While in the U.S. I discovered SmoothJazz.com: Groovy jazz music straight from Monterey Bay, California where I spent a summer working on the Fisherman’s Wharf at the tender age of 16.  Jazz snobs wouldn’t even classify the stuff that plays on that station as jazz.  In fact, it is easy listening instrumental music with sometimes just a hint of disco.  I’ve got to admit though it makes for good music to work on dictionaries by.  I was just listening to Four80East and now it’s Peter White.  That disco beat, baby!  You gotta love it.  If you want the real Jazz check out SoulfulClassicJazz.com.  That’s smokin’ good stuff.  I’m a fusion guy myself.  Give me Spyro Gyra, Yellowjackets and Chick Corea and I’m feeling nice. Hilary says it is like listening to four guys playing music in different rooms. All this stuff is now sitting on my hard-drive thanks to a nice program called RadioRipper.  Actually it’s even legal. Check out the fine print!

Dogs.  You like dogs?  Ever had a dog for a pet?  When you read about dogs in the Bible do you imagine “man’s best friend?” Why doesn’t the Bible have anything nice to say about dogs?  Remember the movie “All Dogs Go To Heaven?”  The story in the Bible is quite the opposite.  In fact, the Book of Revelation could be subtitled, “All Dogs Go To Hell.”  Check this out:

14 “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. 15 Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. (Rev. 22:15, NIV)

That’s right, folks.  The good guys get to head into the eternal city but there’s a big sign on the gate that says, “No Dogs Allowed!” 

Here’s what IVP’s The New Bible Dictionary has to say about dogs:

“The contempt and disgust with which the dog is regarded in the Old Testament cannot easily be understood by Western people, to whom the dog is a companion and an auxiliary. In many parts of the East the dog is still basically a scavenger, and although it played a very useful part in disposing of refuse, it was by its very nature unclean and a potential carrier of disease, and therefore could not be touched without defilement.”

I mention all of this because it illustrates a problem we have in understanding the Bible.  A lot of the Bible gives us weird signals because our culture is so much different from the Middle East. Sometimes it can be something like the story about the friends letting down the cripple from the roof. How did they do that?  Or speaking about roofs, what’s the deal with Jesus’ words, “Let no one on the roof of his house go down or enter the house to take anything out?” Mark 13:15, NIV)  Everybody is so anxious to study Greek, but I think you’d be better off studying New Testament culture.  So you know the word for “roof” and “dog.” Big deal.  Because if you don’t understand the culture of New Testament times you are going to miss the point, guaranteed.  So don’t expect to read an “essentially literal” Bible translation and get the right meaning out of it.  Congratulate yourself on being able to read the Bible in awkward English but don’t think you are getting the message. (Check out NLT, CEV or TEV for a meaning-based translation)  In looking at Matthew 23:1-7 I can see numerous words that are translated directly in the NIV, but the trouble is I don’t have a clue what Jesus is trying to say. Moses’ seat? Phylacteries? Tassels?  Hello?!?  What’s all that about, folks? The more I studied phylacteries, they started to remind me of those little fish that people put on their cars.  The Pharisees weren’t content to have a little Jesus fish on their bumper, they had to “make their phylacteries wide” to show what spiritual people they were.  I think I’d rather have a tattoo on my ankle than a big box bouncing on my forehead, but never mind.  Am I saying that a good translation would say, “The Pharisees have really big Jesus fish on their bumpers?” No.  That’s an error of anachronism.  But it would be nice if your translation would at least try to communciate the meaning.  CEV does a dandy job on this verse:

“Everything they do is just to show off in front of others. They even make a big show of wearing Scripture verses on their foreheads and arms, and they wear big tassels for everyone to see.” (Matt.  23:5, CEV)

And there is a footnote that says,

“As a sign of their love for the Lord and his teachings, the Jewish people had started wearing Scripture verses in small leather boxes.  But the Pharisees tried to show off by making the boxes bigger than necessary. The Jewish people were also taught to wear tassels on the four corners of their robes to show their love for God.”

Cool, eh? A comprehensible translation together with helpful footnotes.

Well, I keep wanting to blog about dragons.  If you’ve got a KJV check out Isaiah 43:20:

The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, [and] rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen. (Isaiah 43:20, KJV)

Later translations all say “jackals and owls” and sometimes “jackals and ostriches.” Why the switch?  There is a tiny difference in Hebrew between the words “dragon” tannîn and “jackal” tannîm.  See also Job 30:29 where it says, “I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of owls.”  Am I seeing this right or does my interlinear say, “brother of jackals and a sister of owls?” Strange! A bit of gender cross-dressing in that verse.  Help me out students of Hebrew!

Well, this is a bit of a rambling post.  That’s what you get when you chill out with smooth Jazz while studying the Bible!