Weird. There’s one, lonely, Aramaic verse in Jeremiah. It’s Jer 10:11, “Thus shall you say to them: ‘The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from the heavens.'”

Carey Moore in his book Esther, Daniel and Jeremiah contends that this verse is the basis for the Letter of Jeremiah, which mocks idol worship (Bar 6). It repeats the fact that idols are not gods over and over. But, how weird is that there is just one, only one, Aramaic verse in the whole Hebrew book of Jeremiah!

I wrote a paper about a year ago called “Fire, Prison and Praise: How Worship Unlocks the Lord’s Deliverance.” I focused on the three young men in the fiery furnace and on Paul and Silas in prison in the book of Acts. But I found another passage which heartily endorses the principle that worshiping God when in captivity is a good thing to do to unlock his deliverance. Take a look at Baruch 3:7 (Baruch’s just after Jeremiah.): “For this, you put into our hearts the fear of you: that we may call upon your name, and praise you in our captivity, when we have removed from our hearts all the wickedness of our fathers who sinned against you.”

Isn’t that great? When we experience bondage to sin or captivity to depression or imprisonment to addiction, we can turn to God and worship. And worship “unlocks” his deliverance. It’s not that God was refusing to deliver us, but that our heart needed to undergo a conversion of sorts. We’ve got to worship when we get into trouble and the Lord’s deliverance will come. It’s biblical. Now, how’s that for Catholic Bible Student action?

I came across this essay which was quite influential in the time it was written. I’ve been thinking a lot about the Catholic doctrine of inspiration and this is part of my inquiry. Let me know what you think. Oh yeah, and before I forget here’s the link. The guy in the picture is John Henry Cardinal Newman and if anyone can figure out why his left index finger is tucked behind his ear in this picture, you’ll win my accolades.

I found this great cartoon on Wikipedia’s entry for Modernism (Roman Catholicism). I’m reading a great book on the subject by Marvin O’Connell called Critics on Trial: An Introduction to the Catholic Modernist Crisis. I’m only a few pages in, but I’ll already recommend to you. Maybe I’ll tell you more about it once I’m done.

A thought by Fr. George Montague, S.M.:

• The pagan world of Biblical times showed little concern for mercy. Two groups especially suffered–slaves and children. Slaves were considered tools, and masters had the right to kill them as they wished. Unwanted infants were left to die of exposure, particularly girls. And, as happens even today in some countries, unwanted children could be picked up for the “slave trade” or deliberately maimed and used by racketeers to beg. The modern world flinches at such accounts, then abets them by legalized abortion. Our mercy, like that of our pagan forebears, is selective.

(from Montague, George T. Companion God: A Cross-Cultural Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1989. p. 60.)

I struggled with memorizing vocab words when I first started learning Greek. My friend introduced me to the Leitner Cardfile System, invented by psychologist Sebastian Leitner. I have used it for vocab memorization and found that it helped me. I just use index cards with the foreign word on the front and its English equivalent on the back. There are a few vocab memorizing programs that use the same method: flashcardexchange.com and Memory Lifter.

There are other programs out there for memorizing Greek and Hebrew Bible vocabulary. I have used Flash Works and QuickMem Greek and would recommend both.

I also just found this great site which rates memorization programs.

Yesterday, Dr. Eilat Mazar announced the discovery of a seal she claims dates from 538-445 BC according to the Jerusalem Post story. (The seal is pictured at right.) It was found at a dig in Jerusalem. The name on the seal, Temah or Temech, appears in Nehemiah 7:55 and Ezra 2:53. Mazar’s interpretation of the seal is hotly debated in the comments posted with the story. I think it’s significance will take a little working out. But it clearly shows two male figures on either side of an altar, probably priests offering incense, as she claims. The controversial part is what the thing shaped like a smile at the top of the picture is. Is it a crescent moon, the sun, a cloud? And if it is one of these things, what does it mean?

Catholics accept the Greek additions to Esther as canonical, while most Protestants do not. Unfortunately, no uniform number system has been developed for incorporating the Greek editions in Esther. They are always arranged in the same order, according to the Septuagint’s ordering, but each major Catholic translation or version follows a different numbering system. So, in attempt to make sense of things for myself, I compiled this chart which compares numbering systems for Esther in the New American Bible, the Vulgate, the Nova Vulgata and the typical Protestant numbering for the book (which coincides with the Hebrew numbering). I know this is rather tedious, but I couldn’t find a resource like this on the internet and figured I would supply it. You can access the NAB, the Vulgate and the Nova Vulgata in the sidebar on this website. Maybe I will make a further post which lists the books which Catholics accept as canonical, but for now, here is my comparison of verse numbering systems in Esther. As a reminder, Protestants accept Hebrew Esther as canonical, while Catholics accept Hebrew Esther plus the Septuagint’s Greek additions. All the parts not listed in the “Protestant Esther” column are Greek.

Verse Number Systems for Esther According to the Catholic Canon Compared with Esther According to the Protestant Canon.

If you look in a typical English Bible, Joel has three chapters. If you look in the NAB it has four. So what’s the deal? The NAB follows the Hebrew numbering system, most other English translations follow the KJV system. So here’s a little explanation of the difference by the commentators at the Net Bible:

• Beginning with 2:28, the verse numbers through 3:21 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 2:28 ET = 3:1 HT, 2:29 ET = 3:2 HT, 2:30 ET = 3:3 HT, 2:31 ET = 3:4 HT, 2:32 ET = 3:5 HT, 3:1 ET = 4:1 HT, etc., through 3:21 ET = 4:21 HT. Thus Joel in the Hebrew Bible has 4 chapters, the 5 verses of ch. 3 being included at the end of ch. 2 in the English Bible. (cite)

A sidenote or two: BHS stands for Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, which is the standard critical edition of Hebrew Bible which scholars use. ET stands for “English Text.” HT stands for Hebrew Text.

A tireless typer has transcribed the entirety of a 19th Century Catholic study Bible by Fr. George Haydock. He has written introductions to every book and notes to every chapter. And he quotes Church Fathers and other Catholic authors at length. It is quite a resource though I’m sure some of it is outdated. Phat Catholic brought it to my attention on his blog. Check it out if you get a chance.