Lee Harmon's Blog, page 18

Psalms 121:6, Moonstroke?

The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.

//Today, I leave on vacation for a family reunion, an outdoor camping trip. I hear the temperature will be in the 90’s there in Northern Idaho next week. Sounds like a great place for getting a moontan.

The Psalmist in today’s verse promises that neither the sun nor the moon will cause heat stroke to believers, but prudence requires I warn my family: I believe it would be wise to use moonscreen of at least an 8 if you plan to be out mu...

Book Excerpt: John’s Gospel: The Way It Happened

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Nathanael calls Jesus the Son of God (the chosen king), but Jesus immediately ups the ante to Son of Man (the anticipated Messiah).

“Son of God” is not a new title at all. This identification with God grew common in Hermetic literature and among Hellenistic thinkers, even among Jews, but always in metaphor and always in ambiguity.

Romulus, the founder of Rome, was the Son of God, as was Alexander the Great. Roman emperors were labeled sons of God, a tribute to their deified fathers. Philosopher...

Luke 23:28, Weep For Your Children

But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.

//Jesus said these words as he carried his cross to his death. Roughly forty years after Jesus died, the Romans invaded Jerusalem by force and toppled the city. It was, the Romans felt, the only way to enforce peace in the Empire. The rebellious Jews had to be put in their place.

This war had a profound effect on our New Testament scriptures, most of which were written afte...

Book review: The Eucharist

by Robert D. Cornwall

★★★★

Too bloody short! This is one of Energion Publications’ Topical Line Drives booklets, meant to introduce a topic directly by zeroing in on the necessities, but this time the abbreviated coverage left me wanting much more. Maybe that’s a good thing.

Known as the Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper, or the Holy Communion, Cornwall traces the evolution of its practice and meaning through the centuries as this ritual evolved from an agape feast to a sporadic nibble of bread and s...

Matthew 15:22, The Canaanite Woman

And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David;

//Today’s verse leads into the story of Jesus healing the daughter of a Canaanite. At first Jesus ignores her pleading for mercy, stating that his duty is to Israel. But she persists, humbling herself, and Jesus succumbs to mercy. He heals the woman’s little girl.

I’ve written about this story before. It’s fascinating and encouraging on a number of levels. But tod...

John 8:6, Jesus Writes on the Ground

This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.

//Everyone knows this story. The Pharisees, hoping to discredit Jesus, bring him a woman caught in the act of adultery and ask him if she should be stoned. The law says she must die. But Jesus refuses to answer at first and instead stoops to write in the dust.

This scene leads to great speculation. What was Jesus writing, there? I provid...

Leviticus 15:16, Baptism By Immersion Or Sprinkling?

And if any man’s seed of copulation go out from him, then he shall wash all his flesh in water, and be unclean until the even.

//Christian baptism evolved from the ritual cleansing baths of Judaism, and those baths evolved from an interpretation of the Law. Today’s verse is one law in particular, and instance where “baptismal cleansing” is required. So are we doing baptism right?

If your church believes in immersion, you’re halfway there. But only halfway. The law is specific about all flesh be...

Genesis 3:15, The Seed of a Woman

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

//This is a rather fascinating verse to me. First, it speaks of the seed of the serpent, whom later Jews came to associate with Satan. In other words, Satan’s children. Let’s read this verse again in the NIV translation:

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his...

Book review: The Synoptic Problem

by Mark Goodacre

★★★★★

This is an excellent overview of the Synoptic Problem with a proposed solution which bypasses the need for a Q document. Goodacre is intrigued by this mystery, stating that the “Synoptic Problem is probably the most fascinating literary enigma of all time.” He provides a fair analysis of why scholars tend to favor Q as a solution, but then dismantles the arguments in favor the Farrer Theory.

The Synoptic Problem seeks to explain the similarities between Matthew, Mark and L...

Acts 1:12, A Sabbath Day’s Walk

Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day’s journey.

//The book of Acts tells us that the allowable distance an observant Jew could walk on the Sabbath without violating the law was about the distance from Jerusalem to the Mount of Olives. That’s about 3,000 feet, or 2,000 cubits. This distance is derived from Joshua 3:4, which is the distance specified between the people and the Ark of the Covenant as they travelled to the promised l...