Midweek Meeting April 1 2026

 

Just four of us in the room and one online this week. We looked at an appropriate passage and then prayed.

Project Hail Mary

I went to see Project Hail Mary in the cinema with two of my sons recently. It is a science fiction film based on a novel by Andy Weir. It presents a dystopian future that is rescued by an ordinary hero (Ryan Gosling). Quite a long film, I enjoyed it for the most part. Some laughs, some sentiment, some sentimentality. There are a few Easter eggs (eg a reference to Close Encounters, a voice cameo from Meryl Streep, etc). The lead character is called Grace and the echoes of and contrasts to Christ's redemption are almost inevitable and there is one reference to God in the film. (Catholic references seem more likely than Protestant ones, I guess.)

10 interesting words found in The world around the Old Testament (Arnold/Strawn)

1. littoral - relating to or situated on the shore of the sea or a lake
2. floruit - a date or period during which a person or people was known to have been alive or active
3. alluvium - loose, unconsolidated soil, silt, sand, gravel or clay deposited by running water,
4. ramified - to ramify is to form branches
5. lodestar - a star used to guide a ship on its travels
6. sapiential - relating to wisdom
7. onomasticon - a collection or listing of words especially in a specialised field. Here, a collection or listing of proper names of persons or places usually with etymologies
8. rhyton - a roughly conical container from which fluids were drunk or poured in some ceremony such as libation or merely at table;. A cup, typically formed in the shape of either an animal's head or horn; in the latter case often terminating in the shape of an animal's body.
9. colophon - In manuscripts, a note, usually at the end, left by a scribe, giving information on his exemplar, where and when the copy was made, and sometimes, his own name. In printed material, a printer or publisher's identifying inscription or logo, at the front or end of a book and/or on the spine or dust jacket.
10. autochthonos - of an inhabitant of a place, indigenous rather than descended from migrants or colonists.

C S Lewis on Tyndale

Crystal draws attention to an essay by C S Lewis on the AV where he refers to Tyndale. This is an extended  extract from that work. The essay on The literary impact of the Authorised Version can be fouond in a collection of 12 essays called They asked for a paper. See here

... there is something new about Tyndale; for good or ill a great simplification of approach. “Scripture,” he writes, “speaketh after the most grossest manner. Be diligent therefore that thou be not deceived with curiousness.”[Parable of the Wicked Mammon, Doctrinal Treatises, ed H Walter, Cambridge 1848, p 59]. In the words “grossest manner” we recognise an echo of Augustine’s humillimum genus and Hugo of St Victor’s simplicitas sermonis. [Burton; Pt III, Sec 4, Mem ii, Subs 6, p 729 “Blasphemous thoughts the scriptures foster, rude, harsh, immethodical.”] That rusticity or meanness which we find it so hard to discern in the Bible is still apparent to Tyndale. The novelty is the rejection of the allegorical senses. That rejection he shares with most of the Reformers and even, as regards parts of the Bible, with a Humanistic Papist like Colet; and it is no part of my business to decide whether it marked an advance or a retrogression in theology. What is interesting is not Tyndale’s negation of the allegories but his positive attitude towards the literal sense. He loves it for its “grossness”. “God is a Spirit,” he writes, “and all his words are spiritual. His literal sense is spiritual.”[Obedience of a Christian Man, Walter, op cit, p 309]. That is very characteristic of Tyndale’s outlook. For him, just as God’s literal sense is spiritual, so all life is religion: cleaning shoes, washing dishes, our humblest natural functions, are all “good works”.[Parable of the Wicked Mammon, Walter, op cit, pp 100, 102]. The life of religion, technically so called, wins no “higher room in heaven ... than a whore of the stews (if she repent)” [Burton; Pt III, Sec 4, Mem ii, Subs 6, p 729 “Blasphemous thoughts the scriptures foster, rude, harsh, immethodical.”]. This would certainly seem to be an attitude more favourable to the literary appreciation of much Scripture than any we have yet encountered. On the other hand, Mr. Gavin Bone, whose loss we still deplore at Oxford, has said roundly that Tyndale “hated literature”. This is based on his fierce condemnation of medieval romance; [Obedience, Walter, op cit, p 161] a trait which is Humanistic as well as Puritanical. But I do not think he did hate literature. Where he speaks of his own work as a translator he sounds like a man with a sense of style; as when he says that Hebrew and Greek go well into English whereas “thou must seek a compass in the Latin, and yet shall have much work to translate it well-favouredly, so that it hath the same grace and sweetness”.[Ibid, pp 148, 149] More important still is the evidence of his own original works.

