The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ — In a Single Narrative

[Geremia]

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ — In a Single Narrative
ed. Norman Russell

This beautifully produced volume presents all the material of the Gospel story as found in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and some material from the Acts of the Apostles, in the form of a single, continuous narrative. Nothing is repeated without a good reason, and, more importantly, nothing is omitted. Hundreds of notes refer the reader to the text of the four gospels as presented in the Roman Catholic Douay-Rheims version of the New Testament. Readers unfamiliar with this rendering will find it an attractive and refreshing translation of the original Latin Vulgate text. Why not give it a try?

[aquinas138]

Interesting, sort of a modern Diatessaron.

[Gardener]

Geremia, does that site have permission to simply give away this book?

Here's a purchasable format:

https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Gospel-Jesus-Christ-narrative/dp/1781483434/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1524149043&sr=8-1&keywords=the+holy+gospel+of+jesus+christ+norman+russell

[Geremia]

Interesting, sort of a modern Diatessaron.

Yes, it's a gospel harmony or synopsis.

[Geremia]

Geremia, does that site have permission to simply give away this book?

It can be obtained for free from your local library, too: https://www.overdrive.com/media/2632103

[Bonaventure]

Thank you Alan.

[Gardener]

Geremia, does that site have permission to simply give away this book?

It can be obtained for free from your local library, too: https://www.overdrive.com/media/2632103

Libraries, via tax theft, purchase e-books -- often for a set licensing period or a certain amount of "checkouts". And thus the author is not simply ripped off.

https://goodereader.com/blog/e-book-news/why-do-libraries-pay-more-money-for-e-books

All I'm asking is if isidore.co has permission to essentially give away a book, which is not what libraries do?

[Non Nobis]

Geremia, does that site have permission to simply give away this book?

Here's a purchasable format:

https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Gospel-Jesus-Christ-narrative/dp/1781483434/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1524149043&sr=8-1&keywords=the+holy+gospel+of+jesus+christ+norman+russell

It's $5.99 for Kindle; I checked out a sample, and then purchased it.  I think it is quite good.  It has a decent table of contents - it breaks down Christ's life into 131 events.  It seems to do a pretty good job of identifying which gospel/chapter/verse each passage comes from.  I don't know if it is all that a scholar would want (e.g. it doesn't have much commentary or an index) but I think it will be worthwhile for me (it presents well on Kindle).  Any way to get me to read the Gospel more is a good thing.  And the fact that it is from the Douay-Rheims Bible is of course very important.

Thanks, Geremia

[Livenotonevil]

Interesting - but I wonder what the purpose is, considering that all four gospels have dozens of translations and the Four Gospels are Divinely revealed Truth? Do we need a custom version that's cut and pasted such that it's on the whims of one's own perception of reality and bias?

And although I love the Douay-Rheims translation, it certainly tries to add Catholic content where there is none (translating "repent" as "do penance" for example).

[Gardener]

Interesting - but I wonder what the purpose is, considering that all four gospels have dozens of translations and the Four Gospels are Divinely revealed Truth? Do we need a custom version that's cut and pasted such that it's on the whims of one's own perception of reality and bias?

And although I love the Douay-Rheims translation, it certainly tries to add Catholic content where there is none (translating "repent" as "do penance" for example).

That's St. Jerome's doing actually, and the DRB simply followed his lead. He translates the Greek "metanoeo" with the Latin phrase "paenitentiam agite". There is a spiritual reason, and it goes back to the OT -- Jerome was maintaining a spiritual continuity in his translation.

To do penance is to repent, otherwise it's simply an exercise in varying degrees of masochistic behavior and thought. The point of penance-as-act is not to torture a person, but to assist them in the transformative process of metanoia. Why else would Fr. say "For your penance, say 3 Hail Mary's and 2 Our Father's"? To torture us with prayer? No, don't be absurd. But to have us think of our former sin and our current hope in the context of a transformative, real, personal, and continuing relationship with God.

That these two words and concepts have become divorced in the minds of Catholics, Orthodox, or whomever has such a misunderstanding, is not a fault of the translation, but a loss of understanding its larger meaning.

The most sure penance is to engage in charity. To make up those holes in our past by filling the present and future with what we lacked or forsook in order to sin. If I say a harsh word to my wife, I repent and then do penance by kind language. If I leave the scene of an accident in a parking lot "hey... uh, it's only a scratch" and then confess that later, my penance is indeed some prayers. But, moreover, there is likely to come a day where I have someone convict me by leaving a note with all their contact info -- something I did not do in my own sin -- and I have an opportunity to forgive them and absolve them of anything owed to me. THAT is penance because it is necessitated by repentance as you are understanding it. One begets the other, but not the other way around.

Repentance is the seed of the fruit, penance. Penance without repentance is just stupid, and not the teaching of the Church despite your flawed understanding therein.

[Livenotonevil]

Correct me if I'm wrong, as I'm not even a catechumen in the Orthodox Church yet, but the concept of "Penance" does sort of exist in Orthodoxy; it is known as "epitemia", in which the Priest will give some sort of task for the type of therapeutic intent - however, how it's exercised is much different than how Roman Catholicism exercises it, in three ways.

1. It isn't mandatory, as far as I can tell, for every Confession in order for the Priest to absolve the sinner through Christ (at least, it seems mandatory in Roman Catholicism for every Confession).

2. It usually isn't just one action that needs to be checked off, but rather a series of actions.

3. Epitemias can include the discipline (almost all of the time, as a matter of fact) as a barring from the Holy Mysteries; it isn't an excommunication, where they are kicked out of the Church until they repent, but rather they are restricted from access to Holy Communion in order to reflect upon the sins they have committed. This is usually the case for graver sins or more habitual sins that can't be easily rid of, and the Epitemias are put in place for a set amount of time. My priest told me he was given an Epitemia once as a layperson for three weeks, and it really helped him defeat a habitual sin he was encountering at the time.

It isn't just abstaining from Communion; it can also usually involve doing Prostrations (bowing in deep reverence to Icons - in an admittedly physically exhausting way), fasting, or praying more often, etc.

Other Epitemias include a confession of criminal activities to the authorities, usually in the case of cases that are extremely harmful to an individual and society - for example, murder.

More info here:
http://www.orthodox.net/articles/epitimia-sacrament-confession.html