Monthly Archives: April 2022

“Happy Quasimodo Sunday” – 2022

Not this Quasimodo (Charles Laughton in 1939); it’s the first line of First Peter 2:2 in Latin…

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April 24, 2022 is officially the Second Sunday of Easter. Note the “of,” not “after.” That’s because Easter is “not just one day, but an entire season.” It’s a season of 50 days – called Eastertide – that runs from Easter Sunday to Pentecost(See Frohliche Ostern.) It’s also known as Low Sunday, mostly because church attendance falls off so drastically on that first Sunday “after.” (Compared with the high attendance of Easter Day. On that note see “CEOs;”  i.e., Christians who only go to church on Christmas and Easter. “Christmas and Easter Only.”)

But aside from being “low,” it’s also the”Sunday of Many Names!” That includes Doubting Thomas Sunday – the Gospel for the day always tells the story of “Doubting Thomas” – and the Octave of Easter. (Because chronologically it comes eight days after Easter.)

And finally it’s known as “Quasimodo Sunday.” But that’s not because of Quasimodo – the guy shown in the lead image – and better known as the “Hunchback of Notre Dame:”

Instead, the name comes from a Latin translation of the beginning of First Peter 2:2 , a traditional “introit” used in churches on this day. First Peter 2:2 begins – in English and depending on the translation – “As newborn babes, desire the rational milk without guile…” [Or, “pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation.”] In Latin the verse reads: “Quasi modo geniti infantes…” Literally, “quasi modo means ‘as if in [this] manner.’”

Since “geniti” translates as “newborn” and the translation of “infantes” seems self-evident, the “quasi modo” in question roughly translates, “As if in the manner” (of newborn babes)

And incidentally, that character in Hunchback of Notre-Dame was named after the opening words of First Peter 2:2. In the New International Version it reads, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation.” Also incidentally, the passage right before it reads, “Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander.” Which is definitely a needed reminder these days. (“Facebook commenters!”)

I’ve written of this Second Sunday of Easter in 2017’s “Doubting Thomas Sunday” – 2017, 2019’s On Easter, Doubting Thomas Sunday – and a Metaphor, and 2021’s Happy “Sunday of Many Names!” The first of the three noted Wikipedia saying a doubting Thomas is a “skeptic who refuses to believe without direct personal experience, a reference to the Apostle Thomas, who refused to believe that the resurrected Jesus had appeared to the ten other apostles, until he could see and feel the wounds received by Jesus on the cross.”

The 2019 post Easter … and a Metaphor talked about these two Sundays and also a metaphor about Jesus inviting Peter to literally “walk on water.” It’s true that Peter “fell flat on his face” – at least metaphorically – but at least he took the chance of accepting Jesus’ invitation. As a result of taking that chance – and not following the safe path and staying in the boat – Peter’s faith grew in ways that the other disciples could never experience. (He “explored his full potential;” so much so that he became Primus inter pares. “First among equals.”)

The third of the three noted Doubting Thomas’ “passage to India,” on the tradition that Thomas sailed to India in 52 AD, to spread the Christian faith. And that he was martyred in 72 AD.

Some Patristic literature state[s] that St. Thomas died a martyr, in east of Persia or in North India by the wounds of the four spears pierced into his body by the local soldiers.

One result? India, and especially the Malabar coast, still boasts a large native population calling themselves “Christians of St. Thomas.” Not bad for a guy who started out doubting…

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The upper image is courtesy of Quasimodo Laughton Image – Image Results. Included in a “Pinterest” page on “The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1939.” See also Quasimodo – Wikipedia.

Re: Book of Common Prayer. See page 339, under Holy Eucharist:  Rite One:

Almighty and everliving God, we most heartily thank thee for that thou dost feed us, in these holy mysteries, with the spiritual food of the most precious Body and Blood of thy Son our Savior Jesus Christ; and dost assure us thereby of thy favor and goodness towards us; and that we are very members incorporate in the mystical body of thy Son, the blessed company of all faithful people…

Or see The Online Book of Common Prayer.

