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
By Gen.16 Abram and Sarai are already antiques– very old indeed. And clearly Sarai hears the clock ticking for God’s promise to come true, though it is not her biological clock. So she is handing over her slave girl, Hagar, and telling Abram to lay with her, in the hopes of producing some kind of offspring. In a patrilineal, patrilocal, and patriarchal culture, having children, and in particular having males was everything. One has to remember, the only form of... Read more
Richard Hays and I were friends for more than a Biblical generation— 40 years. We were both chosen to be John Wesley Fellows in the early years of that Scholarship Program. From the start, we had many things in common beyond being orthodox Methodists who felt called to study the NT at the graduate and post-graduate level. We loved baseball, in particular those teams which were both in Boston when I was born— namely the Red Sox and the Braves.... Read more
Without question, Gen. 15 is one of the most important and pivotal chapters, not merely in the Abraham saga, but in the whole Pentateuch, and it’s importance was not lost on Paul, who twice cites this chapter in Gal. 3 and Rom. 4 as defining the nature of genuine Biblical faith. It will behoove us then to pay close attention to this chapter. For instance, it is the first time Abram speaks up and has a crucial dialogue with the... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In