B’resheet…Doug!
OK…so I have no idea of the Hebrew for “happy birthday.” But happy birthday to Westminster prof and all-around great-guy-I’d-still-like-to-have-a-real-Aussie-beer-with, Dr. Doug Green!
In addition to being one of the more engaging professors we’ve had here, Doug has become a good friend to us as well as a frequent reader and commentor on this blog.
And if you know who the other WTS professor who has a birthday on this same date is, then you know that astrology is bunk! 
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September 30th, 2005 at 4:48 pm
OK, was that a weird experience or wot? I go to Mark’s blog for a pearl of wisdom to help me negotiate the next phase of my own sacred journey and, blow me down, if I don’t find my own ugly mug staring back at me. It was almost enough to give me a heart attack. But having survived the moment of horror, let me say thanks for your well wishes.
So today I am 52. Over the top and picking up speed on the slalom-side of life. This morning I was pondering the meaning of life, even though I apparently passed by the answer to the question ten years ago. I was in deep thought reflecting on the number 52. It has slightly ominous sense of completeness to it: 52 weeks in a year, 52 cards in deck. That made me wonder what’s in store for the 53rd year (assuming I make it through). Some kind of rebirth, like the first week of a new year? That has a nice semi-eschatological feel to it. But what does the deck of cards mean? (Tarot, anyone?) Then it came to me. There’s a fifty-third card. The joker, the wild card! So that’s it. My fifty-third year will be the Year of the Unpredictable Fool, in other words, yet another confirmation of the truth of St. Paul Simon’s immortal words (from the “extra verse†of The Boxer): “after changes upon changes, we are more or less the same.â€
September 30th, 2005 at 5:10 pm
LOL! The ultimate answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. Happy birthday Doug!
…Though, until this moment I’d forgotten that I’m at the end of the deck this year as well. :-/
September 30th, 2005 at 6:17 pm
Yom Huledet Same’ach, Doug!
September 30th, 2005 at 6:23 pm
52 is also 4 x 13. I’m not sure that I want to speculate on what that might mean…
…Happy Birthday!
September 30th, 2005 at 7:43 pm
Garver, you’re a stinky show off. I oughta ban you from my blog!
October 1st, 2005 at 9:19 am
After suffering through two years of Hebrew in college where I was the only Gentile in the class (and thus already behind before the prof even showed up), I think I deserve to show off occasionally. Though I’m sure my suffering in Hebrew can never match your own.
October 1st, 2005 at 9:32 am
October 1st, 2005 at 9:42 am
So, Joel…if my Hebrew is my “present suffering” is it an illustration of the New Humanity in Christ that here on this blog I wish my very oppressor a happy birthday?
JUST KIDDING, DOUG! I LOVE MY HEBREW TRANSLATING! REALLY! In fact, in your honor, dear professor, I am joyfully translating several chapters of Genesis today instead of being out in that nasty creation with all that dangerous sunshine!
October 1st, 2005 at 9:46 am
(1) Thanks again everyone for the nice thoughts.
(2) I think I’ve found someone to teach the final semester of Hebrew at WTS next year: Joel “Renaissance Man” Garver.
Doug, trusting that Mark’s readers will understand that the heading “It Takes an Atheist” has no connection to my pic!
October 1st, 2005 at 10:36 am
best wishes from the back row upon the entering of your 53rd year.
a prime number, by the way.
October 1st, 2005 at 10:38 am
So Doug is entering his “prime”?
Hmmm…guess at 48, I’m just beginning to “get even”
October 2nd, 2005 at 3:19 pm
Oh, Mark … don’t give me openings. Beware geeks who speak rare languages … I mean, didn’t this thread teach ya anything?
[Oh, and ... happy birthday, Doug. Us early-fall birthdays should stick together to stick it to Traphagen. ;)]
October 3rd, 2005 at 5:14 pm
I don’t know much about Hebrew, but I think that if I were Doug I’d be offended to have the post entitled: “In the beginning … Doug.” I think that even literal, 6 24-hour day guys think that the earth is older than 52! (Though I have heard rumors to the contrary, of course…)
October 3rd, 2005 at 6:50 pm
Daniel….don’t you know that every day spent with Doug is like an age?
Just kidding, oh One Who Wieldeth the Crimson Pen!
October 4th, 2005 at 5:30 pm
Daniel: The ellipsis is crucial.
You assume that Mark has (heretically) replaced “God” with “Doug” in the sentence “In the begining (i.e b’resheet) God …” But no. It’s “In the begining … Doug.” Actually, the ellipsis covers the rest of verse. And “Doug” stands in the place of “the earth” in v. 2. So the unelliptical version then reads: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now Doug was formless and empty …”
And that pretty well says it all.
DJG
October 4th, 2005 at 5:38 pm
I tried to think of a comeback…then I said, “Nah, it’s Doug’s birthday thread…he get’s the last word.”