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Beyond Judging Doug: a mini-sermon on the parable of the talents
I had another chance to give an eight minute mini-sermon at (online) church this past Sunday. The text is below if you’re interested, or feel free to watch the video here. My part starts around 39:57. Esther Lee before me (starting around 33:43) and Michael Won after me (starting around 48:44) both have great things…
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Politicians, resistance, and Jesus the all-ruling one
In the earlier days of the pandemic, I decided to translate the book of Revelation from its original Greek. It turned out to go more quickly than my current project, the book of Luke. Revelation’s author, John, tends to use language that is (relatively) simple and straightforward in Greek. So, I’m not sure how many…
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Mini-sermon: A Different Kind of Power
I had the chance this last weekend to share a 7-8 minute mini-sermon for my church’s online worship service, so I thought I’d share it with y’all as well. If you prefer to watch a video, the service is on YouTube here. My part starts around 36:34, but check out the other two mini-sermons before…
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Empowerment and authoritarianism and the armor of God, with shout-out to the Black Panthers
Here is one way I might translate Ephesians 6:10-17 (emphasis added): (10) Henceforth, (y’all) be empowered in (the) Lord and in the strength of his ability. (11) (Y’all) put on the whole armor of God for the purpose of y’all being powerful to stand up to the schemes of the devil; (12) because the wrestling,…
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To the people with power
In Ephesians 6:5-9, Paul gives a series of instructions to δοῦλοι (slaves or servants―people in a position of subservience or subjection), and then to κυρίοις (masters or lords―people in a position of power). Here is the passage in the NRSV translation: 5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart,…
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Wives and participles and Bible and I’m done defending Paul
I thought I might write a post exploring how the original Greek of Ephesians 5:21-33 comes across a little less patriarchal―or at least a little more ambiguous in some ways―than our English translations suggest. And there are plenty of things that could be said to this effect. I could write about how Paul’s call to…
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Y’all, be angry!
As someone who has spent a fair amount of time reading the NIV translation of the Bible, I was surprised when I translated Ephesians 4:26 from the Greek to find that it does not really say “in your anger do not sin” (NIV). It actually says, “be angry and do not sin.” (This is all…
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Each one with their neighbor
Here is a literal translation of Ephesians 4:25: “Therefore, laying aside falsehood, (y’all) speak truth, each one with his/her/their neighbor, because we are members of one another.” I’m interested in the part about speaking truth, each one with their neighbor. Some translations try to make this part sound more natural in English, which is nice,…
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Enduring one another
At the beginning of the fourth chapter of Ephesians, Paul writes this: “Therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the…
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Utterly spiritless
In Ephesians chapter 3, Paul writes about the mystery of Christ that has been made known to him (v. 3). He writes about how God has given him grace to speak about the boundless riches of Christ (v. 8). And he writes that, in Christ, we have boldness and confidence to approach God (v. 12). …