic Nuns Still Dress Like ... Nuns
As Seen In: CSI, The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, House, Constantine, End of Days, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Boondock Saints, Supernatural, The Exorcism of Emily Rose
What Movies and TV Say:
Even if you've never stepped inside a church, you probably know all about the Catholic religion just from watching TV and going to the movies -- whether the plot revolves around faith, ancient conspiracy theories or just plain old exploding demons, the Catholics will always be there doing their instantly identifiable Catholic stuff. For example, if you see these ladies in CSI ...
Semen is present on at least one of these habits.
... or this one in the film The Da Vinci Code ...
... or Dogma ...
Both Matt Damon and the nun were played by Kevin Smith.
... you instantly recognize them as Catholic nuns, because everyone knows that's how they all dress. Catholic churches themselves are just as easy to spot in movies: They will inevitably be dark, with stained glass, flickering votive candles and spooky Latin chanting coming from nowhere in particular -- like this one in The Boondock Saints:
Yeah, this looks like the house of a God who speaks mainly through Berettas.
And if there's an exorcism or some other type of Catholic ritual involved, you can bet your ass that it will be in Latin, a language that every priest has memorized with nearly as much devotion as a Trekkie learning to speak Klingon.
The Reality Today:
If you have stepped inside a Catholic church, however, you've probably noticed that a lot of the newer ones have a tendency to look like empty DMV offices:
Steve Cadman
"Blessings in the left line. Everlasting purgatory in the right."
Even the traditional church candles have been replaced in many places with electric lights, due to fire's propensity to burn shit to the ground. But at least those habit-wearing nuns and Latin-speaking priests are still going strong, right? Sure they are, probably. Just not in the U.S.
You see, in the 1960s, the Second Vatican Council loosened the guidelines on things like habit-wearing and Latin-speaking. Other countries applied the new rules in moderation, but it turns out that Americans were about as into Latin in their religions as they were subtitles in their movies. So Latin rites were largely replaced with English versions ... back in 1964. Today, most priests coming out of seminary do not even speak Latin, let alone perform rites in it.
"Oh jeez. Look, everyone just be excellent to each other. Church dismissed."
Nuns, for their part, mostly stopped wearing habits in the '60s, totally missing out on the whole nunsploitation genre. In fact, the number of habit-wearing nuns in the U.S. went from 180,000 in 1964 to a third of that in 2009, and today, the vast majority of religious women dress like ... women. This means that there are probably more nun costumes in America right now than there are actual nun habits, begging the question: Who is dressing up as whom?
Ken Bosma / devan.laney
Who do we shoooot?
#5. You Can Adopt Kids from an Orphanage
As Seen In: Orphan, Despicable Me, Sex and the City, Desperate Housewives, Problem Child, Smallville, Big Daddy
What Movies and TV Say:
Traditionally, orphans have filled a wide range of TV and movies roles, from deranged killers to adorable angels who are hiding the fact that they are deranged killers. And if Hollywood is to be believed, the adoption process doesn't vary significantly between a kid and a dog: You just drive out to the place where they conveniently store them and pick one out.
Usually the one who doesn't bite you.
Oh, sure, sometimes movies will include talk of "waiting lists" or some other type of bureaucracy, but not before the parents are at least allowed to browse through the orphanage for a kid they like. Most of the time, the orphanage practically hands them their secretly evil new child right away, like in 2009's Orphan and 2010's Despicable Me:
One is a disturbingly violent and psychologically horrific film, the other is Orphan.
And in those cases when an orphanage isn't actually depicted, it's at least mentioned as the place where a character has been (like in the show Smallville) or where they are in danger of ending up (like in Adam Sandler's Big Daddy).
The Reality Today:
It turns out that what we think of as an "orphanage" doesn't even exist in the U.S. anymore, and hasn't for decades. Following the 1980 Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act, most orphaned or abandoned children were placed with relatives or in foster homes. This was the killing blow to the American orphanage system, which had been in decline since we stopped encouraging unmarried mothers to give up their whore-babies in the '60s.
"Yup, it's the last you'll see of him, but don't worry -- he'll get all the cigars and brandy he'll ever need."
The closest thing we have now to a traditional orphanage is a group home, but those are usually reserved for much older children who haven't done well in foster homes. So to make most adoption movies accurate, you'd have to either change the setting to the '50s or replace all the little kids running around with awkwardly mustached teenagers.
"I'm less about whimsical adventures and more about heroin."
Not that you'd be able to directly adopt one from a group home, anyway. These days, most adoptions are done through the foster system or by arrangement with birth parents, and the whole process is much, much more expensive and time consuming than your television would have you believe: An average non-foster adoption will set you back around $32,000 in legal and other fees and takes between six months and two years. So by the time Adam Sandler's slacker character in Big Daddy had saved up the money and dealt with all the paperwork, he would have ended up with a full-grown blond version of Jon Stewart.
"Nope, you're gonna have to go pee on that door alone, champ."
#4. Everything in England Is Old-Fashioned and Cobblestoned
As Seen In: Harry Potter, The Holiday, V for Vendetta, Bridget Jones's Diary, Bones, What a Girl Wants, National Treasure 2, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Dollhouse, Love Actually, anything starring Hugh Grant
What Movies and TV Say:
According to Hollywood, England is a magical kingdom that was frozen in time at some point in the early 20th century (sadly, after all their dragons became extinct), but that's why we like it: We want to see quaint, old-fashioned things that you'd never find in America, like royal weddings, boarding schools and free public transportation. V for Vendetta takes place in an England entirely covered in charming cobblestones, and that one's supposed to be set in the future:
This must mean we already have flying cars in America at this point.
Or look at the Harry Potter movies -- even Harry's "normal," non-wizarding family dresses like they're in a period piece:
The wizard world has already reduced the U.K. to an economic and cultural wasteland.
But the genre that has exploited England's cultural stagnancy the most is the romantic comedy, because they allow us to travel back in time to an era where everyone was polite, well spoken and addicted to tea just by crossing the Atlantic. For example, the 2006 romantic comedy The Holiday shows Kate Winslet, a British woman visiting Los Angeles, rejoicing hysterically when she finds herself in a kitchen equipped with something more modern than her stovetop kettle:
"Oh boy! They have mixed fibers in their clothes, too!"
The Reality Today:
The British are partly to blame for all these misconceptions -- their entire film industry is now largely based on the fact that Americans think it's a pre-modern country. Film-location businesses in the U.K. overwhelmingly advertise old locations like manors and castles, because they figure that if the Americans wanted asphalt roads and glass buildings, they'd just stay home.
Before Hollywood, this was all syringes and hookers as far as the eye could see.
And yet 2012 England often isn't "old" enough to satisfy American tastes for films set there. Movies like Oliver Twist, A Knight's Tale, From Hell and Shanghai Knights, and the TV series Robin Hood, among others, were all filmed in other parts of Europe that apparently look more English to us than England itself.
Hell, even the tea thing is in question -- the whole British tea-drinking tradition is now in decline.
"You know what, don't bother."


text:
Here's the partitioning scheme I set up on a machine with 2 80GB drives:
1) root = 15G
2) swap = 4G
3) home = 60G
Ok? Or is there a better scenario?
Then the partitioner shows the second drive:
SDB which is 80G and I'm not sure which mount point I should set for the second drive, so I just labeled it as an unused partition for now. Should it be set to /home in order to use the space? Also, I'll replace this one with a bigger drive eventually. With that in mind, what is the best way to deal with the second drive?

subset: commoncrawl


text:
I am comparing males with females and young adults (18 to 44 years) and adults (45 to 65 years). I want to say:
The group difference based on gender and age is very small.
The group differences based on gender and age are very small.
Which of the above is correct?
I am particularly concerned with "difference" versus "differences".


text:
Dont understand why there are no support for this video card. I have to quit using ubuntu because of that!!!
ATI have stopped updating their drivers for older cards, this is the reason there's no driver available for you in 11.04. If you downgrade to Ubuntu 8.10 or 8.04, you should be able to install the older
I've tried myself to get the older drivers working on a newer version of Ubuntu, and it was a nightmare - I wouldn't even bother trying.


text:
Clear your Toolbar search history
You can clear your Google Toolbar search history at any time. You can also turn off Toolbar search history to prevent future searches from being stored in Toolbar.
Clear your Toolbar search history
- Go to the Toolbar search box.
- Click the drop-down arrow, and select Clear History.
I don't see Clear History
If you don't see the Clear History link at the bottom of the drop-down, try typing a single letter in the search box. If you still don't see Clear History, you might not have any history to clear or you previously turned off Toolbar search history.
Turn off Toolbar search history
- On the right side of the Toolbar, click the wrench
- Under the "Search features" section, untick "Store search history on my computer."
- Click Save.
Now Toolbar won't store your future searches.
Clear search history in other places
You might also want to clear your search and browser history from places other than Google Toolbar. Here are a few examples:
- All Google search history: Learn how to delete all your Google search history tied to your Google Account.
- Browser search history: Your searches may also be stored in your browser, like Internet Explorer or Firefox. To learn how to clear this information, see your browser's help centre. If you're using Google Chrome, learn how to delete your browsing history in the Chrome Help Centre.
- Passwords and usernames: Many browsers, like Internet Explorer or Firefox, allow you to remove all of your browser data, including settings like stored passwords. See your browser's help centre for instructions. If you use Google Chrome, learn how to delete browsing data in the Chrome Help Centre.
Was this article helpful?


