James's Weblog

I’m doing some work on Jonah 1 at the moment (again!), and it seems that we have another fine example of responsibility being passed between groups of people and representative individuals.

One hit on the website Edible Words came from a search on live.com.

The visitor was looking for answers to the question Was John Calvin a Mason.

They ended up reading Matthew Mason‘s fine article on John Calvin‘s theology of the Lord’s Supper.

Honestly – who needs fiction?

Jesus said: “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.”

I noticed the other day that Luke uses a different word for “children” here than either Matthew or Mark. Luke uses bre,foj==. Both Matthew and Mark use paidi,on==. (Again, you’d have to have the BW font to see that correctly – the words are brefos and paidion, for those without the fonts.)

Just a quick post to state the obvious – I’ve given my blog an overhaul.

Technical details to follow later, but for now please leave me a comment to let me know what you think – especially if you have any problems.

I while ago, I had to turn off anonymous comments, due to the volumes of spam. Now I’ve found a way to implement a CAPTCHA, I’m keen to see if I can have anonymous comments on again.

Bye for now – more later!

I little while ago, I posted about different Bible translations. My post on this blog was simply a copy of a comment a posted on a friend’s blog, in response to his request for advice on which English translation to use for serious study.

I had two follow-ups to that post.

On Sunday, I used an illustration from Harry Potter in a sermon. Nobody challenged me over it afterwards. But they could have done because HP arouses strong feelings in some Christians.

The frequently asked question is: How bad is Harry Potter for us?

Some of you will know that I greatly enjoy the novels of John le Carré. I’d highly recommend them, probably recommending that you start with Smiley (The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, then Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, then Smiley’s People).

Microsoft Word has, for as long as I remember, had a feature whereby spelling can be checked. A red squiggly line underneath the text indicates spelling errors.

Then they added the option

So thank God that he understands and controls the movement of every molecule of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide and water vapour.

I love the humility from Darren Bett when he says

I really like Joel Green’s commentary on Luke, not least because it makes me think.