Month: April 2010

Reference links:

Joshua 7:16-9:2 Luke 16:1-18 Psalm 82:1-8 Proverbs 13:2-3

Overview of the Book of Joshua Overview of the Gospel of Luke Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

A story:

The wife of a soldier of Ai had just given birth to a son when news of Jericho’s destruction arrived. Reports of the devastation varied. Some said that the invaders had spent seven days breaking down the city walls. Others said the walls had fallen miraculously. Others said a prostitute had let them into the city, and the invaders had destroyed it from the inside.

All the stories agreed that once the invaders breached the walls, the destruction had been swift and complete. Every person and animal had been killed. The city was burned to the ground. Where once the city of Jericho stood, nothing remained but rubble and ashes.

When the people of Ai heard that the invaders were approaching their city, they trembled in fear. The army that had invaded Jericho had been at least twice the size of the whole population of Ai. Still, the soldiers of Ai prepared for battle. They knew the cost of losing.

When the invading army arrived, it was hardly larger than the army of Ai. The overconfidence of the invaders fell before the determination of the men of Ai, and the foreign soldiers fled.

Not long after, the people of Ai heard that the invaders were returning, this time in full force. The people knew that defeat was nearly certain. The soldiers gathered together again, joined by volunteers: boys hardly old enough to lift a spear; men who had long ago left the field of battle behind. They joined  together to defend their homes and families.

The people of Ai saw how the invaders covered the valley that sloped away from the city. Their camp covered more ground than was marked off by the walls of Ai.

Early the next morning, before the first light, the men of Ai attacked the invaders. They knew their only strength was surprise. Amazingly, the giant army fled before them. Made bolder by their success, the men of Ai pushed them harder.

Before they could smell the smoke, they heard the screams. Almost as a single body, the men of Ai turned to look at their home. Dense black smoke rose from the city. Invaders surrounded it, killing anyone who tried to escape.

The men of Ai had hardly registered that gruesome vision when the retreating invaders started to attack. Some men immediately gave up in despair. Others fought desperately through their tears. All were killed.

12,000 died that day, men, women, and children. A city was reduced to rubble. At this, the Israelites rejoiced.

New Testament

Weird story today! A rich man fired his manager because the manager was not very good. The manager decided to use his last hours on the job to get into the favor of as many people as he could. He did this by modifying the records to showed that they owed less to the rich man than they actually owed. We then read,

The rich man had to admire the dishonest rascal for being so shrewd. And it is true that the children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with the world around them than are the children of the light. Here’s the lesson: Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your earthly possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home.

So what the manager did was good, but indicated that he was a man of the world? This paragraph is followed by a couple proverbial statements dealing with faithfulness and responsibility and wealth. If those statements applied to the story, they make it sound like we should be interpreting the manager’s actions in a negative light. Very confusing.

Psalms and Proverbs

Nothing particularly noteworthy.

Reference links:

Joshua 5:1-7:15 Luke 15:1-32 Psalm 81:1-16 Proverbs 13:1

Overview of the Book of Joshua Overview of the Gospel of Luke Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

Monday means quickies!

When all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings who lived along the Mediterranean coast heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan River so the people of Israel could cross, they lost heart and were paralyzed with fear because of them.

Who told them about it? Was there a crowd watching the Israelites? Did they have the internet?

At that time the Lord told Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise this second generation of Israelites.” So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the entire male population of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth.

As the footnote says, “Gibeath-haaraloth means ‘hill of foreskins.'” Eww!

You and your fighting men should march around the town once a day for six days. Seven priests will walk ahead of the Ark, each carrying a ram’s horn. On the seventh day you are to march around the town seven times, with the priests blowing the horns. When you hear the priests give one long blast on the rams’ horns, have all the people shout as loud as they can. Then the walls of the town will collapse, and the people can charge straight into the town. … [it happens] … The men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab, her father, mother, brothers, and all the other relatives who were with her.

Given that Rahab’s home was built into the town wall (Joshua 2:15) I highly doubt she and her family survived the collapsing of the town walls.

Israel has sinned and broken my covenant! They have stolen some of the things that I commanded must be set apart for me. And they have not only stolen them but have lied about it and hidden the things among their own belongings.

Hardly into the holy land and the covenant is already being broken. I suspect this is the start of the pattern.

New Testament

In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!

I sometimes wonder if it is passages like this that make some Christians want to see themselves as terrible sinners and see small deviations as terrible transgressions. They want heaven to rejoice over them.

Two more parables convey the same lesson.

Psalms and Proverbs

Today’s psalm: God is so awesome, and if the Israelites had only listened to him then everything would have gone perfectly for them.

