New Opening! -- 霧峰 "詩篇二十三"

#2024-0123

~~ New Opening! ~~

A New Spot plus New Sparks,

for Spreading the Good News

"Wufeng Psalm Twenty-Three"

（霧峰◆詩篇二十三◆藝起大同）

Ms. Chunqing Zhao has just launched a new missionary workshop, utilizing the first floor of Rev. Sam Cheng's house in Wufeng. Jean and I, as Sam's neighbors (in the literal sense), attended their inaugural meeting this morning. Following a special service to commence this new mission, involving singing, prayer, sharing, and discussion, we concluded with a delightful potluck lunch.

May the Lord bless this place and all those who will be coming to it from now on!

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相關文章 (See also)：

1)  The Esther Group Comes to Wufeng for an Outing!     (2023)

2)  Read, Think, and Learn     (2018)

Lunch and Coffee at 督賀 Again

#2024-0122

Today, my first and second sisters joined Jean and me for lunch and "afternoon coffee" at Dūhè (officially spelled as "Doho") in Caotun.

Dūhè, or Doho, exclusively offers vegetarian food—no fish, no meat, and only with egg ingredients (unless you opt for an egg-free choice). I don't mind whether the food is vegetarian or not. Interestingly, in some dishes we were served, there were ingredients that remarkably resembled sliced chicken and dressed squid, to the extent that I mistakenly thought they were meat and seafood.

Amusingly, I recalled a conversation with my former coworker, Mr. Qingji Lin (林清吉老師), from years ago when he, and our mutual friends, shared a table. Mr. Lin posed an intriguing question: "There was a Daoist monk who consumed fish and meat but considered his food as vegetarian. Meanwhile, an ordinary person eating vegetarian food imagined fish and meat due to the dishes being crafted to enhance the appetite. According to religious dietary virtues, who was on a higher level? The Daoist monk or the ordinary man?" The question led us all into fits of laughter.

Besides the humorous reminiscing, today was enjoyable for my sisters, Jean, and me. Gathering for lunch and the subsequent coffee hour brought us much joy. As a result, we have decided to organize what we playfully call "the Liang family reunion" in the first month of the lunar new year—specifically, the Year of the Dragon (龍年).

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相關文章 (See also)： A Lunch Date: 偷得浮生半日閒     (2018)

看聖經 > 學英文 John 1:16-18

#2024-0119

The Gospel of John, Chapter 1, Verses 16-18

Reading from the New Living Translation (NLT):

16From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another. 17For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.

Reading from the Good News Translation (GNT):

16Out of the fullness of his grace he has blessed us all, giving us one blessing after another. 17God gave the Law through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is the same as God and is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

Learning English from both translations:

1. Verse 16
   (a) [from NLT] "From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another."
   (b) [from GNT] "Out of the fullness of his grace he has blessed us all, giving us one blessing after another."
   
   Comparing the two translations above reveals several interesting points:
   
   (1) "From..." in NLT corresponds to "Out of..." in GNT.
   
   (2) "From his abundance" in NLT is equivalent to "Out of the fullness of his grace" in GNT.
   
   (3) When examining "we have all received one gracious blessing after another" in NLT and "he has blessed us all, giving us one blessing after another" in GNT, a notable distinction emerges. In the NLT version, "we" (human beings) serves as the subject of the sentence, while in GNT, it is "he" (God) who has blessed us all. In GNT, "he" is the subject or the "doer" of the action.
   
   (4) The phrase "one [gracious] blessing after another" functions as the object of the sentence in NLT, depicting what we have all received. In contrast, it becomes the direct object in the participle phrase "giving us one blessing after another" in GNT, illustrating God's action of "giving."
   
   
2. Verse 17.
   (a) [from NLT] "For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ."
   (b) [from GNT] "God gave the Law through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."
   
