Month: May 2010

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Old Testament

The story of Ruth is a great story. Although I disagree with the claim that the whole Bible is great literature, independent of its religious significance, parts of it definitely fall under that category. Ruth is one of those parts.

To provide for herself and Naomi, Ruth goes to glean grain from a field that is being harvested. Deuteronomy mentioned gleaning. This tradition helped to support orphans and widows by allowing them to take from the fields that which remained after the initial harvest.

Ruth gleaned from the field of Boaz, a relative of her decreased father-in-law. Boaz looks kindly upon her because of what she has done for Naomi. She gleans his fields for the rest of the harvest because of his kindness and because he reassures her that she will be safe there.

At the end of the harvest, Naomi decides that Ruth must be provided for and that Boaz seems likely to take on the roll of provider:

One day Naomi said to Ruth, “My daughter, it’s time that I found a permanent home for you, so that you will be provided for. Boaz is a close relative of ours, and he’s been very kind by letting you gather grain with his young women. Tonight he will be winnowing barley at the threshing floor. Now do as I tell you—take a bath and put on perfume and dress in your nicest clothes. Then go to the threshing floor, but don’t let Boaz see you until he has finished eating and drinking. Be sure to notice where he lies down; then go and uncover his feet and lie down there. He will tell you what to do.”

Ruth does as Naomi says, and Boaz seems quite pleased:

“The Lord bless you, my daughter!” Boaz exclaimed. “You are showing even more family loyalty now than you did before, for you have not gone after a younger man, whether rich or poor. Now don’t worry about a thing, my daughter. I will do what is necessary, for everyone in town knows you are a virtuous woman. But while it’s true that I am one of your family redeemers, there is another man who is more closely related to you than I am. Stay here tonight, and in the morning I will talk to him. If he is willing to redeem you, very well. Let him marry you. But if he is not willing, then as surely as the Lord lives, I will redeem you myself! Now lie down here until morning.”

The language in this passage communicates many things. It lets the reader know that Ruth is younger than Boaz, enough younger that she could be expected to look favorably upon younger men. We learn that he is proper, and wants to do what is right. However, he also expresses that he cares for Ruth when he says, “then as surely as the Lord lives, I will redeem you myself!”

Boaz talked to the closer relative, and of course, ends up winning Ruth. I find their the conversation between Boaz and his kinsman highly entertaining. Here are the highlights:

Boaz: You know Naomi, who came back from Moab. She is selling the land that belonged to our relative Elimelech.

Kinsman: All right, I’ll redeem it.

Boaz: Of course, your purchase of the land from Naomi also requires that you marry Ruth, the Moabite widow.

Kinsman: Then I can’t redeem it because this might endanger my own estate. You redeem the land; I cannot do it.

Boaz: You are witnesses that today I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelech, Kilion, and Mahlon. And with the land I have acquired Ruth, the Moabite widow of Mahlon, to be my wife.

He’s a crafty one, that Boaz.

The Book of Ruth ends with a genealogy that goes from Perez, son of Judah through Boaz down to King David. It is another one of those genealogies that is possible, but not likely. Let’s do some math. The Israelites spent 400 years in Egypt and 40 years wandering the dessert. According to the internet, 40 years seems to be a commonly agreed upon length for the amount of time Joshua led the Israelites, although no one really justifies that claim. That means that at least 480 years passed between the Israelites going to Egypt and the story of Ruth (that assumes that the story of Ruth happened at the very beginning of the period of the judges and that the time that Naomi spent in Moab despite the fact that her husband died there and her sons married and then died there).

According to Genesis, Hezron son of Perez son of Judah was already born when the Israelites left for Egypt. This means from the time the Israelites arrived in Egypt to the time of this story, there were six generations. That of Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nashon, Salmon, and Boaz. This means that each man must have been, on average, 80 years old, when they gave birth to the relevant son. Possible? Maybe. Likely? No.

New Testament

Super short reading from John today. Jesus miraculously and remotely heals a boy who is dying. However, he is kind of a jerk about it.

There was a government official in nearby Capernaum whose son was very sick. 47 When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged Jesus to come to Capernaum to heal his son, who was about to die.

Jesus asked, “Will you never believe in me unless you see miraculous signs and wonders?”

The official pleaded, “Lord, please come now before my little boy dies.”

Then Jesus told him, “Go back home. Your son will live!” And the man believed what Jesus said and started home.

