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More Resources on Ecclesiology: The Doctrine of the Church
The Encyclopaedia Britannica on Christmas and Epiphany
The entirety of the article in the Encyclopaedia Britannica on Christmas is reproduced below; the article on Epiphany follows as well, as the two festival days are related. While the Christmas article is in error on Mark being the first gospel and in the idea that there was a "Q" document that underlies Matthew and Luke, its narrative of the origin of Christmas is accurate. The main points of the development of the festival day are:
CHRISTMAS (i. e. the Mass of Christ), in the Christian Church [that is, in the Roman Catholic religion, which is no Christian Church], the festival of the nativity of the Jesus Christ. The history of this feast coheres . . . closely with that of Epiphany [another feast developed under pagan, Gnostic, and heretical influences, and which proclaims a false gospel of baptismal regeneration] (q. v.), . . . The great church [the Roman Catholic religion] adopted Christmas much later than Epiphany; and before the fifth century it was no general consensus of opinion as to when it should come on the calendar, whether on the 6th of January, or the 25th of March, or the 25th of December.
The earliest identification of the 25th of December with the birthday of Christ is in a passage, otherwise unknown and probably spurious, of Theophilus of Antioch (A. D. 171-183), preserved in the Latin by the Magdeburg centuriators (i. 3, 118), to the effect that the Gauls [who were heretics] contended that as they celebrated the birth of the Lord on the 25th of December, whatever day of the week it might be, so they ought to celebrate the Pascha on the 25th of March when the resurrection befell.
The next mention of the 25th of December is in Hippolytus' (c. 202) commentary on Daniel iv. 23. Jesus, he says, was born at Bethlehem on the 25th of December, a Wednesday, in the 42nd year of Augustus. This passage also is almost certainly interpolated. In any case he mentions no feast, nor was such a feast congruous with the orthodox ideas of that age. As late as 245 Origen, in his eighth homily on Leviticus, repudiates as sinful the very idea of keeping the birthday of Christ "as if he were a king Pharaoh."
The first certain of mention of Dec. 25 is in a Latin chronographer of A. D. 354, first published entire by Mommsen.[i] It runs thus in English: "Year 1 after Christ, in the consulate of Caesar and Paulus, the Lord Jesus Christ was born on the 25th of December, a Friday and 15th day of the new moon." Here again no festal celebration of the day is attested.
There were, however, many speculations in the 2nd century about the date of Christ's birth. Clement of Alexandria, towards its close, mentions several such, and condemns them as superstitions. Some chronologists, he says, alleged the birth to have occurred in the twenty-eighth year of Augustus, on the 25th of Pachon, the Egyptian month, i. e. the 20th of May. These were probably the Basilidian gnostics. Others said it on the 24th or 25th of Pharmuthi, i. e. the 19th or 20th of April. Clement himself sets it on the 17th of November, 3 B. C. . . . Christ . . . being the Sun of Righteousness . . . certain Latins as early as 354 may have transferred the human birthday from the 6th of January to the 25th of December, which was then a Mithraic feast and is by the chronographer above referred to, but in another part of his compilation, termed Natalis invicti solis, or birthday of the unconquered Sun. . . . The Syrians and Armenians . . . accused the Romans of sun-worship and idolatry, contending with great probability that the feast of the 25th of December had been invented by the disciples of Cerinthus and its lections by Artemon [heretics] to commemorate the natural birth of Jesus. [Christmas] . . . certainly originated in the West, but spread quickly eastwards. In 353 – 361 it was observed that the court of Constantius [the heretical Arian emperor]. . . . As early as 400 in Rome an imperial rescript includes Christmas among the three feasts (the others are Easter and Epiphany) on which theaters must be closed. Epiphany and Christmas were not made judicial non dies until 534. . . . The new feast was about . . . 440 . . . finally established in Alexandria. . . .The grounds on which the Church introduced so late as 350 – 448 a Christmas feast till then unknown, or, if known, precariously linked with the baptism, seem in the main to have been the following. (I) The transition from adult to infant baptism was proceeding rapidly in the East, and in the West was well-nigh completed. [So Christmas rose as the Biblical subjects of baptism were abandoned by the Roman Catholic religion.] . . .
In Britain the 25th of December was a festival long before the conversion to Christianity, for Bede (De temp. rat. ch. 13) relates that "the ancient peoples of the Angli began the year on the 25th of December when we now celebrate the birthday of the Lord; and the very night which is now so holy to us, they called in their tongue modranecht (modra niht), that is, the mothers' night, by reason we suspect of the ceremonies which in that night-long vigil they performed." With his usual reticence about matters pagan or not orthodox, Bede abstains from recording who the mothers were and what the ceremonies. In 1644 the English puritans forbad any merriment or religious services by act of Parliament, on the ground that it was a heathen festival, and ordered it to be kept as a fast. Charles II. revived the feast, but the Scots adhered to the Puritan view.
In other words, Christmas is a Roman Catholic holy day that the Roman State-Church adopted in the fourth and fifth centuries, far after the true Baptist or Anabaptist churches had separated from Romanism[ii] and far after Romanism had adopted a false gospel of baptismal regeneration, works salvation, "saint" and relic worship, and many other heresies. The State-Church adopted the festival from pagans and heretics, who held special celebrations to worship the devil on the 25th of December. The Lord Jesus Christ was confounded with the sun god of Mithraism and worshipped on the winter solstice, the Day of the Unconquered Sun. Since there is not a scrap of support for Christmas in the Bible, which is enough to condemn it in the worship of the people of God (Leviticus 9:23-10:1; Jeremiah 7:31; Mark 7:13; Colossians 2:20-23), and, what is more, it is evidently heathen and pagan, those who sought to follow Scripture alone in their worship, such as the Baptists and the Puritans, rejected it, based on verses such as:
Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them [the heathen], after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods[.] . . . What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it. (Deuteronomy 12:30-32)
Modern Baptists, and all others who profess to regulate their worship by Scripture alone, ought to follow their godly forefathers and reject the heathen festival of the Christ-Mass, along with all the extrabiblical festival days of that Roman Catholic religious system identified by John the Apostle as "BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH" (Revelation 17:5). Instead, they ought to recall and re-embrace the blessed and Biblical Regulative Principle of worship, namely, that in the public worship of the church, whatsoever is not commanded is forbidden, so that "strange fire" is all that "which . . . the LORD . . . commanded them not" (Leviticus 10:1).[iii]
The entire article from the Encyclopaedia Britannica on Christmas is reproduced, unedited and complete, below. The article on Epiphany follows immediately afterwards.
CHRISTMAS (i. e. the Mass of Christ), in the Christian Church, the festival of the nativity of the Jesus Christ. The history of this feast coheres so closely with that of Epiphany (q. v.), that what follows must be read in connexion with the article under that heading.
The earliest body of gospel tradition, represented by Mark no less than by the primitive non—Marcan document embodied in the first and third gospels, begins, not with the birth and childhood of Jesus, but with his baptism; and this order of accretion of gospel matter is faithfully reflected in the time order of the invention of feasts. The great church adopted Christmas much later than Epiphany; and before the fifth century it was no general consensus of opinion as to when it should come on the calendar, whether on the 6th of January, or the 25th of March, or the 25th of December.
The earliest identification of the 25th of December with the birthday of Christ is in a passage, otherwise unknown and probably spurious, of Theophilus of Antioch (A. D. 171-183), preserved in the Latin by the Magdeburg centuriators (i. 3, 118), to the effect that the Gauls contended that as they celebrated the birth of the Lord on the 25th of December, whatever day of the week it might be, so they ought to celebrate the Pascha on the 25th of March when the resurrection befell.
The next mention of the 25th of December is in Hippolytus' (c. 202) commentary on Daniel iv. 23. Jesus, he says, was born at Bethlehem on the 25th of December, a Wednesday, in the 42nd year of Augustus. This passage also is almost certainly interpolated. In any case he mentions no feast, nor was such a feast congruous with the orthodox ideas of that age. As late as 245 Origen, in his eighth homily on Leviticus, repudiates as sinful the very idea of keeping the birthday of Christ "as if he were a king Pharaoh."
The first certain of mention of Dec. 25 is in a Latin chronographer of A. D. 354, first published entire by Mommsen.[iv] It runs thus in English: "Year 1 after Christ, in the consulate of Caesar and Paulus, the Lord Jesus Christ was born on the 25th of December, a Friday and 15th day of the new moon." Here again no festal celebration of the day is attested.
There were, however, many speculations in the 2nd century about the date of Christ's birth. Clement of Alexandria, towards its close, mentions several such, and condemns them as superstitions. Some chronologists, he says, alleged the birth to have occurred in the twenty-eighth year of Augustus, on the 25th of Pachon, the Egyptian month, i. e. the 20th of May. These were probably the Basilidian gnostics. Others said it on the 24th or 25th of Pharmuthi, i. e. the 19th or 20th of April. Clement himself sets it on the 17th of November, 3 B. C. The author of a Latin tract, called the De Pascha computus, written in Africa in 243, sets it by private revelation, ab ipso deo inspirati, on the 28th of March. He argues that the world was created perfect, flowers in bloom, and trees in leaf, therefore in spring; also at the equinox, and when the moon just created was full. Now the moon and sun were created on a Wednesday. The 28th of March suits all these considerations. Christ, therefore, being the Sun of Righteousness, was born on 28th of March. The same symbolical reasoning led Polycarp[v] (before 160) to set his birth on Sunday, when the world's creation began, but his baptism on Wednesday, for it was the analogue of the sun's creation. On such grounds certain Latins as early as 354 may have transferred the human birthday from the 6th of January to the 25th of December, which was then a Mithraic feast and is by the chronographer above referred to, but in another part of his compilation, termed Natalis invicti solis, or birthday of the unconquered Sun. Cyprian (de orat. Dom. 35) calls Christ Sol verus, Ambrose Sol novus noster (Sermo vii. 13), and such rhetoric was widespread. The Syrians and Armenians, who clung to the 6th of January, accused the Romans of sun-worship and idolatry, contending with great probability that the feast of the 25th of December had been invented by the disciples of Cerinthus and its lections by Artemon to commemorate the natural birth of Jesus. Chrysostom also testifies the 25th of December to have been from the beginning known in the West, from Thrace even as far as Gades. Ambrose, On Virgins iii. Ch. I, writing to his sister, implies that as late as the papacy of Liberius 352-356, the Birth from the Virgin was feasted together with the Marriage of Cana and the Banquet of the 4000 (Luke ix. 13), which were never feasted on any other day but Jan. 6.
Chrysostom, in a sermon preached at Antioch on Dec. 20, 386 or 388, says that some held the feast of Dec. 25 to have been held in the West, from Thrace as far as Cadiz, from the beginning. It certainly originated in the West, but spread quickly eastwards. In 353 – 361 it was observed that the court of Constantius. Basil of Caesarea (died 379) adopted it. Honorius, emperor (395 – 423) in the West, informed his mother and brother Arcadius (395 – 408) in Byzantium of how the new feast was kept in Rome, separate from the 6th of January, with its own troparia and sticharia. They adopted it, and recommended it to Chrysostom, who had long been in favor of it. Epiphanius of Crete was won over to it, as were also the other three patriarchs, Theophilus of Alexandria, John of Jerusalem, Flavian of Antioch. This was under Pope Anastasius, 398 – 400. John or Wahan of Nice, in a letter printed by Combefis in his Historia monothelitarum, affords the above details. The new feast was communicated by Proculus, patriarch of Constantinople (434 – 446), to Sahak, Cataholicos of Armenia, about 440. The letter was betrayed to the Persian king, who accused Sahak of Greek intrigues, and deposed him. However, the Armenians, at least those within the Byzantine pale, adopted it for about 30 years, but finally abandoned this together with the decrees of Chalcedon early in the 8th century. Many writers of the period 375 – 450, e. g. Epiphanius, Cassian, Asterius, Basil, Chrysostom and Jerome, contrast the new feast with that of the Baptism as that of the birth after the flesh, from which we infer that the latter was generally regarded as a birth according to the Spirit. Instructive as showing that the new feast traveled from West eastwards is the fact (noted by Usener) that in 387 the new feast was reckoned according to the Julian calendar by writers of the province of Asia, who in referring to other feasts use the reckoning of their local calendars. As early as 400 in Rome an imperial rescript includes Christmas among the three feasts (the others are Easter and Epiphany) on which theaters must be closed. Epiphany and Christmas were not made judicial non dies until 534.
