New Blogs added to the Blogroll

Neither blog is "new", but new to my blogroll. One is John Anderson's "Hesed we 'emet" (which I believe is: steadfast love/loyalty and faithfulness). John is a Ph.D student at Baylor working in Biblical studies, focusing on Hebrew Bible. His "blog" (though he has just switched to Wordpress*) is very interesting.

The other blog is by my friend, Danny Garland. Danny is a recent graduate from Franciscan University of Steubenville with an MA in Theology (2008). He teaches theology at a Catholic high school up North. Danny and I lived together when I was up north. He's an exceptionally nice guy and was actually my sponsor when I came into the Church (being a convert himself). His blog is "Irish Catholic and Dangerous" - he is both.



*I've seen several people lately make the switch to Wordpress. Should I? Is there something amazing about Wordpress that I'm missing out on?

A bit of trivia

Who wrote in their journal, "quippe dormire nefas videbatur" after studying a very important manuscript through the night?

Brandon Wason returns to blogging

After closing down his blog Novum Testamentum, he has finally returned to blogging. Go see his new site here.

Friday is for funny words - οἰνοβαρείων

This week's funny word comes to us from Homer. Every other week I attend an "Ancient Greek Reading Group" and we're working our way through Book IX of Homer's Odyssey (one of my favorite parts). Our word this week is: οἰνοβαρείων - to be "wine heavy" or drunk. This word is used to describe the Cyclops after Odysseus has gotten the Cyclops drunk off of the wine on his ship. Immediately thereafter, Odysseus and crew shove a red-hot log into the Cyclops' eye.

At any rate, because I'm taking Latin all summer, I'm giving you a double-whammy. Not only is οἰνοβαρείων interesting/funny in its own right, but the Latin equivalent is: crapulatus.

My Latin textbook makes no sense

I realize that writing a new grammar for a language that has been taught for thousands of years requires a bit of confidence. It says, "The other ways in which this language is taught are not good enough, but my ideas are the bee's knees."

However, the grammar I'm using (Latin for Reading) makes no sense when it comes to listing the cases of nouns and adjectives. Instead of the standard Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative, Ablative, and perhaps the Vocative, this text lists them as: Nominative, Accusative, Ablative, Dative, Genitive.

So, if I memorize the paradigm for a noun using this order, I'm imagining that I'll run into problems if I continue studying Latin elsewhere and they use a different grammar. It won't be that much of an inconvenience, but it seems like such an arbitrary change that has no benefits.

A quick note on criticism

In my Archaeology of the New Testament World class we had a final paper due at the end of the semester. My paper, titled, "Even the coins will cry out: Numismatic Explanations for the Jewish War" received a good grade (an A), but it also received some constructive criticism....lots of it.

I wasn't sure how to handle it. It was almost as if the grade didn't matter because I felt like my paper must be bad if it had so many notes. After about 30 minutes of feeling really puzzled I realized that I absolutely must get used to this if I'm going to go on and do graduate work. The fact that the paper received high marks should make me realize I have a good argument that after being refined could be a great argument. In fact, I'm considering rewriting it over the summer with the notes and sources that the professor provided.

Friday is for funny words

I've seen quite a few "Friday is for..." series and I wanted to start my own. I don't have any friends, so Scot McKnight's idea wouldn't work. However, I do like odd Greek words that I run across in my readings. Thus...Friday is for funny words.

This week's word is "εγγαστρίμῦθος": Belly-Myther.

Liddel-Scott has it listed as "ventriloquist" and someone who "prophecies from the belly." The most famous "belly-myther" is the Belly-Myther of Endor 1 Samuel 28 (1 Kingdoms 28 in the LXX). As Margaret Mitchell has pointed out, she's neither a witch in Hebrew or Greek. In fact, Mitchell has written an excellent book along with Rowan Greer on interpretations of 1 Kingdoms 28 in antiquity. A few of the passages from Patristic authors who discuss the "belly-myther" are bellow:

Justin Martyr Dialogue with Trypho105

καὶ ὅτι μένουσιν αἱ ψυχαὶ ἀπεδειξα ὑμῖν ἐχ τοῦ καὶ τὴν Σαμουὴλ ψυχὴν χληθῆναι ὑπὸ τῆς ἐγγαστριμύθου, ὡς ἠξίωσεν ό Σαούλ.

And I have proved to you that souls survive on the basis of the fact that even Samuel's soul was summoned by the belly-myther, as Saul requested.

The Martyrdom of Pionius

ἔστι δὲ γεγραμμένον ὅτι ὁ Σαοὺλ ἐπηρώτησεν τὴν ἐγγαστρίμυθον καὶ εἶπεν τῇ γυναιχὶ τῇ οὕτω μαντευομένῃ, "ἀνάγαγέ μοι τὸν Σαμουὴλ."

It is written that Saul asked the belly-myther and that he said to the woman who was divining through this means, 'Bring up for me Samuel the prophet'.

And, of course, you should read Origen's homily on 1 Kingdoms 28. I suggest picking up Mitchell and Greer's book where you can read it.