Faith - how can we do it?

There are lots of posts about faith today since Jim West let out his broadside against who knows who. Joel takes up James. Ken writes (independent of the stimulus) on Romans. Mike and Tim take on a response to Jim directly.

It is not possible to please God without faith - but hey - who knows what faith someone else is pursuing? Arguing about postulates is hardly faith. One's faith is proven by what one does. A reliable scholar is faithful in his or her field as a disciplined performer of music. Who knows indeed what one is given to do? I left a few comments around on these posts. The pot is stirred. The stirstick according to Duane is defective. I stir it anyway - maybe someone else with clearer sight will respond also.

Targum Ruth and Boaz

Interesting post here from Targuman. O male, can you not get over your self-importance?

Revelation - a study from 7 years ago

Our Bible study has moved from a year's work in the Old Testament to reading Revelation. I have an old study of this book here. I wonder if I have changed much in my opinions over 7 years. Probably I would read the book with a much greater appreciation of allusions - hopefully we all will. There is a fully annotated text there also with my usual colour coding around the patterns of 7.

Felix Just has lots of information online about art in Revelation.

Here's my brief intro.

My own thesis is that this book is primarily about worship. The keys to the book are the seven references to the hour of judgment and the seven prostrations before the throne of the Beloved. The Gospel of Judgment is another clue - one would expect a Gospel of mercy but finds adoration and doxology for the judgment (14:6-7).

Harold Bloom suggests in his introduction to some critical essays: Hebrews hovers in John's mind on how to read the Hebrew Bible. But I think it is not as Professor Bloom imagines: the will to power of the typological interpretation of Scripture, but rather the intensity of worship that motivates and informs the vision as it does for the author of Hebrews. The Hebrew cult is a vital and primal human reference point. There is no anti-type where there is no type. Yet there is very little reference in Revelation to Hebrews - I have not yet noted any. One would have thought there would be plenty of opportunity with the throne room imagery to get something in on the priesthood of Christ. Even Psalm 110:4 Melchizedek reference is not one that I can read into this text. Revelation mentions the priesthood of the followers of the Lamb, but never the high priesthood of Jesus. Hebrews is all about the high priesthood of Jesus and not at all about the priesthood of his followers. The best I could venture is that both authors read Psalm 110 but took different directions with the text.

The links are to my collection of terms and their significance - not allegorically or symbolically as if there was one or many, but internally and structurally. I cannot answer the scholars who are miles ahead on many roads. As before, I must answer the enigma of my own experience - that God is love and that this revelation, his vengeance, is our story in that love. Who else would send a lamb to shepherd the sheep! 

Let all mortal flesh keep silence and stand with fear and trembling
and lift itself above all earthly thought.
For the King of kings and Lord of lords, Christ our God,
cometh forth to be our oblation and to be given for food to the faithful.
Before him come the choirs of angels, with every principality and power.
The cherubim with many eyes and winged seraphim,
who veil their faces as they shout exultingly the hymn. Alleluia.

Pondering direction with Esther

I have read the Anchor Bible Commentary by Carey Moore on Esther. It is well written c 1971. Esther itself seems to me to cry out for an analogical interpretation - perhaps something along the axis of tension between flesh and spirit and the relationship between male and female. This draws me into theological reflection more than translation. Combined with these topics, I sense and see a focus on words whose roots reduce to praise. Chapter 9 is filled with that word that reduces to praise. (You can see this in the graph on the left.) Should we note that those who are the praise of God should be able to defend themselves? Can they then destroy those who attack - by the only means of destruction available to them - by the love that constrains and leads to the gentlest of deaths, the death already accomplished for us at the mercy seat. I am reminded of Romans 2:29 - maybe some Greek fiend will translate this one for me on the hidden circumcision of the heart.

To follow Esther, I am hoping to use a graphic analysis of the text before I do any translation. I.e. I want to see the shape and hear the sound before turning the story into words I recognize instantly. The graph on the right is hard to read but interesting: According to my root algorithm, there are 127 roots used only once, 60 differing roots are used twice. And by sheer coincidence, there is one root (MLK) used 127 times. So this is a book about royalty. (My results says there are 7 roots used 7 times - a very curious coincidence also - and may or not be 'significant' words. Click on small diagram to see.)  All this sort of information is irrelevant and unknown to us as we hear the story, whether we are irritated by it or not.

I already know I am going to be biased if I read this book analogically - as a continuation of the battle between Saul and Agag (1 Samuel 15:9). I will likely refuse the bias of the irritated overhearing breakfast eater of 33 years ago. If you know who you are, please say hello!

I will also likely refuse an interpretation that privileges Jew over Gentile. Not all Gentiles are macho drinkers. Not all Jews are worthy of praise. But does this book perhaps say that the covenant that gives rise to praise is worthy of defense?

Psalms 110-112

These two acrostics, Psalms 111-112, occur with Hallelujahs following the triumphant Psalm 110.

Last night we read the letters to the churches in the first chapters of Revelation. I noted how strongly Psalms 2, 110, and 149 are alluded to in those chapters. The faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth invites the churches, and by implication us also, to rule in the midst of our enemies. This must of course include ruling ourselves according to the pattern of his wounding in the midst of the troubles we see and the turmoil they cause. Such honour have all the saints as Psalm 149 notes, summing up the Psalter and closing the envelope opened by Psalm 2. (For prior posts on these psalms see here. Psalm 111 is the only acrostic I have not translated as acrostic. This is out of deference to the translation by Countess Mary Herbert.)

I am in the midst of experiments at seeing structure blind. Left is a diagram of the recurrence of roots within Psalm 111. Right Psalm 112. This post is stimulated by John's colourful (English) posts of  Psalm 111 (Hebrew) from last week.

You need to stare at them a bit - note how the occurrence of the root is by verse. It is like looking down on a city. Psalm 111 has the feature that the last verse repeats 6 words from the prior verses. Psalm 112 has three words repeated between verse 3 and 9 and also between verses 7 and 8. If you look it up you will see the limitations of graphs (though if you stare at them carefully you will see the overlap). These two inclusios are identical across the two psalms showing that they are a deliberate pairing.

I hope to be able to drive through the Lily palace visually before I learn the surrounding street names. I will do this by varying the parameters I pass to the chart(s) allowing me to see different recurrence structures. Of course I need to get the root right too. And in the 10 chapters of Esther there are too many words to see at once.

I feel I cannot leave this post without trying an acrostic translation of Psalm 111. It is slightly silly.

What I did on my holiday

Here's Bob trying to get into the picture before the delay goes off. I think we've figured out the delay now - just when the camera is going obsolete. Today we found the Kettle Valley Railway again - drove to the fabulous Myra canyon with its 18 trestles and two tunnels, all restored after the 2006 forest fire. At 4000 feet, we needed gloves.

The Borg at play

It's 6:30 in the morning on a rainy day and before breakfast I note that the wired are already online.