This and more pictures like it over at the other blog (see previous post). See...more interesting! 

My other, more important, blog

Please go over to newmongols.blogspot.com to check out a blog I just started with my wife. We're aiming to make it the premier blog on Mongolia. Enjoy.

Of Kings and Names

In the past two years or so I've had this strange ambition to plot the timeline of the Bible using mainly itself as the context and historical source. The desire came from at least two sources. the first was a desire to understand the Bible in historical terms, not merely spiritual ones. After all, if one doesn't understand the "plot" and progression of the Bible as a text, one would be hard pressed to understand the interpretation and application of the Bible in a proper context. The second thing that got me thinking about this was the timeline of the last days that I produced some time ago. I spent over a week to get into Revelation and accompanying texts and ended up producing a timeline that had much more detail than I ever would have thought was in the Bible. That got me to thinking how neat it would be to produce a timeline not only of eschatological events but of all Biblical events. In doing that, I reasoned, I could get at the historical progression of events in the Bible that I'd also been interested in. If the Bible is indeed a reliable source that is internally consistent, as I believe it is, producing such a timeline using primarily the Bible should be possible. The result should be an accurate and comprehensive chronology, or at least chronological list, of Biblical events that begins with the pre-existence of the Divine Trinity in eternity past and concludes with the New Jersualem in eternity future.

Granted, this has been done before and by many. But there's something to be said for doing something for oneself even if the fruit of others labor is there for the picking. The process of research in primarcy sources the and subsequent discovery is richly rewarding, and the benefit cannot be compared to that of simply reading the result of others' research.

So this morning I had the random thought of putting together a timline of the kings of Judah as presented in the Old Testament. Having read through the Bible a few times, I'd noted that
the narratives that are recorded in the books of history such as Kings and Chronicles and the books of prophecy that punctuate that history are ripe for historical endeavor. I had previously jotted down the line of the kings of both Judah and Israel to give myself a bit of a grasp on the history. My desire this morning, however, was to do something on a more detailed level.

My inspection of the texts took me especially to the very eventful time of the last kings of Judah--Jehoiakim, Jeconiah, and Zedekiah--and that of the first governor of Judah under Babylonian hegemony, Gedaliah. These kings came before, during and just after the Babylonian invasion and captivity of the people of God. The books of 2 Chronicles and 2 Kings--as their names suggest--give the general chronology of the kings. No surprise there. The surprise was the richness of detail that the book of Jeremiah provides. I'd noticed this before, as well as the scattered nature of the information of the book. But this time I took the opportunity to unscramble the record. The result was enlightening.

One particular mystery was solved. I had always had the impression that Jeconiah, Jehoiachin, and Coniah were all the same man--the son of Jehoiakim. Today's research confirmed that and yielded several proof texts. Jeremiah 22:24 speaks of Coniah:

As I live, declares Jehovah, Even though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, were a signet ring on My right hand, yet I would tear you off...

1 Chronicles 3:16 uses the name Jeconiah:

And the son of Jehoiakim: Jeconiah his son; Zedekiah his son.

This, incidentally is the name the New Testament uses for him (Matthew 1:11-12).

The third name used for this king is very nearly the same as that of his father--Jehoiachin. This is demonstrated by comparing the foregoing verses with 2 Kings 24:6:

And Jehoiakim slept with his fathers. And Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place.

Having backed up my hunch with the text, I was able to put together a fairly accurate timeline of these three kings and their Babylonian appointed successors. And in so doing, I was able to harmonize the otherwise bewildering chronology found in Jeremiah.

Just a few more decades of mornings like this and discoveries such as the one outlined above and I'll have the Bible chronologized.

One More "Neo-Con"

An incredible article here by Keith Thompson, writing in the SF Chronical. Excerpt:

A turning point came at a dinner party on the day Ronald Reagan famously described the Soviet Union as the pre-eminent source of evil in the modern world. The general tenor of the evening was that Reagan's use of the word "evil" had moved the world closer to annihilation. There was a palpable sense that we might not make it to dessert.

