The Philologist's Daughters | SL 2.6 (March 2021)
In this newsletter
- Introducing Adah Jane Kirk
- Work & Ministry Update
- A Curiosity: Tristram's Victorian Catalogue of Israel's Animals
- A Moment of Exegetical Euphoria: Understanding Agur (Proverbs 30)
- Pray With Us
You can always read this newsletter in your browser.
Adah Jane Kirk, b. Feb 15, 2021
Introducing Adah Jane Kirk
Three Girls
At 7:08 AM on February 15th, Meghan and I welcomed our third little girl into the world: Adah Jane Kirk. If you had told me just three or four years ago that by February 2021 we would have three little girls and two of them would be born in Newcastle upon Tyne, I would not have believed you. But he gives more grace.
Over the course of the pregnancy there were various issues that could have been a problem: low lying placenta, anemia, low fetal weight. But each one of these issues came to naught. Janie was even breach for five days during the 39th week before obligingly flipping back over so Meghan could have a normal, uncomplicated delivery.
But after going ten days overdue Meghan was tired and anxious. When contractions started we went into the hospital too early and got sent home. Holding off discouragement, we waited about eight more hours till 3:00 AM before Meghan felt the contractions were strong enough to head back. But when we made it to the hospital nothing had changed. They admitted us to a room provisionally and gave us four hours to see if Meghan's labor would progress. After a few hours the only thing that had progressed was the amount of pain Meghan was experiencing. This girl has delivered two babies like a champ with no pain relief at all, but here we were—not even formally admitted yet—and she was telling me seriously that she couldn't go on, she was too exhausted, she didn't think she could take the pain much longer.
So we prayed. There was no backing out, so we asked the LORD for the baby to come quickly so Meghan could endure. Ten minutes later, Meghan's water broke. Immediately, the pain changed as the baby started moving down. Less than an hour later she was holding Janie in her arms.
I offer this story somewhat tentatively because things certainly don't always work out, but this felt to us like the hand of God. As someone who often struggles to pray and believe, I'm going to claim every spiritual victory I can. And so we give thanks (Ps 50:23). May the LORD be praised even as he gives us grace.
Behind the Name: Adah Jane
As an emerging bible scholar, I have now spent more than a decade training myself to be a philologist, that is, a person who studies words in texts, from the Greek: a lover (philo) of words (logos). What this means is that you are in for the meaning behind our daughter's name. :)
Meghan and I have always tried to pick a biblical name and a family name. Jane is Meghan's mother's middle name. Though some think it plain, it is a classic name with a noble pedigree. In the modern period, Jane is the most popular English feminine form of the name John (during the Middle Ages Joan had it beat). The name John, of course, comes into English from the Greek Ἰωάννης (Ioannes > Johannes > John), which is itself a translation of the Hebrew name Johanan (יוֹחָנָן, e.g. 2 Kgs 25:23). Johanan is formed from the short form of the name Yahweh and hanan which means gracious.* So Jane, by derivation, means "Yahweh is gracious." We think it is timeless—both strong and quintessentially feminine. When we struck on calling the baby Janie, we were sold.
Ada(h) was always my first pick for a girl's name. Soft, strong, and deep. When spelled with an H it is one of the more boutique female names in Scripture (Gen 4:19; 36:2). On analogy with Sara/Sarah, we do not intend the H to change the pronunciation, but merely to signal that it derives from Hebrew (in Hebrew the feminine ending is typically "ah"). The root of the word is עדה ('DH), which has a handful of different meanings. As a verb it means to adorn oneself and the name probably means ornament or adornment (cf. Isa 61:10; Job 40:10). But it is also the feminine form of 'ēd, meaning testimony or witness (Gen 21:30; 31:52; Josh 24:27; 24:27).
Although we are calling her Janie, we went with Adah Jane (rather than Jane Adah) because it just sounds better.
So Adah Jane is the "adornment of Yahweh's graciousness" or a "testimony to Yahweh's graciousness"—take your pick. May she be that for us always—the ornament and testimony to grace in our midst.
*This is not to be confused with Jonathan, which is a completely different name meaning "Yahweh gives."
