Scriptor Ignotus > Recent Status Updates

Read the whole book of Obadiah in one sitting. 😎

Col. 2:11-15

Baptism is the circumcision of Christ, in which we put off the flesh, joining ourselves to Christ in His death and thereby partaking of the faithful obedience to the Father by which Christ was resurrected and we too are made alive in a life beyond law and transgression. The condemnation of the law was crucified with Christ, leaving the principalities and powers disarmed against resurrected life.

Transitioning from the Wisdom of Solomon and Sirach, the two latest texts of the Hebrew Bible,to the prophecy of Hosea, one of the earliest, is a jarring experience. We're wrenched from the cosmopolitan, philosophical, and individualistic world of Hellenic Judaism to that of a wrathful tutelary deity of the ancient Near East. The first and last authors of the Old Testament were further apart than we are from Chaucer.

“O Mole! the beauty of it! The merry bubble and joy, the thin, clear, happy call of the distant piping! Such music I never dreamed of, and the call in it is stronger even than the music is sweet! Row on, Mole, row! For the music and the call must be for us.”

“'Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing—absolutely nothing—half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.'"

WSir 38 gives a shout-out to "essential workers": scribes, plowmen, engravers, blacksmiths, and potters.

"Without them a city will not be livable, nor will anyone sojourn or live there. Yet they will not be sought out for the council of the people, and they will not gain prominence in the assembly. . . . But they will keep the fabric of the world stable, and their prayer is in the practice of their craft."

WSir 30:21-24: "Do not give yourself over to sorrow,
And to not distress yourself
deliberately.
Gladness of the heart is the life of
man,
And rejoicing by a man lengthens his
life.
Love your soul and comfort your heart,
And put sorrow far away from you;
For sorrow has destroyed many,
And there is no profit in it.
Envy and anger will shorten your days,
And worry will bring premature old
age."

"The heart of fools is in their mouth,
But the mouth of the wise is in their heart."

- Wisdom of Sirach, 21:26

"Fight to the death for the truth, and the Lord God will fight for you."

- Wisdom of Sirach, 4:28

Makes me want to read Thucydides again. It's been a while.

WSol 7:22-23, 26:

"[Wisdom] is rational, holy, only-begotten, manifold, subtle, easily moved, clear, undefiled, manifest, invulnerable, loving what is good, keen, unhindered, beneficent, man-loving, steadfast, unfailing, free from worry, all-powerful, all-surveying, and penetrating all spirits that are rational, pure, and most subtle ... a spotless mirror of the operative power of God and the image of His goodness."

St. Paul declares in 1 Corinthians that the saints will judge the world. As the Church is united with Christ as His mystical body, so too does it share in His judgeship over the world. Just as Jesus saw the love of God and neighbor as inseparably wedded, so will we face the judgement of God and neighbor as one body.

The Wisdom of Solomon opens with a remarkably relevant description of the materialistic worldview.

The Book of Job is every bit the equal of the Greek tragedians in its existential weight, and it exceeds them in sheer rhapsodic beauty.

"According to the subjective conception of mental phenomena . . . it is possible that the human bodies I see around me might be behaving exactly as if they are having conscious experiences and yet lack them entirely - they might be what philosophers call qualia zombies, beings that do not have any subjective experiences despite behaving in every objective way as if they do."

NPCs could be real! Haha.

Rom 7-8: The law is holy, but because it is law - a set of prohibitions external to fallen human nature - it produced a bifurcation between the law of God, loved by the "inward man", and the law of sin which binds the flesh, its passions aroused by the knowledge of good and evil. Our egoic striving for righteousness intensifies its opposite. The answer: partaking of Christ's death in the flesh and life in the Spirit.

The Jews meet the Romans:

"Those the Romans desire to help...they establish; and those kings they wish to depose they depose, for they have great power. But despite all this, none of the Romans has donned a crown or vested in purple, so as to be magnified by it. Instead they formed a council for themselves, and three hundred and twenty senators constantly deliberate concerning the people..." 1 Mc 8:13-15

"The ideal seed, the logoses of being which come from the Logos, are actualized in creation by the Holy Spirit as forms ... they are clothed in beauty, which is actualized idea, transparent in its formedness. All the forms of being, the meanings that clothe the latter, are - as creations in beauty - the artistry of the Holy Spirit, Who is the Artist of the world, the Principle of form and the Form of forms..."

The story of Cornelius in Acts parallels the hospitality of Abraham. Abraham is visited just after he enters the covenant of circumcision, while Peter receives the three messengers of Cornelius the gentile after being instructed by God to 'not call anything impure that God has made clean.' Unlike Abraham, Peter accompanies the men to Cornelius, who receives them in turn. The true reconciliation of Abraham and Lot.

Tbt. 7:10-11: "...Raguel said to Tobias, 'Eat, drink, and be glad, for it is fitting for you to marry my child. However, I must tell you the truth. I gave my daughter to seven men, and when they went in to her, they died during the night. But for now, be glad!'"

Tobit is awesome.

"We're gonna build a wall, and the Ammonites are going to pay for it!" - Nehemiah

2 Chr 35:24-25: "King Josiah went out against [Pharaoh]. But Pharaoh sent messengers to him saying, 'What do I have to do with you, king of Judah? I have not come to fight against you today, and God commanded me to make haste..."

Mt 8:28-29: "two demon-possessed men met [Jesus] . . . And behold, they cried out, 'What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?'"

Hmm...

Proverbs 25:19:
"Seldom visit your own friend's house,
Lest he become fed up with your
company and hate you."

Story of my life.

Oh boy, eight chapters of genealogies! What a treat.

Jehu is the Anton Chigurh of the Bible.

My readings yesterday included the alliance between Ahab and Jehoshaphat and their ill-fated bid to retake Ramoth-Gilead under the influence of hundreds of "prophets", minus the righteous Micaiah, as well as Luke's account of how the persecution of Jesus, under the influence of the chief priests and the mob, brought Pilate and Herod Antipas closer together. Surely there's a connection there.

Hart quotes Latin passages, and then translates the Latin right there on the same page! This book is getting five stars for that reason alone.

Tomorrow I shall read the final Canto, which T.S. Eliot regarded as the pinnacle of Western poetry.

Ἅγιος ὁ Θεός, Ἅγιος ἰσχυρός, Ἅγιος ἀθάνατος, ἐλέησον ἡμᾶς.

Interesting Gospel parallels in the story of Absalom's rebellion. David enduring mockery as he flees Jerusalem, weeping on the Mount of Olives just as Jesus does. His followers insist that he stay behind as they fight Absalom's army, in contrast to Jesus standing his disciples down when he is arrested. Then Absalom becomes a Christ-figure when he ends up "suspended between heaven and earth", and pierced with spears.

"Into the yellow of the eternal Rose
that slopes and stretches and diffuses fragrance
of praise unto the Sun of endless spring,
now Beatrice drew me as one who, though
he would speak out, is silent."

"The one who has mercy on the poor lends to God, and He will repay him according to his gift." [Pr 19:17]

"'When you give a dinner...do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid...Invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you...'"[Lk 14:12-14]