text:
I didn't have much interest in this show until I heard Judge Rubino gave a glowing review of it in 1 of the Filibuster podcasts. I decided to give it a try & I'm glad I did. This has replaced Hell's Kitchen as my favorite guilty pleasure.
About 66% of the show is basically Cops with Steven Seagal. Seagal & his fellow officers mostly (on the night shift) arresting erratic &/or drunk drivers or citizens with unregistered guns in their cars. The other 34% involves Seagal's off duty activities like jazz concerts (?!) or how he trains his attack dogs. Seagal is still as bloated as ever & I must say the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office doesn't have the strictest physical requirements for their officers.
I guess I get a kick out of it because it's so surreal to see an action movie hero like Seagal in a cop uniform. The best parts are how the alleged criminals or victims react to the presence of Seagal. Their responses made me laugh harder than most so-called comedies do. The other highlight is when Seagal's Spider Sense is triggered when danger's around. The Seagal Sense is achieved by zooming in on Seagal's face, next a flash of light & a heartbeat sound is played (dum-dum, dum-dum), & then the camera will zoom in on whatever the danger is, & finally the camera zooms back to Seagal's face. They use this cheesy effect about 3-4 times per show & I still crack up every time. Seagal comes off more likeable (especially the episode where he visits a kids' hospital) than he does in most of his movies. It also seems like his cop buddies enjoy being on the camera as well.
I know this isn't high brow TV, but like I said, it's a guilty pleasure. Anyone else seen it on A&E or On-Demand?


text:
5 Weapon Myths You Probably Believe (Thanks to Movies)
#2. Machine Guns Are the Premature Ejaculators of the Gun World
The Scene:
Let's let Professor John Rambo explain the theoretical physics of machine gunnery in this scene from First Blood Part II:
The theory goes like this: You pull the trigger on a machine gun until the whole world turns into blood, and it is awesome. You can't argue with that; that's science.
The Reality:
After the first minute or so, provided that he had enough ammo to fire that long in the first place, Dr. John Rambo would find his monstrous murderection completely flaccid.
See, machine guns are designed more for brief covering fire and the occasional, precisely delivered packet of death. The M60 of Rambo fame up there can survive sustained fire at 100 rounds per minute. Which is awesome. But afterward, it will require breaking apart and changing the whole goddamn barrel. Yes, you read that correctly: Machine gunners have about a solid minute of constant ass-kicking, but afterward, they have to stop, break apart the machine gun and align and insert a brand new replacement barrel before continuing to be rad for precisely one more minute. And they do all this while in a combat zone. Under enemy fire. In the middle of a war zone.
It's not just Rambo's antiquated Vietnam vengeance equipment, either: The modern stuff doesn't work much better. Turns out that no amount of money can cool a 22-inch steel pipe fast enough to compensate for the hundreds of tiny explosions per minute happening inside of it. The M249 that replaced the M60 has a sustained fire rate close to Rambo's preferred power band (750 to 800 rounds per minute), provided that you change the barrels every, wait for it: Yep, every minute.
"And that's why we use handguns when hunting in the city. Much less downtime."
That's the longest a bitchin' machine gun fight could ever last in reality until everybody involved had to stop, pull out their iPhones and order up some new parts.
#1. Submarine Battles Are the Most Boring Things Ever
The Scene:
All is quiet on the bridge. A dozen submariners tensely but silently go about their business. Suddenly, a deafening ping rings out through the hull. An enemy sub has spotted you! Take evasive maneuvers! Call Sean Connery -- if nothing else, his dulcet tones will soothe your frazzled nerves in the deadly game of hide and seek to follow.
The Reality:
Most people are aware that subs use sonar to "see" underwater. But here's what you probably think a sonar screen looks like:
Via Sonarscreensaver.com
Followed by blips that look like little spaceships and a confused operator saying "There are six of them ... no, wait, 12. Now 20!"
Pretty simple, right? You're in the middle and the other guy has the decency to be a bright purple dot, so he's easy to spot. You tell the torpedo dude to, like, point at the dot and pull the trigger, and then boom -- no more dot. But here's what an actual sonar screen looks like:
"So the squiggly lines finally made their move. This war just got interesting."
It looks like 1989 needs a price check on something. How do you fight using that?
Well, there are two main types of sonar: active and passive. Active is closer to what you normally associate with sonar -- subs send out a loud "ping" and then time how long it takes to get back to them. While active sonar will give you a lot of useful information, like bearing, range and speed, it also has the drawback of giving away your position to anyone listening within a several-mile radius.
What subs use 99 percent of the time is passive sonar, which basically boils down to a bunch of highly sensitive microphones stuck in the water and people listening really, really hard. This type of sonar delivers way more useful information, such as the type and class of ship, even identifying specific individual ships in some cases, just by the sound. Since passive sonar is picking up emitted sound instead of reflected sound, range could be quite complicated to calculate. Back during the war movie days, even with a computer assisting, it could take up to 15 minutes of uninterrupted listening to get an accurate enough estimate to fire a torpedo, and that's only if the submarine in question was polite enough to not change speed or direction at all while it was being hunted. If it was one of those rude submarines (probably a Russian; those boorish Russkies just up and abandon the rules of high society the very second you try to kill them) that stops or dives below a thermocline layer, you lose track of them completely and it's back to square one.
"Fuck this, I'm just gonna go look. Cover me."
So it turns out that Hollywood has been lying to you about what warfare actually looks like, because for the most part, it's like teenage sex: There's all sorts of tense build-up, but the payoff is usually ungainly and awkward, and it's all over way too fast.
Robert Evans manages the article captions and the workshop moderators here at Cracked. He also writes a travel column for Vagabondish -- you can reach him here. When he's not making blind people play dodgeball, Chris writes for his website and tweets. You can email him at firstname.lastname@example.com.
For more things Hollywood is horribly wrong about, check out 6 Lifesaving Techniques From the Movies (That Can Kill You) and 5 Things Hollywood Thinks Computers Can Do.
If you're pressed for time and just looking for a quick fix, then check out 4 Hilariously Passive-Aggressive Ways People Paid Fines.


text:
Inov8 F-Lite 195 Men's Running Shoes
Buy Online & Pick Up In-Store
The Inov8 F-Lite 195 Men's Running Shoes are designed for runners with strong feet and calves. The synthetic and mesh lightweight upper keeps things well ventilated and comfortable. Plus it's the lightest shoe in the X-Over range, making it ideal for athletes with a developed natural running style. Weight: 6.9 ounces.


text:
To the Editor,
This letter is a little belated, however, it is important to me that I share a Good Samaritan story with you. I wish to send a heartfelt thank you to a very nice and extremely honest young man. I don't know his name, but I am sure he will recognize himself in this letter.
A few weeks ago after shopping at Wal-Mart in Weirton, I went out to my car and unloaded my purchases into my trunk. I then returned the cart to the buggy return area in the parking lot. When I got home, I reached for my cane and my purse. To my dismay, my purse was not there. I panicked and searched the car three times. I told my husband I had to go back to the store. He then told me that Wal-Mart had just called for me and that they had my purse there at the store. When I returned to Wal-Mart, the clerk behind the service desk told me that a young man came in and said he had just found a purse in a cart in the parking lot. He said he did not look in it, and he just brought it into the store right away. He did not leave his name or any contact information.
It is heartwarming and comforting to know that there are still honest and caring young people in today's world. Whoever you are, please know your kindness was deeply appreciated. I hope you have a wonderful and blessed holiday.
Mary Householder


text:
Here's another great option for a gluten-free savory pie. Great for freezing and for taking with you for lunch at the office or for the kids at school. In this case we will use broccoli (tons of vitamin C!). The recipe for the dough is very easy and it's the same that we've done for the Zucchini Pie. You can check the recipe and the video here.
- Broccoli
- Shallots: 2
- Green Onions: 1 bunch
- Red Bell Pepper: 1
- Olive Oil: 2 tbsp
- Garlic: 2 cloves
- Heavy Whipping Cream or Greek Yogurt: 1 cup
- Eggs: 2
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- Ham: 2 thin slices cut into 1 inches squares (or bacon if you prefer- although not as healthy!)
- Mozzarella cut into small pieces: according to taste
Broccoli filing for a gluten free Pie from Julia and Julieta on Vimeo.
Some tips:
- Steam the broccoli for about 3 to 5 minutes and transfer it immediately to a bowl with cold water to stop it from getting overcooked. If you overcook the broccoli it becomes soft and mushy.
- Steaming is the healthiest way to cook broccoli, because the broccoli does not come into contact with water and therefore the nutrient loss is reduced.
- If you want less fat in your pie, replace the heavy whipping cream with low fat plain Greek yogurt.
- If you are following a low cholesterol diet you can replace the two eggs with three white eggs.
- According to taste you can replace the ham with bacon and the mozzarella with the cheese of your preference (try provolone or Swiss for a deeper flavor!).
- Try to use a pie pan with removable bottom. This will allow you to take it from the pan immediately and place it on a wooden surface. The wooden surface will absorb the excess of liquids, making a way better pie dough!
We hope you enjoy it!


