Bibley words

I love words.  Truly I do.  I one time read Fly By Night not so much for the plot but because the author so clearly loved words and knew how to use them with finesse.  I read Reading the OED not so much because I applauded the guy who had no job so he could read a dictionary, but because anyone who spent a year reading the Oxford English Dictionary has a level of Word Love I could only hope to one day reach.

 

All that being said, I was thinking about words in the Bible.  It, obviously, is full of the Words of Life, which is very important, but I was thinking specifically of the fact that since I read the King James Version, I run across so very many fun words.  Even if they're not traditionally "fun" words, it's still amusing to run across them in the KJV, like when it references "stuff" in the Bible, discusses the belching of heathens, or those times it talks about taverns or aliens (well, there's only one reference to taverns, as I recall), it just seems amusing because, well, they seem more amusing in the context of the Bible (don't laugh, but I still am amused when I run across references to frying pans in the Bible--which potentially goes to show that I should get out more).  Not to sound irreverent, but it's true.

 

But any words in the Bible ending in -some, like noisesome, or burdensome... don't you wish we still used those words?  I know I do.

 

This isn't a complete list, and PLEASE let me know if you have favorites that aren't on this list, but anyhow, here's a vague off-the-top-of-my-head list of words I like to run across in the Bible.  And I'm sure these words aren't even necessarily all obsolete, but they're obsolete enough to make me wish that more people read their Bibles so we could hurry up and get these words back into the common vernacular.

 

Ladeth.  Because I think we should still use it.  I wish the "eth" thing hadn't gone out of style so long ago.  "Why are we letting him road trip with us?  He ladeth our car down with his longboards and it's just getting annoying."

 

Magnifical.  Because WHAT AN AWESOME WORD.  I use it sometimes and was derided once for it being made-up.  "Not-uh.  It's in the Bible."  "Is not."  "Is too."  "Where?"  "The... temple stuff somewhere.  You know."  "You're making that up."  "Am not!"  You get the idea.  But it's good for any or all occasions.  The "magnifical cheesecake" works as well as "the Colosseum was magnifical."  It's sort of appropriate for any situation.

 

Anything ending in -ish.  When I read the Law of the Leper chapter and it describes things as being greenish and reddish, or when Job talks about something being "blackish" it just cheers my soul.  I went through a multi-year phase where everything ended in an -ish.  A friend of mine finally started calling me Joish.  But you can imagine how cool it would be if we brought back the color -ishes.  "You just repainted, right?  What color?"  "Reddish."  "Oh, like... more pink."  "No, I mean reddish.  That's the color."  "Yeah...  that makes SO much sense.  Or not."

 

Gazingstock.  Because it seems to so nicely combine being put in stocks as an example and a much-stared-at curiosity.  "My Sunday School teacher made me the gazingstock of the class when he caught me texting, which is NO FAIR because the other kids do it all the time and don't get in trouble!"

 

Bountifulness.  "The bountifulness of this Thanksgiving feast reminds me yet again of how much I have for which to be thankful!" And also, costliness.  Because all words deserve more than one suffix.

 

Solemnities.  This isn't obsolete, I know, but I feel like the number of occasions which could be referred to as "solemnities" are dwindling in our society.  But who knows?  Maybe they use this all the time in England or something.  "The solemnities of the past week reminded us that the queen isn't getting any younger, and some changes are surely coming our way."  Heh.  I don't even really know how you'd use solemnities properly.  I'll think of something.

 

Worthies.  Every time I stumble across this word in Nahum I can't help but think of the word "homies."  "F'real, what's he doin'?"  "Oh, he had to talk to all his worthies about their excessive stumbling, yo."

 

Troublous.  "These are troublous times we're in.  First they came for the users of blue pens, but I wasn't a user of blue pens, so I didn't stop them.  Then they came for the ones who left the trash cans on the curb for days but I was above that, so I didn't step in.  Now they've come for those of us who spend altogether too much time trying to slide words like 'insomuch' and 'notwithstanding' into everyday conversation, and there's nobody left to stop them!"

 

Holily.  I'm not going to lie: I didn't even notice this word until a few months ago when I was Bibleing in Thessalonians with my Bibleing buddies.  I'd obviously seen it before, but somehow missed it.  Clearly, since then I've delighted in the word, but honestly, I haven't found many things that can be described as having been done "holily."  I'm still working on that.

