Discovering the Old Testament, Part 50 We come to the end of this series with a quick look ahead at the Intertestamental Period, where the canonical Torah was tested in the forum of social upheaval, war, and sectarian strife. We … Continue reading
Category Archives: Religion and Spirituality
Discovering the Old Testament, Part 49 Modern biblical scholarship has yielded tremendous insights; no study of the Bible is complete without referring to its insights. And yet it brings with it certain blind spots that cannot be overlooked. In this … Continue reading
Discovering the Old Testament, Part 48 Continuing the discussion after the canonization of the Torah, we learn how two more sections, the Prophets and the Writings, came to be part of the Hebrew Scriptures. We also learn why some of … Continue reading
Discovering the Old Testament, Part 47 One of the most radical changes in Jewish religion came near the end of the Old Testament period, when Ezra the Scribe mandated the study of the newly-canonized Torah as a religious act, and … Continue reading
Discovering the Old Testament, Part 46 The Books of Chronicles often get short shrift because they present a sanitized version of King David, but combined with the allied books of Ezra and Nehemiah, they provide a basis for debating a … Continue reading
Discovering the Old Testament, Part 45 With the end of captivity in Babylon came new opportunities and new challenges. Regaining ancestral lands and the right to rebuild the Jerusalem Temple did not mean the task would be easy. Politics and … Continue reading
Discovering the Old Testament, Part 44 More of the minor prophets and the beginnings of late-Jewish and early Christian apocalypticism. Plus, some stuff about Jonah and that whole unfortunate incident with the giant fish and how it might not be … Continue reading
Discovering the Old Testament, Part 43 A brief look at two of the more famous Minor Prophets, Amos and Hosea, who were roughly contemporary with the prophet Isaiah. We learn how they spoke to their time, and the picture they … Continue reading
Discovering the Old Testament, Part 42 A book of worldly wisdom; how to live well, to lead a good life, and how everything works out, except when it doesn’t. Take a look at the ancient Israelite version of ancient Near … Continue reading
Discovering the Old Testament, Part 41 Still in regular use after more than two thousand years, the Psalms have an immediacy and directness that makes them some of the most important parts of the Biblical corpus. They also have also … Continue reading
Discovering the Old Testament, Part 40 Perhaps the most sceptical book in the Old Testament, Ecclesiastes is a fearless challenge to the notion that living a good life consists of nothing more than blindly obeying a set of rules in … Continue reading
Discovering the Old Testament: Part 39 One of the most controversial and difficult books in the Old Testament, the Book of Job flies directly in the face of one of the Bible’s favourite themes, namely that if you do everything … Continue reading
Discovering the Old Testament, Part 38 When the official and unofficial religious institutions of Judaism lay in ruins, Ezekiel had the unenviable task of picking up the pieces in order to start rebuilding. His writing makes is clear that he … Continue reading
Discovering the Old Testament, Part 37 Ezekiel the prophet had the unenviable task of speaking for a God who, by all appearances, had abandoned his people. His commission was to rebuild the people’s trust in God, as well as the … Continue reading
Discovering the Old Testament, Part 36 Jeremiah and the Book of Lamentations are a remarkable mixture of despair and faith, destruction and hope. Written through the time of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple of Solomon, followed by shameful … Continue reading
Discovering the Old Testament, Part 35 Perhaps no prophetic figure of the Old Testament is more iconic than Jeremiah who preached at a time of precipitous decline of the Jewish nation and witnessed first hand its decline from a covenantal … Continue reading
Discovering the Old Testament, Part 34 Celebrated in music, art, and literature, the Fourth Servant Song in Isaiah 52 and 53 is remains one of the most celebrated and controversial figures in Old Testament prophecy. Who or what was this … Continue reading
Discovering the Old Testament, Part 33 Idolatry and the threat of its syncretism with Jewish religion posed a major threat to Jewish identity. While Isaiah fights idolatry fiercely and relentlessly, he must also find a way to understand a shocking … Continue reading
Discovering the Old Testament, Part 32 Where First Isaiah’s message is one of destruction, humiliation, and punishment for a covenant people gone astray, the primary motif of Second Isaiah could not be more different. Where there was doom, now there … Continue reading
Discovering the Old Testament, Part 31 In our continuing exploration of Isaiah and his ministry, we look at how he and other Israelite prophets received their call, their local competitors, and how Isaiah’s message of compassion and justice for the … Continue reading
Discovering the Old Testament, Part 30 An interlude on the historical context of Isaiah’s writings, penned when ancient Judah literally faced destruction and annihilation from a relentless, ruthless, and seemingly unstoppable Assyrian military machine. Yet it was within the very … Continue reading
Discovering the Old Testament, Part 29 The Prophet Isaiah was one of the most articulate proponents of social justice as the core social and religious duty of the Jewish nation. Through his brilliant poetry and incisive prose, he communicates his … Continue reading
Discovering the Old Testament, Part 28 From the wild ecstatics to the grand poetic literature of the classical Hebrew prophets, prophecy in ancient Judah and Israel changed and adapted to meet the changing needs and challenges that faced the Chosen … Continue reading
Discovering the Old Testament, Part 27 Moses promised the Israelites that God would raise up a prophet like him when Israel needed one. The portrait of Elijah and Elisha is of two such prophets with unmistakable associations with Moses, sent … Continue reading
Discovering the Old Testament, Part 26 The seeds of dissent planted by Solomon came to fruition under his son Rehoboam when ten of the Israelite tribes in the north broke away and formed their own kingdom, Israel. For the next … Continue reading