Month: August 2010

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Old Testament

The rest of chapter 3 is more lists thinly veiled in prose. After that, we read about how the enemies of the Jews are threatening to violently oppose the Jews rebuilding the wall. In response, Nehemiah has half of the men stand guard and arms the men who are not currently on guard.

Which is interesting and all, but I am more interesting in what I noticed today: the Bible is referring to them as Jews! I know I am a little slow since that apparently started back in Ezra. But that was still an interesting discovery.

We end today’s reading with a very interesting passage. Nehemiah condemns those who take advantage of their fellow Jews. Furthermore, he tells them to no longer charge interest on borrowed goods and to return the lands that people gave up in exchange for help through the hard times.

One reason this passage is interesting is the ideas it presents: people should not take advantage of each other, and they should take care of each other in times of hardship.

Even more interesting is the fact that Nehemiah does not quote the scriptures to support his position. This is odd considering that Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy all contain the provision against charging interest to other people of Israel. This, to me, gives strong support to the scholarly opinion that even the Torah was not yet in its final form at this time or, if it was, it was not commonly accepted as authoritative scripture yet.

New Testament

I have a question that may sound snarky but which I mean sincerely: How often do Christians actually try to follow Paul’s advice about abstaining from marriage? In today’s reading and yesterday’s reading, Paul makes it pretty clear that marriage should rank below singleness in the preferences of a Christian. How often do Christians even attempt to decide firmly not to marry and try to control their passion? Certainly, there are some churches that teach the opposite of this, where the single members of the congregation pushed to get married as quickly as they can find a suitable partner. Are they just flat out ignoring these passages?

Today’s reading also shows that Paul clearly expected the end times to happen very soon, probably within his lifetime.

The time that remains is very short. So from now on, those with wives should not focus only on their marriage. Those who weep or who rejoice or who buy things should not be absorbed by their weeping or their joy or their possessions. Those who use the things of the world should not become attached to them. For this world as we know it will soon pass away.

Psalms and Proverbs

Three proverbs today! This one’s my favorite:

Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity,
but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty.

Reference links:

Old Testament

New book means overview time! Let’s see what Understanding the Bible has to say:

Appointed governor of postexilic Judah by Emperor Artaxerxes, Nehemiah oversees the rebuilding of Judah. After promulgating a version of the Mosaic Torah compiled and edited during the Babylonian exile (perhaps the final form of today’s Pentateuch) the priest Ezra institutes an atonement ceremony. A report of Nehemiah’s reforming zeal, enforcing Sabbath-keeping and the ban on foreign marriage, concludes the book. 

Harris also says,

Originally combined with Ezra, the Book of Nehemiah enlarges our picture of conditions in postexilic Judah and Jerusalem.

The Wikipedia article expands on what it means to say that Ezra and Nehemiah were originally combined,

A work ascribed to Nehemiah, but bearing in some canons the title Esdras II. or Esdras III., having been attributed to Ezra on the ground that Nehemiah’s self-assertion deserved some punishment (Sanh. 93b), or because, having ordinarily been written on the same scroll with the Book of Ezra, it came to be regarded as an appendix to it.

Based on this, I think the situation is that Ezra and Nehemiah were often considered one book because of their closely related subject matter and the fact that they were often written on one scroll, but neither tradition nor modern scholarship ascribe both to the same author.

Onward to today’s reading! Nehemiah shows great concern for the fate of Jerusalem and gets permission from Artaxerxes to go and rebuild Jerusalem. Because Nehemiah has found favor in the king’s eyes in his role as cup bearer, Artaxerxes gave him permission and resources to carry out his plan.

Quick side note, Artaxerxes is both fun and difficult to type. Artaxerxes! Artaxerxes! … And now back to our regularly scheduled program.

Nehemiah goes to Jerusalem and finds the city in shambles. His plans to rebuild the city wall meet disapproval from Sanballat, Tobiah, and Gershem who appear to be officials of some sort. Despite their disapproval, Nehemiah gathers people to start rebuilding the wall.

What follows is essentially yet another list, this time disguised as prose. The people working on the wall are listed in conjunction with what part they were working to rebuild. Although, as I said, this is essentially a list in very thin disguise, it does include some interesting details. First, the different gates and towers in the city walls had interesting names. As a sample: the Sheep Gate, the Fish Gate, the Tower of the Ovens, and the Dung Gate.