I wish I had time to digress on those works. Tyndale’s fame as an English writer has been most unjustly overshadowed both by the greater fame of More and by his own reputation as a translator. He seems to me the best prose writer of his age. He is inferior to More in what may be called the elbow-room of the mind and (of course) in humour. In every other respect he surpasses him; in economy, in lucidity, and above all in rhythmical vitality. He reaches at times a piercing quality which is quite outside More’s range: “as a man feeleth God in himself, so is he to his neighbour” [Wicked Mammon, Walter, op cit, p 58)] - —“I am thou thyself, and thou art I myself, and can be no nearer of kin” [Obedience, p 296] —“be glad, and laugh from the low bottom of his heart” [Pathway, p. 9] —“that he might see love, and love again” [Obedience, p 136] —“Who taught the eagles to spy out their prey? Even so the children of God spy out their Father”.[Answer to More, ed H Walter, Cambridge, 1850, p 490]. Though it is not strictly relevant, may I be excused, since the fact seems to be insufficiently known, for saying that Tyndale’s social ethics are almost identical with those of More?—quite equally medieval and equally opposed to what some call the New Economics. The points on which these two brave and holy men agreed may have been few; but perhaps they were sufficient, if they had been accepted, to have altered the course of our history for the better.

It is not, of course, to be supposed that aesthetic considerations were uppermost in Tyndale’s mind when he translated Scripture. The matter was much too serious for that; souls were at stake. The same holds for all the translators. Coverdale was probably the one whose choice of a rendering came nearest to being determined by taste. His defects as well as his qualities led to this. Of all the translators he was the least scholarly. Among men like Erasmus, Tyndale, Munster, or the Jesuits at Rheims he shows like a rowing boat among battleships. This gave him a kind of freedom. Unable to judge between rival interpretations, he may often have been guided, half consciously, to select and combine by taste. Fortunately his taste was admirable.

New Book on Tyndale and his language

It is good to see this book out in this anniversary year (Tyndale's New Testament first appeared in 1526) by a world expert on the English language and its development and the author of Begat (on the AV). He himself has been surprised at how large a contribution Tyndale actually made to the English language. Making use of all Tyndale's works not just his translations Crystal makes a very thorough job of analysing Tyndale and his language with the help of the OED and one or two other resources. Even linguophiles will nod perhaps at certain points, especially when he is trying to work out how much of the AV is Tyndale, but Crystal is good at keeping up interest. His extensive use of appendices is a wise move. I'd have liked more on Jehovah and atonement and Passover but Crystal is a linguist not a theologian. Do get hold of it.

Lord's Day March 29 2026

It was my assistant Eddie's ast SUnday with us yesterday. He preached in the mroning and then I preached in the evening (the last in a short series on paradoxes). Numbers were okay. Some encouragments at this time.

10 ancient forms of '-mancy' magic

 

1. Belomancy (arrows)
2. Cephalonomancy (donkey's head)
3. Eleomancy (oil)
4. Hepatomancy (liver)
5. Hydrimancy (water)
6. Lampadomancy (flame)
7. Lithomancy (stones or gems)
8. Nephalomancy (clouds)
9. Splanchnomancy (innards)
10. Theriomancy (birds, augury)

Midweek Meeting March 25 2026

Just five of us in the kitchen and one online Wednesday night for the prayer meeting and Bible study (last one for my assistant Eddie). I spoke from Romans 15 and then we all prayed. Precious times.

