Yearly Archives: 2006

Green Pastures Released on DVD

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The 1936 film Green Pastures — a fascinating retelling of a number of stories from the Old Testament — has just been released today on DVD by Warner Home Video. This film was innovative for its day in that black actors fill every role — from God to Moses, Noah to Pharaoh. The film was adapted from Marc Connelly’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play. It has been available on VHS for a while, but this is the first time on DVD.

  • The Green Pastures (Director: Marc Connelly and William Keighley, 1936).
    Buy from Amazon.ca: VHS or DVD | Buy from Amazon.com: VHS or DVD

Modern viewers may be uncomfortable with some of the racial stereotypes in the film, though I am not sure it warranted a disclaimer such as Warner put at the beginning.

At any rate, it has to be understood and appreciated as a product of its time. Order yours today… I know I did!

For an exhaustive listing of films based on the Hebrew Bible, see my Old Testament on Film pages.

Site Feed Settings Fixed

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I have always wondered why my Atom site feed wasn’t working properly for people to easily subscribe to my blog easily. I finally decided to figure it out and I believe I have it all fixed. I also added a feedburner RSS 2.0 feed for my blog. Links to both feeds may be found in my left navigation column. Here they are as well:

I have also added auto-discovery to my settings so everyone can find my feed easily.

Let me know if you have any problems with either site feed (and thank you to those individuals who notified me about my feeds in the first place!)

Snoring: Biblical and Otherwise (The Real Reason for Jonah’s Flight)

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I have finally figured out why Jonah took off to Tarshish when God told him to go to Nineveh! Jonah wasn’t being disobedient to God, he was just obeying a higher authority — his wife Anak! I have it on good evidence that Jonah’s wife evidently kicked him out of bed because of his snoring! At least that is my theory based on the Septuagint translation of Jonah 1:5-6!

My theory has nothing to do with the fact that I snore a little bit. OK, full confession: I snore really loud — just ask my wife or my kids! In order to gain some appreciation for how loud I snore, let me provide two illustrations. (1) As many of you know, I recently moved into a new house — a new house with a spare bedroom upstairs (also know as the “snoring room”). One night I had been sent to the snoring room and subsequently fell fast asleep. For some reason, in the middle of the night my wife had to go downstairs. She discovered that in the middle of the night she could hear my snoring everywhere in the house! (2) Last spring when I was in Toronto, I stayed at a good friend’s house. I ended up sleeping in his kids’ playroom. I am told that in the middle of the night his oldest son woke up and heard a horrible growling noise coming from the playroom. He ran to his parents’ room scared and told them all about the monster in his playroom. (Just in case you need the dots connected, I was the monster and my snoring was the growling. Also, don’t worry — I don’t have sleep apnea.)

Anyway… back to Jonah and my amazing theory. The Hebrew of Jonah 1:5 is pretty standard. Jonah takes off and boards a ship and goes down to the hold to catch a few zees. I guess it isn’t that boring since his sleep is described as רד×?, which is typically rendered as “deep sleep” or even “trance” (the cognate nominal is used in Genesis 2:21 to describe Adam’s Yahweh-induced sleep when having his rib removed). What I find interesting is how the Septuagint translates רד×? with the verb ῥέγχω “snore.” And Jonah’s snoring was apparently loud enough for the captain of the ship to hear him from above deck as he comes down to Jonah and asks him what is he doing snoring when a life threatening storm has been thrown to the Sea by Yahweh.

So, the moral of the story is if you snore, you’re in good company! Even the prophet Jonah snored… and we all know what a paragon of faithfulness and mercy he was!


Red Rose Tea: Only available in Canada? Pity

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If you like to pretend to be civilized and enjoy a good cup of tea with your scones, you may be interested in the exchange between some (biblio)bloggers about the best cup of tea. Joe Cathey likes the exotic, Jim West prefers the pre-packaged, while Jim Spinti likes the French. (And it appears they can’t agree — see Joe’s follow-up here and Jim’s here)

I personally don’t get into hot drinks much, whether tea or coffee, and I probably haven’t had a cup of tea since my grandmother passed away four years ago. But I did enjoy having a spot of tea with her — especially if it was in conjunction with some of her famous Welsh Cakes! I do know that my Grandma was very particular about tea — and she insisted that the only tea worth drinking was Red Rose Tea, a Canadian classic since 1860. Furthermoe, you should never drink tea with anything in it — it must be clear. And, of course, don’t forget to raise that pinkie!

So sorry, my American friends, my beloved Grandma (RIP) trumps you all!

Red Rose Tea — “Only available in Canada? Pity”

(While Red Rose is available in Britain and the U.S. now, the original Canadian variety is still considered the best!)

A Survey of Psalms Commentaries

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Jeremy over at Parableman has posted a very good survey of commentaries on the Book of Psalms. Based on his comments, he appears to be coming from a moderate evangelical viewpoint and doesn’t have much patience for speculation in regards to the Sitz im Leben of individual psalms or conjecture for the redaction and compilation of the book of Psalms.

There are a number of good commentaries on the Psalms that he does not include in his survey, including the following which I think are worth of mention:

For a complete listing of commentaries on the book of Psalms, see my Old Testament Commentary Survey.