Tuesday, March 31, 2020

But it's in the plural…

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The use of a morphologically plural term for a singular referent that is a deity is an ANE literary convention, where it is used to flatter ...

Love broke through!

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Today we start a new (2018) book, Paul: An Apostle’s Journey , by Douglas Campbell. Follow along! We can now see two revelations working to...
Monday, March 30, 2020

Swearing an oath

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To swear an oath is a performative act. Swearing by a deity is a precarious and daring speech-act. The practice of swearing an oath was well...

And we are that image

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Even as we have seen many points of contact between Genesis and the ancient Near East, we should not neglect to notice the places where the ...
Sunday, March 29, 2020

Is it Sunday again already?

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Seems the only thing in the news is the novel corona virus and related disease, COVID-19. In fact, it's so much in the news, that it is ...
Friday, March 27, 2020

Are you against socialism?

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If you are, then you had better return those checks from the government when they come, because that, my friends, is a form of socialism. If...

Hey, you! Can I borrow your god for a bit?

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The third model is not present in the HB [Hebrew Bible], with the exception of the book of Ruth. In her passionate declaration that she will...

Marred, not removed

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[W]e can affirm that all human beings must be considered as participating in the divine image. It is something that is more corporate than i...
Thursday, March 26, 2020

But what about those other gods?

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Within the HB itself, a second model is identifiable; I would label it as conditional acceptance. Important parts of the HB imply a belief s...

Much more than sin

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Yes, many humans, though not all, are deeply aware of problems in their own lives, of pains and fears and sorrows and deep—rooted puzzles, a...
Wednesday, March 25, 2020

The Queen of Heaven

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They [the people of the land after the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem] have a different view as to the cause of the destruction of Jeru...

What is this imago dei anyway?

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The notion of the “image” doesn’t refer to a particular spiritual endowment, a secret “property that humans possess somewhere in their genet...
Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Really?

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To sum up: the Canaanite-pagan world has generally had a greater sensitivity for the numinous in creation than Judaism and Christianity. Lik...

Come on down!

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Most interpreters agree that the Tower of Babel should be understood as a ziggurat. Ziggurats were the famous towers that characterized all ...
Monday, March 23, 2020

A bit of good news for a change

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If you read nothing else today, do read this . The virus can grow exponentially only when it is undetected and no one is acting to control ...

And the bottom line was blessing

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If we follow the direction suggested by the omnipresent pillar figurines, we discover that, while the covenants, the election of Israel, YHW...

Low-functioning creatures

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Consequently, and third, we also live in a world characterized by disorder. This disorder is found in the ways that we harm the environment,...
Sunday, March 22, 2020

And it's Sunday again

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Seems that everybody is consumed by the latest news on the novel corona virus. But there was some other stuff that happened last week, too. ...
Friday, March 20, 2020

Flatten the curve

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Updated 3/22/20 : I don't delete posts, no matter how wrong-headed they are. When I wrote this one, I was in a very negative state of mi...

How far is too far?

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After stone and tree worship in Israel had been classified as typically Canaanite and proscribed as such, rejection took on increasingly rad...