Month: September 2010

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Old Testament

The idea which runs throughout today’s reading is that the people are not living up to the standards set for them. They have the outer semblance of worship, but do not behave in ways that are truly righteous. They show no justice and plot evil. God will forgive those who turn to him, but the people do not seem to care.

Today’s reading also contains an interesting passage which reminds me of yesterday’s description of the armor of the faithful:

[The Lord] put on righteousness as his body armor
and placed the helmet of salvation on his head.
He clothed himself with a robe of vengeance
and wrapped himself in a cloak of divine passion.

New Testament

New book today, and we’re back in genuine Pauline territory. Before I get to the usual background, I want to say that the Wikipedia article for Philippians is not very good. It does not have the same level of detail and organization that most of the Wikipedia articles have had.

Note to self: someday, if I have time and remember, I should go back and make it so that all of the Wikipedia articles for Bibles have the same core organization (e.g., discussion of authorship should be in a consistently named section rather than sometimes being in one of “Authorship”, “Composition”, the general overview, or elsewhere).

So what does Understanding The Bible have to say by way of introduction,

Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi, the first church established in Europe, contains important biographical information about the author and his imprisonment (at either Rome or Ephesus). An unusually warm and friendly missive, it includes Paul’s quotation of an early Christian hymn that depicts Jesus as the opposite of Adam — a humbly obedient son whose denial of self leads to his heavenly exaltation.

Pretty straightforward, which makes sense for a pretty short letter.

Paul praises his relationship with the Philippian church and prays for the continued growth of the members of that church. He then talks about the preaching of his fellow believers at the location of his imprisonment. Paul then expresses a death wish (so that he can be with Jesus) that is tempered by his desire to help others and spread the gospel.

Psalms and Proverbs

There are some Bible verses that people quote to each other for comfort. Public service announcement, this should not be one of them:

If you fail under pressure,
your strength is too small.

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Old Testament

We transition from Second Isaiah to third Isaiah today. I noticed a transition, but I actually put it nearly a chapter later than it appears I should have. It’s also worth noting the the transition in author was not nearly as noticeable as the transition between Isaiah and Second Isaiah (although the transition in tone most certainly was); I don’t know if I would have noticed it if I hadn’t known it was coming.

What does Understanding The Bible have to say about Third Isaiah:

But it fell to another anonymous prophet, Third Isaiah, to cope with the grim realities that returning exiles actually encountered. Instead of a gloriously renewed homeland, repatriated Judeans found only a war-devastated “wilderness” and the holy city “a desolation”. Assuming Second Isaiah’s role as prophetic comforter, this postexilic prophet offered both reassurance of Yahweh’s future plans for the covenant people and criticism for their failure to share limited resources with the poor.

Second Isaiah ends on a positive note. He tells of the restored glory of Jerusalem and of the profoundness of God.

Isaiah 56 changes tone a little, but there is a continuity in so far as both chapters 55 and 56 touch upon the relationship of the restored Israel to other nations. One thing that was interesting in the first part of chapter 56 is the introduction of the possibility for non-Israelites to be saved if they commit themselves to the Lord. It seems to me as if the Biblical authors are starting to realize that advocating true monotheism without advocating the possibility of salvation for all puts them into a situation where their God shows irrational favoritism. Instead, Second or Third Isaiah, whichever it is, seems to be leaning towards the solution that is often favored by people these days: God chose to give some people a special role, but he did not reserve his blessings for those people.

The place I noticed the transition was Isaiah 56:9:

Come, wild animals of the field!
Come, wild animals of the forest!
Come and devour my people!

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Old Testament

Today’s reading explores the normal themes of Second Isaiah: God is universal in power but not in favor. The author emphasizes punishment and redemption of the Israelites. All others exist relative to the Israelites and every other country’s fate is relative to the fate of Jerusalem.

This is followed by one of the “suffering servant” poems. This one will sound familiar to anyone familiar with the Christian mythos because the authors of the Christian gospels borrowed heavily from its imagery. This passage is unique amongst passages that could be read as messianic in that it implies that redemption can come through suffering. Obviously, such a theme would be important to those whose leader had died a shameful death.

New Testament

Exciting! The author of Ephesians uses a phrase that seems to be meant to invoke sacrifice in the Israelite Temple:

[he] offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.

Then we have a bit about being moral. In the midst of the moral advice, we have this interesting little bit:

This is why it is said,

“Awake, O sleeper,
rise up from the dead,
and Christ will give you light.”

