Hi Graham,

This is a good forum as evidenced by its popularity. Thanks.

In theology and mathematics, presently, sometimes, it doesn't seem possible to print Greek characters. Same goes for maths' common signs like the-square-root-of or diaereses, as used in early English.

Maybe its the bit character protocol or a deliberate restriction. Several times, especially in discussions with George or Philo, the present set-up has been too limited.

That said. OLO. Good work, keep it ip!

Please have a look.

Best regards,

Oly.

Hi Oly :) *waves*

I can respond briefly here to you on the issue of the Birth of Jesus and the death of Herod.

http://members.aol.com/JAlw/tax_census.html is one non Christian discussion of the matter.

My conclusion is, that it is quite difficult based on existing information to reconcile the death of Herod with the Birth of Christ.

I do however have great faith in Lukes grasp of history and detail.

While I cannot see any obvious and completely satisfying way of harmonizing Matthews Herod massacre event with the implied chronology of Luke.. I don't feel there is any need to have a 'crisis of faith' over the matter :)

"They" (scholars and academics) did not believe such places as Sodom and Gomorrah existed because 'they were only mentioned in the Bible'..now..they walk with tail between legs on that issue :) andddd many others.

"Lets wait and see" is my advice to anyone seeking to upset the good ship "Biblical Reliablity"

Come back to 'interpreting' when ur post limit is free..and see if you disagree with my little summary/interpretation of the text simply as it stands. (my last post to Perilous)

It would be GREAT if OLO allowed greek characters..we could have a field day with 'cases, declensions, verbs nouns, articles and tenses'

Oh happy day :) "BD does some happy clapping"

Dear Romany....

nope.. I have to concede.. happily so, that I am not a 'Greek Scholar' I have a basic working knowledge of Koine Greek...thats it.

I can only offer what I find from those much more skilled than I in that field.

In that case I would be, without doubt, 'out of my depth'.

The in the presentation of arguments, the ability to present a word or 3 in their original would be beneficial, as it would then enable people to cut and paste and do searches on the Greek itself, rather than an anglicized chop shop version.

Nice to see u reading widely :)

A quick look at this link, referring to just table 3:15, and you will see why I prefer to delve into the relative simplicities of Assembly language and microprocessors that be a scholar of greek.

http://books.google.com.au/books?id=fojpYW0xbeAC&pg=PA101&lpg=PA101&dq=lu+I+loose+koine+greek&source=web&ots=LIcHhboosd&sig=0UgKcBIRphPYwJ058p3CN_UAuPo&hl=en#PPA102,M1

What should be apparent though, is that when you read something in the Biblical text, all this theory and knowledge of the language held in many many very intelligent and well educated people underpins what you and I read.

The intricacies of the critical editions of the various manuscripts and the notes and cross references, and sheer volume of it all, covering some thousands of manuscripts from different times and different languages, would be exausting alone.

Textual research is a huge field, and we can be quite confident that over time, any textual issues in the current text will become clearer rather than muddier.

WOAH? Romany's post is deleted.. Rom..did you notice that?

what happened?

So wot’s goin’ on ‘ere then? Deleted posts? Posts on the wrong thread? Boazy losing his marbles? (:<|

Anyway, I would like to support Oliver. A bit of a wider breadth of characters would be useful.

Italics in particular would be good. And some smiley/grumpy face icons perhaps (:>)

I did not post on this thread. This thread is about technical support. I posted elsewhere. BD chose to answer me here. Nothing has been deleted.