Re: “Doubting Thomas Sunday.” The readings for this Second Sunday of Easter always include John 20:19-31, which tells the story of Thomas overcoming his doubt by personally seeing Jesus after His resurrection. (Overcoming his saying earlier, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”)

Re: An “Introit,” like First Peter 2:2. Merriam-Webster defines it as either “the first part of the traditional proper of the Mass consisting of an antiphon, verse from a psalm, and the Gloria Patri,” or a “piece of music sung or played at the beginning of a worship service.” The Gloria Patri generally goes like this:  “Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, and now, and ever shall be, world without end.  Amen.”

Re: St. Thomas’ martyrdom. Said to be at Mylapore near Chennai in India.

The lower image is courtesy of Doubting Thomas In The Bible – Image Results. It goes with a page, Is it Fair to Call Today’s Saint “Doubting Thomas?” The article included the thought that “faith and doubt are not antitheses – they’re twins.” And that “St. Thomas became the Apostle of India, traveling perhaps farther than any other apostle to preach the Gospel, baptizing thousands of people on the Subcontinent, creating a Christian community that has lasted to this day.”

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On Good Friday – 2022

Antonio Ciseri‘s depiction of Ecce Homo with Jesus and Pontius Pilate, 19th century…”

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April 15, 2022 – It’s Holy Week, which means Easter is coming. But Holy Week includes Good Friday, today, which “commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus and his subsequent death.” And which can include”self-guided time of reflection.” Which led to some reflection on Thomas Merton. You can type “Merton” in the search engine above right, but today I’d like to focus on two past posts, 2014’s On Thomas Merton, and 2021’s “Zen in the Art of College Football.”

Merton was a Roman Catholic monk. But in later life he found similarities between his orthodox Catholicism and the exotic Eastern religions that were all the rage back in the 1970s. One biographer said Merton was helped in his spiritual quest by both Christian mysticism and his “wide knowledge of Oriental religions.” Merton became fascinated with Zen Buddhism and writer D. T. Suzuki. He studied Taoism, “regular” Buddhism and Hinduism. 

But dallying in these exotic Eastern disciplines didn’t weaken his Catholicism, his Christian faith. If anything, they strengthened that faith. As the biographer wrote:

[B]y approaching the spiritual quest at unexpected angles, they opened up new ways of thought and new ways of experiencing that invigorated and released him. . .

Which led to my theory, that studying the Bible was meant to liberate the human spirit, not shackle it. Which goes along with the idea expressed in Luke 24:45, where Jesus opened His disciples’ minds so they could understand the Scriptures. Which brings up “a moment of zen.”

As one Zen Master said, “You are like this cup; you are full of ideas. You come and ask for teaching, but your cup is full; I can’t put anything in. Before I can teach you, you’ll have to empty your cup.” And if you think that sounds non-Biblical, see Philippians 2:7, where Paul said Jesus “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” 

But why? What example was Jesus trying to set? What point was He trying to make?

This is harder than you might realize. By the time we reach adulthood we are so full of information that we don’t even notice it’s there. We might consider ourselves to be open-minded, but in fact, everything we learn is filtered through many assumptions and then classified to fit into the knowledge we already possess.

That’s all from Empty Your Cup, an Old Zen Saying. Then there’s another old Zen saying, that a child looks at a mountain and sees a mountain, an adult looks at a mountain and sees many things, but that a Zen master looks at a mountain and sees – a mountain. Which seems to mirror what Jesus said in Matthew 18:3, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

So maybe becoming like a child again means – among other things – looking at a mountain and seeing … a mountain. And that in turn seems to involve dropping layers of life-long preconceptions, loosening up spiritual “hardened arteries,” and opening up to the majesty of God’s creation and His gift of Jesus. In other words, be open minded, open up to God’s majesty. 

Not to mention the majesty of God coming to earth in the form of Jesus, and His living among us for 33 years – just to help us out – then making the ultimate “ultimate sacrifice.”