Also interesting is that women, at least some women, were working side-by-side with the men:

Shallum son of Hallohesh and his daughters repaired the next section.

New Testament

Today talks about marriage. Marriage is for the weak. If people were awesome (like Paul) they would remain unmarried (like Paul). But since people are weak, they are allowed to marry lest they do even worse things.

This reading then goes on to talk about the relationship between spouses. The most interesting thing about this passage is the near absolute symmetry used in the language describing the relationship of a woman to her husband and a man to his wife.

But because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman should have her own husband.

and

The husband should fulfill his wife’s sexual needs, and the wife should fulfill her husband’s needs. The wife gives authority over her body to her husband, and the husband gives authority over his body to his wife.

and

A wife must not leave her husband. But if she does leave him, let her remain single or else be reconciled to him. And the husband must not leave his wife. [implied symmetry]

and

If a Christian man has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to continue living with him, he must not leave her. And if a Christian woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to continue living with her, she must not leave him. For the Christian wife brings holiness to her marriage, and the Christian husband brings holiness to his marriage.

and

Don’t you wives realize that your husbands might be saved because of you? And don’t you husbands realize that your wives might be saved because of you?

Because the letters known to be genuine Pauline letters often stress equality, as above and in other places such as the well known Galatians verse, the lack of such equality in the pastoral letters are one of the many strands of evidence that lead most scholars to believe that they were not written by Paul.

Psalms and Proverbs

Not a bad proverb:

Haughty eyes, a proud heart,
and evil actions are all sin.

Reference links:

Old Testament

We finish Ezra today which means that it is the second shortest book we have read so far (by number of days spent reading it).

Ezra ends with the destruction of families and yet another list (of those people whose families were destroyed). When we left Ezra yesterday, he was dramatically mourning the fact that some of the returned exiles had married the locals. On the advice of Shecaniah, who had not been introduced as anyone of note as far as I can tell, Ezra tells the people to divorce their pagan wives and send away any children they had by their wives.

I think this is pretty terrible. First, families are being broken up, and it is likely that the members of many of these families loved each other. Second, women and children, the weakest members of this society, are being sent away from their source of support. Now, the women who had not had children may have been able to find new husbands without too much difficulty, but the women with children may very well have been seen as a burden by potential new husbands. Even if those women did remarry, it is likely that many of those children pretty much lost out on everything since they would not necessarily share in the inheritance of their new family.

And all this because of Ezra’s mourning. Note that Ezra did not get any sort of explicit vision or message from God. He was just using his own interpretation of the law (which he may very well have been the one to compile) and applying it to the people who had returned to Judah.

At least the text makes it clear that not everyone supported these cruel actions:

Only Jonathan son of Asahel and Jahzeiah son of Tikvah opposed this course of action, and they were supported by Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite.

New Testament

Christians should not sue each other in courts judged by non-believers. Furthermore, they should not be bringing suit in the first place; they should just accept the injustice done to them and take comfort in knowing that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

This passage also implies that not only will everyone eventually be judged, but it will be the believers themselves doing the judging. I do not believe we have seen this idea in our readings before and it brings up some very interesting issues about the idea of judgment.

Paul also discusses how sexual sin is particularly terribly because it is done to the body and the body of a believer is part of Christ.

Psalms and Proverbs

Nothing of particular note.

Reference links:

Old Testament

My conclusion, based on today’s reading, is that Ezra is a drama queen. He makes it to Jerusalem and then goes all ballistic on the folks who had married with the locals. He cites the prohibitions against marrying or making treaties with the natives of the land back from Joshua. Now, in addition to being applicable in circumstances very different from the present, it seems rather hypocritical of Ezra to cite authorities who say that peace should not be made with other nations when their remnant only exists by the mercy of the Persian empire.

New Testament

Paul tells the Corinthian church, through a specific example of immorality, that they should banish those who violate their cultural norms from their community. However, what I find more interesting is that Paul makes it clear that the community of believers are only to apply their standards to others in the community of believers. Their standards are not meant to be applied to those outside of that community. Perhaps there is a lesson here that might be applicable to many modern hot button issues.

Psalms and Proverbs

People may be right in their own eyes,
but the Lord examines their heart.

Rather appropriate given the recent readings in Corinthians. Yet Paul’s words make me read this in a different light. Without our recent readings from 1 Corinthians, I may have thought this was a proverb of condemnation, and maybe that was the original intent. But Paul makes it clear that while the possibility that you are right in your own eyes buy not the eyes of the Lord is something you should be wary of, he does not present it as something bad. On the contrary, he presents it as something unavoidable.