The official is trying to save his dying child! He is not asking Jesus to perform a miracle just so he can gawk. It is, in my opinion, cruel of Jesus to say such a thing to someone whose child is dying. Jerk.

Psalms and Proverbs

So apparently the psalm that ended so abruptly yesterday is a history lesson. I am glad we are readying this now and not while we were reading Deuteronomy, since that was all recap. Today’s review recounts how the Israelites ended up in Egypt and then how God sent the plagues against the Israelites. The last lines of today’s part crystallizes even more than the original account how terrible the tenth plague was:

Then he killed the oldest son in each Egyptian home,
the pride and joy of each family.

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Old Testament

Today we finish Judges and start the short Book of Ruth.

After the events related yesterday, the Israelites vowed not to marry their daughters to men in the tribe of Benjamin. Today, they try to get around that in spirit but not letter because they do not want the tribe of Benjamin to die out. First, they remembered that they decided that anyone who did not participate in that vow must be killed. This allowed them to feel justified as they exterminated the residents of Jabesh-gilead. They murdered all the men and non-virgin women. The women, they gave to the men of Benjamin.

However, this was not enough women for all the men of Benjamin, so the Israelites came up with this stupid plot:

They told the men of Benjamin who still needed wives, “Go and hide in the vineyards. When you see the young women of Shiloh come out for their dances, rush out from the vineyards, and each of you can take one of them home to the land of Benjamin to be your wife! And when their fathers and brothers come to us in protest, we will tell them, ‘Please be sympathetic. Let them have your daughters, for we didn’t find wives for all of them when we destroyed Jabesh-gilead. And you are not guilty of breaking the vow since you did not actually give your daughters to them in marriage.’”

Brilliant! Let’s have the men of Benjamin kidnap women. That’s way better than admitting that we were wrong to make that vow and just letting our daughters legitimately marry the men of Benjamin. So they do this, and that is that.

The last line of Judges is

In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.

I think that reflecting on the book with this line in mind, we can see that the book does not mean to imply that God approved of all the horrors we have been reading about. However, when you compare the almost absent God in Judges with the God of the earlier books (you know, the God who would kill people in anger over the smallest slights), you have to wonder about God and his motivations.

The Wikipedia article about the Book of Ruth has, at times, an annoyingly Christian perspective. It also does not have a ton of information on the origins of the book itself. Apparently, there are a lot of hypotheses about who wrote the book and when it was written, but none of explanations have a particularly compelling defense. The most interesting bit is probably this:

The Book of Ruth, according to many scholars, was originally part of the Book of Judges, but it was later separated from that book and made independent. The opening verses explicitly place the Book of Ruth in the time of the Judges and it concludes with the Davidic lineage. Therefore, it is likely that the author wrote the story after the time of King David, though it is unknown how long after.

Today’s reading introduces Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi. Naomi and her husband, Elimelech, had traveled to the land of Moab during a famine. Elimelech died, and later their sons died, but not until after they had married two women of Moab. Naomi eventually decides to return to her homeland. She tells her daughters-in-law to return to their families and try to find new husbands. One, Orpah, reluctantly goes. The other, Ruth, begs to stay with Naomi, uttering the famous lines,

Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us!

A beautiful description of dedication. Naomi gives in to Ruth’s pleadings, and they return to Naomi’s homeland.

New Testament

Today’s reading contains the story of Jesus and a Samaritan woman. As Jesus sits in a field, a Samaritan woman comes to draw water from a nearby well. Important detail: the well is one said to have been dug by Jacob. Jesus asks her for water. The woman wonders aloud why he is asking her,

The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans. She said to Jesus, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?”

Jesus starts to go on about how he can give the woman “living water”. The woman’s response to this is, on the surface, about the well, but it is pretty obvious that what the author of John is really getting at is that Jesus is a better way to salvation than Judaism.

“But sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket,” she said, “and this well is very deep. Where would you get this living water? And besides, do you think you’re greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his animals enjoyed?”

I.e., how is what you are offering better than the spiritual heritage that the Jews have already?

More back and forth, including Jesus telling the woman all about her life and declaring that he is the Messiah. Jesus is sure a lot more willing to declare that in the Gospel of John compared to the rest of the gospels. Eventually, the woman is convinced and runs off to tell all of the people in her town. The reaction of the people in the town in very interesting,

Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard him ourselves. Now we know that he is indeed the Savior of the world.”

