tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46206775476415487632026-10-13T16:25:05.856-04:00A blog of the bible reading from Genesis to Revelation that analyzes the text as a piece of literature written in history by living people separated by time, language, and geography.Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05933643045351704100noreply@blogger.comBlogger203125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620677547641548763.post-86223278227341904382011-09-06T06:00:00.035-04:002011-09-06T06:00:02.220-04:00

Hosea prophesied in the Northern Kingdom of Israel during the reign of King Jeroboam II (ca. 786-746 BCE), after whose death the kingdom begins to decline before its defeat by the Assyrians in 722 BCE. According to the preface in the Harper Collins Study Bible, its core message can be gleaned in a declaration toward the end of the book, a restatement of the first commandment: "I have been the

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05933643045351704100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620677547641548763.post-21133565460637133412011-08-30T06:00:00.025-04:002011-08-30T06:00:10.594-04:00

Daniel 7-12 shows Daniel not as the revealer of chapters 1-6, but one to whom things are revealed. Before he interpreted the dreams of others; now he requires supernatural interpreters for his own apocalyptic visions. Apocalypse here comes from the Greek meaning "revelation." However, the popular connotation of apocalypse as the end of this world order is still appropriate in certain cases.

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05933643045351704100noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620677547641548763.post-68582430407121997662011-08-23T06:00:00.027-04:002011-08-23T06:00:10.923-04:00

Who is Daniel? Daniel is a complex composite historical-fictitious figure. We read of him in Ezekiel when he was grouped with Noah and Job, making him a historical proto-Jewish figure. He also shares a name with a 14th-century BCE Ugaritic king. And while there is no evidence that a prophet named Daniel  ever lived, his character is decidedly Jewish, embodying many of the themes we see in

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I must admit, I had trouble getting into this section of Ezekiel. Most of it is comprised of a blueprint for a new temple in Jerusalem and rules for governing the re-formed state. In the first couple readings it seemed like the same old rules an regulations that made Deuteronomy and Numbers and Leviticus just drag on. But then I considered what Ezekiel was actually saying to us. What we have

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Signs of the Times Ezekiel 24, which concludes a long section of visions and oracles against Jerusalem, terminates with two signs, both of which anticipate later events. Both of these signs consist of a symbolic act suggestive of the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, followed by the event itself. The first sign is the death of Ezekiel's wife, which the prophet is prohibited from mourning

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05933643045351704100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620677547641548763.post-28561716771754060102011-08-02T06:00:00.062-04:002011-08-02T06:00:05.869-04:00

Ezekiel 25-32 consists of oracles against and laments over foreign nations, a sort of reassurance of Israel after God thoroughly censures his people. Though Israel is in the process of being brought down, it will one day be raised back up, and its neigboring countries will suffer a harsh fate for their conduct against Israel, whether it was warfare, mockery, or failing to protect God's people.

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05933643045351704100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620677547641548763.post-14689705363359706342011-07-26T06:00:00.001-04:002011-07-26T06:00:09.097-04:00

Last week we explored the prophet Ezekiel's mystical encounter with God. As I noted, description of mystical encounters are not to be taken as piece-for-piece parables or allegories. Rather, we may interpret certain images within them to arrive at a sense of what the encounter signifies. Today we encounter a different form of revelatory experience: allegories or parables given directly from God

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05933643045351704100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620677547641548763.post-61633572412579262292011-07-19T21:41:00.002-04:002011-07-19T21:43:16.956-04:00

I have written much of the dialectical tension that shape the biblical narrative, the push and pull between the word of God and the will of humankind. Intertwined with this plot-forming device is the device of movement. Throughout much of Israel's history, it has moved toward and away from the promised land. Now, long after conquering the promised land, Israel finds itself again out of God's

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05933643045351704100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620677547641548763.post-5747494580036301752011-07-12T06:00:00.002-04:002011-07-19T19:27:30.132-04:00

Being midway through the bible, I would like to analyze some poetry. I Bid you stay with me - I will break down Lamentations and Explain the meaning of its lines. Today we look at The Book of Lamentations, an intricate web of five interwoven poems, each of which speaks of the Babylonian exile in a different way. These are the events immediately following the book of Jeremiah, which can be read

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05933643045351704100noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620677547641548763.post-20346060864201883602011-07-05T21:03:00.000-04:002011-07-05T21:03:47.309-04:00

The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms. As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes true, then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent the prophet. (Jeremiah 28.8-9)So Jeremiah told Hananiah in his prophecies of the Lord's wrath against his unfaithful people.

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05933643045351704100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620677547641548763.post-91385270765852667192011-06-28T06:00:00.000-04:002011-06-28T06:00:00.468-04:00

One of the primary themes of the Hebrew Bible is persecution and suffering, a theme that was given extensive treatment from Job onwards, through Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiates, and especially through the prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah. During the time of the divided monarchy, the Israelites suffer perpetual persecution. In this time, people turn to prophets, who offer an alternative (though

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05933643045351704100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620677547641548763.post-38301982116555738212011-06-21T23:14:00.000-04:002011-06-21T23:14:18.693-04:00

Jeremiah was a prophet who was first commissioned by God in the year 627 BCE. As a prophet, Jeremiah takes issue with the status quo. One of his primary causes is the belief that temple worship is not as important as strict obedience to the Lord's law. He has other causes as well, such as the great guilt of Judah and the general unfaithfulness of the people. But all these coalesce in the issue of