I recently finished And God Said by Joel M. Hoffman. In this book, Hoffman explores some of the terrible translation errors that have worked their way into translations of Biblical Hebrew. Some of these mistranslations have theological significance. Others make the text harder to comprehend. Others give up the beauty of the original for translations that are textually reasonably but poetically junk.

Despite the fascinating premise, I noticed some serious flaws right off the bat. As a friend of mine put it,

So, yeah Hoffman, tends to be a bit… uneven. It’s like he knows what he’s talking about and yet is simultaneously full of shit. It’s kind of strange. I think he’s probably the sort of person who just never questions himself.

I think that assessment is right on.

What Hoffman does well is explore the meaning of a word or phrase. For each word or phrase that he chooses to examine, he looks at it in all the different contexts it appears. Based on those contexts, he explains why the common translation conveys the wrong meaning. He then tries to find a better translation; these discussions tend to flop. He acknowledges that there is no perfect translation for many of these phrases, so he sets out a number of alternatives and chooses between them. The problem is that this choice often displays his own bias as to what aspect of the original is most important.

I will discuss one of the phrases in detail to give you a taste for what the discussions are like. The first topic Hoffman explores is the phrase commonly translated as “heart and soul”. He has this to say about it:

The combination “heart and soul” or some variation of it, appears nearly forty times in the Bible, further emphasizing how important these two ideas were in antiquity. But here’s the problem. The Hebrew words for “heart” and “soul,” the words in Deuteronomy 6:5 that Jesus quotes, are levav and nefesh, respectively. And they are severly mistranslated. In fact, the translations miss the point entirely.

Looking at these words in the contexts they are used, both individually and together, Hoffman concludes that levav seems to represent the seat of both emotions and reasons in people. “Heart” is a bad translation because it excludes the rational element. “Brain” or “mind” fail because they tend to emphasize the rational over the emotional.

In a similar treatment, nefesh fares even worse. It is often translated as “soul”. However, looking at the word in context shows that while nefesh is related to the essence of that which gives life, it is generally connected with the physical essence such as blood, breath, and flesh. Looking at levav and nefesh together, Hoffman concludes,

While nefesh was everything about life that could be touched, levav was its counterpart, representing everything about life that could not be touched.

Given this meaning, it is clear that “heart and soul” completely fails to convey the essence of those two terms.

As I said, the book tends to flop in its attempts to provide a better translation. What he comes up with in this case is “mind-body,” as in “the mind-body connection”. This translation is certainly better than “heart and soul”, but it has connotations of its own that Hoffman does not really explore.

Hoffman follows this same pattern with other terms and phrases: look at it in context, determine what ideas the word conveys, compare it against the standard English translation and find it lacking, and try to find a better translation.

The other topics he covers are

• The words used for various rulers and leaders, including those commonly translated as “king” and “shepherd”. “Shepherds” in antiquity were way more awesome than the modern conception of shepherds.
• The words that give rise to the disturbing translation “My sister, my bride” in Song of Solomon: The word translated as sister was probably meant as an indicator of equality.
• The word that is commonly translated as “covet” in the 10 commandments: It certainly meant more than just covet. It probably meant a particular type of taking.
• Words used to refer to women: The word translated as “virgin” in Isaiah 7:14 most certainly did not mean “a woman who has never had sex”.

What lessons can someone reading the Bible take from this? First, that even the best modern translations have lots of errors. Some of these are minor, some major. Some are cruft left over from the King James Version, some are due to the inherently difficult nature of translation.

Second, we should not take small fragments such as words or phrases too literally without taking the time to look into the text in the original language. Since most of us do not have the background or time to do this, we should, instead, just be very careful when we analyze particular words. For example, when I was analyzing the word “hate” in Luke 14:26 in today’s reading, I was very careful to say

I think that Jesus really does mean to convey some of the negative connotations of the word hate

Rather than saying that Jesus really meant for his followers to literally hate their friends and family, I wanted to convey that there was likely a negative aspect to the feeling he wanted his followers to hold even though I do not know that the original Greek had any negative connotation at all (well, actually I do, but I looked that up after the fact).

Finally, we should realize that translations never capture all levels of the text. No translation can capture all of the levels of meaning (word, phrase, passage, aesthetic, poetic, idiomatic). Thus, we are always missing out on something when we read the translation.

Reference links:

Joshua 3:1-4:24 Luke 14:7-35 Psalm 80:1-19 Proverbs 12:27-28

Overview of the Book of Joshua Overview of the Gospel of Luke Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

The Israelites cross the Jordan. To make their crossing easier and to demonstrate his power, God stopped the flow of the Jordan.