text:
There's still time for you to help @MGCollege reach its goal of 100 donors in 10 days! https://t.co/9NN8dHhvCw https://t.co/pE3xZEeL4C
The CFL program was founded by the federal government to support their mandate for a computer in every K-12 classroom nationwide so that every child has the chance to learn how to use modern technology. Marygrove College's Institute for Arts Infused Education aims to improve educational achievement, create innovative models for teaching and learning, and promote the systemic integration of the arts into the K-12 core curriculum.
The Track and Field program will be only the second intercollegiate track program in the City of Detroit as well as Wayne County. Marygrove hopes to draw more students to its campus from the large pool of track talent in metro Detroit.
The new program will be headed by current cross country coach, Lee Shaw. Shaw brings a wealth of knowledge to the program and will play a major factor in the success of the College's distance runners.
The American Cancer Society's (ACS) annual Relay For Life Detroit will be held for the eighth year on the beautiful grounds of Marygrove College. Relay For Life is a walking event organized to celebrate cancer survivorship and life, as well as bring our community together to learn more about cancer while raising money to help find a cure.
"We're honored that Ms. Rios delivered the commencement address to our 2010 graduating class," said Marygrove President David Fike. "As a key federal official with broad experience in economic development issues, I know her message to graduates, their friends and family will remembered."
Rios, an engaging speaker, spoke candidly about her own experiences growing up as a one of nine children raised by a single mother. She thanked her mother for instilling in all her siblings, the importance of getting a college education: "we all graduated from college," said Rios. She also reflected on a variety of statistics about Millennials, the generation of people born between 1980 and 2000, citing their comfort with communicating through technology as a strength, but encouraging them not to overlook the importance of human-to-human contact. Rios also emphasized the importance of going on to graduate school while students are still young and their minds still flexible. She praised Marygrove's leadership role in being involved in community and helping to teach its students the value of civic and community involvement, and reminded graduates that voting should not be something they take for granted. "Every vote matters," she said.
Rios became Treasurer of the United States in August 2009. In that position she advises the Secretary of the Treasury on monetary matters and serves as a senior advisor and representative of the Treasury on behalf of the Secretary in the areas of community development and public engagement.
Read more: U.S. Treasurer addressed graduates at Commencement
Marygrove College's Institute for Detroit Studies, in partnership with New Detroit and Wayne State University, invite journalists, community organizations, government, business, academics and others to a day-long meeting to discuss how we can come together to construct commonly understood paths to defining and resolving Detroit's problems, and examine how we might share stories that accurately portray Detroit's current situation and history.
The event will take place on Thursday, March 18, 2010 at 9 a.m. in McGregor Hall and the Community Arts Auditorium, on Wayne State University's campus. It will contain a morning and afternoon session. Lunch will be provided.
March 19, 2010
Third Annual Spring Dramafest
Marygrove College Theater
7:30 p.m.
Karen Cameron
Director, Communications and Marketing
Marygrove College
Ph: (313) 927-1446
DETROIT, Mich., March 16, 2010— The Marygrove College Department of English and Modern Languages today announced that the award-winning mystery writer, novelist and social commentator Walter Mosley will be the twenty-second guest—and the first mystery writer— in its Contemporary American Authors Lecture Series. This annual event brings a nationally-known author to its campus for a morning class session with high school students and an evening reading for the general public.
Read more: Marygrove College welcomes Walter Mosley as 2010 Contemporary American Authors Lecture Series guest
March 13, 2010
Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital Tour
9:00 – 10:00 a.m.
March 11-20
Alumni-sponsored trip - Discover Tuscany
Janet Ryan
IHM, IHM Leadership Council
Ph: (734) 240-9700
Ken Malecke
Vice President, Institutional Advancement Marygrove College
Ph: (313) 927-1445
DETROIT, Mich., Jan. 31, 2010— The Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) and Marygrove College today announced the transfer of ownership of buildings and land of the Marygrove College campus from the IHM Sisters to the Marygrove College Board of Trustees.
"This transfer offers benefits for both parties," said Sister Janet Ryan, IHM, a member of the IHM Leadership Council. "This agreement provides the college with ownership of the buildings and land, and at the same time, benefits the congregation by relieving it of legal obligations and by assuring Marygrove's educational mission as part of its IHM legacy."
Read more: IHM sisters Transfer ownership of buildings and land to Marygrove College
Contact: Karen Wood Director, Communications and Marketing Marygrove College
DETROIT, Mich., Jan. 19, 2010—An HIV/AIDS photo essay by Michigan State University photojournalist and professor David Cooper documenting the interesting and often surprising reactions of students during various Marygrove College HIV/AIDS seminars, will be displayed at Michigan Campus Compact's Service-Learning and Civic Engagement Conference, Feb. 9-10, at the Grand Traverse Resort in Acme, Mich.
Cooper documents his time spent with Mumford High School students taking an HIV/AIDS seminar taught by Marygrove College professors and students. The course is designed to give Marygrove students a service-learning leadership opportunity by instructing them to teach high school students about the importance HIV/AIDS awareness. James Karagon, Associate Professor of Social Work at Marygrove College, along with Professors Donald Rizzo and Loretta Woodard, teach the HIV/AIDS seminar at Marygrove College.
Read more: Photo essay captures students' reactions to learning about HIV/AIDS


text:
The El Dorado City Commission approved a 6 percent merit raise for City Manager Herb Llewellyn during their meeting Monday.
The action was taken following an executive session to discuss personnel.
"I feel like you have gone above and beyond to perform the tasks we've put before you," said Commissioner Bill Young.
Young made the motion to increase Llewellyn's salary through a merit raise of 6 percent retroactive to Jan. 1.
"Over the last six years I've watched him improve on his skills and it has been a pleasure to watch," said Commissioner David Chapin.
They approved the raise 4-0. Mayor Tom McKibban was absent.
Location, ST | website.com


text:
Nerys Chaplin
Analytics and BI Manager
How Confused.com found clarity in customer data
A greater understanding of the customer means smarter targeting
The leading UK price comparison website Confused.com has deployed SAS® analytics to better understand and segment millions of customer contacts, to provide new insights to enable additional marketing channels, optimize campaigns and work towards providing online product referrals
UK insurance provider Admiral Group launched in 1993 with one brand, 57 employees and no customers. Today, the business has nine successful brands including elephant.co.uk, Bell, Diamond and Gladiator, over 1.75 million customers insured and more than 3,000 staff worldwide. With annual group turnover around £900 million, the business also owns Confused.com, launched in 2002 as the first insurance aggregator website. Confused is designed as a one-stop shop for automated online price comparisons, helping consumers find the right deal in car, home and travel insurance as well as utilities, personal finance products like credit cards, and more. To support Confused.com's continued growth — to help it understand customers and make customer contacts more relevant and so more profitable — the company has implemented SAS® analytics.
SAS gives us a much better idea of who we should be targeting… I can certainly see us improving customer retention significantly and improving the relevance of campaigns. And there's also a lot of potential to improve onsite processes and help inform new product development, so there are wider impacts for the business.
Nerys Chaplin
Increased competition and higher acquisition costs
According to Nerys Chaplin, Analytics and BI Manager at Confused.com, a major driver for change was increased competition amongst aggregator and price comparison websites, with higher acquisition costs resulting from extensive TV advertising. And the business opportunity continues to grow, with the recession meaning consumers want to 'shop around' even more, further increasing traffic to the site.
"Our main requirements for SAS were to reduce our cost of offer, bring down marketing costs, improve cross-sales with other products on the site, and improve retention marketing," says Chaplin. "We wanted to improve the level of customer insight available. We are also developing a lot of personal finance products that require an improved level of one-to-one targeting."
Confused.com is responsible for high levels of media expenditure, an investment leading to a large data store that includes Europe's largest motor insurance quotation customer database; data is held in SQL Server. A logical next step was to ensure the company had the people, processes and technology to transform this data into actionable insight.
"Previously, customer insight was limited to information gathered from the car insurance quotation process, with no segmentation apart from very simple demographics like age and TV region," Chaplin says. The business used email as virtually its sole customer contact marketing channel, delivered via a third party provider. The opportunity was to become far smarter in targeting to improve uptake and response rates. Indeed, Confused.com already had millions customer contacts, with a high proportion including active email addresses; this potentially valuable resource was waiting to be exploited by the right analytics.
Why SAS?
Confused.com considered a number of options including SPSS before choosing SAS based on its proven analytical capabilities. "I'd worked with SAS before and was sure it provided what we needed," says Chaplin. "On the analytics side I knew we'd be able to do things like propensity models and segmentations, and have the ability to crunch through large data volumes and bring disparate sources together."
SAS delivers a versatile toolset for users to access data from anywhere and then transform it into usable insights. Data sources at Confused.com include the SQL-based main customer data warehouse, which gathers data from all the website interactions, and data from the third party email services provider. The business plans to add more sources including external data from information provider Acxiom, and also tying web analytics tools into SAS.
Revealing who buys what, why and when
Chaplin describes the company's use of SAS as a "server-based solution that interfaces with our data warehouse to provide data on all customers – we update it every week – and then carries out propensity modeling on who buys what, why they buy it, when they buy, and who are the best customers to target with different products like home insurance, utility services and, most importantly right now, financial services products." Initially, the company will focus on two types of segmentation: customer lifestyle and customer life stage. Results from analyses are already used, for example, to locate variables, enhance selections and improve targeting in email campaigns. Chaplin provides an example: "In our home insurance campaign, we use SAS to highlight the best customers based on a number of predictive variables. We can probably get 70 percent of applications through, say, 20 percent of the email campaign, which is key for us in terms of data collection and reducing how many emails we send out, making sure it's relevant. We do a similar thing with credit cards, using SAS to target fewer people to achieve more uplift."
Improved targeting, new media
Chaplin continues, "SAS gives us a far better idea of who we should target. Before, the home insurance campaign was fairly basic and used just a couple of variables." A direct feed is planned, with SAS used to support the data selections that drive the email campaigns. The analytics now available will also feed into contact channels new to Confused.com, including direct mail and SMS, while other options being investigated include outbound calling and social networking sites. "It's early days but I believe how we use SAS will have a significant impact on our business. I can certainly see us improving customer retention significantly and improving the relevance of campaigns. And there's a lot of potential in these analytics to improve onsite processes and help inform new product development, so there are wider impacts in addition to improved targeting and acquisition marketing.
"Compared to a single product provider, in credit cards, car insurance or elsewhere, we know certain types of customer will pick a certain type of provider. But we can offer consumers many more options, we have far more data and so have a far more comprehensive overview of the market and of customer behaviour. So there's a lot we can tap into. At Confused.com, we know we're sitting on a very interesting repository of data - and I don't think we'll ever exhaust the analytical possibilities available in terms of both customer and market behaviour."
Making use of valuable data in a competitive marketplace to gain new customer insights, better target campaigns and improve operational efficiency, enhance cross-selling and increase revenue
SAS® analytics including a range of models and customer segmentation
Greater understanding of customers means smarter targeting, improved retention marketing, reduced wastage and lower campaign costs, with an opportunity to exploit new communications channels
The results illustrated in this article are specific to the particular situations, business models, data input, and computing environments described herein. Each SAS customer's experience is unique based on business and technical variables and all statements must be considered non-typical. Actual savings, results, and performance characteristics will vary depending on individual customer configurations and conditions. SAS does not guarantee or represent that every customer will achieve similar results. The only warranties for SAS products and services are those that are set forth in the express warranty statements in the written agreement for such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. Customers have shared their successes with SAS as part of an agreed-upon contractual exchange or project success summarization following a successful implementation of SAS software. Brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies.


