Indeed!
It’s the ordinal sins that I find confusing.
The one I’ve never understood is “And she named her son Jesus, in accordance with the prophecy that he would be named Emmanuel”.
You’re lucky. Over my career, when I’ve asked my patients “how did your problems start?”, a surprising number replied with “Well, I wasn’t pretty as a little kid”. ;-D
Argh. Well, I wasn’t ugly…
Yes, I’m sure your parents told you that. 
LOL. Actually, no. My older sister was the pretty one. I was the creative/rebellious one. My younger sister was the mommy helper, and my brother was the boy. That was all he needed to be.
Ah. You’re the one wearing the metal tag, right? I take it back: You were pretty cute as a youngster.
Only if you had the milk bottle* images inflicted on you by the Baltimore Catechism.
* The BC used a milk bottle to depict the state of one’s soul. No sins = milk is pure white; venial sins = milk has black spots (you’ll spend a time in Purgatory); mortal sins = milk is all black (better pack your asbestos undies).
I must have seen it, because I can sure get a clear picture of the front of my old Baltimore Catechism in my mind. But my personal image of the soul was a shape like a Milk Bone dog biscuit. I did picture it as spotted, but that made me think of Dalmations. Is that why religion never really “stuck” for me? 
It’s a little funky. Emmanuel (originally “Immanuel”) means “God is with us”. Jesus essentially means “God is salvation”. So, it’s close I guess.
Isaiah 7:14, which is considered by Christianity to be a foretelling of the messiah, says:
therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign: the maiden is with child and she will bear a son, and will call his name Immanuel.
“Maiden is with child” was interpreted by some to mean “a pregnant virgin”, hence Mary being the one referenced. Though, yeah, she didn’t quite name him the same name. I dunno, maybe in that time and place it would have made more sense.
Judaism does not consider Isaiah 7:14 to be a messianic prophecy, just FYI.
It is definitely a bit of a
And I say this as a Christian.
Atamasama I’m Christian but I have the Jewish Publication Society’s translation of the Tanakh and it is intriguing to see differences in translation, and how one word can really change the meaning of a statement.
I think particularly of the line from Job that I have seen as “I know that my Redeemer lives” and the JPS has “Vindicator” The latter, to me, sounds like a lawyer is speaking to defend someone.
Which in the context of Job makes sense since he is being tormented by The Accuser.
You are right, I never thought of it in that light.
I’d like to respond to every post in this thread with that.
That’d be kinder than “What the sacred FUCK are you talking about? You do realize that God gave you a brain, don’t you? But you can’t wait to throw it in a dumpster, all because of your pathetic need to be told what to believe by a clearly corrupt, clearly patriarchal institution.”
Christian demands refund from Chinese restaurant in Albequerque
A man was filmed causing a scene at a Chinese restaurant in Albuquerque, New Mexico, soon after he noticed a statue of Buddha inside the store.
Insert quote from L. Sprague de Camp’s Lest Darkness Fall here.
I know trying to understand this argument is a futile endeavor but…he wanted a refund because there was a statue of Buddha in the restaurant? Was he afraid that the food had Buddha-cooties in it and he might accidentally catch Buddhism?
That’s it in a nutshell, emphasis on nut.
I’ve eaten in a number of Chinese and Indian restaurants with various religious displays in them, and I’ve never caught Buddhism or any other religions.