What's your "favourite" Bible verse?

[lazarus]

Here are a few of mine:

I Corinthians 13:11 "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."

All of Luke Chapter 6, particularly Az's favourite, which I'm sure he'll list.

Matthew Ch. 6 is also awesome. Parts of it are sheer lunacy, and parts are so openly ignored by those who purport to love Jesus' words they're fun to throw at the pseudo-Christians. Things like 6:5,

And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

More fun is the hilarious contradiction soon after. 6: 7 says

But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

2 verses later, the "Lord's Prayer" is given, which has been used in "vain repetitions" ever since.

[soleft]

1. I have a favorite but it's not cause it's funny

it's also not from the canon - it's from the gnostic gospels and attributed to JC - the only value, well, the most value I think that comes from scriptures is when you can break it down to a psychological truth - anyway

If you bring out that which is inside, that which is inside you will save you. If you do not bring out that which is inside you, that which is inside you will destroy you.

[NMMNG]

2. 1 Thessalonians 4:11

Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you,


If only the fundies would take this verse to heart, instead of the clobber verses and other ones they feel it is their obligation to ram down everybodys' throats.

[onager]

3. A few other contradictions...

...off the top of my alleged head:

At one point, Jesus claims you'll go straight to hell if you call someone "fool" ("raka," IIRC). Yet just a few verses later, he calls the Pharisees "fools," along with "hypocrites," "adders," and a few other choice phrases. Which also contradicts that whole "judge not lest ye be judged" thing.

In one of his epistles that lib'rul Xians love to quote, Paul claims that Xianity makes all people equal--there is no "slave or free, male or female, Jew or gentile." Then, naturally, he commands women to obey their husbands and keep quiet in the churches.

And a lifestyle contradiction that should have even the dimmest Fundie going "hmmm...": the two founders of Xianity, Jesus and Paul, were both unmarried men in their thirties. At a time when such a thing was VERY unusual in their culture.

[Book Lover]

4. Song of Songs

Let him kiss me with kisses of his mouth!
More delightful is your love than wine!


Yeah, it's all about the love of the Lord for his people. You betcha.

[Walt Starr]

5. Job 38:33

Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?

[Metta]

8. Where's that Joseph Campbell quote from?

It's a good one.

[Az]

6. Lev 11:6

Its the one where the bible claims rabbits chew cud. Always handy to find out what kind of believer you are dealing with.

Luke 6:30 is a handy for when you are dealing with a loud mouth theist and want to put them on the defensive.

[frogmarch]

7. Luke 14:26

If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

Another Luke goody:

14:31
Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?

Answer: W

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. Luke 16:1-9 - in which Jesus encourages fraud

"Jesus told his disciples: "There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.'

"The manager said to himself, 'What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg — I know what I'll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.'

"So he called in each one of his master's debtors. He asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'

" 'Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,' he replied.
"The manager told him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.'

"Then he asked the second, 'And how much do you owe?'
" 'A thousand bushels of wheat,' he replied.
"He told him, 'Take your bill and make it eight hundred.'

8"The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings."

I feel that if I could work out why this got into the Bible, it might throw a whole new light on the people who established Christianity.

[Arianrhod]

10. The Epistle of Paul to the Romans

is, IMO, one of the greatest Gnostic works ever written, if not the greatest religious treatise in the world. Simple, concise, logical, passionate, eloquent: it presents the human dilemma succinctly, condensing all of Christian doctrine into 16 chapters. Ignore Paul's personal hangups with sex; they are irrelevant to the theme, but present his own humanity in the argument, lending it power (and disclaiming the theory that this is god's word). Kierkegaard would have approved, even if Sartre wouldn't.

Romans 7:24

"O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"

Followed closely by the autobiographical Epistle to the Galatians.

Galatians 1:15-16a

"But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me. . . ."

BTW, it is my opinion that it is not possible to call oneself an educated Westerner, and not have at least a passing understanding of the Bible. . . .

[MindPilot]

11. Ezekiel 23

she lusted for them, commanders and warriors with members like that of a donkey, and emissions like that of a horse.

Better than Penthouse.