Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Samson, Samuel, John the Baptist – all were sons of barren women. God makes the barren woman a joyful mother of children. But He does more: He makes those born from the barren the best. He does the same with the land. When the patriarchs first enter Canaan, there’s . . . . Continue Reading »
Yahweh does many things for the sake of His Name, to maintain a good reputation. This might sound self-focused, as if Yahweh were a particularly large version of the ancient hero. I think something like the opposite is the case. Yahweh shows mercy to Israel, refrains from judging them with a final . . . . Continue Reading »
In a 2002 article, Lester Little notes the biblical inspiration for Carolingian Benedictine monasticism: “In inspiration, thought patterns, and rhetoric, this liturgical monasticism shared in a culture that was deeply indebted to the Old Testament. Models for the duties and prerogatives of . . . . Continue Reading »
After a series of exceedingly sensitive and profound meditations on Genesis 1-3, in which John Paul II highlights the contemporaneity and wisdom of Genesis, he suddenly turns into a nineteenth century liberal when he starts talking about sex in the Torah ( Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology . . . . Continue Reading »
In the aforementioned article on giving in the early church, Neil makes this intriguing comment about the Old Testament and Jewish understanding of “the poor”: “Justice for the poor is a strong theme in rabbinic texts. Injunctions to act justly towards the poor are evident in the . . . . Continue Reading »
This is the last in a series of posts summarizing the way I’ve taught an Old Testament survey to kids aged 5-11 this summer. Overall, it’s worked well. We’ve covered a lot, and the kids have learned some of the basic patterns of the Bible. It got more difficult the further we went . . . . Continue Reading »
Some more chants and outlines of the Old Testament. The books of Judges and 1-2 Samuel narrate the transition from the Mosaic to the Davidic covenants, from the age of priests to the age of kings, from the age of the ox to the age of the lion. As so often in the Bible: God tears down the world so . . . . Continue Reading »
The Hebrew word for leaf is ‘aleh , which uses the same consonants as the verb ‘alah , “to go up, to ascend,” and ‘olah , “ascension offering.” Surly Hebrew children didn’t say, “Make like a tree and leave” but “Make like a tree and . . . . Continue Reading »
John Nugent’s The Politics of Yahweh: John Howard Yoder, the Old Testament, and the People of God [Theopolitical Visions series] is an important contribution to the study of Yoder’s work, as well as a provocative survey of the political development of Israel in the Old Testament. . . . . Continue Reading »
In her fascinating In the Wake of the Goddesses: Women, Culture and the Biblical Transformation of Pagan Myth , Tikva Frymer-Kensky argues that the Bible does not have any notion of “feminine wiles”: “There is no woman’s toolkit.” Men and women use the rhetoric of . . . . Continue Reading »
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