Best Audrey Assad Interview Yet
Oh, this is just adorable. Best Audrey Assad interview ever:
The Twelve Apostles
A little while ago I published the list of questions which we use at the beginning of our Bible studies. Now, I know some people might find it a bit dull, and perhaps not the most interesting way to learn the Faith, but I’m a big fan of such things since it provides a framework within in which people can understand their faith. We devote time to continued learning about things which interest us in other areas of our lives, so why should it be any different when it comes to religion?
In our group we’ve recently added the names of the Twelve Apostles. Can you name them all? I’ll walk through them after the jump…
Colossians Bible Study
We will soon be starting a Bible study on St. Paul’s epistle to the Colossians so today I’ve been working on some preparatory notes. If you’re interested, the introduction and Chapter 1 are now complete:
Resolutions for 2014
After the debacle of my 2013 resolutions, I’m going to keep things simple this year:
1. Read the Entire Bible
I mentioned earlier that I was going to do this. I don’t really know what percentage of the Bible I’ve read. I’ve certainly covered all of the New Testament, but I’m sure there are large swathes of the Old Testament (the minor prophets in particular) which I haven’t read. It’s time that changed.
2. Get back into martial arts
If you knew me prior to the age of twenty, you’d know that back then I was martial arts crazy. Good grief, I even named my four pet gerbils “Bruce”, “Lee”, “Jackie” and “Chan”.
It’s probably because I’m getting old, but I feel a real urge to get back in contact with my teenage self. Maybe that, or I just want to hit people. Either way, I’ve enrolled at a local kung fu school and I had my first lesson on Saturday.
3. Run a marathon
I knew I’d eventually have to do this. After all, what’s a half marathon, other than 50% of a real marathon? It. Is. Time.
Obviously, I have other things I’d like to achieve this year, but these are the three on which I’m going to focus and I’ve already made some concrete steps to towards each of them.
2014? Bring it on.
Wise Words on Wednesday: The company we keep
Who consorts with the wise will wise become
– Menander
Resolution update for 2013
Oh my…
Esssh…
This wasn’t a good year, was it? I mean, the very fact that my last resolution update was in February really speaks volumes. Honestly, I don’t know what happened. “Wait!”, I hear you cry, “Nobody ever keeps their resolutions!” Well, I do…well, normally I do. I’ll typically make about ten resolutions and I’ll usually keep 70% of them and at least make some headway on the others.
Okay, let’s get this over with…
Weird stuff I find interesting
Today a question was posted on an article I wrote a couple of years ago. The query was an intriguing one and the investigation to find the answer took some interesting turns, so I thought I’d write about it briefly. Here was the question that was asked:
“My Aunt had an icon of the Theotokos of the Passion…[with] the words, ΕΝ ΕKKΛΕΥΛΟΓΕΙΤΕ ΤΟΝ ΘΕΟΝ. Can you tell me what this means?”
Now, I’m no Greek scholar. Not in the slightest. I’m reasonably familiar with the alphabet and I know how to use a lexicon. Apart from that, I just know a handful of Greek words so as to impress girls at bible studies.
It’s (mostly familiar) Greek to me
Thankfully, three of the four words in the questioner’s text also appear in the the prologue of John’s Gospel, with which I’m familiar. I therefore instantly knew what some of the words meant. The word “ΕΝ” means “in”. “ΤΟΝ” is the article used with an accusative cased noun, in this case, “ΘΕΟΝ“, which means “God”. So, the sentence read to my mind: “In …. the God”.
I didn’t know what the second word, “ΕKKΛΕΥΛΟΓΕΙΤΕ”, meant and I couldn’t find it in a lexicon. I “sounded out” the word and saw that it began with “ecc-lay-….”, which sounded an awful lot like “ekklesia”, which I knew meant “church” or assembly. A little bit of googling later, and found a phrase which looked very similar:
ΕΝ ΕΚΚΛΗΣΙΑΙΣ ΕΥΛΟΓΕΙΤΕ ΤΟΝ ΘΕΟΝ
In the assemblies/churches praise God
I contacted my friend Steve with this suggestion since he’s far more familiar with Greek. He confirmed my suspicion that the text given by the questioner was a corrupted form of this verse. If anyone else knows anything different, please leave a comment below.
Ad Fontes!
As we were online discussing this verse, Steve sent me a link to the Greek text Codex Sinaiticus, the earliest copy we have of the complete New Testament. Specifically, he sent me a link to Psalm 67(68), verse 26:
As you can see, this isn’t the easiest thing in the world to read! Early texts like these are generally written all in capitals, with all the words joined together. IFIDIDITWOULDBERATHERDIFFICULTTOREAD!
Nomina Sacra
In my earlier posts concerning icons of Jesus and Mary I mentioned that textual abbreviations are often used in icons. This is called in the Nomina Sacra (“Sacred Name”) and, if you look carefully at the manuscript from the codex, you can see that its use is present here:
The word circled is ΘΕΟΝ, which means “God”, but you can see that not all the letters are present. Instead, only the first and last letters are used, ΘΝ, with a line drawn over the top.
Am I weird that I find stuff like this interesting?
On second thought, don’t answer that….