Seven Deadly Sins

The Seven Deadly Sins is a classification of vices used in early Christian teachings.  The current version of the sins are wrath ( ira ; 暴怒), greed ( avaritia ; 貪婪), sloth (acedia ; 懶惰), pride (supervia ; 傲慢 ), lust ( luxuria ; 色欲 )  , envy ( invidia ; 妒忌 ) and gluttony ( gula ; 貪食).

Development of the traditional seven sins

Ponticus 1	Cassian 1b	Gregory I 2	Dante 3	Philokalia 4	RC Catechism 5
'gastimargia'  gluttony	'gula'  gluttony	gluttony	'gula'  gluttony	gluttony	'gula'  gluttony
'porneia'  prostitution, fornication	'fornication'  ust	lust	'luxuria' lechery / lust	prostitution, fornication	'luxuria' lust
'philargyria' avarice	'avaritia'   greed	greed	'avaritia' averice / greed	avarice	'avaritia' greed
'hyperephania'  hubris	'supervia'  pride	pride	'superbia'  pride	self-esteem	'superbia'  pride
'kenodoxia' boasting	'vangloria'  vainglory			boasting
'orge'  wrath	'ira'  wrath	wrath	'ira'  wrath	wrath	'ira'  wrath
'akedia'   acedia	'acedia'  sloth	acedia	'acedia'  acedia / sloth	dejection	'acedia'  sloth
'lype'   sadness	'tristitia'  despair			envy
n.a.	n.a	envy	'invidia'  envy		'invidia'  envy

1.  Evagrius Ponticus 'Evagrius the Solitary', 345-399 AD, The Eight Logismoi.
1b.John Cassian, c 360-435 AD, Institutions
2.  Pope Gregory I 'Gregory the Great', c 540-604 AD.

3.  Dante degli Alighieri, 1265-1321, The Divine Comedy
4.  Nikodemos the Hagiorite, 1749-1809 & St. Makarios, 1731-1805, The Philokalia.
5.  Roman Catholic Catechism, 2nd Edition, 1997



The Book of Proverbs VI:16-19  list a considerably different vices :

“There are six things the LORD hates,

seven that are detestable to him:

haughty eyes,

a lying tongue,

hands that shed innocent blood,

a heart that devises wicked schemes,

feet that are quick to rush into evil,

a false witness who pours out lies

and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.”

 

The Epistle to the Galatians V:19-21, includes more sins :

“The acts of the flesh are obvious:

sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;

idolatry and witchcraft;

hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy;

drunkenness, orgies, and the like.
I warn you, as I did before,

that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”








references :

http://www.osb.org/lectio/cassian/inst/index.html

http://www.archive.org/stream/Philokalia-TheCompleteText/Philokalia-Complete-Text#page/n9/mode/2up

http://www.divinecomedy.org/divine_comedy.html

http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/ccc_toc.htm

The Trees : By the Rivers of Babylon

Psalm 137 ( KJV )

 ¹By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.

 ²We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.

 ³For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song;

and they that wasted us required of us mirth,

saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

 ⁴How shall we sing the LORD's song in a strange land?

 ⁵If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.

 ⁶If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth;

if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.

 ⁷Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem;

who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.

 ⁸O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed;

happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.

 ⁹Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.

1611’s KJV and a lot of other bible translations ( ASV, CEV, Darby, ESV, GNT, NASV, Wycliffe, etc ) refer the tree as ‘willow’, apparently influenced by ancient Latin translations.

Salix babylonica ( Babylon willow, Peking willow or 垂柳 ) is a species of willow native to dry areas of northern China.  It was planted along the famous ancient trade route - the  Silk Road, which began c.200 BC.  It is subsequently introduced to Europe via middle East.

It was described and named by Carolus Linnaeus in 1736, when he encountered the species in Hartekamp, of The Netherlands. 

Linnaeus thought that this species was the tree described in the Bible’s 137^th Psalm.  Thus he named it  Salix babylonica, as well as its common name ‘Babylon willow’.   The genus name Salix is from the Latin word ‘salicibus’ which is the dative plural of ‘salix’, means ‘willow’, from the 1592’s Sixto-Clementine Vulgate.     

The actual tree that were growing along the Eupharates River of Babylon of Mesopotamia ( Modern Iraq ) during that time ( c.580 BC ) was actually gharab ( Hebrew ), the Euphrates poplar ( Populus euphratica ).  It has the same willow-like leaves on drooping shoots.  

Thus in a handful of bible translations, such as 1984’s NIV, NLT, and Holman Christian Standard Bible, the tree’s name is corrected to ‘poplars’, which is more botanically accurate.  

2002’s The Message translation, however, refers it to ‘quaking aspen’, the Populus tremuloides.  P.tremuloides is native to North America, which is very unlikely that it’s the tree on the banks of River of Babylon.

使徒信经

Symbolum Apostolorum

Apostles' Creed

Glossary

Amen, is of Hebrew word aman, which means “so be it”.  Common English translation of the word include “verily”, and ‘truly”.

