Although all my talks on the E100 readings should be listed here (in roughly reverse  order) the listing here is much more convenient:
E100 reflections on each reading

Fish and bread (no, the bread is nothing at all like Jesus' bread, which was fresh and wholemeal

In this podcast I’ll introduce the idea of the ending of John as a sphragis, and very briefly mention what that might mean for reading John’s gospel, but most of the time will be spent on the much less technical question of why I am convinced that Jesus rose from death and met with the disciples – because after all this passage is about the resurrection, and not about the technical details (however fascinating to biblical scholars

So, here’s the link to the audio: E100-69: John 20:1 – 21:25: The Resurrection

Photo by firstbaptistnashville

This chapter gives what it tells us is an eyewitness account of a Roman execution. Jesus, who has done no real wrong, except offend the religious leaders, and worry the politicians is subjested to the casual brutality of an imperial production-line death. Such a death, of an innocent man, is shocking. But Jesus was not merely a man, this was also the death of God, so as Jesus points out to the Roman govenor, Pilate, “You would have no power over me unless it had been given you” John 19:11 such a death overturns all expectations, gods are powerful, vengeful, gods are kindly and helpful… gods do not die so that humans may live!

So, here’s the link to the audio:
E100-68: John 19:1 – 19:42: The Crucifixion

CHRIST – DEATH
The fourth vertical window on the north side depicts the death of Christ. It is a dramatic, powerful, eerie and gruesome composition recording the most momentous event in history. Dark grays in the upper portion represent the actual darkness that invaded the cross where Christ died. The streams of red tell of the great suffering and sacrifice of our Savior. The gold around the cross and throughout the window symbolizes the presence of God in the death of Christ.

Judas betrays Jesus by vaticanus

In this chapter, we get the climax of John’s series of sayings where Jesus echoes the divine “I am” cf. Exodus 3 (E100-17: Exodus 3-4: Getting the holy between your toes!), and we also notice how amid powerful people who seem muddled and out of control, Jesus (the one who seems to be the victim) is the only person in control of himself! And we’ll discover his secret.

We’ll also notice the three betrayals, and ask how we can avoid joining they betrayers.

So, here’s the link to the audio:

E100-67: John 18:1 – 40: Jesus secret and three betrayals

Photo by khrawlings

Passover was the greatest pilgrimage festival for 1st century Jews, Jerusalem was packed with people (like for a world cup – only more crowded celebrating the great liberation from foreign oppression that God worked for Moses and the ancestors in Exodus. No wonder the Romans were jumpy, no wonder the Sadducees on the Sanhedrin (Jewish council) shared their concern, and it was an ideal opportunity for the Pharisees to do something about a dangerously radical Rabbi who failed to respect proper authority. And no wonder among the religious and national fervour and the political fears Satan was also at work.

So, here’s the link to the audio: E100-66: Luke 22:1 – 46: The Last Supper

Photo by Glen's Pics

Gospels are not biographies, nor are they just collections of sayings, they focus on Jesus’ death and resurrection. Without either event can’t understand Jesus or the gospel. But we also to see and understand that Jesus is God incarnate and that Jesus is risen else his dearth and the disciples turnaround between end of gospels and Acts  makes no sense.

This week’s readings bring to fruition the message we heard time and again in the Old Tedstament, that the only true God is Yahweh, the one who will be with and for us, this God is Yeshua (in English – Jesus) “he saves”.

So, here’s the link to the audio:
E100: Week 14: Death and resurrection

NASA/courtesy of nasaimages.org

“I am making everything new” what a wonderful promise!

Not just a repair or clean up, but a renewed creation. Back in Genesis, the new line that started with Seth instead of Cain (the murderer) failed, after the flood Noah who was “a righteous man, blameless in his generation; and walked with God” (Gen 6:9) promptly became the first drunk, even Abraham – the father of faith – showed his lack of faith a few verses after responding to God’s call. Clean up jobs don’t work, they just sweep human sinfulness under the carpet. As Jesus’ parable (Mat 12:43ff. Luke 11:24ff.) shows even casting the demon out does no long term good, only a new creation will do, so… the one who began it all will end it all : “I am the alpha and the omega”.

And then there’s the holy city, which is quite clearly nothing like the existing unholy cities, the Babylons that we keep building: Gen 11, Babylon of the exile, and “now” (in John’s time) Rome, and note that in 11:8 he links Sodom, “Egypt” and Jerusalem to my list! Human cities concentrate human evil, but since we are ALL broken even the smallest inhabited place is already contaminated.

So we too need to be made new!

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When the Burma Army attacks a village, they leave nothing untouched. As the people flee, rice barns, houses and personal belongings are destroyed. Then landmines are placed around the village to stop the people from returning. (Picture and words: Partners)

With this reading, skipping all the confusing stuff about the seven seals and the seven bowls, and most of the material about the false bride (the whore of Babylon), we come straight to the end of the beginning in chapter 19. We’ve returned to the throne room in heaven, now in victory!

Westerners, especially those of us born after the end of the second world war (which means most listeners to this podcast have difficulty really understanding this joy in heaven, most of our battles are such trivial ones. But live for a while with people far away, share their pain as their children get sick while a corrupt system that should provide treatment does not. Feel their anger at the tyrants who oppress, ruling at the end of a gun, burning crops and homes, raping the girls and working the men to) death. The horrors in places like Burma/Myanmar, Congo or Darfur hardly bear thinking about, but they are repeated in less extreme ways across much of the planet. Take a share in these feelings, and the victory of the lamb sounds just fine. Remembering my new friends in the camps on the Thai-Burma border, or thinking of my old colleagues in Congo, I’ll pray Maranatha Come Lord! So that they can join the celebration in heaven.

This chapter paints a Jesus the pious portrait painters never imagined, but when you think of what it really means
that our world is spoilt and broken by human Sin (not sins, as in the little wrongs we do but Sin the power that is woven of those little wrongs and becomes a cyclonic system in which fairly ordinary people commit monstrous atrocities) thinking of such a broken world makes sense of this Jesus.

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Lifting the First Seal of Apocalypse and the White Rider of war. Illuminated page (not an icon!) from the 17th century Tolkovy Apocalypse. Moscow, first half of the 17th century. (Image and text, Wikimedia)

If you’ve been wonderoing when all the visions in Revelation begin, wonder no more. Today’s reading is full of visions.

A throne in heaven: for God alone rules heaven and earth. One sitting on it: God is not named, for that would be too familiar in this dangerous vision, dangerous because humans are unholy and God is holy. Then v.3 is a reminder not to take this vision as visual, it’s a word picture

Many of us approach John’s visions wanting to know more than John tells us, either about what heaven is like or about God’s timetable for the future. So people dig into the visions, work cleverly at their imagined codes… Spurgeon in a sermon on this passage puts it well:¹

It is very little that we can know of the future state, but we may be quite sure that we know as much as is good for us. We ought to be as content with that which is not revealed as with that which is. If God wills us not to know, we ought to be satisfied not to know. Depend on it, he has told us all about heaven that is necessary to bring us there; and if he had revealed more, it would have served rather for the gratification of our curiosity than for the increase of our grace.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy the words, catch a glimpse of the glory and holiness of God! But, be content with this glimpse “through a glass darkly” because this side of death it is all you will get, or need. And one day, quite soon enough we’ll be there face to face! It’s better to spend time getting spruced up and ready, rather than speculating on what the view will be like!

This vision is full of echoes of Scripture. The most obvious in ch.3 is the “Trishaggion” (the triple declaration of God’s holiness) that recalls the temple vision in ch.6 of Isaiah. But the creatures with their eyes echoes Ezekiel’s opening vision (as does the scroll at the start of ch.5).

There are loads of intertextual echoes throughout this material. So, why not get a good set of cross references (the ones in the NET Bible are not bad, the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge ones are free with most Bible software, but the best I’ve seen come with Bibles from the French Bible Society – why haven’t others copied them? Get a set of cross-references and follow them to see how richly biblical chapter five is but don’t get so caught up in the trees that you miss the forest!:

Revelation 5:11-14 11 Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12 singing with full voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” 13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing, “To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” 14 And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” And the elders fell down and worshiped.

Because only the “lamb that was slaughtered” is worthy, because only he has or could “Revelation 5:9 ransom God saints from every tribe and language and people and nation.

Amen!

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1. C.H. Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Vol 15, No.887

Dream car by U-g-g-B-o-y-(-Photograph-World-Sense-)

Most listeners to this podcast, judging by the website stats, come from comfortable Western countries. If this is you (and it is ME) then most of what is said to the first six churches does not closely fit us, though it more often gives us goals to aim for.

Laodicea by contrast does fit, neither hot nor cold – isn’t moderation one of our chief virtues, especially in Church (even more than our society more widely where often excess reigns). We are also (on a global scale if not as individuals rich and successful. Of course if we look beyond the material things that are so plentifull we might really see ourselves as blind and naked! (As the risen Christ saw the Laodicean Christians

Our moderation, being not hot or cold won’t do. Jesus says he wants to spit us out!

It is in this passage that we read the word picture of Jesus standing knocking. It is not an evangelistic message but call to re-commitment!

Then running through these messages are the twin themes of sexual immorality and eating food offered to idols. Sex is much the same in any time and place, but the problem of food offered to idols hardly seems real today except…  What did eating food offered to idols mean to Christians in those churches in Turkey? Returning to their old ways, acting like and sharing leisure with old pagan friends, and so reducing God to another god. For most of us the similar temptation is to look for money and comfort to trust and enjoy things. Reducing God to an auxiliary role and not the main or only source of our life and happiness!

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Picture by Torley

This reading introduces the book and Revelation needs introducing because it is a difficult book. Among its oddities are the rhetorical flourishes (present elsewhere in the Bible but very strongly featured here), the use of picture language (which interestingly often cannot actually be pictured), vivid visions and a strong interest in the future/eternity.

Listening to John’s word pictures makes clear that these aren’t really pictures that John draws, the “word pictures” signal other things, so white as wool, white as snow – signals purity. However, it also does clever stuff called intertextuality – John sets up echoes with other Scriptures that ought to be familiar. These intertextual echoes are everywhere in Revelation and vital to understanding the book, so it’s one book where a good set of cross references will pay its weight in gold!

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Revelation Horse by ImNotQuiteJack

The book calls itself the apokalupsis of Jesus Christ – the revelation the disclosure of hidden things – so like parts of Daniel it will show us glimpses “behind the scenes” of the world letting us see a bit of what Christ is doing off stage. This means (paradoxically) that this book requires us to learn a bit about the setting and people for whom John is writing – it may be even more important for such a book than for one that tells the action on-stage John is a prisoner, “for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus”, in PATMOS, a small rocky island in the Aegean, about 15 miles West of Ephesus.

Futurist: Revelation talks about the future so interpreters often assume it is talking about our near future! We call these readings “futurist”. Because the book calls itself a revelation of hidden things, it is easy for clever interpreters to convince people it is a secret to be decoded. So Hal Lindsay in 1972 decoded Revelation and “proved” that the world would end in one generation from 1948 – when the modern state of Israel was founded – a generation he said was 30 years, so 1978 was the date. When it passed he decided that a generation is actually 100 years, even if he lived to be a hundred he’ll be safely dead by 2048!

But the Bible is not a code, its message is clear “perspicuous” God is not a trickster or puzzler who sets us difficult intellectual problems to solve.he earliest futurist readings (like Justin Martyr in 2nd century) saw the 1000 years ending (with the world in 1000or 1030AD) but that is long past so now.

Preterist: Another approach sees the book entirely set in our past – around John’s own time – this seems more true than the extreme futurist approach BUT some things in Revelation would not have made sense to John’s readers as being fulfilled in their lifetime. There IS still a future element…

Intertextual: John continually echoes rest of Bible especially the prophets, in doing this he creates resonances and so suggests that history repeats itself.

Literary/symbolic: John creates a “virtual world” where the real significance of events and things in the here and now can be seen a bit like CS Lewis’ Narnia stories.

Whatever approaches (and for sure we’ll need more than one for almost any passage from Revelation!) we need a strong awareness of John’s setting and the people to whom he was writing. So why not read a few pages, from a Bible with introductions to books or from an “Introduction to the New Testament” book before you read the E100 chapters?

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Window on the world? (Photo by Las Valley 702)

Beware this reading is dangerous!

After readings from Peter and then James, the E100 gives us another reading from one of the less Greek of the NT writers. Like James John circles round his topic and returns to the same “place” (though having moved forward). John is (at least if you have a poetic cell or two in your brain) less confusing than James, partly because he is obviously writing poetry. But also because the ebb and flow of his thought, and its parallelism more obviously moves forward.

Having said John writes (near) poetry our reading cuts in at just one of the points where John breaks into prose and logic, though the first line sounds quite poetic. However after a little prose logic we get a fine “poem”, and one that carries a powerful “sting” like the prophets for many readers today.

