Murmuring

During church yesterday, an investigator (someone looking into the LDS Church) asked me about one of the hymns from the program. Specifically, he was worried that there was an accuracy in the lyrics. The hymn in question was called "Behold the Great Redeemer Die" and it's about the crucifixion of Christ. It is Hymn 191 in the hymn book. One of the lines in the hymn says: "Although in agony he hung, no murmuring words escaped his tongue." As you may recall, in Matthew 27:46, it says: "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" There was some concern that this scripture rendered the hymn inaccurate (i.e., saying "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" equates to "murmuring").

Afterwards, I talked to a couple of people about this concern. All of them pointed out to me that "murmuring" has a very specific meaning in a Biblical context - grumbling or whining under your breath. Murmuring is even considered a sin (see non-LDS source #1 and #2). Simply speaking or making sound does not qualify as "murmuring". You'd have to argue that Jesus was specifically whining in this situation and doing it in a way that he didn't want others to hear to make it "murmuring". I think it's hard to make that argument. In a different non-LDS source regarding Matthew 27:46, it says that may think Jesus was making a very deliberate reference to Psalm 22 when he spoke - a scripture that he hoped people would recall and investigate later (for their benefit). So, again, I think it's very challenging to categorize Jesus' statement on the cross as "murmuring".

Most of you probably don't care about this but, since I spent some time looking into the topic, I figured I'd post it here for future reference. At any rate, you can sleep well at night knowing that Hymn #191 in the LDS hymn book is accurate as written and there is no need for changes or reprinting. =)

The Number Devil

I just got done reading The Number Devil by Hans Magnus Enzensberger. A co-worker's son recently read it and encouraged his dad to do the same. We were on a trip together and the dad (my co-worker) mentioned the book to me. It was a fun read and does a good job of making math interesting and exciting. I would definitely recommend it. When JD and AJ are a little older, I'll encourage them to read the book. Both of them seem to enjoy math (at least so far) and this book could only help fuel that interest.

Smart vs Wise

A quick quote I found in this blog post:

The difference between a smart person and a wise person is that a wise person knows how not to get into situations that a smart person knows how to get out of.

So very true. Hopefully I can be more wise than smart moving forward.

0.999...

I just found an interesting article on Wikipedia talking about how the notations "0.999…" and "1" represent the same real number.  At first glance, I didn't see how that could be correct (which is a common misconception) but the proofs are actually quite simple (at least some of them are).  In general, I wish I had more time for random stuff like this.  There are so many things I'd like to learn more about.