text:
"Jesus said to them, 'My wife...'"
Nothing calls to mind my latent fantasies of an Indiana Jones lifestyle more than a new fragmentary Coptic papyrus about Jesus' "wife." I will confess that, as a reader/teacher of Coptic and a papyrologist, this was a pretty awesome afternoon. I was giddy like a child. Please, can someone need me on a plane to Cairo immediately? I have the hat already. And I can get the whip on the way to the airport.[caption id="attachment_20817" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Karen L. King"][/caption]The phone didn't ring, so I settled in to assess the new papyrus. After scrutinizing the wonderfully high-resolution photograph offered in Laurie Goodstein's New York Times piece, I would like first to commend Karen King of Harvard for the ways in which she has presented this fragment to the world. Nowhere in her quotations or the manuscript of her forthcoming article does she engage in the kind of grandstanding that would be so tempting in her situation. Does this fragment prove that Jesus was married? In King's sober evaluation:
No, this fragment does not provide evidence that Jesus was married. The comparatively late date of this Coptic papyrus (a fourth century CE copy of a gospel probably written in Greek in the second half of the second century) argues against its value as evidence for the life of the historical Jesus. Nor is there any reliable historical evidence to support the claim that he was not married, even though Christian tradition has long held that position. The oldest and most reliable evidence is entirely silent about Jesus's marital status. The first claims that Jesus was not married are attested only in the late second century CE, so if the Gospel of Jesus's Wife was also composed in the second century CE, it does provide evidence, however, that the whole question about Jesus's marital status arose as part of the debates about sexuality and marriage that took place among early Christians at that time. From the very beginning, Christians disagreed about whether it was better to marry or to be celibate, but it was over a century after Jesus's death before they began using Jesus's marital status to support their different positions. Christian tradition preserved only those voices that claimed Jesus never married, but now the Gospel of Jesus's Wife shows that some Christians claimed Jesus was married, probably already in the late second century.
Next I would like to clarify, for readers unfamiliar with the scholars cited, that a consensus analysis by Karen King (Harvard), Roger Bagnall (NYU), and AnneMarie Luijendijk (Princeton) is not likely to be incorrect. (For example, many papyrologists would say that Roger Bagnall is the most well-respected papyrologist in the world, like a living library of the collected wisdom of the field.) With the added weight of linguist Ariel Shisha-Halevy (Hebrew Univ.), the initial assessments of the fragment are on very solid ground.Regarding the content of the fragment and how it might be situated in historical, literary, and theological context, King's forthcoming article is characteristically astute and balanced. The text deals with the "worthiness" of women to be "disciples," an issue which arises in other noncanonical literature of the 2nd-3rd centuries (e.g., Gospel of Mary and Gospel of Thomas). (A minor quibble with King's transcription on this point is that I do not see traces of a letter after the alpha that ends line 3, which is offered as a possible nu, thus rendering the sentence possibly negated. It's possible that the top layer of fibers have worn off there at the edge, which could only be judged by examining the papyrus in person.) In addition to the question of women's worthiness, the question of Jesus' origin with his mother is also already a subject of the Gospel of Thomas (logion 101), which may be a variation on the topic with which this fragment begins.
The new content, though, for scholars of early Christianity is the undeniable "my wife." The primary text to discuss wife / husband and bride / bridegroom similarly in the period under consideration is the fragmentary and tantalizing Gospel of Philip, a text usually affiliated with the Valentinian school of thought that developed out of Gnosticism. Imagery of Christ as Bridegroom is present in the New Testament, of course, but the Gospel of Philip significantly develops the theme. The symbol of the "bridal chamber" as a sacramental ritual or, more likely in my opinion, a synecdoche for the aggregate rituals of initiation (anointing, baptism, professions of fidelity, eucharistic feast) is best attested in the Gospel of Philip.One point on which I would like to hear King speak further is the issue of whether "wife" in this context is more likely to an unconsummated, spiritual marriage, such as those championed by ascetic literature from the same time period (especially Thomasine literature: Gospel of Thomas and Acts of Thomas). If the best kinds of "wife" and "husband" in these possibly related texts were those living celibately, then is it more likely that this new fragment uses "wife" in a spiritual sense?That would not diminish the interest of the fragment, since then the likely conclusion would be that Jesus was presented as living in a celibate, spiritual marriage with his "wife" as an "image" of the heavenly union of the Savior and Sophia (so Hans-Martin Schenke in his commentary on the Gospel of Philip, Das Philippus-Evangelium, 1997). Perhaps the "image" (eikon) mentioned in the last line of the fragment suggests such a reading.On the other hand, the fragment's initial defense of Jesus' mother, who gave him life, may be referring to his physical mother and not some spiritual, antemortal mother, and in that case, the fragment might be a flesh-and-body-affirming rejoinder to the ascetic and body-rejecting tendencies of many strains of early Christianity (e.g., Gospel of Thomas 101).What a day! More if and when we have it.
About the Author
Michael Peppard is associate professor of theology at Fordham University, author of The World's Oldest Church and The Son of God in the Roman World, and on Twitter @MichaelPeppard.
88 comments
- All
- Editor Featured
Mr. Peppard, thank you for this very good post. Two questions: Is it clear to you that the answer to the Was-Jesus-married question quoted above is actually the work of Karen King? She is referred to in the third person in a subsequent answer on the Harvard Divinity School page that is linked.The text quoted asserts that there is no reliable historical evidence to support the claim that Jesus was not married and points to the silence of the oldest evidence. Wouldn't the absence of any indication of a wife tend to suggest that there was no wife, given that the gospels and epistles are interested in questions about marriage, and more generally, that these earliest accounts present Jesus' life as a model. Why omit something so fundamental?
Hi Mr. Englert- I was actually wondering the opposite; if marriage is so fundamental, isn't it odd they don't address why Jesus was NOT married? Does the silence itself say anything?
If he had been married, our savior was one terrible spouse. He's never home, never talks about his day, never helps around the house, always out with the guys, puts his career first. "Jesus said to them, 'Take my wife . . . Please!'" I think I prefer the bride of Christ to be the people of God.
Michael,Good post. As in most things the follow-up is the key. If this item is dated in the fourth century, how does it indicate in any way that Jesus had a wife? Why only this piece. Why do we have so little data from this time whereas we have more from the time of Caesar and Cicero? Can you fill in the gaps or are we left with merely the fascination of this papyrus?
Good article on the front page of the NYT this morning with a good photograph by Karen King, who "is the first woman to hold the nation's oldest endowed chair, the Hollis professor of divinity."http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/us/historian-says-piece-of-papyrus-ref...
There are translations of words and phrases from the fragment by the picture. (I wonder what he meant by "an image".)------------not [to] me. My mother gave to me li[fe]The disciples said to Jesusdeny. Mary is worthy of itJesus said to them, My wife she will be able to be my discipleLet wicked people swell upAs for me, I dwell with her in order to an image
All this scholarship is fascinating, but i must admit my mind went to some of tghe same classsic references as James Englert's, troping Rodney Dangerfield... I think some cartoons in the edudite Biblical bulletins -- or at lest the New Yorker -- will fill the rest of the reference. "My wife...oy vey..."
As some have noted above, the Jewish culture valued marriage and children. Celibacy was very uncommon. It was one of the tasks of every Jewish family to find a wife for their son when he was between the ages of 17-20. Why would anybody even believe that Jesus was NOT married.Secondly, during his ministry, Jesus was referred to as "Rabbi". A Rabbi was married---not a celibate. St. Paul, in cautioning the early Christians about the End Times (which Paul believed would occur soon), tells them that they, yes can marry---but should prefer to be like him---Paul---unmarried. Paul used himself as the model---not Jesus.Jesus could very well have been a widower at the time he began his ministry, too.
As a frustrated paleographer, I found this post as interesting as anything can get in this life! If I had the money, Michael, you'd be on the first night plane to Cairo so you could could write back and tell us more. I hope Commonweal will continue to cover this interesting find.
Lots of interesting discussion offline this morning already, which I can report on later. But now I'll say that one of the pingbacks for this post contained an utterly shocking line: a blogger for the National Catholic Register concluded his post with:
But if you are looking for definitive proof that Jesus did not have a wife, I think I have it. Jesus is God, so he couldn't possibly have been that stupid.
Some family values! What a bizarre, misogynistic attempt at humor.
Agree, Michael.Reminds me of the little "jokes" that used to appear at the bottom of columns in newspapers. As a child I wondered why some men felt the need to mock women -- as gossips, as wasters of money (on hats, etc.). Trivializing, marginalizing, debasing women is important to weak and lazy men.(I was fortunate to have a dad who was half Quaker. Not afraid of women. He stood up at a PTA meeting in the early 50s to ask why our parochial school offered no sports for the girls. Got nowhere with that, of course.) If Jesus wasn't married, why would the neighbors in Mark 6 have been astonished at him?
David P -- as long as we're being erudite, I think the source attribution is Henny Youngman rather than Rodney Dangerfield. I remember as a kid, who loved jokes and joke books, I saw the cover of a Henny Youngman book with the famous line and a picture of the comedian with his violin. The joke completely escaped me, for many years. The complexities of a text!
I'm really not seeing the news value here. Jesus calls himself a bridegroom in every single Gospel.
"I was fortunate to have a dad who was half Quaker."I take it this means that one of his parents was Quaker? :-)
thank ylou, James...Henny Youngman it is! You are right, of course! "I don't get no respect..."
"I have the hat already. And I can get the whip on the way to the airport."Ooh! I want to be the fellow in Cairo with all the children who sings the snatches of Gilbert and Sullivan! I can grow a beard, and my physique seems to be "rounding" into form. Although, inasmuch as that actor also played Gimli the Dwarf, I may be too tall ...
An isolated image of a few dozen whole and partial old words and the absence of a "FACT:" page like Dan Brown's makes me wonder if the Copts might have had their Aristophanes.
I take it this means that one of his parents was Quaker? :-)Yes, although now that I think of it, he was actually three-fourths Quaker. (Three of his four grandparents were Quakers.) ----I was surprised that Karen King mentioned Dan Brown. (For those who wonder if he plagiarized the book, read the chapter in Wordcrime. See what you think.) http://www.amazon.com/Wordcrime-Solving-Through-Forensic-Linguistics/dp/...
I've always found it odd that the Gospels never mention Jesus' marital status. It would have been unusual for a man of Jesus' age during that time to be unmarried, and both sides of the spectrum--whether he was or wasn't married--are rather important details, both of which are left out. You'd have to think there would have been some buzz about why this Jesus of Nazareth was flying solo, and as Karen King says, it's about "150 years after Jesus died before the question is raised if Jesus had a wife or not" (youtube video released by HDS). Makes me wonder...maybe silence is the loudest kind of noise.
BTW, Bill Donohue weighs in (it's what he does) and berates Karen King a bit too much (it's what he does):http://www.catholicleague.org/inventing-jesus-wife/But Bill said this as a point against King:
"King is known for her fertile imagination. For example, she previously claimed that Mary Magdalene was one of the apostles."
But isn't the Magdalene by tradition known as the Apostle to the Apostles since she brought news of the Resurrection to the others? It has always seemed to me a problematic formulation since it opens a door that officialdom wants to keep close, even if the title were intended in a more ceremonial rather than literal way.
John D'Olimpio: On the point of it being unusual that Jesus was not married -- well, that's not the case. Plenty of Jewish men were not married, and especially devout men like those associated with the Essenes were not married. Jewish scholars like Amy-Jill Levine make this point well. The presumption that he would have been married is again largely about bringing our modern days perspectives to an ancient culture. Again, this isn't proof that he wasn't married. But it's not surpassingly strange at all if he wasn't.
(David, there's a misspelled word in the headline of your new thread.)There were not plenty of Jewish men who were not married, and Jesus was not associated with or interested in the Essenes. (As Amy-Jill Levine makes clear.)Paul's inability to find a wife may have been due to a physical issue, the thorn in the flesh thing he mentioned. (Maybe some male bit was missing, or ambiguous.)
Gerelyn, I saw your reference in another thread to my comment as being misogynistic and coarse. What I thought I was doing was offering a caricature of the picture of Jesus that would emerge from the NT accounts if he had been married. Its a picture that to me doesnt make sense, and I hoped the language I used would indicate the anachronistic note in the endeavor to remake the Jesus of the NT. So Ill give you the coarse though I think broad or sophomoric might be closer. Have to reject the charge of misogyny, at least as betrayed in the comment, but will continue to evaluate the state of my psyche.
For all his orthodoxy, Bill Donohue should look to the "newadvent.org" website and discover that its article on "Mary Magdalene, Saint" describes her as "the Apostle to the Apostles". The original entry appeared in a volume with Imprimatur of October 1, 1910!Well before Vatican II :-)
...and well before baby Donohue arrived on the scene?
Thank you, Joseph! And I do believe that Pope John Paul II also approved and stressed the idea that Mary Magdalene was the "Apostle to the Apostles".As far as Bill Donohue is concerned---he probably learned his religion from a catechism that Pope Pio Nono wrote.
I think that calling Mary Magdalene the apostola apostolorum goes back a long way, but have no idea how far back.As for unmarried Jewish men, how many of the prophets, major and minor, were married? (Amos and Hosea; are there others? and isn't there a theory that Hosea's wife is more metaphorical than flesh and blood? (and, of course, there were some Jewish men who rather overdid marriage, at least from the one-man-and-one-woman point of view). I thought NPR this morning did a pretty good unsensational job on the story, rather better than the BBC America morning news. Neither of them seemed to mention that priestly celibacy for all doesn't go back to Christianity's first millenium (I think I've got that right); and none of them mentioned Peter's mother-in-law, or speculated about his wife. I wonder if the BBC knows that the first pope was a married man.
Gerelyn, I saw your reference in another thread to my comment as being misogynistic and coarse. What I thought I was doing was offering a caricature of the picture of Jesus that would emerge from the NT accounts if he had been married. Its a picture that to me doesnt make sense, and I hoped the language I used would indicate the anachronistic note in the endeavor to remake the Jesus of the NT. So Ill give you the coarse though I think broad or sophomoric might be closer. Have to reject the charge of misogyny, at least as betrayed in the comment, but will continue to evaluate the state of my psyche.>---------Hi, James! (Your comments seemed dated -- geezerish -- to me. I was surprised to see your picture at your firm's web site. You're not a geezer at all.)
So I guess the real question isn't whether or not Jesus was married, but why are the Gospels completely silent on the subject. From what others say here it seems like the existence of a wife would have been mentioned and the lack of one would have been explained. Would those kind of references have once been in the Gospels and maybe edited along the way?
"Pauls inability to find a wife may have been due to a physical issue, the thorn in the flesh thing he mentioned. (Maybe some male bit was missing, or ambiguous.)"Gerelyn!!Now this is nasty. Or do you know something that we don't?
Hi, Bill:Why is it nasty? In a culture where all men married, the one who did not marry mentioned a thorn in his flesh.I think it's strange NOT to wonder if there was some connection. (Maybe an accident at his circumcision.)I've heard some speculate that he was epileptic, that the vision on the road to Damascus was typical of epileptic seizures. What I think is nasty is the surge of woman-hate that this little bit of papyrus has unleashed. I would think women and men would prefer a married Jesus. No one has a problem with his other human activities: being circumcized, being redeemed, studying Torah, learning a trade, learning to swim, wine bibbing, sleeping, eating with sinners, dancing at his siblings' weddings, etc., etc., etc.
Gerelyn, how embar(r)assing! Thanks. Re Mary mags, I know there was a medieval tradition (she was big, as we say, back then, well before Dan Brown) that Jesus appeared to the Magdalene, the women, first, because women would of course blab to everyone so the word would get out that way. Yes, I know...But nice that women were considered the best evangelists. Then again, their testimony would not have been allowed in a law court.
If Jesus were married, I do hope it wasn't to Mary Magdalene. I like to think of her as a religious leader in her own right, not one by marriage. (Like Hillary the US Senator and Secy of State has more cred than did Hillary the wife of Bill)
Jesus must have been married.I mean, Look at all his progeny!All our baby bishops doing Papa's bidding :-)
Michael P. -- Cairo of all places is not a recommended destination this week on a matter of fundamental religious importance and sensitivity, given the way the winds are blowing there. Living Copts are already deeply entangled in lethal conflict over absolute certitudes and are unlikely to have much time to help with paleospeculation on another one. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-p-klager-phd/in-haste-is-regret-in-...
My favorite snippet of the NY Times article:"The owner took the fragment to the Divinity School in December 2011 and left it with Dr. King. In March, she carried the fragment in her red handbag to New York to show it to two papyrologists: Roger Bagnall, director of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, at New York University, and AnneMarie Luijendijk, an associate professor of religion at Princeton University."That she carried it in her handbag injects the human interest element. That the bag was red is the sort of detail that discriminating and fashion-forward NY Times subscribers need to know.
There are some who are questioning the authenticity of the papyrus following the disclosure that the symbols immediately following "my wife" are the Coptic equivalent of a parenthetical statement that may be rendered in English something along the lines of "see photo, top right."
David Gibson: Thanks for the response. There seems to be conflicting opinions in this thread regarding the frequency of Jewish marriages--I'll have to look this up more, and give a close read through of Amy-Jill Levine's piece. I was always of the mindset that marriage was common in antiquity, and was not uncommon for rabbis.Still, the fact that Jesus' marital status was never mentioned in scripture presents an interesting omission More to come later...
Gerelyn, I am with you on the misogyny problem in the church. But does it have to extend to everything? Celibacy is not evil in itself and the misplaced value on it has more to do with the stoic influence brought into the church by the Gregory, Basil, Ambrose , Augustine etc. Paul had no problem with marriage. He just recommended the practical solution to an intense life of preaching. And no one had as many women friends as Paul. To question the marriage of Jesus does not make one anti-woman. Your voice is needed because accepting women as being as valuable as men is still not accepted. But to be as inflexible as you seem to be is just as bad as those who see all morality through the prism of abortion.
Will Rogers once said: "All I know is what I read in the papers." I can't remember when I read something in the NY Times that made me smile as much as I did this morning.With all the careful caveats that Karen King rightly injects into this story, I am elated at the prospects of rescuing the discussion of the role of women and marriage in Christianity away from sole purview of Catholic celibate hierarchs.As King indicates, just like there was a strong debate about women's roles and marriage in the primitive Christian church, that debate should be renewed for 21st century Christians. Perhaps, on careful examination, Christians will conclude that looking back, orthodoxy got it wrong.This debate has the potential for a great renewal of faith and practice for the church going forward. If Christians can begin to re-image God for a new millennium consistent with their primitive origins, the Catholic Church may find a way out of the abyss into which it has of late fallen.Mythologist Joseph Campbell once said that the great task or quest for post-modern humans is to re-image God in such a way as to unify the feminine and masculine. Campbell believed that the photograph of "Earthrise" over the lunar landscape by Apollo astronauts was the first meaningful re-imaging of God in centuries. Within the frame of the astronaut's camera, all of humanity was captured [save the photographer] clinging to our MOTHER EARTH.Perhaps, Karen King with this papyrus fragment is just beginning to open a window into new Christian mythology.
While this find is far from a smoking gun in the case of a possible Mrs. Jesus, I think one of the most important effects of this discovery are the debates, and dialogues evident in this thread and others, about the role of women and marriage in early Christianity. Also, it has sparked discussion not only between academics, but between friends and family of mine, broadening the context of their arguments beyond a certain Dan Brown novel. That's always good!Karen King is very careful not to look too much into what this fragment means, but at the very least it shows there were Christian communities in the 2nd C. who believed Jesus had a wife, which would correspond to followers of Clement of Alexandria, who during the same period, believed Jesus did NOT have a wife--a stance which would later adhere to the traditional Christian narrative. As Prof King says in her HDS writeup: "This gospel fragment provides a reason to reconsider what we thought we knew by asking what role claims about Jesus's marital status played historically in early Christian controversies over marriage, celibacy, and family." If this find will help us re-evaluate, and expand on our knowledge of early Christian views of the family and marriage, I believe that is more significant than theorizing if Jesus had a wife--a question I feel cannot be answered adequately just yet (if ever).
Jim Jenkins, I applaud your impulse to read this as a constructive way to open debates about the role of women, and to reimagine some accepted views. But as with the Da Vinci Code saga, I am not sure how far this gets us. The woman in this case, as Mary Magdalene in the DVC, is only important insofar as she is Jesus' wife -- the traditional First Lady role, at best. That doesn't seem to reenvision as much as reiterate traditional gender roles, and solidify the value of a woman as contingent upon the man she is with. I'm with Jean Raber, who commented on another thread that she hopes Mary Mags wasn't married, and not to Jesus. She's pretty cool on her own.
If Jesus were married and had children, might this have other implications? If one holds that he was both human and divine, did he pass some of his divinity on to his children? I don't think that is a completely silly question. I have to say I am amazed how excited people get over something as novel as this. I think this discovery has a lot more to say about marriage and celibacy in the early years of the Church which of course has implications even today.
David, I don't know where you and Jean (?) get the idea that the papyrus is about Mary Magdalene. As we know, there were MANY women named Mary around Jesus. I've seen a good case made that Jesus was not married, but was betrothed to Mary of Bethany. There were various Marys at the foot of the cross. And some make the weird claim that Mary his mother had a sister named Mary. Etc. ----------- Bill M.: So what if I'm inflexible? (An unattractive trait for a woman?) My comments about Jesus and his wife will not change anyone's mind. To pretend to believe what I don't believe would be disrespectful to Jesus and his wife, to their parents, and to all the professors, scholars, authors, etc. who have influenced/formed my thinking. No comparison to abortion. Real people (women) are affected by the abortion battles. No one is affected by the word "wife" on a scrap of papyrus. What if it said Zeus didn't really cheat on Hera? Would anyone care?
That the Magdalene was "an apostle to the apostles" is found in Aquinas's commentary oln John. It surely is older than that.