   Both the NLT and GNT versions consist merely of a compound sentence with two clauses. In NLT the first clause is in the passive voice, saying, "For the law was given through Moses..." In contrast, GNT uses the active voice, stating, "God gave the Law through Moses..." In GNT, "God" is explicitly identified as the giver of the law, though through Moses. In NLT, the subject is "the law," emphasizing that it was given through Moses. Although the phrase "by God" is absent in NLT, the understanding is that the law was indeed given by God through Moses.
   
   This nuanced meaning is also reflected in the second part of the GNT version: "but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." The question arises: Whose grace and truth? A comparison with the NLT version clarifies this, where the second clause reads, "but God's unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ." The absence of the word "God's" in GNT is compensated by the explicit mention of "God," which is absent in NLT.
   
   
3. Verse 18
   (a) [from NLT] "No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us."
   (b) [from GNT] "No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is the same as God and is at the Father's side, he has made him known."
   
   In NLT, we see three sentences; but in GNT, we see only two. The two diagrams below will show the differences between the two versions.
   
   
   John 1:18, NLT
   

   

   
   
   In the above diagram, the second sentence is a complex one, consisting of an independent main clause followed by a dependent subordinate clause. Notice that the pronoun "himself" in the subordinate clause ("who is himself God") is used to emphasize the subject, signifying "the unique One." Now, a question arises: Where should we place the word "himself" in the diagram? From my perspective, this pronoun functions more like an adverbial component modifying the verb "is" than an adjective modifying either the subject "who" or the complement "God." Moreover, if you regard it as the appositive of "who" or "God," the word form "himself" (with "him," in the objective case, included) may seem rather awkward.
   
   

   John 1:18, GNT
   
   
   
   In the above diagram, the subject is "The only Son," and immediately following it is the pronoun "he," which functions as an appositive referring to "The only Son." It's worth noting that English does not typically use pronouns in conjunction with the subject in the same way as some other languages, such as Chinese. For instance, while "伯朗先生 他 是一位好老師" is a natural, grammatical sentence in Chinese, the English sentence "Mr. Brown he is a good teacher" is not only grammatically incorrect but also sounds unnatural in English. Typically, we would say either "Mr. Brown is a good teacher" or "He is a good teacher."
   
   In the sentence "The only Son, who is the same as God and is at the Father's side, he has made him known" (John 1:18b), the addition of the pronoun "he" appears redundant in a simple sentence structure. However, given the presence of a long adjective clause following the subject, the use of "he" serves the purpose of aiding clarity. It helps readers easily discern the subject of the sentence amid the complexity introduced by the adjective clause."
   

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1)  上一頁 (Previous Page)：看聖經 > 學英文 Some More Notes

2)  下一頁 (Next Page)：看聖經 > 學英文 

3)  回首頁 (Home Page)：看聖經 > 學英文 John 1:1-5

The Bridal Veil Is Blooming Again!

#2024-0117

院子裡的白玉蝶

今年 2024 愈發燦爛開顏

Jinnian yuanyue, wo jia yuanzi-li de chuisi-moli, huo chengzuo "bai yu die", you kaihua le. Yinwei shugan zhang de bi qunian gao, na yichuanchuan de huaduor gengjia xianyan, haokan! (. . . 那一串串的花朵兒更加顯眼，好看。)

Zhe rang wo xiangqi-le "ta" (nv zi pang de "ta") de laili. Cankan xialie de xianguan wenzhang, ni jiu hui zhidao, linju xianghu zhaogu, bici fenxiang, shi duome keguide yijian shi; you shi duome keguide yige daoli. (參看下列的相關文章，你就會知道，鄰居相互照顧、彼此分享，是多麼可貴的一件事；又是多麼可貴的一個道理。)

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相關文章 (See also)：

1)  Bridal Veil -- 垂絲茉莉又開花     (2023)

2)  院子裡的垂茉莉     (2022)

3)  The Front Yard Renewed (門面更新紀實)     (2011)

看聖經 > 學英文 Some More Notes

#2024-0115

Some more notes on

The Gospel of John, Chapter 1, Verses 12-14

Reading from the New Living Translation (NLT):

12But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. 13They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.

14So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.

