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God the Midwife: a repost with new format

May 1, 2012 No comments

With mothers’ day coming up it seems a good time to reissue an old post, with a new format and somewhat cleaned up audio. I briefly remind you of some of the passages that picture God as a midwife. The Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) regularly pictures Yahweh as intimately associated with forming in the womb and with birthing. In view of “his” role as midwife “he” can hardly have been thought of as a male god.

Remembering this stuff and celebrating motherly God (who is no god) is particularly appropriate as we approach mother’s day! Better for us than extra chocolate too ;) And it’s not un-topical here in NZ where the TV is showing a drama about Midwives just now, either.

God the Midwife [ 5:01 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
God the Midwife [ 5:01 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Gender, Genesis, Jeremiah, Job, OT, Psalms, Theology none

iTunes and Facebook

April 23, 2012 No comments

After several false starts I believe I now have 5 minute Bible working on iTunes :)

Please let me know if you have difficulty finding/getting it, I believe a search for “5 minute Bible” under “podcasts” will show it.

I have also created a Facebook “page” for 5 minute Bible, please consider “liking” the page, at Stu’s suggestion I am experimenting with “video” versions of the podcasts for the Facebook page. The idea is you can if you want listen while you “do Facebook“… again please let me know if this is helpful and worth the effort…

 

Xtras none

Who is the audience for Genesis?

April 17, 2012 2 comments

Attentive audience by San Jose Library

I’ve been marking student assignments for a course on Genesis. The more I mark the more I become aware of the issue of the intended (expected/implied) audience. In this podcast I’ll suggest that the answer is not as simple as it sounds ;) and draw a conclusion about our practices of reading Scripture…

Who is the audience for Genesis? [ 5:06 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Genesis, Implied audience none

The Bible in 5 minutes: The Story

March 26, 2012 1 comment

Photo by Kai Laborenz

Like all good stories, and the Bible is before and after everything else a story, Scripture begins at the beginning. The beginning of everything, and a garden planted by God. Everything falls apart, for humans fall apart, and many of the stories in Scripture are horrible, grotesque or inspiring, for such a mixture describes the world we inhabit.

In the middle of the Bible story, at the start of the second part of the library of Scripture, we hear the story of Jesus and his teaching, his death and resurrection. This is prolonged into the beginning of the story of the new humanity and illustrated by various letters before the big story ends in terror and destruction leading to a new heaven and earth.

 

 

The Bible in 5 minutes: The Story [ 5:10 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
The Bible in 5 minutes: The Story [ 5:09 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Bible in 5 mins, Jesus, NT, OT none

The Bible in 5 minutes: Users’ Manual

March 19, 2012 No comments

Contents list from a typical Bible, showing "Books" with their abbreviations and page numbers.

The Christian Bible is a big sprawling collection of documents from widely different time periods (roughly the end of the Bronze Age to the Roman empire) in many different genres (as different as history and love poems, or proverbs and lengthy letters) composed in three languages and two different writing systems.

To make matters worse most Bibles do not “work” the same as other books. Page numbers do not help in identifying sections because they differ in most of the myriad different translations and editions.

So, how does one find one’s way around and use such a weird book? This podcast explains “chapters” and “verses”, how to find “books”, and gives the chief key to making some sort of sense of the widely and wildly different contents of The Holy Bible.

Future podcasts in this Bible in 5 minutes series will include (I may well add others to this list, so please suggest any you think could be useful :) :

  • The Bible in 5 minutes: Where do I begin?
  • The Bible in 5 minutes: The Story

 

 

The Bible in 5 minutes: Users' Manual [ 5:04 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
The Bible in 5 minutes: Users' Manual (video format) [ 5:04 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Bible in 5 mins, NT, OT none

Genesis as an edited text: pt.1 Gen 1-5

February 27, 2012 No comments

Two Narrators by absentmindedprof

Since I am teaching Genesis again I am filling out the gaps in my podcasts on this book. I think it is important to notice that Genesis is told to us by (at least) two narrators. The story comes to us as an edited text, that is it already in its telling belongs, not to one person, not even a great hero like Moses, but to a community. For it is a book that tells of the origins not only of “everything” but of the people of God…

In this podcast I’ll focus on chapters 1-5 where it is easiest to spot the different narrators, then (all being well) I’ll talk about the rest of the book soon.

Here is the audio: Genesis as an edited text: pt.1 Genesis 1-5.

Genesis, Narrative, Structure none

Humour in the Bible: book 28: Hosea

February 23, 2012 2 comments

Andean Bear with her cubs an mage of YHWH (Photo by Smithsonian's National Zoo)

In this podcast I’ll again argue that Robert Carroll gets it wrong. Despite his own fierce black humour he fails to acknowledge its presence or at least its prevalence in the prophets. He writes about humour in Hosea in:

Carroll, Robert P. ‘Is Humour among the Prophets’. On humour and the comic in the Hebrew Bible. Edited by Yehuda T. Radday and Athalya Brenner. Continuum International Publishing Group, 1990, 179-180.

Bob was a fine friend, and a great scholar, I wish he was still around to argue against me! Since he isn’t perhaps you will do him the honour of looking for the gaps or weaknesses in what I say and pointing them out in the comments (he’d appreciate it ;)

Here’s the audio: Humour in the Bible: book 28: Hosea

Hosea, Humour none

Introducing Genesis

February 13, 2012 8 comments

The first chapter of Genesis (in the Israel Museum) photo adapted from Wikimedia

My class on Genesis starts soon, and I’ve been working on a Bible Dictionary article on “Genesis” , so it seemed like a good time to fill in a gap in my Genesis page. I am a bit “bunged up” today, so forgive the nasal quality to the voice please.

I’ve tried both to introduce very briefly some of the scholarly issues as well as the theological importance of this magnificent book, let me know where you think I suceed or fail! Your criticisms could be really helpful :)

Here is the audio: Introducing Genesis

Genesis none

Introducing the Torah or Pentateuch

February 2, 2012 No comments

Torah scroll by Lawrie Cate

One of the things I have not yet done as well as I’d like is to package these podcasts into convenient forms to give quick simple  introductions for students in classes I teach, so I’ve been collecting the posts on Genesis with that in mind.

I’ll gradually be adding podcasts to fill some of the gaps. Here’s one to introduce the section of the Bible that contains Genesis, the Torah or Pentateuch. I’ll try briefly (5 minute Bible) to explain what the Torah is and what it does. To do this we’ll also look briefly at what it contains, and hint at the role of the Pentateuch as Christian Scripture.

Here is the audio: Introducing the Torah or Pentateuch

Law/Torah/Pentateuch none

Understanding contradictions: 1 Cor 14:34 (Part 2)

December 14, 2011 4 comments

Contradiction: Photo by topastrodfogna

 

 

In part one I drew attention to the problem that this verse seems to contradict what Paul himself approves and to some funny things going on in and around the verse. Here I’ll focus on my reason for mentioning this, how we should respond when a Bible passage seems to contradict what the same author says or does elsewhere…

 

Understanding contradictions: 1 Cor 14:34 (Part 2) [ 4:38 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Understanding contradictions: 1 Cor 14:34 (Part 2) [ 4:38 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
1&2 Corinthians, Context, Gender, Textual criticism none
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