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 [...]
Browsing Posts in Law/Torah/Pentateuch
Usually I try to present the ideas in these podcasts so that anyone can understand. However, this time if you cannot read Scripture except in translation and you have not learned to use an interlinear or computer Bible to get beyond that handicap, this podcast may be less accessible. It deals with the naming of [...]
This podcast, suggesting a gentle wry smile in Dt 1:6 was inspired by a blog post from Rabbi Michal Shekel “Could it be possible to stay too long at the site of Revelation?” There are also quotes from: Tigay, J. Deuteronomy. Jewish Publication Society, 1994, 8; and Rashi on Dt 1:6. As well as Dt [...]
No one has get suggested humour in Leviticus, so I’m moving on while I think… Numbers 11 provides a fun story with several wry smiles, and Moses tells God that as Israel’s mother (which role Moses himself is not at all keen on) Yahweh should feed and care for these “babies”. So, here’s the [...]
I never said all the humour in the Bible was gentle or polite. We have come to expect harsh even toilet humour from the prophets, but in this reading Leviticus outdoes Ezekiel sharpening his toilet humour and even making it shorter and more pointed. In this podcast I’ll compare Ezek 6:3-6 with Lev 26:30, and [...]
In this post we’ll discover some humour from below. The humour of the oppressed often pokes fun at the oppressor. Those who subjugate others fear them, and this fear generates feelings of inferiority that in Exodus some oppressed women manipulate delightfully. Please open your Bibles at Exodus 1-2. So, here’s the link to [...]
In a post Why the Bible is just not (so) funny David returned to a theme he’s argued before, that the Bible is not funny. Aparently back in 2007 he issued a challenge that readers of his blog could not give examples of humour from every book in the Bible: Funny Stuff in the Bible. [...]
In this podcast I’ll briefly argue that since the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) regularly pictures Yahweh as intimately associated with both forming in the womb and birthing, and particularly since “his” role is often as midwife “he” cannot be thought of as a male god. Rather “he” is God and as later (though very early [...]
In some Bible passages as atheists and others who want to avoid the claims of God are quick to point out God sounds like a Dalek. Deut 7:2 is a typical case. When the LORD your God hands these nations over to you and you conquer them, you must completely destroy them. Make no treaties [...]
We’ve just recorded the video for the new CareyMedia DVD, this year it is conversations between small groups of us, one I was involved in was about worship. So, here I want to suggest that Leviticus (esp. Lev 19:1-2) and Isaiah 6 can help us come back to the heart of worship (as the song [...]
