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Saturday, 13 July 2013

Bible cross references

My new Large Print Ultra Thin Reference Bible – New King James Version (NKJV) reveals that many of the Proverbs are either echoes from previous Old Testament writings in the Bible, or are echoed in the New Testament.  For example: Prov. 12:18 “There is one who speaks like the piercings of a sword, But the tongue of the wise promotes health.”  We are advised to look at Ps. 57:4, where we find

            “My soul is among lions;
            I lie among the sons of men
            Who are set on fire,
            Whose teeth are spears and arrows,
            And their tongue a sharp sword.”

And for Prov. 12:21 “No grave trouble will overtake the righteous, But the wicked shall be filled with evil”, it offers I Peter 3:13 “And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good?”

This week’s Lesson-Sermon on Sacrament gives us another example i.e.  

James 4:6 “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble” echoes Prov. 3:34
“Surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly” (KJV), or
“Surely He scorns the scornful, But gives grace to the humble” (NKJV).

My new book is wonderful.  It has excellent maps at the very back, a concordance, and Harmony of the Gospels.  And it is beautifully made with fine paper and leather covers with gold decoration and gilt edges to the pages.  Not only that but it would be an excellent wedding present, for at the very beginning it has pages to record ownership, marriage, births, marriages, and occasions to remember.

I like Prov. 13:24:
“He who spares his rod hates his son, But he who loves him disciplines him promptly” (NKJV). 
“He who spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes” (KJV).

There are various reports of Mary Baker Eddy chastening her students.  How this Proverbs 13: 24 above explains her chastening! If she had refrained from chastening, she was evidencing less than love, her main focus of teaching.  She did, however, make it plain that she was chastening the error, not the person while the Biblical proverb seems to leave the chastening with the person.

Joyce Voysey

1 comment:

JOYCE VOYSEY said...

An example of literary borrowing or being inspired by other writers:
This came to my email box this morning:
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.
~Benjamin Franklin
Now I knew it rang a bell about something in Mrs. Eddy’s Prose Works, so I looked it up. There it is (My.150:5-8): Pliny gives the following description of the character of true greatness: “Doing what deserves to be written, and writing what deserves to be read; and rendering the world happier and better for having lived in it.”

Which led me to look up the quote and which Pliny had written it –

Pliny the Elder actually. Wikipedia says of him:
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23 – August 25, AD 79), better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian. Spending most of his spare time studying, writing or investigating natural and geographic phenomena in the field, he wrote an encyclopedic work, Naturalis Historia, which became a model for all other encyclopedias.
Which makes him perhaps a hero of Benjamin Franklin, whose life qualities were very similar it seems to me.
And so we have three people voicing the same message. However, Mrs. Eddy quoted her authority, B.F did not. Although it is possible Mrs. Eddy was put on to it through reading BF, his writing preceding hers.

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