Not a virgin anymore

Recently, we've got a new translation of The Bible. This happens every 20-30 year or so. The purpose is to bring the old book closer to contemporary language, and make it easier to read.

Most important, in this respect, was probably the German translation by Martin Luther, and subsequent translations to all other languages. In 1517, Martin Luther nailed up his 95 theses on the church-wall in Wittenberg. He argued that for most people, it would be more useful to read the Bible in their own language, rather than in Latin, which they didn't understand.

This sounds like a reasonable argument, but the Pope got pissed and didn't agree. That's hardly a surprise. The Pope is always against any kind of change.

Back to our new translation of The Bible: One of the most remarkable changes is that Mary, the mother of Jesus, is not a virgin anymore. In the new translation, "virgin" has been replaced by "young woman".

(I don't speak Hebrew, but I suspect that "virgin" and "young woman" translate to the same word in Hebrew, more or less.)

This is good news. I never believed in the virgin-story, and I've been arguing against it ever since elementary school.

When I was a kid, we had a Christian school system, and Christianity class had a preaching purpose. Most teachers were pragmatic about this, but in 3rd grade, we had a teacher who was very serious about the preaching. Our first conflict came up when I refused to believe in the Original Sin. I refused to believe my little baby brother was a sinner.

She got angry and yelled at me. Actually, she said that she wasn't angry, but God was:

"GOD IS ANGRY WITH YOU ... MWUUHAAHAAH ... YOU LITTLE HEATHEN."

This was kind of scary, of course, for a nine year old boy. After a couple of days, however, I realized that nothing happened, and nothing was going to happen. God was probably too busy to punish me, or maybe he just forgot. He's known to be a revengeful God.

Anyway, I never worried about God's anger ever since.

Later, when we learnt about the Virginborn, I immediately rejected it as a rediculous idea. The older kids in the street had explained to me how babies are made. They even showed examples, in some magazines they had hidden in a buried metal case.

I supposed that Jesus had been made in the same way.

Now it's nice to see that even the bible translators rewrite the virgin story. Maybe God is angry with them? At least the Pope is >:)

By the way, here's a great song: The Virginborn by Gorgoroth. If you like slow and doomy old-school black metal, you should click on the link. If not, don't do it; God may get angry with you >:D

(That's little-boy Jesus and his mother, the young woman Mary in the picture. I took it in Kotor, Montenegro last summer, when she was still assumed to be a virgin.)

The Story of Christmas revised

This happened some years ago, when little boy was about five yo. They had learnt about The Story Of Christmas (Luke 2:1-20) in kindergarden. One evening before Christmas little boy and I were playing with plastilina clay. Little boy started to retell The Story in his own way, and asked me if I could model it in clay. He was the director, and I just made what he told me to.

We made Jesus in the crib and Virgin Mary and his stepfather Joseph, and the Three Wise Men who came with gold and frankincense and myrrh (Matt 2:1-15). At this point little boy started to deviate from the original version of the story. He suggested that Jesus should get a soccer ball, so I made a soccer ball for him.


Then little boy wanted a soccer match. I made two goals, and little boy set up the teams. Even Virgin Mary had to participate, to make the two teams equal.

I argued that it was not very likely that Jesus was running around with a soccer ball just a few hours after his birth, but little boy insisted. Maybe he was right, taking into account the incredible tricks Jesus did later (the water-to-wine trick, the calming-the-sea trick, the five-breads-and-two-fish trick and so on)

Assumption of Mary

Have you ever been in a Catholic country on the 15th of August? I have, a few times, in Italy and Austria. Every time I have been surprised to find that all shops and restaurants are closed, at least in the small towns and villages. No place to get food.

The 15th of August is the day when the Catholics celebrate the Assumption of Virgin Mary, a national holiday. I come from a Protestant country so I always forget about it.

Jesus was apparently a nice guy, a very tolerant person, and a rebel of his time. And different from some of his fans, he probably just laughed when John Lennon announced that The Beatles were more popular than Jesus. Why not celebrate the Assumption of his dear mother? Have a nice trip >:)

I took the picture above this summer, in a small Medieval town in Montenegro. I don't think they're Catholics, probably some kind of Orthodox?