First Gospel Doctrine podcast! Lesson 14- Exodus 15-20, 32-34

This is the first of our weekly podcast series, which will get prettier blog treatments in the future. For now, you just have to right-click and “save as” on this link to download the mp3 (7Mb). Or just click, and it’ll open and stream in a new window.

Each podcast will treat the chapters from that week’s Gospel Doctrine lesson in about 20-30 minutes, but not as if we’re in Gospel Doctrine class 🙂 No, I’m simply going to give a little background every week, and then pull out a few points that I think are fun and interesting. The brief notes that follow are for convenience, references I make in the audio, so you don’t have to pause and write things down. (They’re probably a bit inscrutable without listening.)

Give it a listen, and leave us some feedback. Feel free to ask questions about the next week’s chapters as well.

Lesson 14- Exodus 15-20, 32-34

1. Moses’ father-in-law Jethro (AKA Reuel AKA Hobab)
2. Sinai (AKA Horeb)
3. Song of the Sea
4. Prince of Egypt
5. ‘Ashirah l’adoni ki ga’oh ga’ah, miy kamorah ba’elim adonai miy kamorah ne’dar baqodesh
6. Exo 19:5-6 “peculiar”= segullah
7. Kathryn Soper, Segullah.org
8. Ugaritic; Akkadian (Assyrian & Babylonian)
9. Segullah appears in Exo 19:5, Deu 7:6 (“special people”), 14:2 (“peculiar people”), 26:18 (“peculiar people”), Psa 135:4( Israel as God’s “peculiar treasure”), Ecc 2:8 (“peculiar treasure” but not Israel), 1Ch 29:3 (king’s “own property”), & Mal 3:17 (“jewels”)
10. Mal 3:17 quoted in 3 Nephi 24:17 and D&C 101:3
11. Peculiar and pecuniary.
12. Amos 3:2 NRSV “You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”
13. 1Pe 2:9 KJV “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people;”
14. 10 Commandements in Exo 20; Deu 5; Exo 34:11ff; Lev 19:1-8
15. 10 “words”= Decalogue = Gr. deka “ten” + logos “word”
16. commandment = mitsvah or pl. mitsvot
17. On the Wicked Bible misprint, see here.
18. 613 commandments in Law of Moses, 365 negative, 248 positive.
19. Casuistic law/case law vs. apodictic law (10 commandments?)
20. Law code of Hammurapi; Middle Assyrian laws; Laws of Ur-Nammu ( see Raymond Westbrook, Everyday Law in Biblical Israel )
21. “Law”= torah. Law of Moses= torat moshe.
22. Multiple words for law, none of which really mean law, see John Welch here.

Opening/closing clip- Soy Payaso, rupa and the april fishes.

Next week, the Israelites complain, get a pass to the all-you-can-eat quail bar, God has a colorful sense of irony, and snake bites all around.