The Roundup – 10.25.26

“As far as Roland was concerned, God o’ the Cross was just another religion which taught that love and murder inextricably bound together – that in the end, God always drank blood.” – Stephen King, “The Little Sisters of Eluria,” in Everything’s Eventual: 14 Dark Tales (Scribner, 2002).

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• Though it’s from 4 years ago, this parody of the Doxology is evergreen.

• How did Paul die? Mark Goodacre discusses.

• The gang over at Intertextual Bible recently posted an interesting piece on mermaids in the Bible. Well, the Greek Bible. Kind of. It’s really interesting to see how mythological figures in Greek culture and folklore made their way into the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible.
• Paula Fredriksen recently gave some lectures at the University of Edinburg, the first of which is entitled “A World Full of Gods.” I love Fredriksen and thoroughly enjoyed this lecture.

• The ancient poet Homer influenced Greek and Roman literature, sometimes in profound ways. But did his work have any effect on the Hebrew Bible? Paul Davidson explored that topic in a recent video.

• I recently read a post from 2013 by Richard Elliot Friedman on why the Torah doesn’t end with “the end,” that is, with Israel entering the Promised Land. It’s an older piece but worth the five minutes or so it takes to read it.