The Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν of Marcus Aurelius (literally Things to Himself, usually rendered as the Meditations)((As R.B. Rutherford points out in the Oxford Classical Dictionary, the title Meditations is modern, and the Greek title may not be Marcus's.)) is one of the most...
Upbuilding Discourses
“Purity of heart is to blog one thing.” -E.J. Hutchinson
The Church in the World, Militant and Wave-Tossed: Hemmingsen on Luke 5
Yesterday's Gospel reading for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity, according to the traditional Western lectionary, was Luke 5:1-11: And it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret,2 And saw two...
“Condemn Not”: More from Hemmingsen on Mercy in Luke 6
Yesterday we looked at the first part of Niels Hemmingsen's discussion of mercy in his Postil sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Trinity on Luke 6:36-42. There, I noted that Hemmingsen analyzes mercy into four parts. Today we come to the second part, signified by the...
“Judge Not”: Niels Hemmingsen on Judgment and Mercy in Luke 6
Yesterday's Gospel reading, according to the traditional Western lectionary, was Luke 6:36-42: 36 Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. 37 Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye...
“The Old Wrong”: Victimhood as the Refusal of Self-Knowledge
In Er (He), a collection of notes from 1920, Franz Kafka makes the following remark: Die Erbsünde, das alte Unrecht, das der Mensch begangen hat, besteht in dem Vorwurf, den der Mensch macht und von dem er nicht abläßt, daß ihm ein Unrecht geschehen ist, daß an ihm...
“All the Men and Women Merely Players”: An Epigram of Palladas
A student once called me "vaguely pagan," which I did NOT appreciate. However. While I've shared several epigrams from Book 1 of the Greek Anthology here, today I give to you an epigram from Book 10--and, unlike the others, this one comes from a pagan, not a...
“The Devil Is Not Dead”: Luther on the Necessity of Galatians (Updated)
Last time, we looked at a comment Luther makes in his preface to the 1535 Galatians commentary. Below, as he warms up for the commentary itself, he explains why he is commenting on Galatians again, since he had already done so in 1519. Significantly, the reason is not...
From Faith to Faith: Exitus-Reditus in Luther’s Galatians Preface
Martin Luther begins the preface to his 1535 Galatians commentary by saying, more or less, "Wow, I cannot BELIEVE how verbose I was in the lectures that form the basis for this commentary. Like, way over the top; SOMEBODY SHUT ME UP!" Maybe they've been heavily...
The Soul’s Bloody Doorposts: A Greek Epigram on the Passover
I haven't posted a verse translation On Here in a while (since April 25th, in fact), and am trying to get back into it. So I have one for today, again from the first book of the Greek Anthology (1.57). The poem is a nice example of figural reading, taking the...
Scrutinize Majesty and Be Crushed by Glory: Reason and the Trinity
Yesterday was the Feast of the Trinity, for which the traditional Gospel text comes from John 3:1-15. For this post, I've translated a brief passage from Niels Hemmingsen's Postil sermon on this text that, in the course of discussing the divine Persons, deals with the...