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The truth is we have a wonderful country full of hotels,clubs,food franchises... and most of the people who work in this places for the rich come from a hood like this, No electricity and no water most of the time, still they manage to make it to work, get their kids to school,deal with public education, transportation and health which have always been a disaster here. The incredible part of all, is not how they survive,.. next time you visit a foreign country specially one in the third world, look a the smiling face serving you and know what they have to endure. (Photo and caption by Mercedes Ramirez Guerrero)

James is a difficult book to read, though in this podcast I’ll suggest that things we learn reading the Old Testament can help us. I’ll also try to explain how understanding where James is coming from can help, that is a bit of cultural understanding will make clearer how his mind works, and so his book. But if I tell you more you won’t listen to the podcast

[PS: sorry, this podcast is longer than it should be, but it does introduce how to read James, and begins to address the "famous" faith and works dispute among early Christian leaders!]

I chose the picture and (longer than usual) caption on the right because an example James gives in this reading (James 2:16) happens (or almost happens) too often today – truly we live in a global village!

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This picture by Ed Yourdon popped up in a search for "Peter bishop of Rome" it seemed to fit this reading, and I have used Ed's excellent photos before, so welcome another chance to say "Thanks!"

This epistle is a bit of a puzzle it presents itself as written by Peter, Jesus’ rough practical fisherman disciple, but it is written in smart literary Greek and the style seems to reflect Hellenistic rhetorical training. (As well as the sort of knowledge of Scripture we might expect from Peter!) Perhaps it was written by someone who owed a great debt to Peter or perhaps Peter had help from a ghost-writer – Silvanus (see 5:12) is a frequent candidate.

The Bible quotations and allusions pretty consistently seem to reflect the Greek (LXX) which also points away from Peter having selected the words of the letter. But the letter is most deeply concerned to discuss the Scriptural basis of Christian theology (remember Scripture means OT). As well as the Psalms and references from Isaiah that are common in the NT it also quotes Proverbs several times and Leviticus.

However the letter was composed, its solid Scriptural foundation, and polished style make it surprising that it is not better known among Christians, perhaps it is only read so little because Paul has such a dominant place, and because Peter deals less in controversy and more with the simple basics of faith!

Wow never mind who wrote it, and what writing it meant, just listen to the powerful language and theology!

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Fragments of a roman box flue (photo from Finds.org.uk)

Clay vessels were everywhere, plates, bowls, cups, storage, cooking… most of the everyday objects we make of glass or china, and many we make of plastic (or even metal) were clay pottery in the ancient world. Living back then you were deeply (and probably unconsciously) aware of just how fragile standard clay pots are. We live in a world of bone china and hardened glass. Even the average cheap dinnerset is so much tougher than an ancient pot, and the broken pieces of pottery were everywhere. Walking across the top of Tell Miqne – identified by the excavators as the Philistine city of Ekron – there were small fragments of broken pottery everywhere. Most of them from ancient times.

Pots broke very easily, hardly needing to be dropped, but apart from shattering into smaller pieces the material is very durable. So when Paul talks of treasure in clay jars the first thing to come to mind would be the fragility of the vessels. On the other hand fired clay is indeed very durable – it does not decay like wood or even iron (which rusts), unless it is broken, a clay vessel seals and preserves. Fine wines were kept in clay jars, the famous Dead Sea Scrolls were (many of them) held in clay jars to protect and preserve them. So Paul’s imagery here is vivid, simple and immediate.

But, wait… there’s more

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"Through a glass darkly" by ktylerconk

There’s so much in this chapter!

No wonder it’s a favourite to read at weddings, for indeed it does describe a sort of love that is far removed from the sugary candy floss that popular culture usually presents as “romantic”. Though of course Paul is not writing about marriage, but about the greatest gift given by God’s Holy Spirit.

So now’s our chance (if we are not “Charismatic” with a capital C) to beat those benighted speakers of tongues over the head with a powerful Scriptural sword! Of course if we do so we’ll just prove their point that we have NOT received the gifts of the Spirit, because if we do we are obviously lacking love

Better by far to notice that Paul describes all sorts of spiritual gifts, not least in ch.12 where he stressed both the variety of gifts, and their common goal:

1 Corinthians 12:7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

These bewilderingly varied gifts all have the purpose of building up the whole body. If your gift does not build up – then it does not come from the Holy Spirit. If I look down on those claiming the gift of tongues or prophecy, then I have not received the best gift, let alone those “lesser” gifts!

That’s why “love” as described in this chapter is the greatest gift because love builds up!

You see as Paul notes towards the end of ch.13, even with all these spiritual gifts:

1 Corinthians 12:8-10 speaking wisdom, or knowledge, faith, healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, various kinds of tongues, interpretation of tongues.

And all the varied sorts of leaders God raises up:

1 Corinthians 12:28-30 apostles, prophets, teachers; miracle workers, healers, helpers, various other forms of leadership, or kinds of tongues.

All of these risk leaving us blind, like the prophets of old (about whom Jewish writers used Paul’s picture of “through a glass darkly”) like those prophets of old, despite all these spiritual gifts we would see what God is like and what God is doing through a glass dimly. Whether the “glass” was a mirror or a primitive magnifying glass it was dim and obscure, as prophecy always is! But love shows us a glimpse of the clear view of God we will get one day in heaven
no wonder Paul calls it the best gift!

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Photo by marcn

To my mind this passage provides a nice example of what Paul was on about in the previous reading, many people get hung up on the picture of Christ descending from heaven, and the possibility of people rising to greet him, and spend their time constructing imaginative and creative theologies and multi-million dollar businesses writing books about “the rapture” claiming that the notion is a “biblical doctrine”. Actually , there are only a few passages like this one that merely hint at such ideas. The whole “Christian” futurology industry is built on a misuse of Scripture!

Notice here how a few verses further on Paul says very clearly something that Jesus had already said, but such end times prophecy fanatics miss the obvious, perspicuous, message of Scripture to speculate on irrelevant details!

If rather we listen to Paul (or Jesus) quite without end-times calculations and non-biblical prophecies and the rest of the “Christian” futurology businesses we are well prepared for Christ’s coming.

9 For God has destined us not for wrath
but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us,
so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him.

11 Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.

1 Thessalonians 5:9-11

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This passage, which begins and ends with Paul’s suffering, centres on Scripture. It contains the verse which in Evangelical circles is probably the second best known (after John 3:16) Bible reference of all (more rightly it should be two verses, since one cannot understand 2 Tim 3:16 without the purpose declared in 2 Tim 3:17).

2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture … is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that those who belong to God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Missed out the debated word “theopneustos”. This is a hapax legomenon¹ though it does occur occasionally outside Scripture, so the Greek-speaking Jewish writer Josephus around this time says of Scripture: talks of the prophets who wrote the 22 sacred books² who wrote according to theopneustia that comes from God.

It is quite clear he means “divine inspiration” he did not think theopneustos meant “God breathed” because “according to the God breathed quality that comes from God” is a daft thing to say, and Josephus wasn’t daft!

So in 2 Tim 3:16-17 Paul tells us Scripture is inspired by God, and then tells us how we can know that it is, and how we can use it rightly: 16 “teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness“, and in v.17 tells us its purpose: “so that those who belong to God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work“.

Take-aways from this passage:

• Scripture is inspired (by God, no less!) so it is useful to teach, reprove and correct, and train us – in short in these ways it equips us to belong to God and to work for him.

• Scripture is good: anyone who makes it achieve other results fear, isolation, oppression… is misusing it!

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1. a word that only occurs once in Scripture
2. the Hebrew Bible our Old Testament

There are two takeaways from this chapter. The first is the lovely poem (or verse from a hymn) in vv.11-13

If we have died with him, we will also live with him;

12 if we endure, we will also reign with him;

if we deny him, he will also deny us;

13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful-

– for he cannot deny himself.

The other is the apparent contradiction between Paul’s advice to Timothy (2 Timothy 2:14) “avoid wrangling over words”, suggesting that there are details that do not matter, and him then going on to correct someone teaching nutty stuff, in the strongest terms (2 Timothy 2:16-18).

There is a tension here, how do we distinguish “wrangling over words” (v.14) from the sort of false teaching that needs calling gangrene (v.17)? There’s a double answer…

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Traditionally red type in Bibles indicates words of Jesus, but suppose it indicated passages that we wanted to censor? (Photo by LivingOS)

Sometimes it is the very people who respect the Bible most who are moost tempted to censor Scripture. This passage is a fine example of how we are tempted to massage Scripture to remove “difficulties” and make it sound more like something our world can understand.

Why does our reading begin at v.3?

The chapter divisions are sometimes in the wrong place, but is that so here?

• Is the topic of 1-2 very different from that of 3-21?

• Do these verses connect more strongly with the material in ch.5?

The answer to both questions is NO – they don’t connect strongly to ch.5 (which was about a whole collection of good and bad deeds and seems to reach a conclusion in vv. 24-5. By contrast 1 Timothy 6:1-2 dealing with masters and slaves does fit well with talk of wealth and money in ch.6.

But all this talk of Christian slaves and Christian slave owners is uncomfortable for the heirs of William Wilberforce or Christians living in the USA (where a civil way was fought over slavery).I think the organisers of E100 did not want to associate Paul’s advice to Christian slaves to be respectful, well-behaved slaves with his strong warning against teaching “otherwise and not agreeing with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ”! They have (I expect unconsciously) censored the Bible!

This discomfort – and the consequent temptation (or even need) to censor the Bible – comes about because we forget that the Bible comes to us in human words. Muslim’s claim that the Q’ran was dictated to one man by God, it therefore contains divine words that MUST NOT be translated – for that would contaminate them. The Bible was written by dozens of people, inspired by God, but not taken as dictation. Therefore the Bible contains not the words of God but God’s message. Therefore, by contrast, it MUST be translated!

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Bishop Izabela Wilucka-Kowalska with Catholic Mariavte Church of Poland (Wikimedia)

In this chapter Paul sets out some simple effective rules for Timothy about who are suitable people to be leaders in churches in particular he deals with “Bishops” and “Deacons”. Deacon means very different things today in Anglican and in Baptist churches, to name only two of the bewildering variety of leaders called “deacon” (all claiming to be biblical).  And Bishops are potentially even more divisive – if only because some of us don’t have them. Some translations mitigate the problem by using different words: NIV e.g. uses “overseer” but keeps “deacons” – there is obviously a modern theological agenda at work here between NRSV (heavier with more established denominations) with Bishop and Deacon and NIV (with more Baptists and the like) having Overseer and Deacon.

The third group mentioned here intensifies the issues! In v.11 is it “women” NRSV or “wives [of these male leaders implied] NIV? If women, is it women in general, or women leaders?

If we use the band aid approach to reading the Bible the problem is solved because Paul has said the leaders (of both sorts) must be “the husband of one wife” which means they must be male (unless you think Paul allowed lesbian marriages BUT the bandaid approach is dangerous – the Bible several times (using the band aid approach) says “there is no God” – so Christians are all called to be atheists!

If however we ask:
What were the main things Paul wanted Timothy to “get” from this passage?
Or more explicitly on this issue:
Is Paul determined that Timothy does not ordain women?
The answer is “obviously not”, if that had mattered to him he could have said: “All leaders must be men”. Or “All Bishops must be men”. Paul doesn’t say all leaders in church must me men because in Romans 16:1 he refers to Phoebe as a deacon.¹ Then in Rom 16:3 Priscilla is his “fellow worker in Christ Jesus” (in 1 Cor 16:19 he reverses the usual order to talk about Priscilla first and her husband Aquilla after instead of listing Aquilla (as the man) first. This suggests her importance to Paul as a church leader.  In Romans 16:7 Paul refers to a male apostle, Andronicus, and a female apostle, Junia, as “outstanding among the apostles” (NIV) Every Greek and Latin church Father until Giles of Rome (circa 1000 CE) acknowledged  that Junia was a woman.

So we need to ask the question: What did Paul want Timothy to “get” when he read this chapter?

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1. NIV translates diaconos “servant” here, but usually e.g. 1 Tim 3 it renders “deacon”

The “Pastoral epistles” 1 & 2 Tim and Titus offer advice to two young companions of Paul’s travels called to church leadership – Timothy, in the big city of Ephesus and Titus on the island of Crete.

There is even more debate about whether these letters were written by Paul than was the case for Ephesians – but as always the issues are highly technical and one needs good Greek as well as significant knowledge of both what we know and how we know it about the development of the earliest churches so I’ll ignore the issue here and as I did for Ephesians and Colossians just call the author “Paul” since that’s what he calls himself!

