I'm heading down the road to my folks' house for a few days, so I won't be posting anything here until perhaps Sunday or so.

Cheers and Merry Christmas to the small (but growing!) group that pokes around ricoblog on a semi-regular basis.

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

— 1 Timothy 2:1–6 (ESV)

First came the horrible.

Then came the most popular.

Now, it's time for my own Rhapsody Christmas playlist. Since I made a list of horrible stuff, I thought I should make a list of stuff I like. So, here we go:

• Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desiring — Leo Kottke: I'm not familiar with Leo Kottke, though perhaps I should be. This is on an album of his simply entitled 6- and 12-String Guitar. And that's all it is. I could get into this; though is other stuff looks to be different (based on solely looking at album covers and track names).
• The Little Drummer Boy — Kenny Burrell: This is an instrumental version, no singin'. But Burrell pulls it off. An OK song, to be sure, but most versions seem to be mediocre. Burrell gets past that.
• God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen — Charles Hammer: If you like simple classical guitar, then this Christmas album by Charles Hammer (A Classical Guitar Christmas) should go on your list.
• Once In Royal David's City — Charles Hammer: Another by Charles Hammer. I like this song a lot. If Rhapsody would've had Claire Holley's album Sanctuary, I would've listed that version instead.
• The Christmas Song — Mel Torme: The classic, sung by "The Velvet Fog". I always liked this version better than Nat King Cole's version (also available on Rhapsody).
• I Saw Three Ships — Sting: Call me a sucker, call me a child of the '80s, but for some reason I've always been fond of this version of this song. I'm not quite sure why.
• Christmas Song — Dave Matthews/Tim Reynolds: Once again, simple acoustic guitars and a guy singin'. Are you picking up the theme? Note that this song is not a different rendition of Mel Torme's classic; it is a completely different song altogether.
• Hark, The Herald Angels Sing — Vince Guaraldi: If you grew up when I grew up (late 70's/80's) then part of the Christmas ritual was watching A Charlie Brown Christmas. This is from the soundtrack. Honorable mention goes to Guaraldi's tune Linus and Lucy, which is the classic Peanuts song that one thinks of. Even though it is on the soundtrack for the Christmas show, I couldn't quite put that one on the list.
• Greensleeves — Vince Guaraldi: Another from the soundtrack of A Charlie Brown Christmas. Now if I could only find the soundtrack for the Rankin-Bass Christmas special with Rudolph, the Elf-Dentist (Hermie?), the Abominable Snowman and the Island of Misfit Toys!
• Swingle Jingle — Lionel Hampton: Lionel Hampton is one hip cat. You can feel his coolness exude from the vibes as you listen to him. This is his version of Jingle Bells.
• Cool Yule — Louis Armstrong: Louis Armstrong. What can I say? I've got a soft spot for the guy, and this is just a cool song. And it's Christmasy to boot.
• Christmas In New Orleans — Louis Armstrong: You didn't think I'd only have one Louis Armstrong tune, did you? If Rhapsody had his reading of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas I'd have placed that here, but they don't so I didn't.
• Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas — Frank Sinatra: Old Blue-eyes. The Chairman of the Board. This one is classic; you know you need to hear it at least once every Christmas season.
• Bah Humbug — Tim O'Brien: Tim O'Brien pretty much sums up what I think about the commerce-centric side of Christmas. The lyrics are hilarious: “ ... I unbutton my pants from the cheese and the candy / but the turkey comes out of the oven at three”. Then the chorus: “Bah humbug, bah humbug / chug-a-lug one more egg nog / It's just six more days 'til the end of the year!”
• Auld Langsyne — Groovegrass Boyz: Swingin' on into the New Year, bluegrass-style. I'd never heard of the "Groovegrass Boyz" before, but this version of Auld Lang Syne gets the thumbs-up from me. I think I like it better than the classic Guy Lombardo version.

Here's the whole playlist for folks who subscribe to Rhapsody: Rico's Groovin' Christmas.

I just read an excellent post on Lu 2.2 and the census over at Hypotyposeis. You should go read it, really.

One point that Dr. Carlson made immediately caught my attention. He writes:

Nevertheless, the standard interpretion still leaves me cold with a number of problems, the chief among them is why would Luke specify that it was πρώτη ("first"). If Luke merely wanted to tell when the registration happened, presumably under Quirinius (c. AD 6), there is little need to use πρώτη. What does that word do for the text? Of course, the census under Quirinius was hugely important. Josephus had recognized it as as a major factor ultimately leading to the Jewish War in the 60s. In fact, this census is so important that Luke could merely refer to it in Acts 5:37 as "the census" τῆς ἀπογραφῆς.

