The ancient Hebrew language can be notoriously difficult to translate. It was a dead language (in the sense that Latin is a dead language) from the time of the Babylonian exile, and the intended meaning of certain words and phrases is unclear, given the passage of time. This is not a major problem. For the …
Christos Anesti! I’m quite fond of "Greek Easter," as Mr. Panos called it fifteen years ago. Even though we’ve never been part of the local Greek parish, over the years, we’ve come to call Pascha “Greek Easter” (in contrast to “American Easter”) in our household in honor of Mr. Panos. There is a sense in …
We like lamb in our household. It’s expensive so we limit it to special occasions. We always have lamb and artichoke stew on Christmas. We typically have roast lamb or lamb curry during Bright Week (the week following Pascha) and we’ll usually do kabobs on the grill at least once in the summer. We have …
We have a tulip in our yard. That’s weird since we’ve never grown tulips in the decade and a half we’ve lived here. We had a week of severe weather (tornadoes to the north of us and monster hail to the south—all we got was the 40 mph winds with much stronger gusts and an …
Last Thursday was one of those high wind, low humidity, fire watch days that are not uncommon in Spring. Unfortunately, a barn in our neighborhood caught on fire, which spread to the adjoining field. It was big enough that the fire departments from the three closest towns were called in, so it was a day …
Ten years ago, in late March, one of the superstar megachurch pastors of this era, Mark Driscoll, was forced to take a leave of absence from the Mars Hill church, which at the time had over a dozen campuses scattered across the country, all connected by video feed so everyone attending everywhere could lap up …
I heard an interview with Marvin Olasky this week in which he mentioned his religious transition from the Communist Party to the Conservative Baptist Church. His description of the first couple of Sundays, ending with the long and insistent altar call, and all the old folks turning around and looking at him because he was …
Today (Mar 25) is the Feast of the Annunciation (exactly 9 months before the Nativity Feast on Dec 25). The story, found in Luke 1:26-38, is that the angel Gabriel visits and tells Mary she is going to have a baby. “You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call …
With Good Friday only ten days away on the Western calendar, I thought a brief mental exercise focusing on the cross might be of interest. The Christian East and West emphasize different aspects of the death of Christ, and I find the root cause of the difference fascinating. Hopefully, you will too. In the East, …
I developed an abiding interest in myth ever since reading Neumann’s, The Origins and History of Consciousness, about a decade ago. The contemporary mythical god named YouTube Algorithm (YTA) knows of this interest and because YTA wants to please me, it suggested a video entitled Anatomy of an Implosion, which is part one of a …
Just Another Jim 