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Getting back to Good Friday, in 2016 I posted An Annunciation-Good Friday anomaly. The “anomaly” was that in 2016 the Annunciation fell on the same day as Good Friday, “in which the liturgical color is black.” The wearing of black liturgical color begins at the end of the Maundy Thursday evening service. (In Western churches.) That’s when the altar is stripped and “clergy no longer wear the purple or red that is customary throughout Great Lent.” Instead they don black vestments until Easter Sunday, when – as we know – there is a happy ending.

I may not be able to post anything on Easter Sunday until well into next week. In the meantime you could check other past posts, like Happy Easter – April 2020! I posted that a month after the current COVID pandemic started, and that continues “even to this day.” That post noted that I got two books from the local library, including The Plague, by Albert Camus. (The other was What Jesus Meant, by Garry Wills.) Anyway, for a more cheerful note on the reason for the season, see See On Easter Season – AND BEYOND, and Frohliche Ostern – “Happy Easter!

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“An Easter postcard depicting the Easter Bunny…”

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The upper image is courtesy of Pontius Pilate – Wikipedia.

Re: Book of Common Prayer. See page 339, under Holy Eucharist:  Rite One:

Almighty and everliving God, we most heartily thank thee for that thou dost feed us, in these holy mysteries, with the spiritual food of the most precious Body and Blood of thy Son our Savior Jesus Christ; and dost assure us thereby of thy favor and goodness towards us; and that we are very members incorporate in the mystical body of thy Son, the blessed company of all faithful people…

Or see The Online Book of Common Prayer.

Re: Prior posts on Thomas Merton. Some of them are missing the images that I put in, which means in the upcoming week after Easter that I’ll have to go back and update them.

Re “Dropping layers of life-long preconceptions.” Another metaphor: Cleaning your “assumption filters” on a regular basis. (See Dirty Air Filter – Image Results.)

The lower image is courtesy of Easter – Wikipedia.

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An update on “Bible inerrancy…”

If you take Bible literalism too literally, you may end up with a nickname like “Stumpy…”

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We are now in the Fifth week in Lent, with some 18 days before Easter. But aside from last March 25’s celebration of The Annunciation, there aren’t any Feast Days left until HOLY WEEK – April 10-16, 2022. Which makes this a good time to go back and revisit “Biblical inerrancy.”

But first a note about the lead picture above. The caption – from Wikipedia – reads, “Snake handling at Pentecostal Church of God, Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky September 15, 1946.”

I’ve argued before that such snake handlers interpret Mark 16:17-18 way too literally. (The passage talks about the signs that will accompany those who believe, including “they will pick up snakes with their hands,” and drink deadly poison without effect.) Which means that such a too-literal Christian could end up dead, or at least with a nickname like “Stumpy.”

And speaking of Biblical inerrancy, back in September 2020, I posted On an old friend – and his “Bible literalism.” Since then I’ve learned even more about the topic, but also realized I didn’t “define my terms, Chump!” (Borrowing a phrase variously attributed to Socrates, Aristotle or Voltaire. “If you wish to debate with me, define your terms.”) So taking a look at Biblical inerrancy – Wikipedia, we can see first the distinction between “inerrancy” and “infallibility.” Thus some such believers “equate inerrancy with biblical infallibility; others do not.”

To me the issue is whether literalist Christians are saying there are no clerical or scrivener’s errors, whatsoever, in any copy, version or translation of the Bible. Or whether – for example – the “Biblical” computation of time is completely accurate. (The earth is six thousand years old, as opposed to the estimate of over four billion years old.) Then there’s this, from Wikipedia:

Some literalist or conservative Christians teach that the Bible lacks error in every way in all matters: chronology, history, biology, sociology, psychology … and so on. Other Christians believe that the scriptures are always right (do not err) only in fulfilling their primary purpose: revealing God, God’s vision, God’s purposes, and God’s good news to humanity.

