Birthday Bible Passages

In Christian birthday cards, little gems like this often turn up:

I have been young and now I am old,
Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken
Or his descendants begging bread.
All day long he is gracious and lends,
And his descendants are a blessing.

~ Ps 37:25-26 (NASB)

Double-edged encounters

At college, visiting missionaries were asked about difficulties of ministering in the Middle East. They told a story about an encounter at a university.

A young Austrian woman, dressed with long sleeves with her head covered, was coming out of a lecture on Sharia law. She saw a Muslim woman making her way towards her, who was covered from head in black with only her eyes showing. She reached the Austrian woman and said, "God showed me in a dream that we would meet here. I know your name and that you a Christian. We will talk about our faiths. After we talk, I will become Christian or you will become Muslim."

So the women met again few days later to talk about their beliefs. Now the Austrian woman was no slouch, she had a masters in Theology and doing a more post-graduate studies. As they talked, the Austrian woman reflected later on how she could feel the strong spiritual forces at work. It's a high stakes encounter.

We live in a post 9 11 world. As the rest of the world investigate the claims of Islam, they will hear the Muslims present their faith. Muslims are articulate, well educated and evangelistic. They work hard at commending Islam to others.

There will more encounters to come, like that of the Austrian woman. How will these encounters turn out? As people engage many will be won over to Islam and to Christianity.

To do mission work in the Middle East, the missionaries said, "we need the soundest minds, the strongest wills and the most courageous of hearts."

Stirring words.

Who will dare pray, "Lord, if it's your will, send me"?

Good Bible Reading

Hints from "Mr Anderson":

- Vary the speed / tone / pitch of voice, slowing down for the important bits

- Emphasise contrasts

The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold,
but man is tested by the praise he receives.

(Proverbs 27:21 NIV)

Here, you emphasise man, not tested, since man is contrasted with silver and gold. The idea of testing is already there in the "crucible" and "furnace". You can emphasise praise to bring out the other contrast.

- Bring out the force of the passage

In short, the Bible reader needs to understand what's going on in the passage and highlight its meaning. Reading well is not just about having good public speaking skills, but about being a good exegete.

Through a Glass Darkly III

In Ancient Greek, the language "person" is from the domain of Theatre. Drama was pantomime, so persons on stage were masked, whether that character was human or symbolic. So the Early Church resisted adopting "person" language for the Trinity since it seemed to be saying that they wore masks (i.e. the heresy of modalism [hiss! boo!], where God dons a "Father" mask in the Old Testament, a "Son" mask in the New and the "Spirit" mask after Pentecost).

Does 1 Cor 13:12's notion of "face" suggest this idea of masks?

For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then shall I know, even as also I am known.

"Face" here cannot mean "mask" ~ in fact, it's the opposite of mask. For now we see through a glass darkly (obscured view) but then, we will see each other face to face (true unveiling ~ perfect vision).*

More than that, we will know as we are fully known. I scratched my head over this bit ~ What? Who?

It'll help to see how Paul splits up time: now and future in verses 8-13. Paul oscillates between what remains now and a future time when perfection comes. Since love endures beyond the now, love is greatest (13:13) (we won't need faith and hope when Jesus comes back). Love in personal relationships are permanent, and span beyond this life.

"... even as also I am known". Who am I known by? God is the implied subject. He already sees and knows us truly and fully. In the future when all is revealed we will see clearly face to face. Then shall we know God and each other fully.

What a glorious promise for a world, whose cry is so often:

I don't want the world to see me,
'Coz I don't think that they'd understand
Well, everything's made to be broken,
I just want you to know who I am
("Iris" by Goo Goo dolls)

*Kudos to Gerald Bray for the above discussion from MTC Doctrine 2 lectures.

Through a Glass Darkly II

Others have played with ideas from 1 Cor 13:12.

In the Bergman's movie, the expression carries the theme of distorted reality induced by schizophrenia (in its adaption, the Scanner Darkly, the delusions are secondary to psychotropic drug use).

I'm not sure if C.S. Lewis was conscious of 1 Cor 13:12 when he wrote "Till We have Faces" . But it interlocks the themes of masks, blurred perceptions and reality. It is a re-interpretation of Lucius Apuleius Platonicus' Metamorphoses, the Greek myth about Psyche and Cupid. Its working title was originally "Bareface" (according to Wiki).

