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Tag Archives: John Calvin

Fellowship in Psalm 15

08 Tuesday Jan 2013

Posted by memoirandremains in John, John Calvin, Psalms

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adoption, Family, Fellowship, household code, John, John 14, John Calvin, John Calvin, love, Obedience, Psalm 15, Psalms

Psalm 15 may be understood to preach salvation by behavior, but such a reading would make heaven a hotel to be earned. Rather, we must see the Psalm speaking of a home in which one may live happily:

He who would dwell with God in His house must adapt himself to the arrangements of God’s house.—We may be invited to God’s house and table and yet not gain the enjoyment of that which God offers us.—To desire communion with God and transgress the commands of God are irreconcilable with one another; for vice separates God and man from one another.—He who truly has and seeks communion with God, has and seeks communion likewise with the pious, but avoids the society of the ungodly. The law remains constantly valuable as a mirror, bar and bridle.—He who wishes to dwell forever with God, must inquire after God in time and seek intercourse with God on earth, and for this purpose use the means of grace offered by God according to the order of salvation.

John Peter Lange, Philip Schaff, Carl Bernhard Moll et al., A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Psalms (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2008), 119. I do not seek the manner of life as a means of manipulation or to earn a seat with Christ. Rather, I seek relationship with God and it is in the manner of one’s life that the communion is grows.

My children do not become children by behavior – yet God’s children are adopted into a home (Rom. 8:15). However, our relationship will be affected by their behavior. I may spend a joyous time of fellowship or a time of correction: both spring from love and both seek the good of our fellowship. But the means of expressing my love differ.

Now anyone who truly has come into God’s family will seek by all means to love and thus obey:

21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me. John 14:21–24 (ESV)

We get off on the wrong foot if we think of obedience to the words of Christ as obeying traffic laws. I obey the laws specifically to avoid contact with the government. For the Christian obedience is a means of worship, it is a means of pursuing fellowship with the God of creation.

Calvin, commenting on John 14:21c, writes:

And I will manifest myself to him. Knowledge undoubtedly goes before love; but Christ’s meaning was, “I will grant to those who purely observe my doctrine, that they shall make progress from day to day in faith;” that is, “I will cause them to approach more nearly and more familiarly to me.” Hence infer, that the fruit of piety is progress in the knowledge of Christ; for he who promises that he will give himself to him who has it rejects hypocrites, and causes all to make progress in faith who, cordially embracing the doctrine of the Gospel, bring themselves entirely into obedience to it. And this is the reason why many fall back, and why we scarcely see one in ten proceed in the right course; for the greater part do not deserve that he should manifest himself to them. It ought also to be observed, that a more abundant knowledge of Christ is here represented as an extraordinary reward of our love to Christ; and hence it follows that it is an invaluable treasure.

John Calvin and William Pringle, Commentary on the Gospel According to John (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), Jn 14:21–24. Obedience is a means of approach, it is a vantage point from which we can see Christ, it is a home in which we can rest with him.

This then speaks to the motivation to pursue obedience. Obedience to Christ is not the obedience of slave to master, but rather like one who follows the map to a friend’s house. There is nothing servile about following directions to gain a friend’s company.

Augustine Confessions 1.1.1a (Translation and Notes)

19 Monday Nov 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in Augustine, Church History, John Calvin, Prayer

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Augustine, Church History, Confessions, John Calvin, Latin, Latin Translation, Praise, praise, Prayer, Translation

Confessions 1.1.1

magnus es, domine, et laudabilis valde. magna virtus tua et sapientiae tuae non est numerus

 

Notes:

It is interesting that in seeking to confess his own life, Augustine begins with a confession of the Lord’s greatness.[1] This is praise draws heavily upon Scripture, as noted below.

Magnus es: Great are you

Domine: God, vocative

Et laudabilis valde: and praiseworthy intensely so.

magna virtus tua: Great is your strength

et sapientiae tuae: and your wisdom

non est numerous: not is numbered (cannot be numbered, infinite, exceedingly great).

 

Translation:

Great are you Lord, and worthy of praise. Great is your strength, and your wisdom has no end.

Pusey:  Great art Thou, O Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is Thy power, and Thy wisdom infinite.

 

Biblical Cross-References:

Great are you Lord:

Magnus Dominus, et laudabilis nimis, et magnitudinis ejus non est finis. Psalm 144:3 (VGCLEM)

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised: and of his greatness there is no end. Psalm 144:3 (D-R)

 

1 Aperiens autem Tobias senior os suum, benedixit Dominum, et dixit : Magnus es, Domine, in æternum, et in omnia sæcula regnum tuum : Tobit 13:1 (VGCLEM)

1 AND Tobias the elder opening his mouth, blessed the Lord, and said: Thou art great O Lord, for ever, and thy kingdom is unto all ages. Tobit 13:1 (D-R)

 

 

The Wisdom of God:

Psalm 146:5 (Vulgate, D-R):

      5 Magnus Dominus noster, et magna virtus ejus,

            et sapientiæ ejus non est numerus.

 

Great is our Lord, and great is his power:

and of his wisdom there is no number.  

