Phil Gons

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Archives for 2007

Google Reader Gets Search

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For all you Google Reader users out there, you’ll be glad to know that you can finally search your feeds—both read and unread items! This is especially handy if you don’t tag an item and can’t remember where you read it. I use Google’s Web History to look up stuff like this, but it doesn’t work with feeds unless you actually visited the site. I will put this feature to good use.

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The Merit of Faith: Genesis 15:6 in JPS

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jps.jpgI just received the JPS Bible and Torah Commentary Collection (9 volumes) from Logos and started “thumbing” through a couple of the volumes. I’m glad I picked it up. It looks like a valuable series—primarily for what it reveals about modern Judaism’s understanding of the Tanakh.

As I expected, though, I’m going to disagree with many of the interpretations that it defends. Nahum Sarna’s interpretation of Genesis 15:6, for example, is disappointing on several levels.1

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  1. Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis, The JPS Torah commentary (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 113. [↩]

David Instone-Brewer Reviews SESB 2

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sesb.jpgDavid Instone-Brewer (also here and here), the Technical Officer and Senior Research Fellow in Rabbinics and the New Testament at Tyndale House, has posted his review of version 2 of the Stuttgart Electronic Study Bible (SESB).

Here are some selections from his section “Overall Usefulness: much better than paper”:

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My First Attempt at Building a Computer

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Due to some problems I was having with my three-year-old Dell Inspiron 5150, I decided to get a new computer. Instead of buying from Dell or elsewhere, I ended up building my own computer from scratch. I purchased all the individual components, assembled them, installed the OS and drivers, and then installed all my software. I thought I’d share my experience as a first-time builder for those of you who have considered doing the same thing.

Hardware

Here are the components I purchased:

$778 total (includes shipping and after rebates)

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The Pronunciation of “Propitiation”: The Mystery Solved

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This is my final post on the pronunciation of “propitiation.” I promise.

The Oxford English Dictionary, “the definitive record of the English language,” has the answer to the mystery behind Carson’s unusual pronunciation of “propitiation” as prō-pĭs-ē-ā-shŭn. As I suspected originally,1 it is an older pronunciation formerly used in England and France. Here’s the relevant portion from the pronunciation section: “Anglo-Norman propiciatiun and Middle French propiciation, propitiation (French propitiation, †propiciation).”2

No doubt, then, Carson picked it up in French Canada or during his studies in England at Cambridge University.

See also the previous two posts:

HT: Mark L. Ward Jr., who sent me a PDF of the entry.

  1. In my original post, I said, “Just a guess, but I wonder if it is British or reflects Carson’s knowledge of French. (Carson grew up in French Canada and studied in England.)” [↩]
  2. Cf. also this: “Forms: lME propiciacioun, lME-15 propiciacion, 15 propiciacyon, 15 propiciatyon, 15 propitiacion, 15 propycyacyon, 15-17 propiciation, 15- propitiation.” [↩]

“A Debtor to Mercy Alone” | Augustus Toplady

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Here’s another solid text from Toplady that I enjoyed meditating on this morning and last evening.

A debtor to mercy alone,
Of covenant mercy I sing;
Nor fear, with Thy righteousness on,
My person and off’ring to bring.
The terrors of law and of God
With me can have nothing to do;
My Saviour’s’ obedience and blood
Hide all my transgressions from view.

The work which His goodness began
The arm of His strength will complete;
His promise is yea and amen,
And never was forfeited yet.
Things future, nor things that are now,
Not all things below or above,
Can make Him His purpose forgo,
Or sever my soul from His love.

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What Does “No More Sea” in Revelation 21:1 Mean?

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Revelation 21:1 reads,

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.

Does this text teach that the new earth will not have large bodies of water (θαλάσσας)—no more lakes, seas, or oceans? Most think so.

The “sea” . . . must disappear before the eternity of joy can begin.1

The first hint of what the new heaven and new earth will be like comes in John’s observation that there will no longer be any sea. That will be a startling change from the present earth, nearly three-fourths of which is covered by water.2

Why would this be? Most argue that the sea symbolizes evil (or death or disorder), and thus the eradication of evil necessitates the removal of the sea.

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  1. Grant R. Osborne, Revelation, BECNT (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002), 743. [↩]
  2. John MacArthur, Revelation 12–22 (Chicago: Moody, 2000), 263. [↩]

Windows Live SkyDrive

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For those of you who don’t have a website with access to FTP and have an occasional need to share with others large files too big for email, you may want to consider Windows Live SkyDrive. It’s free and easy to use and gives you 500MB of space, handling up to 50MB individual files. Gmail allows up to 20MB attachments, but anything beyond that can be difficult to share over the web.

SkyDrive gives you three types of storage: personal, shared, and public. You can create as many different folders as you want.

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