Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

This site contains my notes on Scriptural (and perhaps other) ancient texts from the Byzantine Christian tradition. Eastern Christianity has some distinctives and so it is fitting to indicate as such. The site name is wordplay on “Byzantine,” “antique,” and “boutique.”

No.

Any opinions expressed on this site are my own, except for the ones I’ve gleaned from much smarter people or subconsciously espouse as a result of my upbringing. In any event, the opinions expressed here are obviously not my employer’s.

This site should not be construed to represent any official position of the Orthodox Church nor any specific parish. I alone am responsible for the content here and it is not endorsed by anyone.

I’ve answered that question on the Welcome page.

See the Contact page.

Inspiration for this site includes:

• Buls’ Notes
• Search the Scriptures
• Lord of Spirits podcast
• The Whole Counsel of God blog
• BibleProject

I have been using Evernote and documents saved on my computer for a long time to keep track of various notes, but it’s getting harder to find things, so I figured a more organized approach is in order. Also, posting it publicly allows me to more easily share my notes with others when referencing them in discussions. Hence this site.

With that said, I update this in my free time, which is limited. A lot of my notes haven’t been migrated here yet, and the process is a bit burdensome.

Unfortunately, many English translations of the Bible are copyrighted in such a way that does not allow me to use large portions of these translations on this website. That is unfortunate. As such, I’ve opted to predominantly quote the Scriptures from public domain texts or from works licensed in ways that don’t heavily restrict my ability to cite them (e.g., Creative Commons licenses, copyright licenses explicitly allowing usage for nonprofit purposes, etc.).

For the New Testament, there are some great translations in contemporary English that are public domain or that otherwise can be cited from relatively freely (e.g., BTV, TCENT, WEB, NET). For the Old Testament translated from the Hebrew MT, there are similarly good translations in contemporary English with permissive licensing (e.g., WEB, JPS Tanakh 1917). However, for the Greek LXX Old Testament, the options are more limited. I herein predominantly quote the LXX from the ENGLXXUP, which is a modernized version of Brenton’s 1851 Septuagint English translation (Robert Adam Boyd revised it in 2020 and released it into the public domain).

See the list of Common Abbreviations used on this site.

The BTV and TCENT translation use the ‘ʋ’ character to indicate second person singular pronouns.

Quote

One of the greatest advantages of archaic translations like the King James Version is the ability to differentiate between second person singular and second person plural by the use of archaic pronouns such as thou and ye. In order to maintain these distinctions, the Byzantine Text Version differentiates between second person singular and second person plural by using an alternate letter (ʋ) in second person singular pronouns. Consequently, the words yoʋ, yoʋr, and yoʋrs indicate second person singular, while the words you, your, and yours indicate second person plural. The casual reader will barely notice the difference, while the careful reader will be able to discern whether the pronoun is singular or plural.

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“Matters of Orthography,” in Introduction to Robert Adam Boyd, Byzantine Text Version (BTV) 2021. Lulu Press, 2022. See TCENT introduction.

This is not an exhaustive list, but can serve as a starting point.

• Directory of Orthodox Christian parishes, Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America

• The Orthodox Faith
• The Orthodox Faith, Orthodox Church in America (OCA)

• What Is the Orthodox Church? – Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
• Welcome to the Orthodox Church
• 5 Differences Between Orthodoxy and Evangelicalism
• 5 Differences Between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church
• Tour of an Orthodox church and a related interview on Orthodox beliefs by Matt Whitman, a Protestant Christian (formerly the Ten Minute Bible Hour YouTube channel)
  • A Protestant With Tons of Questions Visits a Beautiful Orthodox Church
  • A Protestant Learns About Orthodoxy From an Orthodox Priest
  • What Do Orthodox Christians Believe? (And Why I Care)
• Another tour of an Orthodox church and a related interview on Orthodox beliefs by Austin Suggs (Gospel Simplicity YouTube channel)
  • Protestant Tours Orthodox Church
  • Protestant Interviews Orthodox Priest

• Timothy (Bishop Kallistos) Ware, The Orthodox Church: An Introduction to Eastern Christianity (Penguin Books, 2015). Available at Ancient Faith Publishing and Amazon
• Frederica Mathewes-Green, Welcome to the Orthodox Church: An Introduction to Eastern Christianity (Brewster, Massachusetts: Paraclete Press, 2015). Available at Ancient Faith Publishing and Amazon (including a Kindle edition)
• Stephen Freeman, Everywhere Present: Christianity in a One-Storey Universe (Chesterton, Indiana: Conciliar Press, 2010). Available at Ancient Faith and Amazon (including a Kindle edition)

Thanks for your attention to detail. Feel free to contact me, or if you’re familiar with using GitHub, by all means file an issue or send a pull request. Please note that it may take ma a while to acknowledge and handle your message. I appreciate your patience.

Please note that this is a nonprofit website. I do not sell nor knowingly use advertising nor any other means of earning income from this website.

I use and quote from copyrighted material which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner(s). I am making such material available for criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research.

I believe this constitutes a “fair use” of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the United States Copyright law.

However, if you disagree and wish to request that I take down certain materials (i.e., DMCA takedown ), clarify a citation or other reference, etc., please contact me with a precise description of what you’d like removed, why, and a direct link to the specific content. I’ll review your request and get back to when I have an opportunity to do so.