Here’s an old post, with now a screencast format and somewhat cleaned up audio. I briefly remind you of some of the passages that picture God as a midwife. The Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) regularly pictures Yahweh as intimately associated with forming in the womb and with birthing. In view of “his” role as midwife [&hellip...
In this video we visit the Wadi Qelt, the gorge that cuts down into the steep Judean Hills and so provided a passable route in ancient times between Jericho (in the Jordan Valley and Jerusalem in the hills). We’ll begin near the Ein Prat (Prat Spring) and passing the monastery head down towards the opening [&hellip...
As a counterbalance to Jonah I’ll take Psalm 69. I’m considering it as typifying many Bible passages where people pray imprecation on evil people (usually their own enemies, but sometimes the enemies of others). Something deep in us wants to believe that God is just. Such prayers appeal to this...
The distinction between prose and poetry is probably the most useful way of grouping all Bible texts into just two sorts (though as we’ll see this binary classification is an over simplification). For this brief look at the two sorts (genres) of writing we will ask: What is poetry? With a bonus extra “big word” [&hellip...
I’ve been puzzled and frustrated recently in several conversations by the way in which both some Fundamentalists and some Atheists seem to (mis)use Scripture in similar ways. This is the first of a series on this, it focuses on how this way of using Scripture is wrong...
This second look at the complaint psalms continues to focus on Psalm 22. Part three will return to Jeremiah&#...
This post starts to talk about Psalm 22, mentioning Job 10 on the way, we will examine these passages as a way into understanding “complaint psalms”. Complaints are the commonest type of psalm in the book of psalms. You might like to listen to my earlier post “Arguing with God: Jer 12:1-4” first, it sets the [&hellip...
The final podcast in a series written as guest posts for Sacraparental that express the key ideas of Not Only a Father briefly and simply. This one explores a few ways to experience God as motherly. Looks at Psalm 131 and Jesus teaching in Matthew 5 & 6 as well as Numbers 11. For more [&hellip...
In this podcast we’ll begin to grapple with a complicated idea, but quite simply begin to discover how to become (more) ideal readers. We’ll be looking at Eph 4 , and you will also need a bookmark in Ps 68 . This is a podcast in two parts (otherwise I’d have to change the name [&hellip...
For the second part of this “A text without contexts is dumb” series we’ll think about cotext, the text that surrounds a text, providing context. The biblical examples come from Psalms and Ephesians. You might want to listen to Part 1 here first 😉 ...
