Category: One Year Skeptic

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Old Testament

Predictions of death, disease, doom, destruction, desolation, and despair. As well as other things which don’t begin with ‘d’.

Then Ezekiel has another vision. This time, he God shows him the idolatry occurring in Jerusalem and the temple. Because of this, in this vision, God commands the murder of everyone who is participating in the idolatry. It’s been awhile since we have had any good God commanded mass murders and genocide. Babylon was supposed to be God’s weapon of destruction, but it’s good to get a direct reminder of God’s ugly violence.

New Testament

An early verse in today’s reading struck me for its contrast to our OT reading:

And [the high priest] is able to deal gently with ignorant and wayward people because he himself is subject to the same weaknesses.

What a contrast to the God of Ezekiel who cannot deal gently or show understanding of human beings and their weaknesses. Who murders instead of dealing gently. This contrast certainly makes the desire for a mediator messiah make more sense than any more than any modern notion that God is love. If God were loving, it would seem to less the the need for, as Hebrew puts it, an ultimate High Priest. However, if God is an easily angered, violent killer driven by pure justice with no mercy, the need becomes clear.

I am also struck by a slightly later verse:

That is why Christ did not honor himself by assuming he could become High Priest.

This seems to support the idea that Jesus was the adopted son of God, not the begotten son of God. For if he were the begotten son of God, he would be the only one who could take on the role of High Priest. But this sentence implies that God could choose to call anyone for the role.

The adoption guess seems further supported by:

And God heard his prayers because of his deep reverence for God.

The reading ends with an amusingly harsh criticism of the believers this essay is directed to:

There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen. … You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.

Psalms and Proverbs

Nothing particularly noteworthy.

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Old Testament

Apparently Ezekiel is also into performance art. After Ezekiel receives another vision in which God reemphasizes to Ezekiel that he will be God’s prophet and, as such, is compelled to deliver the message God asks him to deliver, he receives further instructions. God wants him to symbolize the sins, the seize, and the destruction of Israel by laying on his side, and staring at an image of the siege of Jerusalem. At some point, he’ll have to eat bread cooked over dried human dung (later, at Ezekiel’s request, changed to cow dung). Later, he’ll use his hair to symbolize the death and exile coming to the people of Israel.

Ezekiel is to deliver the message that the people of Israel and Judah have displeased God and will receive his anger. He will destroy them and their homeland, scattering a remnant of them. This remnant will someday recognize the wrong they have done.

New Testament

The author of Hebrews makes a tenuous connection between God resting in the creation story and the wandering ancient Israelites not being able to enter the promised land, their place of rest. He then tries to make the case that the coming of Jesus signifies a second chance after the chance lost by the wandering Israelites.

The reading finishes with a passage which discusses how Jesus understands us because he was tempted like we are (but can act as the ultimate High Priest because he did not sin). Does this imply that God does not understand his creation? I have always considered that a weakness of the guess that the reason that Jesus had to become human and die was so that Jesus could be a fully understanding mediator for humanity. It is not a view that is problematic in and of itself, but it becomes problematic in light of standard ideas of God’s omniscience.

Psalms and Proverbs

Good proverbs although, sadly, not always true:

If you set a trap for others,
you will get caught in it yourself.
If you roll a boulder down on others,
it will crush you instead.

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Old Testament

We start the book of Ezekiel today, and it looks like we’ll be spending awhile with it (48 chapter, about 3 of which we cover today). Let’s see what Harris has for background:

A younger contemporary of Jeremiah, the priest-prophet Ezekiel was taken to Babylon during the first deportation of Judah’s ruling classes in 597 BCE. Although tightly structured, with the oracles arranged in generally chronological order, Ezekiel’s prophecies and mystical visions are filled with strange and grotesque images puzzling to modern readers. The first set of oracles describes the prophet’s call and conveys messages of judgment and doom on Judah and the Jerusalem Temple, from which Ezekiel sees Yahweh’s “glory” depart, abandoning the holy city to Babylonian invaders. Breaking with Mosaic principles that punished younger generations for their elders’ misdeeds, Ezekiel emphasizes individual responsibility. The second part records oracles of judgment against foreign nations such as Tyre and ends with news of Jerusalem’s fall. In turn, this provides a transition to the third section, oracles and visions of Israel rebirth and a future restoration of the Temple cult. 

The book of Ezekiel does a good job of setting its context right from the start:

On July 31 of my thirtieth year, while I was with the Judean exiles beside the Kebar River in Babylon, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. This happened during the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity. (The Lord gave this message to Ezekiel son of Buzi, a priest, beside the Kebar River in the land of the Babylonians, and he felt the hand of the Lord take hold of him.)

