Kathy Bell’s Art Show

If you’re in the Greenville, SC area, you need to check out the show that’s currently up in the Sargent Art Building. It has to be my favorite of all the dozens I’ve seen there over the years. My old calligraphy teacher, Mrs. Kathy Bell (wife of Bob Bell, my Hebrew teacher, and mother of David Bell, my Freshman English teacher), has produced God-glorifyingly creative, beautiful, skillful pieces that were a thrill to experience. Her work is classic without being stodgy, and it was a trip to see her stuff from the 60s!

The New New International Version

The much-maligned TNIV will be no more. A newly revised NIV will come out in 2011, the 400th anniversary of the release of the KJV. I did not realize that the NIV had not been updated since I was in preschool.

The NIV is the most popular Bible translation in English, and it is always worth checking during Bible study because its somewhat more interpretive renderings do—despite what I grew up hearing—come from a basically conservative evangelical background.

For example, the spokesman for the translators in the press releases is Douglas Moo, who happens to be the author of what many conservatives have hailed as the best exegetical commentary on Romans. I was reading that very volume this morning, and though I happened to slightly disagree with Moo’s take on ἀγάπη in Rom. 12:9, it is an excellent, doctrinally sound volume.

A Brief Anecdote

When I was 18 years old in 1999 I wanted to know the Bible better. So I bought a Comparative Study Bible, a parallel Bible including 1) my beloved KJV, 2) the kind-of-weird Amplified Bible, 3) the new-to-me NASB, and 4) the NIV. At first I was literally (and dynamically) afraid to read the NIV column. I had been conditioned against it. But as I read it and compared it over and over again to the NASB and the KJV, I gradually came to a recognition of its character: it’s just smoother.

Where the NASB encounters a difficult phrase, it repeats it literally, sometimes resulting in Greeklish or Engrew. When the NIV hits that same phrase, it gives a slightly interpretive translation that makes total sense in the English you and I speak. The NIV’s interpretation may be one I end up disagreeing with, but never in my experience was it heretical or impossible.* I, for one, find it helpful to read a smooth translation along with my more wooden ones.

Pros and Cons

Here are two examples:

1 Peter 1:6

• NASB In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials.
• NIV In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.

Jeremiah 17:16

• NASB But as for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd after You, Nor have I longed for the woeful day; You Yourself know that the utterance of my lips Was in Your presence.
• NIV I have not run away from being your shepherd; you know I have not desired the day of despair. What passes my lips is open before you.

However, some inspired ambiguity may be left out in the process, and even NIV-based commentary series like the EBC regularly disagree with its renderings.

Here are two examples—out of dozens I could have given from my BibleWorks notes—of renderings that unnecessarily limit interpretive possibilities**:

1 Thessalonians 4:4

• NASB …that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor.
• NIV …that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable.

2 Thessalonians 3:6

• NASB Keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us.
• NIV Keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us.

In each of these cases the NIV’s rendering is far from heresy but slips too far into interpretation. So using other sound, conservative translations is also necessary. We English-speaking Christians have the privilege, not the curse, of having multiple good Bible translations. I encourage people, even and especially those who don’t know Greek or Hebrew, to familiarize themselves with the nature and purpose of those translations and then use them.

The Committee on Bible Translation, the group which does the translating work, is open to suggestions from scholars and laypeople. If you have a problem with the NIV’s treatment of a particular passage, write your Christian brothers a courteous note and make your best case.

*The one exception I can think of is the NIV’s—I think—impossible rendering of 1 Cor 7:36–38. But the ESV adopts the same interpretation.

**Interestingly, the ESV, my translation of choice, follows the NIV’s example in both of these passages.

Biblical Love

First Corinthians 13:4–7 is a list of fifteen specific actions that love performs on behalf of other believers. That should immediately dispel the notion that love is primarily a feeling or an emotion. Although true love will carry emotion with it sometimes, feeling is not a necessary ingredient of love, nor is it the basis. Therefore, biblical love is not a feeling: it’s an action.¹

A blog named after love has a duty to define love correctly. Or at least, this blog-named-after-love does. The above statement, which I got out of a high school Bible textbook, is not the definition this blog will put forward. Instead it’s a good example of why the meaning of love has become a (the?) major theological theme of this blog.

Let’s examine the author’s claim that the Love Chapter should dispel the very notions I’ve tried to promote on βλογάπη.

Most simply, I would argue that the passage he cites makes it clear that love is not an action. Take it away, D. A. Carson:

Though some have attempted to strip God’s love of affective content, making it no more than willed commitment to the other’s good, the philology does not support this view, nor does 1 Corinthians 13, where the apostle insists it is possible to deploy the most stupendous altruism without love.²

Remember that part of the passage?

If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. (ESV)

Giving away all you have and delivering your body to be burned are actions, good actions, good actions that can be performed without love. So love must be something different from apparently good actions. Love, Paul is saying, is the one righteous motivator for actions, the only motivation that makes actions count as “good.”

