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Go forth, and make use of the better parts of the internet!
A friend pointed me to a recent article in a Wasilla, Alaska newspaper entitled “Will the antichrist be a homosexual?” Ron Hamman writes:
But will the Antichrist be a homosexual? Having seen what the Bible says of sodomy, we have no further to look than the book of Daniel, chapter 11 to find our answer. It says, “Neither shall he [Antichrist] regard… the desire of women….” As I said at the onset, I am not the first to draw attention to this, but the verbiage is clear.
As it turns out, the verbiage is not so clear. Consider this survey of translations of Daniel 11:37:
It seems that “desire of women” is not referring to sexual desire (whom he desires) but to a god (whom the women desire). This also fits the context better, where both the preceding and following thoughts pertain to deity. Perhaps this is a case where a misunderstanding of an english translation leads to interpretive problems. Here is a good example of the value of the synoptic study of different english translations.
I have completed the first draft of my thesis Short Goliath, which is an examination in the textual discrepency between the Hebrew Masoretic Text and the Old Greek (a.k.a. Septuagint) accounts of the story of David and Goliath. This feels really good, because it has been a long time coming, including a break from working on it for most of last semester. Now I will start the revision process, which will be fairly involved. The final draft is due the first week of April. Once I have the paper in a form I like, I will be posting it here under a Creative Commons license.
Here are some gory details:
W00t!
The Old Greek version of the story of David and Goliath has a rather interesting addition (in bold below):
And Dauid stretched out his hand into the bag and took out from there one stone and slung it and struck the allophyle on his forehead, and the stone penetrated through the helmet into his forehead, and he fell on his face on the ground. (NETS)
Now that is one hard slung rock!
Finally! My copy of A New English Translation of the Septuagint (NETS) has arrived! It will be an invaluable part of my thesis research. Moreover, it is a needed addition to any Biblical scholar’s library. It has very good introductions to each book or section. NETS is meant to be the sibling to the NRSV (it reads the same when the Greek allows), so it makes comparative studies very easy. To say the least, I am excited.
