Tammy Faye Bakker was an evangelical Christian preacher and teacher who co-hosted television programs with her husband Jim on their PTL network from 1974 to 1987. Her story is told in the 2021 HBO movie “The Eyes of Tammy Faye.” There is a scene in the movie which depicts a fundamental biblical theme. Andrea explains shame unto correction. 

Elitist intellectuals are drawn to the concept of a psychological trap because others’ suffering entertains them and because their perception of another's supposed trap reinforces their sense of self-importance and permanence. Poor Sartre, poor DNC, poor duopoly.“The fool says in his heart, There is no Judge.”I agree, Jean-Paul: for your spiritual children, there can be “No Exit.”The local Judean elders, who should be hearing and repeating Jesus’s words, are more concerned with manipulating the goodwill of their Roman occupiers to further their political agenda. In turn, the Roman servant, manipulated by the elders, shows zeal for the Torah. Still, his life remains in disrepair because the people of the Synagogue love their “nation” and their shiny new Synagogue more than the words—the debarim—of Isaiah.What right do the Judeans have to call anyone “worthy” or good? Their human judgment, assessment, and feedback “build” a house that Jesus does not enter and a Synagogue that ultimately rejects him.Is there an exit from Sartre’s hell? Yes. Clearly. French existentialism, like postmodernism, is silly.There is only one Judge.Stop listening to the people of Capernaum and start following Jesus. Imitate the obedience of the Centurion, who did not accept accolades from the people of Judaea but received instead the one vote that counts.This week, I discuss Luke 7:1-10. Show Notesי-ק-ר (yod-qof-resh) / و-ق-ر (waw-qaf-ra)ἔντιμος (éntimos) “precious,” “honored,” “honorable in rank” (Luke 7:2) aligns with יקר (yāqār) in Hebrew, which can function as “heavy,” “valuable,” “honored,” “dignified,” “dear,” or—relevant to Luke 7:2, 1 Peter 2:4 and 1 Peter 2:6—“precious.” The Arabic root و-ق-ر (waw-qaf-ra) implies dignity, and can funtion as “to honor.”وَقَار (waqār) — Dignity or solemnity. This word is often used to describe a person’s respectful or dignified demeanor.وَقِرَ (waqira) — To be weighty or important. In this form, it implies something substantial or of significant value.وَقَّرَ (waqqara) — To honor or respect. This is the form II verb (with shadda on the middle letter), meaning “to show respect or honor,” often used in contexts where someone honors or reveres another.تَوْقِير (tawqīr) — Reverence or high regard. This noun, derived from form II of the root, refers to the act of showing respect or esteem, often used in formal or respectful contexts.مُتَوَقِّر (mutawaqqir) — Dignified or solemn person. This adjective describes a person who carries themselves with dignity, calmness, and respectability.وَقُور (waqūr) — A dignified or composed person. This adjective describes someone who possesses an aura of respect, often used for people who are calm, collected, and reverent.The Hebrew root רפא (rafa) is rich in function related to healing, repairing, and recovering, extending across various Semitic languages. Arabic uses the verb رَفَأَ, (rafa'a) “to mend or repair,” with a similar connotation. "And say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, Just so will I break this people and this city, even as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot again be repaired (לְהֵרָפֵא, leheraphe)and they will bury in Topheth because there is no other place for burial.’" (Jeremiah 19:11 )ח-ו-ר (ḥet-waw-resh) / ح-ر-ر (ḥāʾ-rāʾ-rāʾ)ἔντιμος (éntimos) also aligns to חֹר (ḥor), “free,” or “noble” حُرّ (ḥurr) freebornحرية (ḥurriya) “freedom” or “libertyحرر (ḥarrara): To liberate or set freeἔντιμος appears only in Luke 7:2, 1 Peter 2:4, 1 Peter 2:6 and Philippians 2:29. 

Naked Deception, Part 1:Smooth Criminal.You don’t need a theological degree to understand the Bible. If you have ears to hear what the text is saying, the message can be quite clear. That’s why, in the Gospels, Jesus teaches in parables - to make the message so straightforward that the only excuse people could have for not getting it is their own unwillingness to hear and to submit: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” The problem is that the Bible wasn’t written in our language. What we read and hear are translations. Yet even the King James English can’t convey what the authors of the Bible are saying in their language, which is Hebrew. Even if we can’t or don’t want to study ancient languages, we should at least acknowledge the fact that the Bible wasn’t written in English. Then we might be willing to learn from people who do know Biblical Hebrew how the language works so that we could better understand the text so we could do what it commands. In part 1 of this special episode, we take a look at some wordplay in Genesis 2:25-3:1 that really sheds light on the meaning of the text, but that can only be captured in the original Hebrew.  Notes:עֲרוּמִּ֔ים - a-rũm-mîm (naked)עָר֔וּם - a-rūm (subtle/cunning)הָֽאֲדָמָ֗ה - hā-ǎ-dā-māh (ground)Genesis 2:4-6Isaiah 47:2-3Job 5:8-13; 15:4-5Brand New Orleans performed by Prince.

