Historian of Religion, Science, and Biblical Interpretation
(Reposted but not updated, so many of the links may not work.)
These are some of my favorite chapters. Elijah and his fiery talents inspired our creative fire-building on many a scout trip, and even managed to get the back of my head quite singed once. For some excellent background on that story of the fiery showdown, see John Tvedtnes, “Elijah, Champion of Israel’s God”, Ensign July 1990. Continue reading
David on the Harp.
(Reposted, but not updated. If you find a broken link, you can plug it in to the Wayback Machine to get the content.)
Here’s the podcast on these chapters, with some useful notes.
The purpose of this lesson is to focus on the friendship between David and Jonathan, but the narrative is primarily about David trying to avoid being killed. The guy trying to kill him is no other than his father-in-law Saul (since he married Michal), who is also Jonathan’s father. Your in-laws don’t seem so bad now, eh? Continue reading
David and Goliath, Sistine Chapel. Public domain via wikimedia.
(Reposted, but not updated)
First off, go listen to my old podcast here where I talk about David, Goliath, and the Philistines. Continue reading
Apparently, the idea has entered popular consciousness that in 2 Samuel 11, Bathsheba herself was on the roof. I’ve been confused as to why people seem to think this, since the text doesn’t actually say so; it’s David who was on his flat palace roof, trying to cool off. So, where is this idea coming from that Bathsheba was “bathing” on the roof? Continue reading
Today, we’re focusing entirely on Ruth, and then just on a small section of Ruth. (I’d really like to write a long article for Ruth as I did for Judah and Tamar, but my list of projects is long.) Ruth is a short and masterful novella. If you haven’t read it yet, give it a quick read. It’s four chapters, minimal characters. I’ll assume you know the story for the rest of this post.
I do have a podcast on Ruth as well as Samuel 1! (links to old podcasts now fixed.) And I discuss the “redeemer” and atonement concepts found in Ruth in depth in my BYU Studies article on The Israelite Roots of Atonement Terminology.
Continue reading
The Book of Judges begins with the death of Joshua, and is arranged in very distinct and obvious cycles: Israel prospers, forgets God and embraces idolatry, is allowed to be enslaved/captured by its neighbors until it repents, and then God raises up a charismatic military leader or “judge” who delivers Israel from captivity. Wash, rinse, repeat. Continue reading
We are now out of the Pentateuch, into what’s called the Deuteronomistic History, or DH. This refers to the books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. Continue reading
(Minimal time to update this content, but wanted it back at the top of the posts.)
The Book of Numbers takes its English name from the Greek Septuagint title, a description of the census-taking in its first four chapters. The Hebrew title is a bit more descriptive, bemidbar sinai, “in the wilderness of Sinai.” Note the time in Numbers 1:1. Two years have passed. In 14:29-33, God decrees that that generation— everyone over 20— will die in the wilderness and their children will suffer because of their unfaithfulness. Continue reading
Now that we’re getting into the desert Exodus narrative, we’re going to encounter what scholars call “legal sections” of scripture, that is, the details of the Law of Moses. I’m not interested in these so much as I am in the way the Israelites entered into the law, by covenant. So, let’s talk about these a bit more from an ancient Near Eastern perspective Continue reading
As we move into Exodus, time passes suddenly. We move away from the individual novella of Joseph to several hundred years later, just as we often do in the Book of Mormon. Just how long, we don’t actually know. Continue reading
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