James's Weblog

Job, the man of sorrows

Wed, 22/08/2007 - 08:57 -- James Oakley

Job is one of those books of the Bible that I still feel I don’t really know what to do with. I’m not happy with treatments of it that read it as if the bulk of the book were a paranthesis. But I can’t do better. So I keep reading it, to see what I can learn.

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Jonah 1 and representative responsibility

Mon, 20/08/2007 - 10:26 -- James Oakley

I’m doing some work on Jonah 1 at the moment (again!), and it seems that we have another fine example of responsibility being passed between groups of people and representative individuals.

Jonah seeks to flee from the presence of the Lord; as a result, distress comes on the entire crew of the ship. Jonah is very clear in verse 12 that this is “on my account” that this has happened. His individual sin has led to judgement on the whole crew.

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The word for "children" in Luke 18:16

Sat, 18/08/2007 - 15:16 -- James Oakley

Jesus said: “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.”

I noticed the other day that Luke uses a different word for “children” here than either Matthew or Mark. Luke uses bre,foj==. Both Matthew and Mark use paidi,on==. (Again, you’d have to have the BW font to see that correctly – the words are brefos and paidion, for those without the fonts.)

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New site layout

Thu, 16/08/2007 - 18:30 -- James Oakley

Just a quick post to state the obvious – I’ve given my blog an overhaul.

Technical details to follow later, but for now please leave me a comment to let me know what you think – especially if you have any problems.

I while ago, I had to turn off anonymous comments, due to the volumes of spam. Now I’ve found a way to implement a CAPTCHA, I’m keen to see if I can have anonymous comments on again.

Bye for now – more later!

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So do we blacklist Potter?

Thu, 02/08/2007 - 10:59 -- James Oakley

On Sunday, I used an illustration from Harry Potter in a sermon. Nobody challenged me over it afterwards. But they could have done because HP arouses strong feelings in some Christians.

The frequently asked question is: How bad is Harry Potter for us?

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Unintelligence

Tue, 31/07/2007 - 14:47 -- James Oakley

Some of you will know that I greatly enjoy the novels of John le Carré. I’d highly recommend them, probably recommending that you start with Smiley (The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, then Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, then Smiley’s People).

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