10-06-2023, 01:02 AM
Tiger, I didn't see your piece as an attempt at commentary on the passage in Matthew, more as using the parable structure to create an object lesson of your own. Jesus of Nazareth was not the first teacher to use parables, and he certainly wasn't the last. And honestly, if you say to someone, "consider this thing for a while," there's many 'lessons' to be learned or themes that could be explored. You could even be totally nonsensical about it and say, "Look at this corvette, how it burrows under the soil, how it swims through the sea, then turns into a dove." You wouldn't have many disciples, but, theoretically, you can use the parable structure to invite thought about anything and proceed to draw any conclusion.
Broadly, that passage in Matthew illustrates how Jesus was teaching his disciples to focus less on the visible world and more on immaterial things. It makes sense and it doesn't since you can't spread the gospel after you're dead (and lack of food does that to a person). But, Egyptian mythology often makes sense while it doesn't. I saw you taking the form and applying it to a different worldview deliberately. It also occurred to me that you were attempting to highlight the overlap between Egyptian belief and Judeo-Christian beliefs, since the Jewish people literally came out of Egypt after a period of captivity.
Perhaps you would do yourself a favor to stop giving credit to Matthew, unless you are wanting to draw parallels between ancient Egyptian worldview and Middle Eastern worldviews at the time of the Roman Empire. Everybody was pillaging from everybody intellectually at the time, and there's a plethora of such overlaps to be explored.
In conclusion, I took the piece to be the beginning of a lesson in which the reader is invited to explore and find their own answers. However, if you intended for a specific message to be heard, you're going to want to make that more clear.
Broadly, that passage in Matthew illustrates how Jesus was teaching his disciples to focus less on the visible world and more on immaterial things. It makes sense and it doesn't since you can't spread the gospel after you're dead (and lack of food does that to a person). But, Egyptian mythology often makes sense while it doesn't. I saw you taking the form and applying it to a different worldview deliberately. It also occurred to me that you were attempting to highlight the overlap between Egyptian belief and Judeo-Christian beliefs, since the Jewish people literally came out of Egypt after a period of captivity.
Perhaps you would do yourself a favor to stop giving credit to Matthew, unless you are wanting to draw parallels between ancient Egyptian worldview and Middle Eastern worldviews at the time of the Roman Empire. Everybody was pillaging from everybody intellectually at the time, and there's a plethora of such overlaps to be explored.
In conclusion, I took the piece to be the beginning of a lesson in which the reader is invited to explore and find their own answers. However, if you intended for a specific message to be heard, you're going to want to make that more clear.