 

Isaiah 40:8:

 

28 Numquid nescis, aut non audisti ? Deus sempiternus Dominus, qui creavit terminos terræ : non deficiet, neque laborabit, nec est investigatio sapientiæ ejus. Isaiah 40:28 (VGCLEM)

28 Knowest thou not, or hast thou not heard? the Lord is the everlasting God, who hath created the ends of the earth: he shall not faint, nor labour, neither is there any searching out of his wisdom. Isaiah 40:28 (D-R)

Romans 11:33:

33 O altitudo divitiarum sapientiæ, et scientiæ Dei : quam incomprehensibilia sunt judicia ejus, et investigabiles viæ ejus ! Romans 11:33 (VGCLEM)

33 O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are his judgments, and how unsearchable his ways! Romans 11:33 (D-R)

 

 

 


[1] Calvin’s Institutes begin with this observation:

 

OUR wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid Wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But as these are connected together by many ties, it is not easy to determine which of the two precedes and gives birth to the other. For, in the first place, no man can survey himself without forthwith turning his thoughts towards the God in whom he lives and moves; because it is perfectly obvious, that the endowments which we possess cannot possibly be from ourselves; nay, that our very being is nothing else than subsistence in God alone. In the second place, those blessings which unceasingly distil to us from heaven, are like streams conducting us to the fountain. Here, again, the infinitude of good which resides in God becomes more apparent from our poverty. In particular, the miserable ruin into which the revolt of the first man has plunged us, compels us to turn our eyes upwards; not only that while hungry and famishing we may thence ask what we want, but being aroused by fear may learn humility. For as there exists in man something like a world of misery, and ever since we were stript of the divine attire our naked shame discloses an immense series of disgraceful properties every man, being stung by the consciousness of his own unhappiness, in this way necessarily obtains at least some knowledge of God. Thus, our feeling of ignorance, vanity, want, weakness, in short, depravity and corruption, reminds us (see Calvin on John 4:10), that in the Lord, and none but He, dwell the true light of wisdom, solid virtue, exuberant goodness. We are accordingly urged by our own evil things to consider the good things of God; and, indeed, we cannot aspire to Him in earnest until we have begun to be displeased with ourselves. For what man is not disposed to rest in himself? Who, in fact, does not thus rest, so long as he is unknown to himself; that is, so long as he is contented with his own endowments, and unconscious or unmindful of his misery? Every person, therefore, on coming to the knowledge of himself, is not only urged to seek God, but is also led as by the hand to find him.

 

2. On the other hand, it is evident that man never attains to a true self-knowledge until he have previously contemplated the face of God, and come down after such contemplation to look into himself. For (such is our innate pride) we always seem to ourselves just, and upright, and wise, and holy, until we are convinced, by clear evidence, of our injustice, vileness, folly, and impurity. Convinced, however, we are not, if we look to ourselves only, and not to the Lord alsoD2—He being the only standard by the application of which this conviction can be produced. For, since we are all naturally prone to hypocrisy, any empty semblance of righteousness is quite enough to satisfy us instead of righteousness itself. And since nothing appears within us or around us that is not tainted with very great impurity, so long as we keep our mind within the confines of human pollution, anything which is in some small degree less defiled delights us as if it were most pure just as an eye, to which nothing but black had been previously presented, deems an object of a whitish, or even of a brownish hue, to be perfectly white. Nay, the bodily sense may furnish a still stronger illustration of the extent to which we are deluded in estimating the powers of the mind. If, at mid-day, we either look down to the ground, or on the surrounding objects which lie open to our view, we think ourselves endued with a very strong and piercing eyesight; but when we look up to the sun, and gaze at it unveiled, the sight which did excellently well for the earth is instantly so dazzled and confounded by the refulgence, as to oblige us to confess that our acuteness in discerning terrestrial objects is mere dimness when applied to the sun. Thus too, it happens in estimating our spiritual qualities. So long as we do not look beyond the earth, we are quite pleased with our own righteousness, wisdom, and virtue; we address ourselves in the most flattering terms, and seem only less than demigods. But should we once begin to raise our thoughts to God, and reflect what kind of Being he is, and how absolute the perfection of that righteousness, and wisdom, and virtue, to which, as a standard, we are bound to be conformed, what formerly delighted us by its false show of righteousness will become polluted with the greatest iniquity; what strangely imposed upon us under the name of wisdom will disgust by its extreme folly; and what presented the appearance of virtuous energy will be condemned as the most miserable impotence. So far are those qualities in us, which seem most perfect, from corresponding to the divine purity.

 

 

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 1997).

Astronomy Divine.2 (Edward Taylor)

13 Tuesday Nov 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in Edward Taylor, John, John Calvin, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Meditation, Puritan

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Astronomy Divine, Augustine, Bunyan, Calvinism, Doctrines of Grace, Edward Taylor, Effectual Call, Election, Feeding the Five Thousand, John, John 6, John Calvin, John P. Meier, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Meditation, poem, Poetry, Puritan, Puritan Poetry

(The entire poem may be found here: https://memoirandremains.wordpress.com/2012/11/13/astronomy-divine-1-edward-taylor/)

 

The background on Taylor’s meditation is the story of Jesus in John 6[1]. The chapter begins with the feeding of the five thousand: A multitude was coming to Jesus. Jesus asks Philip how these people are to be fed. Philip does not know, because they do not have enough money to them all food. Andrew has found a boy with five barley loaves and two fish.  Jesus prays and multiplies the original meal so that all have eaten to the full.[2]

This story bears a relation to the overall frame of Jesus’ ministry promising a future marriage feast (Matthew 8:11-12; Luke 13:28-29; Mark 14:25). More importantly for purposes of Taylor’s poem (and the teaching recorded by John) is the relationship to the Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper, Communion (all of which designate the same event).

