Tag Archive for 'bible'
I got the following video from Fr Frank Logue. I don’t know any more about the delightful story-teller, but enjoy…
A couple of days ago I asked the question in relation to Sunday’s readings: Does the gospel really imply that nagging God works?
I just want to briefly spend time with part of the readings, Luke 11:5-8. I translate this, pretty literally, but trying to keep some English sense:
5 And he said to them, “Who among you (Τίς ἐξ ὑμῶν) will have a friend, and come to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves (of bread)
6 because a friend of mine has arrived from a journey to me, and I do not have anything that I will set before him.’
7 And that one within, having answered, may say, ‘Do not cause me troubles; already the door has been shut and my children are with me in the bed; I am not able to get up and give you (anything).’
8 I say to you, even if he will not give to him, having arisen, because he is a friend of him, yet because of the shamelessness of him (ἀναίδειαν αὐτοῦ), having arisen, he will give to him as much as he needs.
Τίς ἐξ ὑμῶν is used to mean, “imagine the unthinkable” (cf Luke 12:25; 14:5, 28; 15:4; 17:7). Then the story is set in a Middle Eastern/Mediterranean village, an unexpected person arrives, and the mores of hospitality means that this person will be provided with good food, the best, and more than the person would require. I have experienced this personally.
The story presumes the host either does not have good enough, or quantity enough, or both. The person turns to a friend. Key words in what follows are “ἀναίδειαν αὐτοῦ”.
ἀναίδειαν means “shamelessness” or “impudence” in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, all classical references, and all usages in the early church. A “negative” word. But it has often been translated, incorrectly (IMO), as “persistence”. There is, you will have noticed, no actual persistence in the parable, the friend outside only asks once. Shame is a central motivator in this culture.
αὐτοῦ (of him). It is not clear to whom this refers. (a) Is the shamelessness a reference to the friend indoors? A positive use of “shamelessness” where the one indoors is avoiding dishonour. (b) Is the shamelessness referring to the friend outdoors asking? In the usual negative sense.
First century peasants lived precariously, hand to mouth. Here we have a story where the village looks to be in a hazardous economic situation that the original hearers would immediately identify. The person has gone beyond asking kin for help, to friends. And hospitality is foolishly extravagant, resulting in great vulnerability. This is the kind of generous hospitality acted out in the meals of Jesus, and ultimately in his death (also recalled/relived in a meal).
This parable of three friends reads a bit clumsily, even in the Greek – friendship in that context and in ours is possibly a wonderful image to explore in our relationship with God as a metaphor alongside father in this gospel reading.
This site offers a good variety of tools to access the original texts even for those with limited to no original language skills.
Image: JESUS MAFA. The Insistent Friend, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48293
In 2008 the Roman Catholic Church had a Synod of Bishops on the Bible. Earlier this year a book, “The Word of God” was published as one of the results of this synod. It includes advice on homilies (sermons) by Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, secretary-general of the Synod of Bishops.
“Homilies should be no longer than eight minutes, a listener’s average attention span”, Nikola Eterovic said.
“Priests and deacons should also avoid reading straight from a text and instead work from notes so that they can have eye contact with the people in the pews.”
In his book, Nikola Eterovic wrote that it’s not unusual for preachers to recognise that they have less-than-perfect communications skills or that they struggle with preparing homilies. “Everyone should spend an appropriate amount of time to craft a well-prepared and relevant sermon for Mass”.
While he explained that Pope Benedict XVI starts working on his Sunday homilies on the preceding Monday so that there is plenty of time to reflect on the Scripture readings from which the homily will draw, I wondered how his advice about reading from a text related here. Does the pope avoid reading straight from a text and instead work from notes so that he can have eye contact with the people? Also, I am not convinced that a week is actually sufficient time. I think planning needs to be over a far longer period of time so that the scriptures and sermons from one week to the next are not disconnected or repetitive.
The lectionary encourages an ongoing series of sermons. If connections are to be made with the prayers being prepared by someone else, with music, with choir, hymns, and even the look of the worship environment, far more than the pope’s practice of six days, IMO, will be required. There needs also to be an overview of what is being covered in sermons. Over the longer term, what messages, applicable in ordinary daily life, are being given to a regular worshipper in your community? Over an extensive period, what messages are not being talked about? Thought about?
