Friday, June 18, 2010

Lenski - "Resist the Beginnings"


Lenski


I was getting my Lenski commentaries ready to ship, since someone wants them. I will attach a note - "He is great on justification, but wobbles a bit here and there toward UOJ."

I ran into some places where I noted excellent quotations in the book cover. One was "Resist the beginnings."

That should be the motto of the Syn Conference, but it is not. The beginnings of the current fiasco were decades ago and few resisted.

I often talk with Diablo, a WELS layman. He and I agree that the various Lutheran groups were far more in agreement (around Luther) in the old days, than they are now. Currently they are in agreement with Fuller, Rome, and every other fad.

Guess what?

Unsolicited, Grey Goose sent Lenski and Luther on disk, and I have installed both on my computer. The first thing I did was look up a commentary, open a page, and copy a section. That took a few seconds. The evidence is below.

Megatron is looking mighty creaky in comparison, but I learned a lot creating, tweeking, and using it.

This will be useful in all future publishing efforts.

Lenski from disk:

Luke wrote both of his books for a certain Theophilus, concerning whom, unfortunately, we know next to nothing. The address κράτιστε, which may be rendered “Your Excellency,” indicates knighthood, official position, or great wealth and prominence, it is uncertain just which. But we have no information concerning the contact between Luke and Theophilus, where the latter resided, and just why Luke wanted to write to him to give him the certainty that he ought to have. Some feel certain that this Theophilus was already a Christian, but this was not the case. In the Gospel Luke addresses him as κράτιστε, not so in the Acts. In all Christian literature, however, no brother Christian is ever addressed by such a title of earthly distinction. Hence when Luke wrote his Gospel to Theophilus, this distinguished man was not yet a Christian but was greatly interested in things Christian; but when Luke sent the Acts to him, Theophilus had become a convert. This conclusion is safe and not the other which is based on κατηχήθης in 1:4 and interprets this verb as if it meant that Theophilus had already been instructed in the Christian doctrine.
Lenski, R. C. H.: The Interpretation of St. Luke's Gospel. Minneapolis, MN : Augsburg Publishing House, 1961, S. 11. <== The citation was created when I copied the section.