Scripture In Four Parts.

In the Torah, when the Lord delivers Israel out of Egypt, he gives commandments and statutes which they are required to keep; this Law is understood to be the expression of his will, instructions on how to live if the Lord is indeed your God. (and since it is he who delivered them from the hand of Pharaoh and is bringing them into a land of promise to serve him; how could it be otherwise?). In the Latter Prophets, in which Israel is again in captivity, the message sounds like this: the Lord will come and deliver you, but it was in fact the same Lord who sent your enemy to carry you away in the first place…as punishment because you sinned against the Lord. The hearers are hit with this message of hope, coupled with a reminder that the cause of their condition was their own sin. And because they were not completely destroyed, the Babylonian captivity is understood as a punishment unto instruction. And since this time the Lord decided to be merciful, they had better take the instruction seriously and change their ways. The next time, he may not come back to deliver them. This is, in nutshell, the teaching at the heart of scripture. And the commandments and statutes of the Lord, his Torah, by which his people fail repeatedly to abide, is the reference point in all three parts: the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. Even in the New Testament, in which the Mosaic Law is fulfilled in the Law of Christ (Galatians 6:2), the sole reference remains the will of God.

Notes:
περιπατοῦσιν - walking
φρονοῦσιν - mind (verb)
ὑπακοὴν - obedience
Isaiah 49:10;24
Malachi 4:4
Psalms 119:1; 12; 105
Matthew 22:40
Luke 10:25-37; 24:27; 44-45
Romans 1:1-5; 8:2; 4-5
Galatians 6:2

The Slow Bible Study Episode 11: Friends of Enmity https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-slow-bible-study/id1743711322?i=1000671273103

Rhumeta performed by 3rd Eye Girl.

Photo by cottonbro studio.

Naked Deception! part 2:

Nothing New Under The Sun.

Recently my son, who is 10, was asking about God - does he love us and does he punish us? I said yes, both of those are true. I reminded him of the story of Noah and the flood. Then he asked, how could God love us if he wanted to wipe us out from the face of the earth? But son, I asked, don’t you see? You and I are still here. Did God send a flood to wipe us out from the face of the earth? Clearly he did not. But precisely because he loves us he gave us instead the story of the flood as an instruction.

That’s how the biblical story works for us. Since the teaching is written and since we are its recipients, whenever we hear the instruction as a punishment, it is still grace. Because we are given yet another opportunity to go forward and correct our behavior.

In part one of this episode, we discussed the functionality of some terms in the original Hebrew of Genesis chapter 3, particularly how the play on arum (naked) and arum (subtil/crafty) literarily underscores the susceptibility of Adam and his wife to the deception of the serpent. In the story, the consequence of that deception was a series of curses issued by the Lord God. In this episode, part 2, we will look at how some of the same terminology re-appears in chapter 27 of Genesis.

Indeed, “that which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9).

Notes
sadeh - field
hereb - sword
Genesis 6:5-6; 27:1-17; 39-40

Decoding Genesis 1-11 by Paul Nadim Tarazi (OCBS, 2020)

Music: “Brand New Orleans” performed by Prince

Artwork: “Isaac Blessing Jacob” by Assereto

Naked Deception, Part 1:
Smooth Criminal.

You don’t need a theological degree to understand the Bible. If you have ears to hear what the text is saying, the message can be quite clear. That’s why, in the Gospels, Jesus teaches in parables - to make the message so straightforward that the only excuse people could have for not getting it is their own unwillingness to hear and to submit: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” The problem is that the Bible wasn’t written in our language. What we read and hear are translations. Yet even the King James English can’t convey what the authors of the Bible are saying in their language, which is Hebrew. Even if we can’t or don’t want to study ancient languages, we should at least acknowledge the fact that the Bible wasn’t written in English. Then we might be willing to learn from people who do know Biblical Hebrew how the language works so that we could better understand the text so we could do what it commands.

In part 1 of this special episode, we take a look at some wordplay in Genesis 2:25-3:1 that really sheds light on the meaning of the text, but that can only be captured in the original Hebrew.

Notes:
עֲרוּמִּ֔ים - a-rũm-mîm (naked)
עָר֔וּם - a-rūm (subtle/cunning)
הָֽאֲדָמָ֗ה - hā-ǎ-dā-māh (ground)
Genesis 2:4-6
Isaiah 47:2-3
Job 5:8-13; 15:4-5

Brand New Orleans performed by Prince.