The Text and the Telescope

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Are You Strong Enough?

Are you strong enough to bind the chains of Pleiades? Or the Belt of Orion to loosen? Job 38.31

Are you strong enough to bind the chains of Pleiades?Or the Belt of Orion to loosen? Job 38.31

As I have gotten into the hobby and art of astrophotography, it was very interesting to me when I recognized that some of the constellations and figures of the night sky are mentioned in Scripture. In our English translations we find mention in the book of Job the Bear, Orion, and Pleiades. So too in the book of Amos. Here are the verses –

Job 9.9 [Job speaking] He who makes the Bear, Orion, and Pleiades and the chambers of the south Job 38.31 [the LORD speaking] Can you bind the chains of Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion?

Amos 5.8 He who makes the Pleiades and Orion, turns the darkness to morning

In Hebrew, the word used to refer to the constellation we know as Pleiades is kiymah (כִימָה) and we get our English word from the Greek word pleiados (Πλειάδος).

The Hebrew the word used to refer to the constellation we know as Orion is kǝsiyl (כְסִיל) and we get our English word from the Greek word ōriōnos (Ὠρίωνος).

A former student of mine asked how Scripture came to name heavenly structures that bear Greek names. My brief research (Wikipedia) indicates that the Scriptural references are among the oldest, if not the oldest, in ancient literature. What is found in the Hebrew writings predates the writings of the Greeks. Knowing this and knowing also, that beginning at about 250 B.C. the Hebrew Scriptures were begun to be translated into Greek to help with the collection of books in the ancient library at Alexandria, it was easy for me to imagine the translation process. When the Jewish elder got to these passages, I imagine that he queried his Greek assistant and, pointing to the night sky asked, “See that group of stars there? What do you call them in Greek?” So, from the Hebrew word to the Greek word and then on to English which has since, the time of the Greeks, retained the Greek names.

The Orion constellation is visible in the southern sky in the northern hemisphere in the winter months at night. As I write this from Dallas, Texas, in mid March it is moving closer to the sunset earlier and earlier each night so as to disappear from viewing in late April. It will reappear in the eastern night sky at the end of December. It is one of the most easily recognized constellations because the three most prominent stars that make up the belt of Orion – Alnitak (Arabicالنطاق an-niṭāq, the girdle 1,200 light years distance), Alnilam (Arabic النظام al-niẓām the arrangement/string, 2,000 light years distance), and Mintaka (Arabic term for ‘belt’: منطقة manṭaqa – 1200 light years distance). Below the belt or to the right of it, depending on the time of the night, can be found one of the prominent structures, the Orion Nebulas (M-42 in the Messier Catalog). It is perhaps the most popular structure in the night sky to view and to photograph. This post has at its head my most recent photo of it. It is really stunning the first time you see it and photograph it through a telescope.

Pleiades is not so much a constellation as a star cluster. It appears at about the same time as Orion. Wikipedia notes this about the Greek name, “The name of the Pleiades comes from Ancient Greek: Πλειάδες. It probably derives from plein (“to sail”) because of the cluster’s importance in delimiting the sailing season in the Mediterranean Sea: “the season of navigation began with their heliacal rising”. However, in mythology the name was used for the Pleiades, seven divine sisters, the name supposedly deriving from that of their mother Pleione and effectively meaning “daughters of Pleione”. In reality, the name of the star cluster almost certainly came first, and Pleione was invented to explain it.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades). The most prominent stars that make up the cluster are about 350 to 450 light years distance.

As noted in the text, the incomprehensible power and majesty of the LORD God that the writers of Job and Amos recognized was illustrated by their references to the fabulous constellations and star clusters that they mentioned. So does Paul to the Romans in chapter 1 of his letter to the Romans. Their point is a contrast to the absolute feebleness of man and his inability to answer or stand in judgement of the words or actions of the LORD.

Interestingly enough, the narrative in Job concerns this. Unknown to Job or his friends what was happening to Job was beyond their knowledge or understanding. Job’s friends put forth the charge that Job must have done something wrong for such calamities and evils to befall him and each of them in their turn tried to convince him of that. But Job knew that he had done nothing that would be considered a violation of God’s ways or justice. He felt that he was righteous in his living. Indeed, in Ezekiel 14.14 and 14.20, Job is named as one of the three righteous men in the earth, Noah and Daniel, Ezekiel’s contemporary, being the other two.

