Crumbs from the Table

It's Easter again.  The annual cycle of the Christian calendar "forces" you to revisit the central events and truths of the faith at least once a year. The "run-up" to Easter, Lent, is 40 days plus 6 Sundays of Lent - plenty of time to reflect on the events of the first Easter.  Looking back over the years, I have distinct memories of celebrating Easter on various occasions.  One Easter I remember well is 1991. I was on holiday with my family on the island of Jersey in 1991. This was shortly after what  I consider the moment of my conversion in February 1991. The service I attended on that occasion included the rousing Easter hymn, "Thine be the glory." The two weeks or so at that time were a significant time of spiritual growth for me.   I also keenly remember celebrating Easter in Novosibirsk, Russia in 1996. Russian Easter is on a different date and is a far bigger "deal" than Christmas. At the service in the Baptist church, again and agai

God has given us his written word in Hebrew and Greek (plus a little bit of Aramaic in the book of Daniel).  In order for God's word to be accessible to those who speak other languages, since Biblical times God's word has been translated into other languages.  At the time of Nehemiah, the Levites "gave the meaning" of the Scriptures. This would probably have involved oral translation (interpreting) into the Aramaic language people used for everyday speech. Jesus himself, when quoted in the gospels, spoke Aramaic and quotes the Scripture in that language. Likewise, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon the believers and enabled them to declare the wonders of God in the languages of those present.  There is also a longstanding history of written translation (as opposed to oral translation). The best-known translation of the Old Testament is called the Septuagint, a translation into Greek commissioned by Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–247 BCE). There were als