Two hints: in my sermons I normally try to include something to think about, something that touches the heart, something to do.
If you use a full text, I once read the helpful suggestion that in rehearsing it you read the last paragraph, then the last two paragraphs, then the last three, until you reach the start of your sermon – that way as you get further into actually preaching it you reach increasingly well-rehearsed material.
What ideas and practices can you suggest for others in the comments here?
How much scripture was read in your church community last Sunday?
If you go to a synagogue, for thousands of years they have systematically read through the scriptures. Some part of the readings may form the basis of a sermon, but the readings do not have a narrow “theme” – those listening can allow God, through the scriptures, to address them individually in their own particular context and situation – which may be very different from that of their neighbour.
A significant Reformation principle was that each person had the right and obligation to listen to God through the scriptures without the need of an intermediary. That same insight has been picked up in the Roman Catholic Church through the Second Vatican Council.
How much scripture was read in your church community last Sunday? Recently I reminded readers here of the early church practice to “read from the scriptures and from the writings of the apostles for as long as possible.”
Nowadays, many Christian communities, who claim to stand in the Reformation tradition of a personal relationship with God through individuals being encouraged to have an “unfiltered” access to the scriptures actually in their services only use the scriptures as chosen by the preacher. The preacher chooses what is read. And only what is preached about is read. This encourages a culture, not of individual access to the scriptures, but the scriptures are to be mediated by another, by a preacher, or authorised teacher. The scriptures are reduced to illustration points for the sermon – and often they are verses chosen jumping around the Bible, rather than reading through the scriptures as written – in context, as part of a larger work.
Those who follow the lectionary, last Sunday read 2 Kings 5:1-14 or Isaiah 66:10-14; then Psalm 30 or Psalm 66; Galatians 6:1-16; and Luke 10:1-20. About 70 verses of scripture – give or take a few possible variants. Done well, that could be a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes of listening to the scriptures as individuals in community. Yes – with some effort you could make the Isaiah text connect to the Gospel text, but generally these are different texts read for their own sake. If God does not connect with you in your particular situation in one of these, there is the hope that God will make that connection in another. If God does not connect with your community in your particular situation in one of these, there is the hope that God will make that connection in another.
How does this compare to your experience last Sunday?
From the Documents of the Second Vatican Council:
“All Scripture (both Old and New Testament) is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproving, for correcting, for instruction in justice that the man of God may be perfect, equipped for every good work.”
Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Section 11 (2 Tim. 3: 16 & 17)“The Church has always venerated the divine Scriptures just as she venerates the body of the Lord, since, especially in the sacred liturgy, she unceasingly receives and offers to the faithful the bread of life from the table both of God’s word and of Christ’s body. …For in the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven meets His children with great love and speaks with them; and the force and power in the word of God is so great that it stands as the support and energy of the Church, the strength of faith for her sons, the food of the soul, the pure and everlasting source of spiritual life. Consequently these words are perfectly applicable to Sacred Scripture: “For the word of God is living and active” (Heb. 4:12) and “it has power to build you up and give you your heritage among all those who are sanctified” (Acts 20:32; see 1 Thess. 2:13). Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Section 21
“This sacred Synod earnestly and specifically urges all the Christian faithful… to learn by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures the excelling knowledge of Jesus Christ. For ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ…And let them remember that prayer should accompany the reading of sacred Scripture, so that God and man may talk together.”
Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Section 25
Bosco & Katharine Jefferts Schori
I was able to be present when Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori was welcomed at a Powhiri at Te Hui Amorangi O Te Waipounamu hosted by Bishop John Gray. This was followed by a wonderful meal. [photo: Alistair Kinniburgh]
Presiding Bishop Katharine went on to the historic St Michael and All Angels (the pro-cathedral before the cathedral was built) and preached there for Evensong. She wore her mitre. The New Zealand Film Commission has bought the rites rights to the movie Mitregate 3D. Peter Jackson is rumoured to be interested in directing. Weta Workshop will provide the mitres and other required liturgical millinarian accoutrements. Naomi Watts has already indicated she is interested in playing Presiding Bishop Katharine. Richard Harris, will, of course, play the Archbishop of Canterbury, but if he is not available Peter Jackson may bring back King Kong himself to once again act opposite Naomi Watts.
