#book: cities of god

[memoriae-lectoris]

The Jewish Diaspora was not unique; ethnic enclaves were common in the Greco-Roman cities. Greek neighborhoods probably existed even in all of the non-Hellenic cities, and colonies of Syrians, Cretans, Phoenicians, Cypriots, Persians, Egyptians, and many others were widespread. Like the Jews, all of these “sojourners” (as they were called in official documents, even after generations of residence) remained quite attached to their homeland, and “every people, or fragment of a people, thrown into a foreign land continued to worship its ancestral gods.” The difference was that most of the sojourners were willing to worship local gods too, including the gods of each particular city and the deified emperors of the Imperial Cult, and to participate in “the frequent festivals and sacrifices,” while devout Jews were not. This very clearly set the Jews apart and often stimulated antisemitism. But, unlike the Christians, people in the Jewish Diasporan communities usually were exempt from these pagan obligations, having successfully appealed to the authorities that their unwillingness to worship any other gods was inherent in their traditional faith—tradition being the whole basis for religious legitimacy in the eyes of Roman authorities. Indeed, that is why conversion so unsettled Roman authorities: it involved renouncing the faith of one’s ancestors.

Even most of the Jews of the Diaspora who did not assimilate were remarkably Hellenized. As noted, they spoke Greek and thought in Greek—Philo referred to Greek as “our language.” Most had taken Greek names, and “intermarriage was frequent.” All but a very few had so entirely lost their Hebrew that they worshipped in Greek and the Torah had to be translated into Greek. Many Diasporan Jews, probably the majority of them, had abandoned some provisions of the Law well before the arrival of Christianity. For example, the prohibition against eating with non-Jews probably was widely ignored. It seems equally likely that many took part in feasts and festivals having pagan significance, since tolerance of paganism had crept into even their scripture. In the Greek of the Septuagint, Exodus 22:27 was not translated as “You shall not revile God” but as “You shall not revile the gods.” Calvin Roetzel is surely right that this was an open declaration of tolerance, utterly “alien to Hebrew Scriptures.” Equally dramatic evidence of a tolerant attitude toward paganism comes from the fact that the Diasporan Jews “did not even hesitate to [adopt] names derived from those of Greek deities, such as Apollonius, Heracleides and Dionysus,” or those of Egyptian gods—Horus was especially popular among the Diasporan Jews. Further proof of pagan inroads into Diasporan Judaism comes from the Jewish shrine in Elephantine in Egypt, where not only was Yahweh worshipped, but so were two goddesses who were said to be Yahweh’s consorts—Anath the goddess of war and Eshem the goddess of the sun.

#book: cities of god #judaism #culture #ancient rome #ancient greece #religion #Calvin Roetzel

[purplesoup-lad-le]

sometimes i wonder if one of those couple name generators would do better than what we've come up with.

I don't have to wonde anymore

#LIKE #IM SO. #THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I'M BORED ALONE AT NIGHT SND DON'T WANNA WORK. THIS #GOD. I DON'T #I CAN'T TELL WHETHER IT'S BETTER OR WORSE. #BUT I FIGURED Y'ALL WOULD GET A KICK OUTTA IT #SO HERE #kotlc #keeper of the lost cities #kotlc fedex #detz #do i tag the characters is the question. #probably not? since it's just their names? #nah nvm I'm tagging their names it can't be worse than some tags I've seen #fitz vacker #kotlc fitz #dex dizznee #kotlc dex #this is a good name I've decided because would shannon be able to put it in her books? no!!!!! so its perfect #good day to y'all

[lazycranberrydoodles]

