culture. education. literary studies.
The Advent hymn "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" draws on biblical symbols and imagery, focusing on Israelโs desperate yearning for the Messiah, as promised by the ancient prophets of God: the King who would save the chosen people from otherwise certain death and destruction.
When you know that something bad is about to happen, you might say โI can see the writing on the wall.โ In this post I explain the cultural background of this English expression.
The Vulgate is the Latin language translation of the Bible going back to St Jerome (c. 342-420). A work of exquisite importance for the history of Christianity and the dissemination of the Bible, it still remains in official use. The version reviewed in this post is a wonderful facsimile of the so-called Sixto-Clementine Vulgate, originally published in Belgium in 1901.
One of the latest additions to my library is the Knox Version of the Bible, published by Baronius Press. In this unboxing post Iโm going to present its features, starting with a brief explainer on this particular translation.
grammaticus 