Proverbs 1:8-9

Sharper Iron on KFUO recently started going through Proverbs.  This reminded me that back in March, when the Daily Dose of Hebrew was going through Proverbs 1, I found a connection between verses 8-9 and Deuteronomy 6.

First, here are the texts.  Proverbs 1:8-9:  "8 Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching, 9 for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck."

Deuteronomy 6:4-9:  "4 'Hear, O Israel:  The LORD our God, the LORD is one.  5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.  6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.  7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.  8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.'"

Dr. Howell - the host of the Daily Dose of Hebrew - notes the similarity between "Hear, my son..." in Proverbs 1:8 and "Hear, O Israel..." in Deuteronomy 6:4, but this similarity can be taken a bit further.  In the same way that the "words that I command you today" will be "a sign on your hand" and "frontlets between your eyes," the "father's instruction" and "mother's teaching" are "a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck."  I don't think there are any similarities in the specific Hebrew words used, but in both passages (Proverbs 1:8-9 and Deuteronomy 6:8), the words of wisdom are worn, almost as adornments.

The study notes in my Bible also point to Proverbs 3:3:  "Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart."  Reading a bit further, I noticed Proverbs 3:21-22:  "My son, do not lose sight of these - keep sound wisdom and discretion, and they will be life for your soul and adornment for your neck."

Psalm 136

On Worship Anew a few weeks ago, the Psalm reading was a section of Psalm 136.  This reminded me of something I'd realized before but hadn't thought to write about.

Every other line of the Psalm is "for his steadfast love endures forever."  Here are the first three verses:  "1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.  2 Give thanks to the God of gods, for his steadfast love endures forever.  3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his steadfast love endures forever."  This refrain even punctuates the accounts of Creation and the Exodus:  "6 to him who spread out the earth above the waters, for his steadfast love endures forever; 7 to him who made the great lights, for his steadfast love endures forever; 8 the sun to rule over the day, for his steadfast love endures forever; 9 the moon and stars to rule over the night, for his steadfast love endures forever... 13 to him who divided the Red Sea in two, for his steadfast love endures forever; 14 and made Israel pass through the midst of it, for his steadfast love endures forever."

This repetition of "his steadfast love endures forever" provides a sense of the surety and constancy of that "steadfast love."

Deuteronomy 8:4

A couple weeks ago, the Daily Dose of Hebrew went over Deuteronomy 8:4:

"Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years."

I thought it interesting that while these verbs are opposites in some ways ("wear out" describes a decrease in material, and "swell" describes in increase in size), because they're both negated, they end up relating the same thing (that God preserved His people during the exodus), just coming from different directions.

John 4:9

About a month ago, the Daily Dose of Greek went over John 4:9:

"The Samaritan woman said to him, 'How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?'  (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)"

I found it interesting that while the meaning is "Jews have no dealings with Samaritans," the words for "Jews" and "Samaritans" are next to each other.

My French New Testament is exactly the opposite in this regard.  Almost as an illustration of this comment, "Jews" and "Samaritans" are as far apart as they can be in the sentence:  "Les Juifs, en effet, n'ont pas de relations avec les Samaritains."

Psalm 91:5-6

I've written about Psalm 91 twice before, but when it was one of the readings on Worship Anew last month, I noticed something else about verses 5-6.  I was following along in my French hymnal, where these verses are:

5 Tu ne craindras ni les terreurs de la nuit,
ni la flèche qui vole au grand jour,
6 ni la peste qui rôde dans le noir,
ni le fléau qui frappe à midi.

The formatting (which I followed) makes it clear that there's anaphora here:  the repeated "ni."  There are four "ni"s, but the corresponding English has a "not" and three "nor"s:

5 You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, 6 nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.

It may just be because of the formatting, but I think the French does a better job of evoking a list of things that we need not fear because we have God's protection.  It's as if each "ni" is a separate bullet point.

Additionally, both grammatical genders (masculine "le" and feminine "la") and singular and plural are represented, which gives a sense of entirety.

Romans 8:38-39

I recently wrote a post about anaphora in LSB #724 "If God Himself Be for Me."  The verses of the hymn in which I noticed anaphora are drawn from Romans 8:38-39, which also exhibits this feature (although here, because they're all conjunctions, it's polysyndeton):  "38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."  As in the hymn, the repetition of "nor" provides a sense of assurance.

Mark 5:25-27

Last month, I watched the Daily Dose of Greek videos that cover Mark 5:25-27.

In the video for verse 25, Dr. Plummer says that this hypotactic style is "unusual for Mark."  Since I don't have much experience in reading the original Greek of the New Testament, I'll have to take his word on that, but in studying these verses, I realized that this hypotactic style has a function here.

The subject γυνὴ in verse 25 doesn't receive a verb (ἥψατο) until verse 27.  In between are various participles.