For some years in the West (as late as 353 in Rome) the birth feast was appended to the baptismal feast on the 6th of January, and in Jerusalem it altogether supplanted it from about 360 to 440, when Bishop Juvenal introduced the feast of the 25th of December. The new feast was about the same time (440) finally established in Alexandria. The quadragesima of Epiphany (i. e. the feast of the presentation in the Temple, or hupaponte) continues to be celebrated in Jerusalem on the 14th of February, forty days after the 6th of January, until the reign of Justinian. In most other places it had long before been put back to the 2nd of February to suit the new Christmas. Armenian historians describe the riots, and display of armed force, without which Justinian was not able in Jerusalem to transfer this feast from the 14th to the 2nd of February.
The grounds on which the Church introduced so late as 350 – 448 a Christmas feast till then unknown, or, if known, precariously linked with the baptism, seem in the main to have been the following. (I) The transition from adult to infant baptism was proceeding rapidly in the East, and in the West was well-nigh completed. Its natural complement was a festal recognition of the fact that the divine element was present in Christ from the first, and was no new stage of spiritual promotion coeval only with the descent of the Spirit upon him at baptism. The general adoption of child baptism helps to extinguish the old view that the divine life in Jesus dated from his baptism, a view which led the Epiphany feast to be regarded as that of Jesus' spiritual rebirth. This aspect of the feast was therefore forgotten, and its importance in every way diminished by the new and rival feast of Christmas. (2) The 4th century witnessed a rapid diffusion of Marcionite, or, as it was now called, Manichaean propaganda, the chief tenet of which was that Jesus either was was not born at all, was a mere phantasm, or anyhow did not take the flesh of the Virgin Mary. Against this view the new Christmas was a protest, since it was peculiarly the feast of his birth in the flesh, or as a man, and is constantly spoken of as such by the fathers who witnessed its institution.
In Britain the 25th of December was a festival long before the conversion to Christianity, for Bede (De temp. rat. ch. 13) relates that "the ancient peoples of the Angli began the year on the 25th of December when we now celebrate the birthday of the Lord; and the very night which is now so holy to us, they called in their tongue modranecht (modra niht), that is, the mothers' night, by reason we suspect of the ceremonies which in that night-long vigil they performed." With his usual reticence about matters pagan or not orthodox, Bede abstains from recording who the mothers were and what the ceremonies. In 1644 the English puritans forbad any merriment or religious services by act of Parliament, on the ground that it was a heathen festival, and ordered it to be kept as a fast. Charles II. revived the feast, but the Scots adhered to the Puritan view.
Outside Teutonic countries Christmas presents are unknown. Their places taken in Latin countries by the strenae, French etrennes, given on the 1st of January; this was in antiquity a great holiday, wherefore until late in the 4th century the Christians kept it as a day of fasting and gloom. The setting up in the Latin churches of a Christmas crèche is said to have been originated by St Francis.
AUTHORITIES.—K. A. H. Kellner, Heortologie (Freiburg im Br., 1906), with Bibliography; Hospinanius, De festis Christianorum (Genevac, 1574); Edw. Martene, De Antiquis Ecclesia Ritibus, iii. 31 (Bassani, 1788); J. C. W. Augusti, Chrisl. Archaologie, vols. i. and v. (Leipzig, 1817-1831); A. J. Binterim, Denkwurdigkeiten, v. pt. i. p. 528 (Mainz, 1825 &c.); Ernst Friedrick Wernsdorf, De originibus Solemnium Natalis Christi (Wittenberg, 1757, and in J. E. Volbeding, Thesaurus Commentationum, Lipsiae, 1847); Anton. Bynaeus, De Natali Jesu Christi (Amsterdam, 1689); Hermann Usener, Religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen (Bonn, 1889); Nik. Nilles, S. J., Kalendarium Manuale (Innsbruck, 1896); L. Duchesne, Origines de culte chretien (3e ed., Paris, 1889). (F. C. C.) (pgs. 293-294, The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed., vol. VI. New York: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 1911).
EPIPHANY, FEAST OF. The word epiphany, in Greek, signifies an apparition of a divine being. It was used as a singular or a plural both in its Greek and Latin forms, according as one epiphany was contemplated or several united in a single commemoration. For in the East from an early time were associated with the feast of the Baptism of Christ commemorations of the physical birth, of the Star of the Magi, of the miracles of Cana, and of the feeding of the five thousand. The commemoration of the Baptism was also called by the Greek Fathers of the 4th century the Theophany or Theophanies, and the Day of Lights, i. e. of the Illumination of Jesus or of the Light which shone in the Jordan. In the Teutonic West it has become the Festival of the three Kings (i. e. the Magi), or simply Twelfth day. Leo the Great called it the feast of the Declaration; Fulgentius, of the Manifestation; others, of the Apparition of Christ.
In the following article it is attempted to ascertain the date of institution of the Epiphany feast, its origin, and its significance and development.
Clement of Alexandria first mentions it. Writing c. 194 he states that the Basilidians feasted the day of the Baptism, devoting the whole night which preceded it to lections of the scriptures. They fixed it in the 15th year of Tiberius, on the 15th or 11th of the month Tobi, dates of the Egyptian fixed calendar equivalents to January 10th and 6th. When Clement wrote the great church had not adopted the feast, but toward A. D. 300 it was widely in vogue. Thus the Acts of Philip the Martyr, bishop of Heraclea in Thrace, A.D. 304, mention the "holy day of the Epiphany." Note the singular. Origen seems not to have heard of it as a feast of the Catholic church, but Hippolytus (died c. 235) recognized it in a homily which may be genuine.
In the age of the Nicene Council, A.D. 325, the primate of Alexandria was charged at every Epiphany Feast to announce to the churches in a "Festal Letter" the date of the forthcoming Easter. Several such letters written by Athanasius and others remain. In the churches so addressed the feast of Jan. 6 must have been already current.
In Jerusalem, according to the Epistle of Macarius[vi] to the Armenians, c. 330, the feast was kept with zeal and splendour, and was with Easter and Pentecost a favorite season for Baptism.
We have evidence of the 4th century from Spain that a long fast marked the season of Advent, and prepared for the feast of Epiphany on the 6th of January. The council of Saragossa c. 380 enacted that for 21 days, from the 17th of December to the 6th of January, the Epiphany, the faithful should not dance or make merry, but steadily frequent the churches. The synod of Lerida in 524 went further and forbade marriages during Advent. Our earliest Spanish lectionary, the Liber comicus of Toledo, edited by Don Morin (Anec. Maredsol. vol. i), provides lections for five Sundays in Advent, and the gospel lections[vii] chosen regard the Baptism of Christ, not His Birth, of which the feast, like that of the Annunciation, is mentioned, but not yet dated, December 25 being assigned to St Stephen. It is odd that for "the Apparition of the Lord" the lection Matt. ii. 1-15 is assigned, although the lections for Advent belong to a scheme which identified Epiphany with the Baptism. This anomaly we account for below. The old editor of the Mozarabic Liturgy, Fr. Antonio Lorenzano, notes in his preface §28 that the Spaniards anciently terminated the Advent season with the Epiphany feast. In Rome also the earliest fixed system of the ecclesiastical year, which may go back to 300, makes Epiphany the caput festorum or chief of feasts. The Sundays of Advent lead up to it, and the first Sundays of the year are "The Sunday within the octave of Epiphany," "the first Sunday after," and so forth. December 25 is no critical data at all. In Armenia as early as 450 a month of fasting prepared for the Advent of the Lord at Epiphany, and the fast was interpreted as a reiteration of John the Baptist's season of Repentance.
In Antioch as late as about 386 Epiphany and Easter were the two great feasts, and the physical Birth of Christ was not yet feasted. On the eve of Epiphany after nightfall the springs and rivers were blessed, and water was drawn from them and stored for the whole year to be used in lustrations and baptisms. Such water, says Chrysostom, to whose orations we owe the information, kept pure and fresh for one, two and three years, and like good wine actually improved it the longer it was kept. Note that Chrysostom speaks of the Feast of the Epiphanies, implying two, one of the Baptism, the other of the Second Advent, when Christ will be manifested afresh, and we with him in glory. This Second Epiphany inspired, as we saw, the choice of Pauline lections in the Liber comicus. But the salient event commemorated was the Baptism, and Chrysostom almost insists on this as the exclusive significance of the feast: – "It was not when he was born that he became manifest to all, but when he was baptized." In his commentary on Ezekiel Jerome employs the same language absconditus est et non apparuit, by way of protest against an interpretation of the Feast as that of the Birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, which was essayed as early as 375 by Epiphanius in Cyprus, and was being enforced in Jerome's day by John, bishop of Jerusalem. Epiphanius boldly removed the date of the Baptism to the 8th of November. "January 6" (=Tobi 11), he writes, "is the day of Christ's birth, that is, of the Epiphanies." She uses the plural, because he adds on January 6 the commemoration of the water miracle of Cana. Although in 375 he thus protested that January 6 was the day "of the Birth after the Flesh," he became before the end of the century a convert, according to John of Nice, to the new opinion – December 25 was the real day of this Birth. That as early as about 385, January 6 was capped as the physical birthday in Jerusalem, or rather in Bethlehem, we know from a contemporary witness of it, the lady pilgrim of Gaul, whose peregrinatio, recently discovered by Gamurrini, is confirmed by the old Jerusalem Lectionary preserved in Armenian.[viii] Ephraem the Syrian father is attested already by Epiphanius (c. 375) to have celebrated the physical birth on January 6. His genuine Syriac hymns confirm this, but prove that the Baptism, the Star of the Magi, and the Marriage at Cana were also commemorated on the same day. That's the same in union prevailed in Rome up to the year 354 may be inferred from Ambrose. Philastrius (De haer. Ch. 140) notes that some abolished the Epiphany feast and substituted a Birth feast. This was between 370 and 390.
In 385 Pope Siricius[ix] calls January 6 Natalicia, "the Birthday of Christ or of Apparition," and protests against the Spanish custom (at Tarragona) of baptizing on that day – another group that in Spain in the 4th century it commemorated the Baptism. In Gaul at Vienna in 360 Julian the Apostate, out of deference to Christian feeling, went to church "on the festival which they keep in January and call Epiphania." So Ammianus; but Zonaras in his Greek account of the event calls it the day of the Saviour's Birth.
Why the feast of the Baptism was called the feast or day of the Saviour's Birth, and why the fathers of that age when they call Christmas the birthday constantly qualify and add the words "in the flesh," we are able to divine from Pope Leo's (c. 447) 18th Epistle to the bishops of Sicily. For here we learn that in Sicily they held that in His Baptism the Saviour was reborn through the Holy Spirit. "The Lord," protests Leo, "needed no remission of sins, no remedy of rebirth." The Sicilians also baptized neophytes on January 6, "because baptism conveyed to Jesus and to them one and the same grace." Not so, argues Leo, the Lord sanctioned and hollowed the power of regeneration, not when He was baptized, but "when the blood of redemption and the water of baptism flowed from his side." Neophytes should therefore be baptized at Easter and Pentecost alone, never at Epiphany.
Fortune has preserved to us among the Spuria of several Latin fathers, Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome and Maximus of Turin, various homilies for Sundays of the Advent fast and for Epiphany. The Advent lections of these homilists were much the same as those of the Spanish Liber comicus; and they insist on Advent being kept as a strict fast, without marriage celebrations. Their Epiphany lection is however Matt. iii. 1-17, which must therefore have once on a time been assigned in the Liber comicus also in harmony with its general scheme. The psalms used on that day are, cxiii. (cxiv.) "When Israel went forth," xxviii. (xxix.) "Give unto the Lord," and xxii. (xxiii.) "the Lord is my Shepherd." The same lection of Matthew and also Ps. xxix. are noted for Epiphany in the Greek oration for the day ascribed to Hippolytus, which is at least earlier than 300, and also in special old Epiphany rites for the Benediction of the waters found in Latin, Greek, Armenian, Coptic, Syriac, &c. Now by these homilists as by Chrysostom,[x] the Baptism is regarded as the occasion on which "the Saviour first appeared after the flesh in the world or on earth." These words were classical to the homilists, who explained them as best they can. The baptism is also declared to have been "the consecration of Christ," and "the regeneration of Christ and a strengthening of our faith," to have been "Christ's second nativity." "This second birth hath more renown than his first . . . for now the God of majesty is inscribed (as his father), but then (at his first birth) Joseph the Carpenter was assumed to be his father . . . he hath more honour cries aloud from Heaven (viz. God the Father), then he who labours upon earth" (viz. Joseph).[xi]