In logical language the problem is one of reference. Does "My wife" refer to a li534ql wife or the Church? And what are the referents of the other nouns and pronouns in the rest of the text? Because the text in between is missing, there is simply no way of being at all sure.It is obvious that the little piece of papyrus was very carefully removed from a larger piece. It was not roughly torn out. It seems to me that if the larger text from which the little one was taken was clearly about a literal wife, then it would have been much, much more valuable, and the person selling the text would have included those parts. Since he cut out what would settle the matter, I'm inclned to think that the original did not include parts referring to an actual wife of JEsus.Then there is the whole question of why nobody else includes such a reference. That to me is against all the odds if He really had a wife.
I wouldn't fault the BBC for not knowing that Peter was married. Even the Vatican seems unaware of the fact.
"That the Magdalene was an apostle to the apostles is found in Aquinass commentary oln John. It surely is older than that."True. This clearly shows how the forces of patriarchy were so strong that strong truths about women were just shelved into oblivion.
Benedict XVI in a talk on "Women at the service of the Gospel" named and praised many "female figures who played an effective and precious role in spreading the Gospel". He noted the Aquinas-Magdalene link without explaining what made Aquinas's comment beautiful to him: "It was precisely to Mary Magdalene that St Thomas Aquinas reserved the special title, 'Apostle of the Apostles' (apostolorum apostola), dedicating to her this beautiful comment: 'Just as a woman had announced the words of death to the first man, so also a woman was the first to announce to the Apostles the words of life' (Super Ioannem, ed. Cai, 2519)." http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2007/documents/... His talk strikes me as an exceptionally earnest effort to persuade some invisible critic(s) that women really have been valued and important in Christianity in spite of what some may claim or suspect.
In less than 3 weeks, Pope Benedict will name the 4th woman Doctor of the Church.
Whoa, I say a lot of things on here, but I didn't spectulate whatever about who no Mary Magdalene on the papyrus. (Re: "Im with Jean Raber, who commented on another thread that she hopes Mary Mags wasnt married, and not to Jesus. Shes pretty cool on her own")"So what if Im inflexible? (An unattractive trait for a woman?)" I'd say that was an unattractive trait for anybody.Yes, St. Hildegard of Bingen (who has nothing to do with the papyrus), a holy woman with deep creative powers. How about everybody calm down and listen to her "Spiritus Sanctus"? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJEfyZSvg5c
Sorry, "didn't speculate ABOUT Mary Magdalene ..." etc. Bad proofing.
Id say that was an unattractive trait for anybody.---------- Agree.
David Gibson - or anyone else who knows - can you point us to some scholarly literature that discusses the extent to which 1st century Jewish men were or were not married? Thanks.
The news have made it to the wikipedia article on clerical celibacy:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clerical_celibacy_%28Catholic_Church%29A fragment of Coptic papyrus, whose genuineness has not yet been established but which may be of the 4th century, was made public on 18 September 2012. It presents Jesus as speaking of "my wife". It also him say: "She may be my disciple" (see Female disciples of Jesus). It was brought by an anonymous collector to professor Karen King, who stated: "What this shows is that there were early Christians for whom sexual union in marriage could be an imitation of God's creativity and generativity and it could be spiritually proper and appropriate." Another professor, Ben Witherington III, said the term translated as "wife" could mean simply a female domestic assistant and follower.[11][12] Doubts soon surfaced about the authenticity of the fragment. Alin Suciu, a papyrologist, said "I would say it's a forgery." Wolf-Peter Funk, a noted Coptic linguist, said there is no way to evaluate its significance because it has no context. "It can be anything." He called its form "suspicious". Due to its completely unknown provenance, and the potential financial interest of its current owner, David Gill, professor of archaeological heritage at University Campus Suffolk called it "really dodgy". By UNESCO convention, the Archaeological Institute of America refuses to publish articles announcing such discoveries because of concerns about illicit trade in manuscripts.[13]That (by "Esoglou" and "Elizium23") is from yesterday evening and replaces the following wikipedia text (by "grumpy otter") from yesterday afternoon:A fragment of Coptic papyrus fragment revealed in 2012 disproves the celibacy of Jesus because in it he references, "My wife" and states that she may "be my disciple." This would challenge the position of the Vatican that "the priesthood cannot be opened to women and married men because of the model set by Jesus." http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/us/historian-says-piece-of-papyrus-ref... Anyone may modify the wikipedia page by using the "Edit" button on the top right of the page (but "Esoglou" seems to be updating the page regularly to undo certain changes.)
"Apostle to the apostles" goes back to St Hippolytus (d235), I think his commentary on the Song of Songs.It became a popular term in the Middle Ages, particularly among the Dominicans who counted MM as a patroness of the order. (Preaching, the charism of the order, was considered an episcopal responsibility, so MM as preacher showed a non bishop preaching, justifying an order of non bishops dedicated to preaching. more complicated than that of course)
Karen King identifies the wife as Mary Magdalene, based primarily on the logic found in her book about the Gospel of Mary. This scrap looks like part of a "sayings gospel" like the Gospel of Mary, ie the first line is about Jesus's mother, the disciple say something to Jesus and Jesus replies "my wife..." apparently moving on to another topic.The 'see photo above" suggested by David is not as far fetched as it seems. One line is "she is worthy n..." The n might be 'not' or from another sentence. And the last line is "an image" but probably is not referring to a photo.
I really don't understand why folks aren't recognizing the reaction to this papyrus as blatant eisegesis, reading into an old document their modern politico-religious issues.
More on Paul and the thorn in his flesh: He refers to himself in I Corintians as "agamos", not as "parthenos".Agamos means an unmarried person who may have been married before and could now be widowed or divorced. Parthenos means someone who never was married -- a virgin.Maybe the thorn was his ex-wife.http://concordances.org/greek/22.htmhttp://concordances.org/greek/3933.h...(Jim McK: Where does Karen King identify the wife mentioned on the papyrus scrap as Mary Magdalene?)
"I really dont understand why folks arent recognizing the reaction to this papyrus as blatant eisegesis, reading into an old document their modern politico-religious issues."Um, because they're not as smart as you are?
A suggestion for David Budiash:http://www.amazon.com/dp/069100255X/ref=rdr_ext_tmbJewish Marriage in Antiquity, by Michael L. Satlow, Princeton University Press, 2001.If you don't have the time or the inclination to read the whole book, the extensive notes at the back are fascinating and very instructive. The bibliographies -- primary and secondary sources -- are magnificent. A man is not permitted to live without a wife, and a woman is not permitted to live without a husband. T. Yev. 8:4
Gerelyn, parthenos was almost always used to refer to young women; for Paul to use it in reference to himself would have been unexpected, even if not totally unheard of. In the context of the 1 Cor passage, hes discussing the advantages of the unmarried state, without any reference to virginity, and so using agamos in such a discussion makes sense, because it is generic. It just means unmarried, and indicates nothing about whatever previous state the person it modifies may have been in. The thing about the Satlow book that you recommend is that it distinguishes between what is prescribed and idealized as normative, and what is actually the case on the ground. Its not exactly a shocker that early Judaism promotes marriage as a duty; such was typical of the Mediterranean (hell, dont most cultures treat marriage as normative for adults?). The thing is, theres a difference between what gets presented as reality in texts by people who have a pony in the race (such as the rabbis), and what is actually happening. Another thingand this is pretty fundamental when it comes to positing things about Jesus Judaismis that looking to rabbinic texts for evidence about the beliefs and behaviors of 1st century Judaism is an exercise in anachronism. Using the Talmud to illustrate 1st century Judaism (including marriage practices) could be compared to using the acts of a Church Council to fill in the blanks of early 2nd century Christianity.
@ David Gibson:Im glad that someone appreciates my impulses.I realize that it is easy for folks like yourself to flog the DaVinci Code saga [as you put it] and attempt to pigeon hole the significance of this Coptic papyrus, turning Karen Kings announcement into nothing more than another conspiracy snausage.I think you're just a bit too eager to put what this papyrus fragment may represent into a very convenient little box that can easily then be dismissed and discounted.Remember, the DaVinci Code is just a novel - a work of fiction. No more, no less.I contend, as I believe Karen King does, that this Coptic papyrus is a new opportunity to revisit a very old and divisive argument/debate for Christians: To re-examine a long-held but problematic tradition with fresh eyes may just be the anecdote for modern alienation and disbelief.Mary Magdalene is way beyond cool. It is evident from the NT record that there was real contention, if not conflict, about her role as first witness to Jesus resurrection among the primitive community of believers. It is almost as if Mary Magdalenes relationship to Jesus was one of those inconvenient, maybe even embarrassing, truths among those apostles and disciples who were contending for the mantel of leadership of the Jesus movement.We shouldnt minimize that King is only considering a tiny fragment of a papyrus manuscript: Though very tantalizing, we are still left with only speculation.If I have a DaVinci Code-like conspiracy, it would be that somewhere deep in the bowels of the Vatican library within a dark vault there is a dust covered manuscript that would really illuminate, maybe even discredit, the early churchs fateful decision to ensconce and deify patriarchy.What has the Catholic Church really to fear from learning the truth among its heavily guarded secrets? Let's let science have a look at all of what is in the vaults.
Gerelyn,On the other thread, Lisa Fulham posted a link to a draft article by Karen King that will be in the Harvard Theological Review in Jan. On page 32 she begins arguing for the identification of Mrs Jesus as MM:These two cases from the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Mary identify Mary as the disciple whose status was being challenged, and in both cases her worthiness is defended by appeal to Jesus, the Savior. So, too, in GosJesWife 5, Jesus declares that she is able to be/come my disciple. This statement immediately follows Jesuss reference to my wife in 4, indicating his affirmation that the ability to become his disciple concerns his wife, not his mother. This line of interpretation, then, suggests that it is the worthiness of Jesuss wife, not his mother, which is being discussed. If so, then Jesuss wife is named Mary here and can presumably be identified with Mary Magdalene. It is she who he declares is able to be his disciple.
Kathy stated: I really dont understand why folks arent recognizing the reaction to this papyrus as blatant eisegesis, reading into an old document their modern politico-religious issues.Are there people who do not recognize this?Karen King is quite clear that this tells us virtually nothing about the historical Jesus. It is evidence that there was a controversy about whether Jesus was married 150+ years after his death, something we know about from other sources like Tertullian. (It could be like the current controversy, 150 years after Lincoln's death, about whether he was a vampire hunter.) Newspapers have run with it, asking if Jesus was married. That is the point of interest for many people, and is sheer eisegesis in the eyes of most scholars, not to mention silly.
Abe - Do you think that we can't (because of the reasons you listed) therefore know with any reasonable degree of certainty what the marriage practices of 1st century Palestinian Judaism were?Or if you do think we can know something, what are the sources?
Thanks, Jim McK. (I read Karen King's book on Mary Magdalene several years ago and did not get the impression that she thought Mary was Jesus' wife. Maybe in recent years she's come to believe otherwise. Not hard to accept, imho, since Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene after the resurrection, called her by name, etc.)
Hi, Abe: I hope no one will be discouraged from reading Satlow's great book by your reservations about it. (He addresses the issues you raise, including ideal vs. reality, quite specifically.) I hope anyone interested in the topic will take a look at the sample available on Amazon, which includes the Introduction, and judge for yourself.
"Not hard to accept, imho, since Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene after the resurrection, called her by name, etc.)"I call a lot of people by name to whom I am not married. Unless there's a text in which Jesus Christ calls Mary "my wife," I don't think we need to rethink two thousand years of tradition, though the Vatican's statement, essentially--that it doesn't care what scholars say, teaching Christ's marital status is fixed--sounds a lot like the way my Baptist in-laws talking about the facts of the fossil record.I think anybody who wants to claim that Jesus was married, which swims upstream of tradition, needs more solid evidence than has been offered here.
Gerelyn,I think Karen King's identification of MM and Jesus' wife only happens with this new text, which she reads as identifying Jesus' wife with a woman named Mary who was "worthy" (or not). In the gospels of Mary and of Thomas, she sees the worthy Mary as MM, which leads to MM is worthy woman is Jesus' wife.The Jewish Annotated Bible has some info on marriage and sexual mores in 1st century Judaism, which makes marriage sound very common. But men usually were 10-15 years older than their brides, meaning they were unmarried until they were about 25. So depending on how old Jesus was when he died, it might have gone unmarried a few years longer than normal. Or been widowed a couple of times. I have not yet looked at the section on Essenes and other Jews who valued celibacy.
Stephen Prothero says it well, I think, in his latest at CNN's Belief Blog, titled "I don't know if Jesus was married (and I don't care)":http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/09/21/my-take-i-dont-know-if-jesus-wa... closer:
What is going on here, as I see it, is a reluctance to say, I dont know.The truth of the matter is that we dont know what Jesus looked like. We dont know where he was or what he was doing when he turned 18. And we dont know if he was ever married or divorced.What we do know is that we live in a country besotted with Jesus and in an age obsessed with marriage and sexuality and the body, which is why this tiny papyrus is making such big waves.As for me, I dont much care what Jesus thought about marriage, or whether he engaged in it. I think we as a society tend to collapse religion far too readily into bedroom questions, as if Jesus came into the world to tell us with whom we should be having sex, and how.Im more interested in what Jesus has to say about wealth and poverty, the rich and the poor. And there is plenty in the available record to read and heed, "if only we have ears to hear."
David--Great find! I think Prothero says it perfectly, especially in the closer.
Gerelyn, I did not express reservations about the quality of Satlows book; I expressed reservations about how much support it would lend your argument about marriage.David, sources are sparse for 1st century Palestinian Jewish marriage practices, but I do not claim that there is nothing available. There are literary sources (e.g., Jospehus), papyri of personal documents, and inscriptions. When disaporic Judaism is added to the fray, the sample of sources grows. Also, to an extent, the marriage practices arent alien to the surrounding cultures.One complicating issue is the fact that the New testament itself is an important source of info about family life in the period, but because NT texts tend to promote fictive kin groups over and even against real family relationships, the data demands special interpretation. That is something that seems to be getting lost in the shuffle by those who want to make a claim concerning Jesus life based on a hypothetical reconstruction of an everyday man from 1st century Galilee: the social values promoted by the NT do not necessarily conform to those common to the culture.
About "worthiness" as a criterion of a disciple --I don't think this criterion is found in the canon. Peter, chosen by Jesus Himself to be the leader of the apostles, betrayed Jesus three times, which should have disqualified him if "worthiness" were a criterion for serving as disciple. So I suspect that "worthiness" is a characteristics that the gnostics added to the narrative, not Christ, and this indicates that the little parchment is of gnostic origin.
I call a lot of people by name to whom I am not married. ---------But this is the 21st century, and that was the 1st. Forms of address were different. Mary Magdalene did not recognize her own husband (?), because he was wearing a big hat and he was dead, she thought. But when he called her by name, an extremely intimate thing to do at that time and in that culture, she recognized him immediately.------------Abe, you're misinterpreting my suggestion to David Budiash. Read his question again. I was suggesting a masterful work by a great scholar because I thought it would shed light on the "extent to which 1st century Jewish men were or were not married", not because of "how much support it would lend [my] argument about marriage".I'm not presuming to make an "argument about marriage". I've simply said what I believe. Obviously, no "argument", no papyrus, no scholarship, no amount of mockery about "Mrs. Jesus" and her "honey-do list" can unravel the true facts. No one will ever prove that Jesus was or was not married, widowed, divorced, parthenos (or anything else about Jesus), so why the consternation? (Rhetorical question. People have gladly burned, disemboweled, beheaded, etc. one another over less.)
I doubt we'll ever know for sure if Jesus was married or not (though the Vatican thinks it knows) but I do think it should matter to us. All the bits we learn about Jesus help us to know him better.I was really hoping the fragment would be authentic - I would like a married Jesus - but I've been following Duke professor Mark Goodacre's blog New Testament blog on the subject, and the news doesn't look so good ... http://ntweblog.blogspot.com/
@ David Gibson:If as you suggest that [we should not care] whether Jesus was married, had a consort, or may have had children, then I suppose you would also agree that Catholic hierarchs SHOULD NOT care about maintaining their patriarchal hegemony over the church, either. Yeah, right!Of course it matters! The whole Roman all-male feudal oligarchical house-of-cards would come crashing down on a discovery that Jesus indeed had a family. There would be no more legitimacy for requiring mandatory celibacy as a prerequisite for ordination. The whole mythology of the Catholic male priesthood would be undermined. [Remember all that nonsense about how ministers of the Eucharist needed to anatomically resemble the male Christ???]You understand this. The hierarch certainly understands this.BTW: Questioning this King papyrus manuscript because it dates from "at least" the fourth century C.E. is a canard. What we know as the NT was not written down in it's collective form until the 4th century - essentially the same dating as for the King papyrus. In fact, the exact list of NT documents was only confirmed at the third Synod of Carthage (397 CE - that's the end of the 4th century), but this was only a regional council and by this time the 27 New Testament documents had already been agreed upon by most of the church...but there were some exceptions. The editing and translations of the four gospels and apostolic letters by later scribes continued for hundreds of years as they were copied again and again from their original 1st and 2nd century editions were written.The hierarchs have a vested interest in closing down the debate about Jesus' personal history and the practice of the primitive Christian communities. The Catholic hierarchy is a perfect example that the victors in any conflict always get to write the history.
"Rhetorical question. People have gladly burned, disemboweled, beheaded, etc. one another over less."I don't see an interrogative there, and I don't see how atrocities committed in the name of religion in the past are relevant here. No one here wants to burn, disembowel, behead, or etc. anyone for their beliefs about Jesus' marital status.Neither, as you state yourself, does the papyrus in question here or any other scholarship or Vatican statement definitively establish Jesus' marital status, one way or the other.
MM is quite in, even with the Leginaries of Christ: http://www.magdalacenter.com/default.asp?langID=2
jim J. --Sometimes I think the issue isn't celibacy but the wider one of asceticism. Asceticism seems to have entered the Churhc in a big way with the Gnostics who disvalued the body and, therefore, were anti-sex. I really don't understand the sort of extreme asceticism they championed. In fact, I think that asceticism has generally done more harm than good in Christendom. It leads to sour dispositions, holier-than-thouism, and Calvinism. Until the psychiatrists/analysts really understand masochism I don't think we'll understand this element in the Church and Christianity generally. Sure, some physical self-discipline is a very good thing, but i think the Church has in some cases over=done it. In fact, when we concentrate on the problems our bodies sometimes present it is very easy to neglect the ugliness and meanness of our spirits. Or maybe I've just known the wrong ascetics.
Regardless of the legitimacy of her current find, there is definitely one element of King's work that is strong and relevant here, which is her critique of how "Gnosticism" gets talked about. Whether it's the idea that "Gnostics" were anti-sex or just the representation of them as an actual group in general, she has a lot to say that is useful in forcing a reconsideration of the role (so useful, so malleable) that captial-G Gnosticism gets assigned in Church history.
Abe --How did the Gnostics come to be anti-body? Were they descendents of the Manichees? And where did the Manichees get such a notion (that body is bad)? Are there antecedents in the primitive religions of the middle east and other Mediterranean cultures? They certainly didn't get it from the likes of Zoraostrianism. Is it somehow connected to primitive indian beliefs?
Ann, i should have been more explicit in my previous comment. i do not think that the term "Gnostic" is useful as a designation for actual groups, individuals, texts, or systems of thought in antiquity. Nobody can provide a definition for "Gnostic" that successfully incorporates the materials we have that traditionally have been placed under that term. Certainly, nobody has provided such a definition that accounts for "Gnosticism" as something specific that is also specifically distinguishable from Christianity. So I think that the fervor for uncovering origins that has plagued scholarship that discusses Gnosticism has caused people to overlook the more likely scenario, which is that there isn't any origin of Gnosticism (because Gnosticism isn't a defined movement), and thus nor is there any origin of Gnostic ideas or tendencies (like being anti-body). Instead, you have to take individual cases and look into the development of their ideas APART from any notion that this development coincides with the emergence of something we can call Gnosticism.By the way, Mani wasn't born until the beginning of the 3rd century, so much of the stuff that gets labeled "Gnostic" predates him.
Abe --You seem to be saying that "Gnosticism" is a family resemblance term. That is, each of its uses has some meaning in common with at least one other use, but there is no one meaning or note that all the uses share. My question: didn't all of the Gnostics.or at least the vast majority of them, think that body/matter is evil? Regardless of how many thought that, the idea has been extremely influential in Christianity, and I'm just wondering what its origin(s) was. I'm no Biblical scholar, but I don't remember Jesus ever saying that the body and matter is intrinsically evil. So where did this notion come from? Was it a reaction against the super-hedonist Romans? Or what? I think it's still an extremely important issue because the stereotype of "the conservative Christian" against which so many academics react -- and their students with them== is of a body-disparaging, fun-squelching, closed-minded meanie.
As Jesus was dying on the cross he addressed both his mother Mary and John his apostle by saying "Mother behold your son" referring to John and "John behold your mother" referring to Mary. He made no mention of a wife, Mary Magdalene was there also.It is inconceivable that had there been a wife he would not have asked his mother or John or both to look after her..
Martin E Marty's take on the Coptic papyrus (I thought it was insightful and lighthearted--refreshing):"We can put this kind of media event into perspective by noting that each such unearthing of non-canonical ancient Christian texts receives publicity in direct proportion to attention being given to particular controversial issues in the contemporary world. In the long perspective of Christian history of twenty centuries, my generation and I are virtual kids, with only a half-century of observation behind us. But we can see ancient textual interests and contemporary itches matching almost decade by decade."http://divinity.uchicago.edu/martycenter/publications/sightings/archive_...


