Please Pray for the Victims

There was a shooting last night at the local Walmart, and four people were hurt. Luckily Soin hospital is right across the street, so hopefully they have a chance.

The shooter killed himself, so we should pray for his soul.

WHIO’s video coverage has an audio-only interview with a witness, on the news story page from last night. https://www.whio.com/news/local/large-police-presence-called-greene-county-walmart/ZPDB46MBKZGH5PO7Q2EFUEKOXI/

Walmart just had a malicious arson by teenage customers at the same store, a few weeks back, so things are not great for the workers.

Deny And Reverse Victim and Offender

DARVO (Deny, And Reverse Victim and Offender) is the classic narcissist move.

When a narcissist is confronted by a victim reporting the narcissist’s offense to a higher authority, or even just demanding justice from the narcissist, the narcissist will immediately reverse the situation.

“I didn’t make you cry! You made me cry!”

“I didn’t hit you! You hit me!”

So it’s no surprise that the Palestinian Authority is now claiming that Hamas didn’t rape, murder, and kidnap thousands of people, including babies. “No, it was Israel all the time! And it’s Israel committing war crimes on Gaza!”

The Palestinian Authority and Hamas are not sorry for their actions, and now they are using the DARVO strategy. Because they’re war criminals who broke the Geneva Conventions; and therefore, under the Geneva Convention, Israel has the right to treat them like a pariah state and a bunch of war criminals.

UPDATE: I got an Instalanche!

Also, the acronym is supposed to be Deny, Accuse, and Reverse Victim and Offender.

But my point still stands.

Why, Lectionary?

Today we have the first reading at Mass from Proverbs 31. It’s the Valiant Woman chapter.

But they translate “valiant woman” (or “mighty woman” or “enterprising woman”) as “worthy wife.” Um.

And they leave out all the verses about the skill, work, foresight, real estate acquisition, and international trade partnerships of the Valiant Woman. Shortened readings stink.

The second reading is from 1 Thessalonians 5. It talks about destruction coming suddenly , “like labor pains upon a belly/womb.” Which is a nice way for Paul to make the hearers picture themselves having sudden labor pains, right?

Nope, because the translators know better, and they translate “gastri,” belly, as “a pregnant woman.” Which makes “it could happen to you” into “somebody else’s problem.”

Then we have the Gospel from Matthew 25:14, where the lectionary editors add, “Jesus told His followers this parable.” Which isn’t in the Bible there at all. (I think maybe it’s a new wording for “Here comes the reading from X,” like when they used to say, “In those days” before Gospel readings.

And then they leave out the “like”, which is that the coming of the Son of Man is like a man going abroad who called his servants…. Argh.

Why? Why, why, why?

Anyway… In the Gospel, the lord says that what the first two servants did was “Good!” He doesn’t say anything about the last servant’s work, just calling him “O useless and reluctant servant.” (“Ponere doule kai oknere!”)

But the secret lectionary tie-in to the other two readings is that the lord says that if the bad servant had just thrown the silver to the bankers, he could have gotten it back with “interest.”

Which in Greek was “tokos” – that which is borne by a pregnant woman or animal, the offspring.

“Tokos” is also used to translate “debt” in the Septuagint, in 2 Kings 4:7. It is used elsewhere in the LXX in the sense of “usury,” replacing “deceit” or “wickedness.”

So that is one for the lectionary editors, because it is very clever. Kinda ties into the “Be good bankers” saying by Jesus, which is well-attested but not in the Bible.

Hanukkah Is Connected to Christmas

In the Jewish lunar calendar, Chanukah falls on 25 Kislev, every year.

But on the solar calendar, when did they celebrate the first Chanukah in 165 BC, the actual re-dedication of the Temple?

On December 25, according to the Julian Roman solar calendar that was in use during Emperor Augustus’ reign, when Jesus was born.

(Apparently there are various calculations, so some people say it happened in 164 BC; and some people say that it was 165 BC, but that 25 KIslev fell on Dec. 24. It would be nice to clear this up; but

So yes, besides the evidence from the Temple service “portion” that Zechariah was in, and the time of the birth of St. John the Baptist, and the fat-tailed sheep being out in the fields in December, giving birth to lambs….

There’s actually a very good theological reason for the earliest members of the Church to remember that Jesus was born on December 25. Because His Body is the new Temple (“I will tear down this Temple and build it up again in three days”), and thus the “dedication day” of the New Temple was on the solar date of the first Chanukah.

And so, when Jesus went up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Dedication, Chanukah, He was probably also celebrating His lunar birthday! Ha! (John 10:22-39)

And at another time, He told them that He was the Light of the World.

