The psalm in Jonah 2:2-9 (2:3-10 in Hebrew) is a fine example of a thanksgiving psalm, and everything in its expression and theology would sound fine in the book of Psalms. However, on Jonah’s lips after we have heard the narrative of chapter one, it takes a different flavour. Read in its place in the [&hellip...
Spotting the exaggerations and humour in the book can help us understand, but it also acts as a warning!...
This podcast may benefit from a set of notes, either as an alternative to the audio/screencast or as a reminder (since has a high information content). It is also longer and less fun than most, so if you like miss it out unless later in the series you need to come back to it for [&hellip...
This is a scholarly debate with no consensus. As scholarly debates go this one is rather technical. Yet in 5 minutes (well actually 6) I’ll try to give you the core essential issue, and also suggest how awareness of this can help us read the Bible better. Please let me know whether I succeeded!...
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...
The first of a series on “Genres in the Bible” is an introduction, so very general and just introduction. The series will soon get into deeper stuff 😉 The graphic of the “Bible Library” comes from this post: http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/blog&#...
Here’s a video version of a podcast I did a while back, about one of the most dull-sounding topics in biblical studies 🙁 Yet distinguishing these two (whether or not you remember the names) is vital to understanding the New Testament! Tomorrow I’ll explain why 🙂...
This week’s 5 is a somewhat artificial collection, putting together two different things. Yet both Psalms and Proverbs work differently from the narrative/history and prophecy that comprise the bulk of the Old Testament, and both are used a lot by Christians along with Genesis and Isaiah (while most of the Old Testament lies unread the [&hellip...
In What is the Bible (Part 1) I talked of the Bible as witness, and mentioned stories where Abraham and Amos haggle with God, and ended with a reference to arguing with God in the Bible. Here I’ll begin to explore Jeremiah’s side of the conversation from Jer 12:1-4 (we’ll get to God’s reply later!) [&hellip...
So, here’s the second part of the Jonah series. This time we focus on 1:3. Again we end with a question – but at least the right question is better than the wrong answer! ...