When I casually offered that the surviving relatives of the more than 20 million people murdered on orders of Joseph Stalin might not find "evil'" too strong a word, the room took on a collective bemused smile of the sort you might expect if someone had casually mentioned taking up child molestation for sport.

My progressive companions had a point. It was rude to bring a word like "gulag" to the dinner table.

I look back on that experience as the beginning of my departure from a left already well on its way to losing its bearings.

Thompson's personal website can be found at http://www.thompsonatlarge.com/

Not quite as high, but still up there.

Realaudio needed. Here.

HIgh Culture

Please, only for those with good breeding and discerning musical tastes. Great stuff (low bandwidth click here) .

New review by Hanson

Here. Will say more later.

How are Democrats like Europeans?

Statistically, they are about the same. NRO's Jonah Goldberg:

According to the Pew Center, the less you like to fly the American flag, the more likely it is you are Democrat. The more you think hard work and personal initiative aren’t the ticket to the good life, the more likely you are to be a Democrat. The more you believe the United Nations is a better steward of international relations, while America is a negative actor on the world stage, the more likely you are to be a Democrat. The more you believe that the government is there to help, the more likely it is you are Democrat. The less seriously you take religion, the more likely you are to be a Democrat. Flip all of these values around and the more likely it is you are a Republican — or that you vote that way.

What's that have to do with anything European, you say?

The ideas, assumptions and prejudices held by the statistically typical Democratic voter, according to the Pew study, are quite simply, European. Europeans believe in a strong social welfare state, for rich and poor alike. Europeans are cynical. They look askance — these days — on patriotic sentiment (hence the rush to form a new European nation). The church pews of Europe would make a great hideout for bank robbers since they’re always empty. The United Nations is, in the typical European’s worldview, the last best hope for mankind. From the death penalty to gay marriage, the more similar you are to a typical European in your political and social outlook, the more likely you are to be a Democrat.

More here.

The Ancient Library

Now here's a cool site, especially since I'm reading Aeschylus these days. Reading the classics without much background in the particulars of the ancient world makes for discombobulating understanding. Having a one-stop-shop for these things is invaluable. I'm adding it to my Great Writings list to the right.

Fukayama: The End of History

This is an article I've been intending to read for a long time but haven't.

Grow your brain...literally

Here's an incredible story about how focused mental activity can actually strengthen--as in physically improve--the brain. Nothing new, but still noteworthy. Excerpt:

How will our image of ourselves change as the wrinkled lump of gray meat in our skull becomes increasingly transparent to such exploratory methods? One recent discovery to confront is that the human brain can readily change its structure -- a phenomenon scientists call neuroplasticity. A few years ago, brain scans of London cabbies showed that the detailed mental maps they had built up in the course of navigating their city's complicated streets were apparent in their brains. Not only was the posterior hippocampus -- one area of the brain where spatial representations are stored -- larger in the drivers; the increase in size was proportional to the number of years they had been on the job.

Great Writings

One thing I'd like this blog to do is be a repository for links to the great writings of the world. There are countless good pages out there, such as Project Gutenberg. I've started providing links in the right column to such sites as I come across them. Enjoy!

W&M vs NCAA...again

Over its team name--the Tribe. Here's a great column on the subject and on how it how its handling will reflect on our new president (former OSU quarterback).

On Those Felicities that Embelish Our Typography -- Or, On 18th Century Ligatures

Believe it or not, this is something that I've frequently wondered about (having worked at Colonial Williamsburg, being an editor, and preparing publications for print). There's got to be a better document out there, but this one from Microsoft can't be that bad. Oh, and the font referred to in this document (Wyld), can be downloaded with a ligature macro here.

Making a Left at the Ivory Tower

Edward Feser on the dominance of leftism in the academy. Part 1, 2, and a Reply to the Critics.

Twain on German

Samuel Clemens would evidently rather decline two German beers than one German noun. More in his essay The Awful German Language.

