Pleasure Reading - interlinear New Testament and Madison Constitution Diary

Perhaps you have been wondering what I have been up to since the Election? Mainly, pleasure reading:

**Greek-English Interlinear New Testament (trans. Green)
**Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 Reported by James Madison

Well, not exactly light reading, but these 2 are very enjoyable.

I like the Green translation because it has the same literal translation in readable fashion in the margins. If you have never read an interlinear translation, it is remarkable to what degree even good translations are, at best, paraphrases.

As to the Madison diary, I had not idea until a few months ago that such a thing even existed. It details day by day and speech by speech, the daily arguments and bickering that led to every word in the Constitution. Perhaps you have wondered how they came up with such a thing? Now you can know. By the way, upon reading this, it is clear that the 17th amendment was a serious mistake: senators should be elected by the state legislatures, not by popular vote; if this were still the way, we might not be in the pickle we are currently in.