Just home from hospital. My girls!
You are Training Pastors to be Faithful to Scripture & Strengthening the Global Church
- As Summer looms and the vaccine rolls on, I'm keeping a whether eye on possibilities to teach overseas again, although international travel looks fraught with challenges for some time. Will you pray for the right opportunities at the right time?
- Two of my paper proposals were accepted for the International Society of Biblical Literature conference this July in Canterbury. But then the conference was promptly canceled cause Corona. I've got one more proposal to put together this month for a conference in November in the US.
- My paper on textual criticism of Proverbs 30:1b was accepted for publication in a journal called Vetus Testamentum. I submitted final edits last week and am waiting on page proofs. What an honor and an accomplishment!
- I've started this week on the next chapter of my dissertation, it deals with issues of voice, tone, and humor in Proverbs 30. This is the fun part—where the interpretation happens!
- I'm working on a short essay on Proverbs 30 for The Gospel Coalition, and I would love your help! I've included a draft of this essay below. If you've got time to read it over the next week, I'd appreciate any and all feedback you might have for me.
Thank you. Your prayers and support empower everything we do.
"The Syrian Ibex, or Beden, is still found, not only in the ravines of Moab, but in the wilderness of Judaea, near the Dead Sea. I have procured several specimens on both sides of Jordan. It is not now known in the north or in Lebanon, where I have found its teeth in cave-breccia, along with flint implements. The Beden is of a much lighter fawn colour than the European Ibex, with horns much more slender and recurved, wrinkled and knotted on the front face only. It is the ' Wild Goat' of Scripture" (Proverbs 30:31).
Tristram's Victorian Catalogue of Israel's Animals
As a philologist, one ends up doing obscure research that occasionally turns up little curiosities and gems from the scholarship of the past. The illustrations in this newsletter are from a book called The Fauna and Flora of Palestine published in 1884 by Henry Baker Tristram. They depict animals from Israel that feature in Proverbs 30 and the captions are his own descriptions accompanying the illustrations.
Henry Baker Tristram (from wikipedia.com)
Here's the description of the book from Cambridge University Press:
This volume was written by H.B. Tristram (1822–1906), the naturalist, geologist and Anglican priest... . Although he declined a bishopric in Jerusalem, he made four separate trips to Palestine in order to compile this catalogue of its flora and fauna. Including all native vertebrates, molluscs and plants known at the time, the work was first published in 1884 and laid the foundation for zoological study in Palestine. The catalogue offers a fascinating insight into the theories of late Victorian taxonomy as well the species it classifies here. Also included are detailed drawings and a scholarly preface summarising and tabulating Tristram’s research.
Astoundingly, anyone doing research on animals in the Bible ends up citing Tristram's book to this very day because no comparable survey has been published to replace it. My favorite part is that he was canon theologian of Durham Cathedral.
"This singular little Mammal, neither ruminant nor rodent, but which is placed by systematists among the Ungulala, near the Rhinoceros, is one of the many peculiarly African forms which occur in Palestine. It is not uncommon round the shores of the Dead Sea, but is rare in the rest of the country, and not known in Lebanon. It is found throughout the Sinaitic Peninsula generally, but is not known to extend further into Arabia or Western Asia. It is represented by a very closely allied species in Abyssinia, and by another rather larger at the Cape. Several species, or varieties, occur in Eastern Africa, but this is the only one known beyond the limits of that continent. Its Hebrew name means 'the hider,' and its timid, cautious habits, and defenceless character are referred to in Scripture. The Syrian Coney is marked by a yellow dorsal spot on its otherwise uniformly tawny fur. It is scarcely so large as a full-grown Rabbit. Its teeth and toes resemble those of the Hippopotamus in miniature. It lives exclusively among the rocks in Wadys, not generally burrowing, but utilizing fissures in the cliffs, where it has its inaccessible home, coming forth to feed only at sunset and at dawn" (Proverbs 30:26).