Mitregate was first prophesied by Bishop David Anderson. In his weekly message to Anglican Mainstream, on June 11, he devoted more than two thirds of his text to clergy vesture and other accoutrements (he will be sought out as an adviser for Weta Workshop to make sure all is kosher orthodox). One third of his message was expressing concern that his regular supplier for over 40 years of the Pontiff (sic!) 3 Acetate collar “has either gone out of business or stopped making them”. He will let avid followers of Anglican Mainstream know if he finds an alternative supplier. More than a third of his message is concerned that Presiding Bishop Katharine should not wear a mitre when in England. A week later Bishop David is horrified that Presiding Bishop Katharine didn’t go out and purchase a new black shirt, “If you look closely, you also see a red-purple bishop’s shirt under the overvestment (sic.).”
Above: Presiding Bishop Katharine at Salisbury (England) pre-mitregate
Above: Presiding Bishop Katharine in Southwark cathedral June 13 complying with the Archbishop of Canterbury’s requirement to not wear a mitre. “It is bizarre; it is beyond bizarre.”
Apparently under the Overseas Clergy Act (remember that the Church of England is a State Church, the Archbishop of Canterbury is a state appointment), Presiding Bishop Katharine was allowed to function as a priest but not as a bishop. This, while there is no Anglican certainty that a bishop is still a priest (until further discussion I continue to hold that a bishop is not a priest, a priest is not a deacon, etc).
St Paul also wrote about this controversy relatively recently, and the departure of the Archbishop of Canterbury from Bible-believing Christianity: “Any woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered disgraces her head – it is one and the same thing as having her head shaved. For if a woman will not cover her head, then she should cut off her hair; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or to be shaved, she should cover her head. For this reason a woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.” (1 Cor 11)
Bishops Katharine Jefferts Schori & John Gray
Above: At St Michael and All Angels “For this reason a woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.” (1 Cor 11:10) [photo: Alistair Kinniburgh]
Mitregate – the official trailer of the movie!
Anglican cap tip to Significant truths
Powhiri – a welcome ceremony
Te Waipounamu – South Island of New Zealand
More on the welcome at Te Waipounamu
The sermon preached at St Michael and all Angels
More millinarianism
Daughter of Mitregate – the sequel
Bishops Mary Grey-Reeves, Michael Perham, & Gerard Mpango
Above: following Mitregate, on June 20, Bishop Mary Grey-Reeves, Bishop of El Camino Real, presided at the eucharist (head covered) in Gloucester Cathedral. The Bishop of Gloucester, Michael Perham, is a noted liturgical scholar. Bishop Mary Grey-Reeves is being approached to see if she will play herself in the sequel. The Wachowskis are interested in doing the sequel if it can be filmed in Sydney and include a car chase and a bullet time sequence of Bishop Mary Grey-Reeves putting her mitre on. Archbishop Peter Jensen is being approached to play Bishop Michael Perham. He may be predestined for this part.
UPDATE (June 29): A significant Naomi Watts site has taken up the story.
The church, Christians, well people generally really, have a habit of MAJORING on minors. Making mountains out of molehills, and molehills out of mountains. Carefully straining a tiny gnat out of your coffee and not taking much notice when a camel falls into your drink (Mt 23:24). Six disputed Bible verses that apply to a small minority of “them” can keep people happily arguing for years. But the plain teaching of scripture that applies pretty much to all of us can be easily and comfortably ignored. “It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.” Mark Twain
When did you last hear a sermon about usury? When was it last discussed in your Christian group, church council, synod,…? When did you last find a debate on this in your Christian media?
Usury is the charging of interest on a loan.
The Bible is consistently pretty clear:
Ex 22:25 If you lend money to my people, to the poor among you, you shall not deal with them as a creditor; you shall not exact interest from them.
Lev 25:35-37 If any of your kin fall into difficulty and become dependent on you, you shall support them; they shall live with you as though resident aliens.
Do not take interest in advance or otherwise make a profit from them, but fear your God; let them live with you.
You shall not lend them your money at interest taken in advance, or provide them food at a profit.
Deut 23:20 On loans to a foreigner you may charge interest, but on loans to another Israelite (literally brother, kinsman, one in a reciprocal relationship) you may not charge interest, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all your undertakings in the land that you are about to enter and possess.