So the people left their camp to cross the Jordan, and the priests who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant went ahead of them. It was the harvest season, and the Jordan was overflowing its banks. But as soon as the feet of the priests who were carrying the Ark touched the water at the river’s edge, the water above that point began backing up a great distance away at a town called Adam, which is near Zarethan. And the water below that point flowed on to the Dead Sea until the riverbed was dry. Then all the people crossed over near the town of Jericho.

Everyone passes safely over, they take some rocks to build a memorial and build another memorial in the river itself, and no chasing armies are drowned as the river goes back to normal.

New Testament

Upon seeing many people vie for a seat of honor near him at a dinner, Jesus teaches that instead they should sit in the lowest seat.

Instead, take the lowest place at the foot of the table. Then when your host sees you, he will come and say, ‘Friend, we have a better place for you!’ Then you will be honored in front of all the other guests. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

The section title labels this a teaching about humility, but I do not think that it quite right. It does not seem humble to sit at a lower place to ensure that you are honored if asked to move up and not embarrassed if asked to move down.

Today’s reading also contains a discussion of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.

The generous way of interpreting this, I think, is that Jesus is claiming that you should love him and being his disciple much more than everyone and everything else. However, the problem with that interpretation is that “hate” has a negative connotation that is not captured by “love much less”.

Based on other passages in the gospels, I think that Jesus really does mean to convey some of the negative connotations of the word hate. Earlier in Luke, as well as in the other gospels, we read about Jesus’ expectations of those who follow him:

He said to another person, “Come, follow me.”

The man agreed, but he said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.”

But Jesus told him, “Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead! Your duty is to go and preach about the Kingdom of God.”

Another said, “Yes, Lord, I will follow you, but first let me say good-bye to my family.”

But Jesus told him, “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.”

If we use these passages to interpret the passage from today’s reading, it really does sound like Jesus wants his disciples to neglect and ignore their families and friends. He really does expect them to treat them with characteristics more associated with hatred than lesser love.

Psalms and Proverbs

Good proverb!

Lazy people don’t even cook the game they catch,
but the diligent make use of everything they find.

It is good to make good use out of all the resources you have.

Reference links:

Deuteronomy 34:1 – Joshua 2:24 Luke 13:23-14:6 Psalm 79:1-13 Proverbs 12:26

Overview of the Book of Deuteronomy Overview of the Book of Joshua Overview of the Gospel of Luke Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

Today we finish Deuteronomy! God shows Moses all of the land that the Israelites are to possess from the top of Mount Nebo. I wonder if there is a mountain you really can see all of ancient Israel from. On the one hand it was relatively small, on the other hand, it was, I believe, larger than modern Israel, and I cannot imagine you see all of that from any mountain.

This passage reminds me of Satan showing Jesus all of the world’s kingdoms during Jesus’ days in the desert. I wonder if the contrasts in the New Testament story were intentional on the part of the author. When we compare the stories we see lots of opposites: God / Satan; All kingdoms / One kingdom; You can never go there / You can rule over this all.

After Moses sees the promised land, he dies and Joshua takes over leadership of the Israelites. Which brings us to… The Book of Joshua! The Wikipedia article for this book is not as high quality as for the Torah or the gospels we have read so far. However, we do learn the following:

The Book of Joshua has been traditionally ascribed to Joshua himself by early Jewish writers and by the Early Church Fathers. Modern scholars believe that Joshua is the work of writers from the 8th and 7th centuries BC, with retouchings from the exilic period.

Joshua is the first book of the Former (or First) Prophets. Topically, it covers the history of the conquest of the land, the allotment of land to the tribes, and Joshua’s farewell address and death. According to Wikipedia, there is no archaeological evidence for a major and abrupt invasion of Canaan by the Israelites.

It sounds like this book will contain a lot of killings and a lot of genocide. I know that some Christians think that genocide is morally acceptable when commanded by God. For the record, I think genocide is reprehensible, and if God is supposedly commanding it, that just reflects badly on his supposedly perfect nature (I suspect I will be making that statement again).

The Book of Joshua starts out with God encouraging Joshua to be a strong and courageous leader. God promises Joshua that,

No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. For I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you.

Pickersgill: Rahab Receiveth and Concealeth the Spies
Joshua tells the Israelites to prepare to conquer the promised land. He sends out spies to survey the first city they will attack: Jericho.

Spies provide fodder for a good story in this case. The spies explore the land, but the king of the land hears about them. The spies stay the night at the home of Rahab, a prostitute. Rahab hides the spies and misdirects the men who had come to capture them. In exchange, Rahab asks the spies,

Now swear to me by the Lord that you will be kind to me and my family since I have helped you. Give me some guarantee that when Jericho is conquered, you will let me live, along with my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all their families.