Reference links:

Old Testament

Ezra arrives in Jerusalem today. Who is Ezra you ask? Well, if he actually is the author of this part of the book of Ezra, he is someone who is quite willing to toot his own horn. Other than that,

This Ezra was a scribe who was well versed in the Law of Moses, which the Lord, the God of Israel, had given to the people of Israel. He came up to Jerusalem from Babylon, and the king gave him everything he asked for, because the gracious hand of the Lord his God was on him.

Artaxerxes seems to think that Ezra is a pretty great guy, and so he gives Ezra the job of enforcing the law of Moses in the land of Judah. Now, this may make it seem like Ataxerxes though the God of Israel was pretty awesome, but it is worth pointing out that, in general, it is believed that policy at the time was to encourage people who were part of the Persian empire to follow their own religious laws as long as they were compatible with the laws of the empire.

Beyond that, nothing much exciting happened in today’s reading. A lot of new people are introduced, but it is unclear how many of them will continue to be relevant.

New Testament

Paul pulls out the sarcasm today in his condemnation of some of the pride filled and judgmental attitudes of the people of Corinth:

You think you already have everything you need. You think you are already rich. You have begun to reign in God’s kingdom without us!

and

Our dedication to Christ makes us look like fools, but you claim to be so wise in Christ!

But let’s pop up a level and look at Paul’s purpose in saying all this. In today’s reading, Paul condemns, in no weak terms, those who felt they were better than others and were abandoning the attitudes Paul felt were proper in followers of Jesus.

This reading shows, one of the weaknesses of chopping up the New Testament into bite sized little chunks.  It is clear that today’s reading is part of Paul’s appeal at the beginning of the letter that the Corinthians not divide themselves into factions. This means that everything that comes between should be considered in light of that situation. Now, I do not have time to do that right now, but I strongly suspect that much of what Paul said would read differently if it were interpreted as part of a condemnation of those sewing division in the Corinthian church.

Psalms and Proverbs

Unfailing love and faithfulness protect the king;
his throne is made secure through love.

Nice sentiment but, sadly, would not work for today’s leaders, at least not in the world of American politics.

The glory of the young is their strength;
the gray hair of experience is the splendor of the old.

Another nice sentiment. I wish that our culture spent more time recognizing the wisdom and experience of the old instead of trying to color, suck, and inflate to preserve a false and artificial appearance of youth.

Physical punishment cleanses away evil;
such discipline purifies the heart.

This one, not so great. I am not a big fan of physical punishment.

Reference links:

Old Testament

Today’s reading mainly concerns itself with establishing the legitimacy of the building of the temple. This mostly takes the place of bureaucratic back and forth between Tattenai, governor of the area which contains Jerusalem, and Darius, king of Persia. Eventually, it is decided that building the temple is not only legitimate but should, furthermore, be supported out of the coffers of the state.

After this, the temple is completed and dedicated and the first Passover celebrated in the new temple. As is not surprising given how few people returned and how much less influential the Jews are now, the dedication takes on a much smaller scale than the celebrations of the past. The dedication consisted of a relatively tiny 100 bulls, 200 rams, 400 lambs, and 12 goats (one for each tribe). That said, I think the celebrations may owe their decrease in scale to more than just the fallen fortunes of Judah. The account of this celebration was written significantly closer to the true historical memory than any of the other books we have read. As is not unusual when comparing the past to the present, those people putting together the Hebrew scriptures probably exaggerated the past to give it greater contrast with the present.

Another change between this book and earlier books is that the tone has suddenly become much more monotheistic. We saw the beginnings of this when the king of Egypt told Josiah that he was going to battle by the command of Josiah’s God. We see that again in today’s reading where Darius and his officials seem to see the God of Israel as THE God. Although it is not clear one way or another whether or not the author of Ezra wants to represent these non-Jews as believing only in the God of Israel and Judah, it is clear that the Jews themselves are starting to see their God as more universal. Less the God of Israel and Judah and more the God who chooses Jerusalem as his primary place of worship.

The timing of this change makes sense. According to some of the resources I have read, the exiled Jews had to dramatically change their conception of God when they went into exile. Before that, they had followed a very place based religion. Their religion was place based both in their manner of worship (centered on the temple in Jerusalem) and in their conception of God;;the God they worshiped was their God. Whether they believed that other people were worshiping other Gods or false Gods, they did not believe that they were worshiping the God of Israel and Judah.

