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 [...]
Browsing Posts in Exodus
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 [...]
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: [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
What else could we call it? God vs. Pharaoh, it’s a foregone conclusion – except… Right-click here to save the podcast for this audio
In reading (by which I mean understanding, making sense of) these chapters we’ll find that noticing unusual details, things that stick out, can be a real clue to what is important. Naming, and not naming, are really significant here, not least that God is not named – oh, God’s talked about, but “God” is a [...]
Until Jeremy of Free Old Testament audio mentioned it the other day in his Exodus 32 – Who Brought the People out of Egypt? I had never really noticed how this text, the “Golden Calf” episode, offers three different answers to the question: Who brought Israel out of Egypt! When there are “rough edges” like [...]
Typescene sounds like a typical technical term scholars use make Bible stories dull In this podcast I hope to show you it’s exactly the opposite and that by spending 5 minutes learning about typescenes you can discover a livelyness you may have missed, even in a well-loved story like Ruth. (Other passage you should have [...]
