Sunday, July 27, 2025
Proverbs 24:4
When I read Proverbs 24 in the ESV months ago, I noticed a small feature in verse 4: "by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches." The words precious and pleasant alliterate, and they have the same number of syllables (with the emphasis falling on the same syllable in each). To some degree, the euphony of these features matches the meaning.
Sunday, July 20, 2025
Matthew 13:16
Months ago, the Daily Dose of Greek went over Matthew 13:16:
Ὑμῶν δὲ μακάριοι οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ ὅτι βλέπουσιν καὶ τὰ ὦτα ὑμῶν ὅτι ἀκούουσιν.
In the ESV, this is:
"But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear."
I've been following along in my French New Testament and noticed a feature specific to that translation:
Mais heureux sont vos yeux, parce qu'ils voient, et vos oreilles, parce qu'elles entendent!
"Heureux" ("blessed") and "yeux" ("eyes") rhyme, and this resemblance highlights the relationship between the two words: that they're being equated in this copulative sentence and therefore, as subject and predicate nominatives, are in the same case.
Sunday, July 13, 2025
Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34
The divine vocatives in Daniel 9:19 that I wrote about last week got me thinking about Matthew 27:46:
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Mark 15:34 is a parallel verse:
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
I think it may be significant that "My God" is repeated here. Of course, this is a quotation of Psalm 22:1, where אֵלִי appears twice, but in this context, where Jesus is experiencing a separation from God as part of the punishment for sin, it's almost as if each "My God" is directed to an-other Person in the Trinity: one to God the Father and one to the Holy Spirit. The verbs here are singular, though.
Sunday, July 6, 2025
Daniel 9:19
A few months ago, I watched the Daily Dose of Hebrew video on Daniel 9:19:
אֲדֹנָי ׀ שְׁמָעָה אֲדֹנָי ׀ סְלָחָה אֲדֹנָי הַֽקֲשִׁיבָה וַעֲשֵׂה אַל־תְּאַחַר לְמַֽעֲנְךָ אֱלֹהַי כִּֽי־שִׁמְךָ נִקְרָא עַל־עִירְךָ וְעַל־עַמֶּֽךָ׃
In the ESV, this is:
"O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name."
There are three vocatives referring to God in roughly the first half of the verse ("'O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act.'"), and these are paralleled with a single vocative in the second half ("'Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.'"). To some degree, the placement of these vocatives indicates the Trinity: three Persons but one God.
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