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

Contradiction: Photo by topastrodfogna

In part one I drew attention to the problem that this verse seems to contradict what Paul himself approves and to some funny things going on in and around the verse. Here I’ll focus on my reason for mentioning this, how we should respond when a Bible passage seems to contradict what the same author says or does elsewhere…

The audio file is here: Understanding contradictions: 1 Cor 14:34 (Part 2)

Photo by Chicago Man

Perhaps no Bible text illustrates the dangers of a simplistic reading of Scripture than 1 Cor 14:34.

If we tear this verse from its cotext,¹ and then read it as if the Bible were “God’s instruction manual for life” and even worse read it also literally then we are in trouble! The verse (in the fairly literal NET)² reads:

the women should be silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak. Rather, let them be in submission, as in fact the law says.

The verse is full of oddities.³ Not the least of which is that in 1 Cor 11:4-6 Paul assumes that both women and men will pray and prophesy, and in this same chapter 1 Cor 14:4-5 suggests the same thing, and that this is indeed in the public meeting (cf. v.4). Paul seems to be contradicting himself!

What is going on, and how should we interpret such passages?

Here is the audio (of part one): Understanding contradictions: 1 Cor 14:34 (Part 1)

1. Or for a podcast.
2. Even the NRSV is less literal here omiting the “the” before women, one of the oddities of this verse is that Paul seems to be talking about some particular women.
3. Another is the way most English translations make the first sentence a run-on from the verse before, though many MSS mark vv.34-5 off from the surrounding texts.

Photo by Joost J. Bakker IJmuiden

Many people think the Bible is like a hologram, any part of which shows the truth. The practice of scholars, preachers and teachers, of citing single verses or lists of verses to demonstrate something, encourages this view. The claim that the Bible is “inerrant” in all its parts seems to seal the idea. Yet in the Bible God itself told us in the Bible that it is false!

Here is the audio: What is the Bible? (Part 2) A hologram?

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Yes, another blast from the past, but while all the other fine people enjoy SBL in San Fransisco I’m still marking away

Detail from sculpture in the church of San Moise in Venice (from photo by Dennis Jarvis)

How do we picture Scripture? That is what is/are the (unconscious) models in our heads as we read and use the Bible?
This ‘cast refers particularly to Gen 18:20ff. and Amos 7.

How did God reveal Scripture, by dictation as with Moses, by some less sharp inspiration as seems to have been the case for prophets? And why do the four gospels not all sound alike?

Here is the audio: What is the Bible (Part 1)

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Things have been very busy for a while now, so I thought I’d recycle some old podcasts. This one and its follow up, to come, were done back in 2007 when this podcast was pretty new, and I think the topic is one that bears repeating

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

Yeah, right! (Photo by swanksalot)

Well,the end of the world has passed, again That’s the second time this year! It is the Bible that causes all the problems. or ratheit is bad reading of the Bible that causes all the problems. No book is more commonly misread than Revelation. Christians keep wanting it to predict tomorrow. And boy, do they get tied in knots!

But a simple direct dose of the KIIC principle would cure them… Keep It In Context, that’s all you have to do. Ask how the message would sound to the writer and intended receivers of the message.

Here is the audio: Decoding Revelation: the KIIS principle

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