Worth a Thousand Words: A Moment of Repose

A Moment of Repose (1890). Wladyslaw Czachórski.
Via Books and Art

The Case for Jesus by Brant Pitre

The Case for Jesus: The Biblical and Historical Evidence for Christ by Brant Pitre

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

About ten years ago, while waiting at the Pittsburgh Airport, I met a young biblical scholar named Dr. Brant Pitre. We were both heading to the same biblical conference so we rode together, and in the car we had a lively discussion about biblical interpretation, especially the reliability of the Gospels.

Dr. Pitre shared how annoyed he was by the oft-used comparison between the transmission of the story of Jesus and the “Telephone game” where little children whisper a story to one another, around a group, until the end result is completely garbled and nothing like the original story.

I turned around to Dr. Pitre (I was in the front seat and he in the back) and said, “Yes! Someone needs to write a book dedicated to refuting that stupid comparison.”

Bishop Robert Barron

Brant Pitre went ahead and wrote it himself. And a darned good book it is.

I've never been subjected to that particular comparison. The one that drives me absolutely nuts is that Jesus didn't ever say he was God.

As we will see, the evidence in the Gospels suggests that Jesus did in fact claim to be God. He did so, however, in a very Jewish way. ... I cannot stress enough: just because Jesus did not go around Galilee shouting, "I am God!" does not mean that he didn't claim to be divine.

Thank you!

There is a lot of confusion out there about Jesus and you've probably come across various claims that "prove" Jesus was not God. These range from the idea the Gospels were anonymous, the existence of "lost" Gospels, the Gospels are folklore instead of biographies, a lack of evidence for the Resurrection, and more.

Just as he did in another of his books that I really liked, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist, Pitre painstakingly builds his defense of Jesus. For each skeptical claim, there is a meticulous evidence trail examining Jesus, historical evidence, Jewish understanding, 1st century cultural context, and why we can trust what we've been told. This might sound drawn out or difficult, but I found it flowed easily and was easy to understand.

I myself especially appreciated that Pitre never lets us forget the inherently Jewish nature of Jesus' teachings and his listeners' understanding. The parallels he points out, often in very clear charts, can be stunningly revealing.

Here's a fairly lengthy excerpt from the chapter about the crucifixion. It illustrates how carefully the examples are drawn. Speaking about the temple of Jesus' body, Pitre quotes Josephus who says the number of lambs sacrificed during Passover was 256,500, and then tells us:

According to ancient Jewish tradition, before the Temple was destroyed in AS 70, the blood of the sacrifices used to be poured into a drain that flowed down the altar of sacrifice to merge with a spring of water that flowed out from the side of the mountain on which the Temple was built:

At the south-western corner [of the Altar] there were two holes like two narrow nostrils by which the blood that was poured over the western base and the southern base used to run down and mingle in the water-channel and flow out into the brook Kidron. (Mishnah Middoth 3:2)

So at the time Jesus lived, if you were approaching the Temple during the feast of Passover from the vantage point of the Kidron Valley, what might you have seen? A stream of blood and water, flowing out of the side of the Temple Mount.

Once you've got this first-century Jewish context in mind, all of a sudden John's emphasis on the blood and water flowing out of the side of Jesus makes sense. This seemingly small detail about his death actually reveals something deeply significant about who Jesus really is. He is not just the messianic son of God; he is the true Temple. In other words, Jesus is the dwelling place of God on earth. For that's what the Temple was to a first-century Jew. As Jesus himself says elsewhere: "He who swears by the Temple, swears by it and by him who dwells in it" (Matthew 23:21).

Woah! If that doesn't give you a thrill of discovery, what will?

Definitely highly recommended.

NOTE: I had both a print galley, which was nicely designed, and the audio version, which was as well read as any material like this can be. I can recommend either or both, depending on your preference.

Worth a Thousand Words: El Pueblo Poster Sketch

Sketch of poster for the newspaper El Pueblo (c.1894). Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida
Via Books and Art

Worth a Thousand Words: Mt. Fuji

Mount Fuji, Yamanashi Prefecture
via Calligraphy in the View

Worth a Thousand Word: Cat in a Snowy Driveway

Taken by Scott Danielson

Just more proof that the weather couldn't be more different between Utah, where Scott is, and Dallas, where we're expecting the thermometer to hit 75 degrees today.

I'd rather have it with all the snow. One of the reasons I love this photo is it takes me back to childhood in Kansas, crunching snow, freezing cold, and walking up the driveway to go into the lovely, warm home.

Thank You, Ellen P.!

