One tiny detail, easily missed amidst a decently interesting article about Peter Hitchens’ return to Christian faith and finding peace with his atheist brother, the infamous Christopher Hitchens, is this mistaken caption to a nice little Hitchens-brothers photo (first photo as you scroll down), which claims that the rather Christopher-ish looking man on the left [...]
Another observation about some of the theological (as in, not biological) features of the text of Genesis 1…
Just before the 6 creation days in Genesis 1, the earth is described as ‘tohu va vohu’ (formless and void; or wild and waste; or chaotic and empty). It has no shape (un-formed) and has no stuff (un-filled).
The 6 days of creation (the ‘hexameron’) divide into 2 sets. The first set of 3 days is [...]
Christmas season. The real doctrine that the Christmas season emphasises is the doctrine of the Incarnation. I’ve enjoyed reading C.S. Lewis’ ‘little book’ Miracles, written back in 1947. His chapter, ‘The Grand Miracle’ has some delicious passages on the Incarnation (my annoying notes in brackets).
I have never quite understood what some are on about when they point to the vast size of the universe as some kind of evidence that we are insignificant, and that any notion of human significance is ‘anthropocentric’ (human-centred).
A targum of Psalm 8:
Yahweh our Master!
Your Name is priceless throughout the universe!
Your glory is unsearchable and inscrutable
and utterly beyond our capability to measure.
Even the smallest and inexperienced ones; yes – babies
they praise you – just as you wanted
all this is like ignorant and inane babbling to those who hate you,
yet this incoherent baby-noise completely [...]
For your enjoyment:
“Earth, sweet Earth, sweet landscape, with leaves throng
And louched low grass, heaven that dost appeal
To, with no tongue to plead, no heart to feel;
Read Romans 1:1-17 (in a good, easy to read translation like NIV or CEV), and then check out Brian J. Walsh’s ‘targum’ (an interpretive ‘modernisation’ of a given passage) of it… (Copied from here)
I just love this stuff…
This is the opening verse to the song ‘Miracle Drug’ on U2’s latest album ‘How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb’.
I want a trip inside your head
Spend the day there…
To hear the things you haven’t said
And see what you might see
I wanna hear you when you call
Do you feel anything at all?
I wanna see your thoughts [...]
‘Targum’ (plural is ‘targumim’) is a literary genre in which parts of the Hebrew Bible are ‘modernised’ and/or re-interpreted for the current time (specifically, it means an Aramaic translation.). This genre has been around for at least 2000 years, because some of the writings from the ‘Dead Sea Scrolls‘ consist of ‘targumim’ fragments. [...]
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