Jesus himself is convincing to more of the townspeople than the woman’s testimony about him. Throughout all the gospels, it seems like there are examples of people who do not believe until they have directly observed miracles or directly interacted in Jesus. Although the religious teachers are condemned for demanding miracles (or, perhaps, for implying that Jesus was obliged to show them miracles), it does not seem that people were condemned for simply not believing until they had direct support for Jesus’ claims.

Psalms and Proverbs

Today’s psalm is a psalm of praise that talks about how God gave Israel the land of Canaan and protected them as they wandered through other lands. You can tell it’s going to continue in tomorrow’s reading because it ends very abruptly.

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Old Testament

Today’s reading contains a rather awful story, that contain elements that remind one of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. A comment in the story, about how it was during the priesthood of Phineas, implies that it is set before most of the Book of Judges. As of yesterday, we seem to have reached the “appendix” of Judges which contains three stories not originally believed to be part of that book.

The story contains an interesting start. A man brought home a woman from Bethlehem to be his concubine. She became angry with him and returned home. He went to fetch her, and after staying with her father for many nights, the man headed home with his concubine.

After this, the story gets terrible rather quickly. The man decides to stay the night in Gibeah, a town inhabited by the people of Benjamin. An old man finds them in the town square and insists that they come to his home, saying ominously,

But whatever you do, don’t spend the night in the square.

It was at this point that I was first reminded of Sodom and Gomorrah. That reminder was, in fact, quite apt. In the very next paragraph we read,

While they were enjoying themselves, a crowd of troublemakers from the town surrounded the house. They began beating at the door and shouting to the old man, “Bring out the man who is staying with you so we can have sex with him.”

The old man stepped outside to talk to them. “No, my brothers, don’t do such an evil thing. For this man is a guest in my house, and such a thing would be shameful. Here, take my virgin daughter and this man’s concubine. I will bring them out to you, and you can abuse them and do whatever you like. But don’t do such a shameful thing to this man.”

Since there were no angels to save them in this story, the guest gives his concubine to the men of the city.

The men of the town abused her all night, taking turns raping her until morning. Finally, at dawn they let her go. At daybreak the woman returned to the house where her husband was staying. She collapsed at the door of the house and lay there until it was light.

This is just sickening. What kind of person is the husband to give her up like that? What kind of man is the host to offer his daughter? Yet only the towns people are condemned in this story.

The woman dies from her abuse, and the man takes her home, cuts her body into twelve pieces, and send the pieces to the tribes of Israel. This and his story inspire the Israelites to go to war against the tribe of Benjamin. After several tries, the rest of Israel defeats Benjamin. The text is oddly repetitive. It seems obvious that two narratives were smooshed together. The first version is from Judges 20:29-36. The other version is Judges 20:36-48.

New Testament

John the Baptist goes on about how awesome Jesus is. There are lots of verses which I am sure are super inspiring to the believer, but are tedious for the non-believer to read. It is like hearing about someone gushing about how wonderful their latest crush is when you think that crush is kind of dull and plain.

Psalms and Proverbs

Today’s psalm is a continuation of yesterday’s psalm. It has a couple of lines that are great for taking overly  literally despite their poetic nature. =)

The earth trembles at his glance;
the mountains smoke at his touch.

So that’s what happened in Iceland.

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Old Testament

I have noticed in the last few readings that God seemed perfectly happy to take meat and grain sacrifices that were given on random rocks. This is despite saying somewhere in the Mosaic law books that sacrifices must only be made on the official altar.

My translation titles the two sections in today’s reading as “Micah’s Idols” and “Idolotry in the Tribe of Dan”. It tells the reading of how a man named Micah creates some idols with money he gave back to his mother after taking it.

There was a man named Micah, who lived in the hill country of Ephraim. One day he said to his mother, “I heard you place a curse on the person who stole 1,100 pieces of silver from you. Well, I have the money. I was the one who took it.”

“The Lord bless you for admitting it,” his mother replied. He returned the money to her, and she said, “I now dedicate these silver coins to the Lord. In honor of my son, I will have an image carved and an idol cast.”

After the idol is created, Micah hires a travelling Levite to be his priest. Later, the tribe of Dan comes by and persuades the priest to take the idols and follow them. Now, given that idolatry is supposedly like the worst sin ever, you would expect for these folks to get swallowed up in the ground (like God did to the dude who looted from a city when we was not supposed to) or burned to death (like Aaron’s sons after they burnt the wrong type of incense) or bitten by poisonous snakes (like God sent when the Israelites complained about wandering in the dessert). Instead, the Bible does not even say anything to condemn any of these folks.

