Q Valerius Scerio

Yes indeed, and never finalized until the Masoretic Text in the medieval times.

Hero.

I would suggest watching it, and if you actually watch it for a movie (um, which it is) you'll find out it's much better than these people suggest. It's akin to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Sure, it's not where near the book, not even close, but to say it's a bad movie merely because it's not the book says something. One cannot be another, and no movie is like the book. You're comparing apples and oranges here. I know the faults in the script, but to suggest murder for making such an epic alive? Come on people, get off it.

Genesis 1:26 "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." There is no mention of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is a Judaic book. Moses wrote that passage. Hebrew lexicon implies that 'image' and 'likeness' indicate our similarity in form. That we are differentiated from animals. Just wanted to point out that Moses did not write that passage, if he even existed. It's absolutely ludicrous even for fundamental Christians to think that Moses wrote the Hebrew Bible. The Torah is a composite work of several authors and redactions luminating both the pre-exilic past of Judah's glory and a safeguard to those weary after the Babylonian exile.

As I recall, it was a zealot, with multiple personality syndrome.

From the earliest I can remember, I was always fascinated with dinosaurs and those colored picture books that explain away both the natural and ancient world (a childhood series I long forgot about). Dinosaurs, medieval pugnation, then I picked up linguistics about 11 (what a fascinating subject!) and took Latin in High School and voila, Roman History in particular developed. But all in all, I think I'm just more curious than anything else.

In case anyone here is a fan of Latin, here it is in its original language. Enjoy

M. Aurelius personally, the last of the good emporers...

Christians, corruption, barbarians, and lower taxes but higher military spending (hrm... sounds vaguely familiar)

Ooh, toss up. Babylonians predated Romans by millennia, but Egyptians may have had Babylonians beat.

Was there something I was missing here? It's monotheistic, not monoatheistic... Not only that, but Akhenaton's religion predated monotheistic Judaism.

Zeke, I mentioned that two posts above yours, albeit briefly. In short, Hell is comprised of Hades, Sheol, and Gehenna while Heaven is literally the skies plus Olympus and Elysium.

But the Christian faith doesn't even apply the Ten Commandments. According to traditional Christianity, all of the Old Testament's commandments (which is reality number in the 350s or so) are declared null. No, some of them were repicked up after having been used by a. Jesus or b. Paul, but you no longer have to go to Sabbath (and was, in fact, declared heretical by one of the early Christian counsels) and instead you go on the Lord's Day (Saturday was Sabbath, Lord's day was Sunday since Jesus rose on a Sunday). And anyone who follows New Testament standards today are looked down upon (Amish, in particular).

Except in the real Religio Romana everyone went to Hades to live as Shades except the bravest of warriors who went to Elysium and the worse tormentors of the gods who were tortured in Tartarus. No doubt, since classic Judaism lacked these ideas, that is where Christianity picked it up, porbably along with Zorastrianism who also held the Duality of the Gods.

Times, they are a-changing, but we still are only human.

Well, in the current state of cosmological physics, you never die, you're always being lived by another you somewhere in another universe, or even infinite universes.

Linguistics. Currently my translation projects are Juvenal's Satires and the New Testament.

The best afterlife would be lucid dreaming in a constant comatose state in a cryogenics chamber before death where you would have the possibility of learning forever and totally interacting with your environment.

Yes, people have been known to die in UFC. I wonder what the reaction would be if there were a push to bring back gladiatorial games? Of course, it would be voluntary, any death row inmate would be allowed to play... I'd be for it.

dnewhous - yes, reading this thread I was instantly reminded of Enemy of the Gates, where Soviet punishment for retreat was instant death. Not only the standing behind them with Howitzer? guns mowing them down if they started to retreat, but Stalin in general would decimate his military even (especially) high ranking officers if he got the urge to do so. His paranoia after assassinated Trotsky grew so high that he single handedly made the collapse of the Soviet Union imminent, even though his successors would try to maintain it decades afterwards. The single worst thing about decimation was the waste of resources that killing soldiers leads to. It's like spanking, it can achieve immediate results, but if employed often can severely damage the future. A Pyrrhic victory almost... Chris Weimer