Lee Harmon's Blog, page 19
July 29, 2014
John 3:6, Born of the Female Holy Spirit
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
//I’ve written before about the feminine aspects and qualities of God throughout scripture, and of the correspondence between Wisdom (Greek: Sophia, a feminine name) and the Holy Spirit. But C. D. Baker points out something interesting in his wonderful book, Becoming the Son:
Today’s words were written in Greek. The Greek word for the Spirit is Pneuma, a genderless word. Today’s verse quotes the Gospel of...
July 28, 2014
Book Excerpt: Revelation: The Way It Happened
In 70 CE, the Romans overpowered Jerusalem in a war that would set the stage for Christianity to emerge from the ashes of Judaism.
Josiah stood atop Mount Zion, the Temple mount, gazing out over the city of Jerusalem. A skyrocketing population in the weeks before the Passover feast had transformed two months later into a rising death toll; fewer and fewer Jews could be seen in the streets south of the Temple. The northern half of the city had fallen to the Romans, and only a single wall, runni...
July 27, 2014
1 Chronicles 22:14, Solomon’s Temple Walls
Now, behold, in my trouble I have prepared for the house of the LORD an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver; and of brass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance: timber also and stone have I prepared; and thou mayest add thereto.
//I had a little fun with my calculator today. This verse tells us that Solomon’s temple was comprised of roughly 7.5 million pounds of gold, and 75 million pounds of silver (depending upon how you measure the weight of...
July 26, 2014
Judges 20:16, The Left-Handed Advantage
Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at an hairbreadth, and not miss.
Ever wonder why left-handed pitchers are proliferant in Major League Baseball? Turns out it has nothing to do with them being hard to hit. It’s because they have an unfair advantage.
The Bible tells us so. Right-handers were given swords to fight with, but left-handers, presumably because of their special skill, were selected to throw rocks with a sling.
July 25, 2014
Deuteronomy 25:9, Your Brotherly Duty
Then shall his brother’s wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face, and shall answer and say, So shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother’s house.
//Suppose you have a brother who marries a woman, but then dies before he can father a child. According to Old Testament law, it then becomes your responsibility to take his widow as your wife, to “perform the duty of a husband’s brother unto her.”
This duty i...
July 24, 2014
Leviticus 11:20, An Easy Law To Keep
All fowls that creep, going upon all four, shall be an abomination unto you.
//This verse is talking about which animals may be eaten and which may not. Most translations don’t read “fowl”, they read “flying insects.” The law says don’t eat anything that flies and walks on all fours.
This is quite an easy law to keep because there is no such creature! Birds have two legs, insects have six or eight. I can think of a few legendary beasts with four legs that fly, but nothing real.
Can we rename the...
July 23, 2014
Book review: Lost Christianities
by Bart D. Ehrman
★★★★★
One of Ehrman’s best, I think. Thought-provoking and speculative, yet grounded, this book explores alternative early Christianities before “Proto-Orthodox Christianity” won the battle and shoved the rest aside. You’ll read about the Ebionites, the Marcionites, Gnosticism, and the evolving orthodox church. Ehrman puts all on even ground so that each has an equal voice, because recent discoveries such as the Dead Sea Scrolls have proven just how diverse Christian practices...
July 22, 2014
Deuteronomy 25:19, Don’t Forget To Forget!
Therefore it shall come about when the LORD your God has given you rest from all your surrounding enemies, in the land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you must not forget.
//What do you think about this curious verse? God promises victory over Israel’s enemy, Amalek, and says when the victory is achieved, Israel should blot out all memory of them.
So what do they do? They write it down in their chronicles...
July 21, 2014
Genesis 38:28, Zarah Wins by a Hand … but Loses!
And it came to pass, when she travailed, that the one put out his hand: and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying, This came out first.
//Here’s a curious and obscure Bible story for you. Remember Tamar, who pretended to be a prostitute so that she could be impregnated by Judah, her father in law? Tamar wound up birthing twins in this odd story.
In Bible days, the firstborn was awarded special status and privileges. The first twin to break into the world, then, would...
July 19, 2014
Acts 16:31, The Missing Words In Our Creeds
And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
//Would you say a creed is a statement of belief, or is it a guiding principle? Today’s verse is considered worthwhile instruction, a sort of creed in its own, but what exactly are we supposed to believe?
The creedal wars were bloody in the first few centuries as our church fathers bickered over the words that best describe what we must believe. All creeds focused on who Jesus was, rather than the message...