(I don’t know how accurate the online “TorahCalc” is, but it calculates that in 5 BC, 25 Kislev also fell on December 25; and in 7 AD, 25 Kislev fell on December 24. So it’s extremely possible that Jesus’ birthday was always associated with Chanukah primarily, and only secondarily was associated with dates like January 6 being the Theophany/Baptism of the Lord.)

I learned this today from listening to Sam Shamoun’s YouTube channel. This particular show takes a while to get to a lot of interesting stuff (Jesus as WIsdom and the Chanukah date come after a long discussion on Bible translations and the name of YHWH)., but it is really good once you get there.

It also turns out that the Book of Wisdom has tons of Christological material that isn’t usually brought up, including God’s Wisdom being described as “only begotten” (“monogenes”).

I forgot to mention that Shamoun swears and cusses, a lot, so this is not work-safe or kid-safe. He really knows his Biblical and Trinitarian theology stuff, but is groping his way back to liturgical churches after leaving his Assyrian Church of the East roots, becoming a Calvinist, and then coming back. He is a notably good converter of Muslims, so his very different apologetics style does work.

The Prudent Virgins Brought What?

First of all, they’re “prudent ones” (phronimoi), and the foolish virgins are “morai.” Which is right next door to “moron,” in its original meaning as an Athenian citizen with voting powers who doesn’t vote.

And they are indeed virgins — they are “parthenois.”

Second, the prudent virgins don’t so much carry flasks as covered buckets (angeiois). An angeion shows up a lot in the Septuagint, and is used to translate “the thing you sacrifice small animals into,” “the thing you use for carrying holy water before you mix it with dirt from the sanctuary floor”, “the thing you use to carry multiple loaves of bread long distances, or to pack onto a donkey,” and “the thing Joseph’s brothers were using to carry their stuff.”

It’s also used to translate the Proverbs’ marriage advice, turning the advice to “drink out of your own cistern” (instead of messing with other women besides your wife at home) into “drink out of your own bucket.”

And it’s used when Jeremiah is talking about the clay vessel that gets spoiled — that’s also an angeion in the Greek. (Not Paul’s “treasure in earthen vessels”, though. That’s in a bunch of “skeuos”, a bigger kind of earthen vessel that was used to store stuff, and which can be used as a synonym for “goods” or “household tools”. The strong man in Jesus’ saying is plundering a bunch of household skeuos and their implied contents. Outside the Bible, a ship’s gear and tackle are also “skeuos.” The other use is metaphorical, as Greeks liked to refer to the human body as a “skeuos” and so did the NT authors, like Paul.)

The only other time an angeion shows up in the New Testament is when Jesus is telling the parable of the net full of fish, when people were sitting on the shore sorting the fish out, with the bad fish getting thrown away and the good fish going into buckets. (Those bad fish are “sapra,” by the way, which primarily means rotten, and then either worn out, worthless, of bad quality, or not fit to eat. So the throwaway fish are maybe already spiritually dead and stinky. The good fish are the usual word for good, “kala,” which also means beautiful. So they’re probably healthy, shiny fish.) Some manuscripts have “angos” instead, which also means a bucket.

So yeah, the prudent virgins brought along a good amount of olive oil in their little buckets, and probably went to a fair amount of trouble. I guess it would be neat to know if it was actually sloshing around in the bucket, or if the covered bucket were being used like a purse, with the lamps and oil container and wedding accessories all inside.

It would also be nice to know if it were made of pottery, wood, or even leather. (Pontic bagpipes are called angeion because they’re bag-shaped, and you could use a leather bag as a foldable bucket or a totebag. So maybe that’s why Joseph’s brothers in the LXX used angeions for bags.)

Oh, and “angioplasty” is talking about blood “vessels,” so there’s definitely a skin tube/bag in that expression. In that case, you’d be talking about a storeroom full of bagged goods, utensils, etc., which would definitely make sense for some household goods.

Anyway…

When the virgins got up and trimmed their lamps, the verb is “ekosmesan,” to put in order or prepare for use (or even to decorate). It’s also used for cleaning. But it’s directly related to the word “cosmos,” the presumably orderly universe.

The foolish maidens ask to use the prudent maiden’s oil, because “our lamps are going out.” The Greek verb is pretty cool but also a mouthful — it’s “sbennyntai.”

This is a direct Biblical reference, because the Septuagint uses it a lot. Fire in the Temple must be kept burning all the time, and not allowed to “go out.” In Job 18:5 and 21:18, and in Proverbs 13:9 and 24:20, we are warned that “the lamp of the wicked will go out.” But the Lord also promises that “a smoldering wick I will not put out.”

The next verse is literally, ‘Answering, the prudent ones said, “No. Lest there not be enough for you and for us, better you should go to the sellers and buy your own.”

This is a lot less of a maybe! The prudent virgins know how much oil they have, and they know it won’t stretch. The conditional is basically directed toward the bad possibility that the prudent ones aren’t allowing to happen. (In my humble opinion, and barely knowing Greek.)

And then we have one of the scariest phrases in the Bible: “The door was shut.” (“Ekkleisthe he thyra.”)

Thyra is related to German thur and English door. It’s also the word for the sheepgate, for tentflap doors, and so on.

A bit later (“hysteron”), the other maidens come back, and call out, “Lord, Lord, open up for us.” (“Kyrie, Kyrie, anoizon hemin.”)

But He, answering, said, “Truly I say to you, I do not know you.” (“Amen, lego humin, ouk oida humas.”)

This is the opposite of Luke 12:36, where the servants are awake and ready when their Lord comes home from the marriage feast, and so He serves them Himself.

The interesting thing in this parable is that _none_ of the wedding guests were awake, but some of them had put stuff aside for unexpected lack of oil. So you don’t have to be perfect, but you do have to be prepared for contingencies.

Anyway… that’s my Greek Bible Fun for the day.

Our Lady of Thanksgiving?!

Yup, this is one of the little-known minor titles of the Virgin Mary.

There’s a place in Mauron, Brittany called the Monastery of “Notre-Dame de l’Action de Graces”, which in English literally would be something like “Our Lady of the Action of Thanks.”

It was associated with an old confraternity centered on the Blessed Sacrament. The idea is that the lay confraternity members would focus on both Communion, and on giving thanks for the Eucharist Himself.

Eucharist can be translated as “giving thanks,” which is why it was used to translate the Jewish “todah” sacrifice that gave God thanks for some special favor or rescue.

So “Our Lady of Giving Thanks” is also “Our Lady of the Eucharist.” A very fun piece of wordplay, but also very deep.

There’s also a Monastery of Notre-Dame de l’Action de Graces in Castelnaudary, France, near Carcassonne.

But there’s more! You’ve probably heard of the title “Our Lady of Grace,” but in Italy “Santa Maria delle Grazie” is also associated with giving thanks, because “grazie” is how Italians say Thank you!

So any picture of Our Lady of Grace is a picture of Our Lady of Thanksgiving!!

And where did Leonardo da Vinci paint “The Last Supper”?

At the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, in Milan!

So the Last Supper is the world’s greatest painting of a Thanksgiving dinner!

(Sorry, Norman Rockwell… yours is definitely second behind Leonardo!)

Our Lady of Grace’s day is on February 7.

Jesus Trolls the Pharisees Some More

In terms of teaching, there is no question that Jesus’ teaching is closer to that of the Pharisees than anybody else, and so maybe He was calling them harder… which is why he was so glad to grab St. Paul. But it’s also why there’s a lot of mutual frustration, I think.

A lot of folks think that Jesus criticized the Pharisees more harshly, because he expected more of them. (Much like the rich young man.)

But… in the Matthew 23 Gospel reading today, Jesus talks about the Pharisees tying on burdens that are “heavy” (barus) and “hard to carry” (dysbastaktos). This is an exact Greek reference to the Septuagint version of Proverbs 27:3, which says:

“Rock is heavy, and sand is hard to carry, but a fool’s wrath is heavier than both.”

(The Hebrew is “a fool’s provocation.”)

I mean, obviously you can’t beat God in a game of Biblical references, but hoboy.

He also says that they love “the first reclining places (protoklisian) at banquets, and the first seats (protokathedrias) in the synagogues.”

They also love “greetings” (aspasmous), which was a respectful, joyful greeting that usually involved hugging and kissing the man hello.

The Virgin Mary gave Elizabeth this kind of greeting, which was why the hug is such a common trope for showing the Visitation.

Hugging and kissing people could slow you down a lot, if you knew a lot of people, which is supposedly why that when Jesus sent the apostles out on the one journey with no purse, bag, or sandals, He also told them not to hug/kiss/greet anybody “on the road.”

When Mary received a greeting from the angel Gabriel, it was apparently only a verbal one. (Which was normal, since he was acting as an official messenger and go-between.) A greeting written in a letter would also obviously be verbal-only.

The reading talks about the titles of father (totally normal word), teacher (didaskalos, also normal), and not master, but “guide” (kathegetes). It was a fancy word also for a teacher or trainer/master, sort of like we would call someone a “spiritual guide.” It’s not in the Septuagint, so I guess Jesus was talking about a title that specifically annoyed Him.

But there are various Biblical images of God as the guide of the Israelites during the Exodus, so I imagine that bit would annoy Him.

The word for servant in “The greatest among you shall be your servant” is “diakonos.” So there’s a quote to put on a t-shirt for your deacon, heh!

Mdou Moctar

I haven’t a clue what they’re singing about, but this Tuareg band from Niger is just so darned listenable!