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Good job, Cronos in putting this together. (I’m sure we could find many more examples in the Old Testament.)

Many of the finer points are “lost in translation.” As for me, I only read English and see through the 20th/21st century lens. Therefore, I need to trust scholars who make it their business to understand the orignal language and culture.

As for me, I only read English and see through the 20th/21st century lens. Therefore, I need to trust scholars who make it their business to understand the orignal language and culture.

don't we all see things through the 20th century lens?! we all do!

I was lucky that I got the opportunity to learn a few languages by living in those countries. And it does give you a great perspective.

i would encourage you to pick up a second language, the sheer differences in grammar and how one expresses oneself can make you think in ways you don't if you are just monolingual

The easiest would be Spanish, but I would encourage French or German as the starting point -- they have declinations and cases, but not so strong in French and stronger in German

When you figure out how these are used (QUITE difficult for me a native english speaker), it opens a new world

Learning another script can have it's own challenges -- I could read basic arabic signs (but forgot after nearly a decade away from Bahrain) and picked up basic Devanagari on visits to parts of India. I can't read Cyrillic though which is a shame

But for me the most challenging is now learning Polish. It's got all 7 cases and is highly inflexed. just speaking it can open your minds in multiple ways! It's even more inflexed than Latin and far more than Russian (so the wife says who knows both!)

Oh, and never mind about that -- it's a minor sideline topic. The more pressing and in fact basic point is in my posts above where I'm endeavouring to explain to Iscool our Trinitarian belief.

I can understand a person rejecting the concept of the Trinity as messy and preferring the simplicity of just one, but that opens up too many rooms for error

For instance, God The Father is a Spirit, yet if the Father, Son and Holy Spirit all share the same substance, will and hypostases, then the logic of modalism states that Jesus Christ was just a spirit, a phantom.

This naturally then denies the Incarnation and the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross (a spirit/phantom can't feel physical pain) so leads to serious errors

This basic discussion is far, far more important, imho