Rafael Sabatini's Captain Blood is a story I've enjoyed in the past but it never prompted me to explore his other novels. This is, apparently, the time for exploration. It began with noticing The Sea-Hawk which matches the title of my favorite Errol Flynn movie. Turns out the title is about all they have in common.

What makes Sabatini's stories even better than the average swashbuckler is that he evidently was scrupulous in being historically exact. Yes, Lord Oliver existed and did those things. Now, that didn't keep Sabatini from inventing and exaggerating to give us a fuller story. And I'm ok with that. I'm not reading these because of the history. That's just a bonus.

Yesterday, I began downloading Kindle versions of all his free novels. I put ones I've gotta pay for in my Wish List for when I had to begin buying the ones the library doesn't have.

This is a very long introduction to say that I was dumbfounded this morning to see that Ellen P. gave me Bellarion. Amazon doesn't have a way to thank the giver so I'm doing it here! I'm looking forward to reading it! Thank you Ellen!

Well Said: The Church "Interfering" in Politics

The accusation against the Church for being either right or left wing tells you more about the contemporary political assumptions than about the political inclination of Catholicism. The Church will seem both "right wing" (in promoting the traditional family, opposing abortion, euthanasia, embryonic research, etc.) and "left wing" (in advocating the rights of minorities, social justice, active state support for the poorest, etc.), depending on the political bias of the one accusing .The same bias afflicts Catholics. There are pro-life Catholics who think Catholic social teaching is "socialist," and pro-social-justice Catholics who think pro-life causes are right wing.

The Church will always be accused of "interfering" or trying to "impose" its view when the critic disagrees with its stance; but the same critic will say nothing when the Church has intervened politically on a matter with which he or she agrees. And if the Church has stayed silent, the critic will accuse it of "failing to speak out." Put another way, people are against the Church "interfering" in what they would much rather have left alone; and in favor of "interfering" in what they believe should be changed.

Why and when does the Church speak out on political questions? The answer is rarely and cautiously, and almost always because it is a matter which touches on the Gospel, on core freedoms and rights (such as the right to life, or to religious freedom), or on core principles of Catholic social teaching. In these cases, the Church not only needs to speak out; it has a duty to do so.

Austen Ivereigh, How to Defend the Faith without Raising Your Voice

With politics about to get even more prominent in our lives, I think it's time for me to reread this book!

Worth a Thousand Words: Yucca, Cactus and Fog

Yucca and cactus overlooking a foggy valley
on the last day of fall, 2015 in San Saba County, Texas
Taken by Texas landscape photographer, Jason Merlo

Well Said: My Brother's Garden

Some young children sported among the tombs, and hid from each other, with laughing faces. They had an infant with them, and had laid it down asleep upon a child's grave, in a little bed of leaves. It was a new grave — the resting-place, perhaps, of some little creature, who, meek and patient in its illness, had often sat and watched them, and now seemed, to their minds, scarcely changed.

She drew near and asked one of them whose grave it was. The child answered that that was not its name; it was a garden — his brother's. It was greener, he said, than all the other gardens, and the birds loved it better because he had been used to feed them. When he had done speaking, he looked at her with a smile, and kneeling down and nestling for a moment with his cheek against the turf, bounded merrily away.

Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop

Lest one think that the child is untouched by his brother's death, later in the book we learn how much this little boy misses him. What I loved about this was the personal way he called it a garden, how it made him think of his brother feeding the birds, and that nestling on the turf like a hug. It was touching and also lifted me up.

Worth a Thousand Words: O'Toole Reads

O'Toole Reads
via Awesome People Reading

The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is a strangely fascinating tale and you can easily see why it was so popular in its day. The poverty-stricken Nell and her grandfather escaping the villainous dwarf Quilp has all the makings of The Fugitive. Everyone suspects that the grandfather is wealthy and it would be worth while to clap him into the insane asylum while marrying Nell when she comes of age. (A brief note here, Nell is continually called "the child" so I was surprised to find that she is actually 14 years old. This makes much more believable her dual innocence and ingenuity in escaping ill wishers.)

Charles Dickens' early novels often included a road trip, but adding the element of penniless escape from a determined hunt for such innocent figures had me on the edge of my seat. Who would they encounter next? Would chance acquaintances really help Nell and Grandfather or would they try to turn them in for a reward? Adding to that is the grandfather's mysterious problem which leads the fugitives the brink of disaster when it is revealed. This leaves the reader with a gripping sense of peril.

