Template:JPExE01

Episode 1

"Jordan and his round table explore the themes of freedom against tyranny, God’s allowance of evil, and faith as an adventure within the first three chapters of Exodus. They seek to answer the question of whether one should take the easy path even if it is wrong or do what is right despite it being hard." Dailywire

Certainty brings ruin

According to Martin Kramer of the Washington Institute, "When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal."

He also tells us, the phrase to "know thy enemy" isn't in the Koran but it comes from the ancient Chinese general Sun Tzu who said "Know thy enemy and know yourself..."

But we are to love our enemy and this may be because if we hate him we may become like him. In fact in many situations we are the enemy.

Even George Orwell wrote, “Man is the only real enemy we have."

So, if we are to know ourselves we cannot be the enemy of a truth, especially about ourselves?

Is there something mankind does not want to see that we must be willing to face if we are "... willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it."

The measure of self or be ruined

3 min

Douglas Hedley in his introduction speaks of the foundation of our culture... and that we are facing a cultural crises.

The phrase "Know thyself" is an Ancient Greek aphorism that means "know thy measure".

According to the Greek writer Pausanias, it was the first of three Delphic maxims inscribed in the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi.

Douglas Hedley equates knowing yourself with knowing the Bible which helped form our cultural heritage.

Knowing thy self includes knowing thy culture.

But knowing thyself, according to Jordan can be "terrifying metaphysical idea" as he eventually addresses near the end of episode one.

All cultures are not equal because they do not produce an equal outcome. A bad culture can be the enemy of the people because it degenerates the members of society by encouraging corrupt or anti social behavior.

The other two maxims of wisdom that follow the statement at Delphi to "know thyself" are "nothing to excess" and "certainty brings ruin".

The wisdom of "nothing to excess" seems to make sense and is reasonable, but how does "certainty brings ruin"?

Exodus, Solomon, revolutions, and the corvee

When Ian Oswald Guinness brings up revolutions since he was born in China and lived there during the beginning of its revolution. He had met Isaiah Berlin who had also lived in Russia during its revolution. They will eventually address the revolutions like that of the American and French revolutions that were born out of different cultures.

How common was slavery and what type of slavery?

Egypt feared the Israelites who were in bondage in Egypt since the days of Joseph and increased their burdens and thought to de-emasculate their society by reducing males. During this episode which mentions the midwives who "feared God more than Pharaoh" and Jonathan Pageau will see this reduction of male children as a sort of feminization of the Israelite community.

Egyptian politics that sought to make Israelites to cast out their children was certainly void of the wisdom of "nothing to excess".

If they truly wanted to weaken or to reduce Israel who were thriving more than Egyptians they should have increased the benefits of their welfare system tun through the temples of Egypt which we address through out this review.

At 20:15 minutes into this episode Ian Oswald Guinness will point out that Solomon was becoming a second Pharaoh with his institution of tribute through another corvee. Israel was meant to be free and never return to the bondage of Egypt yet Solomon was doing that. Israel had been told to write that in their constitution by Moses in Deuteronomy 17.

A corvee system is a system where a portion of your labor belongs to the State. Historically people have agreed to this statis in order to receive the protection and entitlements of the State.

"Protection draws to it subjection; subjection protection."

Endowed by a creator

Dr. James Orr points out the unique idea that man is endowed by a Creator with rights through His Natural law and then chooses to create governments and civil law systems.

Tyranny of choice

Dennis Prager says there was tyranny from Pharaoh but we need to be free from the tyranny of ourselves.

Is it all just a choice of the tyranny you choose or is there a transcendence?

Things forgotten

Stephen James Blackwood sees that we have lost a sense of what has brought us and our institutions to this point and condition and he hopes to explore those origins.

Order out of chaos

Jonathan Pageau ponders how these stories, as an artist, how the symbolism these ancient stories could be intended to bring virtuous order out of chaos.

Two types of Hierarchies

11 minutes

Jordan Peterson describes God or god as what ever is at the hierarchy of your own mind. He sees that what you hold as most valuable to you become you God.

13 minutes begins to read the text of Exodus 1

Exodus 1:8 "Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph."

Prager points out a significance of this verse to our own time.

16 minutes

Jordan Peterson thinks that Israelites were made slaves by the new Pharaoh but the truth was they had been in a corvee system of bondage since when they first entered Egypt back in Genesis.

When the sons of Jacob through their brother into a pit and sold him into slavery they were doomed to go into slavery. When they did not hear the anguish of their brother God would not hear them.

What was happening was that the terms through crafts of state became more oppressive.

How common was slavery and what type of slavery?

The bondage of Egypt was a system of Corvee that started out with owing twenty-percent of your labor to the government but became more oppressive with less benefits which became more and more grievous.

Egypt wanted to reduce Israel who were thriving more than Egyptians. If they really wanted to destroy Israel they should have given them more benefits.