He has a vision where he sees weird multi-faced humanoids. There are also a bunch of spinning wheels covered in eyes. I am guessing there’s some symbolism here, but I’m not good at decoding such things.

Above them was a crystal surface. I can guess the meaning of that, at least. The world view of the ancients was that the world was encased in a crystal sphere and the heavens were outside of that (the sphere held back the primordial waters).

God appears as a man whose upper part looks like “gleaming amber, flickering like a fire” and below “like a burning flame, shining with splendor.” Certainly, not an old man with a white beard. He’s on a blue lapis lazuli throne with a glowing rainbow halo. This seems to be the only time the word “halo” appears in the New Living Translation.

After that, Ezekiel gets his mission: he shall be a prophet to rebellious nation of Israel. God lets Ezekiel know from the start that they will not listen.

Ezekiel, not surprisingly, will be delivering a message of sorrow. That is, based on precedent, what prophets of Israel do. Ezekiel receives the message by eating the scroll containing it, and the scroll is sweet like honey. One way to interpret this is that even sorrowful truths are sweet.

Then he snaps out of his vision and sits in wonder for several days.

New Testament

Today’s content: Jesus is better than Moses because he is God’s son. Jesus is in charge of God’s house and that house is built out of believers. People should not have evil hearts because that turns them away from God. The people Moses led out of Egypt turned out of God, and you believers don’t want to be like them, right?

Psalms and Proverbs

Evil hateful people hide their hate, but their wrong doing will eventually be exposed.

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Old Testament

Today we finish Lamentations. Both of today’s poems are rather despairing. The first describes the starvation and loss of health of those who remain in Jerusalem. The images, especially the ones about the starvation of children, are heartbreaking. The poet explores the reason this happens. It was, he believes, the Lord pouring out well deserved anger. As a result of this, the Lord has brought destruction and scattered his people. The poem ends on a vengefully hopeful note: Jerusalem’s punishment will end, but Jerusalem’s historical enemies will also be punished.

The second poem focuses on the reverse of fortunes of the people of Jerusalem. Slaves have become masters, plenty has been replaced with starvation, and the women and girls of Jerusalem, once praised for their virginity, are raped by their enemies. Jerusalem is a terrible place to be. The poem and the book end on a note of sadness and rejection.

To bring things back in context a bit here, this is set sometime after the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon, or so it is believed. Thus, when we read about things like widespread rape by the enemies, it seems most natural to suppose that these enemies are the very officials and soldiers of Babylon that Jeremiah was encouraging the people to submit to. No wonder there were guerrilla leaders who were trying to murder the representative of the king and reclaim power. What right minded person would submit to a conquering nation that was allowing its women to be raped and its children to starve?

New Testament

Today’s reading contains a discussion of Jesus’ relationship to God, his relationship to man, and his affect on man’s relationship to God. Continuing yesterday’s theme, the author contains more quotations from the psalms and treats them as if they were about or spoken by Jesus.

We also see the start of the comparison of Jesus to the ultimate High Priest.

Psalms and Proverbs

Today’s proverb is, essentially, don’t judge a book by it’s pretty cover, but with clay pots and glaze.

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Old Testament

Today’s reading starts by finishing the second poem from yesterday’s reading. Before I mention the content, I want to say that it annoys me that the editors who chose the daily Bible divisions could not have kept the whole poem together; it would only have added three more verses to the previous reading. It’s not as bad as that proverb which was divided in the middle of a sentence, but it smacks of a lack of intention when dividing up the books.

The poem from yesterday finishes with some rather disturbing imagery meant to convey the desperation of those in Jerusalem: mothers eating their own children, priests dying in the temple, the bodies of boys and girls killed by the sword lying in the street. This poem does not end on a note of hope. It seems to express the sorrow of one who feels completely betrayed by their protector.

The next poem, the middle one of the book, is much longer and much more hopeful. Like the first two poems, this poem expresses sorrow over the fallen fortunes of Judah. However, it is much more personal. The author talks mostly of his own hardship and sorrow rather than that of the people. The author’s sorrow is tempered by hope that the Lord has not completely abandoned him. Because of the personal nature of the hardship described and the mix of sorrow and hope, the poem sounds a lot like many of the psalms attributed to David in his times of trouble.

New Testament

Yet another new book: Hebrews. Let’s see what Harris has to say about it:

The work of an accomplished stylist who combines allegorical interpretation of the Hebrew Bible with elements of Greek philosophy, Hebrews argues that Jesus was both a kingly and priestly messiah. The final and complete revelation of God’s purpose, Christ now serves in heaven as an eternal High Priest and mediator for humanity.