Similarly the old ordo Romanus of the age of Pepin (given by Montfaulcon in his preface to the Mozaarabic missal in Migne, Patr. Latina, 85, col. 46), under the rubric of the Vigil of the Theophany, insists that "the second birth of Christ (in Baptism) being distinguished by so many mysteries (e.g. the miracle of Cana) is more honoured than the first" (birth from Mary).
These homilies mostly belong to an age (? 300 – 400) when the commemoration of the physical Birth had not yet found its own day (Dec. 25), and was therefore added alongside of the Baptism on January 6. Thus the two Births, the physical and the spiritual, of Jesus were celebrated on one and the same day, and one homily contains the words: "Not yet is the feast of his origin fully completed, and already we have to celebrate the solemn commemoration of his Baptism. He has hardly been born humanwise, and already he is being reborn in sacramental wise. For to-day, though after a lapse of many annual cycles, he was hollowed (or consecrated) in Jordan. So the Lord arranged as to link rite with rite; I mean, in such wise as to be brought forth through the Virgin and to be begotten through the mystery (i. e. sacrament) in one and the same season." Another homily preserved in a MS. of the 7th or 8th century and assigned to Maximus of Turin declares that the Epiphany was known as the Birthday of Jesus, either because He was then born of the Virgin or reborn in baptism. This also was the classical defence made by Armenian fathers of their custom of keeping the feast of the Birth and Baptism together on January 6. They argued from Luke's gospel that the Annunciation took place on April 6, and therefore the Birth on January 6. The Baptism was on Christ's 30th birthday, and should therefore be also on January 6. Cosmas Indicopleustes (c. 550) relates that on the same ground believers of Jerusalem joined the feasts. All such reasoning was of course après coup. As late as the 9th century the Armenians had at least three discrepant dates for the Annunciation – January 5, January 9, April 6; and of these January 5 and 9 were older than April 6, which they perhaps borrowed from Epiphanius's commentary on the Gospels. The old Latin homilist, above quoted, hits the mark when he declares that the innate logic of things required the Baptism (which must, he says, be any how called a natal or birth festival) to fall on the same day is Christmas –Ratio enim exigit. Of the argument from the 6th of April as the date of the Annunciation he knows nothing. The 12th century Armenian Patriarch Nerses, like this homilist, merely rests his case against the Greeks, who incessantly reproached the Armenians for ignoring their Christmas on December 25, on the inherent logic of things, as follows:
"Just as he was born after the flesh from the holy virgin, so he was born through baptism and from the Jordan, by way of example unto us. And since there are here two births, albeit differing one from the other in mystic import and in point of time, therefore it was appointed that we should feast them together, as the first, so also the second birth."
The Epiphany feast had therefore in its own right acquired the name of natalis dies or birthday, as commemorating the spiritual rebirth of Jesus in Jordan, before the natalis in carne, the Birthday in the flesh, as Jerome and others call it, was associated with it. This idea was condemned as Ebionite in the 3rd century, yet it influences Christian writers long before and long afterwards. So Tertullian says: "We little fishes (pisciculi), after the example of our great fish (i˙cqu/n) Jesus Christ the Lord, are born again (gignimur) in the water, nor except by abiding in the water are we in a state of salvation." And Hillary, like the Latin homilists cited above, rights of Jesus that "he was born again through baptism, and then became Son of God," adding that the Father cried, when he had gone up out of the water, "My Son art thou, I have this day begotten thee" (Luke iii. 22). "but this," he adds, "was the begetting of a man who is being reborn; on that occasion too he himself was being reborn unto God to be perfect son; as he was son of man, so in baptism, he was constituted son of God as well." The idea frequently meets us in Hilary; it occurs in the Epiphany hymn of the orthodox Greek church, and in the Epiphany hymns and homilies of the Armenians.
A letter is preserved by John of Nice of a bishop of Jerusalem to the bishop of Rome which attests a temporary union of both feasts on January 6 in the holy places. The faithful, it says, met before dawn at Bethlehem to celebrate the Birth from the Virgin in the cave; but before their hymns and lections were finished they had to hurry off to Jordan, 13 m. the other side of Jerusalem, to celebrate the Baptism and by consequence neither commemoration could be kept fully and reverently. The writer therefore begs the pope to look in the archives of the Jews brought to Rome after the destruction of Jerusalem, and to ascertain from them the real date of Christ's birth. The pope looked in the works of Josephus and found it to be December 25. The letter's genuineness has been called in question; but revealing as it does the Church's ignorance of the date of the Birth, the inconvenience and precariousness of its association with the Baptism, the recency of its separate institution, it could not have been invented. It is too tell-tale a document. Not the least significant fact about it is that it views the Baptism as an established feast which cannot be altered and set on another date. It has been shown above that perhaps as early as 380 the difficulty was got over in Jerusalem by making the Epiphany wholly and solely a commemoration of the miraculous birth, and suppressing the commemoration of the Baptism. Therefore this letter must have been written – or, if invented, then invented before that date. Chrysostom seems to have known of it, for in his Epiphany homily preached at Antioch, c. 392 (op. vol. ii. 354, ed. Montf.) he refers to the archives at Rome as the source from which the date December 25 could be confirmed, and declares that he had obtained it from those who dwell there, and who observing it from the beginning and by old tradition, had communicated it to the East. The question arises why the feast of the Baptism was set on January 6 by the sect of Basilides? And why the great church adopted the date? Now we know what sort of considerations influenced this sect in fixing other feasts, so we may have a clue. They fixed the Birth of Jesus on Pachon 25 (= May 20), the day of the Niloa, or feast of the descent of the Nile from heaven. We should thus expect January 6 to be equally a Nile festival. And this from various sources we know it was. On Tobi 11, says Epiphanius[xii] (c. 370), every one draws up water from the river and stores it up, not only in Egypt itself, but in many other countries. In many places, he adds, springs and rivers turn into wine on this day, e. g. at Cibyra in Caria and Gerasa in Arabia. Aristides Rhetor (c. 160) also relates how in the winter, which began with Tobi, the Nile water was at its purest. Its water, he says, if drawn at the right time conquers time, for it does not go bad, whether you keep it on the spot or export it. Galleys were waiting on a certain night to take it on board and transport it to Italy and elsewhere for libations and lustrations in the Temples of Isis. "Such water," he adds, "remained fresh, long after other water supplies had gone bad. The Egyptians filled their pitchers with this water, as others did with wine; they stored it in their houses for three or four years or more, and recommended it the more, the older it grew, just as the Greeks did their wines."
Two centuries later Chrysostom, as we have seen, commands in identical terms of water blessed and drawn from the rivers at the Baptismal feast. It is therefore probable that the Basilidian feast was a Christianized form of the blessing of the Nile, called by Chabas in his Coptic calendar Hydreusis. Mas'udi the Arab historian of the 10th century, in his Prairies d'or (French trans. Paris, 1863, ii. 364), enlarges on the splendors of this feast as he saw it still celebrated in Egypt.
Epiphanius also (Haer. 51) relates a curious celebration held at Alexandria of the Birth of the Aeon. On January 5 or 6 the votaries met in the holy compound or Temple of the Maiden (Kore), and sang hymns to the music of the flute till dawn, when they went down with torches into a shrine under ground, and fetched up a wooden idol on a bier representing Kore, seated and naked, with crosses marked on her brow, her hands and her knees. Then with flute-playing, hymns and dances they carried the image seven times round the central shrine, before restoring it again to its dwelling-place below. He adds: "And the votaries of say that to-day at this hour Kore, that is, the Virgin, gave birth to the Aeon."
Epiphanius says this was a heathen rite, but it rather resembles some Basilidian or Gnostic commemoration of the spiritual birth of the Divine life in Jesus of the Christhood, from the older creation the Ecclesia.
The earliest extant Greek text of the Epiphany rite is in a Euchologian of about the year 795, now in the Vatican. The prayers recite that at His baptism Christ hallowed the waters by His presence in Jordan,[xiii] and ask that they may now be blessed by the Holy Spirit visiting them, by its power and inworking, as the streams of Jordan were blessed. So they will be able to purify soul and body of all who draw up and partake of them. The hymn sung contains such clauses as these:
"To-day the grace of the Holy Spirit hollowing the waters appears (e˙pifai÷netai, cf. Ephiphany) . . . To-day the systems of waters spread out their backs under the Lord's footsteps. To-day the unseen is seen, that he may reveal himself to us. To-day the Increate is of his own will ordained (lit. hath hands laid on him) by his own creature. To-day the Unbending bends his neck to his own servant, in order to free us from servitude. To-day we were liberated from darkness and are illumined by the light of divine knowledge. To-day for us the Lord by means of rebirth (lit. palingenesy) of the Image reshapes the Archetype."
This last clause is obscure. In the Armenian hymns the ideas of the rebirth not only of believers, but of Jesus, and of the latter's ordination by John, are very prominent.
The history of the Epiphany feast may be summed up thus: –
From the Jews the Church took over the feasts of Pascha and Pentecost; and Sunday was a weekly commemoration of the Resurrection. It was inevitable, however, that believers should before long desire to commemorate the Baptism, with which the oldest form of evangelical tradition began, and which was widely regarded as the occasion when the divine life began in Jesus; when the Logos or Holy Spirit appeared and rested on Him, conferring upon Him spiritual unction as the promised Messiah; when, according to an old reading of Luke iii. 22, He was begotten of God. Perhaps the Ebionite Christians of Palestine first instituted the feast, and this, if a fact, must underlie the statement of John of Nice, a late but well-informed writer (c. 950), that it was fixed by the disciples of John the Baptist who were present at Jesus' Baptism. The Egyptian gnostics anyhow had the feast and set it on January 6, a day of the blessing of the Nile. It was a feast of Adoptionist complexion, as one of its names, viz. the Birthday (Greek gene÷qlia, Latin Natalicia or Natalis dies), implies. This explains why in east and west the feast of the physical Birth was for a time associated with it; and to justify this association it was suggested that Jesus was baptized just on His thirtieth birthday. In Jerusalem and Syria it was perhaps the Ebionite or Adoptionist, we may add also the Gnostic, associations of the Baptism that caused this aspect of Epiphany to be relegated to the background, so that it became wholly a feast of the miraculous birth. At the same time other epiphanies of Christ were superadded, e. g. of Cana where Christ began His miracles by turning water into wine and manifested forth His glory, and of the Star of the Magi. Hence it is often called the Feast of Epiphanies (in the plural). In the West today is commonly called the Feast of the three kings, and its early significance as a commemoration of the Baptism and season of blessing the waters has been obscured; the Eastern churches, however, of Greece, Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Egypt, Syria have been more conservative. In the far East it is still the season of seasons for baptisms, and in Armenia children born long before are baptized at it. Long ago it was a baptismal feast in Sicily, Spain, Italy (see Pope Gelasius to the Lucanian Bishops), Africa and Ireland. In the Manx prayer-book of Bishop Phillips of the year 1610 Epiphany is called the "little Nativity" (La nolicky bigge), and the Sunday which comes between December 25 and January 6 is "the Sunday between the two Nativities," of Jih duni oedyr 'a Nolick; Epiphany itself is the "feast of the water vessel," lail ymmyrt uyskey, or "of the well of water," Chibbyrt uysky.
AUTHORITIES.—Gregory Nazianz., Orat. Xli.; Suicer, Thesaurus, s. v. e˙pifa¿neia; Cotelerius In constit. Apost. (Antwerp, 1698), lib. V. cap. 13; R. Bingham, Antiquities (London, 1834), bk. Xx.; Ad. Jacoby, Bericht über die Taufe Jesu (Strassburg, 1902); H. Blumenbach, Antiquitates Epiphaniorum (Leipzig, 1737); J. L. Schulze, De festo Sanctorum Luminum, ed. J. E. Volbeding (Leipzig, 1841); and K. A. H. Kellner, Heortologie (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1906). (See also the works enumerated under CHRISTMAS.) (F. C. C.) (pgs. 695-698, The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed., vol. IX. New York: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 1910)
[xiii] The same idea is frequent in Epiphany homilies of Chrysostom and other 4th-century fathers.