At 20:45 Ian Oswald Guinnes mentions this corvee under Solomon which is why God divided Israel. All systems of Corvee are a return to the bondage of Egypt and almost always move people away from liberty through covetous practices which leads to the degeneration the Masses and usher in the rise of foolish tyrants.

21 min.

Dennis points out that every day between Passover 50 days before Pentecost there should be a reminding blessing against external tyranny and internal tyranny to yourself (lusts, etc.).

But there is the tyranny of neighbor over neighbor which much of the Ten Commandments does address. Certainly we should not murder, steal, or bear false witness but the one that appears invisible in the mind of modern man is "Thou shall not covet..."

They speak of the ideologies that everything is tyranny you just pick your own tyranny which of course is the ideologies of the Derrida types and their propaganda of deconstructionism and blindness.

Ian Oswald Guinnes points out that all power corrupts.

"Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely" is an observation Lord Acton made in a letter to Bishop Creighton on April 5, 1887.

If that is true then how is Paul justified in his statement with in Roman 13?

The truth is Moses was setting up a government with the division of power was not merely in three branches of government but in fact was recognizing that we were endowed by our creator with the power of Choice and that power needed to remain with in each family. Any centralization of power, i.e. power of choice, into the hands of a few would lead man back into bondage.

All three branches of government must remain with what Jordan Peterson will call "the sovereign individual" in Episode 2

Midwives Fear God

24 min Exodus 1:15 mentions killing the male children. That is a pattern of evil repeated through the stories of history. What if you could just destroy the male children without killing them?

The midwives does not kill because of fear of God more than the Pharaoh.

Psalms 111:10 The fear of the LORD [is] the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do [his commandments]: his praise endureth for ever.

But Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the LORD [is] the beginning of knowledge: [but] fools despise wisdom and instruction." Proverbs 2:5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.

Proverbs 9:10 "The fear(יִרְאַ֣ת yir’aṯ) of the LORD [is] the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy [is] understanding."

30 min Peterson mentions God as that phenomena where it is revealed to the individual that something is wrong or not right. That would be the tree of life or the Holy Spirit. If there is a God their must be core value and pattern to man.

Dr. Ian Oswald Guinness sees that if there is no God, no Divine designer, nor Divine Will then there is no truth and chaos will reign.

First civil disobedience and ethics

35: min when Dennis points out that God is ethics centered and not ethnics centered Dr. Ian Oswald Guinness brings up the "civil disobedience" concerning the midwives which suggest there must be a higher morality from a law prior to the civil law.

37 minutes

Douglas Hedley quotes Proverbs 29:18 "Where [there is] no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy [is] he."

What is the vision of Moses for the nation and what is the roll of the priests in this free nation.

Ezekiel 7:25 "Destruction cometh; and they shall seek peace, and [there shall be] none. 26 Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumour shall be upon rumour; then shall they seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients. 27 The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled: I will do unto them after their way, and according to their deserts will I judge them; and they shall know that I [am] the LORD."

Because of the idolatry of the people and priests the wrath or consequences come because as you judge so shall be judged.

50:min continues to read.

Moses is put in and ark upon the water. They see Moses in associated with water which Jordan points out many times but the Pharaoh with stone.

Dennis suggest that water is the undoing of Moses when he strikes the rock to bring fourth water.

Water flows and not fixed like stone.

Moses was judged for taking credit for what God did.

Status of Moses

Exodus 2 they cover Moses "is rescued by the daughter of Pharaoh" and adopted mother is called the "daughter of God" and the Mother of Moses. 55 minutes

Peterson discusses Moses is associated with water while the tyrant and Pharaoh is associated with stone.

There is a discussion of the significance of Moses in the ark and his connection with water and he is saved by the daughter of pharaoh who Dennis points out is called by Jewish traditions the "daughter of god".

The important ramifications of that status of Moses as the adopted son of the daughter of Pharoah is never fully addressed by the panel. The status of Moses and the Moses#Hatshepsut daughter of Pharoah and why she was called the daughter of God, which is for a similar reason to the title of the Son of God and even why Israel called him Moses all plays into the understanding of the mission and purpose of Moses and his conflict with Pharaoh, which was the Christian conflict with Rome.

57 min

Ian Oswald Guinness points out that all the heroes are women by their compassion from the midwives, Moses' mother and the adoptive mother and daughter of Pharoah.

Peterson talks about the maternal instinct to protect those in true need in a way and manner that strengthens those in need which the system in Sodom failed to do. The idea of a woman as a rescuer of those in need is found perpetually throughout scripture but the means of that female provider is the difference between the methods of the Bride of Christ verses Nimrod, Sodom, and the Turtle dove Goddess who managed the social safety net of Sumer.

