Tag: Israel

• God’s Life Story

  When people give thought to the word ‘God’, they may well have sophisticated notions about its meaning, and might use such words as infinite, eternal, all-powerful and so on. But let’s step back a bit, and focus on the Jewish-Christian God. If we journey back in time, we discover that he has a ‘life history’…

  calgacus83

  2nd Mar 2023

  Christianity, Hebrew Bible, History, Literature, Mythology, Old Testament, Religion

  Archeology, Asherah, Canaanites, Christian, El, God, Goddess, Israel, Jewish, Ras Shamra

• 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…

  calgacus83

  16th Jan 2023

  Christianity, Hebrew Bible, History, Literature, Mythology, Old Testament, Poetry, Religion

  Burning Bush, Exodus, God, Israel, Literature, Moses, Mount Sinai, Myth, Torah, Yahweh

• Was Moses an Egyptian?

  We noted, last time, that Moses enjoys an ‘exceptional’ birth story. His parents are humble but Moses, escaping death, becomes a grandson of the Egyptian Pharaoh once adopted by his daughter. It’s an incredible tale, and a famous Jew, Sigmund Freud, had things to say about it ….. He observed that in this story’s most…

  calgacus83

  13th Jan 2023

  Christianity, Hebrew Bible, History, Literature, Mythology, Old Testament, Religion

  Birth Stories, Egypt, Exodus, Freud, Israel, Moses, Pharaoh, Richard Friedman, River Nile, Torah

• Matthew’s Debatable Verse

  There are just two ‘nativity’ accounts, at the beginning of the Gospels called Matthew and Luke. Neither is referred to again in the New Testament, which nowhere else says anything about Jesus’ birth. The word “virgin” occurs only in Matthew, in a quote from Isaiah 7:14. Here’s a literal rendering of that verse from the…

  calgacus83

  8th Dec 2022

  Christianity, Christmas, Jesus of Nazareth, Literature, Mythology, New Testament, Old Testament, Religion

  Christmas, Gospels, Isaiah, Israel, Jesus, Mythology, Nativity, Virgin Birth

• Samson, a Hero and a Half (iv)

  In Judges 16, being ‘controlled by the Spirit of Yahweh’ seems to increase Samson’s sexual, as well as physical, prowess. While visiting Gaza “he saw a prostitute and went to her house to spend the night”. No moral censure appears in the text. Perhaps Yahweh was willing to let this go, since his aim (recalling…

  calgacus83

  17th Nov 2022

  Christianity, Composer, Hebrew Bible, Literature, Mythology, Old Testament, Religion

  Folktales, Gaza, God, Israel, Legends, Opera, Saint-Saens, Samson and Delilah

• Jonah – A Good-Fun Read

  The little book called “Jonah” shows us that the Old Testament, or Hebrew Bible, really can be a ‘good read’, especially if understood in a common sense, down-to-earth way. It wasn’t written by God, and shouldn’t be approached with literal woodenness, and kill-joy solemnity. But even it were, Psalm 2:4 tells us that, “In heaven…

  calgacus83

  21st Sep 2022

  Christianity, Hebrew Bible, Literature, Mythology, Old Testament, Poetry, Religion

  Hebrew Bible, Hero, Humour, Imagination, Israel, Jonah, Old Testament, Poseidon, Prophets, Stories

• What is Christianity?

  It’s now 40 years since I stopped being a Christian minister. Am I now a Christian? This is where I have to put on a ‘philosophy’ hat, and ask the follow-up question. What does ‘being a Christian’ mean? Christianity, after all, is by no means a homogeneous entity. There are Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and…

  calgacus83

  4th Aug 2022

  Christianity, Jesus of Nazareth, Mythology, New Testament, Old Testament, Philosophy, Religion

  Apostates, Christianity, Constantine, Creeds & Confessions, God, Heretics, Israel, Jesus, Pagans, Roman Empire

• Who Wrote the Bible’s first 5 Books? (i)

  It was long believed by Jews and Christians alike that the first 5 books (or scrolls) of the Hebrew Bible, (the Pentateuch), had been written by Moses, around the 15th century BCE. In the Middle Ages, however, attention was drawn to Gen.12:6 which says, “the Canaanites were then in the land”, meaning this was no…

  calgacus83

  27th Apr 2022

  Christianity, Hebrew Bible, Literature, Mythology, Old Testament, Poetry, Religion

  Bible, History, Israel, Moses, Pentateuch, Pharaoh, Ramesses, Stories, Yahweh

• The Tower of Babel – or Babble?

  This story begins by stating that “the whole earth had a common language and a common vocabulary”, which is a splendid example of ‘never let the facts get in the way of a good story’ since we’re told, in the previous chapter, that the nations had been “separated into their lands, every one according to…

  calgacus83

  24th Apr 2022

  Hebrew Bible, Literature, Mythology, Old Testament, Poetry, Religion

  Bablylon, Genesis, Icacus, Israel, Phaeton, Shelley, Tower of Babel, Yahweh, Ziggurat

• Genesis and Ugarit

  From 1939 onwards, the excavation of a mound on the Mediterranean coast of northern Syria, (called Ras Shamra), uncovered the ancient Canaanite city of Ugarit. Included in the finds were tablets containing texts recording the religious beliefs of its people, which show that Ugarit and Israel shared a common linguistic and literary heritage, and provide…

  calgacus83

  5th Mar 2022

  Christianity, Hebrew Bible, Literature, Mythology, Old Testament, Poetry, Religion

  Asherah, Baal, Canaan, Israel, Myth, Psalms, Ugarit, Yahweh