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quarrellings... " (1 Timothy 6:4/5). Again we have: "Testifying earnestly before the Lord not to have disputes of words, profitable for nothing, to the subversion of the hearers." (2 Timothy 2:14). The words disputed about may not necessarily have been Biblical ones. We are to be occupied with what is profitable. The danger is getting occupied with things that, though they may not be positively evil, may be unprofitable. Satan would no doubt be quite happy for us to get occupied with that in which there is no profit.

As to the Old Testament it is written mainly in Hebrew. However, in seeking to understand its meaning in translation some things may be noted. Often the clauses are in pairs (usually called parallelism). A statement is made and then a second one is made similar to the first, but using different words. The point at which the words cross over one another, that is, the point at which they are identical in meaning is, we may be assured, the meaning that the Spirit of God is seeking to convey to us (see for example Psalm 22:27; 90:7) In other cases, such as in the book of Proverbs, there are often two clauses with opposite meanings. By considering the contrast in the words used we can get help in understanding the meaning of both expressions (see for example Proverbs 12:11; 14:29). (See the Poetry of the Old Testament in the New Bible Commentary, pages 39-41) In yet other cases we can get understanding from the fact that spiritual conceptions are couched in words which signify material things. The material things point us to their spiritual equivalent (see for example 2 Samuel 22:29; Hosea 10:1).

Names

Names are also important. If they were not, why did God take the trouble to say what the name of Christ's forerunner should be ? Gabriel stated that he should be called John (Luke 1:13). Then there is Christ. Before he was even conceived it was stated that He should be called Jesus (Luke 2:21). Further, in the Old Testament there is plenty of evidence that names of persons often indicated what they were. Thus we have: "Nabal (meaning folly) is his name and folly is with him" (1 Samuel 25:25). The names Moses and Samuel were both given for clear reasons and were not just names chosen at random or given because their parents thought they sounded nice (see Exodus 2:10 and 1 Samuel 1:20). Sometimes the names of adults were changed or given additionally: Jacob's name was changed to Israel (Genesis 32:28) and Simon was surnamed Peter (Mark 3:16) and so on. The significance of the name Melchisedec is drawn attention to in Hebrews 7:1/2.

Then as to naming things. Man was given the job of naming creatures (Genesis 2:18-20). He could do that, but naming the stars is something that God did (Psalm 147:4). However, there is a danger of misnaming things. Paul speaks about "false-named knowledge" (1 Timothy 6:20). There is quite a lot of this misnaming about today. Some of it is innocent enough. To give examples, the following can be cited. Staff are given the title manager when at best they are assistant managers. They should only be called manager if they are at the top of the pile in their branch, department or other autonomous area. At the other extreme a manager of racing stables is often simply called chief stable lad! Worse is the calling of practising homosexuals gays. Gay properly speaking means merry and bright. By attaching what sounds nice to homosexuals it gives a sort of approval to the practice of things like buggery, which have nasty connotations. Then there is the applying of the term learning disabilities to persons who are clearly sub-
normal. In the past such persons were termed morons, imbeciles or idiots. The worse cases were classified as idiots. However, these names became used as terms of abuse, especially moron and idiot and therefore there is a strong case now for using other terms. However speaking of such persons as having learning disabilities is dangerous because Winston Churchill could be said to have had learning disabilities, as one book says: "For the life of him he could not master Latin, and seemed worse at Greek. As for mathematics, they were quite beyond him" (Tales of To-day, page 36). However this did not stop him from becoming Prime Minister in the UK or writing history books. Apart from him some people are dyslexic, but otherwise quite normal. Saying such people have learning disabilities may well lead people in the present climate to think that we are talking about people who are quite mentally incapax and have Down's Syndrome or suffer from Cretinism. Names should be meaningful and not be given for