And, in a way, this addresses the great question of theodicy that has been debated for millennia – how to reconcile a good God with the presence of evil. In the case of Job, the answer is that God permits evil things for his own purposes, reasons of which we have no real idea, and, more importantly, no real right or power to question. Our response should ever be a recognition that we are creatures and not the creator and completely unable to comprehend the ways and purposes of God, but, at the same time, recognize the we are his creation and what happens to us at his hands he is in total control and has our best interest in mind when things happen to us. Will we know that in this lifetime? The answer from Job is “probably not,” but I am convinced that as we cross the river into his presence we will know completely. I am also of the opinion, and some of this from personal hardship, that he will sustain us through what comes our way, and like Job I will say, “though he slay me, I will hope in him” and like the three companions of Daniel, when faced with the fiery furnace and a horrible death, told to Nebuchadnezzar, “even if God does not deliver us from death in your fiery furnace we will still obey and trust him.”

And, in all of this, there is a lesson from Amos when he recognizes the power of the LORD to “turn darkness into morning.” So too we can recognize the LORD can also turn the darknesses that we encounter in our lives into mornings of blessing, joy, and rejoicing! The power to control celestial objects and events also is turned by our loving Lord into healing and joy.

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The Veil

The Story is in the Stars

In the constellation Cygnus (Latin for Swan) lies the Cygnus Loop, or the Veil Nebula complex. I say complex as it is made up of several parts, each of which is a remnant of a supernove between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago. It lies, according to the latest studies, about 2,400 light years distance and it is approximately 120 light years across.[1]

The whole structure is a beautiful nebula to photograph, revealing itself in bright hues of red and blue, which give it a purplish glow through my telescopes.[2] When view and photographing the complex the various parts are easy to distinguish and are large enough and prominent enough that they have their own astronomical designations – The Western Veil, or Witch’s Broom Nebula, The Eastern Veil or Network Nebula, and Pickering’s Triangle. And each of these larger structures contain smaller structures that have been photographed separately.

By definition, a nebula is a structure or cloud of dust formed by the explosion of a star. Scientists posit that the star responsible for the Veil Complex was a star 20 times more massive than the sun.

Here is my observation of the whole Complex using my smaller telescope (Williams Optics RedCat 51) and a one shot color camera (ZWO 2600MC). The smaller scope has a wider field of view and was perfect for capturing the whole structure.

With my larger scope (Explore Scientific 127mm) and a monochrome camera (ZWO 2600MM) using Hydrogen and Oxygen filters I captured the Eastern and Western Veil Nebulae which reside on the outer edges of the larger structure. The massive amount of energy needed to create that structure is far beyond my math! But, that explosion created a really beautiful structure.

In the TaNaK (Old Testament) we read about how the LORD had the children of Israel construct The Ark and to build a structure in which to house it, the Tabernacle. Part of the structure of the Tabernacle was the Holy of Holies, a part of the Tabernacle in which The Ark was placed and which was completely off limits for everyone save the High Priest, and he would enter only one day out of the year, on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16.30). It was a day in which the “atonement was to be made” to cleanse them from all sin. The Holy of Holies had a veil in front of it that separated the people from The Ark where the LORD resided. This was true of the Tabernacle and later of the Temples (Solomons, Zerubbabel’s, Herod’s).[3] This how Josephus described Herod’s Temple veil

But then this house, as it was divided into two parts, the inner part was lower than the appearance of the outer, and had golden doors of fifty-five cubits altitude, and sixteen in breadth; but before these doors there was a veil of equal largeness with the doors. It was a Babylonian curtain, embroidered with blue, and fine linen, and scarlet, and purple, and of a contexture that was truly wonderful. Nor was this mixture of colors without its mystical interpretation, but was a kind of image of the universe (ὅλων)[4]; for by the scarlet there seemed to be enigmatically signified fire, by the fine flax the earth, by the blue the air, and by the purple the sea; two of them having their colors the foundation of this resemblance; but the fine flax and the purple have their own origin for that foundation, the earth producing the one, and the sea the other. This curtain had also embroidered upon it all that was mystical in the heavens (οὐράνιον), excepting that of the [twelve] signs (ζῳδιακον), representing living creatures.

When I started viewing and photographing the veil nebulae I was reminded of the description of the colors of the Tabernacle and Temple veils in Scripture and in Josephus. It is interesting how Josephus points to the colors as being reflective of the universe and the heavens!

