Category: One Year Skeptic

Reference links:

1 Samuel 13:23-14:52 John 7:30-53 Psalm 109:1-31 Proverbs 15:5-7

Overview of the Books of Samuel Overview of the Gospel of John Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

Jonathan, son of Saul, an interesting character as we will see going forward. But that is getting ahead of ourselves. Today is our first substantial introduction to Jonathan. He takes on a Philistine outpost with only the help of his armor bearer, and they defeat twenty Philistines. This defeat causes panic, and that panic is only increased by an earthquake.

Now, you would think that it would be hard to tell this story badly, and the author of Samuel doesn’t exactly do so, but he misses out on so much potential.

So they climbed up using both hands and feet, and the Philistines fell before Jonathan, and his armor bearer killed those who came behind them. They killed some twenty men in all, and their bodies were scattered over about half an acre.

Suddenly, panic broke out in the Philistine army, both in the camp and in the field, including even the outposts and raiding parties. And just then an earthquake struck, and everyone was terrified.

Between this and the fact that the two different sources for Samuel have been blended together more clumsily, I am quickly coming to the conclusion that the author of Samuel is not one of the better Biblical authors.

The rest of today’s reading talks about the semi-successful pursuit of the Philistines and some mistakes made during that pursuit. Saul commanded his men not to eat anything until that evening, so the men did not eat. Jonathan, Saul’s son, did hear this and did eat. Because of this, God stayed silent when Saul asked if they should pursue the Philistines. By lot it was determined that Jonathan was the source the trouble:

“I tasted a little honey,” Jonathan admitted. “It was only a little bit on the end of my stick. Does that deserve death?”

“Yes, Jonathan,” Saul said, “you must die! May God strike me and even kill me if you do not die for this.”

But the people broke in and said to Saul, “Jonathan has won this great victory for Israel. Should he die? Far from it! As surely as the Lord lives, not one hair on his head will be touched, for God helped him do a great deed today.” So the people rescued Jonathan, and he was not put to death.

If it were not for the fact that Jonathan was chosen by the casting of the lots, we might be able to interpret this as God’s silence stemming from Saul’s imprudent oath. Because the lots were cast, we know that blame is falling on Jonathan for eating in violation of an oath he was not aware of.

This reminds me of the story of Jephthat’s daughter (although, fortunately, the killing did not occur this time). God seems perfectly happy to hold people to bad oaths and to punish people for the violation of them (even if they did not know they were violating those oaths). I find this behavior surprising coming from a God who is supposedly just. I would think that a just God would see that it is better to have people admit when they have made a mistake rather than punish them for not holding to a bad oath.

New Testament

The Pharisees try to arrest Jesus and fail. This provides an interesting contrast to the other gospels. When Jesus is arrested, Matthew, Mark, and Luke all report him asking why they did not arrest him publicly. Mark’s version:

Jesus asked them, “Am I some dangerous revolutionary, that you come with swords and clubs to arrest me? Why didn’t you arrest me in the Temple? I was there among you teaching every day. But these things are happening to fulfill what the Scriptures say about me.”

But today they did try to arrest Jesus publicly and failed. It is hard to reconcile these passages.

Psalms and Proverbs

Today’s psalm is a long one. The psalmist talks about how his enemies unfairly accuse him and how they wish to heap all sorts of curses on him. The psalmist then wishes they these curses become the punishment given to his enemies. Not very nice.

Reference links:

1 Samuel 12:1-13:22 John 7:1-29 Psalm 108:1-13 Proverbs 15:4

Overview of the Books of Samuel Overview of the Gospel of John Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

Today’s reading is rather confusing. It shows clearly that the 1 Samuel is made up of narratives from several sources. I noticed today that the Wikipedia article on Saul had a perspective on those interleavings that is a nice supplement to the article on the book.

Samuel gives his “goodbye” speech. Unlike Moses and Joshua’s goodbye speeches, Samuel does not give his just before he dies. He only gives a little review of the past (hurrah!) and reminds the Israelites how terrible they were for wanting a king.

We also learn Saul’s age and the length of his reign. The length of his reign is very significant:

Saul was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned for forty-two years.

We then read about Saul going to battle, but getting cursed because he did not wait for Samuel before asking for God’s blessings; note that we have not heard about Samuel asking Saul to wait seven days for anything since he was anointed. However, that must have been a long time ago because in this story, Saul’s son Jonathan was old enough to lead a battle. Given that Saul was only 30 when he became king, it seems that this episode must be years later.