The phrase “That is why it is said” points to some tradition that dates from before this letter. Was it an oral tradition? Or is it from some piece of writing that was considered to be scripture by the author of Ephesians but has since been lost?

After that, we get the famous passage about the relationship between husbands and wives. I think the whole thing is bunk, and, as a non-Christian, I don’t need to bother with it beyond that. Sometimes it’s great being an evil atheist who does not take the Bible seriously.

Psalms and Proverbs

Nothing of particular note.

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Old Testament

Today we have declarations that the God of Israel is the only God, declarations of Cyrus of Persia as the rescuer of Israel, passages that could be interpreted as foretelling a messiah, declarations of Israel’s disobedience, and promises of Israel’s restoration. Nothing new really, so I have nothing interesting to say.

New Testament

Today’s readings consist largely of a bunch of common sense moral commandments.

Psalms and Proverbs

Today’s proverbs are about the value of wisdom, especially in war.

Wow, I don’t have a lot to say today. I guess even I am sometimes concise.

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Old Testament

Almost all of today’s reading is Second Isaiah writing in God’s voice. The impression one gets of God from this reading is that he is a very annoyed individual, especially at idols, which he brings up several times. Other themes God emphasizes are his power and reliability and the fact that he is the only God. Also, Cyrus will save the people of Israel and Babylon will fall.

New Testament

Today, the author of Ephesians emphasizes unity and peace in the church. We also see that the imminent return of Jesus (as implied in the authentic Pauline letters and the gospels) has been replaced with a sense that Jesus will not return until a more distant future:

This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.

The implication here is that Jesus will come once the church is good and ready for it, and not before. This is a rather brilliant way of putting it because it’s a standard that you can always push back. No matter how unified in faith and knowledge the church is, it can always be said that there is further to go, pushing Jesus’s return off further and further into the future (not that there has ever really been a time when the church could have lived up to even a weak version of this standard, but I digress).

One other point of note, the passage from the psalms cited in today’s reading is the last verse of yesterday’s reading from the psalms, and it is the psalm that is continued in today’s reading. I think this may be the closest we have come to having a reading and a citation of that reading align.

Psalms and Proverbs

I am working on building a house, so I liked today’s proverbs:

A house is built by wisdom
and becomes strong through good sense.
Through knowledge its rooms are filled
with all sorts of precious riches and valuables.

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Old Testament

A large part of today’s reading is about idols. The author talks about the stupidity and arrogance of those who worship idols saying,

The person who made the idol never stops to reflect, “Why, it’s just a block of wood!
I burned half of it for heat
and used it to bake my bread and roast my meat.
How can the rest of it be a god?
Should I bow down to worship a piece of wood?”

As I have probably said before, by doing this, the author shows a basic misunderstanding of idols and their purpose. In pretty much every case I have heard of, people did not believe that the idols themselves were gods. They believed that the idols were representations of their gods. Representations with power, but, none the less, representations and not the gods themselves. Other than the fact that the idols were meant to be an image of the god they represented, this is really no different than the ark or even the whole temple or the cross for Christians. These too are treated in such as way that could be considered worship of the object itself by those outside of the community of worship.

One sentiment from today’s reading that I feel is not applied widely enough:

Yet he cannot bring himself to ask,
“Is this idol that I’m holding in my hand a lie?”

We should all bring ourselves to wonder if that which we hold dear is nothing more than a lie. This is a question that people are generally afraid to ask (and, I would propose, the religious are often most afraid to ask). And if I didn’t have a policy of not talking about current events, I might wonder how many present day Christians treat the Bible as an idol…

New Testament

Given that this letter does largely rehash ideas we have seen before, I cannot help but focus on all of the ways it does not sound like Paul’s voice. The discussion of Paul’s authority lacks his usual defensiveness. The statements are vague and general (as compared to vague and specific, which seemed to be more common).

I am trying to decide whether or not I like this author’s writing style. On the one hand, he leans towards longer, more complex sentences. On the other hand, so do I, so I am somewhat use to that rhythm. =)

Psalms and Proverbs

Nothing of particular note.