An old tradition that Paul wrote Hebrews, which was disputed even in the early church, is now generally discounted. … most scholars now conclude that the work is anonymous.

… scholars are also unsure of its intended destination … The date of composition is equally problematic, with estimates ranging from about 65 to 100 CE.

In short, we don’t know when this was written, who it was written by, or who it was written to. However, from the content it can be inferred that

The Book of Hebrews was written by an anonymous Christian scholar who was equally well acquainted with Greek versions of the Hebrew Bible and with Greek philosophical concepts. … the writer presents a dualistic view of the universe in which earthly events and human institutions are seen as reflections of invisible heavenly realities. Employing a popular form of Platonic thought, the writer assumes the existence of two parallel worlds: the eternal and perfect realm of the spirit above, and the inferior, constantly changing world below. 

In case you’re not familiar with Platonic dualism, it’s worth noting the dualism espoused by Plato was not simply that this world is imperfect and there is another perfect world. Rather, the idea is that everything in this world is an imperfect version of something in the eternal world of perfect forms. As Wikipedia puts it:

The objects that we see, according to Plato, are not real, but literally mimic the real Forms.

Thus, everything that is and happens in the here and now has, according to this view, a perfect counterpart in the realm of forms.

The bulk of today’s reading quotes the Hebrew scriptures out of context to show that Jesus is better than the angels. It’s really blatantly obvious in this instance of random use of scripture that the author is just combing the scriptures for statements that support his point and then assuming that they do, regardless of the original context.

Yes, I know this was a traditional way of working with the Hebrew scriptures, but I still find it annoying. If it is valid to use isolated quotations to build whatever case you want, then the Bible is as free of objective meaning as any other subjectivism.

Psalms and Proverbs

Proverbs against quarrels and gossip seem to be the current theme.

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Old Testament

Today we start lamentations. Sounds like it’s going to be a cheery one, doesn’t it? Lamentations comes in a a mere five chapters, about an order of magnitude less than Jeremiah or Isaiah. Let’s see what Harris has to say about it:

Ascribed to Jeremiah, Lamentations is a collection of five poetic dirges and laments about the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem. The lyrics explore the causes of evil and suffering and Yahweh’s reasons for permitting the triumph of unbelieving nations.

… While the prophetic books record public pronouncements of doom against the Judean capital, Lamentations embodies the private anguish of individuals who witnessed the fulfillment of Yahweh’s harsh judgment.

Although a relatively late tradition assigns Lamentations to the prophet Jeremiah, its authorship is unknown. The book itself does not mention the writer, and many scholars believe that it is the work of two or three different poets. 

The book is annually recited in Jewish tradition.

On to the actual reading. It is exactly what you would expect it to be given the above: two poems mourning Jerusalem. The first poem, chapter 1, contrasts Jerusalem’s previous state to its defeated state. Before she was like a queen, now a slave; before the roads were filled with celebration, now they are filled with mourning. It then goes into the sinful nature of Jerusalem and its people. This admission of guilt leads to the poet pleading for the Lord to acknowledge Jerusalem’s pain and punish those enemies who defeated Jerusalem.

The second poem focuses on God’s anger and lack of mercy towards Jerusalem. This resulted in complete destruction which the second half of the poem mourns.

This section also contains the lines:

Her prophets receive
no more visions from the Lord.

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Old Testament

A continuation of the prediction of Babylon’s destruction. We then read a narrative bit which implies that these prophecies were made before the destruction of Judah, during the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign (for context, Zedekiah reigned about 11 years before Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem). Which just goes to show, I suppose, that Jeremiah did not really like anyone.

And after that, it is declared that we have reached the end of Jeremiah’s messages. We finish the book with a historical postscript. It would have been much more useful to have this historical postscript earlier; maybe between the prophecies during Zedekiah’s reign and the narrative bits about the people going to Egypt.

One interesting thing about this postscript is that it puts numbers on the people who were exiled to Babylon: about 4600. That’s not many at all. I wonder if this is only counting the important people? Or maybe just the people from Jerusalem? If not, then Judah had dwindled terribly from any estimates we have ever seen of its population.

Also, as we have heard before, Jehoiachin was eventually treated pretty well by the Babylonians.

Tomorrow we start Lamentations.

New Testament

Submit to the government, do not slander, be gentle and humble. God through Jesus saved people from their terrible ways. Don’t get into foolish discussions or fights about Jewish law. Ignore disruptive people after warning them a couple times.