The meal breaks up when the people seek to make Jesus king:

Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. John 6:15 (ESV)

Jesus and the disciples proceed that evening to the other side of the lake.[3]

The next day, the Jesus run around the lake to see Jesus again.  Jesus rebukes the people (the Gospel of John works through in great detail what it means to exercise true faith), because they wanted food alone:

26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” John 6:26–27 (ESV)

This concept will be developed at much greater length in discourse. It this theme which ends Taylor’s poem:

 This Bread of Life dropped in thy mouth doth cry,

Eat, eat me, soul, and thou shalt never die.

 

When the people hear Jesus, they ask what to do. He tells them to believe on him.  They ask, Why should we believe you? When Moses led the people, it was because he got them food – manna in the wilderness.[4]

Jesus answers:

32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” 35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. John 6:32–35 (ESV)

Taylor’s poem answers to this passage:

The Bread has come from heaven: In the first stanza, Taylor notes that the Bread has come to him from a “that bright throne” seen in an “astronomy divine”. Jesus says, “For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

Another parallel between the poem and Jesus concerns the call of the Father to bring one to the Son (Jesus). In the sixth stanza, Taylor writes:

Did God mold up this Bread in heaven and bake

Which from his table came and to thine goeth?

Doth he bespeak thee thus, This soul Bread take.

Come eat thy fill of this thy God’s white loaf?

It’s  food too fine for angels, yet come, take

And eat thy fill. It’s heaven’s sugar cake.

 

Jesus says,

44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— John 6:44–45 (ESV)

This passage is a key aspect of the “Doctrines of Grace” as understood within the Puritan, “Calvinistic”, “Augustinian” and refers to “effectual calling”.[5] Martyn Lloyd-Jones explains that the “effectual calling” is the internal call – it is the subjective experience of the desirability of the external call which goes to all persons:

What, then, is the difference between the external call and this call which has become effectual? And the answer must be that this call is an internal, a spiritual call. It is not merely something that comes to a person from the outside—it does that, of course, but in addition to that external call which comes to all, there is an internal call which comes to those who are going to be Christians, and it is an effectual call. The contrast, therefore, is between external, and internal and spiritual.

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, God the Holy Spirit (Wheaton, IL: Crossways Books, 1997), 66.

This is a crucial point of Reformed Theology which is often misunderstood – and which would cause one to misunderstand Taylor’s poem. First, the human being has no claim or standing before God. This is the point of Taylor’s lines:

When that this bird of paradise put in

This wicker cage (my corpse) to tweedle praise

Had pecked the fruit forbade: and so did fling

Away its good; and lost its golden days;

It fell into celestial famine sore:

And never could attain a morsel more.

 

The human being, having rebelled against God, could no longer obtain any good. Second, humans being willing remain in rebellion against God – despite the offer of God. That is a great issue of the dispute between Jesus and the people with whom he was speaking.  Indeed, at the end of this public conversation we read:

 

After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. John 6:66 (ESV)

 

However, while most will turn away, for some, the call will be effective; that is, Christ will seem desirable.[6]   Taylor notes that by stating that he heard the call of God and the offer of Christ as:

 

It’s  food too fine for angels, yet come, take

And eat thy fill. It’s heaven’s sugar cake.

 

In short, Taylor is not stating that he is better than any one else (which is often what is heard when the word “elect” is used) but rather that he has received grace, unmerited favor (note how often Taylor uses the language of “grace” throughout the poem).


[1] The story is also reported in the other Gospels. However, Taylor references the teaching of Jesus recorded in John 6 – which takes place after the miracle but also acts as a comment on the miracle.

[2] John P. Meier writes in his examination A Marginal Jew, vol. 2, “However, despite our galling inability to be specific, I think the criteria of multiple attestation and of coherence make it more likely than not that behind our Gospel stories of Jesus feeding the multitude lies some especially memorable communal meal of bread and fish, a meal with eschatological overtones celebrated by Jesus and his disciples with a large crowd by the Sea of Galilee. Whether something actually miraculous took place is not open to verification by means available to the historian. A decision pro or con will ultimately depend on one’s worldview, not on what purely historical investigation can tell us about this event” (966).

[3] John 6:15-21 records Jesus walking on the water, which does not play into Taylor’s poem.

