Ancient Hebrew Poetry

Committing Scripture to Memory: In What Version?

    When it comes to committing parts of Deuteronomy, the Psalms, and Proverbs to memory; to learning the Beatitudes, 1 Corinthians 13, and Philippians 2:1-11 by heart, is there anyone who does so from CEV or NLT? A few people do, but the vast majority of people who love scripture enough to memorize it do so in translations like KJV, RSV, and NIV. There are good reasons for this.

Why the King James Version remains unsurpassed

    Ward Farnsworth’s magnificent Classical English Rhetoric (Boston: David R. Godine, 2011) introduces the following rhetorical tropes: epizeuxis, epimone, anaphora, epistrophe, symploce, anadiplosis, polyptoton, isocolon, chiasmus, anastrophe, polysyndeton, asyndeton, ellipsis, praeteritio, aposiopesis, metanoia, litotes, erotema, hypophora, and prolepsis. You are familiar with the devices Farnsworth discusses, even if the technical terms he uses are new to you. Farnsworth does not devote attention to other important rhetorical tropes: captatio benevolentiae; euphemisms and dysphemisms; hyperbole; alliteration; the list of rhetorical effects writers use is very long and very wonderful.

What does it mean to hallow God’s name?

    A rip-roaring discussion about what constitutes a better Bible has been going on of late, on two threads, one initiated by David Ker; another by Peter Kirk. The threads are replete with comments by those who think the better Bible is the one that can be understood on the fly by an untutored individual.

    I disagree. A better Bible is the one whose parts become clear in light of familiarity with the whole. A better Bible is the one that retains traditional diction where possible in order to actualize what classical Christians refer to as the communion of the saints. For those reasons, the Lord’s Prayer needs to read: “Hallowed be your name” (Matthew 6:9). All serious translations in my opinion read “Hallowed be your name”: for example, NAB (Catholic); NIV (evangelical); ESV (conservative Protestant); and NRSV (liberal Protestant). The phraseology goes back to KJV. Happy 400^th birthday, KJV! We love thee and need thee.

homo homini lupus: demonstrative acts of violence

    Wars and other acts of violence are an anthropological constant. Even a community of Mennonites that withdraws from the world and renounces violence is still torn by violence. That is the theme of Rudy Wiebe's must-read novel, Peace Shall Destroy Many. 

Sex, Marriage, and Children: A Site Under Construction in the 21st Century

    The conventional wisdom today is that sex and marriage are about the pursuit of happiness. There are passages in the Bible that embody those same values (Deut 24:5; Prov 5:18-19; Song of Songs). There are others which invest sex and marriage with other ends. Sex allows human beings to procreate and to image God their Creator in the act. Marriage is a source of economic and emotional stability for men, women, and children alike. Marriage is divinely mandated in Gen 2; marriage and its opposite, singleness, are seen as callings whose ultimate purpose lies in service to God and one’s fellow human beings in the New Testament.

Myths about War

    A vital form of reading the Bible has always been straightforward engagement, disagreement not excluded, with the substance of a biblical text. After all, if it is not possible to challenge the truth claims of a biblical text, honest engagement with the text is precluded.

Forgiveness: A Different Kind of Justice

    Forgiveness, truth, and reconciliation. Do we really want any of these things? Perhaps the most unforgivable trait of the God of the Bible is that he cares; that he gets involved; that he does not rest until the wrong is righted. The lack of indifference on the part of God as described in the Bible sets God at odds with ultimate reality according to Buddhism. It is also unlike the unconcern of deity we read about in classical sources. Abraham Joshua Heschel noted:  

Remembering Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972)

Abraham_Joshua_Heschel (1907-1972) was Professor of Jewish Ethics and Mysticism at The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, a distinguished author, lecturer, philosopher and activist. He marched with Martin Luther King, Jr.; he called that “praying with his legs.” He wrote prolifically, but had never done an interview on tape or film until he allowed Carl Stern to interview him on NBC in 1972; as it turned out, the interview took place two weeks before his death. The interview was a breathtaking experience for many who watched. NBC received a quarter million requests for a transcript of the interview. It is possible that no television interview in history touched on so many of life’s deepest questions with greater sincerity. That is what Heschel was: a sincere man.

Psalm 6 Revealed

    The superscript of Psalm 6 identifies it as “a psalm of David’s collection” (מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד). It may have been recited by the Davidide king to the musical accompaniment of temple personnel. The psalm might go back to David, but the diction of the superscript does not require it. Following the eclipse of the monarchy, the destruction of the temple, and the scattering of temple musicians (Ps 137), "David's psalms" and their rubrics were nonetheless preserved. Thereafter if not before Ps 6 was read as an appropriate prayer for anyone of a mind to address the patron deity of the eclipsed dynasty if crushed by sickness, rejection by peers, or both.

The Bible wasn’t written for David Ker

    David Ker, of whom a commenter on this blog recently said, “it would be beneficial for me to research who Lingamish is and his religious views because I disagree with the fact that it is assumed that Jews and Christians have nasty views about God,” has published his first book of heresies. Go here.