 They agree, and she helps them to escape by letting them outside of the city walls with a rope. Exciting!

New Testament

Today Jesus teaches that most people will not get into heaven:

Work hard to enter the narrow door to God’s Kingdom, for many will try to enter but will fail. When the master of the house has locked the door, it will be too late. You will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Lord, open the door for us!’ But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ Then you will say, ‘But we ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ And he will reply, ‘I tell you, I don’t know you or where you come from. Get away from me, all you who do evil.’

Slimmer’s door, Ringwood Church.
Is it really just for God to build a system where success is so difficult and failure entails eternal torture?

After this we get an interesting statement, seemingly out of no where:

At that time some Pharisees said to him, “Get away from here if you want to live! Herod Antipas wants to kill you!”

I thought the Pharisees wanted to make Jesus trip up? Why are they now warning him about Herod Antipas? Are these different Pharisees? If so, the Pharisees obviously have at least somewhat divided opinions towards Jesus, so why are they so often treated as a single unit elsewhere? Very confusing.

And Jesus healed on the Sabbath more. That’s nice of him. (Although I still think that “you would save someone/something from immediate harm on the Sabbath so therefore it is okay to heal chronic diseases on the Sabbath” is an invalid logic, even if I do agree with the conclusion.)

Psalms and Proverbs

Same old, same old.

Reference links:

Deuteronomy 33:1-29 Luke 13:1-22 Psalm 78:65-72 Proverbs 12:25

Overview of the Book of Deuteronomy Overview of the Gospel of Luke Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

Tissot: Moses Blesses Joshua Before the High Priest
Today’s reading consists of a poetic blessing from Moses to the people of Israel. The opening declares the people to belong to God; he is their king.

The bulk of the poem consists of blessings for each of the tribes of Israel. I think the value of this passage lies in its enumeration of the different ways God can bless. The assignment of the blessings to the tribes, while certainly significant, seems secondary to shear variety of forms of blessing.

What ways does Moses claim the Lord will bless the Israelites? He will make sure they do not die out. He will give them strength against their enemies and strike down their foes. He will preserve them from harm. He will bless them with abundant crops. He will bless them at home and in their travels. He will enlarge their territory. He will give them security.

The blessings show that for the ancient Israelites, their relationship with God was a two way street, a covenant where both parties had responsibilities. If the Israelites obeyed God’s commands, then he would give them very concrete blessings in this life. Such a deal-making God is very different from the more distant and spiritualized God of Christianity.

New Testament

Fugel Gebhard: PilatusToday’s reading opens with a peculiar statement:

About this time Jesus was informed that Pilate had murdered some people from Galilee as they were offering sacrifices at the Temple.

What is odd about this statement is that there is no further commentary on the murder itself. Instead, the discussion shifts to the topic of guilt and repentance. This statement seems to present an image of Pilate that is unfamiliar. Generally when one thinks of Pilate, one thinks of him in his role of sending Jesus to his death. In that role, he is generally portrayed as having his hands tied. He is portrayed as someone who does not use his power to prevent Jesus’ death, but who also should not be actively blamed for Jesus’ death. How different that is from the image of Pilate ordering the murder of people as they offered sacrifices.

You may remember from Matthew and Mark how Jesus curses of fig tree because it has not produced fruit. In the earlier versions of the story, Jesus is hungry. He sees a fig tree that is not bearing fruit, and he curses it for its lack of fruit. It then dies. In this fig tree story we read,

Then Jesus told this story: “A man planted a fig tree in his garden and came again and again to see if there was any fruit on it, but he was always disappointed. Finally, he said to his gardener, ‘I’ve waited three years, and there hasn’t been a single fig! Cut it down. It’s just taking up space in the garden.’

“The gardener answered, ‘Sir, give it one more chance. Leave it another year, and I’ll give it special attention and plenty of fertilizer. If we get figs next year, fine. If not, then you can cut it down.’”

This parable only appears in Luke, and the cursing of the fig tree does not appear in Luke. Furthermore, it keeps the element of disappointment in the fig tree’s performance. These elements make me think that this might be a the original myth into something that is more inline with the impression Luke wanted to give of Jesus.

Also, mustard seeds and yeast are still like the Kingdom of Heaven.

Psalms and Proverbs

We finish the historical summary psalm (and get a sneak preview of what’s to come!). God eventually ends his neglect and chooses David to victoriously rule over the Israelites. Hurrah!

Good proverb today,

Worry weighs a person down;
an encouraging word cheers a person up.

