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http://www.geocities.com/paulntobin/ethics.html#original
“Where [Jesus’s] teachings were original, they are repugnant.”
http://www.geocities.com/paulntobin/ethics.html#repugnant
Mark 9:43-48 (Also Matthew 18:8-9)
"If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to Gehenna, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into Gehenna. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into Gehenna, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.” (Jesus likely believed, along with the other Jews, that with the body destroyed there could be no resurrection of the soul.)
http://www.geocities.com/paulntobin/personality.html
Margaret K. Knight, psychologist:
“Jesus, in fact, was typical of a certain kind of fanatical young idealist: at one moment holding forth, with tears in his eyes, about the need for universal love; at the next furiously denouncing the morons, crooks, and bigots who do not see eye to eye with him. It is a very natural and human behavior. Many great men of history (for example, Socrates) have met criticism with more dignity and restraint.”
Matthew 11:20-24
Then he began to reproach the cities in which most of his deeds of power had been done, because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, on the day of judgement it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades. For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you that on the day of judgement it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom than for you.”
Matthew 5:22
“But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgement; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool’, you will be liable to the fire of Gehenna.” [Emphasis added.]
Matthew 23:13-34
“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!...woe to you, blind guides... You blind fools!...You snakes, you brood of vipers! How can you escape being sentenced to Gehenna?” [Emphasis added.]
Tobin:
“Where was the 'love your enemies' attitude in the above quotes? Surely people who are unimpressed with your teachings are not worse than your enemies. For your enemies, by definition, are people who want to do you harm, or at least, would like to see harm come to you. The people who rejected his apostles’ teachings may not be like that at all, and like the residents of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum may simply have been unimpressed by his miracles and his teachings.”