text:
News and Events Archives
Thursday, June 16, 2005
(Moberly, MO)-Columbia College and Moberly Area Community College (MACC) are enhancing teacher education programs in Mid-Missouri. The two schools will sign an articulation agreement that formalizes the arrangement at 11:30 a.m. June 17 in Moberly.
Columbia College and MACC have enjoyed a close educational partnership since 1996. Through their 2-Plus-2 program, students finishing an Associate of Arts with MACC transfer directly to Columbia College for their last two years of a baccalaureate degree.
The new articulation agreement will prepare MACC education students to enter the Columbia College teacher certification program. MACC will offer four new classes in education and will hire additional faculty. MACC education students intending to transfer to Columbia College will be identified in their first year in order for Columbia College to advise them on how to prepare for their bachelor's program with Columbia College.
"This articulation agreement allows for a seamless transfer of education students from MACC to either the Day or Evening programs at Columbia College," said Dr. Terry Smith, vice president and dean for Academic Affairs at Columbia College. "It is an outward demonstration of a commitment to teacher education in Missouri."
In recent years, more than 30 Columbia College students each year graduate and receive their teacher certification.
Columbia College was founded in Missouri in 1851. Today, the college serves 20,000 students at its Day Campus, Evening Campus, Graduate Program, 30 nationwide campuses and Online Campus.