The Man Who Would Be Khan

An Atlantic Monthly article 0n a US Army Officer in Mongolia. Sheds light on US-Mongolian relations and is a fascinating read to boot. Crystal (my wife, a Mongolian who loves America) was much taken with it.

Wisdom of the Ages

Sibili si ergo
Fortibuses en ero
Nobili demis trux
Sewatis enim?
Cowsendux!

St. John's College and Religion

This on the college named for a saint.

Eva Brann on Breaks in Education

Perhaps if I'd read this while pursuing my BA or immediately thereafter, I wouldn't have seen the point here. But now at age 29 and well beyond my BA, I am beginning to see the wisdom in this article by St. John's Brann. Time often brings perspective.

Review Printed in A&C

My most recent review (on Tjoerhom's most recent book) was just published in A&C. Unforrunately, it won't be availble online for a few months.

Sacred Texts

Here's a great site for all manner of "sacred texts." Great source for classics. Internet Sacred Text Archive.

Articles on Liberal Education

A few weeks ago, I found a number of interesting articles on liberal education (all from National Review Online incidentally):

Mark Oppenheimer on giving college students a healthy obsession.

Albert Keith Whitaker on Chicago's dumping of their Western Civ. program.

Thoman Hibbs on Camille Paglia, a "lonely voice on education."

Last and best, Tracy Lee Simmons (author of Climbing Parnassus: A New Apologia for Greek and Latin (see a review of his book)) on the state of classical education.

Dark Arts Reveal'd

Lo, I bring you the Postmodernism Generator.

Speaking of Accomplishment...

there's a book I've been yenning to read since I first ran across it in 1999. Goedel, Escher, Bach by Hofstadter. Onto my hopelessly long to-read list.

Dutton on Murray on Human Accomplishment

Denis Dutton reviews Murray's new book Human Accomplishment. One of Murray's ideas Dutton boils down thus:

The fundamental principle of human achievement is expressed by Aristotle in the Nichomachean Ethics and accepted by philosophers since, and more recently even by psychologists: that human beings derive pleasure from the just exercise of their skills and capacities. From crossword puzzles and rock climbing to painting, composing music, playing a musical instrument, or solving equations, Murray says, “The pursuit of excellence is as natural as the pursuit of happiness.” For the creative geniuses who are the subject of his book, I prefer to say that achieved excellence simply is happiness.

More:

“Human beings,” he claims, “have been most magnificently productive and reached their highest cultural peaks in the times and places where humans have thought most deeply about their place in the universe and been most convinced they have one.” This for Murray helps explain the preponderance of achievement in the arts and sciences in Europe during the centuries when Christianity was regnant.

Truth, regarded as a goal guiding inquiry, may be considered a transcendental value for science. Art faces a different challenge. An ironic, detached culture in which artists have lost faith in ultimate values is not likely to rival the greatness of the past. In terms of freedom, wealth, creature comforts, and health, Murray says, we may be doing better than our forebears, but that does not mean that our artists will achieve more than “shiny, craftsmanlike entertainments.” He quotes Gibbon’s observation that even at the apex of their empire, the Romans, who looked back at the achievements of old Greece much as we do of old Europe, were “a race of pygmies.”

Religion, Murray argues, “is indispensable for igniting great accomplishment in the arts.” Religious believers and philosophers of a traditionally idealist stamp may find comfort in this, especially since it comes from an avowed agnostic such as Murray. I am personally not convinced. In particular, it seems to me that Murray seriously underestimates the role of organizing structures in creating conditions for high achievement.

Review here. Book here.

Seven Plots? A Review of a Theory

An incisive review of a bold theory. The Seven Basic Plots by Booker gets reviewed. (via Arts & Letters Daily)

Anthoney Flew the (Athiest) Coop

World-famous philosopher Anthony Flew makes the switch from atheism to Jeffersonian deism. A great step in the right direction. Some excerpts from the article:

Flew is also quick to point out that he is not a Christian. "I have become a deist like Thomas Jefferson." He cites his affinity with Einstein who believed in "an Intelligence that produced the integrative complexity of creation." To make things perfectly clear, he told me: "I understand why Christians are excited, but if they think I am going to become a convert to Christ in the near future, they are very much mistaken."