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Remember the gal who gave us all of that crazy makeup inspiration just in time for Halloween? Well, good news, she's back! This week Annamarie shares with us 4 New Year's Eve makeup looks that totally WOW your companions (this time, not a Roy Lichtenstein kind of way!).
Ruby Red Eyeliner: If you're already wearing sparkles but no color, try a bold ruby red or royal purple cat eye. As Annamarie notes, "by coupling [the eyeliner] with bold brows you will achieve a defined look, instead of it looking like you might have allergies.". Good point!__
Get the how-to from Annamarie.
Gold Eyeshadow: This sultry bronze and black look is ultra-sophisticated and glam, just like New Year's Eve (well, sometimes). It starts with a gold cream shadow, applied on the bottom part of your eyelid. Here's a close-up:
Get the how-to from Annamarie.
Red Lipstick: This classic party look is a great example of how wearing a strong lip and eye at the same time is, in fact, possible. I love the highlighter she used on her cheekbones and in the corners of her eyes. It gives this dramatic look a touch of sweetness.
Get the how-to from Annamarie.
Silver Eyeshadow: If New Year's Eve were a makeup look, this would be it. A glitzy eye, lotsa lash and glow-y skin is totally festive without being tacky. This is the one I'm copying for my night out, hands down.
Get the how-to from Annamarie.
__So dolls, do you love these makeup looks as much as I do? Which one would you wear to a New Year's Eve party?