The folly of human construction is similar to that of large language models. Noam Chomsky talks about this in his famous critique of the current state of artificial intelligence and the absence of scientific analysis. We imagine that these expansive predictive systems are creative. Sure, they are impressive, even helpful—for good and ill—and yes, they will likely replace or change your job, but these tools are not creative. They simply regurgitate what was already found before the LLMs themselves were made functional.LLMs validate the power of syntax. In effect, a machine is Sola Syntaxis: by merely observing word order and function at scale, it can channel the content of a written text without philosophical abstraction or creativity. LLMs do not comprehend. A machine does not tell you what it thinks, feels, or experiences. Yet, it can often accurately repeat what is found in a text, unlike theologians and philosophers, who are tripped up by human creativity and reason.At the same time, if you ask an LLM a question about a data set, instead of analyzing the data, it will accurately repeat what other people have said about that data. In that case, it often sounds as stupid as we do.I believe the marketing people and even some programmers when they say that they do not understand how these systems work because they are neither scientists nor grammarians. They are capitalists, digital tycoons, corporate shills, and engineers. You know, the people who control education, media, politics, and religion in the West in the service of making a buck or pursuing their dreams.I, myself, am not an expert. The industry may or may not be close to general artificial intelligence. Then again, food, water, and medicine may or may not reach Palestinian children who may or may not be in mortal danger and who may or may not deserve the same benefits upon which you gorge yourself daily. I don't need the Holocaust media to tell me that. I heard it in the Torah.But hey, ignorance is strength, Habibi.Whether or not large language models become creative, I do not doubt that industry will leverage them in harmful and destructive ways as we do with all technology—as we already have in West Asia because “nothing changes under the sun.”But that’s the point. An LLM is just a mechanism of regurgitation. Ask it a question, and you get the same old answer, just faster, at scale. It does a miraculous job of aggregating, processing, regurgitating, and predicting more of the same more efficiently. That’s what human construction is. You take something that was there at the world’s foundation—something you did not create—and rearrange it. You can’t make something new because you are not the builder. The environmental crisis is just more damage piled up. Even the nuclear bomb, as ugly and stupid as it is, is just a bigger bomb. There’s nothing to brag about. It’s not new. It’s just bigger and dumber. You, O man, can’t make one hair on your head black or white.Or do you have an arm like God? Can you thunder with a voice like his? (Job 40:9)Unfortunately, I’m convinced that most of you, based on where you are found in the Parable of the Sower, are convinced that you do thunder with a voice like God’s—best of luck to you.This week, I discuss Luke, chapter 6, verses 46 to 49.Show Notesח-ר-שׁ (ḥet-resh-shin) —or— ח-ר-שׂ (ḥet-resh-sin)In the original consonantal Hebrew, “sin” and “shin” are not differentiated; the reader must infer the correct pronunciation. Is Paul, the self-proclaimed “ἀρχιτέκτων” of 1 Corinthians 3:10, the חֶ֫רֶשׁ (ḥeresh)—the expert “artisan” or the wise חֶֽרֶשׂ (ḥeres), “earthen vessel” of Isaiah 3:3?“The captain of fifty and the honorable man, the counselor and the expert artisan (or wise earthen vessel),and the skillful enchanter.” (Isaiah 3:3)The Arabic function ح-ر-ش (ḥāʾ-rāʾ-shīn) conveys usages that relate to pottery, for example, “to scratch” or “to be rough” but functions more broadly concerning acts of incitement, provocation, and can mean “to stir up.” حَرَشَ (ḥarasha)– to incite or stir up (as in creating conflict).تحريش (taḥrīsh) – incitement, provocation, or stirring up discord.ע-ש-ק (‘ayin-shin-qof) / ع-س-ق (‘ayn-sīn-qāf)The Greek term πλήμμυρα (plēmmyra), “flood,” occurs only once in the New Testament (Luke 6:48) and only once in the LXX:“If a river rages (יַעֲשֹׁ֣ק ya‘ashoq), he is not alarmed; He is confident, though the Jordan rushes to his mouth. (Job 40:23)In Arabic, عَسَقَ (‘asaq) means “to commit injustice” or “to oppress” and extends to wrongful treatment or exploitation.

I read aloud Chapters 6 & 7 of the Acts of the Apostles to my new community in the Pacific Northwest's seat of the archbishop, in honor of the annual feast of St. Stephen landing on a Sunday, which it only does once every seven years. His name stephanos means crown in Biblical Greek. I came across this studying 1 Peter 5:4 (which speaks of the doxa stephanos; glorious crown that the archshepherd Jesus Christ will grant to those religious leaders that please him) in the MOUNCE Reverse Interlinear New Testament. This is how someone like me who cannot read the Greek alphabet can still capture the beauty of the original. To him be the doxa (glory) unto eons of eons.