Pretty special day today getting the opportunity to spend some time with a 1536 Tyndale New Testament. This spectacularly preserved copy was printed the very year William Tyndale was burned at the stake.
Tyndale is usually credited with coining or first popularizing a small but highly influential set of English biblical terms. One of which you can see on the very page Im looking at: atonement.
Tyndale’s motivation was basically translation + theology: he wanted an English word that could carry the biblical idea of estranged parties being made “at one” again, especially God and sinners through Christ.
The word “atonement” appears to have existed just before Tyndale; Thomas More is often cited as an early user around 1513, meaning “reconciliation” or settlement after conflict. But Tyndale seems to have been the one who gave it its powerful biblical-theological career in English Bible translation, especially from 1526 onward.
The word literally expressed “at-one-ment.” In early English, “atonement” meant something like being at one, concord, agreement, reconciliation. That made it useful for rendering biblical concepts of reconciliation between God and humanity.
Tyndale used “atonement” because “reconciliation” alone did not fully capture, in earthy English, the biblical idea that Christ’s saving work makes God and sinners “at one.” It was a translator’s solution, but also a Reformation theological choice.
Two realizations that have been liberating as I got older:
1) confronting your own insignificance is completely liberating.
2) you really can’t serve two masters.
This very serious post about a very serious subject seems to have brought out the best in everyone.
[this is a joke. i'm amused by how much more invested many people seem to be in mocking me than i am in these ideas!]
My hypothesis: the only way the NBA reforms what has become a practically unwatchable game is by re-incorporating as many of the norms of pick-up basketball as they can.
Anyone who has ever played at the park knows the honor-norms are carefully calibrated to harness competitive basketball without it leading to fights. Calling your own fouls often leads to a much higher bar for fouls ("no blood, no foul") because people mercilessly downrank guys who try to game the system. Even if they win, they get no respect--and respect is the engine that keeps everyone in line and makes games fun.
The league has to change something to stop the blight of foul-baiting, and I don't think it's as calling the game differently: I think they need to switch the incentives-structure, to shift players' thinking away from baiting people to get to the foul line. Pump fakes should be for better shots, not to draw fouls.
In short: bring back the honor code, complete with allowing maximal shaming and displays of superiority against players who violate it.
My potential proposals (which I have spent five minutes thinking about) include:
1. Each team has two "flop challenges" per game. Anyone can use 'em at any time, and if they're successful the player who flops is kicked out.
2. Quit indulging "safteyism" with players. Yeah, there were some bad injuries with players landing on others' feet...but the perverse incentives of kicking have broken the "landing zone" idea entirely. (This is why you can't have nice things, NBA players.) If someone injures someone deliberately, see rule 3.
3. Install an NHL-style "penalty box" and give players a latitude for scuffling. Keep the rule about anyone coming off the bench getting kicked out, and permanently ban any NBA player who gets into it with a fan Sprewell-style. Otherwise? If there's a minor fight, give the players three minutes in the box while the teams go four-on-four, or four-on-five. (Three minutes, rather than two, allows for a few more possessions and a steeper penalty.) Let players self-enforce their own honor code.
4. "Take it out." Seriously, reduce the number of free-throws entirely by setting the 1 and 1 number at 10 and two shots at 15 or 20 fouls. Maybe expand it so that there are more free-throws in the final two minutes, but other than that? Make the double-bonus practically impossible to reach.
The path to making the NBA fun again is making it more like the park we played at growing up, not less.
(File under: opinions for which no one asked.)
Amazing interview by my Big Bro @holland_tom with Sir Paul McCartney. Can’t believe it - we’ve been OBSESSED with The Beatles since we were knee-high. Bought my first album when I was 7! And now this! Nuts! https://t.co/QoEPYrHtsR
The cost of having children is worth the presence of children.
Full stop.
I am dumbstruck at how our society thinks of children as a costly, time-consuming drag. What an impoverished way to think.
No vacation will hold your hand in the hospital. No amount of mimosas at brunch can walk with you through grief. Double incomes cannot replace empty seats around the dinner table.
Some news: Im taking the reins at the revived @AdFontesJournal as associate editor for History and Theology. Thanks to Rev Dr @jadykoch and Dr. Patrick Timmis for their confidence. If you're a college or seminary prof or student, pastor-scholar etc, I want your pitches!
Filming a chapter-by-chapter series on Genesis with @JamesBejon & Caleb Howard, two colleagues who have dedicated their lives to studying the Bible, its languages & surrounding cultures, has been uniquely enjoyable and instructive for me. I hope others will enjoy it & learn too.
It’s an absolute treat to see Michael AG Azad Haykin’s new book coming out with @DavenantInst. The idea of looking at how color is treated in hymnody is brilliant, and Haykin’s reputation speaks for itself. Link below:
Only one chance in this lifetime…
Like watching sunset at the beach from the most foreign seat in the cosmos, I couldn’t resist a cell phone video of Earthset. You can hear the shutter on the Nikon as @Astro_Christina is hammering away on 3-shot brackets and capturing those exceptional Earthset photos through the 400mm lens. @AstroVicGlover was in window 3 watching with @Astro_Jeremy next to him.
I could barely see the Moon through the docking hatch window but the iPhone was the perfect size to catch the view…this is uncropped, uncut with 8x zoom which is quite comparable to the view of the human eye. Enjoy.