[4] Mark records that the meal took place “in a deserted place” (Mark 8:35)

[5] Calvin writes of John 6:40:

But we have no right to break through the order and succession of the beginning and the end, since God, by his purpose, hath decreed and determined that it shall proceed unbroken. 145 Besides, as the election of God, by an indissoluble bond, draws his calling along with it, so when God has effectually called us to faith in Christ, let this have as much weight with us as if he had engraven his seal to ratify his decree concerning our salvation. For the testimony of the Holy Spirit is nothing else than the sealing of our adoption, (Romans 8:15.) To every man, therefore, his faith is a sufficient attestation of the eternal predestination of God, so that it would be a shocking sacrilege 146 to carry the inquiry farther; for that man offers an aggravated insult to the Holy Spirit, who refuses to assent to his simple testimony.

John Calvin, John, electronic ed., Calvin’s Commentaries (Albany, OR: Ages Software, 1998), Jn 6:40.

[6]

72. Here, again, I was at a very great stand, not knowing what to do, fearing I was not called; for, thought I, if I be not called, what then can do me good? None but those who are effectually called, inherit the kingdom of heaven. But oh! how I now loved those words that spake of a Christian’s calling! as when the Lord said to one, ‘Follow me’, and to another, ‘Come after me’. And oh! thought I, that He would say so to me too, how gladly would I run after him!

John Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1995), 42.

Hebrews 2:14-15: Calvin on the Fear of Death

22 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in Hebrews, John Calvin, Psalms

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Death, fear of death, Hebrews, Hebrews 2:14-15, John Calvin, John Calvin, Psalm 6, Psalm 6:5, Psalms

Hebrews 2:14-15 contains an intriguing observation:

14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. Hebrews 2:14–15 (ESV)

Very little appears in the commentaries concerning the fact of being subject due to the fear of death. Calvin, in his commentary on Psalm 6:5, makes the following observation adds a bit concerning the nature of the fear of death:

From this passage, we are furnished with the solution of another question, why David so greatly dreaded death, as if there had been nothing to hope for beyond this world. Learned men reckon up three causes why the fathers under the law were so much kept in bondage by the fear of death. The first is, because the grace of God, not being then made manifest by the coming of Christ, the promises, which were obscure, gave them only a slight acquaintance with the life to come. The second is, because the present life, in which God deals with us as a Father, is of itself desirable. And the third, because they were afraid lest, after their decease, some change to the worse might take place in religion. But to me these reasons do not appear to be sufficiently solid. David’s mind was not always occupied by the fear he now felt; and when he came to die, being full of days and weary of this life, he calmly yielded up his soul into the bosom of God. The second reason is equally applicable to us at the present day, as it was to the ancient fathers, inasmuch as God’s fatherly love shines forth towards us also even in this life, and with much more illustrious proofs than under the former dispensation. But, as I have just observed, I consider this complaint of David as including something different, namely, that feeling the hand of God to be against him, and knowing his hatred of sin, he is overwhelmed with fear and involved in the deepest distress. The same may also be said of Hezekiah, inasmuch as he did not simply pray for deliverance from death, but from the wrath of God, which he felt to be very awful, (Isaiah 38:3.)

John Calvin and James Anderson, Commentary on the Book of Psalms (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), Ps 6:5. Unfortunately, he does not go further and address the matter of how the fear of death leads to the slavery of sin.

There is nothing more difficult

18 Thursday Oct 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in 1 Peter, John Calvin

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1 Peter, 1 Peter 1:22, hypocrisy, John Calvin, John Calvin, love, Love, love one another, sincerity

He calls it unfeigned, (ἀνυπόκριτον), as Paul calls faith in 1 Timothy 1:5; for nothing is more difficult than to love our neighbors in sincerity. For the love of ourselves rules, which is full of hypocrisy; and besides, every one measures his love, which he shews to others, by his own advantage, and not by the rule of doing good. He adds, fervently; for the more slothful we are by nature, the more ought every one to stimulate himself to fervor and earnestness, and that not only once, but more and more daily.

John Calvin, 1 Peter: Commentaries on the Catholic Epistles, electronic ed., Calvin’s Commentaries (Albany, OR: Ages Software, 1998), 1 Pe 1:22.

Of Communion With the Father, Son and Holy Spirit: Digression 1b (Coming to Christ)

03 Wednesday Oct 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in Biblical Counseling, Fellowship, John, John Calvin, John Owen, Puritan

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affection, Biblical Counseling, Desire, Faith, faith, Fellowship, Hebrews 11:6, John, John 4:10, John 6:42–44, John 7:37-38, John 8:23–27, John Calvin, John Calvin, John Owen, Living Water, Puritan, Thirst

Now what is required of us to gain us blessing and grace and living water? Here is where many flounder and do receive. First, we must know of whom we ask. Jesus says to the woman at the well, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink …’ (John 4:10). We will never ask of Christ until we know that Christ is what he can give:

 

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Hebrews 11:6 (ESV)

We will not draw near unless and until we believe that he is, and that he will give freely.  That is how many failed when Jesus walked upon the earth:

 

42 They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 43 Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. John 6:42–44 (ESV)

They could not come because they would not believe:

 

23 He said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he [Greek, I am; “he” implied by the translators]  you will die in your sins.” 25 So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. 26 I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.” 27 They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father. John 8:23–27 (ESV)

Second, one must not merely know of Jesus; one must come to Jesus in need, in thirst – then coming in thirst, one must drink. Calvin puts it well in his commentary on John 7:37-38:

 

Yet it is highly useful to us, that the Evangelist introduces Christ exclaiming aloud, Let all who thirst come to me. For we infer from it that the invitation was not addressed to one or two persons only, or in a low and gentle whisper, but that this doctrine is proclaimed to all, in such a manner that none may be ignorant of it, but those who, of their own accord shutting their ears, will not receive this loud and distinct cry.