As is always the case, Dickens treats us to a host of memorable characters. Touring the countryside leads to encounters with sideshow type performers, a wax museum, and many other oddities of the time. In this sense The Old Curiosity Shop could be taken to refer to the journey itself, replete with eccentricities that will either move or startle the viewer.

My favorite character was that charming ne'er-do-well Dick Swiveller. Thinking it over, I realized that he is the only character in the book who shows growth and moral development. That is unusual for such a minor character, but as we follow Dick's path through the book we see that he has a talent for discerning the truth, treating others considerately, and for taking action when needed. All this is done without ever making him sentimental or annoying. His story is almost always told through behind-the-scenes action such as when we see him playing cards with the Marchioness. This is a foreshadowing of Dickens' talent which will bloom greatly in his later books.

The audiobook was performed by veteran narrator and actor Anton Lesser. Lesser brings his acting background to more than just voice performances. Sometimes a world of meaning is conveyed through a sigh, a pregnant pause, coy delivery, or deliberate pacing. It left me always eager to return to the book even though I'd read it before.

The Old Curiosity Shop is very enjoyable and not just the soppy, sentimental book we all think we "know" because it is common knowledge that Nell dies in the end.

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Review copy of audiobook provided by SFFaudio.

Worth a Thousand Words: Gray Seal

Gray Seal
taken by the brilliant Remo Savisaar

Well Said: The quality of someone's life

We never know the quality of someone else's life, though we seldom resist the temptation to assume and pass judgment.

Tami Hoag, Dark Horse

Ain't that the truth!

Worth a Thousand Words: Burnt Matches and a Tree

Burnt Matches and a Tree
by Owen Swain

Well Said: Making heroes of ourselves

Do you think,’ said Tom, with a grave smile, ‘that even if she had never seen him, it is very likely she would have fallen in love with Me?’

‘Why not, dear Tom?’

Tom shook his head, and smiled again.

‘You think of me, Ruth,’ said Tom, ‘and it is very natural that you should, as if I were a character in a book; and you make it a sort of poetical justice that I should, by some impossible means or other, come, at last, to marry the person I love. But there is a much higher justice than poetical justice, my dear, and it does not order events upon the same principle. Accordingly, people who read about heroes in books, and choose to make heroes of themselves out of books, consider it a very fine thing to be discontented and gloomy, and misanthropical, and perhaps a little blasphemous, because they cannot have everything ordered for their individual accommodation. Would you like me to become one of that sort of people?’

Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit

This really struck me since it applies just as much in our own time, if not more. How many of us allow ourselves to be discontented because it isn't "ordered for our individual accommodation?" This is heavily influenced by the "way things should be" in books, movies, social media, and more; all without the balance of any sort of grounding in "higher justice."

Worth a Thousand Words: Whimsical Numbers

Whimsical Numbers
by Melissa B. Tubbs

Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens

Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I didn't expect to like this book very much. It is almost unknown, it is an earlier book, and it has a section savagely satirizing Americans. I was, therefore, quite surprised to find myself really enjoying it and picking it up whenever possible, especially toward the end which had a lot of surprising twists. It really struck me as a bridging work between the "road trip" early novels where the protagonist doesn't change much and the later, greater works which are greatly satisfying as complete stories.

Reading G.K. Chesterton's commentary on it afterward, I thought it was funny that he thought the novel didn't come alive until Martin got to America, while that was the part I most disliked. I could take the attacks on the American character. After all, what are many of Dickens' most well known characters, if not attacks on aspects of the British character? It was that Dickens hit one note and one note only in America, with none of the more complete humor and development that he gives to those like Mrs. Gamp or Mr. Pecksniff. So it became boring. The saving grace for that section was Martin's growth and Mark Tapley, who, as the Sam Weller of the novel, I could read about all day.

There are two Martin Chuzzlewits in this book, the grandfather and the grandson. The question I carried throughout the book was which one the book is named after? By the end, I feel as if I had my answer, though it is left open for the reader to decide.

Definitely recommended. I'd have given it 3-1/2 stars if GoodReads allowed it, but the surprise of having so much more to the book than I expected prompted me to go higher since I was forced to choose.

Well Said: Dealing out death in judgment

Flipping through my first quote journal, this seemed eerily appropriate to this day.

Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Worth a Thousand Words: Dogs from Europe

Dogs from Europe, Hashimoto Kansetsu
via Arts Everyday Living

There is something wonderful about these Russian dogs painted Japanese style.

Worth a Thousand Words: Mother Figure

Mother Figure
by Karin Jurick

Karin Jurick's museum series is a favorite of mine and I encourage you to look around at her site to find more. Also, she's got great insights and information about Whistler's Mother, so don't miss those.