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Rome is STILL called Roma by the people who live there. But Italians don't get all upset because people who speak languages other than Italian pronounce it without the final "a". The name originally derived from Etruscan ruma "province" where the "u" was probably pronounced like a German...

Then why are you repeating obsessively (over and over and over and over, on threads that have nothing to do with your obsession) this "Jesus=Michael" nonsense? There is no connection whatsoever between those two, anywhere except in JW literature. If you are talking about biological creatures...

Eire is not a "prefix", it's the whole word. There is no "earlier Irish form Eran": the (modern) genitive case Eireann "of Ireland" is the usual way to make it an adjective "Irish"; the earlier form is Ibheri where "h" is used in Gaelic to mark consonants that are often weakened or dropped...

I think "allelyah" is just a computer program stringing together snatches of phrases to create the appearance of posts.

The Torah is relentlessly Darwinian (which makes "creationism" very ironic). There is no talk of rewards or punishments in any afterworld: instead the reward for being good is that your descendants will be greatly multiplied, while the punishment for wickedness is that your line will go...

Almost nothing in the universe is either male or female. Out of arrogance you invent nonsense to fill up your ignorance, which would be of no concern to me if you did not then try aggressively to push your ignorance on others.

And that's fine: I wouldn't force you to drink a cup that was not yours. All I ask is the same courtesy, which seems to be impossible from you.

Of course not, since that name does not exist or make sense in any language, and is just a piece of nonsense which you made up yourself. I already know what is in my own heart, and need no "education" from you, when you don't know a goddamned thing about it.

You are aware that Moshe in Hebrew has no "z" in it? You are aware that Assyrian only has Asshur not "Assara" and that the development is in the reverse direction? And is "Mazas" something you made up yourself or do you have a source for it? Chapter 14 of Genesis reflects the politics of ~950...

I'm writing it as I go; it is based somewhat on previous attempts by me to put this stuff together, but this time I seem to be more in the flow. I'm about to set out on a road trip so it may be a while before I can finish the "Alexandria" section, with a discussion of the actual patriarchs of...

It does not represent any such thing, never has.

You're joking, I hope???

The absence of a central authority in Asia made it possible for unorthodox sects to grow to mass movements, which was not generally the case elsewhere. Marcion's followers, the “Paulicians” (since they thought they were the only ones to understand Paul), outnumbered the orthodox in eastern Asia...

Glad somebody's enjoying it! I am starting to put up my religious-history on bobxtm.blogspot.com (a Google blog). Patriarchs part D, Constantinople (Alexandria to follow as soon as I have time): The churches in Asia Minor, even where Paul was a founder, broke with him over the issue of...

Nothing of the kind has been "shown". ASSERTING something without any kind of proof or even argument is not "showing" anything. The crescent was never used on Islamic flags until the Turkish period. Early Islamic flags were one-color, with no image of any kind. Muhammad himself preferred...

The "Talmudic" interpretations of the OT discard the pseudo-Zoroastrian baggage of the intertestamentary period. Ben Masada's reading of "angels" and "devils" as purely metaphorical expressions for internal human states of mind, rather than as literal entities with separate existence, is...

Because I use the word "Iran" which YOUR PEOPLE CHOSE FOR THEMSELVES THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO???? No I'm not. I call Iranians "Iranians" just like everybody else, including Iranians not of your peculiar faction. Your behavior here is completely insane, can't you see that? My ancestry is from...

Not as long as you never raped a woman who was already married or betrothed to someone else. You would just have to pay heavy bride-prices, and would be unable to divorce any of them (that is, you would be responsible for all their upkeep for life).

The reconceptualization of "angels" from the Hebrew to the Greek scriptures had a lot to do with the Persian influence, in my view (about the only thing mojobadshah and I have been able to agree on!) We find similar quasi-divine angels in the intertestamental literature which has "fallen...

Actually, no. As I have pointed out to you many many many times, the Avesta never has any form ending in "n" without extra letters (I wouldn't think the precise form of the adjectival ending important, but you seem to), and the vowel is already "ai" pronounced "EYE"; by the time the adjectival...