Hey guys, I'm back. It was a good break with John. At least I enjoyed it. I really do hate to cease writing on my blog. But at times it just becomes necessary. I am a father and I do owe it to john to give him my attention. I do try to write up things ahead of time to post, but it just wasn't possible this time around. But John went home yesterday. I miss him already. We had fun raping and pillaging the land of all its treasures. Found some truly phenomenal Blue wood (Petrified), Pink Wood, and Topaz, Red Beryl and Agate, John found some nice calcite crystals, and we found some small Amethyst Crystals. We lost my keys, had Laura come and rescue us four hours away, and then found the keys on another rockhounding trip, They were in the back of the jeep... we also did some landscaping and let his ducks go. My rock saw is almost back in usable shape.
In the meantime, My nncle Per-Olof was kind enough to procure Bo Giertz's commentary on the New Testament for me and ship them out of country. It is amazing how hard it is to get your hands on these books! So now I have a complete New Testament Commentary I actually feel like consulting. some may argue that I should consult commentaries more often. I find most of them tediously boring and frustrating at the same time. I once sold a Lenski set for a case of beer in protest. The man spent three pages talking of how Jesus coming up out of the water does not imply immersion, and absolutely no time talking about what it meant that Jesus was baptized. My general rule of thumb is that commentaries say what is painfully obvious from the text, or they spend their time saying something that isn't in the text at all. Reformed commentaries have been known to include nonexistent trap doors in rooms for instance, to explain how Christ appeared in a locked room. A new Lutheran commentary has Jesus going to Nazareth and then fleeing to Egypt because the soldiers are killing babies in Bethlehem.... I have no time for that. I'd rather commentaries be more like sermons.
There are exceptions to this rule. Kleinig's commentary on Leviticus is a prime example. I actually told him my rule of thumb concerning commentaries and he responded that I had forgot another problem with commentaries is that they inevitably plagiarize. His words. I don't know how true it is concerning his. Definitely better than Keil Delitzch though.
In any case, I am looking forward to these commentaries by Bo Giertz. Reading in Swedish is never boring for me. And Bo Giertz has a way with giving insight into a text that is truly phenomenal. I won't be translating them out right. Supposedly someone is working on this project somewhere. I hear that a lot concerning Bo Giertz works, but I see little being produced. I will start encroaching upon the works of others soon if this does not change. I will maybe quote from time to time, but Bo Giertz will not be informing my posts much more explicitly, which I suspect will make them better.
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