Dependent fellow-citizen Paul: Romans 7:15-25

Note: I read the Bible to consider whether a specific passage comports to my weak-comprehension of the perhaps 5,000-year-old Sumerian philosophy expressed by Hebrew scholars 3,000 years ago in Genesis 1:28:  Female& male-human-being can& may, independent of other entities, constrain political chaos on earth. I think the next Bible canon should include the law codes of Sumer.

I perceive that the 10,000-year-old Sumer civilization ought to be considered, in order to increase civic-integrity while appreciating private spiritual pursuits in 2022 and beyond.

Paul

The ancients are our fellow-citizens in the quest to discover the-good. Paul recorded mistakes to avoid.

I can only share my opinion, because I do not know the-ineluctable-truth, which a considerate human-being works to discover (during their individual, 2nd through 4th quarter centuries, after the 1st quarter century to personally accept being a human-being). Fortunate is the person who employs experiences& observations intending to perfect their-unique-good before death.

I think the Bible canonizers erred when they included Genesis-1, a 3,000 year old comprehension of a 5,500 year-old political philosophy, perhaps from Sumer.

I assert “erred”, because a 2022 comprehension (based on the recent 5,500 years’ discovery) holds Genesis-1 to be artful, neglected awareness-if-not-prudent-advice at the dawn of both grammar and monotheism. Then, perhaps 150,000 year-old language& knowledge could be used to ponder individually and collaborate in essential pairs, female& male, then in groups.

Humankind divides into 2 groups, according to willingness to guide actions for necessity& justice or none --- responsible-human-independence (RHI) or dependence; physics& progeny or metaphysics; the-ineluctable-truth or speculation (belief). Those 2 groups subdivide unto 2 diversities. In subsequent millennia, diversity has diverged unto chaos.

My 2022 comprehension of Genesis 1:28 is this: female&male-human-being can& may independently provide order& prosperity to the lesser species and to Earth; provide peace; constrain chaos in personal behavior& in societies; develop humankind. The rest of Bible canon debates whatever-controls-the-consequences-of-human-choices, both individual& group actions. Restating, the rest of the Bible journals, through 2000 years ago, how “Western” civilizations developed today’s Western chaos.

If these opinions seem reliable, consider how to apply them: Societies ought-to practice, encourage, and facilitate self-discipline to all citizens. That’s the can& may, and there remains the how. I contend that each person self-disciplines by learning-to-apply the-ineluctable-truth. “Ineluctable”, first published 400 years ago in translation, means “not to be avoided, changed, or resisted” merriam-webster .com. In practice, each individual can& may accept& say, “I do not know”, when they don’t know.

Now, to Paul:  By developing integrity to the-ineluctable-truth, each human-being can& may appreciate& avoid the miserable dependency Paul shared in Romans 7:15-25. Paul shamelessly cries “my mind . . . a slave to God’s law . . . my . . . nature a slave to . . . sin” as though there is no Paul-personal-discipline to consider! Moreover, Paul disassembles the Trinity in “. . . God . . . delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” He essentially discounts the-God for “our Lord” and the Old Testament’s "the Lord God" and other Gods.

The Christian scheme -- canonizing Jesus to compete with the Gods of the Bible is a consequence of group-search for reliable dependency – bargaining for the-God to usurp the civic-RHI that was suggested 5,500 years ago.

In Sumer’s era, the individual faced the uncertainty of physics& its-progeny. Long before, even more primitive humankind observed that the sun could kill (now we know due to overexposure) and imagined the sun a supernatural power, eventually labeled “God”. Many civilizations bargained with sun Gods, and many speculated that the-God demands human flesh. Some sacrificed their excellent citizens to the-God. Now, despite modern human-sacrifice, we know the sun is a natural nuclear reactor, but have not overcome dependency on the-God for competition among self, individuals,& groups.

In addition to spiritual hope& comfort to believers, does Jesus offer civic influence? I think so:  Jesus’s cryptic messages empower the metaphysics of our collective quest to discover and apply the-good. Recall, we are at the leading edge of 300,000 years’ homo sapiens psychological development. We are obligated to our posterity, including our direct descendants.

Just as Paul expressed opinion 2,000 years ago, Ralph Waldo Emerson expressed opinion 184 years ago: “Alone [Jesus] estimated the greatness of man . . . God incarnates himself in man, and evermore goes forth anew to take possession of his world. But what a distortion did [Jesus’] doctrine and memory suffer . . . Christianity became a Mythus, as the poetic teaching of Greece and of Egypt”.

Emerson advanced the-metaphysical-Jesus, the human collaboration to consider Jesus’ reported statements: be perfect [in your can& may], before founders were born I am, help your magistrate constrain chaos, you are gods-facing-death, be humble, be peaceful, and more.

It seems Jesus affirmed Genesis 1:28, and we good-citizens can& may practice, facilitate, and encourage civic-RHI while privately pursuing personal-spiritual-happiness.

We, the civic-citizens who pursue the-good need not allow Paul to distract us from the-metaphysical-Jesus, if we take interest in that method of perceiving. I prefer discovering the-ineluctable-evidence rather than metaphysics but am willing to collaborate with civic –fellow citizens who prefer the Jesus approach.

Paul? Consider identifying and not making his mistakes.