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[1] |
| 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..."[2] |
| 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.[3] |
| 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." [4] |
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 all produce an equal outcome. A bad culture can be the enemy of the people because it degenerates the members of society by encouraging corrupt, Narcissism, and other anti social behavior.[5]
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"?[1]
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[6] 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[7] 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[8] 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 provided through the temples of Egypt.[1]
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 system.
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.[9]
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."[10]
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.[7]
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.[11]
What was happening was that the terms through crafts of state became more oppressive.[12]
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[7] 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. [1]
At 20:45 Ian Oswald Guinnes mentions this corvee [7] 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.[13]
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[14] 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".[1]
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[15] of legal charity where we bite one another through men who exercise authority.[16]
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[17] 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.[13]
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.
unedited Notes
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)
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Destroyers of liberty
- "That the man who first ruined the Roman people twas he who first gave them treats and gratuities. But this mischief crept secretly and gradually in, and did not openly make it's appearance in Rome for a considerable time." Plutarch's Life of Coriolanus (c. 100 AD.) This would include Julius Caesar and eventually Augustus Caesar which is why Plutarch also reported, “The real destroyers of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations, and benefits.” This was a major theme of the Bible:
- There were tables of welfare which were both snares and a traps as David and Paul stated and Peter warned would make us merchandise and curse children. Proverbs 23 told us not to not eat the "dainties" offered at those tables of Rulers and Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10 we cannot eat of those tables and the table of the Lord. We are not to consent to their covetous systems of One purse or Corban which makes the word of God to none effect.
- We know when the masses become accustomed to those benefits of legal charity which are the rewards of unrighteousness provided by benefactors who exercise authority and the Fathers of the earth through the covetous practices that makes men merchandise and curse children as a surety for debt.
- ↑ The full quote is: "Know thy enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles, you will never be defeated."
- ↑ Pogo the 'possum reminded us, “WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US.” From the poster designed by Walt Kelly to help promote environmental awareness and publicize the first annual observance of Earth Day, held on April 22, 1970. The quote is a play on the braggadocio comment of commodore Oliver Hazard Perry during the War of 1812 in which he reported to William Henry Harrison after the Battle of Lake Erie. May 19, “We have met the enemy and they are ours.”
- ↑ Patrick Henry
- ↑ Romans 1:26 "For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet." Leviticus 18:22 "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it [is] abomination."
- ↑ Isaiah Berlin a Russian-British social and political theorist, philosopher, and historian of ideas.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Fifth part
- Genesis 47:24 "And it shall come to pass in the increase, that ye shall give the fifth [part] unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and for food for your little ones. 25 And they said, Thou hast saved our lives: let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants. 26 And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day, [that] Pharaoh should have the fifth [part]; except the land of the priests only, [which] became not Pharaoh’s."
It should also be noted this was the beginning of the bondage of Egypt but in verse 22 "Only the land of the priests bought he not; for the priests had a portion assigned them of Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them: wherefore they sold not their lands."
- Genesis 47:24 "And it shall come to pass in the increase, that ye shall give the fifth [part] unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and for food for your little ones. 25 And they said, Thou hast saved our lives: let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants. 26 And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day, [that] Pharaoh should have the fifth [part]; except the land of the priests only, [which] became not Pharaoh’s."
- ↑ Acts 7:19 The same dealt subtilly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live.
- ↑ Deuteronomy 17:16 "... nor cause the people to return to Egypt, ... Ye shall henceforth return no more that way." (See context in verses 14 through 20.)
- ↑ Protectio trahit subjectionem, subjectio protectionem. Coke, Littl. 65."
- ↑ Genesis 42:21 "And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us. 22 And Reuben answered them, saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child; and ye would not hear? therefore, behold, also his blood is required."
- ↑ Exodus 1:11 Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses. 12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel. 13 And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour:
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 "Freedom is the Right to Choose, the Right to create for oneself the alternatives of Choice. Without the possibility of Choice, and the exercise of Choice, a man is not a man but a member, an instrument, a thing.” Archibald MacLeish
- ↑ Table as a snare
- Psalms 69:22-23 “Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap. 23 Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake."”
- Romans 11:9 “And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them:”
- Proverbs 23:1 "When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what [is] before thee: 2 And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite. 3 Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat."
- Exodus 23:32 "Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. 33 They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee."
- Exodus 34:12 "Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee:"
- Deuteronomy 7:16 "And thou shalt consume all the people which the LORD thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them: neither shalt thou serve their gods; for that [will be] a snare unto thee."
- Judges 2:2 "And ye shall make no league [covenant] with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this?"
- Proverbs 1:10 "My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not."
- Proverbs 6:2 “Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.” Swear not
- Luke 21:34 "And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and [so] that day come upon you unawares. 35 For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth."
- 1 Timothy 6:9 "But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and [into] many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows."
- "Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?" Isaiah 40:21 is about the message of John the Baptist who was "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God" Isaiah 40:3 to avoid the "snare" of the legal charity of the welfare state which which makes the word of God to none effect bringing man back into captivity as human resources.
- ↑ Covetousness is idolatry
- Colossians 3:5 "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: 6 For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:"
- Ephesians 5:5 "For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God."
- 1 Corinthians 5:10 "Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. 11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat."
- For it is written that the tables of dainties provided by rulers of the world are a snare because they cause the masses to bite one another through government systems of legal charity which are covetous practices which are a form of fornication or adultery where the people are devoured as merchandise, curse children and are "entangled again in the yoke of bondage" with the aid of the false religion of the whore who rides the beast.
- ↑ Not exercise authority
- Matthew 20:25 "But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you:..."
- Mark 10:42 "But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you:..."
- Luke 22:25 "And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye [shall] not [be] so:..."
- ↑ Genesis 42:21 And they said one to another, We [are] verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.