Because of the nature of the topics in this epistle there are always questions about where and how far Paul’s advice is ad hoc. And to what extent it is timeless. That question is badly posed. ALL Paul’s advice is timebound and culturally determined! We saw in Luke’s account of Paul’s preaching in Athens that he was too good a missionary not to be culturally sensitive!

If all the advice here is timebound and culturally sensitive then how can we draw teaching for running our churches today from it?

This is where the five step plan comes into its own! (The Five Step Bible Programme: Part 1: Introduction or for all the posts in order from the bottom of the list):

• 1. What DID it say (back then, to the first hearers)?

• 2. What is the difference (between then and now)?

Among the differences here are different forms of church organisation, different cultural contexts and taboos, different expectations on young and old, women and men…

• 3. What does it teach about God and God’s relationship with the world and us (theology)?

This is always the key step – looking for the principles about God, and God’s relationship with the world and humanity – because if we really spot what principle(s) Paul was applying or asking Timothy to apply we can then in step 5 see how they apply today.

• 4. How does Jesus fulfill (fill out fully) this passage?

• 5. What DOES it mean (here and now)?

Applying this simple process will ensure a strong, biblically based, yet culturally sensitive application of the message of Scripture today.

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Apsismosaik. Ravenna, 545 (Photo by Gryffindor)

Colossians – like Ephesians and the Pastorals (1 & 2 Tim and Titus) is often thought to be by someone copying Paul but it’s ideas (and some wording) seem to have been used in Ephesians, which would make it very early if it is not not really by Paul. I cannot understand the excitement over debating back and forward whether Paul wrote it. It is in the Bible, it is addressed a very early church, and has messages that are important for us. What more matters?

Our reading starts with the introduction to the letter.  First the greeting (Col 1:1-3) then a thanksgiving for the Colossians faith, love and hope, then Paul and his colleagues pray for the Colossians to know God’s will and so lead lives pleasing to God, to be strengthened and prepared to endure, while giving thanks to the Father.

Then Col 1:14-23 presents solid doctrine about who Christ is and what he has done.

This reading really ought to have come earlier in this week! It contains the Intro to a letter and also an Intro to thinking Christianly.

In Col 1:13-14 the hearers of the letter are reminded that they have been redeemed from sin, the power of darkness (bought out of slavery) into the kingdom of the beloved son cf. Israel ransomed from slavery to Egypt/Pharaoh to become child of Yhwh.

The in Col 1:15-20 there is a glorious hymn to Christ

He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation;

for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created,
things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers-
- all things have been created through him and for him.

He himself is before all things,
and in him all things hold together.

He is the head of the body, the church;
he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
so that he might come to have first place in everything.

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things,
whether on earth or in heaven,
by making peace through the blood of his cross.

Col 1:21-23 reminds them that this hymn describes their experience – estranged from God but now reconciled by Christ through his death, provided that they remain firm…

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I searched for a picture on "confusion" and found this photo by bogenfreund

Unlike Paul’s other letters Philippians seems disjointed which can make it difficult to read. Goodspeed wrote that:

In chapter 1 he is making the best of his imprisonment; in chapter 2 he is sending Epaphroditus back to them; in chapter 3 he bursts forth against the Judaizers; in chapter 4 he acknowledges the gift Epaphroditus has brought him. Paul is usually much more orderly than this.

Polycarp (c.60-150AD) writing to the Philippians mentions that Paul “wrote letters” (plural) to Philippi. Maybe what we have is parts of more than one letter.

Despite the muddle the letter is treasured because it contains so many good things: like the Christological hymn in ch.2, and the line “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice” (Phil 4:4)  or the blessing in our reading (Phil 4:7) But our seven verse reading shows up the confusion too, since it opens with the sort of personal greetings and instructions we expect right at the end of the letter: urging Eudoia and Syntache to get along etc. then we return material suited to the more general body of a letter (Phil 4:4-6)

A lovely passage from a great if somewhat confusing letter – I like to imagine that the people who think sheets from more than one letter to Phillipi have got jumbled together somehow are right, then this letter is also a fine example of God bringing out fine pearls from human error and muddle and confusion. For “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guards us in Christ Jesus.”

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Photo by Rennett Stowe

Ephesians like Romans and Galatians splits neatly into two parts, with the second giving the practical outworkings of the first. Here opening (chs. 1-4) is “indicative” – it tells us what is – the second  (chs. 5-6) is “imperative” – it tells us what to do.

The letter has strong similarities to Colossians, some think it is an expansion, filling out the earlier letter. It is written with some long complicated sentences, and uses words and phrases that Paul does not use elsewhere. So some scholars think it is not by Paul. (My Greek is not up to deciding this, so I’ll call the author “Paul” since that is what he calls himself

Generations of children’s talks have conditioned individualistic Westerners to hear this “armour of God” section as all about individual piety. But the collective nature of ancient cultures, the stress on unity and community in the letter, the echo of “put on Christ” in “put on the whole armour” suggests we read it more collectively.

There is debate over whether this Peroratio (the summary section just before the ending of ancient letters) only sums up the “imperative” section, or whether it sums up the whole.¹ Looking for the key words (e.g. for the “breastplate of righteousness” look for “righteous*”) earlier in the letter seems to me to make it clear it sums up (Notice too the place of this concept in the glorious opening of the letter – which you surely MUST read as well as these verses!) the whole.

When we put on Christ (in putting on all these “bits” of armour) we change our relationship with the world, and in doing so we resist the power of the rulers of this world!

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1. Great names like Aquinas, Calvin and FF Bruce supported the “only the Imperative section” view, while already Jerome saw it summing up the whole letter in the usual way.

The grave of JRR Tolkien and his wife in Wolvercote Cemetery, Oxford (Photo by Michael Parry)

Unlike the theological treatise in Romans, Galatians seems to be written to particular people known to Paul, and with a particular situation in mind – Jewish Christian preachers who were calling for restoration of Biblical Principles (observance of the Old Testament law).

So after the greeting, Paul starts combatitively in Gal 1:6-10. In the light of this he needs to spend the rest of chapter 1 and all of 2 defending himself as an Apostle. Chs 3-4 the centre of the epistle. They present again the core gospel that we need not, cannot earn salvation but that we can receive it as a free gift. As with Romans the last major section chapters 5-6 show what this means in practice.

In our reading he starts by showing that liberty is not licence, that our freedom in Christ is freedom to become better not freedom to sink into depravity. How given salvation as a gift, we also receive the gift of the Spirit which is the power to overcome our base desires and to really live in freedom.

Running through the passage are two metaphors:

• fruitfulness: “fruits of the spirit”, “you reap what you sow”
• dying and rising with Christ.

If in Christ we die to our “old” natural – broken spoiled and twisted human nature – then with Christ we can be raised to a new and healthy life, because the Spirit produces lifegiving fruit:

…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)

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Photo by Coolm36

Romans is a long letter, and the divisions between “sections” are often not clear. So the end of the opening greeting is not obvious somewhere in Rom 1:14-17, but where? Nor is it clear that the division between Rom 1 and Rom 2 is in the right place.¹ But Romans is packed full of crucial² theology.

Paul’s manifesto (Rom 1:16) sets up the book, and he continues to argue, first that Gentiles are “without excuse” since enough of the design of the Creator God is visible in creation that they should kn ow better, but nor can Jews excuse themselves – having the law they should know better still! The next chapters present the righteousness that IS available through the faith of and in Christ. From Rom 5 into the middle of our reading he talks about “sanctification” – how, once we are declared “righteous” (rightly in a restored relationship with God), God makes us holy.³

Then from the middle of our reading a short section declares the wonder of our “glorification” – how in Christ our lives move beyond the ordinary and share here and now in the glory that is to come.

It is powerful stuff, and the last verses (Rom 8:18-39 and particularly Rom 8:28-39) are rightly a favourite of many Christians!

In 9-11 Paul turns to God’s righteousness and the ongoing destiny of the chosen people. The rest of the book till the closing deals with practical outworking of all this theology!

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1. Remember that chapter divisions were only added to the biblical text in the middle ages.
2. Pun intended
3. Sanctus in Latin.

One column from Oxyrhynchus papyrus XX, a papyrus roll (approximately 5×20 cm) from Wikimedia

As soon as Christian faith began to spread beyond its first (Jewish) homeland it became a faith based on community sustained by travel and letters. A bit just like blogs and FaceBook today, letters nourished community, and sustained arguments or brought them to peaceful conclusions. The combination of new(ish) technology and Roman roads and sea trade routes caused an explosion of letter writing. The newish technology was papyrus (not new since it was known since 3rd millennium BC but a rival technology, parchment (leather scraped to give a smoothe writing surface) in the 1stC BC & AD together with better trade (Empire) made writing materials more available. Previously many letters were written on clay tablets or ostraca (broken pieces of pottery).

Letters were usually dictated to a scribe, but perhaps with a bit written in the hand of the author, as a demonstration of authenticity (like 2 Thes 3:17 Philemon 19). Carried by a trusted intermediary, letters were read aloud to the recipients. Sometimes a group of bystanders joined in the writing – so both reading and writing were often communal activities.

Much like bloggers today seek to project a personality across a void, ancient letter writers sought an extension of relationship, reviving friendship, at a distance. Many phrases in Paul’s letters show he saw the epistle as a substitute for his own presence.

There was a standard form for letters:

Beginning:

Letter of Biridiya, prince of Megiddo, to the king of Egypt from Wikimedia

• opening greetings, identifying senders and recipients
• prayers (or in more secular letters good wishes)

Body:

• statement of purpose
• main content
• conclusion: why written, how to respond, plans for further contact

Closing:

• good wishes/blessing greetings from others

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Street conversation photo by Ed Yourdon

In the legal manouvreing at the start of this reading Paul quotes Isaiah:

“Listen and listen but not understand
look and look but not see!”

But if the Bible is perspicuous (listen to The Perspicuity of Scripture) so is creation: we can’t miss evidence of God, but sometimes we don’t want to hear…

And what a frustrating ending! How does Paul’s story end? Luke presumably knew if Acts was written about AD 70 because these events had happened some 8 years earlier. But Acts is not Paul’s story! Acts 1:8 as program for the book:

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.“
The book is over, go into the world in peace

They have witnessed to great effect in Jerusalem, beyond in the Jewish world, and beyond that to the heart of the empire the ends of the earth are just a matter of time… the story of Acts is over – whatever happened to Paul. Once again the Bible is not about US (human beings) it’s about God and the divine plan for the world. The story is over, before Paul reached Rome there were Christians there. The story is still not over we are still writing it as we witness to Christ wherever we are from one end of the earth to the other. Acts is a book of witnesses empowered by the Spirit are you one of its still being written heroes?

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The rocky hill west of Acropolis rises 115 meters above the city. (Photo by Ken Russell Salvador)

These five chapters describe Paul’s second and third missionary journeys, amid many trips covering between them about a decade there are lots of exciting stories. The approach Paul took in Athens is of particular interest, it’s a very early example of Christianity not merely translating but contextualising – expressing the message not only in the words but also the culture of another people. Paul use elements of Athenian culture – even their “unknown god” – despitebeing “deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols” Paul does not apply the knee jerk Jewish response (fun though it is) to idol worship. Rather he notices that his audience likes new ideas, and he plays on this tailoring his speech to philosophers. Then because after philosophy Greeks loved poetry he quotes a couple of their poets.

The other striking thing about this story, in its succession of different towns and cities, is the response. The preaching of Paul and the others elicits two strong and opposite reactions many convert and join the followers of Jesus but powerful people and leaders are more likely to seek to silence the message. This is strikingly different from churches in the West today. Our preaching is addressed most of the time to insiders, who are the rich and powerful (or at least the pretty comfortable). So churches in the West are shrinking (or at best hardly growing or growing slower than the population) and Christian preaching tends to use a Christian language and words others no longer understand. Or worse we talk about things that don’t interest them!

Paul talked about what interested his hearers, in ways they were familiar with, and the churches grew explosively
and mainly among the poor and exploited – because they knew they needed the sort of God Paul preaches!

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Oh, boy! Oh, boy What a chapter!? This chapter, full of the minutes of, or rather a report on, the first recorded business meeting of the Christian church, both raises and solves a huge problem Christians have with Scripture, and comes close to, but avoids two of the commonest contemporary (in New Zealand Baptist churches at least – and you can tell me if things are similar in your church) heresies about church government

What a rich treat! And I only have 5 minutes You must remind me to return to this rich treat after the E100 is over…

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Paul’s summarises the Old Testament story from a Jewish-Christian perspective as a world looking for a saviour. Then John showed that still “today” not just in ancient times people are looking for a saviour. Jesus not only died, but rose, and this is the keeping of God’s ancient promises. In Jesus God fills out, fully, the hopes and promises of the past. In Jesus, we are set free from sin - sin is not a trendy term today, but we still suffer from living in a world that is wrong. The advert reminds us that while we sream of how things would be “in a perfect world” we don’t live in a perfect world! That’s what sin is, our share in the brokenness of the world, and Jesus begins to put it right starting with us!

