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Tag archives for Hebrew
The Great Exchange of Deuteronomy
Most often the phrase “the great exchange” is associated very specifically with the obedience of Christ on the Christian’s behalf as part of his redemptive work whereby he took on our sin (2 Cor. 5:21) and we consequently are able to be clothed in his righteousness (Isaiah 61:10). The great exchange in the New Testament is Jesus takes our sin and we get his righteousness imputed to us. He gets sin, we get God. O glorious gospel! Trust in him now!
Well, the great exchange of Deuteronomy is very similar but less specifically and explicitly about the redemptive work of the Messiah. Deuteronomy 29:10-15 (ESV) magnificently preaches exchange when it reads,
You are standing today all of you before the Lord your God: the heads of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and the sojourner who is in your camp, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water, so that you may enter into the sworn covenant of the Lord your God, which the Lord your God is making with you today, that he may establish you today as his people, and that he may be your God, as he promised you, and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. It is not with you alone that I am making this sworn covenant, but with whoever is standing here with us today before the Lord our God, and with whoever is not here with us today.
The bolded portions are to help trace the line of thought amidst the enumerating of persons present (elders, lumberjacks, water boys, etc.). The people are standing before God in order to cross (over) into the covenant of YHWH (לעברך בברית יהוה), a covenant which he is making in order to establish them as his people and he as their God ( לע×והו×יהיה־לך ל××œ×”×™× ×œ×ž×¢×Ÿ×”×§×™×Ö¾×תך ×”×™×•× ×œ×•). The “exchange” is that we become his people and he becomes our God. He gets us, we get him.
The ל (lamedh) prepositions here (ל+×¢× and ל+×להי×), though functioning differently syntactically, remind me of Song of Songs 6:3 where quite famously it is asserted that “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.” Here also are ל prepositions, though attached simply to object pronouns masculine and feminine rather than nouns. Again there is a certain amount of what I think can be called exchange or reciprocity which reflects, albeit dimly, the great exchange which is the gospel revealed in the work of Christ and the New Testament Scriptures.
Respond
Take a moment to read Deuteronomy 29. Think about all of God’s provisions for sinful, rebellious laid out throughout the Scriptures. Think on what it means for you, as a Christian, to be part of God’s people. Think on God becoming your God when you at one time were alienated from him and without him in the world (Ephesians 2). Now, rejoice at the thought of the gospel!
If you’re not a Christian, trust in Christ as God’s provision for sinful humanity to be brought back into communion with him after being separated by our sin and rebellion. Now, rejoice in the gospel!
Hebrew Help
What’s the best way to blog Hebrew? I just copy and pasted from e-sword. No vowels. Hopefully, everyone who cares will be able to read it. Sorry if it shows up garbled. Read the English. It’s not a bad translation.
I Heart Dagesh
I’ve decided that I love dagesh even though gutturals don’t so much (though aleph does get its dagesh on in Leviticus 23:17). Today I praise God for the Masoretes and their similar love for the dagesh. For without them today would not even be possible. The dagesh doubles the fun. The dagesh hints at the hiding place of a nun (sneaky nun thought that it could assimilate! Dagesh says, “Think again, silly nun.” [Nun as in the Hebrew character, not nun like the habit. Dagesh isn't so good at pointing out hiding nuns...though who can forget the sneaky, mischievious nuns from the Sound of Music]). Disgress…I mean, dagesh also points out our friend the piel. April 10 is Dagesh Day. If a waw starts gettin’ sad, boom! Dagesh and now you’re a shureq!
[PS. What's the plural of dagesh? Dageshi? Dageshae? Dageshim? Dageshoat?]
What is a Philomniglot
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]).
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Long live philology!
Posted in Language
Tagged analogy, English, Greek, Hebrew, jam, Latin, MP3, New Testament
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Seow Biblical Hebrew Flashcards
In doing an intensified language course, like J-Term/Summer Hebrew or Greek, having a ready-to-go flashcard program for the computer is where it’s at. Talk about maximizing efficiency and effectiveness. I found the below Microsoft Excel flashcard file for Seow’s Biblical Hebrew vocabulary. I had no idea that Excel was capable of this, but boy is it sweet. I snagged it from Lionel Windsor. His language tools pages are a little treasure trove, and it looks like we get the booty! Thanks, Lionel.
Download Seow Biblical Hebrew Flashcards
[Edit: check the vocabulary list in the Excel file against the chapter's vocabulary list in the book which you are trying to learn first before studying that chapter. I think there are a few discrepancies.]
An English Christmas
Leaving on Wednesday (12/12), we’re heading to England over Christmas and New Years. We’ll be back just in time (the day before) to start our respective schools on January 7th. J-term Hebrew I, here I come.
New Testament in Fluid Koine Greek and Vulgate Latin
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.