And, as I looked at my photos of the Veil Complex, an astronomical structure that was created with the explosion of a massive star, I was reminded again of the Veil in the Temple and how it was rent much like the nebula. In the Gospels of Matthew and Mark we read

But Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and gave up his spirit.

Suddenly, the curtain of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom, the earth quaked, and the rocks were split. (Matt. 27:50-51 CSB17)

When the centurion, who was standing opposite him, saw the way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” (Mk. 15:39 CSB17)

There was unimaginable power in the explosion of that star that left the veil nebula as a remnant but truly, there was infinitely more power in the rending of the Veil in the Temple. In the rending of the star that left the nebula, dust and gases were separated and flung light years apart. But, in the rending of the Temple Veil, the separation between the LORD God and Man was removed even further than the diameter of any nebula or galaxy. God had created man “in his image” and he did so that a creature may have perfect fellowship with him. And yet man sinned and separated himself from the God who created him. And without action on God’s part that separation would be eternal and irreconcilable and no amount of energy created by any action or effort of man or any astronomical object could restore that fellowship. The only one who could was God. But, his nature is Righteousness and Justice. Sin causes that eternal separation and cannot by God be just dismissed like nothing had happened. But, God’s nature includes Mercy and Love. In John’s Gospel we read, “for God so loved the world (κόσμον)[5] that he gave his onlybegotten Son so that all those who believe in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

The giving of his Son was the greatest and most powerful Merciful act of Love that also and necessarily satisfied entirely his Righteousness and Justice.

[1] I am using the web, and in particular Wikipedia for much of the information on the nebula as the articles are extensively documented.

[2] One shot color camera, ZWO2600MC.

^[3] Zerubbabel’s and Herod’s Temples are commonly conflated and known as the Second Temple. However, the first century Jewish historian, Josephus, reported that Herod completely razed Zerubbabel’s Second Temple and built a completely new Third Temple (Josephus, Antiquities 15.390).

^[4] In this context Josephus is using the word to define everything, the whole universe, hence the translation.

[5] In this instance, as in Romans 5.12 κόσμον refers to the “world of men”.

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Building A Todmorden Pier

So ya wanna build a pier; Wonderful idea, brilliant idea, I had the same idea meownself.

Some of you may not wanna tell your semi-old back what you are about to do!

I wanted a pier as I have come to understand that it saves setup time and makes for better accuracy.

But, we may move out east sometime in not too distant future and so I wanted to lessen the permanent pier factor, consequently I did not want to have to go to concrete pier as its permanency factor was high.

Also, semi-old, semi-retired, semi-stingy so was looking for something cheaper than what most astro companies are selling by way of steel piers.

So, while perusing the broadway of idea sharing on the web I bumped into a little thing called a Todmorden Pier. And then I found this site – A Pier in Our Backyard

http://popupbackpacker.com/a-pier-in-our-backyard/

Great site, great narrative of building a pier. So, using it as a guide I began.

The first step in my endeavor to image the sky better and more accurately was to remove two large pecan trees that were right in M31’s path. Squirrels still not happy but I promised to share photos with them.

I then waited ‘til evening and found the best spot to place the pier in my Bortle 8 backyard.

Next, dug the hole, about 18x18x18 inches. Took 4 50 lb bags of concrete to fill. Note the above comment about semi-old backs.

Following his suggestion, I put 4 anchor bolts in a 18×18 slab as the base to set atop the concrete. I made an effort to have the slab level and pretty well pointed to True North (3͗° 15” from magnetic North in my local).

24 hours to set.

I set three 8x8x16 concrete blocks upon which the mount would sit and glued and bolted them together. In hind site, and after setting the mount and telescope, I would have made one of them an 8x8x8 as the telescope tops out at over 8 feet now! I can work around it but if I do a second one (already have the materials) it will be 8 inches shorter. I would also suggest trying to do a pilot hole prior to drilling in the blocks as they ain’t the smoothest things to try to get an accurate hole drilled. And perhaps use a drill bit just a bit larger than the bolts for wiggle room.

Besides the metal pier most folks use, the adapter for the mount that sits atop the pier can be very expensive. As Nick mentions in his site, there is a cheaper and just as effective substitute – a car brake rotor; in the case of the Celestron CGX, a 2010 Malibu LS’s rear rotor. I bought one off of Amazon (ACDelco Silver 18A1675A Rear Disc Brake Rotor) for $33 and one from AutoZone

(Duralast Brake Rotor 5491) for $59. The Autozone fit just that much better. If I were more patient I would have gone to junk yards for cheaper still but, . . . this ain’t a cheap hobby any way you look at it and despite the lies you tell your spouse!

My brother had a drill press and so I headed his way and he and his son helped me drill the holes that joined the two rotors and the holes that joined the mount to the rotors. My brother had only SAE tap and dies and so we used that to drill and tap the holes to the rotor (a new skill I have picked up!). In hind site I should have sprung the extra bucks for a metric set and then been able to use the one set of screws. It works out because the holes in the mount are about the same size.

Nick suggests that if properly laid, the concrete, slab, and blocks should be level so no need for the elaborate “spider” system some folks have used to get the two rotors to level the mount. Mine was pretty level but not quite what I wanted to so I used pennies to achieve that last bit of leveling. I may try screws for just that bit more accuracy.

Put on the mount and then the scope. It is tall but solid. I have a border collie who wants to do astrophotography but she always tries to get me to image Sirius (for some reason) and if I don’t she barks and jumps up at the scope so I have installed a Canine Impediment Screen to keep me on the target I want and to keep her from imaging Sirius.

My hope and plan is to build a shed around it, possibly large enough for two piers. LORD willing.

I have so far shot M27 – the Dumbbell Nebula. The pier made the massive difference in set up time and tracking that I was hoping for!

I highly recommend this for you who are considering a pier.

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Eine Kleine Gedankenexperiment

A Little Thought Experiment

This little (kleine) German phrase describes a thought experiment.

Wiki notes,

“The common goal of a thought experiment is to explore the potential consequences of the principle in question:

“A thought experiment is a device with which one performs an intentional, structured process of intellectual deliberation in order to speculate, within a specifiable problem domain, about potential consequents (or antecedents) for a designated antecedent (or consequent)” (Yeates, 2004, p. 150).

Given the structure of the experiment, it may not be possible to perform it, and even if it could be performed, there need not be an intention to perform it.

Examples of thought experiments include Schrödinger’s cat, illustrating quantum indeterminacy through the manipulation of a perfectly sealed environment and a tiny bit of radioactive substance, and Maxwell’s demon, which attempts to demonstrate the ability of a hypothetical finite being to violate the 2nd law of thermodynamics.”

Meown GE involved a pencil and ponderings of the things of the universe.

Back in the halcyon days when I taught Hebrew, I had abhorred the exercises found in the standard textbooks and instead put my students to the task of translating Genesis 1 and 2 as they are to be found in the TaNaK or Old Testament (I prefer TaNaK or TNK and will use that). For those familiar, those two chapters describe how “In the beginning God created.” Those two chapters describe, rather succinctly, the beginnings of everything from the Word of God.

So, as I pondered the no. 2 on my desk I asked myself, “how did it get there?” The question was more ontological than geographic. I thought about what it took to put the graphite (or whatever that is) in the wood, surrouned with the yellow paint with an eraser attached with a metal band. After the initial “what did it take to make the pencil” I wondered, “what did it take to make each part of the pencil; what did it take to make the wood, the graphite (go with me on that), the eraser, the metal?” That led to questions of rock formations, and trees, and all of the things that it took to make them. Which led to the Earth that we live on. And that led to, “how did the earth come to be?” Which led to the Solar System and “how did it come to be?” Which led to the Milky Way . . . well, you see where I am going with this. Very rapidly I came to realize that each smaller item relied on its formation by the next higher item and very soon I am at the level of the Universe as being Necessary for the fact that I had a pencil sitting on my desk.

Orion Nebula photographed by Shawn Madden with Celestron 8SE and ASI294c

So, back to that pencil on my desk and my Hebrew classes. What we see in “the Heavens” in such structures as the Orion Nebula are the building blocks and materials that God used as he made all around us and above us and beyond us so that we would have a place to Live and come to Know Him as Roman’s 1.19-20 says, “because what is known of God is clearly seen in them [people]; for God made it visible to them. For the unseen things of him, from the creation of the world the things he made are clearly seen; the everlasting power and divine nature of him . . .” (MOT)

I look up into the heavens and I see His works. His power. His majesty. Yes, even in the dust of the Orion Nebula, which hints at how that pencil came to be found on my desk. And in all of that I remember that He Knows My Name!

