The god Zedek in the Ancient Near East The West Semitic deity Zedek, ‘Righteousness’, is found in the Old and New Testament in the personal names Melchizedek (Genesis 14:18; Hebrews 5:6; 6:20-7:17) and Adonizedek (Joshua 10:1), both Canaanite kings of pre-Israelite Jerusalem. The term “zedek” is found throughout the variousContinue Reading
Scripture is both human and divine First, that in the Bible the divine and human are blended. We must not regard the Bible as an absolutely perfect book in which God is Himself the author using human hands and brains only as a man might use a typewriter. God usedContinue Reading
Habbakuk 3 and the God Resheph in the Hebrew Bible Many bible translations have a tendency to mask the polytheistic nature of Israel’s commitment to Yahweh in the Hebrew scriptures. Throughout the Old Testament, clues exist to demonstrate the monolatrous nature of the authors of these texts. This is dueContinue Reading
Daniel chapter 1 starts out making the following statement: In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the houseContinue Reading
The Moving Rock in the Wilderness How did the Israelites deal with the logistics of traveling in the wilderness for forty years with all of those people? With 2 million people to feed, water, clothe, bathe (not to mention waste management, don’t get me started. I served on the boardContinue Reading
Problems with the narrative in Numbers 11 Many of the “murmuring” stories in the Exodus narrative were told in more than one textual tradition. In the present case, the story about the people’s desire for meat in the wilderness and Jehovah’s reluctant response to send quail is recorded in bothContinue Reading
Judaic Hyperbole In Numbers 11, we read about how the Lord sent quail to the Israelites because they were complaining that they were tired of eating manna in the wilderness, that they lacked meat (something that contradicts the rest of the narrative). With a couple of Bible helps 1 weContinue Reading
The production of the Old and New Testaments Time Period: 1500 BCE to 1611 CE How did we get the King James Version of the Bible? Old Testament Quick History Moses is credited in the Bible with authorship of the first five books. After Moses’ day, scholars surmise that theContinue Reading
Scripture comes in its cultural packaging In 1 Corinthians, chapter 1, Paul expresses his frustration with the division amongst the Saints. He says: Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I did not baptize any of you exceptContinue Reading
The Baal-Peor Incident – Problems with Numbers 25 Who caused the Israelites to worship the false god of Baal of Peor: the Moabites or the Midianites? (Numbers 25:1-2 vs Numbers 25:16-18, 31:15-16) Numbers 25:1-5 is a Yahwist text, and Numbers 25:6-18 is a Priestly account, which helps to explain theContinue Reading
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