•  T h i s  i s  t h e  w e b - s i t e  o f  R o c h u s  Z u u r m o n d. 

                            Welcome to my Homepage!!!
             Latest change made on Monday, November 24, 2008 in About Myself

This web site contains articles, comment, columns, reports etc. in English and in Dutch. I update this website from time to time. The last updates were on Sunday February 13 and Sunday February 20 in the Dutch section. On Feb. 12, 2006 I preached in the Old Church in Voorburg. That is the church I use to go to every Synday with my parents, for many years between 1938 and 1952. I add the sermon (06/03/2006). It is about what happened to Abraham (then still Abram) when he was 75. The coincidence with my present age it not completely unintended.

On  13/02/05 I published the final version of an article on Translation in general and the recent Dutch New Bible Translation in particular (3.4.1). There is a conference on that subject on May 20 and 21 in Elspeet (Gelderland, The Netherlands). Those who intend to participate may like to read this article in advance. The gist of it will be published in some periodical later. On 13/02/05 I added the a Summary of a Lecture on Mark 13 and Eschatology (3.1.1). I will be happy to receive comment. On March 17 I started publishing my notes on the Beatitudes (2.1.3)                                                                                                  See for my address the links on the next page: 'About myself.'                       At present you will find the following subjects:

1. About myself contains a short Curriculum Vitae and some personal data, all in English. You will also find there ways to contact me.

2. The English Section is divided in four sub-sections:

(2.1) Articles
(2.1.1) This section contains one article; "A shortcut to Truth", or "How to turn an argument about facts into a moral issue." It is rather critical about the media (in particular The Guardian) and about British attitude to 'truth' in general. It was written in early April 2004 and replaces articles about homosexuality and the Summary of a lecture delivered in 'Hydepark' in the autumn of 2003. 

(2.1.2) Rather the outline for a book - eventually to be published in Dutch - than an article are the pages you will find under the head "Literalism." It is rather long, but has chapters headings. It may interest theologians only.          Unfortunately I had a problem with publishing the 47 footnotes. They had to be left out. Crossreferences did not always work well either. I re-arranged the text after I came back from my visit to the USA and Canada (27 May- 6July 2004), but the lay-out is not yet exactly what I want. If anyone would like a copy with footnotes, please let me know. I will be happy to send you one. (13/07/04)

(2.1.3) During Lent Faringdon (Feb/March 2005) we 'explored' the Beatitudes in a 'Lent Group.' I was not very happy with the booklet that came with it. It reduced the Beatitudes to desirable human 'attitudes.' The Beatitudes were spiritualised, reduced to inner feelings and our attitude towards God. The eschatological aspect, which is clear for everyone who cares to look at the text, was completely absent. For myself and for a few friends I then wrote this little article, translating some of it from an earlier article I wrote in Dutch. a quarter of a century ago.                                                                         I am sorry, but my website does not accept Greek and Hebrew characters. I have always provided a transcription of the Hebrew, but I have not transcribed the Greek. If you have SGreek and SHebrew among the character sets of your computer you can read the original by Copying the text on to Word, selecting the Greek / Hebrew words and running SGreek / SHebrew on the selected text.  I guarantee the text, but not the lay-out.

(2.2) Comment
In this section I publish some comment on recent political and theological issues, more or less like I used to broadcast on Dutch National Radio in the seventies and early eighties.

(2.2.1-3) The sub-section contains a number of comments on the way homosexuality has recently been treated in the churches and in the media. Although it seems to be generally accepted wisdom that homosexuality is clearly condemned in Scripture I utterly reject that. People who defend such a position may have a big mouth an wield a big commercial stick, but have as far as I am concerned no sense of history, no insight in biblical exegesis and hermeneutics. In particular I criticise the Guardian for the way they handled the matter (The only sensible article I read in the English press was in the Independent). Not only did the Guardian publish some ridiculous letters to the Editor (one extremely ignorant one from a student in an Oxford College!!) but then they left the comment on the unsavory row in the Church of England in two articles to Karin Armstrong.

(2.2.4) Karin Armstrong may have written a bestseller on ‘God’ but she is certainly not a very reliable source of information. Did Luther really leave the monastery in order to marry?? Did Plato really put Logos and Mythos on an equal level?? And there is more. I like most of the Guardian, but when it comes to Bible and Church one wonders whether their journalists graduated even from Sunday School.