Dr. Carlson later works through the different major senses of the word πρῶτος:

Danker identifies two major senses for this adjective: (1) being first in sequence, time, number, or space, and (2) being first in prominence or importance. Many examples of the second sense can be found in Luke's writings, e.g. Luke 15:22 "[my] best robe"; Luke 13:30 (first vs. last); Acts 17:4 "quite a few prominent women" (NET); Acts 13:50 "the prominent men in the city"; Luke 19:47 "the prominent leaders of the people" etc.

All of this reminded me of 1Ti 1.15. You know, the part where Paul (assuming Pauline authorship, of course) says he is “the greatest” or “the foremost” of sinners? Here's what I've got in my current draft of notes (emphasizing the word draft) on v. 15. Single ‘quotes’ indicate glosses quoted from a lexicon (BDAG/others, cited in the note); bold text represents the ESV text.

After establishing the general principle that Christ Jesus had come to save sinners, Paul offers that he is the foremost of sinners. While the word translated “foremost” (πρῶτος) literally means ‘first’,³⁸ Paul is not claiming to be the first or primary sinner. The sense is that of ‘most prominent’ or perhaps ‘worst’ of the sinners.³⁹ This is less of a boast and more of an effort to establish a very high bar that all can pass under.
---------------
³⁸ BDAG, p. 893. Occurs 155x in NT; 10x in PE.
³⁹ “ … and I am the worst of them!” is the NET Bible translation of this verse.

Just another instance where πρῶτος doesn't necessarily mean 'first'. (This also happens in 1Ti 1.16, but the eight other occurrences in the PE all seem to be along the lines of ‘first’.) Of course, to relate this back fully to Dr. Carlson's post, I'd have to ask if this use of πρῶτος fits the pattern of use in Luke/Acts, and if that has any merit whatsoever in advancing the argument of Luke as Paul's amanuensis for the Pastoral Epistles.

Addendum: It occurs to me that I should say why I think the original post is so “excellent”. I'm not one who could say one way or the other what the proper translation of Lu 2.2 is. It is a difficult verse for the very reasons mentioned in the original post. What I like about the post, though, is the exploration. Not just dismissing something because it hasn't been looked at recently; but working through it to see if it has merit.

I think sometimes I take a “majority rules” approach to working with the Greek text. My skills aren't the best and I'm still working through issues (particularly syntax). If I'm stumped (which happens more often than I'd like to admit) and if most of the modern translations treat a verse or phrase or word in a similar way, then it must be right. Right? Well, not necessarily.

What I appreciated about Dr. Carlson's post was that he examined an alternative to the typical approach and worked through it, and then posted his stuff for other folks to check out. Dr. Carlson's thoughts could stimulate someone else's thinking on the issue, and who knows where that will lead.

All in all this is fun stuff. This is what “biblioblogging” (or whatever the label ends up being) should be like.

[notes on EpDiog §4]

This chapter (EpDiog 5) is one of the longer sections of the letter. But it is important because it records how Christians were perceived (or how they wanted themselves to be perceived, depending on your view) at a very early point in Christian history.

The author transitions from talking about the inadequacies and problems with the Jewish religion to describing how Christians live in the world. Christians aren't a particular ethnic group; they're present and noticeable across ethnic boundaries. But even in light of this, Christians are unique, writes the author, for a number of reasons. EpDiog 5.1-4 set the stage (Ehrman's translation):

1. For Christians are no different from other people in terms of their country, language, or customs.

2. Nowhere do they inhabit cities of their own, use a strange dialect, or live life out of the ordinary.

3. They have not discovered this teaching of theirs through reflection or through the thought of meddlesome people, nor do they set forth any human doctrine, as do some.

4. They inhabit both Greek and barbarian cities, according to the lot assigned to each. And they show forth the character of their own citizenship in a marvelous and admittedly paradoxical way by following local customs in what they wear and what they eat and in the rest of their lives.

The balance (EpDiog 5.5-17) is dedicated to showing that while Christians may appear to be similar to their neighbors, Christians really aren't similar to their neighbors. A bit paradoxical (as 5.4 mentions above) but that's really the best way to sum it up. The author writes things like “They (Christians) marry like everyone else and have children, but they do not expose them once they are born.” (EpDiog 5.6).

Verses 7-10 are similar; noting that Christians share their meals and not their wives; that while Christians are in the flesh, they do not live after the flesh (allusion to 1Jn 2.16?); that while Christians live on the earth, their citizenship is in heaven; that while they are subject to laws on earth, they surpass the same laws in practice as they live according to a higher standard.

The concluding verse to this chapter (EpDiog 5.17) always leaves me in a state of awe.

17. They (Christians) are attacked by Jews as foreigners and persecuted by Greeks. And those who hate them cannot adequately explain the cause of their enmity.

Even though Christians are similar to their neighbors and arguably peaceable folk, for some reason the lifestyle of Christians stirs up the ire of others. This (of course) reminds me of Titus 2.6-8:

6 Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. 7 Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, 8 and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.

Next up: EpDiog 6. Not sure when, though.

This is so good, I have to mention it. I noted a post titled “The Complete Norman Granz Jazz Sessions” on the blog rhapsody rock school. The description was interesting, so I gave it a play.

One word describes this: WOW!

Basically, it's a bunch of prominent 1950's-era jazz dudes jamming their brains out, all nicely recorded and beautifully mastered. This is a 5-disc boxed set with 18 tracks. Do the math — it's actually 4 tracks per CD for the first four CDs with two tracks on the final CD. The shortest track is 11:55, the longest is 27:20. Yikes.

If you have Rhapsody, just do a title search for “Complete Jam Sessions”. You'll find it. And if you have any sort of interest in jazz, you'll be lost for hours.

The “Biblioblogosphere” was abuzz last week on the subject of the propriety of the term “Biblioblogger”. The thread started with PaleoJudaica; a summary post from The Coding Humanist sums up many of the suggestions.

I was driving home from my folks' house tonight. They live an hour south of me and are back home for the Christmas holiday. (They usually spend the winter in Arizona). I had a few spare brain cycles to waste during the drive, so I thought about this a bit.

I think I have a suggestion.

It seems the common thread that holds such blogs together as a group is a primary focus on Biblical literature. Yes, it's about the Bible (hence “biblioblogger” and other suggestions “bibliablogger”, “biblicoblogger”, “biblicablogger”) but y'all reference other material as well — as evidenced by the excellent multi-blog thread on NT background literature last week. So, I thought, how about “Bib-Lit Blogger”? I'm not sure if it would be better dashed (Bib-Lit Blogger) camel-cased (BibLit Blogger or BibLitBlogger) or as a compound word (Biblitblogger or Biblit Blogger). But it has some of the same alliterative goodness that makes “biblioblogger” roll off the tongue, with just a bit more specificity than “biblioblogger” offers.

Anyway, that's the best I came up with. If it works, great. If not, I blame it on the blogorrhea.

Update: Jim Davila at PaleoJudaica mentions that “biblit blogger” doesn't grab him, but it's no worse than other suggestions. I think he's right. At the Bible Software Review, Rubén Gómez mentions he still likes “biblioblogger”. For the record, so do I. You'll note the blogroll at the right still uses the term “Bibliobloggers”.

Update II: I'm done with this topic, BTW. When y'all figure it out, let me know so I can change my blogroll title.

Please bear with me. I think I'll return to normal after the Christmas holiday.

In poking around my referrer links, I found a link to a blog that had a Rhapsody playlist. So I thought I'd search for other sites linking to Rhapsody playlists. And I found a blog called Rhapsody Radish that does pretty much just this. Wow.

No, really, it's good. (Unlike the playlists I've posted). Lots of playlists posted apparently daily. As a test, I'm listenting to their “Instrumental Acoustic Christmas Music”. For what it is (er, instrumental acoustic Christmas music) it's good.

They've also got this weird playlist generator thing. Makes me wonder if the guy is scraping Rhapsody data, building his own database, and serving up playlists. Having friends over for dinner? What's that, you're making enchiladas? Well, just drop down the “dinner” box, select “Mexican”, and you're off an running with your soundtrack for the night.

Update: Responding to “matt” in the comments. Actually, it wasn't rhapsody rock school (though thanks for the pointer, BTW). It was a guy who had a blog entry that contained a Rhapsody playlist, and the playlist was actually removed from the page. I couldn't quite figure out how one got from there to ricoblog, which was one of the reasons why I was searching around.

Righteous Pop Music - Volume 2. I'm not sure what's 'righteous' about it. Someone had the bright idea of using the tunes to popular television shows, and changing the lyrics to be more 'righteous' (I guess; that's the only explanation I have for the title).

No, it's not Christmas music, but it sure is ... er ... I'll let you be the judge. For the benefit of all mankind, the page has some samples.

I think that if there was a sample for track 12, “Mary and Joseph's Theme”, set to the tune of the Brady Bunch theme song ... well that would probably crack into my Horrible Christmas Music list. Unfortunately for me, I actually heard a snippet from that song in a story from NPR this morning, prompting me to look for more information and compose this post (too bad for you, huh?). Go to the page for Saturday's show, click on “Again with the Annoying Holiday Tunes” ... if you dare.

I do have to admit, though — there's a sad, strange part of me that really wants to hear “Elijah's Movin' on Up”, which is sung to the tune of the theme from The Jeffersons.