101 minute

Peterson points out that Moses concern of killing the Egyptian was that Moses feared becoming the tyrant.

103 min

Dr James Orr mentions the Hammurabi Code and attempts to determine a moral standard but the methods used must be in righteousness. So, both the fraternal and maternal elements of governments must include a persute of the weightier matters in righteousness.

111 min

Ian Oswald Guinness suggests faith is "entrepreneurial". If the maternal elements of the social safety net of society used by Moses required faith because it was not a system of entitlements through compelled offerings rather than the freewill offerings of the LORD.

fraternal which

126 min

Praguer ask why did God take so long to save the jews in Egypt and what about Europe.

144 min

Jonathan Pageau speaks of God hearing the groans or cries of the people. Were they crying for themselves or were they crying for the welfare of others?

terrifying idea

2:03:57 min

Jordan Peterson speaks about what he calls "A terrifying metaphysical idea". He ask "Why is there suffering in the world?" "Why is there malevolence in the world?... Maybe it is because we are not all we can be?"

He sees it as "incumbent upon each of us", repeating that he "really means each of us" which means in the "Micro" as opposed to in the "Macro" or "collective" "to "reveal everything that is within us" which he believe would happen as a "consequence of this voluntary ethical striving" that we could dispense with a great deal of the "hell" being manifest today.

Legal Charity deprives us of that " voluntary ethical striving" and therefore prevents us from doing that which is "necessary".

While fervent charity requires us to take back the responsibility to the care of our fellowman and the preservation of his rights as if they were our own.

Attempting to provide for ourselves as the total of singularity is disabling. But attempting to do for others will by nature reveal to us what is in or not in ourselves. In caring for others through personal sacrifice by its nature is an exercise in humility that if not done fervently reveals the inner man or woman. It reveals that we are not all that we should be.

He ponders the question how much better we would be if we were all "aiming up"?

At the very beginning of this episode Douglas Hedley had brokered the idea that we need to know thyself. What keeps us from knowing our selves more that apathy, complacency, and pride.

Social welfare schemes of men which should be hot topic in every study of Exodus or the Bible since that is a major theme a conflict within the text but it was decidedly absent in this panel's discussion.

The tables of the dainties of rulers from Cain, Nimrod, Pharaoh, and the free bread of Caesar that should have been for the welfare of the people were a snare and a trap because they were the covetous practices which Peter said makes us merchandise and had made us possessions on the bondage of Egypt.

The welfare of the world are the entitlements of "certainty which brings ruin".

What was the welfare scheme of Moses, Abraham and Jacob?

Poor in Spirit

2:12:23 min

The Poor in Spirit are those who are not proud and narcissistic and are willing to sacrifice themselves for the benefit of others rather than use others for the benefit of himself. It is the difference between the practice of Pure Religion through fervent charity verses the covetous practices of legal charity where we bite one another through men who exercise authority.

Overcoming the tyrant

101 Jordan Peterson points out that the killing of the Egyptian was some how about "overcoming the tyrant within".

In fact, this idea of the need to "overcoming the tyrant within" is the entire theme of what Moses and God is trying to teach the people for it is the tyranny of man over man that brought the Israelites into bondage of Egypt.

Dennis had said there was tyranny from Pharaoh but we need to be free from the tyranny of ourselves.

Jordan had spoke of the Jacques Derrida “deconstruction,” the new post modernist view that it all tyranny but you only choice is what tyranny you choose but asks is there a transcendence that is to say something beyond existence or experience or opinion including something beyond the normal or physical level of existence.

The question had been raised of the "the possibility of spiritual transcendence in the modern world".

Of course the Law of Nature, which is Divine will is both transcendent of our own tyranny but is the tyranny that gives us life and the right to choose.

Barak Obama gave a speech in Holland where he said, "Throughout human history, societies have grappled with fundamental questions of how to organize themselves, the proper relationship between the individual and the state, the best means to resolve inevitable conflicts between states. And it was here in Europe, through centuries of struggle -- through war and Enlightenment, repression and revolution -- that a particular set of ideals began to emerge: The belief that through conscience and free will, each of us has the right to live as we choose. The belief that power is derived from the consent of the governed, and that laws and institutions should be established to protect that understanding. And those ideas eventually inspired a band of colonialists across an ocean, and they wrote them into the founding documents that still guide America today, including the simple truth that all men -- and women -- are created equal. "

"And across the Atlantic, we embraced a shared vision of Europe -- a vision based on representative democracy, individual rights, and a belief that nations can meet the interests of their citizens through trade and open markets; a social safety net and respect for those of different faiths and backgrounds."

By 107 they are bringing up the idea of violence over throw of tyranny as an error.

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unedited Notes

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To have government by one individual (in an autocracy) to government by a minority (in an oligarchy, tyranny of the minority) to government by a majority (in a democracy, tyranny of the majority)