Usury was consistently and unanimously condemned by popes, by three ecumenical councils, by bishops, and by theologians.
Fast forward to 2010. The total credit-card debt in USA is $840,000,000,000 Total consumer debt is $4,200,000,000,000
In New Zealand, credit card interest is often 19 per cent. Making minimum payments it takes 13 years to pay off a purchase and the accumulated interest! New Zealand’s population of 4 million has a credit-card balance of more than $3,500,000,000
A lot of the current financial problems, for example in the housing sector, are due to the actual value of the house being below the amount that has been borrowed to purchase that house. I have been told that people are being very, very quiet about the fact that this problem is even much bigger in the commercial property sector (I think his figure was 85% of US commercial properties being less in actual value than the money borrowed to own them).
All this is connected to our practice of usury. Islam continues the biblical tradition against usury. One can share in the gains if you lend money, but you must also be prepared to share in the borrower’s losses.
In brief: interesting how we so easily ignore clear biblical teaching when it is inconvenient to our own needs/perceptions/culture. When was the last time you heard a sermon explaining why usury is fine? And how easily we use the Bible to bash others we disagree with.
It is always fascinating to pore over church service advertisements. Especially the way a community perceives itself, what it thinks it is important, and how it expresses itself to visitors and seekers:
- a devotional service
- Family service
- Festival Eucharist with Easter Hymns
- Traditional Holy Communion (BCP) with hymns
- Informal lively service with communion
But the prize in Holy week’s advertising goes to:
“Sung Festival Eucharist with incense”
I am not sure if the phrase, “with incense” is there as a warning or as an invitation! Possibly a warning as recently the Chichester District Council sent an Environmental Health Team to St Paul’s, Chichester, after a complaint that incense fumes made a parishioner unwell. The Rector, the Revd Richard Hunt, said that he would put up a notice about the use of incense.
A council spokeswoman said: “The investigation carried out by our team concluded that there is insufficient evidence to show that the occasional burning of incense, within St Paul’s Church, represents any significant hazard to health.” The church was large and airy; so the smoke would be “significantly dispersed”, it was well ventilated, and the blown-air heating system would “dilute” any smoke.
An interesting doctoral thesis (please credit me): correlating incense health issues and theological/liturgical perspectives. Remembering incense has been shown to cause antidepressive behaviour in mice. It also activates the poorly understood ion channels in the brain alleviating anxiety and depression.
When asked: what is incense for? The answer is: for the nose.
Remember in the afterlife the Bible speaks of there being two alternative smells: one is incense, the other… which do you prefer getting used to?
Tomorrow is Earth Hour.
The four marks of the church’s mission were formulated and presented as part of the report of a meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council which took place in Nigeria in 1984.
Two meetings later, in Wales in 1990, they wrote in a report called Mission, Culture and Human Development “There has been a consistent view of mission … in recent years, which defines mission in a four-fold way . . . We now feel that our understanding of the ecological crisis, and indeed of the threats to the unity of all creation, mean that we have to add a fifth affirmation: to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth.”
Lent is about being honest with ourselves. And Lent is about saying sorry – and doing something about it. It took Christians until 1990 to articulate responsibility for nature, for the environment, for the life of this planet. Why did it take so long? Why in 1984, when the church was working out its mission statement did it just stop at four? Why did it take six more years and two more meetings before the church realized we are responsible to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth?
Part of it comes from a mentality that believes Jesus is coming again soon. If Jesus is coming again soon, then we don’t need to worry about the environment – in fact, we can help history along and encourage Jesus to return soon by just getting those wars going that we think the Bible is talking about.
And there’s a second, maybe even deeper problem. We see it in Psalm 8:
You, God, have made us human beings a little lower than God, and crowned us with glory and honor.
You, O God, have given us dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under our feet,
all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
We read this idea in Genesis 1:26
26 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”
27 So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”
The idea that has been drawn from Genesis 1 and from Psalm 8 is that the rest of creation was made for us humans. We are the top of the pile and it’s all specifically made by God for us. And we can do with creation absolutely whatever we like. God gives it to us so that we have dominion over it and subdue it. God puts it under our feet.
