Tag: Old Testament
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Samson, a Hero and a Half (v)
What are we to say about the story of Samson? It’s morally outrageous. It has apparently divinely sanctioned mass murder, revenge killing, cruelty to animals, destruction of property, prostitution, theft, lies and deceit. It’s dramatically over-the-top with repeated displays of unbelievably super-human strength, and incredible instances of blind stupidity on the part of the hero…
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Samson, a Hero and a Half ! (iii)
Last time, we saw how, when Samson stomped off from his wedding day, the bride-not-to-be was married off by her father to someone else. Unaware of this, and having recovered his cool, Samson “went to visit the young woman he thought was still his wife.” He brought with him a gift which he clearly thought…
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Me and the Hebrew Bible
I’ve never regretted choosing to specialise in ‘Hebrew and Old Testament’ when I studied ‘Divinity’ over 50 years ago. My only regret is that I did so as a very ‘conservative’ Christian, with a correspondingly semi-closed mind, but it’s never too late to remedy such things. Currently I’m reading through the first 15 chapters of…
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Jonah – A Good-Fun Read (v)
Here are some final thoughts on the story of this unwilling, seemingly unrepentant, successful failure of a prophet. Putting this book into the “Prophets” section of the Bible, alongside the weightily serious Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, might seem itself to be a bit of a joke. Next but one from Jonah comes Nahum. Whereas in…
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Jonah – A Good-Fun Read (iv)
We left Jonah swimming in a pool of fish vomit on a beach. Once again he was told to go to the Assyrian capital city, Nineveh, “and preach his message of doom”. This time he went ! The comedy continues when the size of the city is greatly exaggerated. Archeologists tell us it was just…
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Jonah – A Good-Fun Read (iii)
We lost sight of Jonah when, on our hero’s uncompromising insistence, the good-hearted sailors very reluctantly tossed him into the sea. At once the inestimable power of Jonah’s God was demonstrated, in the immediate and complete calming of what had been an overwhelmingly tempestuous sea. No great surprise then, that in the New Testament, Jesus…
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Jonah – A Good-Fun Read (ii)
We left Jonah on the boat to Tarshish, sleeping peacefully in his below-decks’ hammock, but that peace is about to be rudely disturbed. God has Jonah firmly fixed in his sights, and not only outdoes his Greek rival Poseidon, but even transcends the thunderbolts of Zeus, when he hurls such a horrendous gale onto the…
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Genesis 1 – from a Different Angle
The Hebrew Bible/Old Testament was compiled, over several centuries, using earlier materials, oral and written, from 4 different main sources, the latest one representing the interests of the Israelite priesthood. The 1st section of Genesis comes from this priestly source, and runs from 1:1 to 2:4a. The bible wasn’t divided into chapters until the middle…
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