text:
- Home
- Listings
- Directories
- Renters Guide
- For Owners
- Blog
- About
This apartment is currently off the market. Go to the building page to see availabilities.
$1,2101 Bedroom, 1 Bath
769 sqft.
Available immediately
One Year, Market Rate Lease
100 Avalon Haven Drive
North Haven, CT 06473
Cross streets:
Broadway, Avalon Haven Drive
North Haven
North Haven, CT 06473
Cross streets:
Broadway, Avalon Haven Drive
North Haven
Apartment Features
Modern appliances. Vaulted Ceilings.
- Washer/Dryer in Unit
- Loft
- Dining Area
- Walk-in Closets
Building Features & Amenities
- Fitness Center
- On-site Garage
- Storage Bins/Lockers for Tenants
- Package Receiving
- Dry Cleaning Service
- Barbecue Area
- Carport
- Covered Parking
- On-site Maintenance
- Gated Community/Controlled Access
- Rental Property
Pet policy: Pets OK , $325 fee, $40 rent for cats, $50 rent for dogs. Pets are conditional.
Welcome to Ardenwood Apartment homes, located in beautiful North Haven. Ardenwood offers residents an escape from the everyday. An array of thoughtfully designed floor plans, combined with our state-of-the-art amenities and convenient services, make your life at Ardenwood...A World of Privilege.
Amenities include 24-hour emergency maintenance, furnished apartments available, BBQ area/grills, heated pool, carports, package acceptance, state-of-the-art athletic center, private garages available, 24-hour cardio studio, business center with multiple work stations, controlled access to buildings, storage rooms, detached garages, valet dry cleaning, fax service, updated interior finishes, and much more.
Neighborhood / Parking / Transportation
Walking Distance to:
- Grocery Store
- School
- Restaurants
Owner / Manager / Leasing Information for Ardenwood › 4222
For more information on this listing, contact:
Property Management:
Fairfield Residential Company LLC
Search Listings
Related Listings
1 Bedroom
1 Bedroom
1 Bedroom
1 Bedroom
1 Bedroom