And then it the letter is closed. Altogether, Titus was a wholly uninspiring letter. It was pretty much redundant with the other pastorals, and it was kind of boring.

We are done with the pastorals. Hurrah!

Psalms and Proverbs

People who lie to their friends cause lots of damage. True true.

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Old Testament


Continued predictions of suckage for Babylon, including imagery of Babylon as a golden cup which made the world drunk. Plus a bit about how God is more awesome than idols.

New Testament

A description of the way that old men, old women, young women, and young men should live. Plus, more encouraging slaves to submit to their masters.

Psalms and Proverbs

Interfering in someone else’s argument
is as foolish as yanking a dog’s ears.

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Old Testament

Jeremiah has more gloomy prophecies against various nations. The most noteworthy of these note are the prophecies that Jerusalem will be restored someday and Babylon will be destroyed. Jeremiah predicts that Babylon will become a desolate wasteland. It will be completely destroyed and no one will live their any more. This, not surprisingly, contradicts the actual history: the Persians, led by Cyrus, were, for a hostile takeover, relatively peaceful and benign. Certainly not the bringers of complete destruction predicted by Jeremiah.

New Testament

Today we start the last pastoral letter, Titus. As one of the pastorals, it is generally believed to have not been written by Paul. In addition to our background on the pastorals, Harris has this to add:

Although it is the shortest of the pastorals, Titus has the longest salutation, a fulsome recapitulation of Paul’s credentials and the recipient’s significance. This highly formal introduction would be inappropriate in a personal letter from Paul to his younger friend, but it is understandable as the pastor’s way of officially transmitting Paul’s authoritative instruction to a postapostolic successor.

… Like the “Timothy” of the other pastorals, however, “Titus” is a symbolic figure, representing a late postapostolic generation interested in preserving Pauline traditions. Hence, “Titus” functions as a mediator to a later age who can establish the requirements and some of the duties of church leaders who will adhere to Pauline orthodoxy. 

Harris also sums up the influence of the author of the pastoral letters:

… Although the pastor’s style is generally weak and colorless compared to Paul’s (except for some passages in 2 Timothy), he successfully promotes Paul’s continuing authority in the church. His insistence that Paul’s teaching (as he understood it) be followed and that church leaders actively employ apostolic ideas to refute false teachers helped ensure that the international Christian community would build its future on a (modified) Pauline foundation.

Although the pastor values continuity and tradition, he does not seem to show an equal regard for encouraging  the individual revelations and ecstatic experiences that characterized the Pauline churches. (Regarding the “laying on of hands” as the correct means of conferring authority, he would probably not welcome another like Paul who insisted that his private experience of Jesus — not ordination by his predecessors — validated his calling.) Using Scripture, inherited doctrines, and the institutional church as guarantors of orthodoxy, the pastor sees the Christian revelation as already complete, a static legacy from the past. He ignores Paul’s injunction not to “stifle inspiration” or prophetic speech; his intense conservatism allows little room for future enlightenment. 

Today’s reading includes the formal greeting mentioned above, a description of how how church elders should live their lives, and a rather rude ad hominem attack on the people of Crete.

Psalms and Proverbs

Today’s proverbs are all about lazy people.

I know that we have previously had spans of time where we had multiple verses from proverbs each day, but this time, given that we’re getting reasonably close to done, it’s easy to get the impression that the editors were like “Oh no! It’s the end of October. We need to finish this!”

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Old Testament

Jeremiah predicts things about other countries: Things will not go well for Moab. The Ammonites will suffer and be restored. Edom will be destroyed.

This is one of those readings that make me wonder what the point of including it was. It was probably just included because Jeremiah was considered an awesome prophet, so all of his prophecies had to be saved. Even the tedious ones.

New Testament

We finish 2 Timothy today. After the author gives some advice to the recipient (nothing particularly new), the letter contains a number of personal touches. In particular,

Timothy, please come as soon as you can. Demas has deserted me because he loves the things of this life and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus has gone to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Bring Mark with you when you come, for he will be helpful to me in my ministry. I sent Tychicus to Ephesus. When you come, be sure to bring the coat I left with Carpus at Troas. Also bring my books, and especially my papers.

On the one hand, personal touches make a letter sound more authentic. And it would make sense for Paul to make more personal requests of an individual than a whole church. But still, this passage has a “the lady doth protest too much” feel to it.

Psalms and Proverbs

Move proverb meta commentary. Employers should be careful about who they fire. Fools repeat their foolishness. But fools are still better off than those who think they are wise.