My favorite book cataloguing site and my favorite used book site form a partnership. Check out the press release from Abebooks.

Let's just hope there isn't an 'AbeThing' in the offing. But all in all, it sounds awesome. Congrats, Tim!

Related News: Check out LibraryThing's new Thing-ology blog if you're at all into book cataloguing or social aspects of networks.

I think one of my favorite writings in the corpus known as the Apostolic Fathers is the one generally known as "Second Clement".

On Friday, I went to grab lunch from a teriyaki place just up the street from Logos. I ordered my beef yakisoba to go. While waiting for the order, I read through the first chapter of Second Clement. I was reading the Loeb edition from Lake, as it was handy on my shelf at the office. And I read it in the Greek, using the English on the facing page to help out in the places I got stuck.

Second Clement is awesome. You really should read it. If you read Hebrews in the NT and respond with a general "whoa!", then you need to read Second Clement. It is an awesome example of an early Christian homily.

There are two clauses in particular that hit me in this reading. The first was in 2Cl 1.6: "Our entire life was nothing if not death". The best way our lives, prior to Christ's involvement in them -- the best way they could be summed up would be to say that they were death.

The second was the last verse, 2Cl 1.8: "For he called us when we did not exist and he willed us out of non-being to be." Wow! And the clause previous to it: "We had not an ounce of hope of becoming saved if not through him." The one who created us, who called us out of non-being into being, he is the only one that can save us.

This morning, with 2Cl 1.6 still in mind, I worked through the first chapter in the Greek again, this time to work on a translation. It still needs work, but I thought I'd post it below. If you've never read Second Clement, give it a chance. If you have read it ... well, you already know it's pretty cool. Go read it again.

¹ Brethren, it is necessary for us to think in this way concerning Jesus Christ: [to think] as concerning God, [to think] as concerning the judge of the living and the dead. It is not proper for us to think little concerning our salvation. ² For when we think little concerning him, we also hope to receive little. The ones listening as though these were little things, they sin, and we sin — not knowing from where and on behalf of whom and into which place we have been called; nor how great the suffering Jesus Christ endured for us. ³ Therefore what can we give to him as return? What fruit [can we give him] worthy of that which he has given to us? And how much holiness do we owe him? ⁴ For he gave us the light; he greeted us as a Father does his sons; he saved us when we were being destroyed. ⁵ Therefore what praise shall we give to him? What wages can we give him as return? ⁶ We were maimed in our understanding, worshiping stone and wood and gold and silver and copper, the works of men. Our entire life was nothing if not death. And so we were blanketed in darkness and had eyes full of foggy mist. But we received sight, by his will we have cast off the cloud that enveloped us. ⁷ For he had mercy on us and saved us in his compassion, having seen in us the great error and destruction. We had not an ounce of hope of becoming saved, if not through him. ⁸ For he called us when we did not exist and he willed us out of non-being to be.

If you're a reader, you'll appreciate one of Scot McKnight's latest posts (how does the man write so much?!), On Marking Books. Here's a heavily ellipsed quote:

Eighth, if you don’t like a book don’t read it. ... If you find a book boring, find one that isn’t boring. And that will limit the writers you read, which is a good thing. Unfortunately, it will lead you to cut back on some influential biblical scholars who have the capacity to write mind-numbing prose backed up with buckets of references and footnotes that show off everything they’ve read and don’t advance the argument — except to show that they’ve read the stuff.

Some ricoblog readers may be interested in this post I wrote for the Logos Bible Software Blog.

It is a decent example of some of the benefits of searching the Greek New Testament by taking syntactic criteria (clauses, phrases, and relationships between words, phrases and clause components; along with morphological criteria, proximity and agreement) into account in comparison with similar searching that only takes morphological criteria (parsing/declension and lexical forms) along with proximity and agreement into account.

Phew. That's a lot of fancy words. Just read the post and you'll see what I mean.

[This is part of a running series on the Didache. See the introductory post for more information — RWB]

Phrasing/Translation

ἴσθι δὲ πραΰς,
But be gentle,
   ἐπεὶ οἱ πραεῖς κληρονομήσουσι τὴν γῆν.
   because the gentle ones will inherit the earth.

γίνου μακρόθυμος
Be even-tempered
   καὶ ἐλεήμων
   and merciful
   καὶ ἄκακος
   and innocent
   καὶ ἡσύχιος
   and quiet
   καὶ ἀγαθὸς
   and good
   καὶ τρέμων τοὺς λόγους [διὰ παντός],*
   and [always] trembling at the words
      οὓς ἤκουσας.
      that you have heard.

οὐχ ὑψώσεις σεαυτὸν
Do not exalt yourself
   οὐδὲ δώσεις τῇ ψυχῇ σου θράσος.
   or give arrogance to your soul.

οὐ κολληθήσεται ἡ ψυχή σου
Do not let your soul be joined
   μετὰ ὑψηλῶν,
   with the haughty,
   ἀλλὰ μετὰ δικαίων καὶ ταπεινῶν ἀναστραφήσῃ.
   but be associated with the just and honorable.