Understanding Agur
How to Read Proverbs 30
The essay below is a draft of an article I'm working on for The Gospel Coalition. It's part of their initiative to guide people through reading the Bible in a year. If you've got time to read it in the next week, I'd love any and all feedback you might have for me. Is there anything that sounds awkward or you don't understand? Anything that you want more of? Anything that is missing? Just hit reply and let me know—any and all thoughts are appreciated.
You can read my translation of Proverbs 30 here, although in the essay I'll refer to the ESV.
When Scripture gets Weird
Truly, Proverbs 30 is one of the more puzzling passages in Scripture. Not because we find truths that are hard to swallow, or statements that are bottomless and profound, nor yet because of a portrait of God that is unsettling or offensive. No, Proverbs 30 is just plain weird. It is full of enigmatic claims, non sequiturs, and material that has no obvious theological or ethical application for our lives.
If you encounter this text on an annual reading plan (let’s face it, this is the only way you’ll encounter this text!), it might draw you into a few minutes of bemused contemplation, but then—look at the clock—it's time to get breakfast going, get the kids out of bed, head for the (home) office. And Proverbs 30 lodges somewhere in a mental junk drawer with a post-it that asks: What am I supposed to do with this? How is this Scripture? How does this connect to Christ?
This experience can subtly undercut your confidence in the clarity and authority of Scripture or in your own ability as a Bible reader. How do we find Christ and Christian application in weird and obscure passages?
Reading as a Unity
We won’t arrive at a helpful reading unless we approach the chapter as a whole. The book of Proverbs has a structure of seven headings that attribute collections to different authors (1:1; 10:1; 22:17; 24:23; 25:1; 30:1; 31:1). When you move from Proverbs 29 to 30 you move out of a collection of Solomon’s proverbs edited by scribes from Hezekiah’s court into an oracle attributed to an unknown sage named Agur (compare 25:1 and 30:1). Proverbs 30 is not a tight composition like a psalm or the poem to the noble wife in 31:10–31, but the oracle genre suggests that there is a unified message or theme behind the various statements.
This change in genre brings with it a change in tone. There is an exuberance here that shuttles from shock to awe, that reviles one moment and repents the next. What is Agur up to? The key to reading such a strange passage might be to step back and adopt Agur’s reflective perspective. Ask yourself what key themes or ideas seem to hold all of this together? Where do I see the brokenness of humanity? Where do I see the character and the grace of God?
Agur is simultaneously mocking and reviling pride and greed while vindicating and commending humility and contentment.
At the beginning of his speech, Agur dramatically rejects the idea that he is wise (vv. 2–3). There may well be a touch of irony here. Despite the fact that his poetry is recorded in the book of Proverbs, he considers himself so stupid he is less-than-human (v. 2 and Ps 22:6; Job 25:6). Ironically, Agur then puts all human knowledge in its place with a series of withering rhetorical questions that echo the way God rebukes Job from the whirlwind (v. 4 and Job 38–40). By rejecting himself as a source of wisdom, Agur must cling entirely to Scripture (vv. 5–6). This leads him to offer a short prayer that asks for contentment in order to safeguard his relationship with God (vv. 7–9).
Making Fun of Pride and Greed
Agur turns next to lambast pride and greed. A generation without respect for their elders (v. 11) are pictured as ravening beasts, deluded by their own grandeur (v. 13) so that they exploit the vulnerable (vv. 14). All the while, they have forgotten to wipe (v. 12). Like the leech that follows (v. 15), this portrait is mockery that is intended to shock and disgust us.
Pointing out how revolting and incongruous this all is, might leave us with a wry smile. The strange numerical sayings are a rhetorical device that reframes how we see our world by asking us to puzzle over clever and unexpected lists of phenomena. We are drawn in to muse on the mysterious movement of an eagle, snake, and ship which climaxes in a sexual pairing of man and virgin (vv. 18–19). If at first we’re not sure what to make of this, v. 20 interprets it: just like you cannot trace the path of an eagle, snake, or ship after it passes by, those committed to adultery think that because they can wipe away the evidence they can absolve themselves of wrong. Sin is stupid.