So, help me out here.  What do you like to run across in the Bible?  Do you enjoy running across words like sheriff?  parlours?  darling?  silly doves?  when people in the Bible say 'aha'?  the brief Santa Claus feeling you get when reading Zechariah 2:6?

 

And I have the feeling that nobody uses the links I sometimes provide for Bible references and such, and I really didn't feel like spending half of my evening looking up these places, so if you're curious as to where these words are in the Bible, just go to blueletter or Biblegateway and look them up.

 

Thanks for bearing with me.  When I started thinking about this last night I had no idea I'd think of so many! 

A little update

The grandparents are doing well, my job is about a day and a half away from being done, and life is good, albeit busy!

I just finished reading Psalms and it made me remember how much I love that book.  I really can't say that there are parts of the Bible I like less or more than others (though there seem to be parts of the Bible I'm more enthusiastic about!) but there's something about reading through Psalms and picturing David at the different stages at his life, sometimes rejoicing, vibrant and secure, and other times writing with a despairing hand.  It feels like an intimate glance at his life, where you learn more about the author than the subject in most of the Psalms.  Of course, about half of the Psalms were written by other authors (Asaph, Moses, Korah, Solomon, some others) but when I read the Psalms I like to picture the shepherd David, growing from boy to King with a pen in his hand and praise on his lips.  I want to be more like David.  Only, well, minus the adultery and Kingdom and enemies.  So....  pretty much I take that back.  Never mind.

Psalm 28:7

The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song I will praise Him.

Happy Travels to me!

As soon as I wrap up at work today, I'm off to ITALY! I've already mentioned this, I know, but I'm pretty excited. I just have to a) not miss my flight b) sucessfully meet up with my friends at the Milan airport c) pray that if I've forgotten something, it's nothing major.

Like it says in Psalm 121, though, He will preserve my going out and coming in. I do a lot of coming and going, so this is a nice passage, but even in general, I love the thought that the Lord watches our every step and guides our ways. He never fails!

I'll hopefully have a chance to let you know once I've come back!

Hasta la vista!

Zzz

It's no secret that I love my sleep, and I need it. It seems a little dramatic to need sleep as much as I do, but it's a true thing, my friends. I need my sleep.

So when I get the chance to go to bed early, say, maybe 7:30 or 8:00, I'm willing to jump for it. Which is why, when my 85-year-old grandpa called me on Monday night at 7:15, I was all ready for bed. When I told him I think he just about choked. Of course, when I arrived at his house to help him garden (why are my grandparents up later than I, and why are they gardening? I don't know) some fifteen or twenty minutes later, he was surprised to see me in real clothes.

"You could have come over in your pajamas, we wouldn't care."

"Uh, your neighbors might mind having a hobo in the area."

He's deaf, so he didn't really hear what I said, but I'm pretty sure his neighbors would rather not see me wandering around in my pajamas. Though their immediate neighbors don't speak any English, so I guess even if they cared, they wouldn't be able to complain to my grandparents. It was the rest I was worried about.

So, I helped them hang some tomato plants, anchor a shepherd's crook, and spray some hibiscus plants for Japanese Beetles. (Would that be hibisci?) Then we sat down for a few minutes, my grandparents and I, and visited, until finally I got tired, and so did they. When I left at around 8:30 we were all planning on going straight to bed.

It's times like this that make me realize why it is that people see me as being such an old person. Then I think, "Yeah, but I need the sleep, so I guess I'll just not succumb to the wakeful peer pressure and sleep anyhow." That's usually when I leave whatever is going on and find a bed. Or some chairs to lay down on. (Lie down on?) The way I see it, He gives His beloved sleep, and I am well in that category. I just appreciate the gift a little more than the rest of you.

Plans

They always say (but seriously, who is "they"? someone please enlighten me) that when you want to make God laugh, you're supposed to tell Him your plans. Well, I'm not exactly sure how legitimate that is (after all, in the Bible, I'm pretty sure it only mentions the Lord laughing at truly unfortunate souls, like people who belch), but sometimes it does feel a bit as if I make plans and the Lord has to sit me down and explain that I shouldn't have tried to make plans behind his back like that. Good point, Lord.

