Tag: Exodus
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A Fresh Look at Genesis One (ii)
In part (i), I suggested the current Genesis chapter 1 was as an earlier version of what’s now the first creation story with Genesis 2:1-3 added. These three verses are stylistically different, as might be expected if written by a different hand. For example, three structural phrases, repeated over and over in chapter 1, suddenly…
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God’s Life Story (ii)
A previous post noted that the first Israelites were Canaanites, and so their chief god was called El or Elohim (as in the name Isra-el). How many other gods and goddesses did they follow? The answer is, lots! Unsurprisingly, the Hebrew Bible doesn’t go into details, but frequently denounces Israelites who followed the weather/fertility god…
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Jesus on the Sea of Galilee
Following on from my previous posts about the Feeding of the 5000 being a parable rather than historical, the same can be said about Jesus on the Sea of Galilee. He’s said to have instantly calmed its stormy waves – “a windstorm arose on the sea, so great that the boat was being swamped”. Normally,…
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The Exodus times Three
In its final form, Exodus, like the Bible’s other opening books, was a well-crafted compilation using a variety of oral and written source materials. These had originated, and then been expanded upon, for at least five centuries, in different locations, at diverse times, by numberless story tellers and writers. The final editors had exemplary respect…
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The Enigmatic Moses
Was there a Moses? The most likely answer is, yes ! All the Hebrew Bible sources, from the earliest onwards, while often reflecting different perspectives, are in agreement here. Since there are details in their contributions which are rather ‘awkward’, this makes it unlikely that Moses was ‘custom built’ by the writers/editors, and more likely…
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Exodus – the Burning Bush
In these Exodus blogs, I’m exploring some of the ways in which the writers/editors crafted their work. In my view, they were writing neither straightforward history, nor fiction, but what might be called ‘religious literature’, which they shaped into an inspiring eye, ear and imagination catching, ‘national epic’. I think of it as being mythicised…
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Jesus, Moses, Matthew and Literature
As I see it, it’s unsustainable to regard the Gospels as history or biography as currently understood. The writer of Matthew’s Gospel wasn’t a ‘disinterested’ professional, assembling, evaluating, and presenting a comprehensive, strictly chronological, balanced account. He was a believer, writing an extended religious tract, to buttress the faith of other believers, and persuade the…
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The Birth of Moses (i)
There was a time when it was taken for granted that Moses wrote the first five books of the Hebrew Bible – the ‘Torah’ if you’re Jewish, the ‘Pentateuch’ if you’re not. These books, however, don’t say that he did. They’re written from a third person perspective; and it’s hard to imagine Moses describing, in…
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