Anthony Thompson’s Reviews > The Orthodox Study Bible > Status Update
Anthony Thompson
is 7% done
So the Jewish law as laid out in Exodus is actually fairly progressive for a mid-eastern patriarchy from thousands of years ago. It's just when Moses' Lord shows up and demands people be killed for him that it sort of loses the vibe.
Someone said, "Look for spaceships when you read the Bible."
They're goddam EVERYWHERE.
Exodus ends with a cloud the Jewish people follow around cloud by day, fire by night.
— Aug 04, 2024 09:45AM
Someone said, "Look for spaceships when you read the Bible."
They're goddam EVERYWHERE.
Exodus ends with a cloud the Jewish people follow around cloud by day, fire by night.
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Anthony’s Previous Updates
Anthony Thompson
is 26% done
2nd Chronicles done. Josiah seems like a good guy.
Kingdoms and Chronicles are brutal. I'm ready for the Old Testament to be anything else but genealogies and King lists.
The Torah has nothing on Homer which predates most of it.
— Jul 06, 2025 04:27PM
Kingdoms and Chronicles are brutal. I'm ready for the Old Testament to be anything else but genealogies and King lists.
The Torah has nothing on Homer which predates most of it.
Anthony Thompson
is 24% done
First Chronicles is nine chapters of slogging genealogies and then David goes, let's count the Jews, and God goes *NO* and then offers him one of three punishments, and David chooses 3 days of God's wrath in Jerusalem over being pursued for a year by his enemies, and then an Angel (UFO) just stands over Jerusalem with a sword (laser) and nukes the city for 3 days. There's a lesson there about his judgement vs man's.
— Jul 05, 2025 07:13PM
Anthony Thompson
is 20% done
Absalom!
So what I grew up knowing to be 1 and 2 Samuel are Kingdoms 1 and 2 in the Orthodox Bible, which is 10 books longer than the Protestant one.
We had to study them as kids, and while David's infidelity with Bathsheba makes it into the cut, the quite moving epic of Absalom, his son, did not. I'm largely unfamiliar with it, beyond being able to reference one sermon in the echoes of my memory about Joab.
— Oct 20, 2024 01:44PM
So what I grew up knowing to be 1 and 2 Samuel are Kingdoms 1 and 2 in the Orthodox Bible, which is 10 books longer than the Protestant one.
We had to study them as kids, and while David's infidelity with Bathsheba makes it into the cut, the quite moving epic of Absalom, his son, did not. I'm largely unfamiliar with it, beyond being able to reference one sermon in the echoes of my memory about Joab.
Anthony Thompson
is 16% done
Judges and Ruth.
Samson was a bit of a menace. Striking down ten thousand men with the jaw of an ass.
— Sep 02, 2024 01:12PM
Samson was a bit of a menace. Striking down ten thousand men with the jaw of an ass.
Anthony Thompson
is 14% done
Joshua complete. Quite dull. The fall of Jericho is the most exciting thing in the book, and it takes place across like three verses.
The myths and powers of God have begun to simmer as we get close and closer to what would be considered an actual historical period, and as a result, an impotent God. In Joshua, God does not even speak to Joshua. At least he's not actively killing his chosen people anymore.
— Aug 18, 2024 02:44PM
The myths and powers of God have begun to simmer as we get close and closer to what would be considered an actual historical period, and as a result, an impotent God. In Joshua, God does not even speak to Joshua. At least he's not actively killing his chosen people anymore.
Anthony Thompson
is 13% done
Deuteronomy. I'm done with the Pentateuch.
Moses! The Patriarch who is closest to whatever the Bible considers concurrent times. Born to Egyptian Nobility, led his people to wander in the desert for forty years, set the Israelites on a campaign of dominion, and then was rewarded by God with the sight of the finish line in the distance before dying. The most historical patriarch is the only one with a mortal death.
— Aug 17, 2024 05:27PM
Moses! The Patriarch who is closest to whatever the Bible considers concurrent times. Born to Egyptian Nobility, led his people to wander in the desert for forty years, set the Israelites on a campaign of dominion, and then was rewarded by God with the sight of the finish line in the distance before dying. The most historical patriarch is the only one with a mortal death.
Anthony Thompson
is 11% done
Numbers down. Moses wields yet another serpent staff. That makes two for the Satanic Panic crowd.
Balaam's prophecy is super interesting. I think I've only heard it sermonized once, but it's almost straight out of a Fantasy novel.
"Behold, a people like a lion’s cub will rise up
And will exult like a lion."
The foundation of Zionist argument lies there.
— Aug 11, 2024 01:57PM
Balaam's prophecy is super interesting. I think I've only heard it sermonized once, but it's almost straight out of a Fantasy novel.
"Behold, a people like a lion’s cub will rise up
And will exult like a lion."
The foundation of Zionist argument lies there.
Anthony Thompson
is 9% done
Leviticus done.
"A man or a woman who is a ventriloquist shall surely be put to death; they shall stone them with stones, for they are guilty."
Just when I was getting bored.
I never realized that verse from Leviticus about not laying with a man came after a lengthy series of specific prohibitions on incest. Almost as if they knew if they said, "Don't unclothe family" people would find wiggle room.
— Aug 10, 2024 07:59PM
"A man or a woman who is a ventriloquist shall surely be put to death; they shall stone them with stones, for they are guilty."
Just when I was getting bored.
I never realized that verse from Leviticus about not laying with a man came after a lengthy series of specific prohibitions on incest. Almost as if they knew if they said, "Don't unclothe family" people would find wiggle room.
Again I can only say all of these motives seem adjacent to the Gods of the Sumerian epics who did create man clay and were continually resetting the subordinate species as needed. Much in the same way Yaweh behaves.
Nothing in the Old Testament looks like love or wisdom thousands of years later, but maybe there's another layer here that I don't understand. I give it to God to make it clear to me, but something tells me I'm not going to be pulled into the Abrahamic tradition as a practicing member of any of his religions.