What I always get hung up on is that I can never decide if that's what's going on ("that" being that the Lord is telling me to halt my plans or put them on hold) or if there are just natural road blocks in the way of something. Maybe I'm having trouble figuring something out because someone throws away my important mail--I mean, realistically, there are some things that just happen.

I think it's mostly about being willing to listen to that still, small, voice, and being willing to submit to the Lord, if His plans really are different than mine.

Wouldn't it be awesome if my plans always aligned with His? And I say "my plans" hesitantly, because obviously by that time they're His plans, through and through!

I sort of miss the days when the ins and outs of my life were determined by my parents. Growing up is so overrated. Where's Peter when we need him?

Connect the dots

All the time when people explain things to me from the Bible, I realize that it is such a good thing that everyone else came along first to connect all the dots for me. The other night my grandpa was talking about how 1 Kings 18:38 was the closest we could ever come to understanding what really went on on the cross, and, though I've heard it before, I was enjoying that thought, but I was also thinking: who first realized that?

The verse goes as follows: "Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench." And it's a nice verse, and a nice connection, but honestly, I have to admit, I'm not sure I would have been able to get from that verse to the cross without a little direction.

Which makes me think: how much of the Bible would I have been able to understand had not so many Berean-type folk come before me? I'm not sure I would have gotten much farther than connecting Psalm 22 to the cross, truth be told. There are just so many pictures and types and shadows in the OT that I still don't really get, even though they're explained to me. Samson, for instance. People are forever explaining how he's a type of Christ, and I nod and smile, but really don't follow.

So, to all the Berean-type folks in the world, thank you. I join with all the other people like me in asking that you continually help us out by sharing your wisdom with us. I'm just really bad at connecting the dots on my own.

Rich v. poor

I’ve been listening nonstop to a CD called “CompassionArt” and I’m loving it.  I read about it a long while ago in a Christianity Today magazine, but I finally got a hold of a copy.  To anyone who hasn’t yet heard about it, check out http://www.compassionart.tv/ and no, I have no idea why it’s a “.tv” ending, I don’t even really know what that means, to tell the truth.

The CD has made me consider why it is we love poor people so much.  I hope that doesn’t sound callous, but the truth is, I’m not poor.  I’m not obscenely wealthy, but I’m not destitute, either.  And I could mention all the times where we’re told to care for the sick and hungry (“When I was hungry, you fed Me…” etc.) but a huge part of being a Christian is ministering to the broken.  Not just the outwardly needy, but the inwardly needy.

But the outwardly needy are the most receptive to Christ’s power, it’s true.  Which is why I’ve never seen a CD or book dedicated to the wealthy, I suppose.  In fact, I recently was looking through a book called “The Message of the New Testament” by Mark Dever which spent a while discussing the wealthy and what that all means (and why Jesus didn’t come to minister to the wealthy).  Which is important, obviously, since the Bible does talk a great deal about the wealthy and camels and needles and the selling of possessions.

For all the places in the Bible where there are qualifiers (or non-qualifiers?) such as "neither bond nor free" "Jew nor Greek" "male nor female" I can't seem to think of very many equalizers about the rich.  In the Old Testament the rich and poor both had to give the same amount to the tresury, and in a day to come, the rich and poor will both get Beast-marks on their foreheads, but other than a few potential verses in Psalms or something, I can't really think of any further verses to that effect.

But it’s odd to me, how much we leave that corner of the world untouched.  It’s much easier for us to give a gospel tract to the hobo who will appreciate having something to read, but the wealthy person is usually going to reject you.  So we usually don’t even try to minister in that direction.  It’s much easier to go to the parts of the world where we feel we have something tangible to offer.

I’m not sure if this made sense.  And truth be told, I’m not exactly one to talk, since I don’t do much evangelizing on either end of the spectrum.  And I don’t want to be taken the wrong way, either—I love the CompassionArt CD, and I love what they’re doing in that regard.  I appreciate all the ministries to those who need it, and I’m not saying that nobody goes out to the wealthy.  What I am saying is that I find our gravitational tendencies curious.

Or maybe I’m just rambling and not saying anything at all.  Oh well.