Then again, the whole naught sacrifice bit is considered by some to be a redaction to explain why later traditions considered Saul to be a terrible king despite being God’s chosen king: he did something to loose God’s approval.

Actually, I find the “Classical Rabbinical Views” section of the Wikipedia article to be quite useful for understanding the confusing narrative flow in this book. It explains how the two hypothesized sources for Samuel, often called the republican and monarchical sources, have conflicting views of Saul and correspond to  two conflicting rabbinical traditions. The former tradition sees Saul as not worthy of the throne and guilty of sins against God. The other tradition sees him as basically good, almost too good, and that is what leads to his eventual downfall. Such conflicting opinions explain the frequent mood and narrative shifts in this book.

Christianity, as far as I can tell, generally seems to accept the “Saul sucked” interpretation. This is probably because Jesus is claimed to have descended from David, and interpretations that take blame away from Saul generally put more blame on David.

New Testament

Today Jesus lies. He tells his brothers that he is not going to the Festival of Shelters in Judea, and then he does go, emphasis mine:

Jesus replied, “Now is not the right time for me to go, but you can go anytime. The world can’t hate you, but it does hate me because I accuse it of doing evil. You go on. I’m not going to this festival, because my time has not yet come.” 

After saying these things, Jesus remained in Galilee.But after his brothers left for the festival, Jesus also went, though secretly, staying out of public view.

Today’s reading also contains an interesting perspective on the “Lord, Liar, Lunatic” false trilemma. For those who have not heard it, this bit of “reasoning” goes, “Jesus was either a liar, a madman, or who he said he was. He clearly was not a liar or a madman, therefore he must have been the Son of God.”

This is a false trilemma because there is no reason to believe these are the only three options. For example, a more reasonable set of options is “Lord, Liar, Lunatic, Legend” (this expansion is a general favorite because it retains the alliteration =D ). However, today’s reading makes it seem that the liar and lunatic options may not be as far fetched as people presenting the trilemma think they are. Obviously, the author of John thinks Jesus is the Son of God, but he writes about people who are claimed to have seen Jesus and thought he was a liar or a lunatic. In support of liar we read,

There was a lot of grumbling about him among the crowds. Some argued, “He’s a good man,” but others said, “He’s nothing but a fraud who deceives the people.”

In support of lunatic we read,

The crowd replied, “You’re demon possessed! Who’s trying to kill you?”

Now, I personally lead toward the legend option, but today’s reading shows us that lord is not the only feasible option out of lord, liar, and lunatic.

Psalms and Proverbs

Nothing of particular note.

Reference links:

1 Samuel 10:1-11:15 John 6:43-71 Psalm 107:1-43 Proverbs 15:1-3

Overview of the Books of Samuel Overview of the Gospel of John Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

Samuel anoints Saul and tells him that he has been chosen to rule over Israel. Samuel describes a number of signs Saul will see on the way home. They come to pass.

Saul arrives home and meets his uncle. He tells his uncle about meeting Samuel, but not about being anointed as king. Too modest? Too secretive? Too doubtful that it will happen? Who knows!

Samuel calls the people of Israel together to choose a king. The king is chosen by lot, and Saul, of course, is chosen. However…

And finally Saul son of Kish was chosen from among them. But when they looked for him, he had disappeared! So they asked the Lord, “Where is he?”

And the Lord replied, “He is hiding among the baggage.” So they found him and brought him out, and he stood head and shoulders above anyone else.

Again, modesty? Fear? Just general weirdness? Who knows! But whatever the meaning, it is entertaining.

Saul’s first act as king: fight some Ammonites who are abusing some Israelites. This story is kind of confusing. First we read, in a passage that apparently is in the Dead Sea Scrolls but not the Masoretic Text, that Nahash, the king of the Ammonites, had gouged out the right eye of all of the Israelites living east of the Jordan river. We then read how King Nahash threatened to gouge the eyes of the Israelites, and this motivated Saul to come save them.

The Spirit of God came upon Saul, and he motivated the Israelites to follow him. Interesting side note, Israel already seems to be at least somewhat divided into “Israel” and “Judah” at this point:

When Saul mobilized them at Bezek, he found that there were 300,000 men from Israel and 30,000 men from Judah.

Saul successfully defeated the Ammonites, and the people make Saul their king. Didn’t Samuel already make Saul king? Perhaps the people did not actually accept Samuel’s anointed king until he proved himself in battle. In any case, good for Saul for saving people from getting their eyes gouged out.

New Testament

Jesus continues to talk about the importance of believing in him. In the process, we get this process which, taken out of context, sounds rather terrible (really though, it does not sound much better in context):

I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.