Lewis veils his characters and they are blind to certain truths. The narrator, Orual, cloaks her ugly face from the world and her self-justifications to the gods have an undercurrent of self-delusion. Cupid initially hides his face from his beautiful lover Psyche, visiting her only at night. When Orual visits her sister Psyche's stately palace, the finery and splendors were invisible to her mortal eyes. C.S. Lewis writes in a letter to Dorothea Conybeare:

How can they (i.e. the gods) meet us face to face till we have faces? The idea was that a human being must become real before it can expect to receive any message from the superhuman; that is, it must be speaking with its own voice (not one of its borrowed voices), expressing its actual desires (not what it imagines that it desires), being for good or ill itself, not any mask, veil, or persona.

”

[cited at Constance Babington Smith, Letters to a Sister from Rose Macaulay, 1964, 261; also at Hooper, Companion (see IX) 252] (Wiki)

Through a Glass Darkly

It's interesting to see how different translators render 1 Corinthians 13:12, which sits near the end of the 'Lurve chapter' of the Bible.

~ 21st Century King James Version

For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then shall I know, even as also I am known.


~ New International Version

Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.


~ English Standard Version

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.


~ Holman Christian Standard Bible

For now we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face.
Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known.


~ Darby Bible

For we see now through a dim window obscurely, but then face to face; now I know partially, but then I shall know according as I also have been known.


~ Weymouth New Testament

For the present we see things as if in a mirror, and are puzzled; but then we shall see them face to face. For the present the knowledge I gain is imperfect; but then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

The traditional and contemporary KJV versions sound beautiful and poignant: "For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face. " So much so that the expression "Through a Glass Darkly" has been borrowed by film, music and literature.

So why have other translations opted for less poetic turns of phrase?

Is it for ease of understanding? Is "through a glass darkly" less comprehensible and accessible than "through a mirror dimly" or "indistinctly, as in a mirror"?

Why "mirror" instead of "glass"? Are translators able to choose things of the same nature (i.e. since mirrors are made of glass, they are interchangeable terms)? When "mirror" supplants "glass", is a different point being made (about self-reflection rather than perception or blurred vision)?

Here it is for Greek geeks:

βλέπομεν γὰρ ἄρτι δι᾿ ἐσόπτρου ἐν αἰνίγματι, τότε δὲ πρόσωπον πρὸς πρόσωπον· ἄρτι γινώσκω ἐκ μέρους, τότε δὲ ἐπιγνώσομαι καθὼς καὶ ἐπεγνώσθην,

Honoria v28.0

.
Happy birthday Hon - voila, your very own weblog!

You now have nothing stopping you from subjecting the whole world to your every idle thought / literary flight of fancy / theological rumination / whimsical whinge. [Or not - should you choose to never visit this site again.]

In the meantime... turning a year older often provides an occasion to reflect on one's life, and ask those eternal questions: "Who am I? Who is Honoria?? What does it all mean???" If this is the quandary you find yourself in, do not fear... After studiously trawling the vast stretches of the interweb I have gathered the following to gently guide you into your 29th year with renewed sense of purpose and identity.

According to this, Honoria is a Lara Croft-type figure who "stands 5’ 4” tall with blue eyes and pale golden hair pulled back in to a ponytail by several scarlet ribbons; she wears earrings pierced twice in the top of her ears on each side and carries Uther’s Strength and Ankh of Life in her pockets. ... Since her fathers death Honoria has gone through several changes; her moods seem to remain more constant than before, but her temper is still an issue though she now fills with quiet rage when it is tempted forth."

Or perhaps Honoria is more than just one person?
"This is a true story about a nation which was once great. At the outset, we will call that nation Honoria; but you will readily guess her true name, as the story unfolds..."

Perhaps you would like to check out the weather in Honoria, Peru!

In the market for a horse? Why not get yourself a Honoria thoroughbred!

Or perhaps something a little more classy...

Or maybe you feel like letting out your inner rock queen and starting your very own band?

But perhaps this regency romance lies closest to the truth...
"Honoria Spencer, the vicar's daughter, longs to escape life at the vicarage where her days are plagued by an endless round of orphans, her own siblings and Mr. Whitham, her persistent but obnoxious suitor. The delightful prospect of escape arrives in the form of a new neighbor, the romantic and extremely wealthy Mr. Carstairs. Can Honoria capture the gentleman's heart before her rival Louisa Allenby steals it from under her, or will she find there has been a dark horse in the running all along?"

Will she, indeed. I will have to let Bertie Wooster and Honoria Glossop have the last word...
Happy soul searching!