Where We Stand 06: Slay Them Before Me
Where We Stand 06: Slay Them Before Me
Artwork: "Study_Last Standing" Artist: Kobe Sek
The hardest part of Christianity is authentically believing all the crazy stuff Jesus said. This is especially true because modern theologizing has descended into sophistics. Trapped in jargon and political formulae, our ability to believe the plain words of the Bible has atrophied into a caricature. Christianity has submitted herself to the world of memes and thus sits exposed to the fiery, real-world assaults of all manner of malevolent powers.
The solution is to remember that Jesus Christ is an Old God. He is no mass-producible, kitsch reflection of wishful mythology. He is no matrilineal flannelgraph bed-time story of moralistic, therapeutic narcissism. He is a man of war. He is a God of vengeance. He is a Spirit of all-consuming fire, and His book, the Bible, is the singular arcane relic of all-potent wisdom, the tome of perfect lore and better-than-magic, inerrantly inspirational prayers.
What fool leaves the genie in the lamp? What hero never draws his sword? What good is a holy book that you never read?
The days are evil, far more evil than the natural eye can see. When the lamp of the body is filled with darkness, how great is that darkness!
Time, history, and earth are always teaching us something. The wise man never ceases to ask, “What does this mean?” He knows there is an answer to “Why?” and what is more, he knows where to find it.
When Jesus said, “Bring them here and slay them before me” (Luke 19:27), he wasn’t messing around.
Why are we?
During my recent meditations, my wife (who is German) asked me: "Why did CPH (and presumably other American Lutheran publishing houses?) translate Luther's 'Was ist das?' from the Small Catechism as 'What does this mean?' If Luther had wanted to ask this question he would have written, 'Was bedeutet das?'"
Curiosity piqued, I did a search of Luther's Bible translation (1545) and found 'Was bedeutet das?' does not occur in his translation of Scripture anywhere;
'bedeutet' (the verb form) itself occurs 14x: almost exclusively in Daniel (once each in Genesis, Ezekiel, I Peter)—in all cases in connection to the Divinely-sourced interpretation of dreams, visions, and wonders worked by God;
'Bedeutung' (the noun form) occurs only twice: Joseph's interpretation of the the dreams of the butler and baker, and Paul's spiking (rightly) the value of tongue-speaking.
Alternatively, the exact phrase 'Was ist das' that Luther uses in the Catechism occurs 34x across both testaments in his translation:
most notably it is asked of Abraham by a prince of the Hittites (descended from Ham through Canaan) during the deed-transaction to buy the land nearby Hebron in which Abraham buries Sarah (and which the patriarchs and their families will use for their burial place);
is used by Jacob and Moses;
is part of key scenes in Judges, Samuel & the Kings, and Nehemiah;
is in all four of the Gospels (but especially John's) and used by the people discussing/recognizing among themselves the profound bearing of Jesus' words and miracles, and by Pharisees et al. confounded by the same;
in Acts it used by the Roman commander to learn (from Paul's nephew) of the assassination plot against Paul by the Jewish rulers.