Reference links:

Deuteronomy 32:28-52 Luke 12:35-59 Psalm 78:56-64 Proverbs 12:24

Overview of the Book of Deuteronomy Overview of the Gospel of Luke Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

Today we get the rest of the poem started yesterday. As I am still not in the mood for poetry (I think because I have a slight cold), I do not have anything to say.

New Testament

Today Jesus tells his disciples to always be ready because he may return at anytime. Anytime now. Yup, any minute in the last 2000 years Jesus could have shown up. Any minute now it could happen. Perhaps about 10 minutes after Godot.

We also see this lovely sentiment that we have seen before,

I have come to set the world on fire, and I wish it were already burning! I have a terrible baptism of suffering ahead of me, and I am under a heavy burden until it is accomplished. Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I have come to divide people against each other! From now on families will be split apart, three in favor of me, and two against—or two in favor and three against.

The first sentence, which I do not remember seeing in earlier expressions of this sentiment, just make it that much more extreme.

Psalms and Proverbs

Another day of the psalm recounting the history of the Israelites.

Reference links:

Deuteronomy 31:1-32:27 Luke 12:8-34 Psalm 78:32-55 Proverbs 12:21-23

Overview of the Book of Deuteronomy Overview of the Gospel of Luke Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

Moses is finally getting around to dying. Now, it is not that I am happy to see Moses die. It is just that he has been on the verge of dying for over a month now. Genesis covered pre-historical mythology plus hundreds of years of history. Exodus covered a good part of the next 40 years. Numbers covered the rest. But part of Numbers, all of Leviticus, and all of Deuteronomy have been covering, in terms of narrative advancement, a matter of weeks, or something along those lines. It’s like Zeno’s paradox; we keep getting closer and closer to the end, but we will never arrive.

The rest of today’s reading includes a statement from Moses that he knows the Israelites will become corrupt sometime after he dies.

Now summon all the elders and officials of your tribes, so that I can speak to them directly and call heaven and earth to witness against them. I know that after my death you will become utterly corrupt and will turn from the way I have commanded you to follow. In the days to come, disaster will come down on you, for you will do what is evil in the Lord’s sight, making him very angry with your actions. 

He then recites a long poem to the same effect (and by long, I mean that it takes up more than half the lines in today’s reading and is continued tomorrow).

New Testament

A repeat of the passage that “proves” I shall not be forgiven. Yay blasphemy!

I tell you the truth, everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, the Son of Man will also acknowledge in the presence of God’s angels. But anyone who denies me here on earth will be denied before God’s angels. Anyone who speaks against the Son of Man can be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.

Also, a number of lessons about not worrying about money because God will take care of the needs of believers. It is good to encourage people to worry about possessions and status less. However, I feel that these are also lessons that could be used to denigrate the hungry and the homeless and the poor.

Psalms and Proverbs

Today’s psalm is a continuation of yesterday’s. Today’s fragment tells more about ways the Israelites rebelled during their years of wandering. It then reviews the plagues God sent against Egypt as a way of illustrating how forgetful the Israelites are.

Today was definitely not the day to not be in the mood for poetry.

Reference links:

Deuteronomy 29:1-30:20 Luke 11:37-12:17 Psalm 78:1-31 Proverbs 12:19-20

Overview of the Book of Deuteronomy Overview of the Gospel of Luke Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

Obey the covenant, etc., etc. If the Israelites go astray, God will punish them, but if they change and obey him again, he will bless them again. The last paragraph of today’s reading summarizes the rest nicely,

Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. This is the key to your life. And if you love and obey the Lord, you will live long in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

New Testament

In Matthew and Mark, Jesus spent a lot of time criticizing the Pharisees. However, those events always seemed to be in public or in the homes of Jesus’ followers. In Luke’s version of some of this criticism, Jesus criticizes the Pharisees after one invites him to dinner. That seems rather rude.

As Jesus was speaking, one of the Pharisees invited him home for a meal. So he went in and took his place at the table. His host was amazed to see that he sat down to eat without first performing the hand-washing ceremony required by Jewish custom. Then the Lord said to him, “You Pharisees are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and wickedness! Fools! Didn’t God make the inside as well as the outside? So clean the inside by giving gifts to the poor, and you will be clean all over.

He keeps going on in this vein until he finally leaves,

As Jesus was leaving, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees became hostile and tried to provoke him with many questions. They wanted to trap him into saying something they could use against him.

I would be annoyed if someone I invited over for dinner started calling me foolish and wicked too.

Psalms and Proverbs

Today’s psalm is something different… well, for a psalm. We get part one of a poetic retelling of some of the events that occurred while the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness.