Sugar and Spice

Praise God for nieces!

Why You Should Look for the Leitwort (key word) When You Are Reading the OT (and especially in your devotional reading)

From my OT notes:

Repetition is one of the key rhetorical features in biblical Hebrew narrative. So important is repetition that James Muilenburg, the father of modern rhetorical analysis in biblical studies, has well said, “repetition is the hallmark of Hebrew rhetoric.” Repetition provides a sense of coherence and unity to a narrative. So repetition is one of the most reliable guides to determining what a story is about. What keeps getting repeated in a story invariably becomes the central focus – the thing toward which everything points.

Aaaaaand... why you should take Hebrew:

Of course, the repetition of a key word is not as evident in English translations as it is in the Hebrew text. Most translations actually go to the opposite extreme, translating the same Hebrew word with different English equivalents for the sake of fluency and precision in English. One polysemantic wordplays of the same Hebrew word are obscured in English.

An example:

Sometimes the same Hebrew root is repeated in various morphological forms. For example, the root shal (“to ask, demand”) occurs repeatedly as a verb in 1 Samuel 8 and as a noun in 1 Samuel 9. The people sinned by “demanding” (shal) a human king, rejecting YHWH as their king and deliverer. Against the protests of Samuel, YHWH tells the prophet to give the people what they want. The immediately following narrative then introduces the reader “Saul” (shaul), whose name is the passive form of the root shal and literally means “the one who is demanded” or “the one asked for.” The insightful reader immediately suspects that he will be the new king. So the wordplay suggests that God will give the people what they asked for. This is an example of poetic justice: since they sinned by demanding a human king rather than YHWH, He would give them what they asked for – and it would not be pretty!

Rod: New Atheists hurt science's advance

Another good article from Rod Dreher: New Atheists hurt science's advance

Ignatius Reilly Strikes Again

Rod Dreher linked to this. If you've not read Confederacy of Dunces this won't make much sense. If you have this is really funny.

Rod Dreher:

"Ignatius Reilly Eats" - Ignatius Reilly is alive and well and eating in Baton Rouge -- and blogging about it under a false name.

This Loupe Garou is my new hero, everything I want to be. The review:

Carrabba's Italian Grill
"The Dreck Just Keeps On Truckin' - In From Sysco"
August 10, 2009 - Doesn't like it - The words "LA CUCINA" translates "class," in lettrés giganté above the wait-staff's pick-up stationné.
When an Italian restaurant has "Vino Cianti" written really big on one wall, it should also have speakers mounted to the roof that blare, "Welcome, all ye unwashed! He and she who revel in Olive Garden, your table awaits."
Alleged food: Just like at Los Gallos, the chicken is perfectly square in the exact mass and scale of rubbery beige matter one finds in Progresso soups.
Hmmm... I've seen that chicken before. Wait.... Don't tell me... Yes! In The Big Book of Sysco Things!
Page 133 of the catalog from which one selects one's ingredients (elemental or compound, never chemically bonded; for that would imply "cooking") provided by America's Leading Marketer of Quality-Assured Food Service Products --- YES, folks! SYSCO!!!
Ergo, Sysco... Don't expect anything to taste like it was made here. It tastes like it was made at Olive Garden's famous Tuscan Institute, AKA the American Home Foods cannery that churns out Chef Boyardee ravioli in Arlington, Texas.
With apologies to the good Mr. Boyardee; who made his own sauces - at first.
I used to find it sad that people are hopelessly inept at distinguishing real from ersatz. Then, I stopped caring. But this place re-dredged all those feeling of pity for the congenitally uninstructable. (The aesthetic autistic)

See my problem?

This is a listing off all the churches in the Dallas area with a DTS graduate on staff.
Which should I try first?

Why I Love the Movie Bella

The other movement of human life [in the Psalms] is the surprising move from disorientation to a new orientation that is quite unlike the old status quo. This is not an automatic movement that can be presumed upon or predicted. Nor is it a return to the old form, a return to normalcy as though nothing had happened. It is rather 'all things new.' And when it happens, it is always a surprise, always a gift of graciousness, and always an experience that evokes gratitude."

Walter Brueggemann, Praying the Psalms, pg. 11


This is why I love the movie Bella (not to mention his sweet beard). Tammy Blanchard's character experiences the pain and disorientation that is brought about by sin. Eduardo Verástegui's character knows of this pain and disorientation all too poignantly. He, as the Messiah figure, steps in not to turn her life back to status quo, but to take upon himself that pain and disorientation and make possible this 'all things new' type of moment you have at the end of the movie. The pain has not been avoided or reversed, but absorbed by Verástegui, to create the opportunity for them to share this perfect moment on the beach in the end. If you've not seen the movie, it's a must watch.