How to speak in “tongues”: lessons from 1st century Corinth and the Chinese diaspora church

When translators of the Chinese Union Mandarin Version of the Bible first published the New Testament in 1907, they chose 方言 (fāngyán) to render the word γλῶσσα (glōssa) throughout 1 Corinthians 12-14. What does the word mean exactly? How can we encourage each other to “speak in tongues” more fruitfully, particularly in bilingual and multilingual …

Job 23-24: Looking for God

Here’s a translation of Job 23-24 from Hebrew, with sporadic comments. Previously: 1:1-5 | 1:6-12 | 1:13-22 | 2:1-6 | 2:7-13 | 3:1-10 | 3:11-26 | 4 | 5:1-7 | 5:8-27 | 6 | 7 | 8:1-7 | 8:8-22 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13:1-16 | 13:17-14:22 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | Translation: 23:1 And Job answered, saying:2 “Surely today bitter [is] my complaint,My hand [is] heavy from my groaning.3 O that I knew [where] I would find him (God), and come to His seat.4 I would lay before Him judgement,And my …

Job 20: the joy of the godless is for a moment

Here’s a rough translation of Job 20, with comments. As background, during our Level 4 lockdown last year I tried to lock down some reading to hold on to my Hebrew. You can see them here (helpful insights are thanks to God: typos and mistranslations wholly my fault):  1:1-5  |  1:6-12  |  1:13-22  |  2:1-6 …