Why was the message not popular? Because salvation becomes something we can not earn. Because God does not only choose good people (like us) to heal. Because it reduces the chance to make money out of human need.

Despite reminding us of the signs and clues to God’s power and love in the everyday gifts of food and sunshine Paul’s gospel is not all sunshine. He was no more a prosperity gospel televangelist than Jesus was!

Strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith, they said: “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.”

This is encouragement!

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Road to Damascus today photo by upyernoz

“The Road” or “The Way” common Biblical picture language for a way of life or the direction we are “going”, but it is also used several times in Acts (almost, or probably, only in Acts) as a name for being a Christian. It is a good name because metanoia, repentance, is about turning round and going a different way. Acts also is a book about journeys, with lots of individual voyages, and also the journey of the gospel from Jerusalem to Rome – from Jewish sect to global faith.

In this chapter we hear of Paul’s journeys – the one he planned and the one he ended up taking, that took him from being persecutor to preacher, from grand inquisitor to ardent follower.

The other name for Christian followers in this chapter is the adelphoi, brothers and sisters – it’s interesting question what is a good literal translation today of adelphoi for though the singular adelphos means a brother, and a different word means a sister, often the plural adelphoi explicitly includes women as well as men. So, usually in Bible (unless we have reason to believe only men are meant) the best rendering today is “brothers and sisters”.

Paul’s story is a great example too of how God takes and uses people as they are, does not remake us into different people but redeems the ones we are. So, Saul the enthusiast, stringent, hard-line Pharisee enforcer becomes Paul the ardent, flexible but demanding Christian evangelist.

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AbunaPaulos.jpg Abuna Paulos at the Timqet Celebration January 2005 (Photo from Jhaustein, Wikipedia)

This week’s readings tell the exciting story of how the Church broke loose. Till this time faith and culture had been intimately related. So if you wanted to convert to Judaism you became Jewish and adopted the rules and customs of Jewish life. In particular you adopted the 613 rules of the Torah.

The first two readings tell of Saul’s conversion and (the now renamed) Paul’s first missionary journey and the conversion of Jews and Gentiles.

Then Acts 15 tells of the revolutionary Council of Jerusalem and the dramatic decision it took.

The last two readings tell of a decade of Paul’s preaching around the Eastern end of the Mediterranean and his journey in captivity to Rome.

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"Beyond the Pale" - Trim Castle, on the south bank of the Boyne, was an outpost to protect "the Pale" the Norman invaders' enclave around Dublin.(Photo by William Murphy)

In Matt 26 when Peter was supposed to be praying with Jesus he went to sleep, here a similar physical need interrupts his prayer, he’s hungry (in Peter’s retelling says he fell asleep here too But God uses the two situations quite differently – here his hunger gives him a vision!

When God says… !

OK God’s message to Peter is quite clear, the behavioural rules that we think measure God’s favour don’t
the good news of God’s love is for everyone. But what about those food laws? This vision is not about food laws, but about the God who made them.

Those rules marked out a people. Those who keep these rules are part of this people…  But Jesus regularly broke the rules – and in breaking them healed. Peter and Paul do the same.

Reading Acts 10-11 with Acts 15  and especially Gal 2 poses all sorts of headaches for historians. However, one thing seems quite clear, despite this vision, and probably despite Peter’s triumph in Jerusalem, one day in Antioch he has a relapse The good news is that Bible heroes even people like Peter, with his vision, his triumph in Jerusalem and everything can fail – just like me, and you!

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There are a couple of things to notice here:

• firstly how Luke stresses the role of the Holy Spirit (or rather, God, since at the start it is “an angel of the Lord”)
• it may have been a desert/wilderness road but like Abraham in Gen 12 “he got up and went” our response to such promptings is often more cautious, even at times Jonah-like
• the Ethiopian official was prepared (been to temple, so God-fearer, reading Scripture – measure of his importance he had a copy)
• Isaiah again!

Like Yancey’s friend (see Reading prophets for pleasure and profit) he recognised what he was reading was difficult.

Do you understand… ” “How can I, unless someone guides me?”

The passage he was reading came from Is 53:7-8. Philip started with this scripture, and proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. Christianity fits with, but goes beyond – fully fills – the Scripture that preceded it.

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]]> http://5minutebible.com/e100-74-acts-826-840-philip-preaches-isaiah/feed/ 0 http://5minutebible.com/e100-73-acts-68-%e2%80%93-88-stephen-the-witness/ http://5minutebible.com/e100-73-acts-68-%e2%80%93-88-stephen-the-witness/#comments Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:41:29 +0000 tim http://5minutebible.com/?p=768

In a valley in a remote (predominantly Animist) area of Thailand the huge cross on this church witnesses to the new faith of the valley's owner.

Stephen is a “martyr” (in English that means someone who dies for their beliefs, but in Greek it means someone who bears witness to their faith). Stephen points to Jesus, and witnesses to truth – even at expense of speaking against “holy” things. In his defense he retells the story of salvation Heilsgeschichte but focused on Israelite unbelief and  presenting Jesus as fulfillment of old old story (Acts 7:35-37). In vv.48-49 he presents the temple too as foreshadowing what Jesus fulfills.

Literary foreshadowing with Saul as the witness to the death of Stephen the witness.

If we believe what Stephen says, how can we avoid witnessing to Jesus? If Christ has done things for us, so that we know what God offers humanity in him, surely we too must witness…. God has a track record in the OT that is consistent (indeed fulfilled) in Jesus and God has a track record today (also consistent with Jesus) in our lives….
NB at the beginning of Acts 8 we see the actions and the words of these witnesses align – how about our life and our words?

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Igorot Beggar photo by martiniko

Peter gets some powerful lines in these two great chapters Since I was a child I’ve loved his: “I don’t have silver and gold, but what I do have I’ll give you. Get up and walk!” So different from what we usually hear… And then when faced by the authorities he talks about his Master as the “Stone the builders rejected” quoting Ps 118:22. This superb Psalm all through contrasts human power and “protection” with God’s steadfast love that endures forever…

So in these chapters, two powerful reminders from Peter that Christian faith is NOT about human power, just the opposite. And the challenge of hearing how the first Christians lived. The Bible is perspicuous, we just wish we could remain blind and deaf!

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Using a photo by Stacirl (some see a face in the flames)

What a chapter! What a day!

An unheard of miracle that foreshadows the spread of the gospel to all the world and the fellowship that transcends frontiers and cultures. Like in Joel everyone receives God’s Spirit, young as well as old, women and men alike, slave and free, the Spirit bursts all human categories. Indeed death could not hold him down – Jesus lives in his people, the work continues!

Is it now you’ll begin to reign? Yes, but not in a tawdry political kingdom. Jesus is lord and Messiah (king), not by popular vote, but by declaration of God. No wonder there were 3000 converts that day!

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.  43 Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles.  44 All who believed were together and had all things in common;  45 they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.  46 Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts,  47 praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

That couldn’t last, once Jesus return proved to be more than a few years off, they had to get haircuts and real jobs
But what a shame we’ve lost so much of that sense of togetherness in God…

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Photo by Gerardo García Moretti

The last reading last week about the ascension of Jesus to heaven explained that soon the Spirit would come. The disciples might not know all the secrets of God (as religions forever claim to do), but they will experience and share God’s power. Then in the first reading this week we move from the ascension to Pentecost, foreshadowing the spread of the gospel to everyone, each in their own language. God’s Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus bursts free, and reigns!

But it was not the almost magical phenomena, like a bunch of provincial fishermen speaking loads of foreign languages, that kept those first few thousand converts and daily added others. It was their “togetherness in God”! Then in Acts 3-4 two powerful reminders from Peter that Christian faith is NOT about human power, just the opposite. (Despite Peter’s lovely line “I have no silver or gold, but what I have, I’ll give you. Get up and walk!”) And the challenge of hearing how the first Christians lived. The Bible is perspicuous, we just wish we could remain blind and deaf!

Then there’s Stephen, who witnesses to the truth despite everything. (Here you’ll learn another big word Heilsgeschichte) and in doing so notice how human failure, like Israel’s unbelief, is all part of God’s “old old story” that Jesus fulfills. Philip’s preaching of Isaiah also underlines this fulfilling.

And finally in the fifth reading, yet another reminder that we humans are broken, but that God’s gospel is for everyone – especially us broken human beings!

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Roman game scratched into pavement in 1st Century Jerusalem (Photo by hoyasmeg)

Luke begins his sequel to the gospel “In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning… but his summary ocuses on the resurrection and stresses that it was real.

He then reports the risen Jesus telling the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the Spirit, who he calls “the promise of the Father” then Jesus echoes the start of the gospel story in Luke 3:

John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. (Acts 1:5)

They ask him if he’s going to start reigning now, but he replied:

It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.

At a stroke doing away with most of what Christians think of as “prophecy”! But offers something better…

[This podcast will contain also a reminiscence of OT scholar David Clines in Jerusalem.]

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Raising Lazarus (Pintura románica de San Baudelio de Berlnga en el Cloisters Museum de Nueva York, procedente de España. From Wikimedia)

What’s a little miracle among friends? Yet Jesus seems to avoid performing one that would have saved his friends great pain, only to perform a greater one! And then there’s the ominous clouds gathering that by the end of the chapter foretell the storm to follow.

Noticing some detail of how John tells this great sign we will learn more about reading Bible stories, and about trusting/believing in Jesus…

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Um Qais (Gadara?) photo by amerune

For this podcast I won’t deal with all the interesting questions about multiple demon possession, or even demons in pigs, but will focus on the beginning (and location) and especially the end of the story because they tell us why this story was remembered (though actually the pigs and the multiple demons do make it memorable and why it was told to us. Notice the geography, the story features a boat trip, a reminder of how Jesus ministry (except for the conflicts in Jerusalem and his death) took place around Lake Galilee in half pagan territory and here he has crossed into really gentile territory east of the lake (notice the pigs, Jews don’t eat pork).

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Here's there come rain or shine, with his little tin coffee cup held in the one hand and in the other his blind man's cane. He nods and gives a little closed-eye smile when you drop coins in his cup, as I did after taking this shot. (Photo and caption by soylentgreen23, altered)

Notice the opening – beginnings are often important – and in this case that importance is highlighted when the theme is repeated, that’s another clue – we repeat things that matter!

The man born blind is a great character, do enjoy listening to him “naively” running rings round the clever religious scholars So, it’s all about spotting who Jesus is, and the evidence is what he does – handsome is as handsome does! Or better about spotting what God is doing and the appropriate response is worship and trust.

“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.”

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Original photo by ?Mike (modified)

As it does in Luke, Matthew’s account the feeding of the 5,000 follows after Herod speculating that Jesus is John come back to life, but Matthew used this opportunity to tell the gruesome story of John’s death. Luke moved quickly from John’s death, to tell of the disciples’ successful mission, whereas Matthew tell us that when Jesus heard of John’s death he “withdrew to a deserted place”. Into this low point where we seem focused on the powerful political opposition that miracle comes as nice reminder that Jesus is God’s Messiah.

Perhaps it is this sombre context that caused Matthew to remember another miracle at this point, Jesus walks calmly up to the disciples, who are in a boat in a storm, and strolling across the water tells them not to be afraid! This provides us with clues/reminders that Jesus is not merely a human messiah/king, but indeed God incarnate. The elements are his servants, and like Yahweh in the Old Testament he tells his people they need not fear: “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” (Mat 14:27) remember Abraham (Gen 15:1); Moses at the burning bush, Joshua and many others…

Then there’s the lovely detail of the enthusiastic Peter, first wanting a go, then remembering the storm, and finally saying “Lord, save me!” and as we’ll see the close of the story (remember endings are important and often signal, as beginnings also do often, what a story was about) stresses that Jesus is “son of God”.

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I hope this doesn't mean there are no miracles left... ! by JOPHIELsmiles

The miracle stories in the Gospels (like the ones in the OT) are stories with the wow factor that’s part of all miracle stories – think of the ones we hear on the infomercials on TV

They called this reading “Feeding the Five Thousand” but it comes in a context.  Luke (like the other gospels (except Thomas which the early Christians excluded from the Bible) does not tell an unconnected series of “stories about Jesus” rather he tells us “The Story of Jesus”.

The context in which this miracle is told to us shows us that this miracle is part of a process showing us Jesus bringing to life aspects of what the OT tells us to hope for when the Messiah comes. But then Jesus tells us that he’s a different sort of Messiah, not a glorious but a suffering one. Before God puts the cap on it all showing that this suffering Messiah is indeed glorious!