What do you think?

THE GUIDE SCOPE

When doing Astrophotography of Deep Space Objects (DSO) most folks recommend that you get and use a Guide Scope.

To get good, clear photos of DSOs (galaxies, nebulae, star clusters) you need to keep your camera pointed to the object for hours at a time because you will be taking very many photos of that object (hundreds to thousands of photos because of how dim the object are).

For the most part modern mounts (what the telescope sits on) do a fair job of finding and tracking those objects and keeping them generally align and centered in the camera’s field of view. But, not enough to get accurate, detailed pictures of the object, especially when you are taking so many.

To get the photos right and clear you need a Guide Scope (GS). In the photo you can see the guide scope sitting atop the Imaging Scope (IS). The two scopes need to be aligned and bore sighted to ensure that they will be pointing to the same area of space that your object is in. What you do is to point the GS at a star that is in the field of view as your object and use a program such as PHD (Push Here Dummy according to some sources) to keep the GS locked onto the star and tie the GS camera to the mount (notice the two wires coming off of the GS camera) so that it can send signals to the mount to have it move to keep the guide star centered in the GS camera and thereby keeping the DSO centered in the main imaging camera for the duration of the shoot.

Some folks do astrophotography for the art and beauty of the pictures. Some do it to study the universe in which we reside in an effort to understand more about our place in the grand scheme of things while also appreciating the beauty of the quest as seen in the photos of the stars and planets and galaxies and nebulae and other objects beyond the bounds of our neighborhood.

I like to think that I fall in the latter category. I love the photos I have produced, despite their obvious amateurishness (I hope to get better) and at the same time for me seeing them is a gateway to the understanding and appreciation of the One who set them out there for me to see and wonder over and about.

I have studied this enough to come to the very strong conclusion that what is out there is not a result of unconscious accident. The complexity and beauty of what I see (so too what those who observe the micro biological and physical realms) has got to be from the mind and hands of an Engineer far beyond the capabilities of the greatest minds in the history of the earth. So too, the idea that it all is a matter of sudden appearance from nothing with no cause flies in the face of logic. Dean Overman in his A Case Against Accident and Self-Organization dealt with this nicely. There is someone behind all of this.

Just like the pencil I talked about sitting on my desk, I knew that someone had designed that pencil – it just didn’t pop into existence on its own. It had to have been designed by someone. So too the materials of which it is composed – they just did not pop into existence, and, someone had to design those materials. And this applies to everything in that string of things that I observed were responsible for the fact that I had a pencil on my desk or that Carl Sagan concluded allowed him to enjoy an apple pie.

My study has also led me to the conclusion that that Person is the the God of Abraham and Jesus; YHWH, the God of Israel who gave us the Bible with which to know Him and understand Him and to understand what He would have of us in our relationship with him.

As such, just like if I want to learn and understand what I see through my telescope I need something to guide me. For that I have the Bible as my Guide Scope as it keeps me locked onto the Guide Star who is responsible for both the pencil and me who noticed it! In this I recognize the fact that the One who Designed the Universe is the One who Wrote The Bible. They both have the same Author. Now, before anyone says it, yes, the Bible does not give detailed information concerning the intricacies and the details of sub-quantum things and their design but it does speak enough of who that Engineer is who designs at the sub-quantum/plank level for me to begin to come to a greater understanding of how we fit into this unbelievably vast cosmos.

And, He knows my name and he knows your name!

Light and Inflation

Genesis 1.3, Light, and Inflation

While reading Genesis 1 have you noticed that light does not show up until verse 3? Depending on how you read it, there is quite a bit of creation and matter long before light shows up.

‎

I have inserted tabs at the beginning of clauses. What the tabs show is varying degrees of primacy in the text – i.e., mainline clause and supporting clauses. The clauses without tabs are the mainline clauses as shown by the specific Hebrew verb form. Clausal forms and elements are the grammatical clues to the hierarchy of the clauses in their relationship to each other and to the overall text. In this text we have a mainline narrative text and a mainline hortatory (imperatival) clause (3a, 3c); a background action clause (1), a background activities clause (2c) and three setting clauses (2a, 2b, 3c).