 

If any man thirst. By this clause he exhorts all to partake of his blessings, provided that, from a conviction of their own poverty, they desire to obtain assistance. For it is true that we are all poor and destitute of every blessing, but it is far from being true that all are roused by a conviction of their poverty to seek relief. Hence it arises that many persons do not stir a foot, but wretchedly wither and decay, and there are even very many who are not affected by a perception of their emptiness, until the Spirit of God, by his own fire, kindle hunger and thirst in their hearts. It belongs to the Spirit, therefore, to cause us to desire his grace.

 

As to the present passage, we ought to observe, first, that none are called to obtain the riches of the Spirit but those who burn with the desire of them. For we know that the pain of thirst is most acute and tormenting, so that the very strongest men, and those who can endure any amount of toil, are overpowered by thirst. And yet he invites the thirsty rather than the hungry, in order to pursue the metaphor which he afterwards employs in the word water and the word drink, that all the parts of the discourse may agree with each other. And I have no doubt that he alludes to that passage in Isaiah, All that thirst, come to the waters, (Isa. 55:1.) For what the Prophet there ascribes to God must have been at length fulfilled in Christ, as also that which the blessed Virgin sung, that those who are rich and full he sendeth empty away, (Luke 1:53.) He therefore enjoins us to come direct to himself, as if he had said, that it is he alone who can fully satisfy the thirst of all, and that all who seek even the smallest alleviation of their thirst anywhere else are mistaken, and labour in vain.

 

And let him drink. To the exhortation a promise is added; for though the word—let him drink—conveys an exhortation, still it contains within itself a promise; because Christ testifies that he is not a dry and worn-out cistern, but an inexhaustible fountain, which largely and abundantly supplies all who will come to drink. Hence it follows that, if we ask from him what we want, our desire will not be disappointed.

 John Calvin and William Pringle, Commentary on the Gospel According to John (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), Jn 7:37–38.

Psalm 6:2: Translation and Comments

14 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in John Calvin, Prayer, Psalms

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Affliction, Hebrew, Hebrew Translation, John Calvin, John Calvin, poem, Poetry, Prayer, Psalm 6, Psalm 6:2, Psalms, Rhetoric, Translation, trouble

Psalm 6:3 (BHS/WHM 4.2)

3חָנֵּ֥נִי יְהוָה֮ כִּ֤י אֻמְלַ֫ל אָ֥נִי רְפָאֵ֥נִי יְהוָ֑ה כִּ֖י נִבְהֲל֣וּ עֲצָמָֽי׃

Psalm 6:3 (LXX)

3ἐλέησόν με, κύριε, ὅτι ἀσθενής εἰμι, ἴασαί με, κύριε, ὅτι ἐταράχθη τὰ ὀστᾶ μου,

Psalm 6:3 (VGCLEM)

3Miserere mei, Domine, quoniam infirmus sum ;sana me, Domine, quoniam conturbata sunt ossa mea.

Notes:

1. It is difficult to convey the nuance of the words into English.  The first imperative may be either mercy or gracious. The first ailment means to be bowed down, but it has a hint of physical illness. The second imperative is heal which is matched to a status of existential terror; thus, “heal” seems almost to light a request (but see notes below).

2.  The Hebrew conveys a sense of utter dread and helplessness before God.  It is difficult to convey the sense into English. First, there is the problem with the trivialization of the language: shivering terror is the right sense of the passage, but the word “terror” is both too light a word (the use of exaggeration in much speech has made powerful words trite, e.g., wonder, awe); and too political a word, terrorism. Horror as the same problems, if anything compounded with the movie genre.

An expanded line which seeks to bring out the horror with more words loses the punch of the poetry and dilutes the sense of pain: a man in horror and wracked with pain will not also be longwinded: his prayer will strike sharp. 

The ESV’s “I am languishing” perhaps betters describes the condition than the NASB’s “pining away” (which sounds like a disconsolate lover) or the NIV’s “faint” (which is too light an idea).  The idea seems to be collapsing in weakness and fever: it is a life-threatening affliction.

The Hebrew has four syllables ’umlal ’ani (an iamb & trochee, granted Hebrew poetry does not use Greek metrics).

3.  The weakness which ends the first clause seems almost to suggest the “heal” of the second clause, which leads to the Kierkegaardian dread of the final phrase. The translator all have “heal” for the second imperative.  The trouble with the bones is translated “shaking” (NET, HCSB), “agony” (NIV 84), “dismayed” (NASB95), “troubled” (ESV) and “vexed” (KJV).

“Bones” is idiomatic in the Hebrew for one’s most essential existence – as opposed to just the physical items of bone in one’s body.