text:
A twenty-two ounce bottle of beer or malt-liquor. Sometimes people refer to twenty-four ounce bottles of beer as double duces.
I just drank a double duce of colt 45
by Mista 40 July 18, 2008
Trending Now
Top Definition
To flip someone the bird with both hands.
I was put on the jumbo-tron at the game so I gave the camera the double duce
by gnicklaser February 21, 2003
1)The most convienient way to flip someone the bird when wearing boxing gloves. Other methods (behind the back, around the world.)
2)Strongbad's favorite way to flip someone the bird
2)Strongbad's favorite way to flip someone the bird
*POOSHFFFFF* The Double Duce!
by Jeff September 11, 2003
When you take a shit and two long logs come out and hit the toilet water. The toilet water splashes all over your asswhole.
John Cena double duced and now his ass hairs are all wet.
by Big Boy Ski July 30, 2006
22 ounces of liquor.
Despite what a previous entry wrote concerning alcohol, a "double duce" is, in my predominantly black neighborhood, 22 ounces of liquor, (rather than 40). A "40" is a "40" no matter what, and the "double duce" is nearly half that amount.
by Eli 5 Stone October 12, 2006
22 inch wheels, usually for trucks or SUVs. Not the same as "dubs", which are 20 inch wheels.
Onlooker- "Yo, man, nice ecsalade. Are those dubs?"
Driver- "Hell no, man, them's double duces."
Driver- "Hell no, man, them's double duces."
by Shady Jeff June 30, 2006
a .22 cal gun
i capped ya wit a double duce
by b August 06, 2003