"Are you Paul on the road to Damascus?" I asked him.

"Certainly not."

One of the sources of his change in mind:

Flew's U-turn on God lies in a far more significant reality. It is about evidence. "Since the beginning of my philosophical life I have followed the policy of Plato's Socrates: We must follow the argument wherever it leads." I asked him if it was tough to change his mind. "No. It was not hard. I've always engaged in inquiry. If I am shown to have been wrong, well, okay, so I was wrong."

His thoughts on the resurrection:

...Flew remains agnostic about orthodox views of Jesus, though he has made some very positive remarks about the case for the Resurrection. In the journal Philosophia Christi he states: "The evidence for the Resurrection is better than for claimed miracles in any other religion." No, he still does not believe that Jesus rose from the dead. However, he told me, the case for an empty tomb is "considerably better than I thought previously."

Read the whole fascinating article here.

For those who care

The Huffington Post is now live.

languagehat.com

Cool blog I found today on languages. I'll add it to my roll to the right later on.

Proper Perspective on the Greeks

1 Corinthians 1:18-25 (Recovery Version):

For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the understanding of those who understand I will set aside.” Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made the wisdom of the world foolish? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know God, God was well pleased through the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believe. For indeed Jews require signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

Augustine on the Trinity

This utterance by Augustine on the trinity never fails to awe me. I ran across it in some of my old notes from college and thought to post it here:

[H]ere in corporeal things, one thing alone is not as much as three together, and two are something more than one; but in that highest Trinity one is as much as the three together, nor are two anything more than one. And They are infinite in themselves. So both each are in each, and all in each, and each in all, and all in all, and all are one. Let him who sees this, whether in part, or "through a glass and in an enigma," rejoice in knowing God; and let him honor Him as God, and give thanks; but let him who does not see it, strive to see it through piety, not to cavil at it through blindness. Since God is one, but yet is a Trinity. Neither are we to take the words, "of whom, and through whom, and to whom are all things," as used indiscriminately [i.e., to denote a unity without distinctions]; nor yet to denote many gods, for "to Him, be glory for ever and ever. Amen."

Augustine, On The Trinity Book VI:10:12

What happened to history?

What happened to history?
By Victor Davis Hanson
Link here.

Our society suffers from the tyranny of the present. Presentism is the strange affliction of assuming we ourselves created all our good things -- as if those without our technology who came before us lacked our superior knowledge and morality.

We naturally speak of our own offspring in reverential tones. Do this or that "for the children" -- youth who are the most affluent and leisured in the history of civilization. A new Medicare prescription drug benefit will add a mountain of national debt. Yet contemporary "seniors" as a group, even apart from the largess of Social Security and Medicare, are already the most insured cohort in our society.

We rarely mention our forebears. These were the millions of less fortunate Americans who built the country, handed down to us our institutions, and died keeping them safe.

Such amnesia about them was not always so. Public acknowledgment of prior generations characterized the best orations of Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy, who looked for guidance from, and gave thanks to, their ancestors.

We rarely do. We argue endlessly over the academic freedom of a Ward Churchill -- plagiarist and faker -- as he becomes famous for calling the 3,000 murdered on September 11, 2001, "little Eichmanns." Few in the debate pause, if just for a moment, to think of the thousands of now anonymous Americans blown apart over Berlin or on Okinawa to ensure we can freely embarrass ourselves over this charlatan.

