Saturday 23 August 2003

James has just posted his second commentary on John. While I remember, I thought I might lower the tone. From The Straight Dope:
Regarding humor in the Bible, here are some jokes from the New Testament (John 1:45-51):

Philip found Nathanael and said unto him, "We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" [Joke!] Philip said to him, "Come and see!" [Boom!] Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile" ["Hey, here's an honest Jew"--joke]. Nathanael [not getting it] said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered him, "Before Philip called you, I saw you yesterday, standing under a fig tree." Nathanael said [losing his cool], "Rabbi, you are the son of God! You are the king of Israel!" Jesus answered him, "Because I said I saw you standing under a fig tree, believest thou?" [Big joke! Gets laughs!] "You shall see greater things than these." [Release.] And he said to him, "Truly, truly I say unto you, you shall see the heavens opened and the angels of the Lord ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." [Boom!]

Preserving humor through translations from Aramaic to Greek to Latin to English is problematic, but with a little sympathy for the intent of the speaker, you can find a lot. --Del Close, Chicago
On the other hand, maybe deleting entries is a good idea. I know: I'll switch from outright irreverence to an interesting thing I found in the foreword (Canon J. B. Philips) of the interlinear bible earlier. Check it (you know; in a street way - oh never mind):
I am glad, for example, to see that Dr. Marshall has not missed the peculiar Greek construction in Matthew ch. 16, v. 19, where Jesus tells Peter that "what he binds on earth" will be "what has been bound" in Heaven. There is a world of difference between guaranteeing celestial endorsement of the Apostle's actions and promising that his actions guided by the Holy Spirit will be in accordance with the Heavenly pattern!
Ooh, contentious that is, being a favourite verse for Catholics arguing the primacy of Peter. But if you don't know Greek, there's no way of checking this kind of stuff. Hum.

Update: James maintains that it isn't actually "a world of difference" in any important respect, and, come to think of it, I agree with him.