Recently we’ve been growing to realise that we humans may be sitting on the top of the pile but if we destroy what we are sitting on – then… there’s actually nothing else to sit on. We are totally dependent on the creation Genesis 1 and Psalm 8 appear to be giving to us to have dominion over and to subdue. We have begun to realise that we are fouling, we are soiling, we are messing up our own nests.
Before moving on, let us acknowledge that Christians have been terrible at caring for creation and that we need to seek forgiveness for that and repent of our attitude and to start implementing the fifth mark of mission: to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth.
We are becoming more careful in reading the Bible. The post-modern world in which we live takes much greater care about context including the context of the person who wrote this text. Post-modernism pays more attention to power – we ask the question: who is benefiting from this? Who is losing through this? Post-modernism also says: where you stand determines what you see – step out of your own way of reading the text, try and read it from a different perspective, if you’ve been reading the text to bolster your position, what might be another reading that challenges your position?
“Dominion,” is a translation from the Hebrew verb radah. This grants humans the right and responsibility to rule, to govern the rest of creation. That is the way radah is used in the Bible. Kavash “subdue” is even stronger than radah. There is no question that subdue and have dominion is what is meant.
Now look at the context. In Genesis 1, God brings all life into existence, declares it is all good, and puts it in a harmonious ecosystem. Humans are God’s representatives, made in God’s image, and are called to act the same way. [I don’t know if you noticed in the next couple of verses in Genesis humans are not given the right to kill and eat animals!]
In Genesis 1 we humans are God’s deputy, God’s stewards.
Read further into the Bible and one finds that the dominion that God seeks is regularly one that protects the defenseless and gives justice to the oppressed. Dominion over creation implies the vocation to protect it.
Now think of the context of the writer and early readers: they live in a land where most are subsistence farmers, eking out a living on land with rocky soil, and often little rainfall. They are subduing an often seemingly hostile environment. If you are examining power relationships, it is nature that they experienced as having power. That power-dynamic has been very much reversed. We have technology and nuclear capability that completely turns the power dynamics upside down. Take care then when we read “subdue it; and have dominion over it” – that means something quite different in our technological, post-industrial context than in an iron age context.
Don’t stop at reading in Genesis 1, however. Remember Genesis 2 isn’t simply a continuation of the Genesis 1 story. Genesis 2 is a quite different creation story. In Genesis 2 humans aren’t made in God’s image, aren’t made to subdue and have dominion. In Genesis 2 humans are made like the plants and animals, humans, plants, and animals are all made out of adamah – the arable topsoil of the hillcountry. And when Genesis 2 says the human is to avad it that is translated as “till it” – but better translate it as “serve” it.
Thankfully Christians are becoming more aware of our responsibility to be God’s deputy, God’s steward, and to serve creation. In the last 25 years Christians have started praying:
Awaken in us a sense of wonder for the earth and all that is in it.
Teach us to care creatively for its resources (NZPB p413)
We remember with gratititude your many gifts to us in creation and the rich heritage of these islands.
Help us and people everywhere to share with justice and peace the resources of the earth. (NZPB p416)
We thank you for your gifts in creation – for our world, the heavens tell of your glory; for our land, its beauty and its resources, for the rich heritage we enjoy. We pray for those who make decisions about the resources of the earth, that we may use your gifts responsibly; for those who work on the land and sea, in city and in industry, that all may enjoy the fruits of their labours and marvel at your creation; for artists, scientists and visionaries, that through their work we may see creation afresh. (NZPB p463)
[Such prayers are absent from New Zealand's 1966 and 1970 revisions, and only begin to appear in the 1984 revision. Even the 1989 Prayer Book Eucharistic Liturgy Thanksgiving for Creation and Redemption was not built on that perspective "from the ground up", but had creation words patched onto previous revisions]
Christians conscious of our responsibility to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth may wish to explore A Rocha: “A Rocha is a Christian nature conservation organisation, our name coming from the Portuguese for “the Rock,” as the first initiative was a field study centre in Portugal. A Rocha projects are frequently cross-cultural in character, and share a community emphasis, with a focus on science and research, practical conservation and environmental education.”
The HarperCollins Study Bible: Fully Revised & Updated
The original which this revises came out in 1997. New archaeological discoveries are incorporated into this revision.