τὰ συμβαίνοντά σοι ἐνεργήματα ὡς ἀγαθὰ προσδέξῃ,
The experiences that happen to you, receive them as good,
   εἰδὼς ὅτι ἄτερ θεοῦ οὐδὲν γίνεται.
   knowing that apart from God nothing occurs.

* Funk-Bihlmeyer [hence Ehrman] omit διὰ παντός

Notes

This section, in contrast to §3.1-6, begins with positive prescriptions. Instead of all of the prohibitions of that previous section, one is to be gentle (meek). This is a quotation of Mt 5.5, again from the Sermon on the Mount. It is followed up by a further list of qualities to pursue: even-temperedness, mercy, innocence, quietness and goodness.

The addition of "[always] trembling at the words you have heard" jars the reader (or listener) from the peace of the list. Quiet, steady qualities were being listed only to be followed up with an exhortation to awe and respect when considering those very same qualities. These are not passive things to lightly desire, they are important aspects that must be integrated into the life of the baptismal candidate.

Two more prohibitions follow. These both really point to the same idea: Don't associate with the proud and haughty. And that is really just a negative reformulation of the gist of the first part, to be intensely humble and gentle.

This is all tied together with the ending statement, reminding the baptismal candidate to accept everything that happens as good because whatever happens (even the cruddy stuff) comes from God. Apart from God, the creator and ordainer of all things, nothing can occur. This in turn once again reminds the baptismal candidate to be zealously obedient to the call of humility and gentleness. People are not in control of what happens. Thus one's reaction in any situation in life, good or bad, is a reaction to the work of God (understandable or not) in his life.

So, overall, we end up with a structure like this:

• First Two Groups: State the goal positively
• Second Two Groups: State the goal negatively
• Conclusion: Reiterate why the goal is necessary

The baptismal candidate can respond one of two ways to any situation he encounters. He can respond with gentleness, humility and even-temperedness at the situation God has wrought in his life; or he can respond with pride and arrogance in the mistaken conception that he himself can do something about it. The baptismal candidate should respond with the understanding that God will work what he will work, and respond properly and faithfully accept the will of God.

I took a bunch of sunset photos on Chuckanut Drive last week Thursday (May 4). I finally got around to uploading them tonight.

Check 'em out if you're interested, though I've posted a few below:

[disclaimer: I do work for Logos Bible Software, but the below post is from me, not from Logos.]

If you're in Biblical Studies at all, working with the text of the Hebrew Bible or the Greek New Testament, you've heard of the Hermeneia Commentary series.

All 40 published volumes will be published as a CD-ROM product in the Libronix Digital Library System (LDLS), fully compatible and complementary to Logos Bible Software.

You can pre-order Hermeneia now via the Logos Pre-Publication system. The price is currently $500 (do the math: $12.50 per volume!), the pre-pub system only charges you upon release and shipment of the software.

You don't have to like the conclusions of the Hermeneia commentaries, but if you're doing anything serious, you have to deal with them. The series is unique in that it includes volumes of extra-biblical material too (e.g., 1 Enoch, Didache, Ignatian Epistles, 4 Ezra, etc.).

More info is on the pre-pub page. Do check it out.

I'm always on the lookout for cool little books that could help me in building my skill with Hellenistic Greek. Recently I ran across a reference to a book called A Greek Papyrus Reader by Edgar J. Goodspeed and Ernest Cadman Colwell. I found a used copy on AbeBooks at a decent price, so I got it.

It is a small book (just over 100 pages) but in those 100 pages there are 82 papyri (all sorts) transcribed with short introductions and notes on vocabulary. There is a decent short glossary in the back of the book as well.

It's a very cool little book, a nice complement to Wikgren's A Hellenistic Greek Reader. Here's one example from the papyrus reader that is actually quite relevant for my current situation:

P.Oxy.524, ii A.D.

Ἐρωτᾷ σε Διονύσιος δειπνῆ-
σαι εἰς τοὺς γάμους τῶν τέκνων
ἑαυτοῦ ἐν τῇ Ἰσχυρίωνος αὔριον,
ἥτις ἐστὶν λ ἀπὸ ὥρας θ

What does it say? Well ... it is an invitation to a wedding dinner. Since I'm in the midst of working out details for my own wedding rehearsal dinner, it seemed appropriate. Here's the translation, from Grenfell & Hunt's Oxyrhychus Papyrus volume III, p. 261:

Dionysius invites you to dine with him on the occasion of the marriage of his children at the house of Ischyrion tomorrow, the 30th, at 9 (?) o'clock.

I had it all worked out except for "Ischyrion" (names confound me at this point) and the hour.

However, both the papyrus reader and the P.Oxy translation note that ὥρας θ has the meaning of "the usual hour (about 3 PM)". So ... take that for what you will. Also, the papyrus reader notes that the invitiation was sent out the day before the dinner and comments, "It would be a brave hostess, indeed, to-day, who would expect to secure any acceptances on such short notice." (Goodspeed and Colwell, 2).

All in all, it is a cool little book. Hopefully I'll have the discipline to work through it a bit.