The Narrow Gate: Day 520 - The first thing one must admit is failure

The Narrow Gate

Welcome to the continuation of my blog, post-seminary. Ministry and evangelism have brought me back home to Chattanooga. I welcome your company on my journey.

The original blog, Down In Mississippi, shared stories from 2008 and 2009 of the hope and determination of people in the face of disaster wrought by the hurricanes Rita and Katrina in 2005, of work done primarily by volunteers from churches across America and with financial support of many aid agencies and private donations and the Church. My Mississippi posts really ended with the post of August 16, 2009. Much work, especially for the neediest, remained undone after the denominational church pulled out. Such is the nature of institutions. The world still needs your hands for a hand up. I commend to you my seven stories, Down in Mississippi I -VII, at the bottom of this page and the blog posts. They describe an experience of grace.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Day 520 - The first thing one must admit is failure

I imagine some of you might be interested in how my seminary education is going. Now that Fall semester looms next week I guess it is time.

This summer was quite the challenge. I got situated in an apartment in late June and began summer language classes right after the 4th of July. Immediately (within two weeks) I came down with hoarseness from the skanky carpet and bad air in the apartment. That played well with my recitation of Hebrew.

Well, packing two semesters of Hebrew into seven weeks was quite a ride. The biggest challenge was learning the vocabulary, about 100 words per week. I managed an "A;" of course, having an exemplary professor helped. The coursework has led me to some very nice software that I hope will assist me in my Old Testament studies this coming academic year.

The language itself is interesting and fairly straightforward. The grammar and syntax is quite simple compared to English.

I find it quite interesting to read passages in the HB (Hebrew Bible) and compare the translation to say, NRSV, side-by-side. I already see a few places where in my opinion the “committee” (sounds too Presbyterian, doesn’t it?) took some rather extravagant liberty with the translation and I’m a novice, yet.

You may not be, but I was aware of the different organization of the "books"of the HB compared to Jerome's (?) version we use in the "Old Testament." A lot of HB "books" were moved around to make the HB read more like an advent of the NT.

I imagine V. Nabokov was correct. The first thing one must acknowledge upon undertaking a translation is failure.

Peace and Grace.
Henry

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Gates

The gate pervades the Good News. Peter entered the temple gate after the Jesus’ arrest to deny him. Poor Lazarus lay at the rich man's gate, longing for the crumb's from the table, while dogs licked his sores. The blind, lame and paralyzed lay at the Sheep Gate at the Jerusalem temple waiting at the pool with five porticoes for healing water. Jesus warned of the easy road and wide gate to material ease and spiritual destruction and calls us to the hard road and narrow gate to the waters of life.

necessary disclaimer

This blog is created solely to communicate to my brothers and sisters how one person sees adversity bringing out the greater character of humanity. It's early part relating connection to the volunteer relief effort in Mississippi after Katrina and later work with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Program and the Presbyterian Church(USA) is solely through my participation in them; this blog does not carry any sponsorship from these fine organizations or purport to speak for them. All original content is that of the writer who holds the copyright to all original writings and art or other works (See Creative Commons License above). Every effort is made to identify content from other sources which have been obtained from open internet sources. It's more recent content contains sermons and lessons used in preaching and teaching. The url to scripture are obtained via http://bible.oremus.org unless otherwise indicated.

Texts quoted from oremus bible viewer are from "New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved." and "New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved."