St. Mango??

Due to various changes in pronunciation, there are several towns in Italy named Santo Mango or San Mangu. There’s even a drink called Santo Mango, and a song from Avril Lavigne.

All these things are really talking about….

St. Magnus of Anagni, aka St. Magnus of Trani, an early Christian martyr from Italy.

As a poor farmer’s son and a shepherd, he showed his traditional Roman “pietas” by using his work to support his father and his poorer neighbors.

He was converted to Christianity by Bishop Redemptus of Trani, and ended up succeeding him as bishop.

When Christian persecution broke out, he followed Jesus’ advice and fled, going to Rome to lose himself in the crowds. But he worried about his flock and tried to come back to Trani.

Imperial soldiers found him in a cave near Fondi, arrested and tried him, and executed him. His day is August 19.

Through various twists of Providence, St. Magnus’ skull and some of his other relics are now at St. Martin of Tours Church, in Louisville, Kentucky, although most of his relics are still in Anagni (after many ancient and medieval travels).

This may not be the same St. Magnus, though he’s almost certainly a martyr, because his bones came from a convent and not from the cathedral of Anagni. Although medieval nuns were tricky, and might well have gotten hold of the correct relics.

Please don’t name your kid “Mango,” though.

I Found Out What It Is.

In Middle English, the word “crap” means chaff, weed seeds, the stuff that’s sifted out of grain or flour.

So… in the Bible, when we’re warned about the wheat and the chaff, being the chaff is literally the crappiest outcome.

I know you feel indebted to me for this priceless information.

It also solves the timeless question of whether saying “crap” is saying a bad word.

Technically, no. Depending on your company, yes.

Sunday Snowday II

After it stopped snowing, which was fairly late, I went out and shoveled my walk. I had been keeping the doorframe and immediate dooryard clean of snow all day, for safety reasons. But I didn’t think there was much point shoveling the walks until the snow stopped, and until there wasn’t much danger of snow melting and turning into ice.

I also shoveled out a path to the parking lot, because last time the apartment snowplow guy blocked my parking lot access with a huge wall of snow.

So we’ll see how it went, tomorrow. I will probably shovel some of the common areas, like the sidewalk around front, if the snowplow/snowblower guys don’t come.

We ended up getting more than a foot of snow, and probably more like 14-15 inches. This is not a huge snowfall; but we haven’t been getting much snow over the last ten or twenty years, compared to what we got in the 1970’s and 1980’s. So it’s kinda nice, and the kids will probably enjoy their Monday snowday.

If it weren’t a Sunday, this would be the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle. It’s also St. Ananias’ Day, for obvious reasons. I’ve always thought that he was one of the braver guys in the Bible.

This would also be St. Dwynwen’s Day in Wales, where she is the favored saint for those seeking love, and where she has a holy well on Llandwyn Island, near Ynys Mon/Mona/Anglesey, where her hermitage was. She also intercedes for sick animals.

On the same theme, this is the day of Bl. Henry Suso, a Dominican mystic, and a student of Meister Eckhart who stayed orthodox in his writing and teaching. His autobiography is online, in translation.

It’s also the holy day of St. Eochod of Galloway, the Apostle to the Picts of Galloway. He was a disciple of St. Columba.

Tomorrow is Ss. Timothy and Titus! Yay! It’s also St. Conan’s Day (St. Conan of Iona, that is), and Bl. Eystein Erlandsson’s Day. Also the day for St. Jerome’s friend St. Paula of Rome, mother of St. Eustochium.

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

The Psalm today gets used for both the responsorial, and for the Communion Propers. It’s Psalm 27, “The Lord is my light and my salvation.” A very good winter Psalm, and I bet everybody reading this who’s Christian/Catholic/Orthodox will know at least two different settings of that psalm.

Anyhow… I guess there used to be some crazy Catholics out there who objected to Adoration, on the grounds that Communion was for eating, not for looking at.

Well, this Sunday we have Psalm 26/27:4 telling us that the reason the Psalmist wishes to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life is so that he could “gaze on the loveliness of the Lord.” So there.

The Hebrew verb is “haza,” to gaze, to behold, to look at; and “loveliness” is no’am. The “haza” kind of seeing is contemplation, or having a vision, primarily, and it’s the word used when the elders see God up on Mount Sinai.

In the LXX, the verb used is “theorein,” to spectate, to look, to gaze; and “loveliness” is “terpnoteta,” from “terpnotes,” pleasantness, agreeableness, delight. This word also gets used in the LXX translation of Ps. 15/16:11, where we are told that the Lord has “terpnotetes” for ever, in His right hand. The Latin is “voluptatem Domini,” which also means “the delight of the Lord” or “the pleasure of the Lord.” (The Latin is just the verb videre, to see, without any special stuff.)

“Terpsis” is enjoyment, delight, gladness; which shows up in the name of the Muse Terpsichore, “delighting in dance.” There’s also a fun Greek poetic term, “terpsimbrotos,” which means mortal-delighting, or delightful to the heart of a human.

But in modern Greek religious writing, “terpnos” is associated with thankfulness, grace, and so on. So that’s an interesting one.

The first reading is from Isaiah 8:23 – 9:3, and the Gospel reading is Mt. 4:12-23, where St. Matthew points out Jesus’ fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. (And don’t forget that Matthew was also from Capernaum, so that it was his home area’s prophecy to remember.)

St. John the Baptist was “arrested,” (literally “given over” or “delivered over” to Herod’s guys), which was the same word that Matthew used later for Jesus saying that he would be “betrayed.” It’s the verb “paradidomi.”

What Jesus then did was “aneschoresen” back to Galilee; which is the verb “anachoreo,” which comes from the verb “choreo,” best known from all those dance words like “choros”!

But don’t get all Lord of the Dance on me… No, the original meaning of the verb “choreo” was “to give space, to let someone pass” and hence “to step back, to turn out of the way.” So only after that, it started to get connected to dance steps.

So the verb “ana-choreo” is to step waaaaay back, with the ana- prefix indicating that you’re going from a lower place to a higher. Galilee is up in the hills, figuratively, so going back there was “anachoresen” in more than one sense. (And Nazareth is 1138 feet above sea level, so that’s decently far up.)

But then in the next verse, we’re told that Jesus left Nazareth (“katalipon ten Nazaret”), but the verb usually means “leaving behind” someone or someplace. Jesus left Nazareth behind, and it wasn’t going to be His place to live anymore. Still His hometown, but never again His home.

It’s used in the LXX for “a man shall leave his father and mother,”

The way St. Matthew writes verse 4:13 is interesting. Let’s look at it.

“Kai katalipon ten Nazaret, elthon, katokesen eis Kapernaoum ten parathalassian, en horiois Zaboulon kai Nephthaleim.”

“And leaving Nazareth behind, coming, He dwelt in Capernaum the sea-beside-one, inside the boundaries of Zebulun and Naphtali.” (Which means it was “in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali.”)

Even though Capernaum is pretty close to Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee is 695 feet BELOW sea level. Capernaum is up a bit, so it’s only 682 feet below sea level.

The name probably means “village” (kaphar or modern kfar) + “Nahum” (a man’s name, meaning “consolation”. The Jewish historian Josephus mentioned that Capernaum had a famous spring that was inhabited by Egyptian catfish; and this is believed to be a spring now called Tabiga, which at the time had an aqueduct connecting the water to Capernaum.

So if your priest talked about people seeking “comfort” or “consolation” as part of his sermon, maybe he was drawing on this etymology.

Some people (like St. Jerome) think that Capernaum was the OT town of Elkosh, which was the prophet Nahum’s hometown. Other people (like the Jews of Iraq) think that Elkosh was the Iraqi town of Alqosh, which is the traditional site of Nahum’s tomb. It’s also possible that the Elkoshites living in Israel ended up founding a town in Iraq.

Anyway, the prophet Nahum has one of the famous Messianic prophecies, when he talks in Nahum 1:15 about “Behold upon the mountains, the feet of one who brings good tidings and preaches peace.”

The second part of today’s Gospel talks about how, after Jesus starts preaching about repentance and the Kingdom of Heaven, He calls four of St. Matthew’s neighbors to be apostles, while they are busy fishing and mending nets.

Matthew 4:18 says that Ss. Peter and Andrew were “casting a net into the sea” (“ballontas amphiblestron eis ten thalassan”). The word amphiblestron (“entangler”), as opposed to “diktyon,” the usual word for net, is a callback to the Septuagint.

First off, it’s used in Ps. 141:10 – “Let the wicked fall into their own nets, while I escape.” And there’s Eccl. 9:12 – “For man does not know his own time. Like fish caught in an evil net, or birds caught in a snare, so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falls on them suddenly.”

But the big reference is to Habakkuk, talking about the Chaldeans and other wicked people, in Hab. 1:13-17.

“….when the wicked man devours the man who is more righteous than himself, and when You make men like the fish of the sea, like the creeping things, with no ruler over them?

“… [the wicked man] catches them in his net… Shall he spread out his net, and not cease to slay the nations?”

So Jesus calls Simon Peter and Andrew to be “fishers of men” (halieis anthropon), the exact opposite of the Chaldeans; and they leave their nets (diktya, this time) and follow Him.

Ss. James and John are mending their “diktya,” and they leave both the boat and their dad, and follow Jesus.

The diktyon net has similar callbacks to the LXX, mind you. But the Habakkuk thing is just so striking, because it specifically says that people are helpless like fish because they don’t have anybody to look after them, just like sheep without a shepherd have the same problem.

There are a fair amount of LXX references to fishermen, too. Probably the one we’re supposed to think about is Ezekiel, and the stream of water flowing out from the Temple (also in Revelation), which is like the stream of living water flowing from Jesus’ heart, and from the hearts of His followers.

Ezekiel 47:8-10 says that the water flowing out from the Temple will “go down into the desert, and go into the sea; and where they go into the sea, the waters will be healed. And it shall happen that whatever lives and moves wherever the river shall come, shall live. And there shall be a great multitude of fish because these waters will go there, and they shall be healed. And everything will live where these waters come. And it shall come to pass that fishermen shall stand along it… it shall be a place to spread nets, and their fish shall be as the fish of the great sea, according to their kinds, and very many.”

Sunday Snowday

We had two or three days of totally crazy pre-storm shopping at work, as well as some days of “it’s finally warm enough to go shopping.”

Several of my coworkers were unable to come to work, thanks to getting sick (something is going around) and to car trouble. (Also because certain managers that aren’t in our department did some weird things with schedule changes, and forgot to notify the affected parties. Ugh.)

I also had an Instalanche, followed by complaints because I didn’t summarize the video that I had linked. In a lazy blogpost that I didn’t know would be Instalanched. Whatever.

(I would have felt bad, but I honestly had no emotions left for it. All my emotions got used up, dealing with things not on the Internet, and the Instalanche felt very far away.)

It’s been a week, in other words.

I went to church last night, so I’m covered for Sunday obligation. And I intended to relax and sleep in.

Except that I woke up at 4:30 AM. Arghhhh.

Also, I have a high pressure headache that I’m fighting off. Fortunately, I also have an entire pack of Viking Berry flavored Monster juice drink.

Judge me if you want, but anyone with chronic sinus plus a morning shift needs a lot of caffeine around the house. And Viking Berry not only has nice artwork, but also a very tasty combination of apple, cherry, blackberry, and bilberry juice. Yes, I need an entire pack every month. Some months I go through less caffeine than others, but winter is a high caffeine time for me.

The snow outside my house is only about three inches deep. It will probably snow more, later on today, but a lot of our snow ended up dispersing in our area’s currently very dry air, high up in the atmosphere.

Prayers for anyone stuck in the giant ice storm. Hope your power and heat stay on, and that you can read my sympathy.

Ek Plus Lego

Pretty much all the words in Greek that are talking about Christian concepts in the New Testament, or in the Deuterocanon, really are translations of Hebrew words that came down from the Old Testament.

So “ecclesia” in Latin, “church,” is from “ekklesia” in Greek, which translates “qahal” in Hebrew. And “qahal” means “assembly,” although the implications may differ as to whether the people assembled themselves, or were assembled.

But although the Greek word “ekklesia” is sometimes given the etymological meaning of “called out,” it’s not the same “called” that is used in the NT. “Called” is from the verb “kaleo,” to call, and being called is “kletos.” It looks similar, but it’s not.

“Ekklesia,” and its derivative, “eklektos” (Latin “electus”), are from “ek-,” out, and “lego,” the verb that originally meant “to lay things down” and thus “to arrange in an orderly way” and which also came to mean “to speak, to say things in an orderly way.” So it also means things like “to call somebody by a certain name,” like “He is called ‘Christ.'”

There’s a verb, “eklegomai,” which means “to pick out for oneself,” like putting dibs on something, or like picking up one of the things laid out for someone to choose from. In the Septuagint, this verb translates the Hebrew verb “bahar,” to choose; and also to test, to prove.

So in a way, “ekklesia” does mean “to be called out,” and in a way it means “to be picked out.” Or to be laid out, like Lego bricks making a foundation (or more Biblically, like living stones being built into a Temple for God).

Have a good weekend!

Township Forbids Prayer for the Dead

In a Catholic graveyard, that has existed for years and years.

Unless you died in the last half of last year.

Because nobody could possibly stand in the need of prayer, from the beginning of the world until last summer.

Bone Rules; or, Skeleton of English Grammar

One of the Episcopalian converts to Catholicism who used to be well-known was the poet and teacher, Fr. John B. Tabb. Despite being almost blind for most of his adult life, he served as an English teacher for many years at a Catholic school.

He wrote a very simple, very practical English grammar textbook, which he called Bone Rules; or, Skeleton of English Grammar.

I can’t tell you how nice and simple this thing is. There’s a paragraph. There’s examples. The point is covered.

There’s a short example quiz for the student to mark up. Then that’s done.

Given how a lot of kids have trouble with attention span or with long, complicated sentences, and yet are too old to do elementary school workbooks (or think themselves too old), a book like this might be a good solution.

This book uses Shakespeare, Poe, and Tennyson as example sentences, but also makes them easy to break down. But possibly it assumes that children are familiar with the poets as fun guys, rather than as scary unknowns.

The book also includes some grammatical niceties that modern English grammars don’t cover, but which I think would be helpful to modern kids. A lot of this stuff was designed to make learning Latin, Greek, and other languages easier, by pointing it out as a concept in one’s native tongue. There’s no reason to spend a lot of time on it, but also no reason to leave it out.

There’s a more advanced section on adjectives and adverbs, which includes some memory rhymes. I don’t know that they necessarily need memorization; but they are definitely great for familiarization.

I mean, geez, one of the verses is A GIANT LIST OF PREPOSITIONS, which is like a Pokemon list.

The next chunk of the book is about how sentences work, including a form of sentence diagramming. Again, this could be revised however one wanted, but some kind of diagrammed visual format is helpful to a lot of students.

Then there’s a section with sentences that have grammatical errors, for the student to correct. The fun thing is that most of them are written in rhyme, or with high-sounding poetic terms. Most grammar books historically made the error examples also sound colloquial or like something said by a person with a different dialect. So this is a very shrewd move.

Then there’s a punctuation section, and a long section with sentences, poems, and even a whole long poem for analysis. There are also diagram examples for Latin sentences, because of course a kid in Catholic school back then would also be busy learning Latin.

OTOH, there are a few archaic 1800’s grammar rules. For example, he thought it was normal not to put anything but an apostrophe after a word ending in an s sound (like “peace”), if the next word also had an s sound (like “songs”). So instead of “peace’s songs,” you’d write “peace’ songs” to avoid a hissing sound when read.

I’ve seen this before, and assumed it was a typo! Holy cow, it was done on purpose!

In the same section, he says that if you write “Cain’s and Abel’s ___”, it means that Cain and Abel both have one of those objects, and that you don’t pluralize the object to make that clear. So you’d tow two cars, and you’d say that the two cars towed were “Cain’s and Abel’s car.”

Obviously this is no longer the case… and again, it makes a difference in how you read old texts.

There’s a whole section of the book on punctuation rules, after the grammar error examples, and a lot of the rules have changed. For example, he was taught to put a period after all book titles. He also calls parentheses “curves,” or “curves of parenthesis.”

Also, the archaic spelling “preterit” should be changed to “preterite,” although I completely sympathize with leaving out the final e.

Bone Rules is well out of copyright in the US, so there’s no reason not to reprint it in a modern format, although with revisions to suit modern English grammar.

You could probably make several workbooks out of the one book.

To See a Divine Wonder

In today’s Gospel reading from John 1:29-34, we hear more of the story of the Lord’s Baptism, from the next day.

St. John the Baptist is explicit about saying that Jesus, Who was born after him, existed before him.

And St. John the Evangelist was probably there to hear him, and remember his weird comments, for the day when he understood them.

(People forget that tradition says in some places that both St. Andrew and St. John were some kind of disciples of the Baptist, before they went with Jesus to “come and see.” Other people say that various of the future Apostles showed up to listen to John, saw Jesus, and then went home again, and were stunned when Jesus showed up. If that’s not true, then St. Andrew might have done a lot more transmission to the Evangelists than we know about.)

Anyway, after St. John talked about this “aner” (adult male human or husband, as opposed to “anthropos,” a person of either sex, and “gyne,” a woman or wife), he “testified” (emartyresen) further about what he had witnessed.

What did he say?

“I saw (tetheamai) the Holy Spirit come down like a dove from heaven, and remain upon Him.”

This is a form of “theaomai,” a special word for “see,” which St. John and the other Gospels use for special occasions. It includes the word “thea,” as in God or divine things, and it is related to the word “thauma,” a wonder. It can be translated as “gazed upon.”

It gets used when Jesus asks what the crowd went out to “see,” when they went to get baptized by St. John the Baptist. (Mt. 11:7, Lk. 7:24)

Interestingly, Luke uses it for when Jesus saw (etheasato) the tax collector, Matthew/Levi, and then called him to follow. (Lk. 5:27) In 2 Mac. 2:4, Jeremiah traveled to the mountain where Moses had gone up and gazed upon (etheasato) God’s inheritance, ie, the Promised Land. So Jesus probably also “gazed upon” Matthew.

2 Mac. 3:36 uses “tetheamenos” to tell what Heliodorus had seen with his own eyes, ie, angels straight from God, who had scourged him for disrespect to the Lord, by his coming to take the Temple treasury’s contents to his pagan king.

A more normal word for seeing comes in the first verse of the reading, when the Baptist “sees” (blepsei) Jesus coming toward him, and tells everyone to “behold” (ide, actually related to the verb “horao” to see, but also meaning “to know”). And then he calls Him the “Lamb of God” (amnos Theou), who takes away “the sin of the cosmos” (ten hamartian tou cosmou).

The other normal word, “horao,” gets used later in the same reading, when the Baptist says that he was supposed to know the “the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit” by seeing the Holy Spirit come down and stay on him.

And then he uses “horao” again when he says that he had seen, and “testified” (memartyreka) that “this one is the Son of God.”

This stuff is done on purpose, making points. It is not just using synonyms for variety. 1 John 1:1 also talks about what we have heard, touched with hands, and seen with our eyes, as well as what we have seen and wondered at (etheasametha).

An INTERVIEW WITH TOLKIEN!!!!

This interview is from the old New Worlds, in 1966. Tolkien did the interview with one of his old students, and it’s probably the best interview with him that I’ve ever read.

He boldly stands up for ENJOYMENT as a critical standard for fiction!!!!!

I love that man more all the time.

I have to say that it cracks me up, to hear him slag almost everybody else in sf/f for being so bad with names and language. It was true then, it’s still true now, and it’s hilarious.

https://fantasticmetropolis.com/i/tolkien

The Perfect Vacation Destination

A hot springs town. With a cafe meant just for reading, in the house of a famous Japanese author. The town also has plenty of ryokan inns (traditional Japanese inns), with access to even more hot springs. One inn is even centered around separate guesthouses instead of rooms, so that you can have complete privacy in the middle of verdant forest (or snowy forest, this time of year).

Sorin Otomo, of the Otomo clan, was the daimyo of Bungo (now called Oita), which was a port too. He not only converted to Christianity but successfully invited St. Francis Xavier to come evangelize his people.

Hoboy, did he do a lot of stuff. Good, bad, historically important… yeah, I’ll let that go for now.

Mount Yufu, in Yufuin, was once crowned with a giant cross, and there were many Christian villages. Most of the people were martyred or driven into wilderness to die. Namiyanagi Christian Cemetery remains in the Yufu area, as do some other Catholic and Hidden Christian sites.

Yufuin is fairly close to Oita, where the village of Katsuragi saw the martyrdom of over 200 Christians. Oita Christian Martyr Memorial Park has a memorial commemorating them.