Why do we not carry with us at the least the whispers of those who gave us what we have, from the Hoover Dam and Golden Gate Bridge to penicillin and relief from polio? In part, it is a simple ignorance of real history. The schools and university curricula today are stuffed with therapy -- drug counseling, AIDS warnings, self-improvement advice, sex education, women's/gay/Chicano/African-American/Asian/peace/urban/environmental/leisure studies. These are all well-meaning and nice -isms and -ologies that once would have been seen as nonacademic or left to the individual, family or community. But in the zero-sum game of daily instruction, something else was given up -- too often it was knowledge of the past.

What history we know we often judge as illiberal, forgetting we are the beneficiaries of past sacrifices and wealthy largely because of the toil of others who were far less secure. History is also not easy melodrama, but rather tragedy.

It was hard for women to be fully equal in the pre-industrial world of rampant disease and famine, when they had 15 pregnancies or so to ensure three to four children survived to keep the family alive. In the so-called intolerant past, 9 in 10 Americans worked on the farm until dark just to feed the populace; less than 1 in 100 do so now.

Before dismissing them as hopelessly biased, sexist, superstitious or prejudiced, at least concede that most of us sensitive suburbanites would collapse after a few minutes of scything, threshing, milling and baking to get our daily loaf.

To appreciate the value of history, we must also accept that human nature is constant and fixed across time and space. Our kindred forefathers in very dissimilar landscapes were nevertheless subject to the same emotions of fear, envy, honor and shame as our own.

In contrast, if one believes human nature is malleable -- or with requisite money and counseling can be "improved" -- history becomes just an obsolete science. It would be no different from 18th-century biology before the microscope or early genetics without knowledge of DNA. Once man before our time appears alien, the story of his past has very little prognostic value.

Finally, there is a radically new idea that most past occurrences are of equal interest -- far different from the Greeks' notion that history meant inquiry about "important" events that cost or saved thousands of lives, or provided ideas and lessons that transcended space and time.

The history of the pencil, girdle or cartoon offers us less wisdom about events, past and present, than does knowledge of U.S. Grant, the causes of the Great Depression or the miracle of Normandy Beach. A society that cannot distinguish between the critical and the trivial of history predictably will also believe a Scott Peterson merits as much attention as the simultaneous siege of Fallujah, or that a presidential press conference should be pre-empted for Paris Hilton or Donald Trump.

Reverence for those who came before us ensures humility about our own limitations. It restores confidence that far worse crises than our own -- slavery, the great flu epidemic, or World War II -- were endured with far less resources.

By pondering those now dead, we create a certain pact: We, too, will do our part for another generation not yet born to enjoy the same privilege of America, which at such great cost was given to us by others whom we have now all but forgotten.

Unhorsing Windmills: Classics vs. Contemporary Education

A great student review of Tracy Lee Simmons's book Climbing Parnassus, a book in which Simmons sets classical education against modern American education and the former wins.

Some excerpts:

Simmons makes the case for the classics by examining the history of the study of these dead languages and their poets, philosophers, and orators. The rigor of classical learning develops minds, "No one bothered with what we call skills of 'critical thinking,' which came naturally to anyone successfully navigating this course of study."

Both Harvard and Yale, when established, required mastery of Greek and Latin for acceptance. Simmons lauds our Founding Fathers as perhaps "the wisest, best-read public servants to preside over any government since ancient times." I shudder to think what course history would have taken had they been given a modern education.

Studying Greek, Latin and their works is an intellectual exercise regime second to none. There is no need to create a new form of education that will produce intellectual, self-controlled, virtuous citizens. For the model has been "inherited from antiquity, rediscovered by men of the Renaissance, and sustained by the brighter lights of the modern world. The curriculum ... already existed ... It was classical education."

But this education provides more than a gymnasium for the intellect. "Classical education provides keys to understanding Western civilization." It imbues students with a historical perspective and a base for our culture. For instance, those who wish to understand the Federalist Papers would do well to begin their journey in Greece and Rome.

Mere here.

St. John's College, Annapolis

It's a long story, but I'll keep it short, here. I've been wanting to continue my formal education, but haven't wanted to go for a Ph.D. quite yet. I feel that I need more grounding in the history of ideas before I sign away 5-10 years of my life becoming a doctor of philosphy. As it happens, I picked up an introduction to Classical Greek from my bookshelf the other day and found that someone had penned their name and their college into the fly leaf. The college? St. John's.

