Jimmy Carter was one of the most genuinely Christian Presidents we have ever had. When he wasn’t spending 4 years as governor or 4 years as President, he was busy teaching Sunday school and building houses for the poor, but also working to eradicate a dread disease and working for peaceful solutions to international problems– for instance the peace accord brought about between Egypt and Israel, for which he received a Nobel Prize. He lived for 100 years, and his... Read more
The top speed of a cheetah is between 69 to 75 mph, which explains how a county mounty could be pulling him over on a major highway. The moral to this story is surely— cheetah’s never prosper! Read more
You might say that Gen. 20 is a rerun, including the same fearful behavior of Abraham, having his wife say she is his sister. But here in this chapter we learn this is not a bald-face lie, Sarah is in fact the daughter of Terah, though not the daughter of Abraham’s mother. The problem however is this is at best a half-truth, because though Sarah may be Abraham’s half sister, she is also his sole wife. Once again, we... Read more
The story starts well enough with Lot bowing before the visitors, pleading with them to come aside and spend the night, have their feet washed, ‘so you can set off early on your way’. They demur saying no they will sleep in the town square, and so they came into Lot’s house, and he prepared them a feast including some baked flat bread, notice not freshly made with kneaded flour. But before they could get some rest, the men of... Read more
Without question Gen. 19 is one of the most debated and controversial chapters in the OT as a whole, never mind just in Genesis. For one thing, the chapter clearly includes the notion of rape, not only the possible rape of angelic messengers, which many would characterize as homosexual rape, but also the scandalous suggestion of Lot that instead the men of Sodom should be satisfied with raping Lot’s two virgin daughters, who apparently are the younger offspring... Read more
Dave Barry has been entertaining us for many years, but somehow I overlooked this brief Christmas special (about 100 pages counting vintage pictures) from 2006, complete with pictures of Dave and the place where he grew up–Armonk New York. The story is told from a fictionalized version of Dave as a child’s perspective, and it includes his usual hilarious anecdotes. Armonk is in southeastern N.Y. state near the coast, and is a pretty typical small town. Dave grew up the... Read more
Needless to say, this is not real, it’s a joke. But in fact being left-handed in an overwhelmingly right handed world is not easy. There is a store in London that provides left-handed things for those of us who are such. I wish we had one somewhere near Lexington. A left-handed pair of scissors would be helpful. We lefties make up only about 10% of the population, but a much larger percentage of the brainiacs. For example, 7 Presidents in... Read more
TO THE TUNE OF AMERICAN PIE The Day that Tik Tok Died A long, long time ago, I can still remember when those pictures Used to make me smile And I knew if I had my chance, I could make those pictures dance And maybe make a little money for a while. But January made us shiver With every text message I’d deliver Bad news in the in box The high court killed our Tik Tok I... Read more
The story in Gen. 18 is famous for various reasons, not the least of which is the Orthodox commentators have suggested that Abraham entertained the Holy Trinity in this story. But a careful reading of this story will not allow this conclusion, there is ‘the Lord’ and there is also two men, whom in this case amount to avenging angels. And they all have dinner with Abraham and Sarah. This adventure takes place at Abraham’s tent under the Oak at... Read more
Gen. 17 is both rich and complex, and pushes the story forward. Here for the first time we have the institution of required circumcision on the eighth day in connection with the covenant, and the connection is even verbal ‘karath berit’ is literally to cut a covenant, and the same verb is used to refer to the cutting off of the foreskin. As Alter says, while there were some ANE cultures that practiced circumcision this was usually in connection with... Read more
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