subset: commoncrawl


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Recipe Type: Kid-Friendly
Tacos al Pastor
Photos Recipe Coarsely chop 1 onion half. Coarsely chop 2 pineapple rounds, discarding core; cover ...admin Read more
Parmesan Chicken
Photos Recipe Preheat oven to 450°F and line a baking sheet with parchment. Whisk together ...admin Read more
Banana Smoothie
Photos Recipe In a blender blend at high speed the bananas, the pineapple juice, the ...admin Read more
Egg Sandwich
Photos Recipe Whisk 1/2 cup crumbled feta, 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons ...admin Read more
Turkey Meatballs
Photos Recipe Mix turkey, sausage, 4 tablespoons cheese, 2 tablespoons parsley, 2 garlic cloves, thyme, ...admin Read more
Udon Noodles
Photos Recipe Whisk chile, garlic, vinegar, soy sauce, vegetable oil, peanut butter, sesame oil, ginger, ...admin Read more
Photos Recipe Place porcini mushrooms in 2-cup measuring cup; add enough hot water to measure ...admin Read more


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Today's Color & Pattern
ABOVE: "Falcon and Hollyhock" is a wallpaper from a C.F.A. Voysey design dating to 1901. From Trustworth Studios.
Browse a specialized list of products and manufacturers suitable for your Arts & Crafts Bungalow or Dutch Colonial cottage, your Tudor Revival, Craftsman, or early ranch, including wallpapers and friezes, stencil patterns and supplies, and specialty paints and palettes.
(Click on the small images for a full-sized view)


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Crosby, Texas, is a small town located just east of Houston that boasts proximity to some of south Texas's best fishing and wildlife observation points. You will enjoy the proximity to the bars, restaurants and professional sports of Houston as well as the easy access to Texas' beautiful Gulf Coast region.
Crosby, Texas, sits east of Houston along U.S. Interstate 20, near both Lake Houston as well as the Sheldon Reservoir. If you love sun and sand, travel to Galveston along U.S. Interstate 45 in just over one hour. Visitors will also find Sheldon Lake State Park and Dwight D Eisenhower Park to the west of Crosby.
RV Accommodations
Your visit to Crosby, Texas, will find limited camping options in the immediate area, but a few well-suited parks close by. In Highlands, Texas, San Jacinto Riverfront RV Resort offers 301 RV sites including 200 pull-through sites, all with full hookups and free cable TV. Houston Leisure RV Resort features ample pull-through sites as well as 50-amp electrical service and sewer hookups.
Beyond the RV spot, Houston Leisure offers you laundry service, a convenience store, Wi-Fi service as well as a group meeting area for large family events or celebrations. San Jacinto Riverfront RV Park features a swimming pool, security gate, fishing pier, showers, a laundry room and exercise and recreation rooms. Free wireless Internet also is available.
When visiting Crosby, head west to Sheldon Lake State Park and enjoy plenty of fishing and wildlife viewing as well as an informative day at the Environmental Learning Center, which offers self-guided tours on nature trails that weave throughout the reserve and expose visitors to alligators, native birds and other Texas species. Family Fishing, a catch and release program, is offered on Saturdays and Sundays.
If you are looking for an authentic Texas experience, plan your trip for June and enjoy the Crosby Fair and Rodeo, an extensive and exciting example of Texas's cowboy heritage. Besides fantastic live music and classic southern food, the rodeo will feature classic bronc riding, bull riding and barrel racing throughout the week.
Leaf Group is a USA TODAY content partner providing general travel information. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.
Photo Credits
- smith street - houston image by Daniel Gillies from Fotolia.com
- Attribution: Hequals2henry; License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license
- Attribution: XxTrillvillexX9 at English Wikipedia; License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license
- Attribution: austrini; License: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license


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Instead of swigging down another egg nog (that's 223 calories or 11 grams of fat per cup — if you're counting), nibble on one of these healthy holiday treats.
By Kelly Ladd Sanchez, Mom.me
1. Snowman Lunch: Use nesting circle cookie cutters to punch holes out of open face sandwiches. Leave your cheese slice on top so it looks like snow. Add pretzel sticks for the arms, fruit leather scraps for the scarf and hat and popcorn for snow. Get the recipe at Creative Food.
2. Cracker Cuties: Transform your crackers into funny reindeers, snowman and Christmas trees with cucumber slices, olives, tomatoes and green peppers. Get the recipe at Little Food Junction.
[post_ads]3. Grinch Kebabs: Make mini kebabs featuring everyone's favorite green meanie. Just skewer a grape, banana slice, strawberry and mini marshmallow on a tooth pick. So simple! Get the recipe at Nourishing Minimalism.
4. Christmas Tree, Oh! Christmas Tree: Slice an apple and decorate it with raisins and two cheese triangles to represent a star. Add pretzel sticks as a base and watch your tree come alive. Get the recipe at 360 Family Nutrition.
5. Belly Full of Laughter: Great for a party appetizer or to surprise your student in their lunch box, wrap a BabyBel cheese with black and gold paper to look like Santa's belt. Get the recipe at Cute Food for Kids.
6. Snowman Sticks: Tie a ribbon around a cheese stick and use a Sharpie to draw eyes, mouth, buttons and nose to the plastic wrapper. Glue on a black paper hat and Frosty comes alive. Get the recipe at No Biggie.
7. Egg Snowmen: Packed with protein, these little fellas are a surefire festive snack. Stack two hard boiled eggs on top of each other using a non-cooked pasta or skewer to hold them together. Then top with a carrot hat, carrot nose, cilantro or parsley arms and peppercorn eyes and buttons. Get the recipe at Roxy's Kitchen.
8. Pita Tree Slices: Smear guacamole on a pita slice and decorate with chopped red peppers. Stick a pretzel at the base and enjoy. Get the recipe at Pillsbury.com.
9. Healthy Tree: Place this fruit-shaped Christmas tree platter of on your coffee table and nibble throughout the day. Don't forget the graham cracker presents. Get the recipe at The First Year Blog.
10. Reindeer Treats: Use a Laughing Cow cheese wedge and place pretzels for the ears, olives for the eyes and a piece of red pepper for the nose. Get the recipe at Cute Food for Kids.


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I decided to draft, since I have done nothing to improve my bad standard decks. I drafted horribly, had lousy luck, and went 0-3, winning only a single game. It really wasn't any fun. I'd already decided to skip the after draft event, because I'm feeling like I might be getting a cold and the last thing I need is to screw up my sleep schedule by staying up until 3.
I need to find friends who will play some casual magic again, or I will find myself dropping out of this game again.


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Taurus are a band from Portland, Oregon that plays a very psychedelic form of blackened drone/sludge metal and this is a review of their self released 2014 album "No/Thing".
The album starts out with dark experimental sounds and spoken word samples as well as mixing in heavier and noisier sounds along with black metal vocals which leads to a more drone/doom metal direction along with melodic vocals and riffing and you can also hear death metal growls in the music.
The band also bring this approach to other songs while also bringing in more psychedelic and atmospheric elements and on one of the tracks they bring in melodic ritualistic chanting and folk instruments while also remaining heavy at the same time and there are also a good amount of synths and organs being utilized on this recording na d towards the end the music starts going in a more experimental direction.
With this album Taurus create a very dark, heavy and ritualistic sound while also bringing in psychedelic and experimental elements along with the heaviness of black metal, drone, doom and sludge to create a sound of their own.
Song lyrics cover dark, ritualistic and occultism themes, while the production has a very strong, powerful, heavy and dark sound along with some of the tracks being very long and epic in length.
In my opinion Taurus are a very great sounding psychedelic blackened drone metal band and if you are a fan of this musical genre, you should check out this album. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Lives Long For Own" and "Increase Loneliness". 8 out of 10.


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These first few months we have been working on building relationships with members of the church and community. Our weekly schedule is filled with home visits and church services. You can find us in the village from noon time until 8 pm most days. We eat meals with them and sit around the table or … Continue reading Relationships are Essential
How did we get our calling to go to the Purepecha Indian?
Well, we didn't hear an audible voice or see a burning bush talk to us. It was more of a gentle nudge that built up into a deep yearning to go that lead into a full fledge I have to go. That all transpired over 10 years. We meet Roberto, who is Purepecha about 10 … Continue reading How did we get our calling to go to the Purepecha Indian?
Traveling through the Americas
This past year has been exceptional with Edgar traveling about 2 weeks every month. He has been busy sharing God's gospel to the Nations. He has been teaching in YWAM training schools, YWAM conferences, and leading short term missions trips.
Finding Joy
We are all guilty of a fake smile from time to time and that's normally. It's when you can't fake it anymore, it takes too much effort, you're too tired, that you know you've lost something- Joy. Deep down. The soul reanching feeling that something is missing. Something is dead and you want it back. … Continue reading Finding Joy
This is why we are joyful in the midst of pain.
This year has had its ups and downs. We are focused on the joy in the midst of pain.
We need you! Give a gift that keeps on giving.
Give a gift that keeps giving. We cannot do what we do without the support of people like you. We need 10 more people who would like to donate monthly to our ministry at YWAM at the amount of $25 a month. That is only $300 a year, less than a $1 a day! Or … Continue reading We need you! Give a gift that keeps on giving.
What kind of storm are you going through right now?
We all go through storms. But Jesus reassures us that He is there with us in the storm.
How badly do you want to be like Jesus?
I often find myself wondering what does it mean to be a disciple today? Jesus had many followers and large crowds that gathered around him. Jesus even sent out the 70. But what was it like to be one of the 12 disciples of Jesus. It's interesting. You see, how Jesus made his disciples. Jesus … Continue reading How badly do you want to be like Jesus?
How God Impacts Youth on Missions Trips
As I sit here and read the evolutions and testimonies from this summer mission trips, I sit in awe of God. Each one saying, "Exactly what I needed, perfect, awesome, life changing, eye opening, it was amazing." They go one to say how they didn't realize the brokenness around them, how they learned to have … Continue reading How God Impacts Youth on Missions Trips
Do you suppress your feelings?
Some of the wisest and most loving people I know have gone through misery. They know heartbreak and pain. They've seen the depths of despair and have dug themselves out of it. They are people who appreciate life, who truly love everyone, and who are honest with their emotions. They've gained a deep understanding of … Continue reading Do you suppress your feelings?