In fact, after persuading the priest to come away with Micah’s idols, the people of Dan successful conquer the land they were going to conquer (they burned the town to the ground, of course). After that, we read

Then they set up the carved image, and they appointed Jonathan son of Gershom, son of Moses,as their priest. This family continued as priests for the tribe of Dan until the Exile. So Micah’s carved image was worshiped by the tribe of Dan as long as the Tabernacle of God remained at Shiloh.

So they just worship it? For a good while? And the God who would murder at the smallest insult does not mind at all? That’s stretching credulity a bit much.

New Testament

Jesus and Nicodemus have a talk. Jesus tells Nicodemus that people must be born again in spirit to see the Kingdom of God. We then get some more “good = believes in Jesus”, “evil = does not believe in Jesus” silliness,

There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants

Yes, everyone who does not believe in God is an evil, horrible, depraved person. Yup, that’s right. I had a baby and a puppy and a kitten for breakfast. I also stole candy from a child and took money from the tip jar at Starbucks. All because I do not believe in Jesus. Clearly, there is no other reason to act like a decent human being. Nope, none at all.

Gah. It’s too late to take this sort of BS seriously.

Psalms and Proverbs

A pretty bit of poetic imagery,

You stretch out the starry curtain of the heavens 

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Old Testament

Today we finish the story of Samson, and he does not become any more likable in the process. Samson went to try to sleep with the wife he abandoned. When he learned that her father had given her to another man, Samson decides that the best response is a combination of animal cruelty and property destruction:

Samson said, “This time I cannot be blamed for everything I am going to do to you Philistines.” Then he went out and caught 300 foxes. He tied their tails together in pairs, and he fastened a torch to each pair of tails. Then he lit the torches and let the foxes run through the grain fields of the Philistines. He burned all their grain to the ground, including the sheaves and the uncut grain. He also destroyed their vineyards and olive groves.

In response, the Philistines kill Samson’s kind of wife and her family and attack the people of Judah until they give up Samson. They do, but Samson breaks free of his bonds and kills 1000 men with the jawbone of a recently killed donkey (so it was probably still all fleshy and toothy. Eww.).

Later, Samson destroys the city gates of Gaza when he is escaping the city after spending the night with a prostitute there. Yup, God’s holy warrior Samson can sleep with prostitutes, and it is all okay with God.

Later Samson falls in love with another woman, Delilah. The ruler of the Philistines bribe her to tell them the secret of Samson’s strength. So she tries to wheedle it out of him. We then see a series of events that show that Samson is a freaking idiot. Delilah asks Samson about his strength:

Please tell me what makes you so strong and what it would take to tie you up securely. [emphasis mine]

Okay, unless they were into that sort of thing, this request should have automatically raises Samson’s flags. Now, he was not quite so stupid enough to give his secret away immediately. He lied to her three times. Each time, she tried what he said and called the Philistines to come take them. Each time he broke free. After all of this, after she tries to betray him three times, he tells her the truth: his hair is the source of his strength. How stupid is he? Does he really think she is not going to use that against him?

Of course, he gets captured by the Philistines, and they gouge his eyes out. Eventually he hair grew back, and he was able to get his final victory over the Philistines.

Then Samson prayed to the Lord, “Sovereign Lord, remember me again. O God, please strengthen me just one more time. With one blow let me pay back the Philistines for the loss of my two eyes.” Then Samson put his hands on the two center pillars that held up the temple. Pushing against them with both hands, he prayed, “Let me die with the Philistines.” And the temple crashed down on the Philistine rulers and all the people. So he killed more people when he died than he had during his entire lifetime.

New Testament

Today we read the story of Jesus turning water to wine at a wedding feast. This story does not appear in the rest of the gospels (I am sure I will get tired of pointing that out soon enough). It also puts the relationship between Jesus and his mother in an interesting light.

The wine supply ran out during the festivities, so Jesus’ mother told him, “They have no more wine.”

“Dear woman, that’s not our problem,” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.”

But his mother told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

Standing nearby were six stone water jars, used for Jewish ceremonial washing. Each could hold twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus told the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” When the jars had been filled, he said, “Now dip some out, and take it to the master of ceremonies.” So the servants followed his instructions.

Unlike the other gospels, where the main interaction we see between Jesus and his family is Jesus’ rejection of them, here they seem on pretty good terms. We also see that Jesus’ mother knew of his miraculous abilities and was not afraid to boss him around.