Even if 1 Corinthians 13 made love an action, several of the verbs Paul uses to describe love are emotions: love rejoices (2x) and hopes.

I think that the author of the comment at the top of this post knew better than to banish emotion from love, because he followed up his comment with this: “As we examine each of these actions [in 1 Cor. 13], we need to humbly inspect our own hearts to see if we truly love other members of Christ’s church.” If love were an action, we wouldn’t need to inspect our hearts. If we were performing the action, we’d know—no cardiogram necessary.

Love may not be “a feeling,” full stop. But it’s something internal. It’s, as Edwards would say, an inclination of the soul. It’s a delight and a pleasure. It’s a bent. It’s a fruit of the Spirit’s work in the Christian. It’s a lot of things, but it’s not an action.

I hope I’ve undispelled a notion for you today. May God help you and me love Him with all our hearts. It will require His power.

_________________

1. Don’t ask.

^{2. “God’s Love and God’s Sovereignty,” Bibliotheca Sacra 156: 623 (July 1999), p. 259.}

TTTT

Theology, tech, theology tech.

Sound Advice on BibleWorks, Logos, and Accordance

I agree with this guy. If you are wondering which Bible software to buy, his advice will help.

I’ll add one other thing: if you like keyboard shortcuts and overall computer quickness, BibleWorks beats Logos.

Ok, one more thing: I have BibleWorks and Logos, and I don’t feel I wasted my money. I buy BibleWorks for the searching and original language tools; I get Logos for the commentaries, books, journals, and reference works. Admittedly, there’s some overlap in the capabilities of the two programs, but each one does its thing so well that they’re both always running on my computer.

HT: Dustin Battles

Free Cartoon Fridays (Aug 28): “The Drive-In Altar Call”

Welcome back to Free Cartoon Friday!

Check back each week for a free cartoon I failed to sell to Christian pastors’ magazines in 2005!

Click image for full size.

Any real cartoonists out there who are willing to put my ideas in more appealing visual form and sell them?

βλογάπη

My blog has a new name to go along with its new design: βλογάπη. “Marklwardjr,” the old name, was just way too eponymous.

After almost two years, and now having reached the two-subscriber mark (my mother-in-law recently signed up), I think it’s time to pick a name that reflects the twin themes of the blog: theology and tech. As they used to say on the SAT, blog : agape :: tech : theology.

There are a few reasons I talk so much about tech:

• I really believe our generation—of theological students in particular—needs guidance in the use of technology.
• Few other nerdy Fundamentalists combine the twin themes of “Ra Ra!” and “Cave Canem!” when it comes to tech, so I have stepped into the gap.

There are a few reasons why ἀγάπη (agape) makes up the second half of my blog’s new name:

• I can’t help talking about ἀγάπη, because as Hezekiah 45:55 says, “Out of the abundance of the dissertation, the fingers type.”
• I want my blog to provoke you to love and good works. I know it pushes me toward those things, partly through the interaction I get to have with you sometimes. I thank you, my readers, sincerely for that. I dearly want to be holy, and God says we need each other to make that happen.

My RSS feed will remain the same.

Free, Easy, Safe, Cool, Nice, Fun, Good, Bird-Themed Online Backup

Do you need free, safe on-line backup for a few key folders?

Do you need to synchronize folders between two computers?

Try something I’ve been using for several months now and have liked very much: SugarSync. Sign up with my referral link and we’ll both benefit with extra space.

eponymity

I named this site marklwardjr because I wanted to avoid the temptations of Internet anonymity. I’ve wondered as time has passed whether the site’s name looks self-promoting. Hopefully, the content speaks for itself. It would be foolish for any blogger to seek the chief seat at the blogosfeast.

For those readers who are willing to join me in my openness, my new blog design includes Google Friend Connect. I’d love to get to know you, or at least a small avatar of you.

Hat Steal

This is not just a hat tip; it’s a hat steal.

I had to get this absolutely brilliant content (written by a BJU graduate!) to both of my readers. Moisés Silva is an exegetically and linguistically careful scholar, and this is brilliant, just… brilliant!

It is approximately the year 2790. The most powerful nation on earth occupies a large territory in Central Africa, and its citizens speak Swahili. The United States and other English-speaking countries have long ceased to exist, and much of the literature prior to 2012 (the year of the Great Conflagration) is not extant. Some archaeologists digging in the western regions of North America discover a short but well-preserved text that can confidently be dated to the last quarter of the twentieth century. It reads thus:

Marilyn, tired of her glamorous image, embarked on a new project. She would now cultivate her mind, sharpen her verbal skills, pay attention to standards of etiquette. Most important of all, she would devote herself to charitable causes. Accordingly, she offered her services at the local hospital, which needed volunteers to cheer up terminal patients, many of whom had been in considerable pain for a long time. The weeks flew by. One day she was sitting at the cafeteria when her supervisor approached her and said, “I didn’t see you yesterday. What were you doing?” “I painted my apartment; it was my day off,” she responded.