It was used in a number of contexts :

•  referring back to words of another speaker and introducing an affirmative sentence. ( 1Kings 1:36 )

• referring back to words of another speaker but without a complementary affirmative sentence ( Nehemiah 5:13 )

• catechism of curses of the Law ( Deuteronomy 27:15-26 )

• double amen to confirm the words and invoke the fulfillment of them ( Psalm 41:13, 72:19, 89:52 )

• custom of closing prayers ( Matthew 6:13 )

• doxology ( Romans 1:25. 9:5, 11:36, 15:33 )

• conclude all of Paul’s epistles ( Romans 16:27, 1Corinthians 16:24, Galatians 6:18, Ephesians 6:24, Philippians 4:23, Colossians 4:18, 1Thessalonians 5:28, 2Thessalonians 3:18, 1Timothy 6:16, 2Timothy 4:22, Titus 3:15, Philemon 1:25, Hebrew 13:25 )

• referred Jesus as ‘the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation’ ( Revelation 3:14 )

• concludes the New Testament ( Revelation 22:21 )

     

Hallelujah, Halleluyah, Alleluia (L) are transliterations of the Hebrew word Halleluya, meaning “Praise Yah”.  ‘’Yah‘ is the first letters of the name of God, YHWH.  

•  Hallelujah is considered a joyful word of praise to God  ( Palms 104:35, 105:45, 106:1&48, 111:1, 112:1, 113:1&9, 115:18, 116:19, 117:2, 135:1&2121, 146:1, 147:20, 148:1, 149:1&9, 150:1&6 and Revelation 19:1, 19:3, 19:4. 19:6 )

Hosanna is from the same word Hoshana in Hebrew, meaning “please save” or “save now”.

• it was shouted in recognition of Messiahship of Jesus on His entry into Jerusalem.  ( Matthew 21:9, Mark 11:9-10, John 12:13 )

• a cry for salvation ( Matthew 21:15).

Immanuel , Emmanuel, is from Hebrew words El and Immanu, which means ”God [is] with us“.

• Immanuel is not merely a pledge of Divine assistance, but also of the nativity Jesus ( Matthew 1:23 ) as the prophesied Messiah ( Isaiah 7:14, 8:8 ) , as the ultimate fulfillment of ‘God with us’.

Names of YHWH

Jehovah ( Isaiah 42:8 ) is an anglicized representation of Hebrew Yahwah, a vocalization of the Tetragrammaton YHWH, the name of the God of Israel, in Christian Bible.

According to Jewish tradition, God’s divine name is written but not pronounced.  

Jehovah-jireh ( Genesis 22:14 ) was a place in the land of Moriah.  It was the location of the binding of Isaac, where God told Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a burnt offering.  Abraham named the place after the Lord provide a ram to sacrifice in the place of Isaac. 

The Septuagint translation is ”The Lord hath seen“.  KJV follows this meaning.

NIV render it as ”The Lord will provide“, amplifying the literal meaning along the lines of ’the Lord hath seen‘, and referring to Abraham’s earlier words, : ”God Himself will provide the lamb“ ( Genesis 22:8 )

Jehovah-mekaddeshem ( Exodus 31:13 ) means ”Lord who sanctifies“.   After God redeem Israel from Egypt, God sets Israel separates from the profane. 

NIV translated it as ”I am the Lord, who makes you holy“

Jehovah-nissi ( Exodus 17:15 ) is the name given by Moses to the altar which he built to celebrate the defeat of the Amalekites at Rephidim. 

The Septuagint translators believed the word to be derived from nus (H), meaning ”flee for refuge“ , thus rendered it ”the Lord my Refuge“ ;

while the Vulgate translators thought it to be derived from nasas (H), meaning ” hoist; lift up“, thus rendered it ”Jehovah is my Exaltation“ ;

NIV translated it as ”The Lord is my Banner “

Jehovah-rapha  ( Exodus 15:26 ) means ”Lord our healer“. 

After God delivered Israel from Egypt, Moses led Israel from Red Sea into the Desert of Shur.  When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water as it was bitter.  So the people grumbled against Moses.  After Moses cried out to the Lord, and the lord showed him a piece of wood, which he threw into the water, and the water became fit to drink.  There the Lord issued a ruling and instruction to the Israel to obey God’s commands, so no disease would ever strike them.

NIV translated it as ”I am the Lord, who heals you“

Jehovah-sabaoth ( Amos 4:13 ) is the name Amos called God, meaning ”The Lord of host“ of armies on earth, the stars and the angels.  Implying that Jehovah is the Supreme Ruler.

NIV translated it as ”Lord Almighty“

Jehovah-shammah ( Ezekiel 48:35 ) is the name given to the city in Ezekiel’s vision.  It means ”The Lord is there“

Jehovah-shalom ( Judges 6:24 ) is the name give to the place in Ophrah where Gideon built an alter, after he saw an angle of the Lord face to face.  The Lord assigned Gideon to deliver Israel from the hand of the Midianites, which Gideon accepted with much doubts. 

It means ”The Lord is peace“