We also read about how Jesus clears the money changers and animal sellers from the temple. This is mainly interesting because it appears at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. In the synoptic gospels, it appears at the end and is the event which causes the Jewish leaders to put real effort into having him arrested and executed.

Today’s reading ends with this little passage, which is one of those ones that you never seem to hear quoted,

Because of the miraculous signs Jesus did in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration, many began to trust in him. But Jesus didn’t trust them, because he knew human nature. No one needed to tell him what mankind is really like.

Now, the sentiment that mankind is depraved comes across often, but I cannot seem to recall anyone ever mentioning that Jesus did not trust the people who trusted in him. So remember, you may say you repent, but Jesus doesn’t trust you!

Psalms and Proverbs

Nothing of particular note.

April was bloody and violent, at least the book of Joshua was. Other than that, we had more repetition. The Gospel of Luke had some variety compared to Matthew and Mark, but was still similar enough to often be tedious.

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Old Testament

Today we start the story of Samson! This is one of those stories that tends to show up (in parts) in children’s Bibles and so is more familiar than many of the stories in Judges. What strikes me as I read this story is the similarity it bears to so many of the other stories we read. Certain structures are used to pull up associations quickly and easily.

The Israelites oppressed by the Philistines for forty years. During that time, an angel of God told a barren couple that they would have a child. This harks back to the stories of Sarah and Rebecca and Rachel and forward to the story of Elizabeth. Manoah’s wife is never named, yet she is the one who talks to the angel the first time and to whom the angel appears the second time. This differs from the other stories of barren women where, if an angel was involved at all, the angel told the man of the birth. It is, however, similar to Mary’s pregnancy.

When the couple meets with the angel on his second visit, they offer to cook him food. He suggests instead that they provide it as a sacrifice. They do so and,

Then Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered it on a rock as a sacrifice to the Lord. And as Manoah and his wife watched, the Lord did an amazing thing. As the flames from the altar shot up toward the sky, the angel of the Lord ascended in the fire. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell with their faces to the ground.

This is similar to the beginning of Gideon’s story which we read a few days ago:

The angel of God said to him, “Place the meat and the unleavened bread on this rock, and pour the broth over it.” And Gideon did as he was told. Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and bread with the tip of the staff in his hand, and fire flamed up from the rock and consumed all he had brought. And the angel of the Lord disappeared.

The wife of Manoah gives birth to Samson, and he grew up blessed by the Lord. When he reached an age where such things would be proper, he took a fancy toward a Philistine girl. His parents protested, but he insisted,

But Samson told his father, “Get her for me! She looks good to me.” His father and mother didn’t realize the Lord was at work in this, creating an opportunity to work against the Philistines, who ruled over Israel at that time.

Now, I have to say, Samson’s way of demanding that he father get him a woman because “she looks good” to him rather makes me dislike him. It makes him sound like something of a demanding jerk. The rest of today’s reading only enforces that impression. Yet, supposedly, all this is God acting through Samson. In any case, he gets what he wants.

Samson kills a lion with his bare hands. Bees later make a nest in the carcass, and Samson finds the honey. (Is honey from the carcass of a wild animal kosher?) As the wedding celebrations approached, Samson asks 30 young men a riddle,

Samson said to them, “Let me tell you a riddle. If you solve my riddle during these seven days of the celebration, I will give you thirty fine linen robes and thirty sets of festive clothing. But if you can’t solve it, then you must give me thirty fine linen robes and thirty sets of festive clothing.”

“All right,” they agreed, “let’s hear your riddle.”

So he said: “Out of the one who eats came something to eat; out of the strong came something sweet.”

I personally think this is a rather stupid riddle, and not particularly fair into the bargain. All the riddled men get annoyed and finally persuade Samson’s wife to wheedle the secret out of him. He told her the answer, and the men answered his riddle. This rather pissed Samson off:

Then the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him. He went down to the town of Ashkelon, killed thirty men, took their belongings, and gave their clothing to the men who had solved his riddle. But Samson was furious about what had happened, and he went back home to live with his father and mother. So his wife was given in marriage to the man who had been Samson’s best man at the wedding.

Yup, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and had him kill thirty men so that he could fulfill his side of what was rather an unfair bet in the first place. He then abandoned his wife. Tomorrow: Samson gets annoyed because his wife’s family married her to someone else after he abandoned her.

Lovely guy, isn’t he?

