Ascension ~ Psalm 47

Forty days after the Resurrection, Jesus ascended to His throne at the right hand of the Father, where He rules and reigns forever.

Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples!
Shout to God with the voice of triumph!
For the Lord Most High is awesome;
He is a great King over all the earth.
He will subdue the peoples under us,
And the nations under our feet.
He will choose our inheritance for us,
The excellence of Jacob whom He loves.

Selah

God has gone up with a shout,
The Lord with the sound of a trumpet.
Sing praises to God, sing praises!
Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
For God is the King of all the earth;
Sing praises with understanding.
God reigns over the nations;
God sits on His holy throne.
The princes of the people have gathered together,
The people of the God of Abraham.
For the shields of the earth belong to God;
He is greatly exalted.

(Psalm 47)

Learning Hebrew ~ Exploring and Having Fun

I've got the Hebrew alphabet (actually, the Aleph-Bet) down now, along with the vowel points and am able to read and pronounce Hebrew words. My Hebrew vocabulary is growing and so is my understanding. I am also learning about the language. There are plenty of tools and resources available online and I am soaking up as much as I can as fast as I can (which, I realize, actually says nothing about how fast and how much I can soak it all up). I am exploring the language and having fun.

There is some fascinating material at the Center for Biblical Hebrew, with numerous videos, articles and other resources, as well as some interesting music — the letters of Hebrew texts translated as musical notes.

From there, I picked up a few links to some fun learning tools. One is Hebrew for Me, which has some interactive gadgets to help me learn Hebrew words and numbers. Another is Hebrew Keyboard Tutor, to help me learn the placement of Hebrew letters on the Qwerty keyboard.

Learning Hebrew ~ Toddling Along

Lately, I've returned to learning Biblical Hebrew, and I came across this great site, Hebrew4Christians, which looks like it gets into the grammar pretty well in addition to providing other fascinating information about the language.

Also, WikiTravel provides a handy little online Hebrew phrasebook for those planning a trip to Israel.

Learning Hebrew ~ Baby Steps

Getting back to learning biblical Hebrew. Come join me. Found some great aids on YouTube. These are very helpful videos by Norman Willis, who has a rich voice and clear enunciation.

The Hebrew Alphabet (or Aleph Bet)

• Aleph Bet. The Hebrew alphabet.
• Aleph Bet Vowel Points. These are sort of the training wheels for learning to read and pronounce Hebrew words.

Hebrew Word Pronunciation

• Basic Word Pronunciation
• The Patriarchs. Learn to read and pronounce the names of the Hebrew patriarchs and their wives.
• The Twelve Tribes. Learn to read and pronounce the Hebrew names of the twelve tribes of Israel.
• The Books of the Torah. Learn to read and pronounce the Hebrew names of the five books of the Torah.
• The Books of the Prophets. Learn to read and pronounce the Hebrew names of the prophetical books of the Hebrew canon.
• The Books of the Writings. Learn to read and pronounce the Hebrew names of the "writings" in the Hebrew canon.

Hebrew Prefixes and Suffixes

• Hebrew Prefixes and Suffixes (Part 1)
• Hebrew Prefixes and Suffixes (Part 2)
• Hebrew Prefixes and Suffixes (Part 3)

Galactic Cloud Watching

What does this photograph of a 3-light-year tall cloud of gas and dust, taken by Hubble, look like to you? To me, it looks like a warrior on horseback ready to throw a spear at an attacking lion.

A New Take on Tree-Hugging

The American Trinity ~ Prager

Dennis Prager is a very lucid and insightful thinker.

Christos Anesti ~ Alithos Anesti

Christos Anesti ~ Christ is Risen

N. T. Wright on the Resurrection of Jesus the Messiah

The midpoint of this clip, which YouTube displays here, is rather unfortunate, catching Tom Wright awkwardly midblink, but the content is very good.

Garrison Doles >> House of Prayer

Here's a new CD by my brother Gary (Garrison Doles). House of Prayer, from his "chapel songs" series. My favorites on here are "Jonah's Prayer" and "Patrick on the Water."

New Reads Coming Up

Ordered a new batch of books from Amazon today. Looking forward to getting them and start digging in. Yeah, I'm a book guy. I like to read 'em, write 'em and even design 'em.

My Christmas CD Now at Amazon

My new Christmas project, He Come from the Glory: A Walking Barefoot Christmas, is now available at Amazon.com. You can also download the entire album right away in MP3 format. Listen to free audio samples here.

MP3 $8.99 | CD $14.99

The Inklings of Oxford - Tolkien, Lewis and Friends

The Inklings of Oxford: C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Their Friends by Harry Lee Poe and James Ray Veneman

He Come from the Glory

We are moving along pretty quickly on our Christmas CD project and planning on having it out in MP3 as well as CD by Thanksgiving (we'll keep you posted). The working title is He Come from the Glory and features these songs:

(We have now finished and you can listen to some audio clips and download the album in MP3 here.)

• He Come from the Glory
• God Rest You Merry, Gentleman
• Patapan
• The Holly and the Ivy
• Mary Walks Amid the Thorn
• The Seven Joys of Mary
• In the Bleak Midwinter
  
• There’s a Song in the Air
• Rise Up Shepherd and Follow
• We Three Kings
• Brightest and Best
• What Child is This?
• Angels We Have Heard on High
• Go Tell It on the Mountain
• Joy to the World

The Oxyrhynchus Hymn

The Oxyrhynchus Hymn (P. Oxy. XV 1786) is the earliest known manuscript of a Christian hymn - dating from the 3rd century AD - to contain both lyrics and musical notation. It is now kept at the Papyrology Rooms of the Sackler Library, Oxford. The text, in Greek, poetically invokes silence so that the Holy Trinity may be praised.

The surviving text is fragmentary, thus there are quite a number of suggested reconstructions and translations on the web. The version which this recording - performed by Gregorio Paniagua and the Atrium Musicae de Madrid, from "Musique de la Grèce antique" - follows is the following:

"(Spoken) [Σε Πάτερ κόσμων, Πάτερ αἰώνων, μέλπωμεν] ὁμοῦ, πᾶσαι τε Θεοῦ λόγιμοι δο[ῦλο]ι. Ὅσα κ[όσμος ἔχει πρὸς ἐπουρανίων ἁγίων σελάων.]
(Sung) [Πρ]υτανήω σιγάτω, μηδ' ἄστρα φαεσφόρα λ[αμπέ]
(Spoken) σθων, [ἀπ]ολει[όντων] ῥ[ιπαὶ πνοιῶν, πηγαὶ]
(Sung) ποταμῶν ῥοθίων πᾶσαι. Υμνούντων δ' ἡμῶν [Π]ατέρα χ' Υἱὸν χ' Ἅγιον Πνεῦμα, πᾶσαι δυνάμεις ἐπιφωνούντων· Ἀμήν, Ἀμήν. Κράτος, αἶνος [ἀεὶ καὶ δόξα Θεοὶ δωτῆρι μόνῳ πάντων] ἀγαθῶν· Ἀμήν, Ἀμήν."

I have shown the reconstructed text not present in the surviving text in brackets and denoted spoken and sung parts (some parts are merely spoken due to the absence of any notation for those areas).