25 Καὶ γυνὴ οὖσα ἐν ῥύσει αἵματος δώδεκα ἔτη
26 καὶ πολλὰ παθοῦσα ὑπὸ πολλῶν ἰατρῶν καὶ δαπανήσασα τὰ παρ᾽ αὐτῆς πάντα καὶ μηδὲν ὠφεληθεῖσα ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον εἰς τὸ χεῖρον ἐλθοῦσα,
27 ἀκούσασα περὶ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ, ἐλθοῦσα ἐν τῷ ὄχλῳ ὄπισθεν ἥψατο τοῦ ἱματίου αὐτοῦ·

(Here's a link to the interlinear.)

The distance between the subject and the verb provides an illustration of the twelve years during which this woman has been in this condition.  Along with giving detail, it represents duration.  Her touching Jesus' garment simultaneously completes this clause ("the woman... touched") and heals her discharge of blood (as verse 29 describes).  The end of her suffering coincides with this grammatical completion.

Deuteronomy 6:4

In his sermon for Trinity Sunday on Worship Anew last month, Dr. Ahlersmeyer mentions Deuteronomy 6:4:  "'Hear, O Israel:  The LORD our God, the LORD is one.'"  I'd had this verse on my list of things to write about for almost a year (since 18 July), but I waited to write about it until the Daily Dose of Hebrew went over this verse to see if I could gain any additional insight.

What I noticed almost a year ago is that there are three nouns here ("The LORD our God, the LORD") that are linkt by the predicate nominative ("one"), so there's something of a picture of the Trinity:  one God, three persons.

I noticed and wrote about a similar feature in Deuteronomy 4:35 back in February, and as I followed along in the Daily Dose of Hebrew videos, I found the same thing in 4:39 and 5:6.

Matthew 28:20

One of the readings for Trinity Sunday earlier this month was Matthew 28:16-20.  In following along in my French New Testament, I noticed something interesting about the last verse.  In English, it's "'teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.'"  The French is "et enseignez-leur à observer tout ce que je vous ai prescrit.  Et voici, je suis avec vous tous les jours, jusqu'à la fin du monde."  "Tous les jours" stuck out to me.  At first, I thought this was simply a characteristically French expression, but I found the same phrase ("all of the days") when I lookt at the German ("und lehret sie halten alles, was ich euch befohlen habe.  Und siehe, ich bin bei euch alle Tage bis an der Welt Ende.") and the Greek ("διδάσκοντες αὐτοὺς τηρεῖν πάντα ὅσα ἐνετειλάμην ὑμῖν· καὶ ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ μεθ᾽ ὑμῶν εἰμι πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας ἕως τῆς συντελείας τοῦ αἰῶνος.").

I greatly prefer "all of the days" or "every day" over "always."  "Always" is broad and rather general where "all of the days"/"every day" is more specific and focused, which gives a greater sense of assurance.

Psalm 146:7-10

Back in January (while watching Worship Anew from 15 December), I noticed some anaphora at the end of Psalm 146, starting halfway through verse 7:

The LORD sets the prisoners free; 8 the LORD opens the eyes of the blind.  The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down; the LORD loves the righteous.  9 The LORD watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.  10 The LORD will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations.  Praise the LORD!

I didn't write about it then, probably because I didn't have anything else to say about it.

Psalm 146 was also the Psalm in the Worship Anew program for 10 May, and while watching this last month (only one week late this time!), I realize a function of this anaphora.  "The LORD" is repeated, but His actions are different in every clause, which illustrates the variety of His capabilities.  In a word, His omnipotence.

John 3:12

Back in May 2018, one of the readings in the lectionary was from John 3, and I noticed a chiasm in verse 12.  Jesus says to Nicodemus, "'If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?'"

It breaks down like this:

If I have told you earthly things

And you do not believe, 

How can you believe

If I tell you heavenly things?

In my note to myself, I said that I didn't know if this feature was present in the Greek or whether it has any significance.

The Daily Dose of Greek went over this verse last month, and I learned that this chiasm isn't present in the Greek.  It's a feature unique to the English translation.

Mark 4:41

The Daily Dose of Greek "re-runs" of Mark on YouTube stopt after chapter 2, but I've been continuing on my own and digging through the archives.  Last month, I finished chapter 4, and I noticed a small feature in the last verse:

"And they [the disciples] were filled with great fear and said to one another, 'Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?'"

Both that translation (ESV) and Dr. Plummer render "καὶ ὁ ἄνεμος καὶ ἡ θάλασσα" as "even the wind and the sea," but since "καὶ... καὶ..." can function as a correlative, that phrase could also be translated as "both the wind and the sea."  In that reading and because ἄνεμος is masculine and θάλασσα is feminine (as opposed to two words of the same grammatical gender), there's an even greater sense of the range of creation that is obedient to Jesus.

That said, I do think "even the wind and the sea" is a better translation.  Even provides greater emphasis.