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cute then -> handsome now.
also Big Bang VIPS we're getting closer. we need more tastes, more fb shares, more tweets, and more "makes". help spread the word to make it possible. http://m2t.tv/T5Mf for those who are still spreading the word, thank you. keep up the good work. Also I apologize for not posting and keeping you updated. My summer biology class has kept me busy. (two more weeks to go)


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Eric Holder Says Justice Department Will Go to Court to Subject Texas to 'Preclearance Regime' of Voting Rights Act
This morning, United States Attorney General Eric Holder singled out Texas at an address in Philadelphia. Specifically, concerning the enforcement of the Voting Rights Act and alleged racism. The remarks were made at the National Urban League Annual Conference.
Concerning the State of Texas, General Holder said, "I am announcing that the Justice Department will ask a federal court in Texas to subject the State of Texas to a preclearance regime similar to the one required by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.
"This request to "bail in" the state – and require it to obtain "pre-approval" from either the Department or a federal court before implementing future voting changes – is available under the Voting Rights Act when intentional voting discrimination is found. Based on the evidence of intentional racial discrimination that was presented last year in the redistricting case, Texas v. Holder – as well as the history of pervasive voting-related discrimination against racial minorities that the Supreme Court itself has recognized – we believe that the State of Texas should be required to go through a preclearance process whenever it changes its voting laws and practices."
Provisions of the Voting Rights Act were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year. The high court's ruling also paved the way for Texas' Voter ID law to take affect.
Richard H. Pildes, a New York University professor who specializes in election law issues, told the New York Times the move was "a dramatically significant moment in the next phase of the Voting Rights Act's development" after the Supreme Court's ruling.
"If this strategy works it will become a way of partially updating the Voting Rights Act through the courts. The Justice Department is trying to get the courts to step into the role the Justice Department played before the Shelby County decision. The Voting Rights Act has always permitted this, in some circumstances, but this strategy wasn't used much. If this approach works, it will help update the Voting Rights Act even without Congressional action."
During his speech, Holder also said he is going, " ... to shift resources to the enforcement of a number of federal voting laws not affected by the Supreme Court's decision – including the remaining provisions of the Voting Rights Act, prohibiting voting discrimination based on race, color, or language."
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is expected to release a statement concerning Holder's speech later today.


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Tweets by @__hitchhiker___
The origin story of Hitchhiker begins in 1953 with a Satellite circling
Earth. As with many traditional and timeless tales, its hero embarked on a
selfless quest to change the world…
This legend follows a scientist who sent the Satellite into outer space
in order to build an ideal sound that would evoke happiness. The scientist's
assistant—an A.I. Satellite—worked diligently to collect sounds from across the
world to achieve this goal. Unfortunately, age caught up to the scientist, and
he joined the celestial dust of the heavens, but the A.I. Satellite
couldn't and wouldn't give up the journey.
Instead, he made a robot from the body of the Satellite, adopting the
apropos codename "Hitchhiker." So, Hitchhiker jumped to earth to collect the
sounds again. He crashed into South Korea first, garnering inspiration from the
area's different, diverse, and dynamic philosophies, art forms, and, of course,
music. Wearing his self-constructed silver robot suit, he beamed the "Eleven"
song and music video to the masses, and it palpably resounded across the globe
in 2014. A beacon of positive energy, electronic elegance, K-Pop flavor, and
pop bombast, the track introduced him to listeners everywhere.
Earthling emissaries such as Skrillex and Diplo devoutly praised "Eleven,"
while BuzzFeed, Wall Street Journal, and more passionately
pondered its arrival. In just a year, it racked up over 3.2 million views on
YouTube and 1 million-plus Spotify streams.
Now, Hitchhiker's 2016 capsule, "$10," amplifies that aura
exponentially. Merging more wonderfully warped visuals, a kinetic and
propulsive groove, and an immortal chant, it's worth its weight in gold. While
traveling through New York City, he heard a man selling umbrellas and yelling
"$10" over and over again. It proved both heartbreaking and hypnotic to hear
the sound of hard work out loud. It was indubitably inspiring. That spirit
courses through the track as a theme, shocking it to life like an electronic
dance music Frankenstein.
The quest is really just beginning though. Hitchhiker will be landing in
cities around the globe to perform, and he's hard at work on other evolutions,
including a whole lot more music, videos, and even a toy line.
He leaves off, "I want people to take away something positive from
everything I do. Music can truly heal."


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This was published 8 years ago
Siri, read my mind: did hackers just build a brain-powered iPhone?
This post was originally published on
If you believe this video — and that's a big if — the era of thought-controlled phones has begun. A pair of hobbyist hackers claim to have taken Siri, the iPhone 4S feature that obeys voice commands, and turned it into an app that obeys brainwave patterns.
"It works! It really works! It's so freaking amazing," Josh Evans and Ollie Hayward announced on the blog they created to chronicle what they call "Project Black Mirror".
In the accompanying YouTube video, Evans wears EEG pads on his forehead and squints in concentration. A circuit board attached to an iPhone on the table beeps shortly later, and a mechanical voice says "calling Graham", the third member of the project, whose phone then rings.
The hackers explain that they used the EEG pads to record the "signature brain patterns" of 25 Siri-based commands. By pairing the signatures with the commands, they effectively create a brain pattern-to-voice dictionary.
That means their system doesn't necessarily know what a person is thinking, but it knows that certain electrical activity in the brain translates to certain commands.
When the system identifies the electrical signature in the brain, it feeds the appropriate command to a sound synthesiser chip, the audio output of which is plugged into the iPhone's microphone jack.
The case for
It's hardly an implausible system. Computer interfaces controlled by electrical energy in the brain have been in development for years. An Australian company called Emotiv created an EEG-based videogame controller in 2009. Emotiv founder Tan Lee talks about the technology in this TED video.
Scientists at the Honda Research Institute unveiled a technology in 2009 that makes its robot, Asimo, responsive to thought commands. It also used EEG technology to translate electrical signals into commands.
The case against
But Honda also said the real-life applications of the technology were limited. That was partly because of the way our thoughts get easily distracted, and partly because brain patterns can differ greatly between two people who are thinking the same word. In other words, anyone who wanted to use the technology would need to train it.
Jonathan Hefter, the CEO of technology company Neverware, says that if Project Black Mirror does work, it probably has similar limitations and is unlikely to be capable of executing a large number of commands.
"Black Mirror does not seem to be using a general dictionary of human thought, what we would call mind reading," he says. "Their EEG can't really tell the difference between you thinking about a movie you like and a song you like. 'Mind reading' will require a much higher resolution scanner, like an fMRI or an embedder array, and a common map and dictionary of what our natural thoughts look like."
There's also a possibility that the Black Mirror demonstrations posted to YouTube are the result of creative camera work rather than an interesting hack. The blog incorrectly calls the technology used to measure electrical activities of the brain ECG instead of EEG. ECG is used to measure activities of the heart.
It seems that this is a mistake someone familiar enough with the technology to use it in a thought command project would be unlikely to make. The setup is also somewhat suspicious, according to Dami Omojola, who similarly used four electrodes in a brain computer interface he created to move a cursor on a computer screen.
"[In their setup] they are far more likely to be picking up the electrical signals generated by moving the larger muscles of the face such as when blinking the eyes," he says, "[and] the lack of shielding in the leads from the head also mean there is going to be lots of ambient noise in their signal."
Those who are willing to believe that the project is genuine may soon have a chance to put some skin in the game. The hackers' demo video is intended for a Kickstarter funding page.
Mashable is the largest independent news source covering digital culture, social media and technology.


