{"id":2279,"date":"2013-01-11T11:09:18","date_gmt":"2013-01-11T17:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/?p=1814"},"modified":"2013-01-11T11:09:18","modified_gmt":"2013-01-11T17:09:18","slug":"check-your-footnotes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/2013\/01\/11\/check-your-footnotes\/","title":{"rendered":"Check your footnotes"},"content":{"rendered":"

I freely admit it… I am a nerd.<\/p>\n

I am often more comfortable around books than I am around people. I love digging into academic things, even when I am not being graded. And, I’d rather write an article than have a conversation (for example, this blog).<\/p>\n

I’m not anti-social, I’m just pro-alone. Fair enough?<\/p>\n

Out of this nerdom will sometimes come a thought or comment that cracks me up and I wonder if anyone else would think the same. However, because I know I’m a nerd, I often keep it to myself for fear of getting a cyber-wedgie, or an e-wet-willie from one of you online cool kids.<\/p>\n

But, this time, I’m going to take the risk… here goes.<\/p>\n

This past Christmas season I preached on the wise men of Matthew chapter 2:<\/p>\n

2:2<\/b>\u201cWhere is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose\u00a0and have come to worship him.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You know the story, these unknown wise guys see a star and somehow know the Child born under it is beyond significant and one of them yells, “ROADTRIP!”<\/p>\n

They gas up the camels, shout out “Eat my dust,” and start the search. Cool story, but here’s where the nerd part kicks in…<\/p>\n

In doing the original language study, to see if there was anything below the surface I should know or teach, I looked at the word “star.”\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

No big surprises really, the Greek for star means star. It could mean planet or constellation, but star really does the trick. Good job English translators.<\/p>\n

The actual Greek is prononced astera <\/em>(insert nerd transition engine ignition here). Here’s my stream of consciousness…<\/p>\n

“Hmmm… didn’t I learn the Kansas state motto in grade school? Wasn’t it ‘Ad astra per aspera’?<\/em><\/p>\n

But, that’s Latin, not Greek.<\/em><\/p>\n

‘Ad astra per aspera’\u00a0means ‘to the stars through difficulties.’<\/em><\/p>\n

Wait,\u00a0Latin ‘astra’ and\u00a0Greek ‘astera’ both mean star. Cool! The Latin must have stole it directly from the Greek.<\/em><\/p>\n

I wonder if ‘astera’ made it to English? I mean if you put an ending on it like ‘ed, ‘ing, or…wait, no way…<\/em><\/p>\n

(quick check of\u00a0www.etymonline.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n

YES! Too cool, the modern English word asterisk<\/strong> is straight up Greek and\/or Latin. It means little star, duh.<\/em><\/p>\n

Yep, that little mark, symbol, or star that tells you to look at the bottom of the page for more information or check a footnote is the same root word from the Bible.<\/em><\/p>\n

That’s when it hit me… (are you ready for it?)<\/p>\n

I wonder if when the wise men saw the aster(isk), if they heard God saying, ” * See Jesus below “<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I told you I was a nerd.<\/p>\n

Still, the next time you see or use an asterisk, or for that matter, the next time you see a star… why don’t you look for Jesus?<\/p>\n

Many blessings and thanks for letting me share some nerd humor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I freely admit it… I am a nerd. I am often more comfortable around books than I am around people. I love digging into academic things, even when I am not being graded. And, I’d rather write an article than have a conversation (for example, this blog). I’m not anti-social, I’m just pro-alone. Fair enough? … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Check your footnotes”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2279"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2279\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}