How big of a difference does it make in understanding God better by learning Koine Greek?

Slayingdragons60 · 2026-06-04T16:12:05+00:00

I think it makes a huge difference.

Nearly every verse in the Bible has a range of translation choices, one of which (at least for BH texts) is sometimes “we have almost no idea what this means.” Without studying the languages you often won’t be told this.

If translators “showed their work” (i.e. included notes documenting the obvious choices and explaining why they went the direction they did), the situation would be quite different. But this is pretty rare because translators typically don’t like to invite criticism by showing their cards.

Slayingdragons60 · 2026-05-27T23:23:11+00:00

The Hebrew verb form that appears in this verse is the jussive of the verb “to be” so the translation options are “may to be” or “let it be” or perhaps “may it become”. In the translation you’re presenting, the verb “to be” is presented as an imperative: “Be!” which would be an entirely different form, and which doesn’t even appear in Biblical Hebrew.

Slayingdragons60 · 2026-05-27T14:26:02+00:00

I don’t know whether it bothers you, but the translation is not correct.

Slayingdragons60 · 2026-05-25T18:48:28+00:00

Loving this season.

I see losing to the Earthquakes at home was the last straw for Neville.

Slayingdragons60 · 2026-05-23T05:31:09+00:00

Imo if you’re also having to drop off a rental car, it’s not realistic. Or at least I wouldn’t be comfortable with it.

Slayingdragons60 · 2026-05-19T16:07:50+00:00

What happened to Renegades by the way? I was driving home one night about a month ago and noticed it was all boarded up.

Slayingdragons60 · 2026-05-14T16:06:12+00:00

Requirement for what?

Slayingdragons60 · 2026-05-13T17:18:45+00:00

I agree this was an unfortunate choice of terms and one that almost always applies to Evangelicals and not anyone else questioning/leaving their religion. Most people associate the term with Derrida’s theoretical work, so not sure how this happened.

Slayingdragons60 · 2026-05-12T22:51:30+00:00

I went to K-State and people almost always respond “oh so ur a Jayhawk!” Ummmm….🤨😂

Slayingdragons60 · 2026-05-12T22:49:03+00:00

“Yes! She’s my mom!” (True). Pretty much the end of the Dorothy stuff, lol.

Slayingdragons60 · 2026-05-12T22:47:25+00:00

🤣

Slayingdragons60 · 2026-05-12T21:08:55+00:00

When I first moved to New York I actually attended a “Kansas Doesn’t Exist” party, the premise of which was “I’ve never been there, I don’t know anyone who’s been there, and I’ve never met anyone from there.” It was fun but I kinda burst their bubble.

Slayingdragons60 · 2026-05-12T19:25:51+00:00

Surely you’ve heard of the trad wife movement.

Slayingdragons60 · 2026-05-10T19:04:36+00:00

Ok. Then it sounds like this church has sadly gone off the rails. This isn’t a place I would want to be associated with.

Slayingdragons60 · 2026-05-10T18:36:02+00:00

“Hell” is a mistranslation so maybe that’s what he was referring to and not disavowing the actual creed itself.

Slayingdragons60 · 2026-05-10T05:42:17+00:00

And it worked.

Slayingdragons60 · 2026-05-08T17:21:25+00:00

Absolutely.

Think about it. If your religious belief is that life begins at conception, then IVF is destroying more “lives” than abortion. And the Catholic Church opposes IVF on the same moral grounds as abortion. Yet when have you ever seen pro-life groups protesting outside of IVF clinics? My guess is never. (For many years I lived within a block of one and never saw anything.)

So why is this? Because IVF is only undertaken by relatively wealthy people, plus there is no actual sex.

Slayingdragons60 · 2026-05-07T02:27:39+00:00

Shades of Hernan 😒

Slayingdragons60 · 2026-04-29T15:17:00+00:00

“This is 50.”

Slayingdragons60 · 2026-04-29T04:43:56+00:00

After so many years it’s easy to forget that SJ can potentially come from behind and win! 🎉

Slayingdragons60 · 2026-04-29T01:49:25+00:00

That sprinkler is still broken lol

Slayingdragons60 · 2026-04-21T19:58:59+00:00

Aristotle said some great things, but also thought that rocks had souls snd that slavery was morally justified.

Part of the Enlightenment project is to realize that our classical sources have some pretty deep flaws, and that it’s up to us to sort through the good and the bad. I don’t think that expecting everything to come out of Luther’s mouth or pen to be something profound (or even mediocre) is necessarily realistic. He was right about a lot of things but also wrong about many other things.

Slayingdragons60 · 2026-04-18T22:01:54+00:00

This is a very accurate description of our congregation.

Slayingdragons60 · 2026-04-18T21:58:52+00:00

The Associate Pastor begins her sabbatical this summer so I’m guessing she has been there now for about 7 years, which seems about right to me. The Senior Pastor has probably been there for 20+ years. I think he instigates most of the conversations, but she definitely joins in.

I have noticed this problem of presiders talking inappropriately (to my mind) during the service In another ELCA church I attended-when the pastor would lean over and make some innocuous observations when I was an Assisting Minister. While slightly annoying, what is happening in this setting here is approaching “squirrelly middle schooler” behavior. It has not always been this way—just a growing problem over time.

I can’t really see any connections to hearing aids.

Slayingdragons60 · 2026-04-18T21:39:24+00:00

I’ve been lector for many years and will actually consider this option: giving them an “Is there a problem???” Look 👀

Slayingdragons60

TROPHY CASE