Pain.
Conjures up many ideas – mostly negative ones. You may think of your back, an old injury that plays up. You may think of emotional pain. It may be something that never seems to go away.
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What’s your love language?
According to Dr. Gary Chapman, we have 5 primary ways of communicating love: words of affirmation, quality time, physical touch, receiving gifts, and acts of service. To find out your primary love language, you can take this online quiz: https://www.5lovelanguages.com/quizzes.
I was invited by my good friends Rosie and Hannah to join other young people for this exciting project called ShareHim back in 2015. I had no idea what ShareHim was about but a mission trip to Mexico with the crew sounded quite exciting. I later found out that ShareHim required each participant to hold an evangelistic campaign every night for two weeks at a designated church. At that point in life, I had previously had the chance to preach here and there but preaching every night for two weeks was daunting to say the very least. But I decided to take up the invitation and head to Tuxla Gutierez, Chiapas, Mexico.
Sometimes I can be a stickler for getting things right. When I have a disagreement with someone, usually about something incredibly unimportant, I have to find out who is right. Perhaps it’s ego or perhaps it’s… No, I guess it is ego.
Upon a recent viewing of a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie I was sure about the origin of a particular object while my viewing companion objected to my opinion (fact, by my judgement). I had to turn to Google to find out who had it right.
Several years ago I had a similar experience with the Bible. I had a study Bible that suggested very strange things in the notes between chapters. Mostly helpful hints on interpretation – but I felt it went too far when interpreting Jesus’ view on the Sabbath and actually stated something to the effect of ‘remember the weekday and keep it holy’!
This prompted my search to find the ‘right’ version of the Bible. During my search I started with the oldest versions I could find and looked into how they were translated. Now, I am only familiar with the English language, but I do recall reading about some Latin versions of the Bible.. in particular the Vulgate, a Latin translation of the Bible by Jerome who, in 382, sought to correct inaccuracies in the existing Latin version (or versions, I’m not sure).
Now, you may assume that this piece may be about the version of the Bible I settled on, but I recall this story because I recently came across Jerome again earlier this year while reading a book about Wit; sorry to subvert expectation. Now, I mean to cast no aspersions on Jerome, but I found a very interesting anecdote about his translation.
Most people agree that it is not known what specific fruit the ‘forbidden fruit’ in the Garden of Eden was. Many people just refer to it as an apple – because, I always assumed, it was a very common fruit and sprang first to one’s mind. James Geary, author of Wit’s End, reveals that the word for evil in the Vulgate as translated in the story of Adam and Eve’s fall is malum, which is actually also the word for apple (I guess it’s a Latin homophone/homonym). Geary suggests that this prompted Saint Jerome to pick that word to describe what Adam and Eve ate.
As the Vulgate became the translation of choice for the next thousand years or so it was long enough for the apple to receive its undeserved bad rap. Geary goes on to describe several examples of puns in the Bible, even in the original Hebrew, not necessarily translations.
This brought to mind a discussion I heard about whether God has a sense of humour. An interesting notion, I wonder if it’s possible to ascertain an answer through delving into the language of the Bible? And even then, would any humour in the original language transcend the differences in time and culture between ourselves and the original authors?
While I dig out my interlinear Hebrew Bible and Strong’s concordance, I’ll leave you with this parting thought: I have come to the realisation that there may not be one, definitively ‘correct’ version of the English Bible, and proper understanding of much of it takes careful study and prayerful consideration.
When my nephew first arrived in Australia he wasn’t used to the sea. It was cold and full of mysterious and frightening things – slimy sea weed and fish and spiky anemones and seals. He refused to go in.
That was a few years back. Now he is six.
Politics in general is definitely not high on my list of interests, especially US politics. But for the past few years, I have noticed a very consistent trend in news stories that make headlines. The media constantly highlighted anything negative associated with President Donald Trump. I still didn’t care too much but there was one thing that kindled my interest. What is this thing Mr President keeps referring to as “fake news”? And so I decided to take a quick glimpse into it.
With Saint Patrick’s Day just past I was reflecting on a magazine article I read quite some time ago about the the Saint himself, Patrick. Alas I could not find the original article but let me recount some points I remember (that I found rather fascinating at the time).
It’s scary to make new friends.
Micah has been in school for 6 weeks now and he’s doing just fine. I on the other hand am having a hard time transitioning to being a school mum.
He is a bloke I knew from a soup kitchen once.
He changed his name by deed poll to show his concern for the environment. For the sake of anonymity I will call him N.
When he found out I had been overseas to visit family he gently chided me for the effect on the environment of the plane travel.
One night, to save electricity, he turned everything off at the power point when we left, including the fridge which held four shelves of frozen soup.
I projected this year to be a year of no travelling overseas when I was making plans in 2018. It was supposed to be a quiet one but I had to make a little exception because my good friend was getting married in Bangkok. Our friendship goes way back to primary school when we attended grade two at Bangkok Adventist Church School (BACS) together. I also invited my workmate to come along for the second time. He enjoyed it so much last time that he also brought his parents along this time round.