Ewww. And yes, I know the basics of the standard explanations, but still, this particular passage, eww. Apparently, I am not the only one who has thought so. After making this declaration, some of Jesus’ disciples  start to leave him.

At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him.

Jesus’ opinion on the situation implies that they left because believing the truth of Jesus’ words was too hard. I think they left because believing the truth of Jesus’ words seemed straight up repulsive.

Psalms and Proverbs

Rather long psalm today. 43 verses long, all in one day. But that’s okay because it provides some variety of form, at least. The psalm lists a number of ways that people were separated from God and how they were eventually reconciled again. E.g.,

Some were fools; they rebelled
and suffered for their sins.
They couldn’t stand the thought of food,
and they were knocking on death’s door.
“Lord, help!” they cried in their trouble,
and he saved them from their distress.

The gist seems to be that people eventually turn to God in their times of trouble, and then he saves them.

One good proverb today!

A gentle answer deflects anger,
but harsh words make tempers flare.

As someone with a fair bit of temper, I certainly know the truth of this one, from both the giving and the receiving side.

Reference links:

1 Samuel 8:1-9:27 John 6:22-42 Psalm 106:32-48 Proverbs 14:34-35

Overview of the Books of Samuel Overview of the Gospel of John Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

Remember how Eli’s sons brought ruin upon themselves by being bad people and taking the Ark of the Covenant into battle? Apparently Samuel’s sons, while not that bad, are not so great themselves:

As Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons to be judges over Israel. Joel and Abijah, his oldest sons, held court in Beersheba. But they were not like their father, for they were greedy for money. They accepted bribes and perverted justice.

Because Samuel’s sons were corrupted, the elders of Israel demanded a king. God claimed that this meant that they were rejecting him:

Samuel was displeased with their request and went to the Lord for guidance. “Do everything they say to you,” the Lord replied, “for it is me they are rejecting, not you. They don’t want me to be their king any longer. Ever since I brought them from Egypt they have continually abandoned me and followed other gods. And now they are giving you the same treatment. Do as they ask, but solemnly warn them about the way a king will reign over them.”

However, we saw time and time again in Judges that the Israelites get trampled by their enemies when they do not show strong leadership. With Samuel getting old and his sons obviously corrupt, of course the Israelites worry about what will happen next.

Samuel warns the people that a king will be terrible for them, but the people say they want a king any way. Again, they are probably thinking that the alternative is another round of slavery under some of the other locals.

God sends Saul to Samuel. Samuel tells Saul that God has sent Saul a special message. Saul does not learn what the surprise is today, but we readers all know that he will be made king. Despite the fact that Samuel and God think that giving the Israelites a king is a terrible idea, Samuel still does his proper duty and treats Saul well.

New Testament

The morning after the bread miracle and water walking, the crowd asks Jesus when he got to the other side the lake. He replies,

I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.

That is something of a non sequitur.  Luke was a much better writer than the author of John. He, at least, made sense most of the time.

The crowd demands a miraculous sign from Jesus, and he talks about how he is the bread of life and they do not believe in him despite what he has already shown him,

I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But you haven’t believed in me even though you have seen me. However, those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them. For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day.

If those that God has given to Jesus will come to him (thus implying that believing in Jesus is not a choice and so he is wasting his breath berating those who do not believe in him), why did God only choose to have some people believe in Jesus? Since God is doing the giving, he has either preprogrammed them to choose to believe or overridden their free will to do so. Under either scenario, God’s apparent picking and choosing is disturbing.

Psalms and Proverbs

More history review: the Israelites were terrible. And that’s the end of that psalm.

Reference links:

1 Samuel 5:1-7:17 John 6:1-21 Psalm 106:13-31 Proverbs 14:32-33

Overview of the Books of Samuel Overview of the Gospel of John Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

It was a bad day for the Philistines when they decided to take the Ark of the Covenant from the Israelites. First, they put it in their temple, but the statue of their God, Dagon, falls down in front of it. Then the people of the town where the ark was kept were plagued with what my translation calls tumors and other translations call sores. The ark is sent to other towns, and they are equally afflicted. This makes for an entertaining story, but I do not think it reflects well on God’s character.

The Philistines decide to send the ark back to the Israelites. They ask their priests and diviners what to do and receive a pretty elaborate answer involving cows, gold sores, and gold rats. The Philistines set up the return of the ark as an experiment: send it back in exactly this way, and see if the desired result occurs.

