I'm reading John now, as you may have noticed, which is also the name of this splendid fellow who has a new blog, but it's not finished yet! I should probably mention that I finished A New Eusebius a while back too. It didn't end very dramatically. There was some stuff about Athanusius, which I frankly didn't understand, and then some extracts from Eusebius saying how great Constantine was and how he died. I was a bit confused, because I was expecting him to become pope and he didn't. I think this was Constantine the Great (b. 274-288) rather than the pope fellow. I should have known; everyone seems to have had the same name back then. I've decided that I am, on the whole, in favour of surnames. What also didn't help was that there was an extract entitled "Constantine as Bishop", which was only a chuffing metaphor. It's not what you want in a reference book. Anyway, the book as a whole raised more questions than it answered. Not a bad thing, I daresay.
I have veered away from today. Oh yes, John. I read John 5, in my RSV. John 5:39:
You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me[.]Righto, I thought. I wonder if the NIV has that a little differently; I am given to understand (paradosis) that the NIV is not an especially impartial translation. I wonder if it puts a more positive spin on the scriptures:
You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the scriptures that testify about me.
I didn't notice the "diligently" first time around, or the capitalisation of "Scriptures", but the sense of it seemed to be pretty dashed similar, so I didn't think too much of it. What caught my attention was the second bit. The NIV has a different sentence structure altogether, which means that one of these must differ in structure from the original Greek. Why? This struck me as a little rummy. One of the perks of being the son of a preacher man is that you can get an interlinear bible, in this case The NIV Interlinear Greek-English New Testament, with ease. So I did.
Ye search the scriptures because ye think in them life eternal to have; and those are the [ones] witnessing concerning me;
Fair enough I suppose. The RSV's a bit more faithful, but I guess it's the NIV's perogative to edit out a little clunkiness. I don't think Greek has punctuation (correct me if I'm wrong), but I did see capital letters, which means that the NIV have put "Scriptures" where the text doesn't suggest it. You know, I kind of wish I hadn't typed all that out - there doesn't seem to have been much point to it. I suppose it's because I'd started and I didn't want to scratch the whole thing.
Anyway, after all that frivolity I watched Whistle Down the Wind. I have no idea why it's called that. I think the review that's there is pretty dashed good, but I don't agree that "[t]his is a tough little movie that says we lose hope and the idea of faith as we mature". I mean, Cathy's one of the older kids, and she's the one who blindly hangs on, her young brother being the one who gives up on the "fella". The ending's good; it doesn't tell you what to think, only what Cathy does. I hate it when you're certain about something at the end of a movie. Well, that's a bit strong. What I mean is, I prefer not to be told.