New Testament

The Gospel of John is not subtle about the role attributed to Jesus,

Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

The rest of the reading tells of Jesus gathering his disciples. It shows that even he is surprised at how credulous they can be:

As they approached, Jesus said, “Now here is a genuine son of Israel—a man of complete integrity.”

“How do you know about me?” Nathanael asked.

Jesus replied, “I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you.”

Then Nathanael exclaimed, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God—the King of Israel!”

Jesus asked him, “Do you believe this just because I told you I had seen you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.” Then he said, “I tell you the truth, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth.

Nathanael would, I believe, be fooled by any halfway competent fortune teller.

Psalms and Proverbs

The first of today’s psalms is interesting in light of today’s New Testament reading:

Only simpletons believe everything they’re told!

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Old Testament

Today we read about Jephthah. His story is pretty much the standard one. Israel’s being oppressed. Someone rises up and defeats the enemy. That person becomes a ruler over Israel. However, there’s a catch, and a rather terrible one. While I was reading, my eyes passed over this line,

[Jephthah] said, “If you give me victory over the Ammonites, I will give to the Lord whatever comes out of my house to meet me when I return in triumph. I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.”

As soon as I read that, I remembered that this was that story. The story that involves human sacrifice, human sacrifice that God does not prevent nor seem to condemn. What happens is this: Jephthah wins, of course, and when he comes home,

his daughter came out to meet him, playing on a tambourine and dancing for joy. She was his one and only child; he had no other sons or daughters.

Jephthah feels anguish, but keeps his word and sacrifices his daughter after letting her mourn the fact that she is dying a virgin.

Now, I am guessing (or, perhaps, hoping) that this story never happened. Jephthah’s vow seems improbable at least; I would suspect that most people would expect the first thing to come out of their house would, with high likeliehood, be a person. I am guessing that this story exists only to provide a background explanation for this,

So it has become a custom in Israel for young Israelite women to go away for four days each year to lament the fate of Jephthah’s daughter.

But still! This is a terrible story. As far as the text lets us know, God accepts this sacrifice. At the very least, he does not prevent it. He does not send an angel to tell Jephthah to stop. He does not send a ram to sacrifice in his daughter’s place. He does not make sure something non-human is the first thing to come out to meet him.  Terrible!

Also, a bunch of minor judges ruled over Israel.

New Testament

The teachings of Jesus in John are very different from those found in the synoptic gospels. Thus, since the 1800s scholars have generally believed that only one of the two traditions could be authentic. Today, prominent, mainstream historians largely tend to discount the historical value of John. Few scholars regard John to be at all comparable to the Synoptics in terms of historical value. … The Gospel of John also differs from the synoptic gospels in respect of its narrative of Jesus’ life and ministry; but here there is a lower degree of consensus that the synoptic tradition is to be preferred.

The Gospel is anonymous, but in Chapter 21 it is stated that it derives from the testimony of the ‘Disciple whom Jesus loved’, whom Early Church tradition identified with John the Apostle, one of Jesus’ Twelve Apostles. It is closely related in style and content to the three surviving Epistles of John, such that most commentators routinely treat the four books together. Scholarly opinion is divided as to whether these epistles are the work of the evangelist himself, or of his followers writing in his name.

There is no consensus in current scholarship as to how far the material in John may derive from a historical ‘Disciple whom Jesus loved’, but it is broadly agreed that the authorship of the Gospel should be credited to the person who composed the finished text, rather than to the source of material in the text; and that this composition is to be dated around 85-90 AD, a decade or more later than the most likely dates for composition of the Synoptics.

In the beginning the Word already existed.
The Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He existed in the beginning with God.
God created everything through him,
and nothing was created except through him.
The Word gave life to everything that was created,
and his life brought light to everyone.
The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it.

… So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.

 The rest of the reading focuses on John the Baptist, but let’s focus on the parts above. Clearly, the Gospel of John is starting out with a different slant than the gospels we have read so far. Jesus is presented as clearly being God’s son (this is ambiguous in the other gospels). Jesus is also presented as having always existed in his aspect as the Word.

The line “and nothing was created except through him” seems particularly interesting. If nothing was created except through the Word/Jesus, then evil and sin was created through him. But if Jesus was the source of sin, then the fact that Jesus’ death was supposedly able to atone for all sin almost makes more sense (ignoring the whole, question how the death of the human aspect of a divine, eternal, and all powerful being accomplishes anything any way).

Psalms and Proverbs

Nothing of particular note.