In all of this the tone is ironic, the message packaged in the absurd. Like a low-budget horror movie or Tarantino film, the imagery is so graphic, over the top, and campy that we are expected to cringe and laugh simultaneously. But Agur is not messing around, his dark humor is deadly serious. If we do not learn to feel the right kind of horror and revulsion when we see pride and greed, then we will come to a horrific end. In v. 17, the disrespectful generation of vv. 11–14 lie unburied being devoured by carrion. We might simultaneously cheer and turn away in disgust.
Vindicating Humility and Contentment
Agur states his moral for the whole collection directly in v. 32. Bursting through all the images, he now addresses the reader: “If you have been foolish, exalting yourself … put your hand on your mouth.” His application circles back to the stance of extreme humility that he adopted in the beginning (vv. 2–3). By considering ourselves “less than human” we might put ourselves in perspective.
Agur invites you to imagine yourself as an animal, to find yourself in this parade of beasts. When are you devouring the poor and needy (vv. 11–15)? When are you pridefully strutting in your own absurdity (vv. 29–31)? The natural world here becomes a mirror for human behavior and we see ourselves in the potent contrasts that these animals present. Through all of this Agur is making a subtle and profound point about wisdom. True wisdom is not held by those who might appear to make the strongest claim to it. But rather by those who appear weak or foolish (vv. 2–3). Rather than the absurd pomp of the lion, rooster, he-goat, and king, the model we are to follow is the animals that are exceedingly wise despite being small (vv. 24–28). The ants, rock badgers, locusts, and lizards have no claim to divine knowledge or delusions of grandeur. They work within the limits with which they were created and yet each has found a way to turn these limits into strengths. True wisdom is found in humility and contentment (Prov 25:6–7; Luke 14:8–10; 1 Cor 10:12).
We can find a picture of the wisdom of Jesus in Agur’s vindication of humility. Paul is clear: the wisdom of the cross subverts human wisdom (1 Cor 1:18–19; Prov 30:2). What looks like foolishness is God exercising a strength in weakness that extends beyond our comprehension. When Jesus explains this to Nicodemus in John 3:12–13, he may well be alluding to Prov 30:4. In order to accomplish our redemption, Jesus adopted the mindset that Agur commends. Though he was God he humbled himself in order to become a man and was ultimately exalted to the highest place (Phil 2:5–11). Agur might say that though you are a human, humble yourself so that in becoming like one of the animals you might learn wisdom and ascend to God with Christ.
LORD, be kind to us and teach us contentment. May we feel the proper disgust and revulsion when we see pride and greed—especially when we see these vices in ourselves. Teach us to trust in the humility of Christ and the foolishness of the gospel when we are tempted to exalt ourselves and grab more than our share. May we reflect his humility.
"We obtained this bird, till then unknown, both at the northern and southern ends of the Dead Sea in the month of January, at Ain Feshkah and at Jebel Usdum. It must therefore be a permanent resident in this most desolate region. In form and size it somewhat resembles C. asiaiicus, but is larger. C. rufigena, Smith, from South Africa, corresponds in size, but from both of them it differs decidedly in colouration and markings. I have seen a specimen in the collection of the late Rev. Dr. Herschel, which was obtained near Jericho. These are the only specimens known. It certainly differs from Caprimulgus inornatus from Abyssinia, with which it has erroneously been identified, and, so far, remains peculiar to the Dead Sea basin."
Pray With Us
- Pray for little Adah Jane to grow strong as a testimony to the grace of God. Pray for Rue and Willa to also grow in grace and obedience as we all adjust to having a third little girl.
- Pray for Meghan and me—especially Meghan—as I am now trying to work from home while she manages three tiny girls. Pray for energy/sleep and the steady relief from lockdown restrictions as the virus recedes (pray it recedes!).
- Pray for the right ministry opportunities in God's timing.
- In the meantime, pray for my continued progress on the PhD, specifically, my goal is to finish a draft of the whole thing in 2021.
"This rock and desert Snake, a native of North Africa, Arabia, and Persia, is not uncommon. I found it near Jerusalem, and in Galilee. But it seems to be equally common round the Lake of Gennesaret and Lake Huleh, where Dr. Lortet collected it" (Proverbs 30:19).