COME ON GUYS DON'T LET DIANXIA DOWN

#images i drew on my phone approximately 90 seconds before class started #tma vs tgcf is pitting two bad bitches against each other but #from the other guys propaganda he is apparently a beloved side character #which i totally understand. #BUT HUA CHENG IS THE DEUTERANTAGONIST WHO LOVED XIE LIAN SO MUCH IT UNDOOMED HIM FROM THE NARRATIVE #HE DIDNT CLAW HIS WAY OUT OF TONGLU TO BE BEATEN LIKE THIS #also tma has gay people that dont undoom each other from the narrative. L + ratio (/j/j/j/j we all love tragedies here) #hua cheng will never rest in peace and he doesn't want to because he has a smokin boyfriend #they are both angry goths but has gerry died THREE TIMES????? no. just once. lame. #gerry got his skin bound into a necromancy book that was eventually burned but hua cheng ripped out his eye to craft a sickass scimitar !!! #hua cheng haunts the narrative before he dies in a hundred tiny ways and then HEAVILY after he dies a second time #he's an awesome city owner and has violent beef with HEAVEN. and he carves statues and paints and builds temples #and is also a self conscious loser <3 #his gay awakening was intensely traumatic and religious for everybody involved. and he's had the same life mission since he was 10 #he is actively fighting ghost discrimination and getting dangerous magical items off of the normal human market #also he is always bedecked in elaborate silver and chains and eyeliner and ALWAYS in blood red clothes #HE CAN MAKE IT RAIN BLOOD!!???!?!? ALSO #he stick and poked his god's name on himself but his handwriting is so bad it's unrecognizable and the signs he puts up have evil auras #this has ceased to be propaganda. now im just gushing. only tgcf fans will see this anyway. whatever youre getting blorbo rant #tgcf #art #poll #hua cheng #lmao #my art #tian guan ci fu #hualian #xie lian #hob #heaven official's blessing

[tempoaryblogformightyjensblog]

I need all newcomer FNAF fans to understand that William is not a normal child killer. Not in the sense that he has some great depth, but rather he is fixated on killing/hurting children to a weird degree. There is no normal degree, but he somehow found a weird degree.

I made a post about this a couple years back, and I did get the facts slightly off, so I will give an updated take. Ahem

He did not just kill 5 children at Freddy's, when Freddy's opened 2 years later he got a fake identity to kill 5 kids again. He used his apparently very wealthy company and his insane level of technological genius to build several highly advanced machines that function like they are from the 22nd century, have stuff like 'voice mimic lure' and many other advancements, and he used these godly accomplishments to kidnap and kill more children. He discovered Scarecrow-esqe hallucinogenic gas and used this for, you guessed it, torturing kids in his underground lab. They had like a whole fake house down there with a bed and a dinner table and everything bro was intricate.

After he became undead, he went to a fake pizza place he knew was a trap juuust so he could see if there were any actual kids here to kill.

So film fans if you are asking yourself if William is just a normal child killer, the answer is no. It is more that he is on some sort of crusade upon children everywhere and dedicates his entire existence to killing or hurting more kids. It's his goal in life, it drives him. He would invent time travel but only if every time the device was used to travel in time, it kicked an orphan in the balls.

#FNAF #FNAF movie #William Afton #I made a joke in that last post that how if he gained the power of god he would use it to kill kids and that KIND of happens? #In the FF books he is empowered by the demon Eleanor and becomes this giant trash monster #And he tries to destroy the city and Larson's narration implies the reason he is doing so #Is to kill the children in the city #Hyperfixations

[sophitz]

watching all the 2010s pop culture references in kotlc age like curdled milk and then deciding to do a whole novella about a character’s time among humans is certainly a choice

#haven’t we had enough doctor who mentions. can we please go one book without them #god forbid keefe discovers marvel movies. I’ll kill myself for real #kotlc #keeper of the lost cities #unraveled

[carmine-golde]

GUYS. GUYS GUYS GUYS GUYS—

What could this mean ??!?!!

#miss peregrine book #miss peregrines home for peculiar children #mphfpc #jacob portman #the desolations of devils acre #miss peregrine #hollow city #caul bentham #hollowgast #Instagram #ransom riggs #book #bookblr #OH MY GOD ??

[aroaessidhe]

aro & ace books: multiverse / portals!

