Lee Harmon's Blog, page 76
November 29, 2012
Matthew 5:41, Go the Extra Mile
And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.
//It’s amazing how many figures of speech come from the Bible. Today’s verse is one of many examples provided by Rev. Anne Robertson in her book, What is the Bible? Here are a few more:
Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom [and] honour. –Ecclesiastes 10:1(Fly in the ointment)
Art thou the first man that was born? or wast thou mad...
November 28, 2012
2 Kings 4:32, The First Artificial Respiration
When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his couch.He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to the LORD.
//Elisha is about to raise a boy from the dead.
I died once. Nearly. As a child, perhaps about the age of this young fella, I got a little too brave in a private pool before I could swim. I passed out in the water, and woke up beside the pool, gasping. Someone apparently knew how to put breath back in me.
Here’s what happened to the boy in Elisha’s day:
The...
November 27, 2012
Book review: The Idolatry of God
by Peter Rollins
★★★★★
Have we turned God into an idol?In this thought-provoking book, you’ll learn to think about God, life, and love differently.
The idea of God as the fulfillment of our desires is so all-pervasive today that most of us take it for granted. But is this not the very definition of an idol? That which we focus on as the solution to our unfulfillment, in hopes of attaining happiness?
Next time you attend church, listen closely to the worship hymns. Each one promises to provide s...
November 26, 2012
Mark 16:15, Preach to All Creation
He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation…”
//Some time ago, I asked in a blog post whether or not the animal kingdom was part of “God’s creation.” Today I offer this verse in Mark. St. Francis of Assisi, you may recall, took this commission literally, preaching to birds, crickets, bees, wolves. Was the guy nuts, or are the animals part of God’s creation as well?The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, says Psalm 24.
When God told Jonah to preach to...
November 25, 2012
Revelation 22:10, The Time is Near
Then he told me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, because the time is near.”
//The command to seal not the words of Revelation stands in stark contrast to the instructions Daniel received at the end of his book. The prophecies of Daniel would not have an immediate fulfillment in his own time. John must treat his book differently than did Daniel, because, in the case of Revelation, the “time is near.” But how soon is soon?
John of Patmos imagined an immediate return of Chr...
November 24, 2012
Book Review: The Cosmic Machiavelli
by Thejendra B.S
★★★
Ever wonder what an informal chat with God would be like? Wonder no more.
The entire book is one long conversation with God. Or, rather, with one of the gods, the one who created our world in a fit of boredom. It’s a bit of polytheistic silliness and creationary imagination, meant not to be taken seriously but to give us a sideways glimpse at our own human silliness.
God just isn’t what you think he’s like. He’s quirky, sarcastic, and frustratingly uncooperative. When asked...
November 22, 2012
Leviticus 23:2, Happy Thanksgiving!
Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘The feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts.’
//Holy convocations. The word “feast”, in the original Hebrew, means an “appointment with God.”
When God declared a feast day for the Children of Israel, it was more than opportunity for gluttony. It was even more than a day of thanksgiving, in remembrance of the goodness of God. It was, in fact, a sort of dress rehearsal. This “appointment with God” was...
November 21, 2012
Genesis 17:7, How Gentiles Become Jews, Part II of II
//Yesterday, I introduced Paul as the Apostle to the gentiles, and hinted that he may have found a loophole which lets the gentiles slip into the covenant of Abraham. This covenant, as it reads in today’s verse, looks like it specifically excludes gentiles: it is between God, Abraham, and Abraham’s desce...
November 20, 2012
Galatians 3:29, How Gentiles Become Jews, Part I of II
If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
//The apostle Paul was known for taking Jesus to the multitudes … the gentiles. How did he get away with this? By what authority did he steal the Jesus story from a very Jewish setting and give it to gentiles?
Through some very insightful theological wrangling, that’s how. The Jews were the children of promise, through the covenant of Abraham. More than that, this covenant dictated circumcision, a practic...
November 14, 2012
Matthew 6:11, What kind of bread??
//Lest anyone think that today we have a perfect understanding of what Bible writers meant as they wrote, I provide today's verse as a contrary example. We assume “daily” bread, of course, but who’s to say for sure? It is what's called a hapex legomena, a word that appears only once in the Bible, and which must therefore be interpreted based entirely upon the surrounding context or word construction. While it's true that two books (Matthew and Luke) speak of this “daily bread”, both are quoting the same saying of Jesus.
There are some 1500 hapex legomena words in the Old Testament, 686 in the New Testament. Translations of these words are no more than educated, logical guesses, though they grow more accurate over time as we uncover more ancient documents to provide more context. We still don't know, for example, what gopher wood is (the material used to construct Noah's Ark.) And as many times as we've repeated the Lord's Prayer, we don't really know what kind of bread we're praying for. Not once have we found that word in any other classical Greek literature.
In the 20th century, we thought we had finally discovered a confirmation of its use, written next to the names of several grocery items on what appears to be an ancient shopping list. Upon closer examination in 1998, however, a reexamination of the papyrus determined that the word was not epiousi but elaiou (oil).
So we still don't know what kind of bread Jesus wanted us to eat. Something gluten-free would be my guess.