But now that has changed. Being removed from a geographic location forced the Jews to change their conception of God. If their God was only place based, then clearly he had failed. Thus, he started his evolution to a much more familiar universal God.

New Testament

Paul continues to address the issue of division within the Corinthian church. He once again emphasizes God’s primary role in the development of the individuals in the church. Particular individuals may help, but they are not to be given credit. Paul then goes on more about the wisdom of the world verses the wisdom of God.

Also, the people of God are the new temple. This is particularly interesting given that this letter was written before the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem by the Romans. By making this statement before the destruction of the temple, Paul emphasizes just how much he has broken from his Jewish roots.

Psalms and Proverbs

No mercy here:

A wise king scatters the wicked like wheat,
then runs his threshing wheel over them.

Reference links:

Old Testament

The people rebuild the altar so they can resume the giving of sacrifices. After that they start to rebuild the temple. This is a bittersweet moment. The people feel joy that the temple is to be rebuilt, but those who can remember the old temple weep because they see how much less impressive this temple will be.

The rest of today’s reading covers some of the obstacles that faced those rebuilding the temples. We read,

The enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were rebuilding a Temple to the Lord, the God of Israel. So they approached Zerubbabel and the other leaders and said, “Let us build with you, for we worship your God just as you do. We have sacrificed to him ever since King Esarhaddon of Assyria brought us here.”

But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the other leaders of Israel replied, “You may have no part in this work. We alone will build the Temple for the Lord, the God of Israel, just as King Cyrus of Persia commanded us.”

Then the local residents tried to discourage and frighten the people of Judah to keep them from their work.

The author of Ezra obviously considers the people thwarting the building of the temple to be enemies bent on sabotaging it. However, every story has two sides, and there is an obvious possibility for the second side of this one. Look again at what the people who have been living in Judah are reported to have said:

Let us build with you, for we worship your God just as you do. We have sacrificed to him ever since King Esarhaddon of Assyria brought us here.

Over the course of their time in Judah, over the course of a couple generations, it looks as if these people had at least partially assimilated to the culture of the land they were living in. They consider the religion of the people of Judah, or at least some adaption of it, to be their religion. Thus, they want to participate what they likely see as the greatest honor they can give to the being they now consider their God: they want to help rebuild his temple.

But the returned people of Judah will have no part of it. They want to do this all themselves and, as I believe we will later see, they essentially want to take away from the people living in this land everything they had come to consider their religion. However much truth there may or may not be in the reports of the actions these “enemies” took against those building the temple, it seems likely that they had a legitimate source of frustration.

New Testament

Whenever I read words like Paul’s, words where the speaker is so sure that he truly has understood, or at least partially understood, God’s purpose and spirit, I always come back to the same question: how do you explain all of the other people who are just as sure as you and who have come to completely contradictory conclusions?

This holds a direct relation to my frustration with the idea that all religions are pointing to the same truth. If there is a God, then this idea may have some merit at a high level, but the problem lies in the details. If all religions are pointing to the same truth, then most, if not all, religions are dead wrong about the details. But everyone who believes this sort of feel good message about all religions pointing to the same truth also believes that it is their religion that has the details right.

In any case, that’s kind of a tangent. To bring it back to today’s reading, the problem with the wisdom of God, as opposed to the wisdom of man, is that there seems to be nothing but one’s owns feelings to indicate whether one is actually tapping into the wisdom of God or one’s own brain.

Paul then goes on to talk about how the people of the church in Corinth were not and are still not mature believers. This could be be interpreted as a criticism against the Corinthians, but Paul’s tone does not seem particularly accusing to me. It seems more as if he is just pointing out a fact. I am guessing that in Paul’s time, as now, most believers are immature in their belief and, for the most part, do not know it. For like in any area, those people who are the least mature are often those who are least able to see their immaturity. Seeing that you lack is the first step in seeing how to improve.

Actually, this leads me to another tangent. It seems that the immature believers today are the ones most eager to denounce atheists. Yet I wonder, if there is a God, could he really prefer immature belief to mature seeking, even if that seeking led one to dismiss God, or at least the version of God that seems to be believed in by American Christians today? For it seems that in that situation, the believer’s lack of understanding of Godly wisdom may be just as great, if not greater, despite the fact that one question happened to be answered correctly. (Caveats: No, I am not intending to imply that all believers are immature and all non-believers are mature. Yes, I realize that everyone, including myself, probably considers themselves in the mature seeker category and that most of us are wrong, just like most people consider themselves above average.)

