I was finally able to listen to part 2 of "Pete ruins Exodus" over at the podcast The Bible for Normal People. As usual, great material looking at the beginning stages of Moses' call to Egypt, including that bizarre scene in Exodus 4:24-26. The next installment of Koine Greek's reading of the Gospel of Mark... Continue Reading →
"What would lead people to make all this stuff up – all of it – from scratch? Not just embroidering or adding to existing stories about an existing person, but inventing all of the above, including the bits that clearly work against their purposes? So far, I have not heard an adequate explanation for this.... Continue Reading →
It’s gotten all mixed up, you see, as it was bound to after thousands and thousands of years of dogma and tradition. Religion doesn’t spawn morality. Intelligence spawns morality,which inevitably gives birth (in intelligent enough species) to religion.Now, some people find that religion helps hone and focus their morality, that it gives their morality a purpose... Continue Reading →
Michael D. Coogan, The Old Testament: A Historical and Literary Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures, third edition (OUP, 2014), 138. Closer examination of the narrative in Exodus 32, however, reveals much complexity. First, despite the ancient interpretation found in Psalm 106, the calf is apparently not a symbol of another deity, a false god as it... Continue Reading →
Michael D. Coogan, The Old Testament: A Literary and Historical Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures, third edition (OUP, 2014), 123. It is important to note that the Bible contains three different versions of the Decalogue. The first is in Exodus 20.2-17; in its present form, it has been edited by P; note especially the reference to Genesis... Continue Reading →
Michael D. Coogan, The Old Testament: A Literary and Historical Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures, third edition (OUP, 2014), 108. Given the importance of the Exodus, it is not surprising that the tendency to embellish what had originally occurred is evident among the accounts we have of this central event. For example, how many people escaped... Continue Reading →
Michael D. Coogan, The Old Testament: A Literary and Historical Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures, third edition (OUP, 2014), 99. Following the narrative of the call of Moses in chapters 3.1-4.17 is a short passage (4.24-26) oddly inconsistent with the larger plot. Moses has finally acceded to the divine command to return to Egypt and to... Continue Reading →
Yesterday I posted a link to the second video in Dr. Joshua Bowen's series on the topic of textual criticism where he discussed some of the methods and rules utilized by textual critics when they engage in their craft. In the next video Bowen goes into the textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible specifically. The... Continue Reading →
Richard Elliot Friedman, The Exodus: How It Happened and Why It Matters (New York, NY: HarperOne, 2017), 64-65. So let's do the math: Eight out of eight Israelites with Egyptian names are Levites. Two out of two accounts of the revelation of God's name make it to the Levite Moses and are told in Levite sources.... Continue Reading →
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