Room for One
Mary asked if I’d found my way through the “narrow gate.” Her question deserved more than the brief answer I gave — so here is the fuller one. It begins with a single word we’ve all half-misheard.
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The Mask and the Mirror
To “observe” the commandments has quietly come to mean perform them. But the word means to watch — to see. That single shift is the difference between a mask and a mirror.
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The Right Tool for the Job
Concordances and lexicons: the right tool for one job, the wrong tool for another. One Greek word — epithumia, rendered both “desire” and “lust” — shows why.
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When Words Move
I picked up the first English dictionary, printed in 1604, and couldn’t read half of it. One word stopped me cold — and it’s all over the Bible.
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The Mask and the Metamorphosis
The word translated “repentance” in English points to guilt, remorse, a promise to do better. The Greek word it translates — metanoia — points somewhere else entirely. And the difference is the whole game.