The archaeologists know just enough English to realise that this fragment is a major literary find that deserves closer inspection, so they rush the piece to one of the finest philologists in their home country. This scholar dedicates his next sabbatical to a thorough study of the text and decides to publish an exegetical commentary on it, as follows:

We are unable to determine whether this text is an excerpt from a novel or from a historical biography. Almost surely, however, it was produced in a religious context, as is evident from the use of such words as devoted, offered, charitable. In any case, this passage illustrates the literary power of twentieth-century English, a language full of metaphors. The verb embarked calls to mind an ocean liner leaving for an adventuresome cruise, while cultivate possibly alerts the reader to Marilyn’s botanical interests. In those days North Americans compared time to a bird—probably the eagle—that flies.

The author of this piece, moreover, makes clever use of word associations. For example, the term glamorous is etymologically related to grammar, a concept no doubt reflected in the comment about Marilyn’s “verbal skills.” Consider also the subtleties implied by the statement that “her supervisor approached her.” The verb approach has a rich usage. It may indicate similar appearance or condition (this painting approaches the quality of a Picasso); it may have a sexual innuendo (the rapist approached his victim); it may reflect subservience (he approached his boss for a raise). The cognate noun can be used in contexts of engineering (e.g. access to a bridge), sports (of a golf stroke following the drive from the tee), and even war (a trench that protects troops besieging a fortress).

Society in the twentieth century is greatly illuminated by this text. The word patient (from patience, meaning “endurance”) indicates that sick people then underwent a great deal of suffering: they endured not only the affliction of their physical illness, but also the mediocre skills of their medical doctors, and even (to judge from other contemporary documents) the burden of increasing financial costs.

A few syntactical notes may be of interest to language students. The preposition of had different uses: causal (tired of), superlative (most important of all), and partitive (many of whom). The simple past tense had several aoristic functions: embarked clearly implies determination, while offered suggests Marilyn’s once-for-all, definitive intention. Quite noticeable is the tense variation at the end of the text. The supervisor in his question uses the imperfect tense, “were doing,” perhaps suggesting monotony, slowness, or even laziness. Offended, Marilyn retorts with a punctiliar and emphatic aorist, “I painted.”

A Growing Chorus

What I’m struggling with is the encroachment of the buzz, the sense that there is something out there that merits my attention, when in fact it’s mostly just a series of disconnected riffs and fragments that add up to the anxiety of the age.

—From The Lost Art of Reading, latimes.com

Thoughtful people keep saying this. We who aspire to thoughtfulness ought to listen.

Al Mohler on the Conservative Takeover of Southern Seminary

I’ve read about 200 pages of Gary Wills’ history of Southern Seminary, including the final section on the Mohler years (I couldn’t wait!), and I’m really enjoying it. God used James Boyce to perform Herculean tasks to keep the seminary alive in the early years, and faculty members like John Broadus made deep sacrifices, too. The seminary was firmly Calvinist in those days, as was the denomination, and the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy hadn’t happened yet—so it was a dynamic quite different from today.

However, the SBTS of today is more like the SBTS of the 1860s than it has been in a century, a point the book makes well. Al Mohler is, humanly speaking, the major reason for the recovery of Boyce’s original vision. Mohler performed Herculean tasks of his own, and every good fundamentalist will thrill to hear how the wolves in sheep’s clothing were removed from the faculty. It doesn’t get much better in your earbuds than Mohler’s comeback to the postmodernist faculty member who refused to interpret the Bible straightforwardly but insisted on a rigorously literal interpretation of his contract—followed by C. J. Mahaney’s uproarious laughter. I was edified (and, I admit, entertained). I highly recommend these two MP3s.

One Good Reason to Be on Twitter

I said it, too: “Who wants to know what other people had for breakfast?”

But I signed up for Twitter anyway, dutifully, because my blog’s subtitle is “theology, tech, theology tech.” And I’ve found that, despite one problem I will—dutifully—note, I am glad for Twitter’s existence.

Here’s why: it has brought out of the woodwork some talented, gospel-centered micro-bloggers whose voices would not have provoked me to love and good works otherwise. Actual fundamentalist leaders are still underrepresented in the blogosphere, but Twitter’s lower time demand and learning curve have changed things.

Now you can hear from some sound fundamentalist voices that had been silent.

For example, if you’re a ministerial student, sign up for Kerry McGonigal’s feed. He knows, loves, and produces sound homiletics, and he’s an elder at his local body (namely my own!). You need to be challenged by observing what he loves, how much he knows, and what he reads.

Now for the problem. I’m already too scatterbrained by the Internet; focusing on one task is already way too far from second-nature. Twitter obviously doesn’t help.

However, I actually find that the brevity of the tweets that pop up on my screen (and I’m selective about whom I follow) allows me to get a quick benefit and go back to my main task quickly without losing my thread.

So my Twitter philosophy is a work in progress.

And I had Cream of Wheat.