Torah scroll by Lawrie Cate

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

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

Here is the audio: Introducing the Torah or Pentateuch

Like Esther, Daniel is set in a foreign court and telling to the trials and triumphs of exiled Judeans and is packed with humour at the expense of the imperial overlords.

In this podcast I’m following an article by Hector Avalos from CBQ and focusing on the repeated lists of Dan 3. For his comparison text Avalos went to the early English Piers Ploughman but I’ll refer to “How the Whale got his throat” from the Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling (for obvious reasons

Audio file: Humour in the Bible: book 27: Daniel the humour of lists

Life on the rubbish dumb in Mae Sot is "Better than Burma" Amos spoke about justice (photo by Jacob Baynham)

In Understanding the prophets: Part one I spoke about the “Three Cons” as a key to reading the prophetic books of the Old Testament with understanding and in ways which are faithful to their original intention. In this second part we’ll look at an example from Amos 5:18ff. and apply this approach. The result will be an uncomfortable word from God for us today.

Here are the slides from that talk: Understanding the Prophets: Part Two: Amos 5:18ff. There are some podcasts that deal with the book of Amos here and there is a detailed free online commentary with a wealth of background information and pictures here.

Cow Dung Patties (photo by mary jane watson)

If podcasts can have dedications, then this one is dedicated to Robert Carroll. The podcast is full or irony, first that of an introvert who spoke before thinking and who failed to read or digest a fine work by an admired teacher and friend, and then that of a frequently (and often mordantly) humorous Irishman who denies title humour to black humour so like his own. And then in the end, in Ezekiel 4:9ff. I’ll suggest there is both irony and (black) humour in the account of the Lord GOD conceding a customary prohibition to his staunch, righteous and rigorous prophet, while demanding that nevertheless he break the clear commandment of Scripture.

Here’s the audio: Humour in the Bible: book 26: Ezekiel

In this podcast I refer to:
Chotzner, Joseph. “Humour of the Bible.” In Hebrew humour and other essays, 1-12. Luzac & co., 1905. (The quotation is from page 12.)

and especially to:

Carroll, Robert P. “Is humour also among the prophets?” In On humour and the comic in the Hebrew Bible, edited by Yehuda T. Radday and Athalya Brenner. 169-189. Continuum International Publishing Group, 1990.

When I searched for "my beloved among young men" (Song 2:3) this photo by Steve Punter turned up.

Gender is not (only) a Feminist issue!

I ended my double post Proverbs as a gendered text and Proverbs as a gendered text: Proverbs 31:10ff. with the question of where reading such (strongly) male texts left women readers. Sadly it has had little response, (though thank you Judy

So I’ll end this podcast with a reverse of the question with which I ended the one on Pr 31, and suggest there are parts of the Bible that heterosexual men can only read with the help of a little creative gender bending.

Let’s see what you make of my (literal) reading of Song 2:1ff.?!

More on gendered texts: Turning the tables

Massebah at Gezer (Photo by Tim Bulkeley)

Back to the longer series, just in case you thought I’d forgotten. Jeremiah has a harsh and cutting humour on almost every page. In this post we’ll look at Jer 2:26-28. And just so you don’t think I am inventing the humour I find there I’ll cite some proper scholarship.¹

Here’s the audio: Humour in the Bible: Book 24: Jeremiah

1. William R. Domeris, “When metaphor becomes myth: A socio-linguistic reading.” In Troubling Jeremiah, edited by A. R. Diamond and Society of Biblical Literature. Composition of the Book of Jeremiah Group. Continuum, 1999, 257.

Proverbs 31-19 Weaving "She handles the distaff, and her hands support the spindle" (Proverbs 31-19) Work by Dvorit Ben-Shaul - Photo by zeevveez

The poem in Prov 31:10ff. has been read in various ways, by men and by women, as an oppressive and as a liberating text. I will suggest two clues to making sense of the poem. The first is to read it in the context of the book of Proverbs (and not as an isolated poem), and the second is to read it precisely as a gendered text.

This podcast was provoked by reading a short piece on this text by Ann Wansborough produced back in 1992 for the Uniting Church in Australia’s “Commission on Women and Men”. (Thank you Judy

BTW since Proverbs is a gendered text, and since I read it as a male, I offer an invitation to my women listeners to do a short (ideally 4-6 minute) female reflection on this text from a woman’s perspective to set alongside mine… Where/How do you find the Strong Woman?

Here’s the audio: Proverbs as a gendered text: Proverbs 31:10ff..

Old Babylonian Queen of the Night (Ishtar?) Photo by seriykotik1970

While it is quite clear that Proverbs is a gendered text, the way it speaks of women is interesting. For a text coming from an ancient patriarchal society human women who serve as aspirational models are a surprise.

No doubt any real Feminist would instantly switch into “pedestal” mode, but I think it’s worth pausing and noticing what’s going on, and maybe as I’ll suggest in a follow-up podcast finding inspiration for contemporary spiritualities…

Here is the audio: Proverbs as a gendered text

How Raffael imagined Ezekiel's vision, but what was the point? (Raffaello Sanzio, Wikimedia Commons)

I am doing a three part series at South City Baptist Church on Sunday afternoons on Understanding the prophets. This week thinking, about what a prophet was and how they spoke, I used the title: “What does a prophet? What does it profit?” these are the slides from the talk.

A key idea in this talk was the ideas in my Prophets: three principles to unlock the code another podcast that uses the same idea (but to address a New Testament prophet) is: The teachings of Jesus the prophet. There are many more of these 5 minute audio teaching about the Hebrew prophets and about particular prophetic texts. Just use the menu above > OT > and choose a prophetic book.

Another good place to explore the nature and contents of biblical prophecy is the book of Amos. My commentary with also a huge amount of Bible Dictionary type material is here Amos: Postmodern Bible.

Hut in a field on the Thai-Burma border (photo by Tim Bulkeley)

At last, I’m on the home straight, the first of the prophets The prophetic books are packed with humour. But right at the start we’ll need to get one thing clear. Humour is not just the comic, entertainment that promotes a giggle or a smile. There is humour also in tragedy, at times when “you either have to laugh or cry” and those when the sharp scalpel of cutting wit is needed to cut through defenses.

I’ll try to explain this idea of tragic (as well as comic) humour in exploring Isaiah 1, and will also argue that in this passage (at least in Isaiah 1:8ff) all but two of the “signs of humour” we have been working with are present. One that isn’t is “lighthearted mood” but you’d hardly expect that if there is such a thing as “tragic humour”, as I am claiming.

So, listen to the podcast and tell me if YOU think that tragic humour exists, and if I’ve rightly named it!

Humour in the Bible: book 23: Isaiah: tragic humour