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Old Testament

It’s hard to blog about poetry. Either I can talk about the gist, which amounts to just a few key ideas or I can analyze verses in detail, but then there are altogether too many choices. I suppose you could also analyze the general poetic structure and what not, but that is harder when (a) you’re reading a translation and (b) you were never really good at analyzing poetry in the first place…

Today I’ll go with the choose-some-interesting-verses approach. From my point of view, the most interesting section of today’s reading is this:

“Present the case for your idols,”
says the Lord.
“Let them show what they can do,”
says the King of Israel.
“Let them try to tell us what happened long ago
so that we may consider the evidence.
Or let them tell us what the future holds,
so we can know what’s going to happen.
Yes, tell us what will occur in the days ahead.
Then we will know you are gods.
In fact, do anything—good or bad!
Do something that will amaze and frighten us.
But no! You are less than nothing and can do nothing at all.
Those who choose you pollute themselves.

Here we read God, as portrayed by Second Isaiah, putting up a challenge that he cannot (or, I suppose if you’re a traditional believer, chooses not) to meet in modern times. Challenge God today to “tell us what the future holds” or to “do anything—good or bad!” “something that will amaze and frighten us” and we will see nothing. Nothing unambiguously God caused. Nothing amazing. Nothing

Instead, the modern Christian tells us to look inside our heart to see the “obvious” message in the world around us. They hold God to a lower standard than idols to be held to.

New Testament

Most important things first, this bit has a footnote:

You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world.

According to the footnote, the more literal translation of the first bit could be:

obeying the commander of the power of the air.

The second version is way more entertaining.

Side thought, how do people who insist on reading the Bible word-for-word literally deal with the fact that they are reading a translation? And the fact that translations have differed considerably over time? I’m guessing they deal with it by not really thinking about it.

Paul’s admirer continues to summarize Paul’s theology as he sees it. Today’s points are God’s grace allows believers to be saved from the punishments deserved by those in a sinful world and the community of the Lord should be unified.

Psalms and Proverbs

Wow! Long proverbs reading today. The reading amounts to a short poem on the dangers of alcohol. He talks about the terrible effects of too much drink, but then he also says,

Don’t gaze at the wine, seeing how red it is,
how it sparkles in the cup, how smoothly it goes down.

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Old Testament

We finish up the part of Isaiah associated with the prophet Isaiah (and it’s just more recap of 2 Kings). We then start the part attributed to an unknown author dubbed “Second Isaiah”. According to Harris in Understanding the Bible:

In Isaiah 40-55, a new voice is heard, proclaiming to Judean exiles in Babylon that the time of punishment is past and that a new era is dawning, heralded by the conquests of Cyrus of Persia, who will defeat Babylon to become the Near East’s new master. Presenting Cyrus as Yahweh’s anointed king, the anonymous prophet known as Second Isaiah (or Deutero-Isaiah) prepares his fellow exiles for a radically changed world in which their God will lead them in a new exodus to their homeland. The first prophet to declare explicitly that Yahweh is the only God, Second Isaiah states that the covenant people’s historical role is henceforth that of Yahweh’s servant, God’s vehicle for brining divine “light” to Gentile nations.

It seems like this is going to be a good bit more cheery than the dire prophecies of the historical Isaiah. It also seems like we will start discovering more of the content that makes this book so important to Christians (at least, I have been told that Isaiah’s important to Christians, and there are only a few small segments of what we have read so far which seem to justify that importance, so I hope it will become more obvious).

Harris also answers a question that I had when we started reading all of the duplicate information from 2 Kings. According to Harris, it is believed that the editors who composed the joint work inserted the passages from 2 Kings to ease the transition between the prophecies of the historical Isaiah and those of Second Isaiah. Isaiah’s prophecy to Hezekiah that Judah will fall to Babylon provides a bridge between the two sections.

Even right off the bat, in today’s reading, we can see that the God of Second Isaiah was a much more universal, a much more cosmic God. The God of Second Isaiah sounds much more like the God of modern Christians than nearly anything else in the Old Testament thus far.

In Isaiah 40:12-31, we can see how much the Jewish vision of God has changed. With their emphasis on the vastness of God’s power and wisdom, these verses sound almost like they could belong in Job. However, instead of taking that as proof that God cannot care about humanity, like Job does, Second Isaiah seems to take God’s vastness as proof that he is aware of the suffering of the exiled Jewish people.

New Testament

Today we read our first epistle that is widely believed to not actually have been written by Paul. I read today’s reading before reading the background, and I had forgotten whether or not this letter is considered genuine. Even so, I thought that it seemed suspiciously polished. More like someone writing an essay distilling Paul’s thoughts than the more raw, meandering words of Paul himself.

