Yup, more Dawn Treader Clips

Here's the full theatrical tailer:

And here's a clip of Lucy, Edmond, & Eustace "transitioning" into Narnia:

On Servant Leadership

A good word from Brother Francis:

"'I came not to be served but to serve' (Mt. 20:28) says the Lord. Those who are appointed to rule over others may not boast of their position any more than if they were to be assigned to the duty of washing their brothers' feet. And if they are more disturbed about the possibility of losing their position than they would be about losing the duty of foot-washing, they will expose their souls to great danger."

"No one Touches the Tail"

Here's the first "Dawn Treader" TV Spot:

The Greater Good

Recently I ran across this quote by John Cassian (360-435 AD) which I found interesting:

"There is a great difference between those who put out the fire of sin within themselves by fear of hell or hope of future reward and those who from the feeling of divine love have a horror of sin itself and of uncleanliness and keep hold of the virtue of purity simply from the love and longing for purity. They look for no reward from a promise for the future, but delighted with the knowledge of good things present, do everything not from regard to punishment but from delight in virtue. ... it is a much greater thing to be unwilling to forsake good for good's own sake than it is to withhold consent from evil for fear of evil. For in the former case the good is voluntary, but in the latter it is constrained either by fear of punishment or by greed of reward and more or less violently forced out of a reluctant party. Those who abstain from the allurements of sin owing to fear will, whenever the obstacle of fear is removed, once more return to what they love and so will not gain any permanent stability in good."

Meet Bilbo Baggins

I'm sure there are a lot of you out there that are pretty big Tolkien/Lord of the Rings fans. Well, in just the last week or so we've finally heard some proper news about the upcoming "The Hobbit" film.

Yes, it will be directed by Peter Jackson. Yes it will be filmed in New Zealand.

And finally we have some casting confirmations including the key role of Bilbo Baggins!

Bilbo Baggins: Martin Freeman
Thorin Oakenshield: Richard Armitage
Fili: Rob Kazinsky
Kili: Aidan Turner
Dwalin: Graham McTavish
Oin: John Callen
Gloin: Peter Hambleton
Bombur: Stephen Hunter
Dori: Mark Hadlow

It is also rumored that the voice of Smaug will be none other than Bill Nighy.

I hadn't heard of most of these guys before (with the exception of Martin Freeman and Bill Nighy) so if you care you can check out their bios at: theonering.net

Serpents, Sirens, Scripture, and Starbucks

What is your favourite Starbucks drink?

I've been doing some prep for a study I'm going to be leading through the book of Micah. As part of my prep I was reading through Micah in the Septuagint (LXX). For those of you unfamiliar with the LXX, it is (in simple terms) the Ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament.

Why would anyone study the Greek OT when we have the Hebrew OT?

Well, most importantly, it is well documented that the Early Church used the LXX as their scriptures! The LXX was

the "Bible" for the vast majority of Christians during the apostolic era and beyond (in fact, the Greek Orthodox Church still uses the LXX as their OT). So, if we want to understand what the early Christians believed it is obviously very helpful to read and understand the scriptures that they were using. There are other compelling reasons to study the LXX, but I'll leave it at that for now.

Anyway, as I was comparing the LXX to my ESV (based on the Hebrew text) I ran across this:

Micah 1:8 (ESV) ⁸ For this I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will make lamentation like the jackals, and mourning like the ostriches.

...versus...

Micah 1:8 (NETS - LXX) ⁸ For this she shall lament and wail; she shall go unshod and naked she shall make lamentation like that of dragons, and mourning like that of the daughters of sirens.

For those of you who might care:

wJV drakovntwn (hōs drakontōn: of serpents) ... yes,

dravkwn

/ drakōn, "serpent" is where we get our word “dragon” from!

wJV qugatevrwn seirhvnwn (hōs thugaterōn seirēnōn: of the daughters of sirens)

Without getting into the details of why the Hebrew and Greek are so different, what struck me (I was quite shocked!) was the appearance of sirens in scripture (and dragons for that matter! Although "serpent" is probably a better translation) .

For those of you who might not be familiar with sirens, they are legendary figures from Greek mythology. Supposedly they were beautiful sea women who would lure men to their deaths with their beautiful voices. They would sing their irresistible songs and sailors would then seek out the source of the music only to crash their ships on the rocks and drown.

Probably the most famous encounter with sirens is in Homer's Odyssey (book 12... portrayed here in this picture) where

Odysseus plugs his men's ears with wax so that they can't hear the voice of the sirens while he straps himself to the mast so that he can hear their beautiful song without the danger of succumbing to it.

So, while this is certainly an extremely loose translation of the original Hebrew text, it definitely portrays a very vivid picture of the mourning prophesied by Micah.

There is very little doubt that "serpents/dragons" and "sirens" were not part of the original text written down by Micah (or his scribe) however, as I already mentioned, this is what the people of the early church would have read and thought of as scripture during the first few centuries of Christianity.

Just imagine! Thousands upon thousands of Christians... for literally centuries had serpents and sirens used as similes in their scriptures! What might the Apostle Paul have said about this text had he been preaching from Micah?

What do you make of pagan, mythological figures showing up in scripture?

Can you think of any other examples of this type of content showing up in scriptures?

Anyway, over the course of history different Greek authors and poets adapted the sirens and eventually they became mermaid-like creatures... always singing their irresistible song and luring people to their demises. Understandably they came to represent indulgence and temptation.

And so I find it appropriate that Starbucks uses a siren as their logo. It's not quite as clear on their newer logo, but their original logo shows the siren quite clearly.

... mmmmm... Starbucks...