4.  The utter panic of these words would indicate that the prayer of the previous verse is to be relieved of God’s chastisement – as opposed to a prayer for correction without anger. David does not seem to be in a position to make “nice” (in the old fashioned sense) distinction.  A man on the verge of utter collapse and death does not parcel out degrees of pain.

5.  Delitzsch comments, “[T]herefore the effect that is produced by terror, which puts one into a state of mental confusion, and by excitement, which renders one unstable and weak.His soul is still more shaken than his body. His affliction is therefore not merely bodily sickness, in which only  a coward becomes faint-hearted. God’s love has hidden itself from him. God’s wrath appear to be about to destroy him altogether. It is an affliction beyond all afflictions.”

6. Perowne, “The chastisement has been so heavy, and has endured so long, and his own sense of sin is so grievous, that he begins to fear lest God should shut up his tender mercies in displeasure, and should consume him in His wrath.”

7.

The psalmist’s cry of anguish (6:2–4). The anguished cry with which the psalm begins reflects the psalmist’s experience of physical illness and spiritual travail. The psalmist has become feeble and weak as a result of the course of his illness, though the poetic language of the psalm does not permit the identification of the disease. Both the inner and the outer person have been affected; the double use of the same verb (נבהל “be disturbed”) indicates that both the bones (representing the physical being) and the soul (representing the inner or spiritual being) have been profoundly disturbed.

Peter C. Craigie, vol. 19, Psalms 1–50, 2nd ed., Word Biblical Commentary (Nashville, TN: Nelson Reference & Electronic, 2004), 92.

חָנֵּ֥נִי

Qal imperative, direct object “I”: to show favor, compassion.

The word is used is as the first attribute of God’s name in Exodus 33:19.  In Numbers 6:25, it is an element of the priestly blessing (a silver amulet containing the blessing, dating to the late 7th century was found: http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2010/01/06/The-Blessing-of-the-Silver-Scrolls.aspx).

David uses the verb to describe his hope that God would be merciful and permit the first child of Bathsheba to live, 2 Samuel 12:22.

The LXX favors mercy as a translation, yet in Psalm 4:2 the translation is compassion. The English translators are split between “Be gracious” and “Have mercy”.

כִּ֤י

Jouon on causal and explicative clauses: “The most common conjunction is   , one of whose many meanings is that of because, for, Gen. 3:14….In comes cases what follows    is not a logical cause for an event or circumstance, but evidence of, or an argument, for the preceding assertion ….”(Jouon & Muraoka, A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew §170 d &da; 638).

אֻמְלַ֫ל

Adjective: frail: here and the conjectural reading of Psalm 107:17. From the verb “to languish, droop”:

אָמַל or אָמֵל TO LANGUISH, TO DROOP, prop. to hang down the head. Kindred is אָבַל which see. In Kal part. pass. of a drooping heart, Eze. 16:30.

PULAL אֻמְלַל [“only in poetry”].—(1) to languish, prop. used of plants hanging down their heads, Isa. 24:7; hence used of fields, of a sick person, Ps. 6:3, where אֻמְלַל is for מְאֻמְלָל [“so Maurer”].

(2) to be sad, Isa. 19:8; of a land laid waste, Isa. 24:4; 33:9; of walls thrown down, Lam. 2:8. It is only found in poetic language. But in prose there is—

אֲמֵלָל m. languid, feeble, Neh. 3:34.

Wilhelm Gesenius and Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, Gesenius’ Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2003), 58.

  אמל: Akk. ummulu to be sad; → II אבל.

  [qal: pt. f. אֲמֻלָה: Ezk 1630, → II.]

  pul: (BL 285f; Bergsträsser 2:§20a): אֻמְלַל/לָֽל, אֻמְלְלָה/לָֽלָה, אֻמְלְלוּ/לָֽלוּ: —1. to wither, to dry out Is 168 244a.7 339 Jl 112 Nah 14.4 (for one of them rd. דָּלַל?), oil Jl 110; —2. to dwindle, to wither away: people 1S 25 Is 198 244b Jr 159 Hos 43, gates and walls Jr 142 La 28. †

  Der. אֻמְלַל, *אֲמֵלָל.

  II אמל: Arb. malla to be ill with fever, ill-tempered (Stummer VT 4:34ff; Zimmerli 338).

  qal: אֲמֻלָה pt. pass. or adj. (BL 471u, w): hot with fever (alt. cj. אִמָּלֶה, → מלא and לִבָּה) Ezk 1630, Fitzmyer CBQ 23:460ff. †

Ludwig Koehler, Walter Baumgartner, M. E. J. Richardson and Johann Jakob Stamm, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, electronic ed. (Leiden; New York: E.J. Brill, 1999), 63.

The possible connotation of illness may suggest the following imperative heal. The LXX hints at a weakness/sickness connection with ἀσθενής εἰμι; as does the Vulgate, infirmus sum.

אָ֥נִי

I: “The predicate occurs first in a dependent clause” (Ross, 417).

Note on accents:

2. ( ֫ ֥) עוֹלֶה וְיוֹרֵד ʿÔlè weyôrēd, a stronger divider than

3. (֑) ʾAthnâḥ (see above, I, 2). In shorter verses ʾAthnâh suffices as principal distinctive; in longer verses ʿÔlè weyôrēd serves as such, and is then mostly followed by ʾAthnâḥ as the principal disjunctive of the second half of the verse.

