300

it's been a while between posts.

for my 300th (only days, coincidentally before my 30th!), i thought:

if i was doing my own translation of Genesis 3, i would call Adam Graham, and Eve Olivia. Graham Ground and Olivia Living. heaps better than Adam Adamah and Chawa Chay (ie adam of the earth and eve of the living).

would you hire me as a translator?

a new reading group

a friend has asked if i want to come along to an LXX (the greek translation of the hebrew scriptures) reading group.
cool!
apparently only few are christians; most are jewish, trying to get a different perspective on their scriptures.


i've never made much effort to get into the septuagint, except to have a look when the hebrew just seems wacky.
unfortunately whenever i think that the LXX will fix it up, it generally doesn't.
some things have been quite interesting however, such as in Deuteronomy 30:14(13)

ESV: But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.
LXX: The word is very near to you, in your mouth, and in your heart, and in your hands to do it.

so it's actually just making a bit clearer that doing it (the commandment that Yhwh commands Israel) isn't just about your words or your thoughts but your hands - something that could actually be implicit in the 'do it' - indeed the LXX could be a little tautologous by adding that. although at the very least poetically, it's good to have 'mouth, heart and hands' - a real sense of completeness.

anyway, that's on tomorrow. no idea how it'll go. but do pray that some great conversations may come out of it as we chat about how God reveals himself in his Word.

my first poll (ahhh) reprieve.

UPDATE: snappoll doesn't like apostrophes.

third time lucky (the cut and paste option failed also)

here's the new one: snappoll


read on for the instructions:


it's up to you to decide how this blog should look, as regards my previous post, regarding RefTagger.

minor change

after a recommendation from Reuben, i've decided to add RefTagger to my blog. it basically means when i write a bible reference like Ezekiel 33:11, if you move your cursor over it, it should just pop up! it's that easy. no running around to find a bible, no opening a bible gateway (or your bible viewer of choice's) window. just hover. like a hovercraft.

speaking of which, what ever happened to hovercrafts?

anyway, talking about minor change, here's Django Reinhardt (legend) with minor swing:

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

not making the obvious turkey joke...

Turkey is a country with a long and turbulent history, what with Acts, the Pauline epistles, the Petrine epistles, John's Revelation, the seat of the whole church until the split, and then of the eastern church, they had a song written about them by they might be giants – I think even my sister may have been there quite recently (non stop action for Turkey)!
It is therefore so sad to hear about this ostensibly liberal muslim nation, continuing to seek entry into the EU, giving in to extremists:
Some may have heard of the massacre of three christians there last year or the year before, now it seems any Christian witness in that country is limited to the two bookshops that are permitted to sell bibles in that country – any gratis distribution is strengstens verboten (most strongly forbidden).

Please pray for Turkey.

Pray that God would strengthen the Christians there.

Pray that the government there would pull their heads in – that they would allow their country to determine its own fate, not be pushed around by religious extremists.

Pray for people’s hearts to be opened to the message that brings freedom – true freedom – not the false dream of freedom that entry into the EU might bring – but the freedom of knowing Christ.

Biographies and Surrender

i've started reading some Christian biographies. i think it's a good think to do. for many reasons. i've read some other biographies in my time, but there's obviously something unique about seeing how someone else lives out their faith.

i read a great online one on Martyn Lloyd-Jones (the Doctor), probably most well known for spending over a decade teaching through Romans, nigh on a decade preaching Ephesians.

a book i've been getting right into is Brother Andrew: God's Smuggler, a Dutch guy who smuggled Bibles into East-Bloc countries behind the curtain.

also, my class History of Christian Mission is essentially just ripping yarns about inspirational, ground-breaking, role-models.