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Everyone loves a good miracle story, the Infomercials are full of them, buy this exercise machine use it just 10 minutes a day and be instantly sexually attractive, sleep on our special magnets and your pain will go away and you’ll feel 30 years younger. Infomercial miracles sell things: it worked for me, you buy one! I’ll have what she’s having But despite the temptation for Christians to use them in the same way, in the gospels it’s a bit different! We still love a good miracle, but their purpose is not to sell something – rather to show us something…

And then there’s the question of when miracles fail to happen… (cf. Luke 4:20-28)

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Lost apple photo by jaqian

This is a chapter of parables. Remember parabole (Greek) or mashal (Hebrew) means a comparison, so ask ourselves what’s the point of comparison here? One clue is to look at the numbers (no, I’ll not be getting into numerology Another, Jesus gives us himself. And a third comes from noticing where the climax of the story comes. Out of these clues we’ll find that the Prodigal Son is not about the prodigal son, or even primarily about his forgiving father…

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OK this story must be one of the best-known that Jesus ever told, everyone has heard it! And if not (at least if they speak English or French or just about any other European language) they know the main character’s name – The Good Samaritan. Except that, what we know if we know this, is all wrong!

Jesus was a prophet so to understand what he’s doing here we need to remind ourselves how Prophets work. So after a quick recap on prophets we think about what Jesus the prophet is doing when he tells this story.

For more on prophets try these:

• E100-36: 2 Samuel 11:1 – 12:25: David and Bathsheba?
• E100 Week 10: Prophets: three principles to unlock the code
• E100-46: Isaiah 51:1 – 53:12: Reading prophets for pleasure and profit
• E100-47: Jeremiah 1:1 – 3:5: Getting started as a prophet
• E100-50: Malachi 1:1 – 4:6: The book that makes the bridge

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This chapter is a big sack of parables, and we’ve already seen that a parable is in essence a comparison, where light is thrown on something by talking about something else, better known or more clear or vivid. The parable of the the sower is particularly complicated and developed, with lots of details but still turns on a comparison. Though Jesus does not (at first) tell his audience what it is, he wants them to think: “if you have ears then hear!”

There is an English proverb that’s pretty close to Jesus puzzling saying about why he spoke in parables (Matthew 13:10-15). It helps us to understand what is going on and shows us how the Sower is all about grace (not being a more efficient evangelist) but that grace can only work when the soil is ready – you have to want to be saved!

We’ll also notice how Matthew like Luke (maybe they both copied the same Master?) puts parables together so that they help explain each other. I’ll also suggest that talk of a fire that will burn up the dud fish and the tares makes better sense if we are willing to give over the right to judge to God, and not to think we can know the rules God MUST apply. (See Jonah on that

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Fixed: in sheeps clothing by manitou2121

Prayer and Parables

This section is a mix of teaching and parables. There is so much to talk about, so I’ll focus on how Jesus teaches:

• like a true Jew!
• in parables

6:5-8 sounds just like the prophets: true religion is not about what other people think of us, but Jusus is even more deeply theological. Remember it’s the Bible – it’s about God!

Like all of Jesus teaching this is radical stuff the whole Christian music industry risks being demolished at a stroke, not to mention using crosses as jewellery, and prayers on FaceBook! Or are they? Again like the prophets (e.g. Am 4:4-5 see Genre matters: 1) it’s the motive that matters.

When someone says “parable” today we tend to think stories (perhaps with a “heavenly meaning”) but actually both in Greek parabol? and Hebrew mashal a parable is a comparison. (Two things are put side by side so that one illuminates the other.) In his parables Jesus mixes metaphors like a cocktail barman!

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Matthew and Luke both give short collections of Jesus teaching early in their Gospels  (Mt 5-7 and the second half of Luke 6) there are similarities, both e.g. have “The Beatitudes”  a series of sayings listing sorts of people who will be blessed by God, near the beginning but each sermon (or summary compilation of Jesus’ teaching) has a distinct focus and interests. In the Gospels we don’t have a transcript of Jesus’ life and teaching, but people’s retelling of Jesus’ life selected and told with the benefit of hindsight – so like all good biographies each Gospel gives us different things.

Did you notice how the B in Mat after the series of less and less surprising reversals Matthew ends the series focused on “you”. After the beatitudes, and the salt and light description of how Jesus’ followers are to be, Matthew spends some time on Jesus and the law (I have other podcasts on Jesus reading Scripture so follow the link but as well as noticing the way in which Jesus turns laws (that invite us to look for loopholes) into commands (telling us which way we should be aiming) it closes with a command that simply does not work as law: “Be perfect”, not just really good, but perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect!

And then at the start of the next chapter advice not to pretend to be better than we are!

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This week’s readings contain a sample of Jesus teachings. In reading them we will notice two things particularly that will help us better understand:
(a) Jesus is a prophet: so the rules we learnt for reading Old Testament prophets will help us understand Jesus. These rules were:

1. Prophets spoke to a context: knowing the who, what, when, where, how & why can help us get the point.
2. Prophetic speech is often a conversation.
3. Prophets are about conversion (not prediction).

(b) Jesus taught (often) in parables. Parables are picture language. Parable in Greek parabole or in Hebrew mashal means a “comparison”. So to understand a parable, as well as looking at the context we need to ask what comparison is being made?

In the first reading (the first part of the Sermon on the Mount, Mat 5:1-6:4) we’ll notice that Luke has a Sermon on a Plain and so how each Gospel remembers Jesus for themselves, that like any good biography Gospels are not transcripts, but meaningful retellings of the life of Jesus.

The second reading is the second part of the Sermon on Mount (Mat 6:5-7:29) we’ll notice that Jesus teaches like the prophets and how radical that teaching is.

The third reading Mat 13 introduces us to parables, and also shows us that parables are sometimes intended to make us think not provide quick simple answers.

For the fourth reading, Luke 10:25-37, I’ll suggest that the “Good Samaritan” is not about the Good Samaritan Jesus remember is a prophet and prophets turn things upside down and inside out.

Then we’ll apply all this to the lost and found parables Luke 15:1-32, especially to “The Prodigal Son” and again I’ll suggest the parable is not about the prodigal son, or even his forgiving father.

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Matthew has introduced Jesus, giving his genealogy, linking him to the story of God’s chosen people in particular to David the great king (messiah) and Abraham the ancestor (patriarch) whom God first chose and blessed to be the blessing of the rest of humanity, and four really interesting women. He has told the birth, with a focus on kingship (messiah) and opposition (Herrod’s massacre of innocents). The escape to and return from Egypt – as well as being Messiah Jesus recapitulates Israel. Matthew effectively told us that what Israel should have been Jesus is!

Now three tests, one dumb, one diabolical and the last showing us that Jesus is a real human, and not just a god taking a holiday in human skin.

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Using a photo by by Stacirl (some see a face in the flames)

How would you take to John as preacher in your church? He certainly had an attention grabbing opening:

You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Luke 3:7

If a little lacking in pastoral skills

But for a modern audience it actually gets harder, just as John seems to soften. And then there’s Jesus…

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This is perhaps the chapter of the Bible that more people have partly heard than any other. We have also heard things that aren’t there: like the animals around the manger who don’t get a mention in Luke’s account – perhaps because their presence in houses as well as “stables” they were taken for granted.

Most people have a favourite part of this chapter. My childhood favourite is left out of the set reading, but I’ll talk about why other bits have stuck in my mind more recently. Although I will not actually talk about Jesus’ birth, for this chapter above all others in the Bible, I will notice things about Mary and another quietly significant woman character.

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CHRIST – BIRTH
The third vertical window on the north side represents the birth of Christ. The chief feature of this window is the exploding star at the top with its streams of light flowing downward. The lower part shows a horizontal streak of lavender suggesting the separation of heaven from earth. The heavenly light of the star may be seen in the bottom section of the window which depicts the actual birth scene. The purple typifies His royalty and the red anticipates His cross.
Photo by FirstBaptistNashville

The first four verses of Luke set up some expectations for the Gospel. Luke tells us he cares about history and evidence, uses posh Greek words some used by historians (especially Jewish history), yet by naming Theophilus and his use of the first person (I) he also sends other signals. This is history but personal, Greek, but embedded in Judaism and especially Scripture.

Then the chapter continues with a string of echoes of the Old Testament Scriptures. Jesus birth grows out of the Old Testament the way plants grow out of the soil not as something strange and new, but as something recognised yet changed, new and wonderful, yet familiar.

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As a child I loved those old hymns that talked about God as a mystery:

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
in light inaccessible hid from our eyes…

Even if at first I had to ask what some of the words meant actually understanding the words doesn’t end the mystery…

John one has the same effect except the words are easy – it’s how they are used that’s magic

This brain twisting poetry is also chock full of solid Christian doctrine.

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What is a “Gospel”? Not a collection of sayings, because they tell more stories, but not a biography, they almost miss out most of Jesus’ life! We’ll get an idea what Gospels really are by looking at how each Gospel concludes (Matt 28:17-20; Mark 16:15-20; Luke 24:51-53; John 20:30-31). Then, the four gospels begin so differently! They are different so we get four different “takes” on Jesus, a full rounded view, not one person’s biases.

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Malachi is a short prophetic book, the name Malachi just means “my messenger” which seems to be what the speaker calls himself. It has no more details of time, place or person in the superscription (as most prophetic books do), but the content suggests Judah after the exile under Persian rule.

The book opens opens with a strong statement of Yahweh’s election of Israel, using hyperbole (exageration) to make it’s impact. “Malachi” accuses his audience of being willing to obey and seek to please humans but not God! He calls for proper sacrifice cf. pre-exilic prophets who were less impressed by sacrifice. The book usually signals when others words are being imagined, making it easier to read.

It addresses priests much of the time and the greater importance of priests, sacrifice and law/torah is a feature that suggests the time when Israel was province.

Malachi’s mix of concern for the here and now and for the future is typical of prophetic books, but this book is more weighted to future than most. More than any other short prophetic book Malachi prepares for and links to the New Testament.

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These four chapters tell the story of God’s prophet Jonah (who attentive Bible students know from 2 kings 14:25:

He restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher.

This true prophet runs away from  God, says a long prayer inside a fish, preaches a five word sermon and converts the capital of an unusually brutal empire, and then tells God off grumpily! The story of Jonah is told in ways that cause us to laugh, or at least smile. This book is funny from beginning to end – which is different from other Bible books even though many of them contain humour see the podcasts here.

What’s going on? and Why’d he do it?

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There are a number of podasts if you want more on Jonah, or I have some study notes on the book of Jonah (not yet quite finished, or a longer lecture on Jonah.

In this 5 minute recording I try to introduce Daniel, a book that has been placed among the prophets in Christian Bibles (following the tradition of the old Greek translation) but is not a “prophet” in the Hebrew Bible. The book contains two sorts of material, stories about Daniel, like this one “Daniel in the Lions’ Den”, and records of Daniel’s visions, which seem to speak in a half hidden coded language. The visions are rather like Revelation in the New Testament, and scholars class both as “apocalyptic” (from the Greek for uncover or reveal what is hidden). The stories are most like the stories of Joseph and Esther.

I also suggest that reading chapter 6 (Daniel in the Lions’ Den) with chapter 3 (The burning firey furnace) adds an important link between Daniel and the Christian message in the New Testament.

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The call of Jeremiah should really have come before the Isaiah reading, as it gives us a good introduction to what a prophet is, and what prophets do. This reading also gives us a clear idea why prophets were often not much appreciated by the people to whom they were sent to proclaim God’s message.

There is so much one could talk about here, that I will focus mainly on Jeremiah’s call and what that tells us about prophets, to help you understand other prophetic books. I will also talk a little about the other chapter and a bit, but recognise that there are loads of issues in that section that I will not touch on, because of the interest in making sense of prophecy in general…

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I have not focused these 5 Minutes on how Is 53 speaks so clearly about Jesus, it is the Old Testament passage that is most clearly, directly and simply fulfilled in Christ. But that status should not make it paradigmatic for undedrstanding how Jesus fulfills Scripture. For more on that (and there is nothing on that in this podcast see What DOES “fulfil” mean? And other podcasts on this topic here.

Instead in this audio talk I want to focus on reading the prophets. The prophets are problematic today, in part because  Christians sometimes make them seem more like Nostradamus than Nathan, but even more because these books do fit Yancey’s friend’s description: “weird, confusing and all sound alike”. In these five minutes I’ll mention two key tools background (“context“) and hearing the “voices”.

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William Blake: The Ghost of a Flea

Prophets and prophecy: the most misunderstood part of OT, “mysterious messengers”. A random chunk from a prophetic book will offer a confusing, seemingly muddled, confusion of vivid picture language. Yet, three simple principles can (usually) unlock the mystery and allow the prophets to speak:

• conversion not prediction
• context not timeless
• conversation not monologue

As I’ll explain briefly in this podcast these three principles can cause mere fortune tellers to become evangelists, and their mysterious messages to become a call to convert, to change our behaviour, to redeem our world…

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Proverbs are pithy sayings. Short, thought-provoking, often using vivid imagery proverbs work by making you think. But they are often used as a source of quick simple answers. The book of Proverbs is a collkection of loads of such sayings with a long preface and short epilogue that encourage young men to meditate on this advice. The goal of Proverbs is lives lived well.