In evaluating a text, I normally remove the verse markers to get rid of any influence of the versifier and evaluate the text as a literary block. When done this way it can be seen how the text was meant to be read.

The grammatical markers (clausal structure mainly) are the indicators that the author used to show how he wanted the text to flow and what the main point was and what was backgrounding and support structures. I find it useful to think of a stage or a movie scene. You have the background or setting of the stage or scene. Then you have the background activities-things movie around giving more contextual information. Then you have background action – things happening closer to the front of the stage but not quite the main action. Then, closest to the audience and in focus you have the main action. The author of a text sets the stage and demonstrates the action by his clausal elements and structures.

The creation at the beginning (1) sets up what is to follow but did it in such a way as to provide background action to the main action – the creation of light. 2a-c gives the state of the creation prior to the creation of light; it provides the setting and background activity to the stage structure before the main action.

The main action is God speaking light into existence. It is very distinct in the Hebrew text by virtue of the verb form and the fact that that form is always found at the front of the clause.

1-2 is all background and setting. Structured the way it is it can take up any amount of time – microseconds to billions of years. The grammar of the text allows that. Day 1 does not begin until 3a. If you look at the rest of Gen 1 each day begins the same – and God said . . . ; and ends the same – there was evening, there was morning, day umptifratz.

So, in the text we have the Initial Creation with a description of the state of the universe (heavens and earth) prior to the creation of light. Notice that it is a distinct event separated from the initial creation. When I started paying attention to what I was seeing I thought it odd; I have a background in explosives and usually associate Bangs with Light!

When you look at the theory of the Big Bang and the illustrations of it you find that there is an initial period when the initial universe was too hot for the existence or travel of photons. It is call by some theorists the Cosmic Dark Ages and how long it lasted varies depending on the theorist. Wikipedia’s article on “The Chronology of the Universe” notes, “The Dark Ages and large-scale structure emergence – From 370,000 years until about 1 billion years. After recombination and decoupling, the universe was transparent but the clouds of hydrogen only collapsed very slowly to form stars and galaxies, so there were no new sources of light. The only photons (electromagnetic radiation, or “light”) in the universe were those released during decoupling (visible today as the cosmic microwave background) and 21 cm radio emissions occasionally emitted by hydrogen atoms. The decoupled photons would have filled the universe with a brilliant pale orange glow at first, gradually redshifting to non-visible wavelengths after about 3 million years, leaving it without visible light. This period is known as the cosmic Dark Ages. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_the_universe)

So here we have an observation from the Text and an observation from Telescopes pointed to the furthest reaches of the observable Creation that show a pause of some value between the initial creation and the creation and emergeance of light. It seems that grammar and science agree.

Not unexpected when we remember that both have the same Author. Who is also an Engineer who designs on the Sub-Atomic (sub-Plank?!) level. And, Who knows Your Name.

Language, Symbols, and the 2000 year old comma

To communicate anything there has to be a recognizable set of symbols which both parties are familiar and conversant.

In human language we talk about symbols cultures have created and utilized to convey meaning. Some written languages have symbols that represent the sounds of spoken language. Some symbols represent discrete sounds (alphabets) and some represent syllables (syllabary). Some written languages use the symbols to convey meaning that may not be directly related to sounds or may allow different spoken sounds for the same symbol (pictographic).

For the purposes of this paper I will stick to alphabet languages and use them to relate to other fields and concepts.

In alphabet languages each letter normally represents a particular sound and combinations of letters make more complete sounds like syllables and words. Letters may be combined in a myriad of ways to depict vast numbers of words and meanings.

So too, syllables may be combined in a variety of ways to depict words.

And then words combine to make phrases, clauses, and sentences.

And sentences combine to make paragraphs. And from there we are off to a wide variety of discourse types each laid out to present particular bits of information.

So too with numbers and the language of math and of programming.

Numbers stand alone and relate to other numbers and combine to form specific functions and can be modified by their relationship to decimal points and whether they are on the line, raised above it or lowered below it. Usually, discussions refer to combinations, whether letters or numbers, the value of those in relation to other letters of numbers, and the relationship of those structures to other combinations and groups of combinations.

So, generally, for math discussions not often do folks talk about a single number without mentioning in what context that number or number phrase is found.

So too with letters and words. What those mean is best understood in the context of their presentation. As such, it is more useful to talk not so much about the word as the use of the word in the context of the phrase, clause, paragraph or larger grammatical structure.