i'm starting to see a few parallels between some of these people (apart from their whole-hearted devotion to preaching the crucified Christ to all nations). one of them is the idea that i've been chatting to a friend about lately - the idea of 'surrender'. both Brother Andrew and Hudson Taylor (founder of the China Inland Mission) talk about the pivotal moment in their Christian lives, the day when they, although already Christians, had an emphatic point of surrender. i'm not quite sure what this is, in that, i'm not quite sure how this is different to when anyone becomes a follower of Christ.

i don't know if other people have thought about this idea of surrender secondary to conversion. i think i need to think some more about what that means.

blokes and sheilas in Galatians 3 (reprieve)

thinking and chatting some more about Galatians 3:28,

οὐκ ἔνι Ἰουδαῖος οὐδὲ Ἕλλην, οὐκ ἔνι δοῦλος οὐδὲ ἐλεύθερος, οὐκ ἔνι ἄρσεν καὶ θῆλυ· πάντες γὰρ ὑμεῖς εἷς ἐστε ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ.

i wrote about it previously here.
basically the greek says there is no, because of Jesus, all who are baptised into him are one: no more Greek/Jew, slave/free, male&female.
the problem is most translators translate it male/female. which seems directly contrary to the difference in the pattern.

it's like telling a joke where the Englishman, Irishman and Scot all do precisely the same thing. it doesn't make sense and isn't funny (unless you dislike all 3 nationalities!). this is not to say Paul's telling a joke here, but he's obviously doing something by saying no more "male and female".

whilst happy to be convinced, following conversations this week i think it's saying that although there is no place in God's new Kingdom for the slaves/master dichotomy, nor for the divides over who is in the covenant and who is out based on their nationalities - for we are all one in Christ.
what clearly does not happen is that maleness and femaleness is dissolved (cf the Gospel of Thomas 114*). rather, maleness and femaleness is part of God's good creation, there is nothing sinful or fallen about being male and(/or!) female.
what it may mean then is the complete opposite to the pseudepigraphical Gospel of Thomas! that there is no gender basis on which your importance, your ranking, your importance to God, the depth of his love poured out for you in Jesus, is judged.

i don't think this is all, but i do think it preserves the innate goodness of God's creation, and the maintenance of that in the new, but it also does away with the false way that these things are seen in the eyes of sinful people, who constantly look for ways to push others down, to identify with the in-crowd, or to despise the authority figure(s) - the common love of your group, the common hatred of the other.

* 114) Simon Peter said to Him, "Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of Life." Jesus said, "I myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who will make herself male will enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

a wedding telegram of sorts

I will sing for joy in GOD,
explode in praise from deep in my soul!
He dressed me up in a suit of salvation,
he outfitted me in a robe of righteousness,
As a bridegroom who puts on a tuxedo
and a bride a jewelled tiara.

For as the earth bursts with spring wildflowers,
and as a garden cascades with blossoms,
So the Master, GOD, brings righteousness into full bloom
and puts praise on display before the nations.

- Isaiah 61:10-11, The Message

(click on pic to view at original location)

while i was at an accordance (mac bible software) seminar today, some friends were getting married. and i'm preaching tomorrow morning on this passage*, which i can now read in dozens of different translations at a glance, because of my new software.

it all comes together so nicely!

i pray Nath and Kat would continue to look forward, from their great day, to this even greater one.

* well, Luke 4:31-44 but my OT reading is Isaiah 61

wright and women

trying to write (no pun intended) a practice essay for my Biblical Theology exam on Thursday, trying to write a biblical theology of men and women. which isn't as hard as it sounds - it's just i can't keep focussed.

i keep thinking about this paper by N.T. Wright, entitled Women's Service in the Church, which really is a cracker of an article.

the thing i keep coming back to (yes, i did a little scribbling out in my bible) is his translation of Galatians 3:28

the NIV has,

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

there's a nice rhythm there, neither A nor A', B nor B', C nor C'.
however, as Tom Wright puts it:

That is precisely what Paul does not say; and as it’s what we expect he’s going to say, we should note quite carefully what he has said instead, since he presumably means to make a point by doing so, a point which is missed when the translation is flattened out as in that version. What he says is that
"there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, no ‘male and female’".