A proverb can be applied like a Band Aid to appropriate situations, BUT their greatest value is when you meditate them. So Proverbs 10-30 is the one part of the Bible that is better read verse-by-verse. This most secular of Bible books offers surface results (wealth, success…) but with under the radar spirituality.

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Most of Proverbs contains collections of proverbs (pithy sayings about life) but the book has a nine chapter prologue and a half chapter epilogue. The epilogue is a poem describing an ideal(ised) wife. The prologue seeks to motivate the student (a young male – notice all the “my son” language) to follow his mother’s advice and live a faithful, respectable, respectful, honest life.

The last chapters sex up this motivational speech by picturing Wisdom as a woman, who should become the young man’s fiancee and eventually bride.

The podcast though focuses on these chapters, with a short digression explaining what the Apocrypha is.

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There are some technical details to explain: what a “hymn” is (not a long old-fashioned worship song), what it means to “bless God” and the meaning of hesed. But mainly this podcast aims to encourage you to  hear the celebration of the creator God who is gracious, even to those who do not deserve it, merciful and above all faithful. It’s a beautiful psalm, that expresses how God is not “a god” clearly and sharply, and it just begs us to join in blessing Yahweh!

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The biblical text tells us how to read this psalm. Whether or not we agree with those who see the words “build the walls of Jerusalem” at the end as a reference to the need to (re)build after the destruction of 586, and so (perhaps along with other reasons) see the psalm as actually written later, we are told to read the psalm against the story of David’s sin and Nathan’s visit

NB: the headings like <To the leader. A Psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.> are often printed as if they had less authority than the big bold headings Bible publishers add – but they are part of the Bible and the publishers headings are NOT!

So that’s how I’ll read it. In doing so I’ll commont on details of wording, as well as on how this psalm fits into the big picture of the Bible.

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Wadi Qelt, Judean Desert, with St George's monastry by Ester Inbar, available from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:ST

Perhaps the best known and popular psalm among both Jews and Christians but not easy to categorise, except that it expresses trust in God. The imagery makes even better sense when some geography and culture is understood:

• sheep follow shepherds, they are not left on the hills and then driven
• green pastures, means land where there is some green vegetation, not just rocks and dust
• wadis: steep sided gorges, semi-desert little vegetation, quick run off from  hills = flash floods

For more on this see also my “Psalm 23 in context”

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This week’s 5 is a somewhat artificial collection, putting together two different things. Yet both Psalms and Proverbs work differently from the narrative/history and prophecy that comprise the bulk of the Old Testament, and both are used a lot by Christians along with Genesis and Isaiah (while most of the Old Testament lies unread the Two-Thirds Bible).

In this podcast we’ll look at how different genres (see the posts here, especially: Genre matters: 1- Why genre matters) work. This will help understanding and applying the week’s readings. In doing this we’ll learn for example why so often proverbs contradict each other!

Incidentally in the Bible the commonest genre of psalm are complaints, but there are no complaints among the three readings chosen, to lpearn more about them see the podcasts here.

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Detail from Sennacherib's Lachish frieze showing prisoners being impaled

Today’s is a grim reading. But such brutality was not unusual in the Ancient Near East. The Assyrians, for example, when they captured the Judean city of Lachish after a siege in 701BC impaled the surviving leaders outside the city, and left a mass grave of 1,500 people (mainly women and children).

Despite what one might even see as gentle treatment of the city by the Babylonians in 586, the fall of Jesusalem marked Hebrew thought deeply because it was God’s city, their last toehold of political independence in the promised land and Yahweh’s holy temple that the Babylonians destroyed. In doing so they also destroyed many Hebrew’s faith in Yahweh, and thus shaped our Bibles. Many of the prophetic books either warn of the coming desctruction, or seek to cope with the exile of the leaders and their resulting loss of faith in Yahweh.

Today’s reading therefore tells the core event that helped shape much of the Old Testament.

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Banana plantation at the foot of Mt Carmel

Since this is a gripping, but well-known, story what I’ll try to do in this podcast is show you how a bit of context (see here for more on context and understanding the Bible).

I’ll also tell you God’s two nicknames, in some religious traditions knowing all a god’s names is really important, in Hinduism the god Vishnu has 1,000 names, in Islam there is a tradition that God has 99 names. Yahweh the God the Bible talks about has kicknames as well as formal names!

Forrested crest of Carmel from the Eshkol Tower of Haifa University

A couple of photos to illustrate the geography

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Photo from The Russian Institute of Radionavigation and Time, http://www.rirt.ru/

Solomon’s prayer understands that Yahweh is a different God, the gods (like Ba’al and his crowd) lived in the sky – and lanced thunderbolts down on people they disliked – heaven/sky was like the earth only bigger and better.

When Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev said “Gagarin flew into space, but didn’t see any God there“. Solomon’s prayer sees the stupidity of Krushchev – how could the creator of universes be see from a measly 302Kms from earth? But even this is not the real difference. This Yahweh is a God who’s name means “being with you” cf. E100-17: Exodus 3-4: Getting the holy between your toes! Yahweh wants a relationship, loves us, and is therefore a jealous God
cf. E100-21: Exodus 19:1 – 20:21: The Ten Commandments.

The story of Israel’s ancestor, Jacob, was bookmarked by two nighttime meetings with God, the second time he was given the name “Israel”. Solomon’s story also has two nighttime meetings with God, in the first he got his wish, and chose wisdom, in this reading after dedicating the temple in a dream God warns Solomon that all his promises to the chosen people are conditional on Israel’s obedience. Therefore they provisional and as we will see are only really fulfilled in Jesus.

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The judgement of Solomon by Gaetano Gandolfi (1734–1802)

In just two chapters we get some of the most beautiful and inspiring, and some of the grubbiest and most bloodthirsty stories in the Bible. It is no wonder that telling the stories of David (with Saul and Solomon and perhaps the rest) as a serial, like a soap opera has the audience panting for more

In this podcast I’ll again point to clues to how we can, and (often of more use) how we should NOT “read” Bible stories.

I’ll also make a shameless plug for my Not Only a Father an online book about the use of motherly language and imagery to describe God in the Bible and in later Christian theology, which you can discuss, argue with or ask questions about as you read – and if you can’t see how that connection fits this passage… then listen to the podcast

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Bathsheba goes to David by Francesco Salviati (1510–1563)

These two chapters mark the turning point in David’s story.

They offer vital clues also to how we “read” biblical narratives.

• Nathan’s story within a story provides hints, abouit the nature of narrative meaning
• David’s strange behaviour  during his child’s illness and on his death provides both a clue to an interpretative rule, and some good practice

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“The fall of Israel” is a theological (not historical) title. This five covers almost the whole history of the Israelite kingdoms from David to the destruction of Jerusalem. The Deuteronomistic History (Joshua-Kings) from which they all come (cf. remarks on Judges) tell the story with the end in view, one important goal of these books is to explain the fall of Jerusalem and the exile.

So this is a good selection to understand what is going on:

1. Even the great king David is human and fails (spectacularly)
2. Solomon is seen at his best – asking for and displaying wisdom not wealth or power;
3. building the temple and expressing fine theology
   not as the king who began to lose an empire, and introduced idols to the temple
4. Elijah and the fight on Mt Carmel is an archetypical story of the conflict between belief in gods and in God
5. Then the final reading tells the ghastly and traumatic story of the fall of Jerusalem and the end of Israel as a political entity – but worse of the temple and crown promised by God!

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by didbygraham

Bible stories, with a few exceptions (maybe some parables for example) do NOT have nice neat “morals”. If you want to say “and the moral of the story is…” don’t read the Bible. But by contrast if you want people with real depth, who make it difficult for us to work out what their motives are, and therefore hard to simply place them in appropriate “boxes”, the Bible is the book for you

In this reading we’ll notice depth and complexity in two of the less central characters, Michal and Nathan. In that complexity we may find clues to living our own, often also complex, lives…

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"head and shoulders above the rest" by jenny downing

Just when you begin to wonder if any Bible story is really suitable for simple Sunday School reading, and have begun to suspect that the Bible has no message but: Humans are broken and need mending, humans are sinful and therefore they keep spoiling God’s lovely world and hurting each other. Along comes a story to remind us of another truth… Just as the story of Ruth  followed the grime of Judges, so now in 1 Samuel 24 we get a story, set amid the war and political jostling of the beginnings of the Hebrew monarchy, with not one but two real heroes. Both protagonists are noble in this chapter. Both we know from other chapters are sinful broken men, but here young David and poor old, broken and probably insane, Saul both act with gracious nobility.

]]> http://5minutebible.com/e100-34-1-samuel-237-%e2%80%93-2422-two-noble-opponents/feed/ 0 0:05:32 "head and shoulders above the rest" by jenny downing Just when you begin to wonder if any Bible story is really suitable for simple Sunday School reading, and have begun to suspect that the Bible has no message but: Humans are broken and nee[...] "head and shoulders above the rest" by jenny downing Just when you begin to wonder if any Bible story is really suitable for simple Sunday School reading, and have begun to suspect that the Bible has no message but: Humans are broken and need mending, humans are sinful and therefore they keep spoiling God’s lovely world and hurting each other. Along comes a story to remind us of another truth… Just as the story of Ruth  followed the grime of Judges, so now in 1 Samuel 24 we get a story, set amid the war and political jostling of the beginnings of the Hebrew monarchy, with not one but two real heroes. Both protagonists are noble in this chapter. Both we know from other chapters are sinful broken men, but here young David and poor old, broken and probably insane, Saul both act with gracious nobility. E100 Dr Tim Bulkeley clean no http://5minutebible.com/e100-32-1-samuel-161-%e2%80%93-1816-slain-in-the-spirit/ http://5minutebible.com/e100-32-1-samuel-161-%e2%80%93-1816-slain-in-the-spirit/#comments Tue, 01 Jun 2010 16:18:46 +0000 tim http://5minutebible.com/?p=457

Saul the hero close up by donwolf1979

Yes, like some of the Bible writers, I just can’t resist a pun, especially if it really does help carry the message And in this case I think it does, more specifically after we have noticed quickly some of the good stuff in the famous David and Goliath story of David and Goliath. For this podcast, perhaps as homework, you might want to play with a computer Bible… and you might also want to return to the comments, and discuss the vexed question of the nature of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit…

I'll leave you to work out why I chose this picture for this podcast photo by quapan

This is the story in which we hear the interface between Judges, “Everyone did as they saw fit, for there was no king in Israel”, and the story of the Hebrew kingdoms. In these few chapters there is loads of good stuff to notice (for a start try):

• Humour in the Bible: Part 1: Introducing Saul
• Humour in the Bible: Part 2: Still Introducing Saul
• Direct speech in biblical narratives

But this time I’ll restrain myself, and just mention one or two neat narrative details. Instead I’ll talk more about the big theological picture.

Quotation in title from Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr (without apologies to Aristophanes)

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Three great chapters, full of well crafted narrative, with a stirring  song thrown in! There is too much detail to notice in the way these stories are told, you’ll have to watch for the fun yourselves. In this ‘cast I’ll focus more on the song, and not so much on its detail as overall how it works. (For more background on this see my Why Read the Bible? Dreams and visions which is part of a longer series of reflections on Lost Treasures of the Bible: reading “from another place”: reading for a change that was earlier published as part of the Fetschrift for Brian Smith:

Sutherland, Martin, and Carey Baptist College. Mission without Christendom : exploring the site : essays for Brian Smith. Auckland N.Z.: Carey Baptist College, 2000.

]]> http://5minutebible.com/e100-31-1-samuel-11-%e2%80%93-321-on-not-missing-the-voice-in-the-darkness/feed/ 0 0:05:07 Three great chapters, full of well crafted narrative, with a stirring  song thrown in! There is too much detail to notice in the way these stories are told, you’ll have to watch for the fun yourselves. In this ‘cast I’ll focus more[...] Three great chapters, full of well crafted narrative, with a stirring  song thrown in! There is too much detail to notice in the way these stories are told, you’ll have to watch for the fun yourselves. In this ‘cast I’ll focus more on the song, and not so much on its detail as overall how it works. (For more background on this see my Why Read the Bible? Dreams and visions which is part of a longer series of reflections on Lost Treasures of the Bible: reading “from another place”: reading for a change that was earlier published as part of the Fetschrift for Brian Smith: Sutherland, Martin, and Carey Baptist College. Mission without Christendom : exploring the site : essays for Brian Smith. Auckland N.Z.: Carey Baptist College, 2000. E100 Dr Tim Bulkeley clean no http://5minutebible.com/e100-week-7-bible-stories-for-adults/ http://5minutebible.com/e100-week-7-bible-stories-for-adults/#comments Sat, 29 May 2010 15:42:05 +0000 tim http://5minutebible.com/?p=479

Newspaper photo by Jachin Sheehy

If you thought Bible stories were for children, nice little tales with a nice little moral at the end, then you probably have not been following the E100 up to this point, and you certainly have not been reading the bits the organisers censored out!

