Jonah in Acts 18

It's always enlightening reading the Bible in different languages. 

Last night at a German-language Bible study group we were going through Acts 18, and I read something I'd never noticed in English or Greek, which is that God says to Paul (who'd been having an awful time in Corinth), "ich habe ein großes Volk in dieser Stadt." - "I have a large people in this city."

English translations go with "many" because it works better, but the word groß (big) fits πολὺς (many) just fine, AND it made me think of Jonah and Jonah 4 in particular. 

Throughout Jonah the word גדול "big" comes up more than a dozen times, although the Greek word is μέγας (mega!).

But in the last line of Jonah we do get the word "many", speaking of the many animals who would have been destroyed, not to mention the 120k+, had Yhwh not had mercy on them. The "more than" is the adjectival form of πολὺς: πλείους. So we have "many" in the conclusion of Jonah, as in Acts 18:10.

All this makes clear what God is saying to Paul in Acts. Just as God had mercy on Nineveh through the unwilling Jonah, so too will he have mercy on the people of Corinth through the willing (if slightly battered) Paul.

It is a great city, with a great many people in peril with out God's salvation. 

Mark 2 Chiasm

not sure if this post will work - blogger's doing some funky things tonight - if it starts behaving again i'll remove this and maybe add a picture if any buttons appear to allow me to do so!

this sunday at GBC* we're doing Mark 2.1-12, and believe it or not - i've realised it's a chiasm.

A 2.1-2a - the big picture, a crowd astonished at Jesus

      B 2.2b-5 - movement to Jesus, Jesus speaks

                  C 2.6-10 - opposition's negative reaction, Jesus' positive reaction

      B' 2.11-12a - Jesus speaks, movement away from Jesus

A' 2.12b - the big picture, a crowd astonished at Jesus

mark does this a heap, or at the very least sandwiches (A B A' - cf Mark 5.21-24a; 24b-34; 35-43)

it's not so much a theological comment as a narrative device, guiding you into and then out and onwards.

* if you're a german speaker, you may be interested in coming along to german bible cafe - check out our facebook or blog if you're keen.

German Bible Café

[UPDATE :: new site :: germanbiblecafe.com]

last sunday was the last at my church. this sunday was the first at German Bible Café.

it was pretty exciting to read and pray in German, in our first steps to reach out to the 20,000+ German speakers in Sydney, 5,000+ of whom live in Sydney's east.

seven grown-ups met at St Matthias, Paddington, and we ate, drank and chatted through Ephesians 1:1-14.

needless to say, your prayers are appreciated. if you know of German-speakers (hint: if they're from Germany, Austria or the east of Switzerland, they more than likely speak some kind of German) who are Christians, or who are interested in finding out about God, do point them in our direction.

anyway, that's what's going on. hope you're well.
D5

Für meine Deutsch sprechende leser!

Sprichst du Deutsch?
hier befindest du eine neue Bibelübersetzung!
bei den link aufgeschlagen ist Johannes 3, da wo der Pharisäer Nikodemus den Jesus fragt was es heißt, neu-geboren zu werden.

Jesus erklärt zu ihm,

16 Denn so sehr hat Gott diese Welt geliebt:
Er hat seinen einzigen Sohn hergegeben,
damit keiner verloren geht,
der an ihn glaubt.
Sondern damit er das ewige Leben erhält.

d.h.

17 Gott hat den Sohn nicht in diese Welt gesandt,
damit er sie verurteilt.
Vielmehr soll er diese Welt retten.

was anders ist mit dieser übersetzung (bis her nur die vier-Evangelien (d.h. Matthias, Markus, Lukas, Johannes)) ist, daß Die BasisBibel ist eine völlig neuartige Übersetzung der Bibel.
falls du mal mit der Luther Bibel versucht hast, kansst du verstehen wie wichtig es ist mit etwas lesbar anzufangen. hier, zum Beispiel, kannst du acht verschiedene Übersetzungen lesen (BasisBibel verbraucht der Gute-Nachricht-Bibel wo ihre übersetzung nicht erreicht.)

du kannst bei den BasisBibel Foren fragen stellen, du kannst auch dein Maus über den verblaute Wörte (d.h. schwierige wörte) laufen lassen, um eine kurze erklärung zu lesen.

falls du eine weile schon dich nichts vom Glauben gefragt, schau mal bei Basisbibel vorbei - und sag mir wie es dir gefallt!


h/t jesus.de

an important quote about a man you don't know.

Barmen helped the church seek to be a faithful community of witness and service, but it did not require it to develop a prophetic, "watchman" or public theological role, shaping the moral and spiritual architecture of civilisation. [...] it distanced itself equally from all social theories and political systems. In asserting that the gospel stands far beyond all forms of human wisdom, Barmen limited the church's capacity to develop modes of discourse and social convictions necessary for creative participation in society.*
you may not know who Barmen is. in fact, it's maybe better if you don't. the question is one of relevance. what is the church? what does it seek? from what does it distance itself from? from what does it shirk from discussing, interacting with?

at my old church, i was really excited at the 'untouchable' series we did every year, as we do exactly what the quote above maintains of Barmen. it was a great testimony to God as we saw many people from the community drawn not to an irrelevant piece of architecture from another age, but to a church that speaks the truth in love.

* quote from Revisiting the church in socialism. Max L. Stackhouse, in Christian Century, 115 no 25 S 23-30 1998. p867

empty church or full mosque

that's the question raised by a senator in Hamburg,
Karin von Welck said,

"Bevor ein Gotteshaus abgerissen wird, würde ich es lieber als Moschee an eine islamische Gemeinde abgeben."

full story here

("before a church gets torn down, i'd rather give it as a mosque to an Islamic congregation.")

and you can understand it - i mean, churches turning into mosques? - it's been happening for millenia.
just never in a Christian-state-sanctioned way.
and new churches starting up in Germany are using non-church premises like cinemas or other premises because of the negative connotations tied up with the traditional idea of church and church buildings.

or should i care? i'm not sure.
do you?