Let’s see what Harris has to say:

Scholars believe that Ephesians is a tribute to Pauline thought penned by a later disciple who modifies and updates Paul’s ideas to address concerns of his own day. The writer argues that the unity of Christ and the cosmos must be reflected in the unity of the church, whose members engage in spiritual warfare with supernatural evil.

“Spiritual warfare with supernatural evil”? We’ll see whether or not this ends up being as wacky and entertaining as it sounds.

Expanding on the authorship debate, Harris presents the following reasons for why scholars doubt the letter’s authenticity (note that these points are quotations from Harris slightly modified for a list format):

• vocabulary: contains over ninety words not found elsewhere in Paul’s writings
• literary style: written in extremely long, convoluted sentences, in contrast to Paul’s typical direct, forceful statements; the quietly devotional tone and smoothly organized sequence of thoughts differ from the apostle’s usual welter of ideas and impassioned language
• theology: the absence of such typically Pauline doctrines as justification by faith and the nearness of Christ’s return
• References to “Apostles and prophets” as the church’s foundation imply that these figures belong to the past, not the authors generatio
• The Gentiles’ equality in Christian fellowship is no longer a controversial issue but an accomplished fact
• Judaizing interlopers no longer question Paul’s stand on circumcision
• When Paul uses the term church, he always refers to an individual congregation. In contrast, Ephesians’ author speaks of the church collectively, a universal institution encompassing all communities of faith.

The accumulated evidence convinces most scholars that Ephesians is a deutero-Pauline document, a secondary work composed in Paul’s name by an admirer thoroughly steeped in the apostle’s though and general theology.  … Some scholars propose that Ephesians was written as a kind of “cover letter,” or essay, to accompany an early collection of Paul’s letters. [booyah! I so said it was like an essay before reading this]

Given that this letter was probably not written by Paul, what is it’s value? Based on the summary, Ephesians does seem to be a fairly reliable study of Paul’s views. As such, it gives valuable insight into how Paul was perceived by those who came after him. Which of his views were considered most important? Which no longer seemed relevant? The Christian church has been evolving since it’s very inception, and this provides valuable insight into that evolution.

So which of Paul’s ideas are important to the author of Ephesians? The author of Ephesians seems to emphasize the blessing of being united with God through Jesus. He also emphasizes the idea that the followers of Jesus were chosen for that role. He also seems to want to make clear Jesus’ divine status and authority.

Psalms and Proverbs

Prostitutes continue to be bad. Actually, it really tells you something about the times the author(s) of proverbs lives in when you realize that they are always referring back to prostitutes, thieves, drunkards, and gluttons for their examples of disreputable behavior. We have such a greater variety these days.

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Old Testament

All of today’s reading is again almost word for word identical to 2 Kings. The main differences comes near the end of the reading. You may have noticed that today’s reading is kind of garbled, as if something had gotten mixed up somewhere. Isaiah tells Hezekiah he will recover from his sickness and then immediately tells Hezekiah what sign will show this to be the case. After that, at the end of today’s reading, Hezekiah asks Isaiah what sign he could look for. Peeking ahead, it looks like there is no follow-up to this statement. The version in 2 Kings is certainly more coherent. A scholar could probably use that to conclude something about the relationship between the texts.

Today’s reading also contains Hezekiah’s poem of praise following his healing. I do not think this appeared in the account in 2 Kings.

New Testament

We finish Galatians today. One thing I can say for Paul is that if you agree with his basic premise, he can be pretty persuasive. He cannot make an argument, but he can make a point. Today, when he briefly made a statement that did not refer to God or Jesus, I was even inspired by it:

Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. For we are each responsible for our own conduct.

After spending a lot of time the last few days thinking about how to best present my work to others (performance review season), this verse is a nice reminder about the principles I really like to bring to my work.

Paul closes with some words written in his very own (apparently large) handwriting. He makes one last appeal to the Galatians to resist the teachings of those who want to force circumcision and to emphasize why it is not needed.

Psalms and Proverbs

Nothing of particular note.

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Old Testament

One thing that seems unique about Isaiah’s visions (so far in our OT readings) is the directness of God’s rule. It seems like in most of what we have read, God’s interventions have been temporary and/or indirect. In Isaiah’s vision, God will rule directly over the people. For example,

Your eyes will see the king in all his splendor,
and you will see a land that stretches into the distance.

and

There the Lord will display his glory,
the splendor of our God.

After those visions, we get an account of when the Assyrians attacked Judah. As far as I can remember, it is nearly word-to-word identical to the earlier account in Kings.