Bible stories are NOT like that, rather they tell in the most realistic way possible the stories of real people, who we must watch, listen to and then work out how we’ll respond. Is Samuel the real hero of the books that bear his name? Is Saul a hero or a villain? And David a plaster saint? Just to pose the questions is to suggest answers that don’t fit the Sunday School Story mode of reading the Bible.

This set of five readings will give us more practice at reading the real Bible

]]> http://5minutebible.com/e100-week-7-bible-stories-for-adults/feed/ 0 0:04:47 Newspaper photo by Jachin Sheehy If you thought Bible stories were for children, nice little tales with a nice little moral at the end, then you probably have not been following the E100 up to this point, and you certainly have not been reading the [...] Newspaper photo by Jachin Sheehy If you thought Bible stories were for children, nice little tales with a nice little moral at the end, then you probably have not been following the E100 up to this point, and you certainly have not been reading the bits the organisers censored out! Bible stories are NOT like that, rather they tell in the most realistic way possible the stories of real people, who we must watch, listen to and then work out how we’ll respond. Is Samuel the real hero of the books that bear his name? Is Saul a hero or a villain? And David a plaster saint? Just to pose the questions is to suggest answers that don’t fit the Sunday School Story mode of reading the Bible. This set of five readings will give us more practice at reading the real Bible E100 Dr Tim Bulkeley clean no http://5minutebible.com/e100-30-ruth-11-%e2%80%93-422-at-last-a-nice-story/ http://5minutebible.com/e100-30-ruth-11-%e2%80%93-422-at-last-a-nice-story/#comments Thu, 27 May 2010 15:56:41 +0000 tim http://5minutebible.com/?p=437

Well, Judges was thoroughly censored for E100, as it is for most church use, the bits we got were the rare good bits, cf. my Twisted tales: or should the book of Judges be censored? (which got me into trouble with a fundamentalist who could not be bothered to actually listen to what I was saying before condemning me to hell – so it may be worth listening to

Ruth is about “redemption”, the need for husband for Ruth and so a baby to continue the “house of Elimelek” and to provide for the two widows, and so it’s about the primary virtue of the OT (and of redeemers) “hesed” faithfulness/love/kindness in covenant relationships.

So Ruth (in the Christian Bible placed between Judges and Samuel) redeems:

• it echoes and redeems the ancestral stories of failure: Judah and Tamar
• it announces and prefigures David (remember David & foreign woman, Bathsheba?) and redeems him
• it stands between the terror and chaos of Judges and presents a world where God’s virtue is revealed in his creatures lives!

An everyday tale of country folk – but crammed with theology and incidentally a crackingly well-told tale with no violence, death or hatred, but which keeps our interest all through

I have a few other podcasts on this lovely book.

]]> http://5minutebible.com/e100-30-ruth-11-%e2%80%93-422-at-last-a-nice-story/feed/ 0 0:04:40 Well, Judges was thoroughly censored for E100, as it is for most church use, the bits we got were the rare good bits, cf. my Twisted tales: or should the book of Judges be censored? (which got me into trouble with a fundamentalist who could not be b[...] Well, Judges was thoroughly censored for E100, as it is for most church use, the bits we got were the rare good bits, cf. my Twisted tales: or should the book of Judges be censored? (which got me into trouble with a fundamentalist who could not be bothered to actually listen to what I was saying before condemning me to hell – so it may be worth listening to Ruth is about “redemption”, the need for husband for Ruth and so a baby to continue the “house of Elimelek” and to provide for the two widows, and so it’s about the primary virtue of the OT (and of redeemers) “hesed” faithfulness/love/kindness in covenant relationships. So Ruth (in the Christian Bible placed between Judges and Samuel) redeems: it echoes and redeems the ancestral stories of failure: Judah and Tamar it announces and prefigures David (remember David & foreign woman, Bathsheba?) and redeems him it stands between the terror and chaos of Judges and presents a world where God’s virtue is revealed in his creatures lives! An everyday tale of country folk – but crammed with theology and incidentally a crackingly well-told tale with no violence, death or hatred, but which keeps our interest all through I have a few other podcasts on this lovely book. E100, Ruth, Theology Dr Tim Bulkeley clean no http://5minutebible.com/e100-29-judges-131-%e2%80%93-1631-samson-a-biblical-superhero/ http://5minutebible.com/e100-29-judges-131-%e2%80%93-1631-samson-a-biblical-superhero/#comments Wed, 26 May 2010 15:28:17 +0000 tim http://5minutebible.com/?p=434

It’s certainly hard to find a superhero in the Bible! Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and even Moses – all fail – though some of them look good the way we try to… by comparison with their neighbours, family or friends think of how Moses shines when compared to Aaron.

But Samson! He’s super strong, has a fatal weakness, and a secret identity (as a Nazirite

However in this podcast we’ll look closer, and in noticing some details of how the story is told uncover what is really going on

]]> http://5minutebible.com/e100-29-judges-131-%e2%80%93-1631-samson-a-biblical-superhero/feed/ 0 0:05:25 It’s certainly hard to find a superhero in the Bible! Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and even Moses – all fail – though some of them look good the way we try to… by comparison with their neighbours, family or friends think of how Moses shines whe[...] It’s certainly hard to find a superhero in the Bible! Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and even Moses – all fail – though some of them look good the way we try to… by comparison with their neighbours, family or friends think of how Moses shines when compared to Aaron. But Samson! He’s super strong, has a fatal weakness, and a secret identity (as a Nazirite However in this podcast we’ll look closer, and in noticing some details of how the story is told uncover what is really going on E100, Judges, Narrative, Reading Dr Tim Bulkeley clean no http://5minutebible.com/e100-28-judges-61-%e2%80%93-725-unlikely-victors/ http://5minutebible.com/e100-28-judges-61-%e2%80%93-725-unlikely-victors/#comments Tue, 25 May 2010 15:54:25 +0000 tim http://5minutebible.com/?p=429

This story is often used to support testing whether God really wants us to do something we are reluctant to do, just like Gideon. In this podcast, as well as drawing attention to some other thoroughly human characteristics of our hero, I’ll point to the censored Bible story (one we do not read in church) in 1 Kings 22, and suggest we should heed its warning before we hurry to copy Gideon.

]]> http://5minutebible.com/e100-28-judges-61-%e2%80%93-725-unlikely-victors/feed/ 0 0:04:39 This story is often used to support testing whether God really wants us to do something we are reluctant to do, just like Gideon. In this podcast, as well as drawing attention to some other thoroughly human characteristics of our hero, I’ll po[...] This story is often used to support testing whether God really wants us to do something we are reluctant to do, just like Gideon. In this podcast, as well as drawing attention to some other thoroughly human characteristics of our hero, I’ll point to the censored Bible story (one we do not read in church) in 1 Kings 22, and suggest we should heed its warning before we hurry to copy Gideon. E100, Judges Dr Tim Bulkeley clean no http://5minutebible.com/e100-27-judges-41-%e2%80%93-531-deborah-%e2%80%93-a-twice-told-tale/ http://5minutebible.com/e100-27-judges-41-%e2%80%93-531-deborah-%e2%80%93-a-twice-told-tale/#comments Mon, 24 May 2010 16:27:35 +0000 tim http://5minutebible.com/?p=424

The story of Deborah, the prophetess and judge, is one of those biblical stories told to us twice, first in a prose narrative and then in a poetic celebration (the Exodus crossing of the sea in Ex 14 & 15 provides another example).

In this case the details, what Western minds call “facts” and worship above all other sorts of information, are strikingly different between the two tellings:

• In chapter 4: there is a focus on Canaanite oppression of the people of Israel, the battle concerns particularly the tribes of Naphtali & Zebulon, the victory is assured when Yahweh “confused” the Canaanites, in telling Jael’s killing of Sisera (the Canaanite general) her actions are presented as a parody of motherhood: “don’t be afraid” she says, then fed him milk and tucked him up.
• In chapter 5: the issues at stake seem to concern the free passage of trade, Yahweh ensures Canaanites’ defeat by sending a storm, various (Northern) tribes are involved, including Ephraim, Benjamin, Issachar etc. as well as Naphtali and Zebulun, the telling of Jael’s actions stresses her hospitality, giving him milk, even cream, instead of just water etc.

Another reminder that the focus of the tellers of Bible stories was not on the information content (that we focus on) but more on the relationships and especially on the primary relationship between us (as hearers of the telling) and God. Both tellings are full or irony, and both upset our notions of appropriate gender roles, as well as our stomachs. Stories in Judges are always disturbing.

]]> http://5minutebible.com/e100-27-judges-41-%e2%80%93-531-deborah-%e2%80%93-a-twice-told-tale/feed/ 0 0:04:59 The story of Deborah, the prophetess and judge, is one of those biblical stories told to us twice, first in a prose narrative and then in a poetic celebration (the Exodus crossing of the sea in Ex 14 & 15 provides another example). In this case [...] The story of Deborah, the prophetess and judge, is one of those biblical stories told to us twice, first in a prose narrative and then in a poetic celebration (the Exodus crossing of the sea in Ex 14 & 15 provides another example). In this case the details, what Western minds call “facts” and worship above all other sorts of information, are strikingly different between the two tellings: In chapter 4: there is a focus on Canaanite oppression of the people of Israel, the battle concerns particularly the tribes of Naphtali & Zebulon, the victory is assured when Yahweh “confused” the Canaanites, in telling Jael’s killing of Sisera (the Canaanite general) her actions are presented as a parody of motherhood: “don’t be afraid” she says, then fed him milk and tucked him up. In chapter 5: the issues at stake seem to concern the free passage of trade, Yahweh ensures Canaanites’ defeat by sending a storm, various (Northern) tribes are involved, including Ephraim, Benjamin, Issachar etc. as well as Naphtali and Zebulun, the telling of Jael’s actions stresses her hospitality, giving him milk, even cream, instead of just water etc. Another reminder that the focus of the tellers of Bible stories was not on the information content (that we focus on) but more on the relationships and especially on the primary relationship between us (as hearers of the telling) and God. Both tellings are full or irony, and both upset our notions of appropriate gender roles, as well as our stomachs. Stories in Judges are always disturbing. E100, History, Judges, Narrative Dr Tim Bulkeley clean no http://5minutebible.com/e100-26-judges-26-%e2%80%93-36-a-vicious-cycle-or-a-divine-alarm-clock/ http://5minutebible.com/e100-26-judges-26-%e2%80%93-36-a-vicious-cycle-or-a-divine-alarm-clock/#comments Sun, 23 May 2010 15:58:16 +0000 tim http://5minutebible.com/?p=416

The deuteronomistic cycle described by Richard Martin

There’s a nasty cycle that repeats time and again in Judges, and that forms a theme of the history in the books of Samuel and Kings too:

• Israel forgets that Yhwh is the ONE who has given them everything
• they start to worship/serve other Gods
• God allows an enemy to oppress them
• they call to God – who raises up a strong leader who by God’s power rescues them

This pattern was described in Deuteronomy so these books (with Joshua) get called the “Deuteronomistic History” by scholars.

The prophetic cycle by Richard Martin.

Incidentally since I have used Richard Martin’s fine diagram of this vicious cycle I will include also here (though it is really describing an extension of this pattern found in the prophetic books) his prophetic cycle – in the hopes some of you will find his superb class notes useful

After all it is appropriate while reading Judges to remember that this depressing book is part of a wider Scripture that is all fulfilled in Christ! The prophets will point more clearly to that fulfillment than Judges does.

]]> http://5minutebible.com/e100-26-judges-26-%e2%80%93-36-a-vicious-cycle-or-a-divine-alarm-clock/feed/ 0 0:04:57 The deuteronomistic cycle described by Richard Martin There’s a nasty cycle that repeats time and again in Judges, and that forms a theme of the history in the books of Samuel and Kings too: Israel forgets that Yhwh is the ONE who has given t[...] The deuteronomistic cycle described by Richard Martin There’s a nasty cycle that repeats time and again in Judges, and that forms a theme of the history in the books of Samuel and Kings too: Israel forgets that Yhwh is the ONE who has given them everything they start to worship/serve other Gods God allows an enemy to oppress them they call to God – who raises up a strong leader who by God’s power rescues them This pattern was described in Deuteronomy so these books (with Joshua) get called the “Deuteronomistic History” by scholars. The prophetic cycle by Richard Martin. Incidentally since I have used Richard Martin’s fine diagram of this vicious cycle I will include also here (though it is really describing an extension of this pattern found in the prophetic books) his prophetic cycle – in the hopes some of you will find his superb class notes useful After all it is appropriate while reading Judges to remember that this depressing book is part of a wider Scripture that is all fulfilled in Christ! The prophets will point more clearly to that fulfillment than Judges does. E100, Judges Dr Tim Bulkeley clean no http://5minutebible.com/e100-week-six-is-ruth-also-among-the-judges/ http://5minutebible.com/e100-week-six-is-ruth-also-among-the-judges/#comments Sat, 22 May 2010 16:19:45 +0000 tim http://5minutebible.com/?p=441

The book of Judges starts badly and gets worse. The end gets completely censored, never read in church, even the Sunday School stories get their naughty bits covered up!

The book ends with a slogan in 21:25 “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.” Which neatly prepares for the books of Samuel except by the time we reach the end of 2 Kings (even if we are slow learners) we realise that kings are not much better.

And that’s how Scripture develops in the Hebrew Bible, in the Christian Old Testament Ruth stands between a beautifully told and thoroughly nice story between two ugly collections of humans behaving badly. A reminder of God’s redemption of human wrong, and of the part we humans can play in revealing that redemption.

]]> http://5minutebible.com/e100-week-six-is-ruth-also-among-the-judges/feed/ 0 0:04:54 The book of Judges starts badly and gets worse. The end gets completely censored, never read in church, even the Sunday School stories get their naughty bits covered up! The book ends with a slogan in 21:25 “In those days Israel had no king; e[...] The book of Judges starts badly and gets worse. The end gets completely censored, never read in church, even the Sunday School stories get their naughty bits covered up! The book ends with a slogan in 21:25 “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.” Which neatly prepares for the books of Samuel except by the time we reach the end of 2 Kings (even if we are slow learners) we realise that kings are not much better. And that’s how Scripture develops in the Hebrew Bible, in the Christian Old Testament Ruth stands between a beautifully told and thoroughly nice story between two ugly collections of humans behaving badly. A reminder of God’s redemption of human wrong, and of the part we humans can play in revealing that redemption. E100, Judges, Ruth Dr Tim Bulkeley clean no http://5minutebible.com/e100-25-joshua-513-%e2%80%93-627-the-fall-of-jericho/ http://5minutebible.com/e100-25-joshua-513-%e2%80%93-627-the-fall-of-jericho/#comments Thu, 20 May 2010 16:03:40 +0000 tim http://5minutebible.com/?p=379

The remains of the Bronze Age walls of Tell es-Sultan (Jericho?) are impressively massive. Photo from Wikimedia

A great Sunday School story again raises the issue of divinely ordered brutal killing, which will need a small series of 5 Minute Bible ‘casts outside this E100 series, which I am committed to doing…

The story is also in several ways full of creative tensions, that raise it beyond a nice tale for kiddies into a thoroughly thought provoking story for adults, with some profound and striking theological points to make.

I’ll even get the chance to talk (briefly) about Amos! (As well as Amos 4: 1-3, I’ll also mention the grim account of Achan at the start of Joshua 7.)

]]> http://5minutebible.com/e100-25-joshua-513-%e2%80%93-627-the-fall-of-jericho/feed/ 0 0:04:43 The remains of the Bronze Age walls of Tell es-Sultan (Jericho?) are impressively massive. Photo from Wikimedia A great Sunday School story again raises the issue of divinely ordered brutal killing, which will need a small series of 5 Minute Bible [...] The remains of the Bronze Age walls of Tell es-Sultan (Jericho?) are impressively massive. Photo from Wikimedia A great Sunday School story again raises the issue of divinely ordered brutal killing, which will need a small series of 5 Minute Bible ‘casts outside this E100 series, which I am committed to doing… The story is also in several ways full of creative tensions, that raise it beyond a nice tale for kiddies into a thoroughly thought provoking story for adults, with some profound and striking theological points to make. I’ll even get the chance to talk (briefly) about Amos! (As well as Amos 4: 1-3, I’ll also mention the grim account of Achan at the start of Joshua 7.) E100, Joshua Dr Tim Bulkeley clean no http://5minutebible.com/e100-24-joshua-31-%e2%80%93-424-crossing-the-jordan/ http://5minutebible.com/e100-24-joshua-31-%e2%80%93-424-crossing-the-jordan/#comments Wed, 19 May 2010 15:59:41 +0000 tim http://5minutebible.com/?p=384

In spring it becomes a torrent, today's river is depleted by water taken by modern pumping stations for cities and irrigation

For today’s reading there are historical (standing stones) and geographic (the Jordan river) information that is important, and perhaps better communicated by pictures and words, rather than words alone. So here are some relevant pictures, with brief captions…

Even today the Jordan valley has (in places) dense bush, making it a strange and dangerous place for people more used to dry pastureland. Photo Wikimedia.

Ancient monoliths (like these from Tel Gezer in the Judean Shephelah) are still impressive. Photo Tim Bulkeley

They were often erected in rows or circles, they still cause us to wonder why they were raised.

This chapter focuses on Joshua taking over from Moses, now that (at the end of Deuteronomy) Moses is dead and gone (though no one except God) saw him die. In the reading we learn a lot about how the Bible views leadership, and it does not easily fit with any of our modern, well-worn patterns. Thank God! We also (not coincidentally) learn about cooperation among God’s people.

Basalt Stele of the god Hadad on a bull with a thunderbolt in hand from Arslan Tash (Tiglath-Pileser III, c.744-727BC

This passage was probably chosen because it contains two famous “Bible stories”, the Golden Calf (in which a priest does what the people want, and becomes so successful that drunkenness, idolatry and other stupidity reigns) and the time Moses got to see God’s backside. But more troublingly it is another passage where God commands and demands killing. I can’t offer easy answers, indeed in one 5 minute podcast what did you expect but I will return to these passages and examine the issue in podcasts outside this E100 series.

]]> http://5minutebible.com/e100-22-exodus-321-%e2%80%93-3435-the-golden-calf/feed/ 2 0:05:04 Basalt Stele of the god Hadad on a bull with a thunderbolt in hand from Arslan Tash (Tiglath-Pileser III, c.744-727BC This passage was probably chosen because it contains two famous “Bible stories”, the Golden Calf (in which a priest doe[...] Basalt Stele of the god Hadad on a bull with a thunderbolt in hand from Arslan Tash (Tiglath-Pileser III, c.744-727BC This passage was probably chosen because it contains two famous “Bible stories”, the Golden Calf (in which a priest does what the people want, and becomes so successful that drunkenness, idolatry and other stupidity reigns) and the time Moses got to see God’s backside. But more troublingly it is another passage where God commands and demands killing. I can’t offer easy answers, indeed in one 5 minute podcast what did you expect but I will return to these passages and examine the issue in podcasts outside this E100 series. E100, Exodus, Genocide Dr Tim Bulkeley clean no http://5minutebible.com/e100-21-exodus-191-%e2%80%93-2021-the-ten-commandments/ http://5minutebible.com/e100-21-exodus-191-%e2%80%93-2021-the-ten-commandments/#comments Sun, 16 May 2010 16:15:43 +0000 tim http://5minutebible.com/?p=364

Two stone tablets stood in the Holy of Holies of the little Judean temple at Arad. (See http://bigbible.org/israel/arad/)

This reflection focuses on two things from this reading, the significance of calling Israel (in the context of making a covenant) a priestly kingdom and a holy nation, and how we should read/understand the ten commandments. (For that part it may help to listen to some of the podcasts here, in particular Casuistic and apodictic: part 1: What the terms mean.) We’ll also end by realising what it means to say Yahweh is a jealous God, and very briefly start thinking about what that jealousy means.

]]> http://5minutebible.com/e100-21-exodus-191-%e2%80%93-2021-the-ten-commandments/feed/ 0 0:04:40 Two stone tablets stood in the Holy of Holies of the little Judean temple at Arad. (See http://bigbible.org/israel/arad/) This reflection focuses on two things from this reading, the significance of calling Israel (in the context of making a covenan[...] Two stone tablets stood in the Holy of Holies of the little Judean temple at Arad. (See http://bigbible.org/israel/arad/) This reflection focuses on two things from this reading, the significance of calling Israel (in the context of making a covenant) a priestly kingdom and a holy nation, and how we should read/understand the ten commandments. (For that part it may help to listen to some of the podcasts here, in particular Casuistic and apodictic: part 1: What the terms mean.) We’ll also end by realising what it means to say Yahweh is a jealous God, and very briefly start thinking about what that jealousy means. E100, Exodus, Law, Law/Torah/Pentateuch Dr Tim Bulkeley clean no http://5minutebible.com/e100-week-5-the-law-and-the-land/ http://5minutebible.com/e100-week-5-the-law-and-the-land/#comments Sat, 15 May 2010 15:42:41 +0000 tim http://5minutebible.com/?p=400

Despite its title this five has little about the law, and not enough about the covenant (binding agreement) to which this law belongs. The selection of passages (the first time I have strongly differed from the choice made by the organisers) is weighted towards American Evangelical favourite Sunday School stories. Having got that gripe off my chest, we’ll notice how in these readings we learn (again) about what it does and does not mean to be God’s chosen people. And we will discover more in those Sunday School stories than they taught in my Sunday School And incidentally I will promise again that I will deal with the problem of God’s repeated orders for brutal and seemingly indiscriminate killing – but can’t do that topic justice without breaking the format of either the E100 or the 5 Minute Bible or both

]]> http://5minutebible.com/e100-week-5-the-law-and-the-land/feed/ 0 0:03:58 Despite its title this five has little about the law, and not enough about the covenant (binding agreement) to which this law belongs. The selection of passages (the first time I have strongly differed from the choice made by the organisers) is weig[...] Despite its title this five has little about the law, and not enough about the covenant (binding agreement) to which this law belongs. The selection of passages (the first time I have strongly differed from the choice made by the organisers) is weighted towards American Evangelical favourite Sunday School stories. Having got that gripe off my chest, we’ll notice how in these readings we learn (again) about what it does and does not mean to be God’s chosen people. And we will discover more in those Sunday School stories than they taught in my Sunday School And incidentally I will promise again that I will deal with the problem of God’s repeated orders for brutal and seemingly indiscriminate killing – but can’t do that topic justice without breaking the format of either the E100 or the 5 Minute Bible or both E100, Exodus, Joshua, Law, Law/Torah/Pentateuch, OT Dr Tim Bulkeley clean no http://5minutebible.com/e100-20-exodus-13-14-crossing-the-reed-sea/ http://5minutebible.com/e100-20-exodus-13-14-crossing-the-reed-sea/#comments Thu, 13 May 2010 17:50:08 +0000 tim http://5minutebible.com/?p=368

In this podcast we’ll notice just how firmly this passage tells us that the miracle at the Reed Sea* was indeed entirely a miracle. We’ll notice how good source critics were/are at spotting small discrepancies in texts, but also how little the composers of the Bible seemed to care about detail, concerned with things that matter (relationships, especially and particularly our relationship with God) rather than “facts” which are merely of secondary importance. And, watching and listening to the Israelites we’ll spot how fear and grumbling are related.

* That yam suph meant “sea of reeds” and was not (at first, necessarily) the name of the Red Sea is quite clear, Bible translations stick with Red Sea because it has been traditional since the Septuagint!

I’m torn two ways on how to respond to this reading:

• on one side, a great opportunity to explain Passover, the great festival that celebrates God as liberator, saviour and enimy of powerful oppressors
• on the other, when I read (the Bible or the News…) I tend to sympathise with those who suffer, and while in earlier chapters that’s the Israelites, here I feel the pain of bereaved Egyptian parents – how can the God who we have discovered so far in Genesis commit such a barbarous act?

There is a fascinating discussion between ardent Christians and a pained unbeliever at The Paraclete Forum. I can “see” both sides of this debate, and won’t have time in this podcast to begin to deal properly with the topic

PS: See also an interesting response on ?????: The 10th Plague and the Problem of Evil (Jonathan’s posts are alomost always worth mulling over

The Great Pyramid of Giza was already an ancient monument by the time of Moses Phogto by girolame

What else could we call it? God vs. Pharaoh, it’s a foregone conclusion – except…

Pointe Noire beach PRC, Photo by Ferdinand Reus from Arnhem, Holland

What matters, what really matters, is getting the holy between our toes. In this reading we discover Moses getting on first name terms wiuth God, and what (perhaps) God’s name means. This is “holy ground” even compared to most other parts of the Bible, so take your shoes off, and listen.

No, God’s name yhwh does not just mean the “One who is” and it for sure does not mean “Don’t ask, because I won’t tell you!” but to find out what more I think it means listen in….