The Little Friar

  I believe firmly in the value of all vulgar notions, especially of vulgar jokes. When once you have got hold of a vulgar joke, you may be certain that you have got hold of a subtle and spiritual idea. The men who made the joke saw something deep which they could not express except by something silly and emphatic. They saw something delicate which they could only express by something indelicate.... And in the first case it is surely obvious that it is not merely at the fact of something being hurt that we laugh (as I trust we do) when a Prime Minister sits down on his hat. If that were so we should laugh whenever we saw a funeral. We do not laugh at the mere fact of something falling down; there is nothing humorous about leaves falling or the sun going down. When our house falls down we do not laugh. All the birds of the air might drop around us in a perpetual shower like a hailstorm without arousing a smile. If you really ask yourself why we laugh at a man sitting down suddenly i...

This is my very, very, very, very rough translation of Luke 2.1-20.   Katalyma -- perhaps the most interesting word in this passage (often translated as 'inn' but which I have translated as 'guest room', is found in another place in Luke -- Luke 22:11, describing where His last passover would be held).  The praise of the heavenly host is very hard to translate, but it is more structured than most translations make it.  We start with doxa , glory or fame or splendor, and we end with eudokias , an unusual adjective from the same verb; there is also the parallel with glory being in the highest (the Highest or Most High, Hypsistos , is very often a name for God, translating the Hebrew Elyon , so the first part may well have the meaning, 'Glory in God to God') and peace being in men.  I also think it's noteworthy that the shepherds simply assume that what the angels proclaimed has come to pass; they don't go to see whether it's true, they go to see the fa...

It is Christmas Eve.  A silence falls across the land.  All the shops are shut, and the sound of the traffic falls silent at last.  Those rushing to and fro' are at home around the hearth and tree. Some have gone to sing carols at the village church.  Others are with them in spirit, if not in body. Tomorrow is Christmas Day.  Let us remember it, and honor it. Happy Christmas to all my readers.  May you find blessing.

My very, very, very rough translation: For the word of the cross is, to the annihilated, stupidity; to us, being saved, it is God's power. It is written: For I will annihilate the wise man's wisdom, and the intelligent man's intelligence I will set aside. Where is the wise one? Where is the literate one? Where is the debater of this era? Has not God made stupid the universe's wisdom? For as in God's wisdom, the universe through wisdom did not know God, so God was pleased through the stupidity of the proclamation to save the faithful. Now Jews request signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, to the Jewish very much a stumblingblock but to the nations stupidity -- but to the invited, Jew and also Greek, Christ, God's power and God's wisdom. For God's stupidity is wiser than humanity and God's weakness stronger than humanity. For examine your invitation, brothers, how not many fleshly-wise, not many powerful, not many well-born, b...

My very, very, very rough translation of Luke 1.46-55, commonly referred to as "The Magnificat".  The Greek word megalynei is an interesting word; it literally means to increase or make great .  The word can figuratively mean 'extol', i.e., 'expound the greatness of', as it certainly does here, but the repeated play on 'great', 'lowly', and 'mighty' through the song shows that the word was very deliberately chosen as a figure of speech due to its literal meaning:  The Virgin makes the Lord great in her soul because He has done great things in her.  My goal here is to help readers see the radical nature of the song itself. And as Elisabet heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb and Elisabet was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a great shout and said, "You are to be praised among women, and the fruit of your belly is to be praised. And why should the mother of my Lord come to me? See! For as the ...

What follows is my very, very, very rough translation of 1 John 1.1-2.4.  Note that I translate logos as Reason throughout; it is usually translated, due to the influence of Latin translations, as Word. What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have stared at with eyes, what we have observed and our hands have handled, about the Reason of life -- and the life was manifested, and we have stared at and witness and announce to you the perpetual life which was with the Father and manifested to us -- what we have stared at and what we have heard, we also announce to you so that you also may have communion with us. And our communion is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And we write these things so that our joy might be fulfilled. And this is the message we have heard from Him and we announce to you: that God is light and there is no darkness at all in Him. If we should say that we have communion with Him and should walk in darkness, we deceive, and do no...

This is my very, very, very rough translation of 1 Corinthians 13.  It is an immensely difficult passage to translate, for reasons I'll lay out in a minute. If I talk in human and angelic languages, but do not possess devotedness, I have become a reverberating gong or clanging cymbal; and if I possess prophecy and recall all of the secret things and all knowledge, and if I possess complete confidence so as to remove mountains, but do not possess devotedness, I am nothing; and if I dole out all my belongings and if I surrender my body in such a way that I might be proud, but do not possess devotedness, I have benefited not at all. Devotedness is bold, serviceable; devotedness is not jealous; devotedness is not boastful, not inflated, not formless; it does not seek its own, it is not exasperated, it does not keep track of injuries, it does not take joy in injustice but rejoices with the truth. It covers all, confides all, anticipates all, endures all. Devotedness never at all collaps...