"I will lift up your skirts over your face; and I will let nations look on your nakedness and kingdoms on your shame." Nahum 3:5, NRSV The Bible is full of sex. This is sometimes masked by English translations of the text, but it is most certainly there. For example, in Genesis 26 the Philistine king Abimelech,... Continue Reading →
Back in July, blogger @ReginaldODonog1 wrote a short piece on the biblical king Solomon and his relationship to the fowl of the air entitled “Solomon, Master of the Birds.” In it, he discusses the possible sources of the Quranic passage wherein Solomon is said to have mastery over “hosts of jinn and men and birds” (Surah 2:17).[1] In... Continue Reading →
Paula Fredriksen, Paul: The Pagans' Apostle (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2017), 115. Israel's god, in Jewish tradition, stands at the apex of humanity. The other elohim bow down to him; he alone is supreme. But his universality is ethnically inflected: this god chooses Israel from among all the other nations, setting them apart... Continue Reading →
Wayne T. Pitard, "Before Israel: Syria-Palestine in the Bronze Age," in The Oxford History of the Biblical World, Michael D. Coogan, editor (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 27. There are many reasons to be skeptical of [the Patriarchal] narratives as historically accurate accounts of the lives of Israel's progenitors. Indications within the narratives suggest that... Continue Reading →
What did ex-pagans and Jews expect when they became followers of Jesus? This is the question that Alex Finkelson addresses in his recent post "What kind of blessings did the churches inherit from Israel?" As Finkelson discusses, the various promises made to the patriarchs and even to king David are tangible: a literal kingdom in... Continue Reading →
Happy Valentine's Day! To both of my readers, I love you! Over at Is That in the Bible? readers can find a lengthy post on the story of Joseph entitled "From Robes to Riches: The Fairytale of Joseph." In this piece, Paul Davidson discusses issues related to genre, sources, redaction, and more. This is not... Continue Reading →
Over at the website The Bible and Interpretation there is a piece by religious scholar Jay Williams on "Eden, the Tree of Life, and the Wisdom of the Serpent." It is at once both a very interesting and very bizarre piece. Williams points out not long after the piece begins that the serpent isn't Satan as Christians would like... Continue Reading →
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcxiyHTGLIU Texts discussed: the Pentateuch; Exodus 17:14-16, 24:4; Ezra 3:2. Recommended reading: John Frederick Jansen, “Pentateuch,” in 'The Oxford Companion to the Bible,' Bruce M. Metzger and Michael D. Coogan, eds. (Oxford University Press, 1993), 580.
Candida Moss (University of Birmingham) wrote a piece back in March on Apollonius, the miracle-working son of God that is often compared to Jesus. In it Moss, a prolific writer and scholar, observes that many in the ancient Mediterannean were considered the son of this or that God and that the miracles of Jesus "weren't completely unprecedented."... Continue Reading →
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