Now build a new cart, and find two cows that have just given birth to calves. Make sure the cows have never been yoked to a cart. Hitch the cows to the cart, but shut their calves away from them in a pen. Put the Ark of the Lord on the cart, and beside it place a chest containing the gold rats and gold tumors you are sending as a guilt offering. Then let the cows go wherever they want. If they cross the border of our land and go to Beth-shemesh, we will know it was the Lord who brought this great disaster upon us. If they don’t, we will know it was not his hand that caused the plague. It came simply by chance.

Of course, the cows did what was expected of them. Now, this was done by the evil terrible Philistines, so we cannot take it as an example of what ought to be done. That said, isn’t it odd how God rarely gives such clear answers to the modern world? Here God easily convinces the Philistines of his power in this story, yet he does not now. He neither sends such clear and obvious punishment for displeasing him nor sends such obvious relief for remedying that. Funny that.

New Testament

The Gospel of John actually has some overlap with the other gospels. Amazing! Jesus turns five loaves of bread and two fish into enough food to feed 5000 people, and then he walks on water. We do get a line today that makes the Jesus from the Gospel of John slightly more likable than the tedious Jesus we have seen so far,

When the people saw him do this miraculous sign, they exclaimed, “Surely, he is the Prophet we have been expecting!” When Jesus saw that they were ready to force him to be their king, he slipped away into the hills by himself.

I can certainly feel some sympathy for the Jesus who just needed to get away sometimes.

Psalms and Proverbs

Unlike the last historical psalm, which seemed to ignore all of the times God threatened to murder the Israelites, this one dwells on it. That makes it much more amusing.

Reference links:

1 Samuel 2:22-4:22 John 5:24-47 Psalm 106:1-12 Proverbs 14:30-31

Overview of the Books of Samuel Overview of the Gospel of John Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

What does Wikipedia have to say about our current book? The most interesting bit is that apparently there has been a fair amount of churn in the way this book and the ones following it were divided:

The Books of Samuel (Hebrew: Sefer Sh’muel ספר שמואל‎) are part of the Hebrew Bible. The work was originally written in Hebrew, and the Book(s) of Samuel originally formed a single text, as they are often considered today in Jewish bibles.

Together with what is now referred to as the Book(s) of Kings, the translators who created the Greek Septuagint divided the text into four books, which they named the Books of the Kingdoms. In the Latin Vulgate version, these then became the Books of the Kings, thus 1 and 2 Samuel were referred to as 1 and 2 Kings, with 3 and 4 Kings being what are called 1 and 2 Kings by the King James Bible and its successors.

Which means that I will not be bothering with an introduction for 2 Samuel. Wikipedia also has this to say about authorship,

Traditionally, the authors of the books of Samuel have been held to be Samuel, Gad, and Nathan. Samuel is believed to have penned the first twenty-four chapters of the first book. Gad, the companion of David (1 Sam. 22:5), is believed to have continued the history thus commenced; and Nathan is believed to have completed it, probably arranging the whole in the form in which we now have it (1 Chronicles 29:29).

Modern scholars consider that the text is clearly not the work of men contemporary with the events. Roughly in the order they are believed to have been created historically, the sources used to construct 1 & 2 Samuel are: [list of a bunch of sources]

On to today’s reading!

Remember that Eli was the current priest. His two sons failed to live up to the standards they should have been living up to:

Now Eli was very old, but he was aware of what his sons were doing to the people of Israel. He knew, for instance, that his sons were seducing the young women who assisted at the entrance of the Tabernacle.

Eli asks them to stop, but they do not, but the reason for that is peculiar:

But Eli’s sons wouldn’t listen to their father, for the Lord was already planning to put them to death.

Reminds me of Pharaoh.

Eli’s family is cursed by God first through an unnamed man of God and then through Samuel. Samuel’s version shows the uncertainties of a young prophet.

Suddenly the Lord called out, “Samuel!”

“Yes?” Samuel replied. “What is it?” He got up and ran to Eli. “Here I am. Did you call me?”

[this happens a couple more times]

Then Eli realized it was the Lord who was calling the boy. So he said to Samuel, “Go and lie down again, and if someone calls again, say, ‘Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went back to bed.

[Samuel does this and God speaks of the things he will do to Eli’s family]

Samuel stayed in bed until morning, then got up and opened the doors of the Tabernacle as usual. He was afraid to tell Eli what the Lord had said to him. But Eli called out to him, “Samuel, my son.”

“Here I am,” Samuel replied.