I have stopped arguing with this lot. Every unwelcome argument is nowadays demoted to ‘also an opinion’ (as the Dutch Crown Prince said, confronted with the rather murky political background of his Argentinean bride). Ever since the current vulgar edition of ‘post-modernism’ such a thesis even has a quasi-scientific, philosophical justification. Of course, if everything is just an opinion, he or she who has the biggest mouth is right.

(2.2.5) After the ridiculous affair of the 'Hutton Enquiry' I expressed my anger and cynicism about 'British Justice' in a little piece called 'A Land full of Huttons'. 

(2.2.6) An old memory was revived when in April 2004 I heard Mr. Straw rewrite history. One must give it to him: he is very good at it! (12/04/2004)  

(2.2.7) At Gallipoli Prince Charles movingly reads Psalm 121. We are so terribly sorry for all those brave young men who died for... Yes, for what? It was the consequence of thoughtless (or worse) political decisions. What actually happened? And who was responsible? You'd never guess if you did not know. The story sounds familiar too. Let me tell you why. The title is 'Great Leaders.'   (25/04/2005)

(2.2.8) In The Netherlands we shall shortly have a referendum on the 'European Constitution.' After a lot of soul searching I am probably going to vote against, but with lots of regret. (24/05/2005)

(2.3) Diary
(2.3.1) Ruud Lubbers, High Commissioner for Refugees of the U.N., has been accused of groping women. I suspect dirty tricks (21/05/04). The 'problem' has come back in Feb. 2005, so I leave it for the moment (20/02/05). I am afraid my predictions came true. Lubbers has resigned now (21/02/05). 

(2.3.2) A visited a good home for the elderly but it was a sad experience. You will find my impressions in the diary (04/10/03). The genteleman I wrote about has since died.

(2.3.1) I have decided, for the time being, to go no longer to my local church. I explain why in the item: "Worship at Faringdon United Church." (01/11/03)  I added the text found on a poster at the church, a quasi-advertisement in the 'Lonely Heart' Column....                                                                                                                                (2.3.2) Next attempt: Christmas Eve in the Parish Church. Not much of a success either.I am sorry for the vicar, but the landing of Jesus in Bethlehem turned out to be more successful than the landing of Beagle 2 on Mars...           (2.3.3) At Easter we had another go. It could have been worse, but I still find local 'Christianity' hard to digest. I explain in 'The Village Pond' (12/04/2004).     (2.3.4) The church ministers in Faringdon are apparently not capable of recognising a common quotation from the Latin Psalter. I am afraid it is symptomatic. With the odd exception among the older ones knowledge of the Bible is glaringly absent (16/02/2005).

(2.4) Travel Report
From the end of March to the beginning of June 2003 I made a trip round the world: London / New York / Honolulu / Australia / Cape Town / London.
The first part of the report is about our two months in Australia. It was written in August 2003.
Later (10/10/03) I added a paragraph about my adventures in the USA (New York).                                                                                               This report will eventually be replaced by my more recent adventures in the USA and Canada (May 27 - July 5, 2004)

3. The Dutch Section (Teksten in het Nederlands) also has four subsections:

(3.1) Artikelen
There are two articles here. One about Mark 13 and the 'End of the World' and one about the translation of Luke 2:7b.

(3.1.1) Last year I was asked by the Dutch periodical Interpretatie to write the article on the Eschatology of Mark 13. In fact it is a summary of my lecture at Hydepark in the autumn of 2004 (See also below, at 3.2.1). I did send it to them many months ago and never heard a thing. Then all of a sudden I got a rather snooty email telling me that several things had to be changed and that there were far too many footnotes. Unfortunately this was not the only time that Interpretatie wanted to change things in my contributions. Some of the changes they suggested (or even made without warning me) were actually rather silly. This time I had enough and I decided to withdraw the article. Insiders might suspect that all this has something to do with critical remarks I implicitly made in the article about opinions held by so called 'Israel-theologians' who have made Interpretatie one of their mouthpieces. I can even hear the word 'censorship' murmured in the distance. That suggestion, however, I firmly reject. The main reason was the number of footnotes.. And indeed, although mostly very short, just a biblical reference, there are quite a lot of them, more than 50. That happens when you try to develop a biblical argument, doesn't it? As always I am open for reactions. (20/02/2005)