Reading from the Good News Translation (GNT):

12Some, however, did receive him and believed in him; so he gave them the right to become God's children. 13They did not become God's children by natural means, that is, by being born as the children of a human father; God himself was their Father.

14The Word became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us. We saw his glory, the glory which he received as the Father's only Son.

Learning English from both translations:

1. Verse 12
   (a) [from NLT] "But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God."
   (b) [from GNT] "Some, however, did receive him and believed in him; so he gave them the right to become God's children."
   
   In NLT, the first nine words ("But to all who believed him and accepted him") is an adverb group indicating all the people (or "those individuals") that he gave the right. What kind of right is it? It's the right "to become God's children." This verse is translated into a complex sentence, with an adjective clause ("who believed him and accepted him") describing the pronoun "all" just before the adjective clause, which is also known as a subordinate clause, or a dependent clause.
   
   In GNT, the verse is translated into a compound sentence, in which the pronoun "them" means those who "did receive him and believed in him"; that is, "some," the subject of the first ordinate clause. The second ordinate clause starts with a coordinating conjunction, "so." It's important to note that the first clause ends with a semicolon (;) instead of a comma (,) just because there is a transition word, "however," inserted in between the two commas in the clause. If there were no such transition word and no commas in there, then the first clause would simply end with a comma, not a semicolon; this is because the conjunction "so" could have joined the two clauses of this sentence.
   
   
2. Verse 13
   (a) [from NLT] "They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God."
   (b) [from GNT] "They did not become God's children by natural means, that is, by being born as the children of a human father; God himself was their Father."
   
   In NLT, we see a sentence with only three words ("They are reborn") as its basic components or main components, followed by a dash (—) as well as other modifiers that describe what kind of birth "they are reborn." The point is that they are reborn with a birth that comes from God. (In this underlined phrase, there is an adjective clause included, modifying the antecedent, that is, the preceding noun "birth.")
   
   In GNT, we see a compound sentence with two coordinate clauses. There is no conjunction (a function word like "and" or "but") at the beginning of the second clause; however, we see a semicolon (;) at the end of the first clause, and the semicolon functions like a coordinating conjunction in this context."
   
   
3. Verse 14
   (a) [from NLT] "So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son."
   (b) [from GNT] "The Word became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us. We saw his glory, the glory which he received as the Father's only Son."
   
   In NLT, we see three sentences; but in GNT, we see only two. The two diagrams below will show the differences between the two versions.
   
   
   John 1:14, NLT
   
   
   
   
   Note: The object of the third sentence above is explained with a noun phrase ("the glory of the Father's one and only one Son"), which functions as an appositive. From my perspective, the O and O' in this diagram refer to the same concept.
   
   
   
   John 1:14, GNT
   
   
   In the above diagram, the first sentence features the phrase "full of grace and truth," enclosed in commas, presenting a potential challenge in grammar analysis. Analyzing it from the initial words "full of," we see it appears to function as an adjective phrase, modifying a noun or noun phrase. When considering the entire phrase's meaning, we also see it as a modifier referring to the Word, the One who became a human being. The question arises: how can the second verb ("lived," marked as "V2") be modified by an adjective and not an adverb? The placement of this phrase may suggest it is an adverbial phrase, but the challenge lies in understanding how it fulfills this role. My interpretation is that it is originally an adverb clause, explaining why the Word lived among us. The subject and verb of this adverb clause seem to have been omitted, as indicated in the diagram.
   
   Regarding the second sentence in the diagram, the object "his glory" is explained with its apposition "the glory" followed by an adjective clause ("which he received..."). Notably, the relative pronoun "which" functions as the object, not the subject, of the adjective clause. Additionally, the final five words of the clause, and thus the entire sentence, form an adjective phrase ("as the Father's only Son"). This phrase modifies either the subject "he" or the object "which." The two possible interpretations can be understood as follows:
   
   (a) As the Father's only Son, he received the glory.
   (b) He received the glory as the Father's only Son.
   
   Which of the two options do you find more plausible? Do you have any alternative perspectives on this type of sentence structure that you would like to share with us?

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