To cut to the chase, I’d say the Bible is inerrant “in all that it affirms.” Which is pretty much what Billy Graham said some time ago, as will be seen. But first some background…

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The post Old friend … “Bible literalism started off noting we don’t have any original manuscripts of the 27 books of the New Testament. “What we do have are “copies of copies of copies.” (According to Great Courses Plus; Professor Bart Ehrman‘s lectures on The New Testament.) I also noted that to me, the Bible “proves itself” to you as a person, with what you do with it as an individual believer, how you interact with and experience God in your own life.*

I also noted some problems reading the Bible, like that Old Testament Hebrew had no vowels or punctuation. Words and sentences were simply strung together. Then there was Jesus’ way of teaching, parables. Which were both hard to interpret literally, and which could mean different things to different people. (That “clunk” was a Southern Baptist having apoplexy.)

Which brings up a website, Why is it important to believe in biblical inerrancy. Which leads to another question, “What do you mean by ‘inerrant?'” Which brings up Billy Graham helping shape the Lausanne Covenant. (The “July 1974 religious manifesto promoting active worldwide Christian evangelism.”) See Billy Graham, Evangelism,.. and Inerrancy:

We affirm the divine inspiration, truthfulness and authority of both Old and New Testament Scriptures in their entirety as the only written word of God,* without error in all that it affirms, and the only infallible rule of faith and practice. (Emphasis added.)

Which brings up another problem, that a claim of “absolute inerrancy” makes it easy for a would-be convert to avoid converting. All “they” need do – to avoid coming to God, through Jesus – is find one minor error or contradiction. By making such a claim, Literalists create one of those “stumbling blocks to the weak” that Paul noted in 1st Corinthians 8:9.

On the other hand, I’d say that if some Bibles contain some minor errors, it’s only because of the human element in its transmission. As in the phrase, “garbled in transmission.” And to all of which I can say to such Literalists, “I respect your right to have that opinion, but I disagree.”

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But wait, there’s more! Which is being interpreted: Since 2020 I’ve run across even more interesting data. Like a series of lectures on the Dead Sea Scrolls, by Professor Gary A. Rendsberg. And especially his Lecture 11, on the “Biblical Manuscripts at Qumran.”

For one thing, Rendsberg mentioned some differences between the original Hebrew Old Testament and a later Hebrew-to-Greek early translation, the Septuagint. (The “earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible.”) For example, the original Hebrew of Exodus 1:5 reads that 70 Israelites (Jacob and his family) went down to Egypt during a time of famine. The Septuagint said there were 75. So which is it?

I’d say it doesn’t really matter. The point is not something the Bible really “affirms.” Which brings up the the better view set out by John R. W. Stott. ((1921-2011.) I’ve mentioned Stott before, in numerous posts,* but he was the Anglican cleric who Time magazine ranked among the 100 most influential people in the world. He wrote Understanding the Bible, and on pages 140-143, he made three key points.

Again, there’s more boring detail in those prior posts, but Stott’s key point is that the words of the Bible are true “only in context.” (Using the Book of Job as an example of some passages that can be taken out of context, like  Mark 16:17-18. And that in turn, Scripture is without error “in all that it affirms.” (A factor not always apparent “in the so-called ‘inerrancy debate.”) And keeping in mind that the Bible often describes God in human terms, not to be taken as literally true.

For more on the “inerrancy debate,” see Fundamentalism – Wikipedia. That article noted the “Five Fundamentals” set out at the Niagara Bible Conference 1910, including the doctrine that the Bible “is without error or fault in all its teaching.” Which sounds similar to the idea that the Bible is without error “in all that it affirms.”

And finally, I’d say this business of “requiring every word of the Bible to be inerrant” – without any error of any kind – brings to mind what Jesus said in Matthew 23:4. He chastised the Scribes and Pharisees, saying in pertinent part that such they “make strict rules that are hard for people to obey. They try to force others to obey all their rules. But they themselves will not try to follow any of those rules.” (In the “Easy-to-Read” translation.)

