By the grace of God I am a Christian, by my deeds a great sinner, and by my calling a homeless wanderer of humblest origin, roaming from place to place. My possessions consist of a knapsack with dry crusts of bread on my back and in my bosom the Holy Bible. This is all! It’sContinue reading “Paradise Besieged”
Monthly Archives: October 2007
Per decem annos
I’ve been tagged. 1977: In the middle of sixth grade, we moved from Ohio, where I’d been in school since first grade with a bunch of great friends, to California, where I knew no one. The weather was an improvement, but the public schooling was not, the Ohio schools being vastly superior at the time.Continue reading “Per decem annos”
The Oracle of Hystaspes
For a project I’m working on, I needed to look up the Joseph Bidez and Franz Cumont classic Les Mages Hellénisés: Zoroastre Ostanès et Hystaspe d’après la tradition grecque (2 vols. Paris: Société d’Édition “Les Belles Letters”, 1938), specifically for the fragments of the lost Oracle of Hystaspes, which are typically referenced according to theirContinue reading “The Oracle of Hystaspes”
An Alphabet
A is the Alphabet, A at its head ; A is an Antelope, agile to run. B is the Baker Boy bringing his bread, Or black Bear and brown Bear, both begging for bun. C is a Cornflower come with the corn ; C is a Cat with a comical look. D is a dinnerContinue reading “An Alphabet”
The Nile
It flows through old hushed Egypt and its sands, Like some grave mighty thought threading a dream, And times and things, as in that vision, seem Keeping along it their eternal stands,— Caves, pillars, pyramids, the shepherd bands That roamed through the young world, the glory extreme Of high Sesostris, and that southern beam, TheContinue reading “The Nile”
Bethsaida: town or village?
Expanded from my notes on Rami Arav, “Bethsaida,” pp 145–166 in Jesus and Archaeology, ed. James H. Charlesworth (Eerdmans, 2006). From pp 148–149: Four years after [Bethsaida’s] foundation, Philip, the founder of the city, died at Bethsaida and was buried in a costly burial; unfortunately, Josephus, our source of information, does not indicate where PhilipContinue reading “Bethsaida: town or village?”
His bitter tears
Near Rome, in sight of St Peter’s Long has the dew been dried on tree and lawn; O’er man and beast a not unwelcome boon Is shed, the languor of approaching noon; To shady rest withdrawing or withdrawn Mute are all creatures, as this couchant fawn, Save insect-swarms that hum in air afloat, Save thatContinue reading “His bitter tears”