So too with punctuation and its relation to the surrounding grammar and the context it is found in.

For instance, in Luke 4 we have a comma whose value so far is 2,000 years.

There we find recorded that Jesus went to his hometown synagogue in Nazareth (small village) and he stood up to read from the book of Isaiah. (Side note – small village synagogue has a copy of Isaiah. More than good chance that small synagogue has then entire TaNaK/OT). The passage is from Isaiah 61.1-2a. The literary extent of the passage extends to verse 11.

In the New American Standard I am looking at, in the Isaiah passage there is a comma at 2a separating it from 2b. The Massoretic notation in the Hebrew text has a zaqeph qaton which is somewhat analogous to a comma.

So why did Jesus stop at 2a?

Contrary to what the Pharisees et al expected, Jesus made the point that the Messiah would First come to Serve and then he would come to Rule. The pause in the passage is the pause between the First Coming Serving Messiah and the Second Coming Ruling Messiah.

As it is, that Comma represents right around 2,000 years!

This is a hint that in other passages there may be found chronological pauses or gaps if we pay attention to the whole of Scripture and pay close attention to the grammatical structure each biblical author was moved to use when the Holy Spirit used them to write God’s Word.

The Glory of God and the Glory of Kings

My son in law’s favorite verse is Proverbs 25.2 which says, “[it is the] glory of God to cause the hiding of a thing; and [the] glory of kings to search [for the] thing.”

God created a vast universe, and I argue, he designed, engineered, and created from, at the very least, the sub-quantum level. If we admit to the kind of person that is capable of such and recognize how that is near infinitely beyond both our imaginings and abilities then you recognize what Solomon is saying. It seems that Solomon recognized the greatness of God and also that God made man to want to investigate and search for his ways. Notice that the verse did not say “find or discover”! As many have noted in the things of man, many times it is the quest and journey that is more than the arriving and finding. Some things we have discovered but I think that most will admit we are nibbling at the edges! But what nibblings!

This blog is dedicated to such a quest and discussion. There are varying degrees of a person’s pursuing such a quest, such treasures of “how he did it” that involve looking at both the evidence he lays out before all men in the world around us and the universe above us and also in the text of the Word he gave us as direct communication and revelation.

When doing either you can rely on the work of others that lays out their discoveries. For the text this involves reading translations of the Bible; for the world and universe this involves accessing someone else’s work in the multiplicity of the sciences. Happy is the one who can do some of the investigations on their own either by making their own translations and discoveries in one or all three of the biblical languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek) and/or making their own scientific investigations and discoveries in one or many fields (astronomy, biology, etc.).

As much as possible (but not always) I will be making my own translations (as above with Pr. 25.2) and providing my own photographs to make the point or observation that I will be writing about. To that end I have provided my own translation and here are my earliest photographs of a few of our solar system neighbors.

Genesis 1.1-3 – Time, Space, and Discourse Grammar

One of my primary teachings to my Hebrew students was, “Let the grammar determine your theology.”

The more I delved into the text of Scripture the more I was amazed at the precision of the grammar. This led me to study Discourse Grammar as taught by Robert Longacre (quick overview here). What follows is a very brief introduction to the concept using the first verses of Genesis and what may be gleaned by an understanding of what the Author had his amanuensis do with rather precise grammar.

Quick side lesson here on an author and his grammar – if he could have written it a different way then we need to look closely into why he wrote it in the way that he did.

Gen. 1.1-3

1 בראשׁית ברא אלהים את השׁמים ואת הארץ⇐

2a והארץ היתה תהו ובהו⇐⇐⇐

2b וחשׁך על פני תהום⇐⇐⇐

2c ורוח אלהים מרחפת על פני האמים⇐⇐

3a ויאמר אלהים

3b יהי אור

3c ויהי אור⇐⇐⇐⇐

1 ⇒In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth

2a ⇒⇒⇒And the earth was formless and void

2b ⇒⇒⇒And darkness was upon the face of the deep

2c ⇒⇒And the spirit of God was hovering upon the face of the waters

3a And God said

3b Let there be light

3c ⇒⇒⇒And there was light

I have inserted arrows at the beginning of clauses to demonstrate tabs which I am not sure how to do on the web without dropping in a pdf file (if you know how shoot me an e-mail!).