Day Off Week 13 2026

 

For my day off this time I spent time reading, bought some cheese, bought a little cheeseand walked some more of the Thames Path. I went down to Tower Hill and had a coffee nearby. (Met an interesting Somali young man called Mahomet, reading Aristotle's Nicomachean ethics). I then went down to Tower Hill and rewalked a little and then on into Wapping, as far as the Shadwell Basin. Pretty much all new to me and not over interesting. I walked back to Wapping Overground and headed home. Reading was from a book on ANE peoples piacked up last Saturday, Christian biography and dictators (on my kindle).

A good week

It's been a good week here in Childs Hill

 

Eggs Benedict

 

I made myself Eggs Benedict for lunch today. I came across a recipe card in Waitrose last saturday.

I bought the ingredients from our local Co-op. 

Lord's Day March 21 2026

The usual lots present and lots away permutations yesterday. I preached in the morning on the parable of the tenants. We were around 15 in the evening which is good. One newcomer, an Eritrean. Eddie preached well from Psalm 51.

Another Tyndale House Conference

Peter

Dirk

Tony

I do like the work Tyndal House is doing and so when I realised there was a conferncee at IPC Ealing nearby I decided to go along. It is the anniversary of the publication of Tyndale's New Testament this year and so there was a paper from Tony Watkins on Tyndale plus A typical Peter Williams paper and one on textual matters from Dirk Joongkind, who I had not heard before. About 70 there in person I guess. I knew almost no-one though there was one family that used to be in our church many years ago. So nice to see them. Good questio times. So much to be positive about. Bought some nice books too.

Library Lecture Last Week

I ommitted to mention the excellent lecture we had last week on zoom in connection with the Evangelical Library. It was the third and fina lecture of the current series. Stuart Fisher from Bournemouth spoke on the forgotten reformer Thomas Bilney. The illustrated talk should be on the Library's Youtube channel soon.

10 Random and Unusual Facts

I came across most of these in recent reading

1. The most unreached people group in the world appears to be the Bengalis from Bangladesh. With 157 million people, there are more than twice as many Bengalis as any other unreached population group.

2. Christopher Wren began planning renovations for the old St Paul’s Cathedral - including a new, modern dome - before the Great Fire of September 1666. Appointed to survey the dilapidated structure in early 1666, his designs for a dome were approved just one week before the fire destroyed the building.

3. The Monument to the Great Fire of London, commonly known as "The Monument," is the world’s tallest freestanding stone column, standing at 202 feet (61.6 meters) high. Completed in 1677, it features 311 steps leading to a viewing platform, commemorating the 1666 fire, and is located 202 feet from where the blaze began.

4. From 1710 to 1962 St Paul's was the tallest building in London at 365 feet.

5. The Mongol Empire (13th–14th centuries) was the largest contiguous land empire in history, covering over 24 million (9.3 million sq miles) at its peak, or about 17–18% of the world's landmass. Founded by Genghis Khan, it stretched from Eastern Europe to the Sea of Japan.

6. It was only in 1975 that the Napoleonic law was repealed that until then had potentially provided a specific legal defence that made it much easier for a husband to avoid severe punishment for killing his wife if he caught her in the act of adultery.

7. The Tower of London was used as a prison right up until 1952. The Kray twind were incarcerated there.

8. There were 43 assassination attempts on Adolf Hitler’s life. He survived all of them. He later decided to kill himself.

9. Napoleon III is buried in English soil. Originally buried in St Mary's Catholic Church. Chislehurst, Kent, his body was later moved to a monastery in Farnborough, Hampshire, where his wife was buried.

10. Mount Everest isn't really the tallest mountain on Earth. Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa in Hawaii, the twin volcanoes, are taller than Mount Everest as 4.2km of their height is submerged underwater. The twin volcanoes measure a staggering 10.2km in total, compared to Everest’s paltry 8.8km.