To me, requiring every copy and every version of the Bible to be correct in every “jot and tittle” – to say that no Bible has even the most minor clerical or scrivener’s error – is one of those “stumbling blocks” that keep potential converts away from Christianity.

More than that, it makes some people who call themselves Christian miss the whole point of Jesus’ teaching. They focus more on the letter of the law than its spirit, and as Paul noted in 2d Corinthians 3:6, “the letter kills but the spirit gives life.” So if you are such a Literalist, feel free to believe what you believe. “But as for me and my house,” I’ll follow John 4:24, “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

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The upper image is courtesy of Snake handling – Wikipedia.  The caption reads, “Snake handling at Pentecostal Church of God, Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky September 15, 1946 (National Archives and Records Administration). Photo by Russell Lee.” I used the image in On snake-handling, Fundamentalism and suicide – Part I, with this caption: A snake-handler – who may answer to the name ‘Stumpy’ – ostensibly following Mark 16.” As to the validity of such practices as snake handling as a method of proving faith, see Does MARK 16:17-18 mean that Christians should handle deadly …:

This passage can be understood two ways.  One way is to assume that Jesus followers are expected to handle deadly snakes…   Another way to understand this passage is to be reassured that when Christians accidentally come in contact with poisonous snakes, God will miraculously protect them…   Such an experience happened to the apostle Paul.  After being shipwrecked and escaping to the island of Malta, Paul was bitten by a deadly snake. [Acts:28:1-6].  Additionally, the Bible tells us that we should not tempt God by deliberately placing ourselves in potential danger [Matthew 4:5-7]. (E.A.)

Further information on the “Quiverfull Movement” can be found at sites including Quiverfull – WikipediaWhat Is Quiverfull? – Patheos, part of “No longer quivering,” an ostensible “gathering place for women escaping and healing from spiritual abuse;”  5 Insane Lessons from My Christian Fundamentalist Childhood …;  and/or QuiverFull .com :: Psalm 127:3-5.

Re: Fifth week in Lent. Starting with the fifth Sunday in Lent, April 3, 2022.

Re: “Lent 2022.” See Lent 2022 – Calendar Date, which said this Lenten period starts on Wednesday, March 2nd and ends on Thursday, April 14 with evening mass on Holy Thursday. (Most people think it ends with Easter Sunday.) Other notes:  It is “44 days from Ash Wednesday to Maundy Thursday and another two days with Good Friday and Holy Saturday added to give a total of 46 days for Lent. But Sundays are excluded from fasting during Lent and with 6 Sundays removed from the count we get lent being a 40 day liturgical period.”

Re: “Define your terms.” As attributed to Aristotle, see Define Your Terms | Kippy. To Voltaire, see Define Your Terms – Simple Liberty. And from Socrates, see Quote by Socrates: “The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.”

Re: Age of the earth. For the “young earth, 6,000 years old” theory see How Old Is The Earth According To The Bible? | The Institute for Creation Research. For a more expansive – between four and five billion years old – see Age of Earth – Wikipedia, with citations. (Personally, I wasn’t there.)

Re: The Bible as “without error and therefore completely true.” See Biblical inerrancy – Wikipedia. and – for that view different than mine – Why is it important to believe in biblical inerrancy.)

Also, vis-a-vis missing NT manuscripts: The night before posting I learned – through another Great Courses Bible lecture – that many “puns” in original OT Hebrew were lost in translation. See for example Bible Secrets Revealed, Episode 1: “Lost in Translation,” and Five Mistakes in Your Bible Translation | HuffPost. From the former, “different copies of the same Biblical books from the Dead Sea Scrolls don’t often match, [so] at the time of Jesus, the Hebrew Biblical texts existed in different versions and traditions that were still being sorted out. What this means is that it is very difficult to argue that the Bible is the verbatim ‘Word of God,’ especially when all of the ancient manuscripts contain different words.” From the latter, “In the original Hebrew, the 10th Commandment prohibits taking, not coveting. The biblical Jubilee year is named for an animal’s horn and has nothing to do with jubilation. The pregnant woman in Isaiah 7:14 is never called a virgin.” Also, “Metaphors are particularly difficult to translate, because words have different metaphoric meanings in different cultures. Shepherds in the Bible were symbols of might, ferocity and royalty, whereas now they generally represent peaceful guidance and oversight.” I may use these points in a future post.