Psalms and Proverbs

I usually make up little tunes to go with the Psalms to make them easier to digest. However, the irregular structure (in translation at least) of the couplets that make up the psalms often make this awkward. Today I tried a more rap-like style, and I had a much easier time dynamically adapting it to the shifting rhythm of the words. Yay!

Today’s second proverb reminds me of Jephthah and his sacrifice of his daughter:

Don’t trap yourself by making a rash promise to God
and only later counting the cost.

Today’s first proverb has some merit, but is also, in some ways, fundamentally distasteful to people like me.

The Lord directs our steps,
so why try to understand everything along the way?

It sometimes is necessary to reconcile ourselves to the fact that we cannot and will not understand everything. But some people, such as myself, fundamentally look at the world and ask “How does that work? Why does it work? What happens when I tweak this or that?”

For people like this, it is not enough to say, “It works, so who cares why?” We need to open things up and look inside. This is how we relate to the world. So to answer the question posed by this proverb, “why try to understand everything along the way?” is that, for some of us, the unexamined life is not worth living. The unexamined world is not worth living in. It does not matter if we come to a final answer (a final answer would probably be a disappointment). We have to keep asking and examining and finding new angles and new loop holes.

Reference links:

Old Testament

We start the book of Ezra today. According to Harris’s Understanding the Bible (Seventh Edition):

The Book of Ezra pictures the difficult conditions that prevailed in the postexilic community of Judah, then a small part of the vast Persian Empire. The Persian emperor authorizes Ezra, a priestly scribe returned from Babylon, to reorganize the restored Judean community according to the principles of the Mosaic Torah. To prevent assimilation with the Gentile population, Ezra forbids intermarrige between Judeans and foreign women.

Although Ezra and Nehemiah probably formed a single book originally, the two histories present conflicting information about the sequence of events they record. Part of the confusion arises because we do not know who first returned to help rebuild Jerusalem — the priest-scribe Ezra or the Persian-appointed governor of Judah, Nehemiah.

(Note that although I link the Wikipedia article, I think the summary there is only okay. And no, I don’t feel like improving it right now.)

We start today where the books of Chronicles left off. Cyrus of Persia has let the Jews return to Judah. Which means… more lists! After the lists, we learn that not many people chose to return to Jerusalem. 42,360 people plus 7337 servants and singers. I suppose that after a couple generations, people had acclimated to their new home.

We also read this interesting little story:

Three families of priests—Hobaiah, Hakkoz, and Barzillai—also returned. (This Barzillai had married a woman who was a descendant of Barzillai of Gilead, and he had taken her family name.) They searched for their names in the genealogical records, but they were not found, so they were disqualified from serving as priests. The governor told them not to eat the priests’ share of food from the sacrifices until a priest could consult the Lord about the matter by using the Urim and Thummim—the sacred lots.

Annoyingly, it looks like we never get to learn what happened to these families.

New Testament

There is nothing I can say about this reading without getting bitchy or angering someone else, so I’m just not going to say anything at all. Fortunately, since I don’t actually believe that Paul’s writing has any eternal significance, I am free to just dismiss it as annoying.

Psalms and Proverbs

Today’s second proverb is very similar to one we have seen before:

The Lord detests double standards;
he is not pleased by dishonest scales.

Reference links:

Old Testament

We finish off the books of Chronicles today. We read at length about Josiah’s Passover celebration. Despite having hyped up Hezekiah’s Passover celebration, the author of Chronicles sees no reason to say why Josiah’s was better. Perhaps Josiah’s Passover won more acclaim because more people attended and more animals were sacrificed. But whatever the reason, the author of Chronicles did a terrible job of setting this scene up.

We do, however, have an indication that the chronicler may have been aware of the literary shortcomings:

Never since the time of the prophet Samuel had there been such a Passover. None of the kings of Israel had ever kept a Passover as Josiah did, involving all the priests and Levites, all the people of Jerusalem, and people from all over Judah and Israel. [emphasis added]

The author specifically compare this to the Passovers held by the kings of Israel, not the kings of Judah. Now, perhaps the author here meant “Israel and Judah”, but usually the author of the books of Chronicles seems pretty careful about differentiating the two.

