Powerless to Blog
About two feet of very wet snow toppled trees and knocked out power to my neighborhood at 1:00am Friday morning. Two days later we’re still without electricity. Regularly scheduled programming will resume soon.
Q&A: Nabal the Fool
From the About page: Wikipedia, the source of all truth, says that Nabal in 1 Samuel 25:25 is “euphemistically translated as fool.” So far as I can tell, it’s always translated as fool or something similar. I can’t seem to find a dirty meaning for “nabal” anywhere. Is that because mainstream scholarship is too prudish…
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Book Giveaway: Win A Copy of And God Said
Thomas Dunne Books / St. Martin’s Press is giving away a free, autographed hard-cover copy of my latest book, And God Said: How Translations Conceal the Bible’s Original Meaning. From blog.AndGodSaid.com: WIN A FREE BOOK Thomas Dunne Books / St. Martin’s Press is giving away a free, autographed hard-cover copy of And God Said: How…
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On God’s Name (or “Who shall I say is calling?”)
One of God’s very common names in the OT is spelled with the four Hebrew letters Y-H-W-H. Folk wisdom holds that the proper pronunciation of that four-letter word — technically called the tetragrammaton (“four letters” in Greek) — has been lost over the ages, so it had to be pronounced adonai in Hebrew; because the…
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How Not To Use Context
A common argument runs along the lines of, “Paul believes X, so here in Paul’s writing we have to make our translation say X.” For example, in translating Galatians 5:6 (recently discussed here, here and by me here), some people try to figure out what Paul believed about circumcision, faith, and love not only to…
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Faith, Love, and What Matters in Galatians 5:6
A conversation started by J.R. Daniel Kirk at Stories Theology (picked up by BBB here), addresses two questions: What does energeo mean in Galatians 5:6, and have translators purposely mis-conveyed the relationship between faith and love? Let’s take a look at the verb first. Galatians 2:8 is as good a place as any to start.…
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Q&A: Who is the Wonderful Counselor?
Polycarp asks on the About page how “wonderful, counselor” of Isaiah 9:5 (9:6) should be translated. It’s a difficult question with a longer than usual answer. But here goes. As with “Prince of Peace,” we assume that the title “wonderful, counselor” — whatever it means — describes God after whom the child in Isaiah 9…
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Recording the Oral Tradition
In a recent post on Lamentations 4:3, I made reference to the Masoretic tradition that gives us both the canonical Hebrew text of the OT and some ways in which the written text might be in error. Here are some images that demonstrate how the Masoretes recorded their notes. (The notes are widely regarded to…
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Q&A: Jackals and Sea Monsters in Lamentations 4:3
From the About page comes this question about jackals and sea monsters: I was wondering about Lamentations 4:3. All modern translations seem to agree that it mentions jackals, but the KJV translated it as “sea monster,” which commentaries then took to mean “pelican” (on the basis that pelicans were thought to feed their young with…
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Ancient Wisdom, Modern Lives
Recent posts from my Ancient Wisdom, Modern Lives:
Democracy, Oligarchy, and Free Speech An oligarchy replaces a democracy and a public figure is put on trial for his words. History or current events? Or both?
Money and Happiness: A Tumultuous Love Affair Does money make us happy? Yes, except no, because, well, it's complicated...
Why do People Suffer? Five Ancient Answers Timeless and time-tested answers to frame suffering in a better light
Interest Rates Old and New: How High is Too High? A short history of ancient interest rates, in light of a 10% cap on credit-card interest rates proposed in the US Senate by Bernie Sanders and Josh Hawley
