In the Old Testament, we met Judges, Kings, Prophets, Priests and a Temple at the centre of Israel’s religious life. In the New Testament we suddenly encounter Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, Teachers of the Law, and Synagogues (not to mention Romans). It’s difficult to understand the connections until we realize how drastically the Exile changed Israel’s […]
8) Christianity Spreads its Wings Read More »
Easy question. What connects the Old and the New Testaments? Jesus of course. Where do we find Jesus? In the Gospels. So what’s the difference between the gospel and the Gospels? The word gospel means very simply – good news. It could have been any good news, but the NT authors meant specifically the good
7) Good News: Hope on the Horizon Read More »
England has had 42 kings & queens since 1066 – some good, some bad, some ugly, but who’s to say? History is the judge. Not so for Israel. God was the judge – and Israel’s kings fared badly in God’s eyes. After the glory days of David and Solomon, the kingdom split in two. ALL
6) Decline, Disaster, & Dominion: Israel in Exile Read More »
When we think of the Bible as a story – of God’s interaction with his people over many centuries – ‘wisdom literature’ doesn’t feature. It isn’t history, and it doesn’t tell a story, so we don’t know where it fits. It simply gets left out. This is deeply ironic because Hebrew poetry and wisdom literature
5) Wisdom, Longing & Despair: Israel’s Poetry Read More »
When we think of ancient Israel, we usually think of it as a nation – with borders, trade, a cultural heritage, and a governing authority. But Israel had none of these. Nearly 1,000 years had passed since God’s covenant with Abraham and the promise of: People, Land, Nation, a great Name, Blessing. But Israel was
4) Kings, Priests & Prophets Read More »
People, Land, Nation, Name, Blessing. These were the five main building blocks of God’s covenant with Abraham. A covenant was a type of formal agreement between two parties in the Ancient Near East (ANE), usually between a powerful king and a conquered or subservient nation. This covenant, established way back in Genesis, revolved around God’s
3) Israel: A People, a Place, & a Purpose Read More »
Compare the Bible to a car. What do you value in a car? For most people, the value is in driving it. We need to get places, so we just learn what’s necessary for a license: brakes, clutch, steering, rules of the road – and how to fill the tank. For others, it’s the appearance
2) The Pentateuch: Engine of the OT Read More »
The Bible begins with a story – but what does that tell us? There are stories, and there are stories! If your grandmother begins, ‘once upon a time, there lived…’ you know what to expect. Or if she begins, ‘when your great grandmother was a little girl…’ you also know what to expect. Both are
1) Story, Myth, History Read More »
Who doesn’t love a good feast? We might think of Christmas dinner, Thanksgiving, perhaps a wedding or a graduation feast with friends and family. Personally, the image from ‘The Grinch’ always drifts into mind, where ‘He, he himself…the Grinch…carved the roast-beast!’ Biblically though, feast is one of those words that doesn’t mean what we think
The Feasts of the Lord Read More »
We all know that Christmas is celebrated differently around the world – and sometimes we mistakenly think that the Jewish celebration of Hannukah is simply their variation of Christmas; it falls at the same time of year. But of course the great majority of Jews never accepted Jesus as Christ, so they don’t celebrate Christmas.
The Meaning of Hannukah Read More »