What the tabs show are varying degrees of primacy in the text – i.e., mainline clause and supporting clauses. The clauses without tabs are the mainline clauses as shown by the specific Hebrew verb form. Clausal forms and elements are the grammatical clues to the hierarchy of the clauses in their relationship to each other and to the overall text. In this text we have a mainline narrative text and a mainline hortatory (imperatival) clause (3a, 3c); a background action clause (1), a back ground activities clause (2c) and three setting clauses (2a, 2b, 3c).

In evaluating a text I normally remove the verse markers to get rid of any influence of the versifier and evaluate the text as a literary block. When done this way it can be seen how the text was meant to be read.

The grammatical markers (clausal structure mainly) are the indicators that the author used to show how he wanted the text to flow and what the main point was and what was backgrounding and support structures. I find it useful to think of a stage or a movie scene. You have the background or setting of the stage or scene. Then you have the background activities-things movie around giving more contextual information. Then you have back ground action – things happening closer to the front of the stage but not quite the main action. Then, closest to the audience and in focus you have the main action. The author of a text sets the stage and demonstrates the action by his clausal elements and structures.

The main action is God speaking light into existence. It is very distinct in the Hebrew text by virtue of the verb form and the fact that that form is always found at the front of the clause.

Roots and Beginnings

As I type this I am watching The Return of the King and the title of this introduction suggested itself.

This blog will be an investigation and discussion of the relationship between the observable universe and the written Word. The assumption and point of departure will be that the author of both is the same – the LORD God of Israel. He created what we see and he wrote what we read.

Interestingly, the genesis of this has one person as its author, Cathy Madden, my wife of fourty-six years.

For those who don’t know her, she is a bit of an outspoken lass. Those who do know her will confirm this observation. When we started dating we would have discussion in religion as we were from two different camps, as it were. When queried on a belief my response was, “this is what I was taught”; her’s was, “but the Bible says this.” I had not been a great reader of Scripture before those discussions and they caused me to pick up my parent’s Bible (which they got on the day of my birth) and investigate what she was saying. That began my love and fascination with what God has had written to us in Holy Writ. Side, note – it did say what she said it did!

Cathy, I have learned, has an uncanny sense of what I would like. Not necessarily what I had been wanting, say, for a birthday or father’s day, but what I would like. She at one time bought me a BBQ/smoker for father’s day one year. I had not thought of one nor had it ever been suggested that I would want one. But she got me one and as soon as I saw it I loved it! We lived in North Carolina at the time. One of the very major differences between North Carolina and Texas is BBQ. North Carolina thinks (erroneously) that it pertains to pigs when everyone knows that cows are the key. This was amply demonstrated when, having fired the smoker up, starting with that next 4^th of July (3^rd really – those who were there understand) and going for the next 12+ years, we held an annual smoked brisket meal while we watched fireworks from our cul-de-sac. We would go through 70lbs. of brisket in those nights.

The other item that she got me as she thought I might like it was a telescope from The Talented Child Store in Dallas. It was a very simple 4” reflector housed in a red plastic bubble. Easy to point and shoot and I loved what I saw through it. I traded it in for a more sophisticated 4” reflector with an equatorial mount. With that one I scoped out the moon, Jupiter, and the sun, which I projected on the back wall of my garage in Richardson, Texas. It was utterly fascinating!

At about that time I had begun studies for graduate degrees in the Bible and related topics and spent twenty years teaching Hebrew and Old Testament at a fairly large seminary. While teaching at the seminary, Cathy and I started a Sunday school class at the church we attended in Raleigh that we named The Theological Roundtable with the intent of having serious, in depth discussions of what God’s Word said. We taught that class for over fifteen years and it has continued since we left about five years ago. We did have in depth discussions, some of which covered creation and origins and which touched on the relationship between Special Revelation as found in the Bible and General Revelation as found in Nature. Again, we approached that discussion from the view that they shared the same author and so what we would find in one would be reflected in the other and that neither would contradict the other. That topical discussion was one of many. This blog will be one more directed to the relationship of God’s two great works and will use the Bible for part of the discussion and a telescope for the other part. To that end I have a Celestron 8” on the way and I have been going over YouTube videoes on how to do astrophotography as it is my intent that this blog include in depth Bible discussion (read references to Hebrew and Greek) and displays of what I will be photographing through my telescope.

Come, join me on the journey and let’s explore some great and interesting topics!