Antique Software: Turbo Pascal v5.5

Antique Software: Turbo Pascal v5.5, via Adam.

I learned to program on Turbo Pascal! I don't know what version it was, though, I'm pretty sure it was the last version for DOS before they moved to a Windows version.

A few years after I'd left high school, and after they'd changed the AP test to C++ (and before they changed it again to Java), I wanted to get one of the Pascal books we'd learned with from my high school, but they threw them out or something. Sigh.

Permalink | 3 Comments | Tags: Personal, Programming | id 6794

23:45 (utc-5)

 

World Magazine: Why the Jews rejected Jesus

World Magazine: Jews and Jesus, by Marvin Olasky, via James White:

Passover and Easter are upon us, and so is a book with a fascinating title and audacious subtitle: David Klinghoffer's Why the Jews Rejected Jesus: The Turning Point in Western History (Doubleday, 2005).

On the title's crucial theological point: Mr. Klinghoffer, an orthodox Jew, rightly takes to task the "well-meaning Christian" seeking to improve Jewish-Christian relations by saying that Jesus' teaching was very close to that of the rabbis of the time. He also jumps past "New Perspective on Paul" theologians who do not find "substantial points of disagreement between Jesus and His contemporaries."

Both groups err, Mr. Klinghoffer notes, by not taking into full account the doctrine of the "oral Torah" that was sweeping through Judaism 2,000 years ago: "What Jesus rejected was the oral Torah that explains the written Torah. Essential to rabbinic Judaism, this concept of an oral Torah recognizes the Pentateuch as a cryptic document, a coded text. It posits that the Bible's first five books were revealed to Moses along with a key to unlock the code." That key was purportedly passed on orally throughout the generations.

Christians today learn that the New Testament explains certain previously mysterious Old Testament passages; proponents of the "oral Torah" (written down as the Talmud) claimed the same for their teaching. Jesus said, in essence, sola scriptura, the Bible alone: He allowed His followers to pluck grain on the Sabbath, which was perfectly fine according to the Bible but wrong according to the code. The code said that Jews should not wash their faces on fast days, but Jesus taught the opposite.

As Mr. Klinghoffer notes, "For Jesus, oral Torah was a man-made accretion without transcendent authority. He tells a group of Pharisees, 'So for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God.' . . . This explains why he felt it was appropriate to teach solely on his own authority, rather than by citing previous sages." Some Christians today believe they have figured out the secret code of Revelation or other books of the Bible. Some Jews 2,000 years ago felt the same way, but Jesus flatly told them that there was no code: Just read and pray to put into practice what God's Word itself declares.

Permalink | 1 Comment | Tags: Religion | id 6790

19:47 (utc-5)