November 7, 2008 – 3:21 pm
Cal Thomas, a conservative political columnist and evangelical Christian, has written an excellent article about the future of the “Religious Right” on its upcoming 30th anniversary as a movement (HT: Peter Kirk).
Here are some excerpts:
Thirty years of trying to use government to stop abortion, preserve opposite-sex marriage, improve television and movie content and transform culture [...]
November 5, 2008 – 5:22 pm
An incalculable number of commentators have noted Barack Obama’s oratory gifts - his unerring ease behind the microphone and ability to motivate an otherwise complacent mob into a roaring frenzy of support. Where does this skill come from? How does one man speak with the practiced ease of someone born to inspire, while another’s speech [...]
November 2, 2008 – 7:10 am
I was recently reading a Theology Today article written by Burton H. Throckmorton, Jr. in 1990 regarding the *new* NRSV and REB translations (both had been released in 1989); I thought that the opening paragraphs were worth quoting:
For over forty years, the Revised Standard Version has been widely thought of as the best English version [...]
October 16, 2008 – 10:10 am
HT: Suzanne
In 1990, Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz (1903-1994) summarized an interpretation of the meaning of El Shaddai by Rabbi Moses ben Maimon (1135-1204), popularly known as Maimonides:
[Maimonides] explains El Shaddai in terms of “the God for whom it is sufficient (shaddai lo): the God who is sufficient in Himself, whose essence is Himself, not in functions [...]
October 9, 2008 – 8:54 am
I am continuing my survey of Bible Translation books, now reading Donald Kraus’ volume, Choosing a Bible For Worship, Teaching, Study, Preaching, and Prayer. Kraus is Executive Editor for Bibles at Oxford University Press and presents a fairly even-handed review of translation philosophies, from strict interlinear to cultural paraphrase, though most of his time is [...]
September 23, 2008 – 12:10 pm
In his book, In the End - The Beginning, Jürgen Moltmann writes that in contrast to the tradition of the Messiah as a male child as written in Isaiah 9.6 (”to us a child is born, to us a son is given”, there is another messianic tradition in scripture, the Wisdom tradition, that “identifies the [...]
September 7, 2008 – 6:38 am
Down the rabbit hole we go…
In a recent comment thread at New Leaven, Bryan L presented the idea that there is a theme of a new exodus within Isaiah that some authors believe Mark adapted and structured his gospel narrative of Jesus around. Bryan cited works by Rikk Watts, Joel Marcus and David Pao.
I noted [...]
August 28, 2008 – 7:57 am
I’m slowly reading through Greg Boyd’s “God of the Possible” and came across the following quote, which was offered in the context of doctrinal coherence, but I thought had some interesting applications for the Bible translation debates:
Such doctrines provide a framework in which the Word of God makes sense, and this [...] is important for [...]
In the latest flareup of the translation vs. original languages debate, David Ker offers this nugget of a quote:
[...] evangelicals actually believe that a translation of their sacred text is itself a sacred text. Or in other words we believe a translation is the word of God. The other groups you refer to believe that [...]
Luke 20:34-36 (TNIV):
The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They [...]