St. John's. I'd heard of it before. From a friend at Colonial Williamsburg where I'd worked through highschool and college. He'd wanted to there as a kid, but ended up going to W&M instead. He told me how students there spent 4 years studying Greek and Latin and reading the classics. At the time, it seemed like a cool idea to me, too, but never really considered it. I was already set on going to W&M.

I decided to look it up on the web. When I did, I was immediately hit with the distinct feeling that I'd missed my calling as an undergrad. I should have gone to St. John's. Too bad, I thought, that it doesn't have a graduate program. Anyway, I poked throught he site and dreaming of what might of been when I ran across a link called "Graduate Institute." Could it be? It could. I clicked it. Within minutes, I'd filled out an online request for further info on the institute. In those few minutes, I realized that I had to go to St. John's for my masters.

That night, I told Crystal. I'm rarely excited about anything these days, so when I came home all gushy about this program, she knew I found something I was serious about.

A lot has happened between then and now. Two people with whom I've been privileged to work, including Dr. Gary Smith of W&M, have agreed to write letters of recommendation for my pending application. I'm also starting to think of the application essays (one of which will basically be a reworking of a review essay I wrote on a book by Thomas Oden and was printed in Affirmation & Critique (click link and scroll down)).

We'll see what the Lord does. Regardless, we're hoping that August 2006 sees us living in Annapolis and me reading the classics.

Durant and Hamilton on Greece

Incidentally, I'm also reading Will Durant and Edith Hamilton on Greece. The second comes highly recommended by a good friend. Both in an attempt to give some context to the Aeschylus.

Aeschylus: Agamemnon

I'm currently reading Agamemnon with a good friend from my days at William & Mary. My first Greek anything (besides Homer) that I've read for pleasure. I'm reading the Lattimore translation. Unfortunately, it's poetic to the point of being incomprehensible at times. I'm finding this translation by Ian Johnston to be a bit more accessible when it comes to understanding the gist of things, although it's a rather common and uncompelling translation otherwise.

Why Major in Greek? An Answer.

Why in Heaven's Name are you Majoring in Greek?
The Rouman Lecture, University of New Hampshire, April 9, 2003
By Lynn Sherr
link: http://www.helleniccomserve.com/sherrlecture.html

Atriades

Atriades

Lost Classics Recovered (3)

The Independent
Revelation! 666 is not the number of the beast (it's a devilish 616)

By Tom Anderson
01 May 2005
Link: http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=634679

A newly discovered fragment of the oldest surviving copy of the New Testament indicates that, as far as the Antichrist goes, theologians, scholars, heavy metal groups, and television evangelists have got the wrong number. Instead of 666, it's actually the far less ominous 616.

The new fragment from the Book of Revelation, written in ancient Greek and dating from the late third century, is part of a hoard of previously unintelligible manuscripts discovered in historic dumps outside Oxyrhynchus in Egypt. Now a team of expert classicists, using new photographic techniques, are finally deciphering the original writing.

Professor David Parker, Professor of New Testament Textual Criticism and Paleography at the University of Birmingham, thinks that 616, although less memorable than 666, is the original. He said: "This is an example of gematria, where numbers are based on the numerical values of letters in people's names. Early Christians would use numbers to hide the identity of people who they were attacking: 616 refers to the Emperor Caligula."

The Book of Revelation is traditionally considered to be written by John, a disciple of Jesus; it identifies 666 as the mark of the Antichrist. In America, the fundamentalist Christian right often use the number in sermons about the coming Apocalypse.

They and satanists responded coolly to the new "Revelation". Peter Gilmore, High Priest of the Church of Satan, based in New York, said: "By using 666 we're using something that the Christians fear. Mind you, if they do switch to 616 being the number of the beast then we'll start using that."