This quiet forest cafe in Japan lets you read all day in the house of a famous author

Six Things about the Finding in the Temple

Copying this over from Reddit, because I did a lot of work posting an answer, and I’m too lazy to rewrite it more briefly. I’m sick with a sore throat but also a little feverish, so energy is kind of up and down today.

First thing. There’s a section in Josephus where he talks about how he was a little genius, so he got a lot of attention from the priests and rabbis, who would love to ask him questions and hear him answer them. But usually they’d invite Josephus’ dad to a dinner party or other occasion, and tell the dad to bring Josephus along. Also, Josephus lived in Jerusalem and his dad was a known person.

Jesus was Just Some Kid, and yet He didn’t get St. Joseph to come run interference with Him and collect invitations. He just showed up. (Like it was His job or something. Which it was.)

People used to say they didn’t believe the rabbis would do this. Then they’d read Josephus, and decide that Luke copied all this off of Josephus, because obviously the rabbis wouldn’t do that for little Jesus. (roll eyes)

Second thing. In Lk. 2:43, when Luke says that Jesus “stayed behind,” the verb is “hypomeno,” which also means “to go through trials, to endure suffering,” because it also means “to remain under.” So it’s a prophecy of Jesus suffering in Jerusalem, even though He didn’t suffer anything at this time.

(Knowing Jewish ladies and men, He probably was chowing down on some pretty good food with His new buddies in Jerusalem, who insisted on taking Him home when the hour got late. Or He was hanging out with the Temple guardsmen-priests, helping them out and having a great time.)

Third weird thing. Jesus wasn’t just “sitting” (kathezomenon) in the Temple. The implication of “sitting in the Temple” was that He was teaching, because in the ancient world, you would find a teacher by looking for a seated person surrounded by people standing up. That’s why bishops sit on a chair, a kathedra, like a teaching philosopher; and their churches are “cathedrals,” the place of the teaching chair.

Matt. 26:55 doesn’t use the exact same expression, but Jesus does tell the arrest priests that every day He’s been sitting (ekathezomen) in the Temple, teaching. (Actually a lot of the time He was being like a Peripatetic philosopher, strolling around in the porches while teaching, but eh.)

Fourth weird thing. When Mary talks to Jesus, she uses an extremely strong verb, “odynao,” to describe how she and Joseph felt while they were searching for Jesus. It means “to be agonized, to be tormented,” and it shows up a lot in the OT as translated into Greek in the Septuagint. It shows up in Messianic prophecy. (It’s also what happened to the rich man in Sheol, in the parable.)

For example, in Zech. 12:10, when the prophet talks about Jerusalem and the House of David looking upon the one they had pierced, and mourning him, the Septuagint says that they will be tormented as one is tormented for one’s firstborn. (This translates the Hebrew verb “marar,” to feel bitter or salty pain, which is a word closely related to the name Miriam/Mary.)

It’s also used in Isaiah 21:10 in the LXX, for what happens to threshed wheat (concerning what happens to Babylon, but it’s probably a Eucharistic image too).

So yup, both St. Joseph and St. Mary suffered torments for Our Lord, even before His Passion.

Fifth weird thing. Jesus doesn’t say “Father’s house” or “Father’s business.” He says “of my Father.”

“You did not know, that in those (en tois) of My Father (tou Patros mou) must I be (dei einai me)?”

“En” can also mean “with, by, among” and other prepositions. But it sounds (to an outsider) like “Didn’t you know that I’d be staying with kin/friends/workers of my father?” or similar expressions.

But it could mean “in My Father’s” [Temple] or “in My Father’s” [business affairs], or all sorts of things.

It’s really really cryptic, for an explanation to your mom after three days away.

Sixth funny thing. When St. Luke says that Mary and Joseph did not understand (ou synekan) the saying/word (rhema) that Jesus had said to them… that’s not the last time in the Gospels that somebody doesn’t understand Jesus’ sayings or parables. Nope, not at all.

But Mary carefully kept (diaterei) all these sayings (rhemata) in her heart. (Lk. 2:51)

Just like God told Abraham to carefully keep (diatereseis) His Covenant, in the LXX translation of Gen. 17:9-10.

Just like Jacob “carefully kept the saying” (diateresin to rhema) of Joseph’s dream (Gen. 37:11).

Just like Moses’ mom was hired by Pharaoh’s daughter to “carefully keep” Baby Moses (Ex. 2:9).