The editors are Harold W. Attridge (General Editor, Revised); Wayne A. Meeks (General Editor, Original). The contributors tend to be associated with universities, seminaries, and theological colleges of the the “mainline” or Roman Catholic traditions. The often-extensive notes tend to be in the historical-critical approach, sensitive to both the person of faith and to those people who may be interested in the Bible primarily as literature. Often a new scholar has revised material from the earlier edition – the back cover says there is “over 25 percent new or revised material”.
For people who like to write in the margins – they are narrow.
If you collect study bibles, you will probably have this one on your shelf. If you are looking for a single, scholarly, reliable study bible – this one may be the one for you.
Bible Alone
It continues to intrigue me that those who hold to a Bible-Alone, sola scriptura position regularly continue to clamour in favour of the proposed Anglican Covenant. This more protestant, “reformed” end of the Anglican spectrum on the one hand claims the Bible Alone is totally sufficient for all our Christian needs, that the Bible is totally self-explanatory, and that the Bible does not need to be supplemented by any other documents. Yet on the other hand: these same people feel that Anglicanism cannot survive without the Anglican Covenant. Ie. the Bible alone is not sufficient. Make up your mind people: is the Bible alone sufficient or isn’t it?!
Completing the Reformation
Some pro-Anglican-Covenant people speak about the need to “complete the Reformation”. Certainly, many at the Reformation created confessional denominations increasingly dividing over disagreements over interpretations of their lists of beliefs. The Anglican Covenant will either include everyone currently Anglican (and so will alter nothing, have only delayed discussion about the real issue, and wasted jet-engine fuel). Or it will complete the Reformation’s tendency towards ever-increasing fragmentation by splintering the frail bonds that bind Anglicans together.
The Anglican Communion and the strength of weak ties
Without using theological-babble (or “Rowanspeak”) it is very hard to ascertain what those who are pro-the Covenant concretely want and expect from a “Communion”. Certainly we would hope a communicant anywhere is a communicant everywhere in the Communion. Even that principle has been stretched to breaking with some provinces communicating all the baptised, some needing a rite of “admission to communion” at an age of “understanding”, and some needing episcopal confirmation before receiving communion. I am sure that toddlers from the first option may have difficulty receiving communion in provinces with the last option. Another principle is the mutual recognition of ordination, so that clergy in one province can function as clergy in another province. That principle has long been broken with women clergy, and male clergy ordained by women bishops, from one province unable to function as clergy in other provinces. Attitudes to divorce and remarriage vary from province to province, affecting communicant status and acceptability of remarried clergy. All this will not change one iota should the Anglican Covenant be accepted.
Sociologist Mark Granovetter, in the highly influential 1973 paper on social networking “The Strength of Weak Ties”, argues our close friends will be quite similar to us. Acquaintances differ more from us and will have their own networks of close friends. We have strong ties to our friends, and weak ties to acquaintances. Granovetter argues persuasively for the value of having both strong and weak ties – they have different functions, enhancing both our flourishing and theirs.
Strong ties (friends) are like an Anglican province. Weak ties (acquaintances) are like our inter-provincial ties across the Anglican Communion. Many who are pro-Covenant appear unable to articulate a difference between a diocese, a province, and a communion – these appear to be seeking that the communion function essentially in the way that most of us understand a diocese to function (or possibly a province).
A previous post: the Anglican Covenant will not do what it is meant to do
A helpful site for deeper reflection is the World Anglicanism Forum run by Bruce Kaye, an Anglican theologian, Foundation editor of the Journal of Anglican Studies. Currently a Visiting Research Fellow in History at the University of New South Wales and a Professorial Associate in Theology at Charles Sturt University.
I intend to post reviews, from time to time, of different study bibles. Prior to commencing that series, I think it helpful if I write a little on the translation I would recommend if you do not read Hebrew and Greek. I recommend the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), with the extra comment that, those not agile in the original biblical languages need to keep one eye on the footnotes provided.
History
William Tyndale’s New Testament translation of 1525 and the King James Bible set a standard of biblical English leading to a “Revised Version” in the late nineteenth century. This led to the “American Standard Version (ASV – 1901)” of which the “Revised Standard Version (RSV)” was the authorised revision. This last work was completely revised by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches as well as Jewish representation to form the NRSV (1989).
The NRSV was able to take advantage of scholarly developments since the RSV including the availablility of the Dead Sea Scrolls and other manuscript discoveries.
