Luke

I've been reading through C. Kavin Rowe's Early Narrative Christology: The Lord in the Gosepl of Luke lately. I had heard that he's been doing excellent work and as you can see from his Duke profile, it's pretty obvious that he's one of the young bright NT scholars in the world. I corresponded briefly with Dr. Richard Hays at Duke and he also pointed to Dr. Rowe's works for my own interest in the biblical studies department at Duke.

"Jesus is κύριος from the inception of his life. This is not simply an "anticipation" or foreshadowing of Acts 2:34-36, though it is that. More importantly, that Jesus' very existence and his identification as κύριος are coextensive means that κύριος is in a crucial way constitutive of his identity. The root idem in identity is proper here: for Luke there is no point at which Jesus is not κύριος. Lukan christology, therefore, does not allow for a separation between Jesus and his identity as ὁ κύριος."

I wish...

the entire Loeb Classical Library was on my computer in digital form! I really hope someone starts creating some kind of software that has them all... Anyway, does anyone know how I can get access to translations of Stobaeus? He seems to have collected a bunch of sayings from Greek authors, and I can find the Greek texts alright, but can't seem to find any English translations. If anyone knows anything, let me know!

Maundy Thursday

This year, it happens to fall on that odd day we call April Fool's. Well, today happens to be a much better day than that: Maundy Thursday, the day that Jesus enjoyed the Last Supper with his disciples.

I always wondered why they called it "Maundy", so I just did a little bit of digging regarding the origin of the name. There are various theories, but I think there was one that was particularly fitting: It is a derivation of a word from Old French, mandé from the Latin mandatum. This happens to be the first word from John 13:34 in Latin:

Mandatum novum do vobis, ut diligatis invicem; sicut dilexi vos, ut et vos diligatis invicem.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another.

There are two other important statements from the Gospel accounts that are titled after the first word that appears in Latin: (1)The Magnificat, the Song of Mary in Luke 1:46-55 and (2) The Benedictus, Song of Zechariah in Luke 1:68-79. So, in my opinion, the Latin verse origin of Maundy Thursday seems like a good guess. Also, if we follow the Gospel accounts of Jesus' activities, John 13-17 happens to fall on Thursday, so that seems to fit. Of course this is all in the realm of conjecture, but better than April Fool's.