 

Fn: Wrongly called also Mêrekhā mehuppākh (Mêrekha mahpakhatum), although the accent underneath is in no way connected with Mêrekhā; cf. Wickes, l. c., p. 14.

Friedrich Wilhelm Gesenius, Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar, ed. E. Kautzsch and Sir Arthur Ernest Cowley, 2d English ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910), 61.

רְפָאֵ֥נִי

Qal imperative, direct object marker: I: heal me.

נִבְהֲל֣וּ

987 בָּהַל (bā∙hǎl): v.; ≡ Str 926; TWOT 207—1. LN 25.251–25.269 (nif) be terrified, alarmed, i.e., pertaining to being in a state of great fear, even causing trembling (Ge 45:3); (piel) make afraid, terrify (2Ch 32:18); (hif) cause to terrify (Job 23:16+); 2. LN 25.288–25.296 (nif) be dismayed, i.e., be in a state of anguish, and despondency (Job 4:5; Ps 6:4[EB 3], 11[EB 10]; 30:8[EB 7]; 83:18[EB 17]+); 3. LN 30.1–30.38 (nif) bewildered, i.e., be in a state in which one cannot think clearly since one is overwhelmed by a situation (Isa 21:3+); 4. LN 24.77–24.94 (nif) be in agony, i.e., be in physical pain (Ps 6:3[EB 2]+); 5. LN 25.68–25.79 (nif) be eager, i.e., engage in an activity with zeal and intensity, so showing commitment or devotion (Pr 28:22+); 6. LN 27.1–27.26 (piel) alarm, alert, i.e., learn information and so respond (Da 11:44+); 7. LN 68.79–68.82 (nif) be in a hurry, i.e., do something in swift manner, with an implication of associated energy (Ecc 8:3); (piel) make haste, hurry (2Ch 35:21); (pual) be hastened, made to hurry, race along (Est 8:14+); (hif) cause to hurry (2Ch 26:20; Est 6:14+); 8. LN 68.79–68.82 (nif) be sudden, i.e., have a relatively brief amount of time pass. (Zep 1:18); (piel) be immediate (Est 2:9); (pual) be sudden (Pr 20:21+), note: Pr 20:21 K, see 1042; Ezr 4:4 K, see 1164

James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages With Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament), electronic ed. (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).

nif: pf. נִבְהַל, נִבְהֲלָה, נִבְהַלְתִּי, נִבְהֲלוּ/הָֽלוּ, נִבְהָֽלְנּוּ; impf. אֶ/יִבָּהֵל, יִבָּהֲלוּ, יִבָּהֵ֫לוּן, תִּבָּהַלְנָה, pt. נִבְהָל (Sec. νεβαλ), Pr 2822 נִּבֱהָל (BL 211j, Bomberg נִבְהָל, MSS נִבְהַל), נִבְהָלָה: —1. to be horrified, to be out of one’s senses Ex 1515 Ju 2041 1S 2821 2S 41 Is 138 Jr 5132 Ps 611 308 486 8318 907 10429 Jb 45 216; hands Ezk 727, bones Ps 63, soul 64; with מִפְּנֵי in front of Gn 453 Jb 2315, with מִן Is 213 Ezk 2618; pt. נִבְהָלָה (|| כָּלָה) something dreadful Zeph 118;

Ludwig Koehler, Walter Baumgartner, M. E. J. Richardson and Johann Jakob Stamm, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, electronic ed. (Leiden; New York: E.J. Brill, 1999), 111.

The instances of terror are instructive: Exodus 15:15: having heard of God’s triumph over the Egyptians, Edom will be dismayed. Judges 20:41: The men of Benjamin when they realized they would be destroyed in battle. 1 Samuel 28:21, Saul when he received the warning from Samuel (the witch at Endor). 2 Samuel 4:1, Ish-boseth when he realized that Abner had been killed. Isaiah 13:8, how one should respond when he realizes the day of the Lord is near. Psalm 6:11, how David’s enemies will be when God turns to them.  Et cetera. These are each instances of existential terror: it is the moment when one realizes that death will come in its full fury.

עֲצָמָֽי

My bones. The phrase is used 9 times in the OT. On three occasions is used of a kinship covenant: Gen. 29:14, 2 Samuel 19:13-14. On five occasions, it is used in conjunction with devastating pain: Psalm 6:2, 32:3, 102:6; Job 19:20 & 30;17. On one occasion is used of the formation of a baby in the womb, Psalm 139:15. The phrase thus means what is existential or most essential to the person. The combined phrase, terrified to my bones means a dread which overwhelms, a fear for one’s very existence.

It is interesting to think how to balance the adjectival phrase with the imperative (heal me). Healing seems almost too small a thing when viewed from a modern Western perspective: getting sick does not seem like a life threatening event (most often) and thus healing seems like a small thing.  However, illness which lies beyond medicine does pose a peculiar threat because it cannot be countered in any overt,conscious physical manner: A debt could be paid with more money; an enemy can be defeated with more strength; a virus cannot be stopped by any volitional action: yes the immune system may respond, but there is nothing I can do as a matter of purposeful response.

For my bones are afraid. This confirms what I have just now observed, namely, that, from the very grievousness of his afflictions, he entertained the hope of some relief; for God, the more he sees the wretched oppressed and almost overwhelmed, is just so much the more ready to succour them. He attributes fear to his bones, not because they are endued with feeling, but because the vehemence of his grief was such that it affected his whole body. He does not speak of his flesh, which is the more tender and susceptible part of the corporeal system, but he mentions his bones, thereby intimating that the strongest parts of his frame were made to tremble for fear. He next assigns the cause of this by saying, And my soul is greatly afraid. The connective particle and, in my judgment, has here the meaning of the causal particle for, as if he had said, So severe and violent is the inward anguish of my heart, that it affects and impairs the strength of every part of my body. I do not approve of the opinion which here takes soul for life, nor does it suit the scope of the passage.

John Calvin and James Anderson, Commentary on the Book of Psalms (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), Ps 6:2–3.

A reference could here be shifted to “soul”.

Translation:

Rather than expand the phrase to draw out more meaning, I have decided to use ellipsis and short active construction to underscore the pain. “Break” is not the standard translation, but the degree of fever and drooping seem to suggest an emotional state of giving in completely, breaking.

I kept “heal” because there is other good translation. In the final clause I change “my bones” to “my soul” which is more idiomatic and English and moves the concept out of the purely physical. I couple the noun to a physical verb “quake”, a mismatch of imagery to keep from drawing the picture into a purely emotional/intellectual realm.

I like the NASB95 “dismay”; but a long “a” at the end of the verse is too weak. The word “quake” does capture something of fear (cf. NET, “shaking” bones). Moreover, the sharp k and the rhyme with “break” tie the lines together and stop them abruptly.

The other way to draw out the emotional effect would be “figures of amplification” (see, http://rhetoric.byu.edu/ ) such as exergasia (http://rhetoric.byu.edu/Figures/E/exergasia.htm) – David has already drawn the concept out  into two separate colons which are still reflected in the translation. However, to add significantly to the text would be to add to the Bible.

Accordingly aposiopesis seems the best method for pathos:

Breaking off suddenly in the middle of speaking, usually to portray being overcome with emotion.

http://rhetoric.byu.edu/Figures/A/aposiopesis.htm, accessed September 14, 2012.

Mercy Lord – I break

Heal Lord – my soul does quake

 

Some Theologians on the Sovereignty of God.2

04 Saturday Aug 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in John Calvin

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John Calvin:

And truly God claims omnipotence to himself, and would have us to acknowledge it,—not the vain, indolent, slumbering omnipotence which sophists feign, but vigilant, efficacious, energetic, and ever active,—not an omnipotence which may only act as a general principle of confused motion, as in ordering a stream to keep within the channel once prescribed to it, but one which is intent on individual and special movements. God is deemed omnipotent, not because he can act though he may cease or be idle, or because by a general instinct he continues the order of nature previously appointed; but because, governing heaven and earth by his providence, he so overrules all things that nothing happens without his counsel. For when it is said in the Psalms, “He has done whatsoever he has pleased,” (Ps. 115:3), the thing meant is his sure and deliberate purpose. It were insipid to interpret the Psalmist’s words in philosophic fashion, to mean that God is the primary agent, because the beginning and cause of all motion. This rather is the solace of the faithful, in their adversity, that every thing which they endure is by the ordination and command of God, that they are under his hand

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, I.xvi.3.

Calvin’s Prayer Based on Jeremiah 17:1

28 Thursday Jun 2012

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Calvin’s commentary on Jeremiah 17:1 ends with a prayer.  This seems both strange (how many other commentaries break into prayer?) and appropriate (if the point of the commentary is open the passage, then why does not include prayer?).  The prayer reads:

Grant, Almighty God, that as thou kindly invitest us every day to repentance, and shewest thyself ready to be reconciled, — O grant that we may not through our perverseness reject so inestimable a favor, but submit ourselves to thee, and become so displeased with our vices as to be touched with a true and sincere concern for religion, and to labor through the whole course of our life for nothing else but to render ourselves and our duties approved by thee, and thus to glorify thy name, so that we may become at last partakers of that celestial and eternal glory which thine only-begotten Son has attained for us. — Amen.

Calvin on 1 Peter 1:13

13 Sunday May 2012

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John Calvin’s commentary on 1 Peter 1:13:

For the object of Peter was to call us away beyond the world; for this purpose the fittest thing was the recollection of Christ’s coming. For when we direct our eyes to this event, this world becomes crucified to us, and we to the world. Besides, according to this meaning, Peter used the expression shortly before. Nor is it a new thing for the apostles to employ the preposition ἐν in the sense of εἰς. Thus, then, I explain the passage, — ” You have no need to make a long journey that you may attain the grace of God; for God anticipates you; inasmuch as he brings it to you.” But as the fruition of it will not be until Christ appears from heaven, in whom is hid the salvation of the godly, there is need, in the meantime, of hope; for the grace of Christ is now offered to us in vain, except we patiently wait until the coming of Christ.

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