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Third Isaiah First Isaiah presents Zion/Jerusalem on the brink of destruction, Second Isaiah presents Zion in Babylon, and Third Isaiah presents God's people as they have returned to Judah from their captivity in Babylon. Even though the people have returned to their land in Third Isaiah, the prophet's grandiose prophecies have not all come true. Oppression remains, even in the homeland as the

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 Second Isaiah Cyrus the Conquerer The complex tensions in First Isaiah carry over into Second Isaiah, which sees a great new conquerer coming to free Israel from its captivity in Babylon. A new tension is added: this conquerer is Cyrus the Great, a Persian king. Israel's own monarchy has failed; considering that 1 Samuel portrays the monarchy as a rejection of the Lord, one might say

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05933643045351704100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620677547641548763.post-64571685319254555992011-06-01T21:05:00.000-04:002011-06-01T21:05:14.230-04:00

First Isaiah Isaiah is a prophet who lived during the time of Kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah.  This was a tumultuous time - as times tend to be when prophets appear. Isaiah was very concerned about the proper treatment of those with little protection in society, namely the orphans and widows. His vision for the future was one of violence and loss, but ultimately the

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05933643045351704100noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620677547641548763.post-42343998731562673582011-05-31T21:47:00.002-04:002011-05-31T21:47:34.379-04:00

The most important thing to remember about prophets...is that they are visionaries. I am no prophet. However, I do have vision problems right now that are keeping me from blogging adequately. I will return with a post on the book of Isaiah as soon as possible. Thank you in advance for your understanding.

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05933643045351704100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620677547641548763.post-1534804977871179332011-05-24T00:01:00.000-04:002011-05-23T19:53:30.898-04:00

The New York Times published a fun little quiz about the bible and sex in the May 22 Sunday Edition. Op-ed columnist Nicholas D. Kristof does a good job of showing how human interpretation of the bible colors our understanding of the actual text. [Follow up: read an explanation and reader responses.] Question number four is of particular interest for this week's reading: the "Song of Solomon" or

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Harold Camping has a blueprint for humanity. Those billboards reading “Judgment Day May 21” are the brainchild of the 89-year-old, who hosts a daily internationally-syndicated radio show, “Family Radio.” Judgment Day arrives Saturday with the rapture of God’s faithful. At six o’clock p.m. Standard Time, an earthquake will occur at the International Date Line, and will spread over the whole world.

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05933643045351704100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620677547641548763.post-43980344509501665382011-05-17T19:40:00.000-04:002011-05-17T19:40:45.487-04:00

About a quarter of the way through Ecclesiastes we encounter something familiar - an old song... The original melody was written by Pete Seeger, but the lyrics come from Ecclesiastes 3.1-8: "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven..." There is a time for constructive acts of all sorts, as well as acts of destruction. Everything goes in cycles created by and

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05933643045351704100noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620677547641548763.post-42683048605057375062011-05-10T03:00:00.000-04:002011-05-10T03:00:01.838-04:00

High School My senior year of high school, I took a class called "Holocaust and Genocide Studies." The first period of the day, it started at 7:15 a.m., roughly two hours before teenagers are meant to get up. But I was fascinated by the course. Dr. Buchanan, the teacher, exposed us all to the basest atrocities of humankind and the ravages or war and genocide. A combination of history,

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[In this introductory post I lay out some ideas that might seem contradictory to last week's analysis of Psalm 119. I am still trying to work through it. Let me know what you think!] The Book of Proverbs is a collection of wisdom literature that is customarily attributed to Solomon in light of the tradition of his wisdom. In actuality, write Claudia V. Camp and Carole R. Fontaine in their

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05933643045351704100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620677547641548763.post-82824277554053045012011-04-26T19:51:00.000-04:002011-04-26T19:51:17.169-04:00

So far, this blog has focused on the relationship between God and humankind as one driven by dialectical tensions - the difference between God's will and human action. In last week's post, I argued that these are the result of the covenant between God and his people, the Israelites; if the people obey God, they are ensured his divine protection. But as the story of Job demonstrated, sometimes it

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05933643045351704100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620677547641548763.post-22921634194077300142011-04-19T00:01:00.001-04:002011-04-19T00:01:04.051-04:00

With Easter fast approaching, this week's post will explore Psalm 22 as a source text for the gospels, particularly Jesus' Passion. Psalm 22 was not originally written with this intention; the themes and words or the text were adapted by later authors in order to build a story with historical resonances. The original purpose of Psalm 22 was as a spiritual text to describe an encounter with God.

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05933643045351704100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620677547641548763.post-85805975764120416702011-04-12T21:03:00.001-04:002011-04-12T21:05:17.066-04:00

The Book of Psalms is comprised of prayers and songs dating from Israel's early history to after the exile. Like most of the literature of the bible, individual psalms were composed over many years and edited into a final form as it appears in the bible. The introduction to Psalms in the Harper Collins Study Bible lists the following types of psalms: Prayers for Help (Laments) Songs of

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05933643045351704100noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4620677547641548763.post-13687343654024477112011-04-05T20:51:00.000-04:002011-04-05T20:51:58.038-04:00

My spiel for blogging the bible thus far has been "dialectical tensions," the disconnect that exists between God's will and human action. In this model, humans are punished when they stray from God and rewarded when they are faithful. The book of Job challenges dialectical tensions with the tale of a pious man who is punished - without justification that we can understand in human terms. Job is

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