(3.1.2) As a second article in this section you will find my reaction to a discussion in the Churches in Holland about the translation of Luke 2:7b. It has been suggested and defended by a Leyden professor to translate: "because there was for them nowhere a place", thus suppressing the inn. I think that this is modern translation theory gone bonkers and I defend my old thesis (article published in 1981) that the sentence is a Semitism and might be translated "because their place was not in the inn" or 'because they were not staying in the inn."   (Published 12. Jan. 2004)            

(3.2) Commentaar

(3.2.1) First of all a little commentary on the level of theological discussion in the Dutch Newspaper TROUW. (26/04/2006).

(3.2.2) On Tuesday November 16 I  introduced a discussion on Mark 13. I have produced a handout, of copy of which is hereby published. For those who are interested I also publish here a summary of lectures at the University of Amsterdam in 1996 on the same subject.

(3.3) Laatste Preek                                                                                                    In future I shall publish here the text (or a Summary) of the last Sermons I preached.                                                                                       (3.3.1) Amsterdam (Groot-Zuid) on January 23, 2005. Subject: 'The Calling of the Disciples according to Matthew (4:12-22).                                     (3.3.2) Also in Amsterdam  (Thomaskerk) on May 22, 2005. Subject: 'Two boys' in Matthew 21:28-32.                                                               (3.3.3) Voorburg, Oude Kerk on Feb. 12, 2006. Subject: Abraham at 75 (Gen 12:1-6)

(3.4) De Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling                                                                              (3.4.1) During the last decades, starting in 1970, in more or less popular periodicals, I published a few articles on the problems of Bible Translation. Since a new Dutch translation, partly already known via the Internet (http://www.BIBLIJA.net), has now been published, I thought it useful to summarize, in a more or less organized way, my views on Translation in general and on this forthcoming Bible Translation (abbreviated NBV) in particular. You will find it under the head ‘De Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling’  in the section 'Teksten in het Nederlands'.                                                                                     I am very critical of this NBV. We, that is some of my colleagues and I, actually never had a decent discussion about it with the translators. Backed up by a huge and effective organisation they always managed to dispose of our objections by describing us as ultra conservatives or taking us for downright fools who would translate Latin 'mihi liber est' as 'to me a book is.' Such is the prerogative of the powerful.                                                                                            My view, in short, is that the ‘dynamic equivalence’ method, even in its present slightly revised form, is not suitable for the translation of any classical text, including the bible. It destroys the internal coherence and ‘translates’ only a very thin layer of the text. I have strong esthetical reservations as well. A list of books and articles consulted, from Jerome to Nida and beyond, could be added, but I shall leave that for the moment. (October / November 2004) 

I have revised this articles on a few minor points and added a few footnotes. As soon as my software permits I shall replace the old text with the new. (21/3/2005) 

Added are some notes on the NBV translation of Paul's Epistle to the Galatians. Many years ago I published a concise commentary on Galatians ('God noch Gebod', Baarn: Ten Have, 1990). I conclude that the NBV is in fact not a translation but a paraphrase. As such it is sometimes acceptable, but on many occasions the paraphrase weakens the text considerably.  (November 2004) 

(3.4.3) Finally I added a few notes on the translation of Genesis 11:1-9, the story of 'The Tower of Babel.' 

Comment on any of these is welcome.

Test for writing Greek and Hebrew characters on this website.

Greek Symbol  αβγδ
Greek SG   ou)k h)lqe/n

Hebrew SG   tiy$)"r:B
Hebrew Symbol   אבג

As you can see Greek (top line)  and Hebrew (bottom line) as 'Symbol' in Word 2003 are correctly transferred on the website, although without accents or vocal signs, but characters in Greek SG (second line) or Hebrew SG (third line)are not transferred as Greek or Hebrew characters.

There is, however, a way around this, provided you have SGreek and SHebrew among your software. Proceed as follows: (1) Copy the document from the website into a normal Word Document. (2) Select the characters that you want changed. (3) Choose fonts SGreek or SHebrew and change the selected words accordingly. You may try it out on the above test.

It is a bit laborious, but it works. I am still looking for a better way, possibly a second host.

I noticed that the ftp software of this host does not accept pdf files.