Jordan’s View has posted this week’s Christian Carnival. I have contributed my paper on Calvin and Piety. So for this week’s Christian posts from around the blogosphere, head over to Christian Carnival XCVI: Applying the Gospel to All of Life. For previous posts, see my Christian Carnival Archive.

-Matt Jones

“Whatever now exists in us that is unworthy of heaven does not hinder the resurrection.” (Institutes III.xxv.7)

John Calvin is probably most well known for his TULIP, but it seems the pious and holy man has been over looked. In my recent Systematic Theology C paper I tried to take a look at Calvin and piety.

This has been a very difficult semester for me and writing so I haven’t been real confident in the finished product, but it is done, so that is good. Hopefully the larger Calvin and justification paper won’t give me as much trouble (but it probably will).

For the PDF version: Calvin and Piety or click the “read full blog entry” for the full text without citations.

Read full blog entry…

-Matt Jones
לְחַיִּים

Christian Carnival is being hosted this week at Eternal Revolution. To read a wide variety of thoughts from around the Christian blogosphere, head over to Christian Carnival XCV. I have contributed my post on Regent’s groundbreaking ceremony.

Classes / homework / papers / reading… lots of it. This is going to be a whirlwind end to the semester. Postings will be slightly less often. Care to write a paper for me?

-Matt Jones
לְחַיִּים

Dory over at Wittenberg Gate, who also runs it, has just posted Christian Carnival XCIV. I have contributed my brief introduction to Hebrew. Head over there and catch the variety of posts from around Christian blogosphere and also check out the Christian Carnival Archive for all the previous posts! Thanks Dory!

-Matt Jones
לְחַיִּים

My name is Matthew (Matt) Jones, if you weren’t aware. Matthew come from ancient Hebrew, a Semitic language family from the Fertile Crescent (Akkadian and Arabic are two other examples of Semitic languages) the oldest of which used cuneiform. Biblical Hebrew has been passed down through various Jewish traditions. For much of the history of Hebrew, which is designed as an aural language, vowels were not used. The Masoretes (who preserved much of the reading tradition) essentially realized that people would not remember how the writing was supposed to be pronounced as time moved on so added vowel “points” which are largely dots written below (and some above) the consonants so the reading tradition could be preserved. This addition of vowel points occurred in the eighth and ninth centuries A.D.

The Hebrew alphabet consists of 23 letters, all of which are consonants. There are also eight vowels points. Some of the consonants were also used as vowel letters (this happened because there was a move to introduce vowels to the text before the Masoretes added the vowel points, but because it was already part of the tradition, they left them in along with their new vowel points). Hebrew is read from right to left and will always start with a consonant (although that consonant can be silent). Now for a few words (I apologize if you are not able to see the text, the transliteration is linked to an image of the Hebrew):

שָׁלוֹם shalom – peace, prosperity - blog post on Shalom
אֱלֹהִים elohim – God, gods
אָדָם adam – Adam, man, humankind
יְהוָה or יהוה yhvh – was read “adonai” (which means Lord) – Now as Yahweh: the LORD, the personal God of Israel
מַתִּתְיָהוּ mattithyahu – Matthew: literally “gift of Yah”, Yah being the abbreviated version of YHVH

Well there is a VERY brief introduction that probably hasn’t told you very much. But really, Hebrew is very interesting and is fun to speak (lots of throaty sounds). Pick up either Introducing Biblical Hebrew by Allen Ross or Basics of Biblical Hebrew Grammar by Gary Pratico.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I can attempt to answer!
Ή χάρις του κυρίου ημων Ίησου Χριστου μεθ’ υμων.

[UPDATE] Commentor WERBEH has a great daily Biblical Hebrew blog, check it out!

This week’s Christian Carnival is up over at World of Sven and he has very graciously included my late submission: Which Bible? My look at my collection of Bible with a few comments on the versions along the way. Thanks Sven! So head over to Christian Carnival XCII!! If you want to catch up on old posts, you can see my Christian Carnival Archive.