Re: More on Deuteronomy 32:8. In the original Hebrew, Deuteronomy 32:8 said God set the boundaries “of the peoples” – the boundaries of the world – “according to the number of the children of Israel.” The same passage in the Septuagint reads, “according to the number of angels of God.” In turn, most translations in the “Bible Hub” website had 70 Israelites going down Egypt, including the King James Version that “all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls.” But “Hub” also cited Genesis 46:26, which put the number at 66, and Acts 7:14, which said “Joseph sent for his father Jacob and all his relatives, seventy-five in all.” 

Re: “My old friend Fred.” It wasn’t just me he “flabbergasted.” A mutual friend said he also cut off all communications with his family, and other old friends, who didn’t share his “conservative” views.

Re: “How you interact with and experience God in your own life.” That “simplistic” statement could be misinterpreted, but keep in mind that I have to “dumb things down,” just like Moses, Paul and Jesus all had to do. Also re: Interacting with God in my own life. See for example On my “mission from God,” and “As a spiritual exercise…”

Re: “Only written word of God.” But see John 10:16, “I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd.” It seems to me that God – being God – is perfectly able to reach out to other people, using other languages in other countries and cultural settings. “He” – anthropomorphism – could have other servants writing in other languages, keeping in mind that “all roads lead to Jesus.” If nothing else, this claim seems to limit God’s power…

More re: Deuteronomy 32:8. Just for some deep background: Chapter 32 comes near the end of the book, just before Chapter 33, “Moses blesses the tribes of Israel,” and also Chapter 34 on the death of Moses. “The Lord’s Last Instructions to Moses begin at 31:14, and the “Song of Moses” begins at 31. Anyway, back to Deuteronomy 32:8. Many Bible Hub translations of Deuteronomy 32:8 read that God “assigned land to the nations” or “gave the nations their inheritance.” But some translations of the passage at issue vary, from “according to the number of the sons of Israel,” to the sons of God, to “the number in his heavenly court,” and – in the Brenton Septuagint Translation – according to “the number of the angels of God.”

Re: “Stott … in numerous posts.” Type “John Stott” in the search engine in the blog’s upper right.

Also, the post On an old friend – and his “Bible literalism,” includes references to a book, “Christian Testament.” The full reference is Education for Ministry Year Two (Hebrew Scriptures, Christian Testament) 2nd Edition by William Griffin, Charles Winters, Christopher Bryan and Ross MacKenzie (1991). Page 321 of my copy has some notes on Nimshalim, as methods of interpreting parables. See also Mashal + Nimshal = Meaning/Teaching | Discipleship Curriculum: “The teaching method was simply brilliant. A fictional story (the mashal) was created by the Rabbi. This was almost always in response to something going on in their immediate world or an important principle they wanted to teach. The story would be crafted in such a way as to disguise it’s intent but also in such a way as to intrigue.” See also Mashal (allegory) – Wikipedia, about a “short parable with a moral lesson or religious allegory, called a nimshal.” (Nimshalim is the plural.)  

Re: “Jot and tittle.” The link is to “Gotquestions.org,” which noted that a jot – related to our word “iota” – is the “tenth letter in the Hebrew alphabet and the smallest.” A tittle “is even smaller than a jot … a letter extension, a pen stroke that can differentiate one Hebrew letter from another.” 

Re: “Me and my house.” The reference is to Joshua 24:15. In the ESV, “choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

The lower image is courtesy of Letter Of The Law Vs Spirit Of The Law – Image Results. (From an old Calvin and Hobbes cartoon. (See Wikipedia.)

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