“What did the Lord say to you? Tell me everything. And may God strike you and even kill you if you hide anything from me!” So Samuel told Eli everything; he didn’t hold anything back. “It is the Lord’s will,” Eli replied. “Let him do what he thinks best.”

Awww! How cute! =)

The Philistines capture the Ark of the Covenant in a battle. Eli’s sons die, Eli dies, and the wife of one of Eli’s sons dies. Cheery. So now Samuel and his descendants are marked as the new priests “forever”, where, as in the case of Aaron’s descendants, “forever” lasts until God changes his mind.

New Testament

John’s Jesus just goes on and on and on and on. He is still going on about how listening to and believing in him will give eternal life and how he only executes God’s will and how the scriptures all point to him. I get the point. Jesus is claiming that he’s all that and a bag of chips.

So if he’s so great, why can’t he get around to actually saying something to show how great he was. Give an analysis of exactly how some of the scriptures point to him (and no, random quoting of so called prophecies does not cut it). Point out some information that could not have been known by mere mortals at the time of the writing of the Bible (no the temple destruction does not count because it happened before the gospels were written).

Jesus gets annoyed at people who demand signs and proofs from him, but really, if all he is doing is claiming  to be the son of God what distinguishes him from any other person who makes outlandish claims? Nothing! People often claim that if you read the Bible, then you will see its obvious truth of Jesus’ claims. What I see is a bunch of hot air and contradictory accounts.

Okay, I guess I was feeling ranty today. =)

Psalms and Proverbs

It looks like we may have another multi-part history review psalm.

The first of today’s proverbs is another one where I think that my translation is a bit silly. Even if cancer is a more modern concept than rotting in the bones, it is also a highly technical term and feels out of place in this context.

A peaceful heart leads to a healthy body;
jealousy is like cancer in the bones.

Good point though. Psychological and physical health and closely linked.

Reference links:

1 Samuel 1:1-2:21 John 5:1-23 Psalm 105:37-45 Proverbs 14:28-29

Overview of the Books of Samuel Overview of the Gospel of John Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

I will go over the background information for 1 Samuel tomorrow (or maybe the next day). Today, I want to be quick so I can get to bed.

This is another story that involves the birth of a special person. In this case, Samuel.

Elkanah had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah did not.

Hannah wishes for a child, and eventually prays to God for one. That story is hilarious, almost as hilarious as the angel making it so Zechariah could not speak.

As she was praying to the Lord, Eli watched her. Seeing her lips moving but hearing no sound, he thought she had been drinking. “Must you come here drunk?” he demanded. “Throw away your wine!”

“Oh no, sir!” she replied. “I haven’t been drinking wine or anything stronger. But I am very discouraged, and I was pouring out my heart to the Lord. Don’t think I am a wicked woman! For I have been praying out of great anguish and sorrow.”

“In that case,” Eli said, “go in peace! May the God of Israel grant the request you have asked of him.”

“Oh, thank you, sir!” she exclaimed. Then she went back and began to eat again, and she was no longer sad.

Hannah’s desires came to past. She had a child and dedicated him to the Lord. The son, Samuel, became a valued assistant to Eli the priest, and God gave Hannah three more sons and two daughters.

New Testament

Jesus heals a lame man. Later, Jesus sees the man again and tells him to stop sinning. We are not told what the man’s sin was.

Jesus once again claims to be the son of God.

Psalms and Proverbs

We finish the history lesson psalm with a super brief summary of the wanderings in the dessert and the conquering of the promised land. This super summarized version leaves out all of the times God wanted to completely destroy the Israelites.

They asked for meat, and he sent them quail;
he satisfied their hunger with manna—bread from heaven.
He split open a rock, and water gushed out
to form a river through the dry wasteland.

If I remember correctly, the quail incident and one of the miraculous water incidents (though perhaps not this one) resulted in God killing or threatening to kill many or all of the Israelites.

Good proverb today:

People with understanding control their anger;
a hot temper shows great foolishness.

Reference links:

Ruth 2:1-4:22 John 4:43-54 Psalm 105:16-36 Proverbs 14:26-27

Overview of the Book of Ruth Overview of the Gospel of John Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

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.

Reference links:

Judges 21:1-Ruth 1:22 John 4:4-42 Psalm 105:1-15 Proverbs 14:25

Overview of the Book of Judges Overview of the Book of Ruth Overview of the Gospel of John Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

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.

Reference links:

Judges 19:1-20:48 John 3:22-4:3 Psalm 104:24-35 Proverbs 14:22-24

Overview of the Book of Judges Overview of the Gospel of John Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

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.