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John 1:19-4:54, Part 6
by Karl Kemp
12/04/2012 / Bible Studies
We will finish this verse-by-verse study of John 1:19-4:54 here in Part 6, starting with John 4:24.
(24) God is spirit [[I would translate "God is Spirit" with Beasley-Murray, R. E. Brown, the NAB, the margin of the NASB, the Phillips' translation, and others; the NKJV has, "God is Spirit." (I had a footnote: Some translate "God is [or, is (in italics)] a Spirit," including the KJV, Amplified Bible, and the older (1977) edition of the NASB in the margin.] The NKJV put the verb "is" in italics because the Greek text doesn't have a verb here. The Greek doesn't require a verb here (but a Greek verb often is included in such uses), but the English does require a verb here.
Jesus wasn't equating "God" with the (Holy) Spirit here, though it is true, of course, that the Holy Spirit is the third Person in the Trinity. Believing Israelites in Old Testament days and disciples of Jesus in the days before the new birth/birth from above became available could worship God on one level, but to worship Him on an adequate level requires His worshippers to be on the same wavelength (living in His dimension, having been born of and indwelled by the Holy Spirit). After we are glorified at the end of this age, we will be able to worship Him on the highest level, when we will be fully living in His presence.]], and those who worship Him must worship in spirit ["in the Spirit"; (I put "the" in italics)] and truth [or "and the truth" (I put "the" in italics)].' (25) The woman said to Him, 'I know that Messiah [cf. John 1:41] is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.' [[This woman may have already been considering the possibility that Jesus was the Messiah. When He went on to say that He was the Messiah in the next verse, she clearly believed Him, at least she believed Him at some level (cf. John 4:28-30, 39-42). Her heart was open to Jesus; the Spirit of God had undoubtedly been dealing with her (and with many of the Samaritans).
I'll quote a sentence from what F. F. Bruce says here ("Gospel of John," page 111). "The place occupied in much Jewish expectation by the messiah of David's line was occupied in Samaritan expectation by the great prophet of the future, the one foretold by Moses in Deut. 18:15."]] (26) Jesus said to her, 'I who speak to you am He.' (27) At this point His disciples came [cf. John 4:8], and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman [I had a footnote: "The disciples were shocked, not because Jesus was talking with the woman (KJV) - a Samaritan - but with a woman! That is characteristic of attitudes to women reflected in Jewish rabbinical writings. Billerbeck cites, among other extraordinary examples, Abot 2 (1d): 'One should not talk with a woman on the street, not even with his own wife, and certainly not with somebody's else's wife, because of the gossip of men,' and Qidd. 70a: 'It is forbidden to give a woman any greeting' ("Kommentar" 2:438)" (Beasley-Murray, "John," page 62).], yet no one said, 'What do You seek?' or, 'Why do You speak with her?' (28) So the woman left her waterpot [For one thing, she planned to return to Jesus, but her actions show that she was much more concerned with Christ Jesus and with encouraging her neighbors to go to Him than with her waterpot, or with physical water.], and went into the city and said to the men, (29) 'Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done [cf. John 4:17-19]; this is not the Christ, is it?' (30) They went out of the city, and were coming to Him. (31) Meanwhile the disciples [cf., e.g., John 1:35-51; 2:2, 12; 3:22; and 4:2] were urging Him, saying, 'Rabbi [cf., e.g., John 1:38, 49; 3:2, 26; and 6:25], eat.' [This was a reasonable request in that the disciples had just returned after going into the city to buy food (John 4:8).] (32) But He said to them, 'I have food to eat that you do not know about [see verse 34].' (33) So the disciples were saying to one another, 'No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?' [The NRSV translates, "Surely no one has brought him something to eat?"] (34) Jesus said to them, 'My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work. [[Compare, for example, Deut. 8:3; Matt. 4:2-4; John 5:30, 36; 6:38; 8:29; 17:4; and 19:28, 30. Jesus (being a man with a physical body; the God-man) needed to eat physical food to live, but His primary food (that which sustained and satisfied Him in His heart and caused Him to rejoice) was to always do the will of Him who sent Him and to accomplish the work assigned Him. At that moment Jesus was consumed with the response He had just received from the Samaritan woman and with harvesting many Samaritans into God's kingdom. He knew that at that moment many of the Samaritans "were coming to Him" with open hearts (see verse 35).
In that situation, where Jesus had to choose between eating physical food and ministering to lost, hungry, receptive souls, there was no contest - the physical food would have to wait. One primary reason that Jesus spoke these words, along with the words that follow in verses 35-38, was to stir up His disciples to join Him in His excitement and in fulfilling their assigned ministries.]] (35) Do you not say, "There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest"? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white ["ripe" NIV] for harvest. [[Apparently the idea here was that the disciples would have estimated that it would be about four months before the grain in the fields around them would be ready for harvesting/reaping. But Jesus called their attention to the large number of Samaritans who were headed their way and informed His disciples that those fields of men were ripe and ready (and desperately needing) to be harvested/reaped. In that setting Jesus was especially concerned with those particular Samaritans, but there were many other fields of men that were ripe to be harvested into God's kingdom (cf. Matt. 9:37, 38; Luke 10:2).]] (36) Already [[The word already could be included at the end of verse 35 instead at the beginning of verse 36, and I somewhat prefer that other reading. The KJV has, "for they are white already to harvest" at the end of verse 35, and the NKJV has "for they are already white for harvest." Verse 36 would then start with "He." Whether the "already" is taken with the end of verse 35 or the beginning of verse 36, it is clear that Jesus was exhorting His disciples to get ready to harvest/reap now.]] he who reaps is receiving [I would translate "receives" (with the NKJV), instead of "receiving."] wages [[The Greek noun ("misthos") translated wages here could also be translated "reward." These words at the beginning of verse 36 probably included the exhortation that it was necessary for the disciples to get busy doing the harvesting/reaping that they were commissioned to do, so (for one reason) they could receive their wages/reward. It was to be understood, of course, that it was a great privilege to be called to work for God (by His grace) and to "[gather] fruit for eternal life." Besides that, God always takes care of those who faithfully work for Him and meets their needs (including their need for physical food), but the emphasis here is on the spiritual food (blessings, rejoicing, etc.) they receive, like the food Jesus just mentioned in verses 32, 34. It is to be understood, of course, that those who work for God "gathering fruit for eternal life" will inherit eternal life themselves and be rewarded for their faithful labor (cf., e.g., 1 Cor. 3:10-15; 9:17).]] and is gathering fruit [cf. Rom. 1:13] for life eternal [[Those being harvested/reaped were entering into salvation in Christ Jesus, which includes eternal life (cf., e.g., John 3:15, 16, 36; 4:10-14; 5:24; and Rom. 6:22, 23). They were entering the kingdom of God in a preliminary stage. As we have discussed in some detail, the new birth/birth by the Spirit was not available until after Jesus was crucified, resurrected, and ascended, and the fullness of eternal life will not be available until the end of this age, when we will be born into the fullness of eternal life/glorified.]]; so that he who sows ["the sower" NIV; "the one sowing"] and he who reaps ["the reaper" NIV; "the one reaping"] may rejoice together. [Jesus was the one sowing here (cf., e.g., Matt. 13:1-30; Mark 4:1-20); at least He was the primary one sowing (see John 4:38). Those sowing seeds can't rejoice in the fullest sense until after the seeds they have planted bring forth a harvest. The whole purpose of planting seeds and watching over the plants is to bring forth a harvest. Jesus' disciples were commissioned to reap (see verse 38).]] (37) For in this case the saying is true, "One sows and another reaps." [[Jesus sowed; the disciples reaped. It isn't spelled out exactly what the disciples did in their reaping in Samaria, but it undoubtedly included ministering to individuals (as required) and it could have included baptizing in water (cf. John 3:22-26; 4:1, 2). By most definitions of reaping, Jesus did much reaping too.]] (38) I sent you to reap [[Jesus sent these disciples in the sense that He commissioned them to reap, and to do other things. ((I had a footnote: R. C. H. Lenski ("St. John's Gospel," page 337) translates "I myself did commission you to reap...." Apparently Jesus had commissioned His disciples to reap before they came to this city in Samaria (cf. John 3:22-26; 4:1, 2).)) For one thing, the disciples were in school, so to speak; some of them were being prepared for very significant ministries, including the ministry of the twelve apostles and the ministry of the seventy disciples that Jesus sent out to minister (Luke 10:1-20).
Here in John chapter 4 we are reading about things that took place quite early in the ministry of Jesus. Many more disciples would be added, and some "disciples" would stop following Him too, and, significantly, it would be quite a while yet before Jesus would choose the twelve apostles and send them out to minister (Matt. 10:1-42; Mark 3:13-19; and Luke 6:12-16). When the twelve apostles were sent out to minister they did a lot of sowing too, and especially after the crucifixion, resurrection, and Pentecost.]] that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.' [It would probably be better to translate something like "you have entered into THE BENEFITS OF their labor." (The NEB has, "and you have come in for the harvest of their toil"; the NIV has, "and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.") The point is that after others had done most of the work the disciples had the enviable task of reaping the harvest. In this immediate context those who had labored clearly included Jesus, and it probably included the Samaritan woman, who testified to her countrymen about Jesus. ((I had a footnote: I'll quote a sentence from what F. F. Bruce ("Gospel of John," page 114) says under verses 35-38. "Jesus himself was the sower; now his disciples had an opportunity to share his joy by helping to reap the harvest which had sprung from his conversation with the woman and her witness to the other Samaritans.")) Her testimony played an important role in the conversion of many Samaritans (cf. John 4:28-30, 39-42).
In a fuller sense we could include John the Baptist. In a fuller sense yet we could include Abraham, Jacob, etc., and Moses and the old-covenant prophets. In a fuller sense yet we could include all the righteous people of God who had ever lived, whose input affected the final harvest, very much including all the intercessory prayer. Consider, for example, the parents of John the Baptist, Mary and Joseph, and Simeon and Anna the prophetess, who served night and day with fastings and prayer, who are all mentioned in Luke chapters 1, 2. The triune God (and His grace) was behind all this labor of sowing, and He must receive all the glory, but He has chosen to use His people (including us) in the outworking of His plan of salvation.]] (39) From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him [We need not (and probably should not) infer that all who "believed in Him" (see verses 39-42) pressed on to become born again/from above Christians (cf., e.g., John 2:23-25; 8:31).] because of the word of the woman who testified, 'He told me all the things that I have done [cf. verses 16-18].' (40) So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. (41) Many more believed because of His word; (42) and they were saying to the woman, 'It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.' [Hearing Him (and being in His presence and seeing Him), as He stayed with them for two days, would have greatly increased their knowledge and appreciation of Christ and of God's plan of salvation, which would have enhanced their faith.] (43) After the two days [cf. John 4:40] He went forth from there into Galilee [cf. John 4:1-4]. (44) For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country [cf. Matt. 13:57; Mark 6:4; and Luke 4:24]. (45) So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things that He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they themselves also went to the feast. [[Apparently the idea here in verses 43-45 is that (one reason) Jesus manifested Himself with miracles, etc. in Jerusalem at the Passover feast (John 2:13-3:2) BEFORE going to His own country (Galilee) to minister was because He knew that He wouldn't be received as a prophet (and more than a prophet) in Galilee if they had not "seen all the things He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they [the Galileans] also went to the feast." ((I had a lengthy footnote that goes on for three paragraphs: I'll quote part of what F. Godet ("Gospel of John," page 443) says here. "Meyer seems to us quite near the truth, when he explains: Jesus, knowing well that a prophet is not honored in his own country, began by making Himself honored outside of it, at Jerusalem (ver. 45); and thus it was that He returned to Galilee with a reputation as a prophet, which opened for Him access to the hearts in His own country. Reuss is disposed to hold the same relation of thought: 'In order to be received in Galilee, He had been obliged first to make Himself acknowledged outside of it.'
The complete explanation of this obscure passage follows, as in so many cases, from the relation of the fourth Gospel to the Synoptics [the Synoptic Gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke]. The latter make the Galilean ministry begin immediately after [Christ's] baptism. But John reminds us here, at the time of Jesus' settlement in Galilee, that Jesus had followed a course quite different from that which the earlier narratives seemed to attribute to Him. [Matthew, Mark, and Luke skipped mentioning Jesus' early ministry in Jerusalem and Judea, leaving a wrong impression and an incomplete picture. No historical account includes all the details. Thank God for giving us the Gospel of John too! We need all four Gospels! For another very important example of where John addresses a wrong impression left by Matthew, Mark, and Luke, see the introduction to John chapters 13-17 in my paper on those chapters on my internet site.] The Lord knew that the place where a prophet has lived is the one where, as a rule, he has most difficulty in finding recognition. [More importantly, Jesus was undoubtedly led by the Father to conduct His ministry as He did.] He began, therefore, by working for quite a long time...and it was only after this that He came in the strict sense to begin His ministry in Galilee, that ministry with which the narrative of the other Gospels opens. The meaning, therefore, is: It was then, and only then (not immediately after the [His] baptism [and forty day temptation in the wilderness]), that He commenced the Galilean work with which every one is acquainted [through the Synoptic Gospels]. ...."
I'll also quote part of what R. C. H. Lenski ("St. John's Gospel," pages 345, 346) says here. "Since a prophet is not esteemed in his own land, Jesus now, after winning his esteem in another land, comes back to his own and finds that esteem awaiting him. ... In a simple way John thus again supplements the synoptists. They skip the eight to nine months of Jesus' work in Judea, taking us at once from the baptism and the temptation of Jesus into his Galilean work (Matt. 4:12 [with 3:13-4:11]; Mark 1:14 [with 1:9-13]; Luke 4:14 [with 3:21, 22; 4:1-13]). John reports that all these important months, spent in Judea, intervened. ....")) Most of the people of His hometown (Nazareth) rejected Him anyway (cf. Matt. 13:53-58; Mark 6:1-6; and especially Luke 4:14-30).]] (46) Therefore [or "Then"] He came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine [cf. John 2:1-11]. And there was a royal official whose son was sick at Capernaum. [On Capernaum, compare John 2:12; Luke 4:23. This royal official was living at Capernaum; he was undoubtedly under Herod Antipas (a son of Herod the Great), who was the tetrarch over Galilee and Perea from 4 BC to AD 39.] (47) When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee [cf. John 4:3, 4, 43-45], he went to Him [at Cana] and was imploring Him to come down [to Capernaum. Capernaum was on the northwestern edge of the Sea of Galilee, which was about 700 feet below sea level.] and heal his son; for he was at the point of death. [This "royal official" had been in Jerusalem when Jesus worked His miracles there (cf. John 2:23; 3:2; 4:45) or had at least learned of those miracles.] (48) So Jesus said to him, 'Unless you people [[The "you" is plural in the Greek; the word "people" is in italics in the NASB; apparently Jesus intended these words for the Jews in general. It seems rather clear that this royal official was a Jew (cf. Matt. 12:38-45; John 2:18; 6:30, 31; and 1 Cor. 1:22). There were many exceptions to this general statement, and this royal official was (at least to some extent) one of those exceptions. Verse 50 informs us that he believed the word that Jesus told him, that He had already healed his son, and verse 53 indicates that he (along with his household) became a believer.]] see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe.' [[And, more importantly, their believing (faith), like the Gentiles, was often extremely shallow and superficial - many who "believed" weren't true believers and didn't become His disciples (cf. John 2:23-25; 8:31, 32; and the parable of the Sower in Matt. 13:1-23; Mark 4:1-25). Many such "believers" were quick to abandon Christ. True believers/disciples have a heart devoted to God the Father, to His Son, and to His word. Acceptable believing (saving faith) includes making Christ (and God the Father) and His word top priority (making Him Lord), trusting Him, and obeying Him (by His grace). Being a believer means a whole lot more than giving mental assent to correct doctrine or having an emotional experience.
To believe that God exists isn't nearly enough to constitute a person a believer or a disciple; the demons believe He exists (cf. James 2:19). Nor is it adequate to believe based only on signs and wonders. For one thing, the devil and his followers can (to the extent God permits) work signs and wonders too (cf., e.g., Matt. 24:24; 2 Thess. 2:8-12; and Rev. 13:13-15). One reason God gives signs is to point people to spiritual reality, to the fact that Jesus is the Christ, for example, but many don't see the miracle(s) as signs (cf., e.g., John 6:26).
It is interesting to note that John did not mention any signs and wonders taking place in Samaria (John 4:4-42), except for the fact that Jesus revealed supernatural knowledge to the Samaritan woman regarding her past life. John 4:41, 42 say, "many more [Samaritans] believed in Him because of His word; and they were saying to the woman, 'It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.' "
This royal official had too much confidence in Jesus and was far too motivated by his son's need for healing to be put off by these words of Jesus that were something less than encouraging (cf., e.g., Matt. 15:21-28; Mark 7:24-30). Jesus dealt with this man in a way that led him and his household to become true believers (verse 53).]] (49) The royal official said to Him, 'Sir, come down before my child dies.' (50) Jesus said to him, 'Go; your son lives.' The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started off. [[The fact that the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him showed that his faith in Christ was beyond the superficial; for one thing, he believed that his son had been healed before he was informed (the following day) by his slaves/servants that his son had been healed (cf. Matt. 8:5-13).]] (51) As he was now going down [to Capernaum], his slaves ["servants" NIV] met him, saying that his son was living. (52) So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. Then they said to him, 'Yesterday at the seventh hour [[In the margin the NASB says, "Perhaps 7 p.m. Roman time or 1 p.m. Jewish time." ((I had a footnote: See under John 1:39; 4:6 in this paper. I prefer 7 p.m. (the seventh hour after noon). If it had been 1 p.m. it is much more likely that the man would have gone back home the day that Jesus told him that his son "lives" (Note that his slaves informed the royal official that his son began to get better "yesterday at the seventh hour"); he certainly would have been motivated to get home as soon as possible. I'll quote part of what William Hendricksen ("Gospel of John," page 183) says here. "... Although the distance between Cana and Capernaum is only sixteen miles [I have also seen 18 miles, 20 miles, and a few other numbers], much of this is hilly country, so that not much less than seven hours is required to cover it." Apparently Hendricksen was assuming that this man was walking; he could have been riding a horse, etc. It is quite possible that the man didn't want to travel after dark so he waited until the next morning to start the trip.))]] the fever left him.' (53) So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, 'Your son lives'; and he himself believed and his whole household [cf. Acts 10:2; 11:14; 16:15, 31-34]. [As I mentioned, I believe we are to understand that this man's faith (and the faith of at least some of the people in his whole household) was beyond the superficial - he probably pressed on to become a born-again/from above disciple of Christ.] (54) This is again a second sign that Jesus performed when He had come out of Judea into Galilee. [[The first sign that Jesus performed was when He turned the water into wine at the wedding in Cana of Galilee (John 2:1-11). John emphasized the point that these two miracles were the only ones that Jesus had worked in Galilee up until that time, which is tied (to some extent at least) to his correcting the wrong impression left by the Synoptic Gospels regarding the early months of Jesus' ministry after He was baptized in water, received the Spirit, and was "led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil" (Matt. 4:1). (See under John 4:45, including the footnote.)]]
May God's will be fully accomplished through this paper and His people be edified!
Copyright by Karl Kemp
http://www.karlkempteachingministries.com Karl Kemp worked as an engineer in the space field throughout the 60s. He became a born-again Christian in 1964. He received an MA in Biblical Studies in 1972. He has been a Bible teacher for 45 years. See the website for more info on his books, papers, etc.
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Speaking on behalf of Double Secret Agency, the team behind Work With Craft, we have quite a lot on our agenda for 2019. We've got a few ambitious new Craft-related projects unfolding this year (which we are very excited about). With such a busy schedule planned, however, it may be difficult for us to give Work With Craft the full love and attention it deserves.
Since we won't be able to focus much energy on adding new features, instead, let's make it as easy as possible for our users to create new content! We don't want the price point to be the only thing stopping folks from posting. Instead, we're going to move out of the way and let you, the user, maximize what's currently possible with the site.
In summary, the site is going into maintenance mode for a year. We may provide minor updates, but our goal is to keep the job posts flowing in the meantime. Removing the paywall makes that possible.


