Recent activity

Bob - you haven't written much lately
No I haven't but I have listened to a few good lectures. This one by Tom Wright on the Psalms is worth the hour. This one by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks on covenant is equally good - could take two passes at it. Covenant is the redemption of solitude. I also listened to Geza Vermes on the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Rabbi Rachel wrote beautifully on questions here. I have been reading other blogs remote and local like Christopher Page on memory - Kristallnacht and Remembrance Day. And James McGrath on the end of Job and The Aces on Bridge, my regular bridge column.

Today I begin the first session in my course on the Psalms. The local churches have been very encouraging. I will write more about it later. I have been preparing for 7 years. I am so aware that I am still learning - but we are commanded to teach. We must teach as we are taught – this is Torah and Talmud. Here is Matthew 28:19 in the Salkinson-Ginsburg translation. Here they add to the text - in true parallel fashion. (This working from Greek to Hebrew then back to English is kind of fun - sight recognition is improving slowly - very slowly.)

לְכוּ אֶל־כָּל־הָעַמִּים
לְהוֹרֹתָם
וְלַעֲשׂתָם לִי לְתַלְמִידִים
וּלְטַבֵּל אֹתָם
בְּשֵׁם הָאָב וְהַבֵּן וְרוּחַ הַקֹּדֶשׁ

Walk, therefore, to all nations [same word as begins Psalm 95 trad. 'come']
to instruct them, [the word in the text is the verb form of Torah]
and make them my students [Talmidim]
and baptize them
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit

They add well - and look at the last verse - did you ever note the mitsvah of Jesus?
וְלִמַּדְתֶּם אֹתָם לִשְׁמֹר אֶת־כָּל־אֲשֶׁר צִוִּיתִי אֶתְכֶם

וְהִנֵּה אָנֹכִי אֶהְיֶה עִמָּכֶם עַד־אַחֲרִית הַשָּׁנִים לְעֵת קֵץ הָעוֹלָם אָמֵן

and teach them to keep all that I have commanded you

and Here! I will be with you till the behind of years and to the end of the world

Teach is among his commandments. But the students are his.

And I am thinking about writing. I would like to work through the psalms where Jesus does the reading, a theological exercise in prosopopoeia. (Funny word, eh?) It's short for making a face.