Portal Fantasy

An Accident of Stars - adult fantasy duology, aro woman major POV character

Perception Check - NA portal fantasy, demi man major character

Alternate universes

The Art of Saving The World - YA sci-fi, ace lesbian MC

Sal & Gabi Break The Universe - MG sci-fi duology, aro (& probably ace) boy MC

Multiverse / cosmic type vibes

No Gods, No Monsters - adult contemporary fantasy/horror with some multiverse elements, an ace trans man MC

The City We Became - adult contemporary fantasy/cosmic horror, an (aro?)ace-coded woman MC

in both of these the ace MC is one of a large cast, aceness is not a focus, and also the multiverse stuff is one of many sff elements!

#aspec books / aspec database

#aspec books #this is kinda a combo of a few different things but. yknow. #an accident of stars #The Art of Saving The World #the city we became #no gods no monsters

[rhysknees]

What to read next

#sarah j maas #crescent city #house of flame and shadow #victoria aveyard #realm breaker #fate breaker #leigh bardugo #the familiar #rebecca yarros #iron flame #elizabeth may #to cage a god #claire legrand #a Song of ash and moonlight #a day of fallen night #samantha shannon #all this twisted glory #tahereh mafi #Books #tumblr #booklr #what to read next #2024 #book recommendations #reading

[syl-stormblessed]

i can finally sleep in peace knowing that sokeefe is canon and prentice and tiergan are the closest to canonically in love we'll ever get

#NO thoughts head empty ONLY sokeefe #pro tip: don't wake up at 4:30 am to read a book #you may finish it before noon but by god you will have a headache #stellarlune spoilers #vin speaks #stellarlune #keeper of the lost cities #kotlc #shannon messenger #keeper of the lost cities spoilers

[silverstark]

I love how both Xie Lian and Hua Cheng embody “a sword in one hand, a flower in the other.”

#HuaLian #Xie Lian #TGCF #Hua Cheng #‘crimson rain sought flower’ is just another way of saying that #and Hua Cheng means flower city. the fortress built to protect the flower #and Hua Cheng is the ‘Hua’ the God-Pleasing Crown Prince held in one hand while fighting with the sword in his other hand #there’s lots of meta about Hua Cheng being a bad person and he says it himself #but to me it’s nature vs nurture. in which Xie Lian nurtured. #AND; CRUCIALLY; what Hua Cheng chose to nurture matters #what Hua Cheng chose to worship matters #the one god he worships is the compassionate kind people-saving god #the noble gracious special someone #and that says a lot about him #re-reading Book 2 it's striking to me that Hong-er heard from XL himself that he doesn't want to be worshipped through cruelty #He saw how angry XL was about QR hurting someone even when it was in his name #(notably; Hong-er also heard/witnessed XL being told he was in trouble over his choices in the parade) #(this isn't about just/proportionate revenge like the 33 gods: XL said that they didn't deserve to be gods and HC carried out his justice)

[lucyshypemaster]

not to be dramatic but when I think about what 12 y/o sophie and dex went through in book 1, I fell to the floor and became an ugly sobbing mess

#thank god the graphic novel is only adapting the first half of the book 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 #I'm not sure how I'll be able to handle THOSE scenes getting drawn #kotlc #keeper of the lost cities #sophie foster #dex dizznee

[luminouslumity]

#kuri huang #books #bookblr #daughter of the moon goddess #heart of the sun warrior #the girl who fell beneath the sea #strike the zither #sound the gong #the god and the gumiho #the last dragon of the east #legend of the white snake #the west passage #the city inside #the scarlet alchemist #in the watchful city #girls of paper and fire #girls of storm and shadow #girls of fire and fury #graceling #fire #winterkeep #bitterblue #seasparrow

[eyeballsoup7310]

Most of the neverseen have been through trauma (albeit usually as some sort of self inflicted kind) but I wonder how that manifests for them. Like do you think Gethen really hates bright lights after being trapped in lumenaria for so long or do you think he can’t sleep without them on now

#also how are his hands doing. after his nails got literally freezed off #how was he able to get a decent grip on that sword if he had presumably untreated frostbite #god I wish we knew more about the neverseen members day-to-day #I dunno I haven’t read book 9 yet maybe we get more of that then #just talking #kotlc #keeper of the lost cities #kotlc gethen

[tyrantisterror]

After over a year of searching, I finally found my sword. Poetically, I found it at Enchanted Knights, the medieval fantasy-themed gift shop of my childhood family vacations to Mackinaw City. It's been over a decade since I last stepped foot into these hallowed halls, and I can think of no place more fitting to find the sword I've searched for so long.

#Sword Quest 2: Journey to Mackinaw City #Enchanted Knights #I also got a precious overprices pewter dragon figurine and a thicc gorgon plushie #And two books on mythology #God this store is so good it was such a temptation to blow my whole vacation budget there alone #Got other stuff to do yet though

[queenlucythevaliant]

Hi! I was reading anthropology book and for some reason it sparked my interest in how God relates to science. I don’t think they contradict one an other but I don’t know how to describe their relationship. It’s like evolution and how it relates to the Bible. I hope that makes sense because the relationship between religion and science is interesting. Also, I hope you’re doing good!

Science and faith are lovers. They're partners in crime with different skill sets. They're dancing a beautiful ballet together, telling the story of the world.

The easiest thing to say, I think, is that science and faith/theology answer different yet complimentary questions. Theology tells us who made the world, and why, and what he thought of it when he was done. Science tells us how matter condensed to form stars and planets, how long it took for life to emerge from chemical traces to cells to organisms. They fit together like two halves of a friendship necklace.

Biology tells us why our hearts beat and theology tells us who keeps it beating. Biology shows us all that we have in common with every other living thing, and theology shows us that we are made in the image of God.

Science teaches us to ask questions, to look for answers and not to be satisfied until we find them. Faith teaches us to seek truth diligently, but equally to trust the Sovereign God and to let go when knowledge is too high for us. Both together teach us to regard truth as something vital and precious: something to spend your whole life seeking.

Both science and faith engender awe. They place us on the precipice of things that absolutely dwarf us, time and space and infinity (or near infinity) and moving shifting elegant parts, and they say "don't look away." They say, "come closer, dive deeper, taste and see."

Science without faith is inert. It gives us cells animated by simple chemistry which are nevertheless more complex than cities and asks us to believe in a world without providence. It gives us majesty and no one to praise for it. It argues that no one can rise from the grave, that sin is of no consequence, and that death has the final say.

And yet faith without science - or perhaps I should say faith that shies away from science when it is inconvenient - is brittle. It clings to dogma and doesn't inquire at the gate. It doesn't stretch to accommodate new facts. It may break, if one day you are faced with some new piece of evidence you can't reconcile. It misses opportunities for awe and rejects the promise that truth will set us free.

#this ask is general enough that I decided to wax poetic #if you have more specific questions on which you'd like me to opine feel free to send them my way #would love to write a book about this someday #also! I'm doing okay! #i am running a cold bc i am not yet acclimated to the various bugs in my new city #but I'm riding it out 😊 #ask me hard questions #all truth is god's truth

[civilization-illstayrighthere]

“Rock! It’s been claimed before but you actually did it— rock is dead.” How much do you want to bet that the people who’ve claimed the demise of rock were wielding those very same words against Kerry? Kerry’s solo works before 2025 were classified as chromatic rock. The album that shot him to true stardom? Lazrpop. Us Cracks killed rock and roll in the way Zeus killed Cronus; there was no lazrpop before Kerry Eurodyne, not at the level of recognition fame and praise that Second Conflict earned. He created his own demise.

#cp 2077 #cyberpunk 2077 #kerry eurodyne #johnny silverhand #us cracks #he switched genres. he really did ‘sell out’ in the classic macho ‘ugh pop music is trite compared to raw rock music’ way #granted second conflict was released in 2025 and its 2077 #the gap between pop music in 2023 and 1973 for example are leagues different. but still #i feel like not a ton of people know this? i kind of blame the game bc #the only songs of his that we heard are samurai aligned… other than the boat song. #but if you’re curious. you can find this at that one music store in center city (on map as a junk store) #also if anyone has seen lazrpop mentioned in any of the ttrpg books lmk #but literally. i think he honest to god hand on heart invented the genre. which would explain his legendary status