Translation principles
Linguistically the NRSV stands intentionally in the Tyndale-King James tradition. The Hebrew text is primarily the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia with reference to the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint. The Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical texts are from the Septuagint with reference to the Vulgate. The New Testament is a translation of the Novum Testamentum Graece 27th edition. The principle of translation is formal equivalence (as much as possible “word for word” rather than dynamic equivalence – “idea for idea”). Where the original clearly is intended to refer to both genders the translation has attempted to do this as smoothly as possible, clearly noting this in the footnotes. God retains the masculine pronoun. No attempt is made to alter masculine concepts of God such as “Lord” etc. In fact the Divine Tetragrammaton is translated as “LORD”. The archaic second person familiar forms (”thee”, “thou”), often confused as actually being polite forms, have been standardised to “you”, “your” etc. Many translations betray their theological presuppositions in soteriology (theories of salvation) or in hiding apparent biblical inconsistencies. NRSV can be trusted not to do that.
There is an edition following the Protestant canon, another including the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books; there is a Catholic Edition containing the First Testament books in the order of the Vulgate, and an anglicized edition which alters the text slightly to fit to British spelling and grammar. Other translations have been assiduous in marketing their product with a large variety of different presentations (teenage bibles, women’s bibles, men’s bibles, 12 step bibles, etc). NRSV has been notably weak in the variety of options available. Thankfully that is slowly improving.
The Episcopal Church and many Anglican provinces have approved the NRSV for worship. Common Worship (CofE) uses it as a standard. It is approved for Roman Catholic use and is the primary translation used in Catechism of the Catholic Church (the other being the RSV).
Conclusion
If you are looking for one translation and you are not confident in the biblical languages, the New Revised Standard Version is the one I would recommend.
Resources
Please remember this site has a collection of the best free, online resources to enhance your study of the scriptures. Beyond this website there is also:
The NRSV online (an alternative site)
For all I know some readers of this post may wonder where I have been living all this time, or maybe that I move in far too small circles! Recently I was reading some comments of a woman who was taking for granted that all her readers knew what the “SOAP” Bible-reading method was. Well I had never heard of it. So I got in touch with her and she explained it stands for:
Scripture – pick your passage, follow a system, use a lectionary
Observation – what particularly touched you in the scripture passage?
Application – how can you apply your observation to your life?
Prayer
Recommendations are that all this be written in a journal – starting each section S, O, A, P
In my correspondence with her I mentioned how it has similarities to the great tradition of Lectio Divina, “Spiritual Reading”. She had never heard of that 
Lectio Divina has four movements
Lectio – read the passage
Meditatio – reflect on the passage
Oratio – respond in prayer
Contemplatio – rest in God
Previously I have written some more on Lectio Divina
There is also a good introduction to Lectio Divina here.
One comment I found suggested that the SOAP method started here.
A website for storing your SOAP is here.
A couple of final points: SOAP and Lectio Divina do not replace serious academic study of the scriptures – it prayerfully complements study. IMO the Christian spiritual life flourishes when there is a regular balance and variety of prayer styles: Eucharist, lectio divina, intercession, Daily Office, silent prayer,… There is a danger when only one or few from this list are present to nourish our spiritual life.
Comments below, as well as responding to this post, might include other ideas, websites, and resources.
I previewed the Mosaic Bible a little over a month ago. In the mean time I received the copy I ordered. There is actually very little that I need to add to my preview. It is magnificently produced, the images are stunning, the choice of material very wide (it is quite fun to see my own name there several times!) I was looking forward to seeing what the Hebrew and Greek word studies are like. In fact there are less than six pages on Hebrew words and similarly for Greek. The original script is not used – solely transliteration. I disagree with some analysis, eg. it states that ekklesia does not mean “called out of” (p.1198). Kudos to them for acknowledging hilasterion can mean expiation and translating appropriately.
Do not overstress the connection of this Bible to the lectionary. This works wellish in the main seasons (Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter) but in Ordinary Time don’t expect to find much if any connection – even the system of counting is eccentric. In summary my position hasn’t changed much from my preview. If you are seeking one Bible and one Bible translation this is not the one I recommend (that will be subject of another post). If you use several Bibles and several translations – certainly seriously consider adding this to your shelf. I am happy I spent the money to get this.
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