Next week read about Josiah’s death. I noticed that Josiah’s death was very similar to that of evil king Ahab of Israel. In both cases,

• the king goes into a battle the Lord has advised him not to go into
• the king disguises himself
• despite the disguise, the king is hit by an enemy archer
• the king flees and dies

I find that interesting given that Josiah is one of the best kings in the history of split kingdoms and Ahab one of the worst.

After that the end sure comes quickly, at least in the narrative. We go with blinding speed through the reigns of Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah to the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon to the Persian conquest of Babylon and the return of the exiles. The end.

New Testament

We start 1 Corinthians today. Let’s see what our references have to say about it. According to Understanding the Bible (Seventh Edition) by Stephen Harris,

Paul’s letters to Corinth urge the recipients to overcome their serious divisions, abandon competitive behavior, and strive for unity of belief and purpose. The most important topics include differences between human and divinely revealed wisdom, Christian ethics and responsibilities, proper conduct at Communion, appreciation for gifts of the Spirit, and resurrection of the dead.

It was probably composed in the mid-50’s AD and is amongst the earliest of Paul’s letters. Based on scholarly analysis, only 1 Thessalonians is believed to have been composed earlier. Like most of the authentic Pauline letters, this letter to the Corinthians was meant to address specific problems being experienced by that church.

Also, I was disappointed to learn from Harris’s book that Paul’s letters in the New Testament are ordered, roughly, from longest to shortest. Lame! Chronological would be better. (Why? Because I say so.)

Paul starts by greeting the members of the church at Corinth. He thanks God for the spiritual gifts that have been given to the Corinthians for their beliefs. This passage is one of many that implies that Paul believed Jesus’ return would happen soon:

Now you have every spiritual gift you need as you eagerly wait for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will keep you strong to the end so that you will be free from all blame on the day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns.

Paul then goes on to admonish those who would form factions in the Corinthian church. My favorite part of this passage is this, which shows Paul was composing this letter on the fly:

I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, for now no one can say they were baptized in my name. (Oh yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas, but I don’t remember baptizing anyone else.)

This makes me giggle.

In any case, 1 Corinthians is off to a much less annoying start than Romans.

Psalms and Proverbs

If you insult your father or mother,
your light will be snuffed out in total darkness.

And this one seems empirically true. In fact, now that we have starlets, I would update it to “A fortune obtained too early in life”.

Reference links:

Old Testament

In yesterday’s reading, Manasseh converted from his evil ways. In today’s reading, he sounds almost good enough to be another Hezekiah.

Manasseh also removed the foreign gods and the idol from the Lord’s Temple. He tore down all the altars he had built on the hill where the Temple stood and all the altars that were in Jerusalem, and he dumped them outside the city. Then he restored the altar of the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings and thanksgiving offerings on it. He also encouraged the people of Judah to worship the Lord, the God of Israel. However, the people still sacrificed at the pagan shrines, though only to the Lord their God.

Manasseh’s son Amon lives up to our expectations for a bad king. He is murdered by his own officials after only two years as king. After that Josiah, the wonder boy of the book of Kings, is crowned king.

But before we get there, I want to point out that Amon apparently was 16 years old when he fathered Josiah. Amon became king at age 22 and was only king for 2 years. Josiah was 8 when he became king. (22 + 2) – 8 = 16.

Josiah’s reign sounds pretty much like it did in the books of Kings; if you go back and compare them, they are fundamentally the same. Josiah starts out good and becomes even better once Hilkiah discovers the book of the law while the temple is being restored. You can read what I wrote before to see what I think about this episode itself.

What I want to comment on this time is how much more the version of this story in Chronicles sucks as literature. Our reading from only two days ago implied very strongly that the law had not yet been lost. Furthermore, the kings do not seem nearly as corrupt in the chronicler’s version of history as they did in the books of Kings. Thus, Josiah’s reaction to all of this and God’s promised punishment seem way out of proportion to what we have actually been shown.

The books of Chronicles have failed to motivate Judah’s downfall. Overall, I have to say that they have distinctly less literary merit than the books of Kings (and they were not always that great either).

New Testament

We finish reading Romans today. It mostly consists of the sending of greetings and an appeal to the recipients to be faithful to the Lord.

Psalms and Proverbs

Good practical advice:

A gossip goes around telling secrets,
so don’t hang around with chatterers.