Friday, June 30, 2017

You are only seeing 1/3 the story

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I believe that this text [Exodus 17; Israel vs. Amalek] offers a biblical corrective to what often looks from the outside as though the “Jos...
Thursday, June 29, 2017

Magic bullet? Not so much

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[W]e also read in Gen 19:29 that God remembered Abraham when He destroyed the cities of the plain and sent Lot out of their midst. Lot’s wi...
Wednesday, June 28, 2017

A little leaven…

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Preserving even a tiny number of innocent humans is more important to God’s eyes than bringing deserved judgment on the guilty. Thus, this a...
Tuesday, June 27, 2017

How about your prayers?

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Abraham mediates between God and the pagan cities thereby foreshadowing also Israel’s priestly function among the nations (cf. Exod 19:6). A...
Monday, June 26, 2017

Prayer as theology

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From Abraham’s dialogue with God we learn not only that prayer has its origin in the movement of God toward humans but also that the divine ...
Friday, June 23, 2017

The school of intercession

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God is teaching Abraham about His attributes, about grace and righteousness. We have noted in our exegesis that God is seeking to impart His...
Thursday, June 22, 2017

Boring?

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Charles Halton has a delightful read on the first known poet over at LitHub . Here's a snippet to whet your appetite: Have you met a pr...

That pinch of salt

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Does Abraham, by stopping at 10, implicitly admit that YHWH’s judgment is justified? Perhaps Abraham is now assured that God would act justl...
Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Boldly humble

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Given Abraham’s humility, it is amazing that his courage seems to grow during his conversation with God. God, in His grace, seems to encoura...
Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Maybe Abraham should have tried one more time?

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It is important to note that it is Abraham and not God who decides to conclude the discussion at 10. “Oh do not let the Lord be angry if I s...
Monday, June 19, 2017

Which is worse?

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Interestingly, Abraham prays that God would “forgive” (NRSV), or perhaps the Hebrew (נסא) [ ns’ ] should be rendered with “bear” with the wi...
Friday, June 16, 2017

Privy to the divine council

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It seems to me more significant that God is considering granting Abraham the privilege of access and participation in the divine committee t...
Thursday, June 15, 2017

Follow their example

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There are notable intertextual links between the dynamics of Abraham’s dialogue with God (Genesis 18) and of Moses’ intercessory role, espec...
Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Smyth strikes again

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Interesting tidbit I picked up today from Smyth: 966. The verb may agree with the nearest or most important of two or more subjects. The ve...

Turning it on its head

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We find not only the biblical roots of prophetic intercessory prayer in Abraham but also the beginnings of what came to characterize the Jud...
Tuesday, June 13, 2017

I learn something new all the time

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Did you know this? The LSJ in the entry “γαστήρ” remarks that ἐν γαστρὶ ἔχειν indicates pregnancy, whereas ἐν γαστρὶ λαμβάνειν refers to con...

Old-time religion?

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The early Christian emphasis on, and teaching about, everyday behavior as central to Christian commitment is yet another distinctive feature...
Monday, June 12, 2017

Those blasted atheists!

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When considered as a religion in that time, the most obvious oddity was Christianity’s “atheism”—that is, the refusal to worship the traditi...

Verse for the day

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I think this is an appropriate passage from Isaiah for our current status: The earth dries up and wilts; the world withers and wilts; ...
Friday, June 09, 2017

Marcus Aurelius and tolerance

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Sophisticated pagans such as Celsus and Marcus Aurelius apparently regarded Christianity as not simply unbelievable but, it appears, utterly...