Author: william
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“I Will Never Leave You”
In English, double negatives theoretically cancel each other out — or, more accurately they’re considered bad grammar. Not so in Greek — they use double negatives for emphasis: Truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, one dot-of-an-I or cross-of-a-T will not not pass away from the law until all be fulfilled.…
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Imagining The Eternal Risen Christ
In my reading travels I’ve come across two quotes which articulate an extraordinarily expansive imagining of The Eternal Risen Christ. (They’re not quick reads! I found them worth several careful readings.) + + + “[F]or the Gospel is not merely the narration of what has been; it is the sublime narration of what is and…
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“Our Daily Bread”
Translations of Scripture are marvels of scholarship, and the standard translations are as accurate as translations can be. But of course, much is still ‘lost in the translation’. All translations of anything have this problem. To me a translation is like a black and white photo and the original is ‘living color’ — the black…
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Welcoming the Stranger
Two particularly prominent issues today are racism and genderism. And they vitally need to be addressed. As I consider these issues, it seems to me these are part of a larger Problem. Namely — rejection and oppression of those who are different from us — whether that be skin color, gender attitudes, religion, political views,…
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“God Thus Loved the World…”
This week I thought we might consider one of the more famous verses in the Bible, namely John 3:16: “For God thus AGAPĒ-loved the KOSMOS, that He gave his only-begotten son…” AGAPĒ is probably the most famous Greek word in the New Testament, and rightly so. Now, Greek lexicons (dictionaries of dead languages) are great,…
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“One Doesn’t Live by Bread Alone”
I‘ve been working with the Greek New Testament for decades — 2.5 years of college Biblical Greek, ongoing personal study since then including working through every verse in the Greek New Testament at least once, as well as working with other Greek literature from the era including the Septuagint (a translation of the Hebrew Bible…
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Psalm 26
[Given] to Dauid. Vindicate me, O Lord, because I walked in my guilelessness, and since I am hoping in the Lord, I will NOT grow weak. Prove me, O Lord, and try me; burn [with fire] my kidneys and my heart. Because your mercy is before my eyes, and I was pleased in your truth.…
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The Gardener
Once upon a time there was a plot of Land that had suffered the ravages of both Man and Nature: trash had been dumped for decades including barrels of toxic waste. Old tires languished in its slimy pond. Drought, flood and fire had decimated much of it, and brambles and weeds covered the rest. And…
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Psalm 24
A Psalm. Pertaining to Dauid. On the first of the sabbaths. The Lord’s is the earth and its fullness, the inhabited world and all those who inhabit it; He himself founded it on seas and prepared it on rivers. Who shall ascend onto the mountain of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy…