Merry Christmas....

Well, I thought I'd wish everyone who stops by here a Merry Christmas! I intend to enjoy the holidays with a little rum (yes, seminarians do enjoy an alcoholic beverage from time to time--in fact, my professors have some sort of monthly get together at the Grand Rapids Brewery!) and the entire collection of Fry and Laurie's brilliant "Jeeves and Wooster." If you've never seen the show before, I highly recommend it. Hugh Laurie (as most of you probably know) is the illustrious "House" from the television show of the same name. Stephen Fry, I am not as familiar with, but I do recall him playing the late night host in "V for Vendetta" (another great movie!). Bost actors are superb and the show will have you in stiches.

I am also looking forward to seeing mountains again. It's been over a year since I was last in Montana and Wyoming, and the flatlands (yes, Michigan is flat!) get to me after a while.

So until next year :)

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A quote from Bernard of Clairvaux...

While reading through a portion of Calvin's Institutes today, I came across this wonderful quote from St. Bernard of Clairvaux:

"The name of Jesus is not only light but also food; it is also oil, without which all food of the soul is dry; it is salt, without whose seasoning whatever is set before us is insipid; finally, it is honey in the mouth, melody in the ear, rejoicing in the heart, and at the same time medicine. Every discourse in which his name is not spoken is without savor." (Institutes, Bk. II, ch. XVI, section 1)

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Something useful from my Akkadian studies :)

This quarter I'm taking Akkadian (Old Babylonian), and it is interesting to see what some of the words we take for granted in the Old Testament actually mean. Take for example, the name of the city Haran where Abraham stays for a while after leaving Ur. Haran comes from the Akkadian word "harranum" (pronounced "char-ra-num"--German "ch") which means road, path, way, journey, etc. (it can also have a military connotation, as in "campaign"). So it is likely that Haran was sort of a waystation-like city.

Another Akkadian word of interest is "shadum," which means "mountain." More than likely this is where we get the Hebrew name for God: El-Shaddai, "God of the mountains."

Finally, studying Akkadian reminded me why we shouldn't name anyone "Caleb." In both Hebrew (keleb) and Akkadian (kalbum), the word literally means "dog." One wonders whether the Caleb of the Old Testament was really named "Keleb" or whether it was a nickname which stuck because of his non-Israelite background (Josh. 14:6: Caleb is said to be a Kenizzite. Gen. 15:19 notes that this was a Canaanite tribe. Most likely Caleb's father was a Kenizzite who married a woman from the tribe of Judah, thus Num. 13:4--see Davis Dictionary of the Bible, 452).

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St. Nicholas Orthodox Church...

Well, my wife and I were invited to an ordination service this morning at St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Church. This was my first experience at an actual Orthodox service, and I must say that I was impressed. The architecture was astounding, the icons were beautiful, and the entire service was very reverent. It was so nice for a change to not have cheesy attempts at "relevancy." The church was unashamed of the way they did things and made no apologies for who they were.

I also have to say that the sermon I heard from the visiting Bishop was probably the best sermon I've heard since I've been in Grand Rapids. He preached from the gospel reading and actually walked us through the text without gimmicks. He even ended with a call for more Bible reading (now how as a good Protestant can I argue with that?).

Naturally, there were a few things that I was not wild about, but overall the experience was a blessing. I may have to go back sometime.

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