so i checked my greek*, and he's right.

the question is of course however not if Wright's right (he is Wright, after all), but what are the implications? why the marked difference from Paul's neither this nor that formula? especially in the context of elsewhere affirming maleness and femaleness, the differences and complementarity between the two.

i do wonder about IVPs New Dictionary of Biblical Theology's quote in thinking through the implications of maleness and femaleness in the new creation,

the people of God will be 'like angels in heaven', in that the centre of their existence will be undivided communion with God. Then the beautiful and delicate interplay of man and woman with one another will give way to the ultimate reality of Christ and his church for ever at one.

i'm not sure what that bit at the end means (at one), but the picture i get, despite the author's assurances, is that of androgynous winged angels playing harps in the clouds. which i don't quite get from Galatians 3 (nor elsewhere really).

so why's he done it? what's the point? whaddya reckon?

*greek language version New Testament, not a person of Grecian origin routinely asked to clarify translation issues. (ed)

THE authorised version

hearing in class today about the book burning resulting from the translation in Isaiah 7:14 of

עלמה

'almah - young woman, newly married, virgin - that sort of linguistic range

apparently this bible burning happened back in the 4th century when a new authorised version of the Septuagint came out translating 'almah as young woman, not virgin (as in Matthew 1:23). this also happened last century when the worshippers of the KJV, with it's appeal to the tradition of the LXX and Wycliffe for example, was blasphemed with the alternate translation. they were obviously way too liberal in bearing in mind the range, and quite valid translation, of 'almah as young woman, maiden etc.

it particularly reminded me about this guy preaching on the KJV, being a man and not a male, and signs in German toilets, among other things.try not to get too angry as you listen.
i would have loved to see how his congregation were responding!


remember, y'all - kein pinkeln im sitzen!

Manga Bible!

this article this morning was a nice wake-me-up.


some comments are always a little disturbing, tho, with this:

"You stay in the culture and we'll come to you."

being one corker.

you can get this bible in the full text version, or just the pictures (i guess at the same level as the brick testament


it was also especially nice to hear mention in the secular media of the Kriol Baibul, a bible published in May of last year (i think) in a language spoken by around 30,000 indigenous Australians in the top end.
in the afore-mentioned article, there's quite an aside about this

i pray this article indeed does great things, not that all will necessarily want to read the manga version (or the Kriol version either), but i pray that people will think anew about what importance this book holds, that it can be read in any language ever spoken, without changing the meaning, without affecting its inspiration, or truthfulness.


of course, there is more work to be done, for whilst you can now read the manga, kriol, and even klingon translations, there are still vast numbers of people without a translation, and even more without access to a bible.

we need to keep praying for people and working towards this, that all may know of our God's messiah, that all may have life in his name.

new bible translation!

i was trying to find some hints on some specific rendering decisions on Lamentations, for my up-coming sermon series at Wild St

and lo and behold, i came upon a new, post-modern Bible translation project - the International Standard Version!

the idea is, they had a crack at a new translation, got lots of feedback, and instead of just declaring it the final version (despite its name!), they have actually decided to invite feedback.

from their website:

all ISV readers are invited to comment on how specific passages of the current release of the ISV can be rendered clearer and even more insightful in the next version.

they want people to:

Send us a suggestion on improving a specific verse

Report a typo error in the current edition of the ISV text

Ask us a question about why we rendered a specific passage the way we did.

it's good to note that Final decisions on acceptance of textual suggestions will remain with the Committee on Translation so we can maintain scholarly standards set by the ISV Foundation.

you can even get listed as a contributing editor, provided you help out enough (however much that may be)

i believe you can get paper editions, but for a while at least, and particularly until they've finished Genesis, Leviticus, Numbers, 1 & 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, Job, Isaiah, and Ezekiel, if you want to use it you'll have to use either a PDA, or bring your laptop to church with you!