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The New World Teaser Trailer (2005)
Teaser trailer for The New World.
Against the dramatic and historically rich backdrop of a pristine Eden inhabited by a great native civilization, Malick (Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line) has set a dramatized tale of two strong-willed characters, a passionate and noble young native woman and an ambitious soldier of fortune who find themselves torn between the undeniable requirements of civic duty and the inescapable demands of the heart.
In the early years of the 17th century, North America is much as it has been for the previous five thousand years -- a vast land of seemingly endless primeval wilderness populated by an intricate network of tribal cultures. Although these nations live in graceful harmony with their environment, their relations with each other are a bit more uneasy. All it will take to upset the balance is an intrusion from the outside.
On a spring day in April of 1607, three diminutive ships bearing 103 men sail into this world from their unimaginably distant home, the island kingdom of England, three thousand miles to the east across a vast ocean. On behalf of their sponsor, the royally chartered Virginia Company, they are seeking to establish a cultural, religious, and economic foothold on the coast of what they regard as the New World.
1 min 35 sec
Posted On
March 17, 2009
Terrence Malick
Terrence Malick
New Line Cinema
December 25, 2005
Colin Farrell
Q'Orianka Kilcher
Christopher Plummer
Christian Bale
August Schellenberg
No Music Available


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Motorcyclist Struck By Vehicle Towing A Trailer
Settlement: Confidential | Sonoma County | Reed v. White Water Plumbing
Because of the heroic efforts of doctors at the University of California San Francisco, plaintiff underwent a total of 14 surgeries in order to save her leg, including a cadaver knee transplant and multiple muscle and vein grafts. Throughout the course of litigation, White Water Plumbing denied all responsibility for the accident, stating that their trailer made no contact with the motorcycle and that the owner of the plumbing company had no knowledge that the trailer had been loaned out. All the while, plaintiff argued that the defendant driver was in fact a permissive user of the trailer and should therefore be considered an additional insured under the plumbing company's insurance policies.