Just like the families of Israel were supposed to “carefully keep” a spotless lamb, until it was time to sacrifice it at Passover. (Ex. 12:6)

UPDATE: The Kata Biblon site has a Deuterocanon Greek word search! Yay!

In Tobit 9:4 in the LXX, Tobiah said, “But my father counts the days, and if I delay, he will be agonized (odynethesetai).”

Also in Tobit 5:7, Tobiah said, “Stay behind (hypomeinon) for me, while I tell my father.”

Su Su Syssoma

I love the Wise Men and Epiphany, and the Isaiah and Psalm and Gospel. Btw, it turns out that “thesaurous,” treasures, also means treasure chests or treasuries. So when the Magi open their treasures, they’re really opening up boxes and bags of treasures.

But. The second reading has some really awesome Greek in it. It’s Eph. 3: 2-3a, 5-6.

“Stewardship” is “oikonomia.” A steward is the “oikonomos,” the household law guy who passed out all the paychecks and money allowances, and dealt with all the debt and expenditure accounting.

As basically a wandering missionary bishop, St. Paul has a stewardship of God’s grace, which has been given to him to pass out to folks like the Ephesians. And he talks about it.

As often happens, we get a little bit taken out of the reading, in order to make it work as a reading.

The last chapter ended with a resounding declaration that the Ephesian Gentiles are no longer “foreigners and resident aliens” (xenoi kai paroikoi), but “fellow citizens” (sympolitai) “of the saints, and household-members” (oikeoi) “of God” (Eph. 2:19), as well as jointly a holy Temple built on a foundation of the Apostles with Christ as the cornerstone, which is a holy Temple “in the Lord” and a dwelling place “of God, in the Spirit.” (Eph. 2:20-22) So we have the Holy Trinity too.

Eph. 2:21 has the magnificent Greek participle “synarmologomene,” which means “to be joined closely together.” So it can mean “to frame a building closely together” or “to knit together body parts.” In this case, St. Paul is doing wordplay to make it mean both, since the Body of Christ is being a Temple too.

Eph. 2:22 has “synoikodomeisthe,” which has “oikodomes” (a building) and our friend syn-. So it means “y’all are being built together.”

So… next chapter, which in St. Paul’s text would have just been the start of the next paragraph.

“For this grace (charin), I, Paul, am the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for you Gentiles. So if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace given to me for you, how the Mystery was made known to me by an unveiling (apokalypsin)….”

This aside by St. Paul was left out. Obviously it indicates that there was at least one previous Letter to the Ephesians, which didn’t get kept or preserved by Providence, and thus wasn’t inspired.

“….as I wrote to you in brief, by reading which you can understand my knowledge (synesin, a confluence of rivers, and hence a comprehension of knowledge) in the Mystery of Christ….” (Eph. 3:3b-4)

“In other generations, this was not made known to the sons of men” (yup, tois huiois ton anthropon. I don’t know why we got “people,” which seems bland), “as now it has been unveiled (apekalypthe) to His holy apostles and prophets, in the Spirit, that the Gentiles be (einai) co-heirs (sygkleronoma) and co-Body-ers (syssoma) and co-sharers/partners (symmetocha) of His promise (epangelias), in Christ Jesus, through the Gospel.” (Eph. 2:5-6)

Syssoma is just the best word. I want it on a t-shirt. The singular is “syssomos.”

The funky thing is that these syn- words are all adjectives describing the Ephesians, not nouns, although I’d say they’re acting like nouns.

Anyhoo… the Latin from St. Jerome also is pretty nice. Eph. 2:20 has the Temple being “superaedificati” on top of the foundation, and then “constructa crescit” in Eph. 2:21, and finally “coaedificamini” in Eph. 2:22.

In Eph. 2:6, we have “cohaeredes” for co-heirs, “concorporales” for fellow Body parts, and “comparticipes” for co-partners. Which is pretty good stuff.

The chapter goes on, after the verses in the reading, with more mindblowing thoughts. For example, we’re told that the Church’s teaching is God’s way of revealing all kinds of things to the angels in Heaven, which they did not know before.

Boom.

Sadly, we’re about to skip over to 1 Corinthians for the beginning of Ordinary Time, so you might want to read the rest of Ephesians by yourself. We’ve had some of it, back and forth, but there’s a lot of good stuff in there.