kata Drew

Codex Sinaiticus Project website goes live July 24, 2008.

phil-omni-glot (from Greek phil “love” + Latin omni “all” + Greek glot “tongue, language”) : noun. A lover of all languages. (A personal coinage of yours truly.)

Why love all languages?

The point has been made that the reason people from every tribe, language, people and nation are seen worshiping around Jesus’ throne in Revelation 5 is because people from every tribe, language, people and nation will find him all-satisfying. In other words, what is special about the one true God is that people from every ethnicity and tongue find in him what they need and they worship. God is therefore not a tribal deity whose “splendor” is seen by a select, remote view, but he is the Creator of the heavens and the earth and his Son is the One through whom all that has its existence was created (John 1:3).

Analogy: If I design a pair of shoes and only people in West Virginia like them, I won’t be a failure, but I won’t be a complete success either. However, as in the case of Nike, if I can design shoes that are desired and praised by people all over the world, that points to a superior shoe. A diverse body recognizes its value.

By his blood Jesus ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation (Rev. 5:9). This is their “new song” (Rev. 5:9a), praising this act. The answer then as to why to love all languages is because God loves all languages and ransomed people from every language by the blood of his Son. Moreover, the telos of each of those languages is to find praise and adoration for the Lamb who was slain and is worthy on the lips of the ransomed speakers.

The Christian has another reason to love languages: because the Scriptures were written in other languages (i.e., not English). Consequently, since I know you’ve heard of sermon jams, you’ll want to give the John Chapter 1 Jam herein linked a listen (featuring John 1:1-3 from the Greek New Testament and the Latin Vulgate courtesy of GreekLatinAudio.com [sorry, maybe one with Hebrew will be forthcoming]).

Long live philology!

A friend I gained over the summer while studying Biblical Greek for three semesters has changed names. Zhubert.com is now ReGreek.com, The Resurgence Greek Project. There’s an interview with the lead guy behind the project over at the Resurgence blog. They have a wonderful vision of providing the interested learner with free tools and resources in a slick, cutting-edge interface, wedding the study of God’s word with technology.

In our goal to resource multiple generations to live for Jesus so that they can effectively reach their city with the gospel by staying culturally accessible and biblically faithful we must not only study our city, as well we must study our bibles. The Resurgence Greek Project helps you study the Bible more effectively and more easily than ever before. No more flipping through numerous resources or problem solving an online tool that was designed in the early 90’s. Re:Greek brings you the latest technology to study the most timeless treasure, God’s Word, as part of the free online resources of theresurgence.com.

Fantastic.

I’ve seen others post on their blogs about seizing that often small amount of time between lying down for bed and actually falling asleep. Talk about redeeming the time! I’ve often lain in bed at night willing to God that I could read with my eyes closed, after Emily’s told me to go to sleep and my eyes are still struggling like Atlas to uphold their lids. I eventually give in–there comes a point where you have to. Unfortunately at that point your mind is still going and you feel that if you had the energy (or, in my case, God had granted the miracle that you could read with your eyes closed [however that might work out]), you could still be doing something productive.

Well, this post isn’t meant to be primarily about sleep, productivity, eyes that read while closed, or redeeming the time, but about a website I discovered this weekend that made me so happy I could have planted a tree. It’s called GreekLatinAudio.com, an “internet New Testament recording project. This web site offers free MP3 audio-files of high-quality recorded readings of the New Testament in fluid koine Greek and vulgate Latin.”

Friday night, as I lay me down to sleep, I downloaded John’s gospel in Greek and Latin and slapped them onto my MP3 player (quickly adding in the omitted ID3 tags). Loving both, I didn’t know which to listen to first. Greek it was. A rather gruff sounding man rolls through it. It sure beats me trying to read out loud to myself for this man flawlessly, naturally, and mellifluously brings the text alive. Sometimes I can’t quite pick up all the phonemes (the little pieces of sound that carry the meaning) and the text seems to run together just as it would be trying to listen to a radio broadcast in a language with which you’re unfamiliar. (His pronunciation is a little different than mine. I don’t believe he uses what’s known as the Erasmian pronunciation; I’m not quite sure though. His omicron is different.)

Nonetheless, the recordings done in a quality, listen-to-able manner, bring with them a new appreciation for both Koine Greek and the original autographs. Is this what it would have been like being with the church at Ephesus after receiving a letter from Paul, hearing it read aloud to the congregation? I like to imagine it so and that my hearing it read aloud links to me them and the original autograph somehow.

Also, I never noticed how poetic John chapter one sounds. It’s beautiful! Both the content and the form! Each short phrase is like the stroke of a brush painting a vibrant picture of Jesus ho logos. What a gift to the church!

The site has completed 25/27 books of the New Testament in both Greek and Latin with 2 Corinthians and John in progress (chapters 1-6 completed). Also, Genesis 1-25 and Jonah are available in Hebrew. Here’s a link into the download directory for the Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. This site may be old news for you–shame on you for not telling me if that’s the case! I’m hoping that these recording will aid memorization of the Greek text.

Now, you can read, like me, with your eyes closed.