There is a modern refugee issue related to modern-day Israel. But here I want to talk about ancient refugees. This news article that Jim Davila drew attention to a few years ago argued that certain archaeological evidence showed how refugees from the fallen Northern Kingdom of Israel found a haven in Judah. Biblical scholars could already tell that was the case from the fact that the oracles of Hosea, delivered in the Kingdom of Israel just before the Assyrians brought... Read more
It as obvious to many of us that the rhetoric of making America “great again” presumes the existence of a golden age in the past, and it isn’t at all obvious when that was if one is honest and has the wellbeing of everyone in mind. But if we ask when the supporters of Trump thought we were great, it was obviously when slaves made white plantation owners great, when segregation kept white people elevated above others in policies that... Read more
There are a great many false prophets around in our time, so many that the phenomenon has come to the attention of major national news outlets. But I want to focus on a figure who is pretty much universally agreed to be a true prophet, namely Elisha, the disciple of Elijah. I want to discuss whether his words would have constituted an impeachable offense. For those who may have missed it, the lawyers defending former president Donald Trump have been... Read more
I wish I could find a recording of Amy Beach’s work “Jephthah’s Daughter.” That story is one of the many challenging and tragic ones in the Bible, and I would very much like to hear Beach’s treatment of it. Female readers of stories like this one often immediately notice the patriarchal cultural values embedded in it in ways that male readers may not. I would thus like to hear what female composers do when exploring the story. Clarissa Aaron has... Read more
Evolution weekend and Darwin Day are almost here. If you don’t already follow the Clergy Letter Project you should, and subscribe to their newsletter. They recently shared, among other things, Barbara Hamm’s hymn, “The Vast Expanse of Time and Space,” including not only the sheet music for that but also videos with songs and information relevant to the intersection of religion and science. The Butler University campus ministry Grace Unlimited shared Genesis 1: An Ongoing Dialogue. Having felt that the topic of... Read more
I am excited to share some updates about my book What Jesus Learned from Women, which should be out next month. It is now available for pre-order via the publisher’s website. They only just listed it and so a lot of information is still not there, including the cover art. Fortunately I have had a chance to see that and can share it here. I’ve blogged about how excited the chance to commission custom artwork for the cover art made me,... Read more
There are two opposite tendencies in how the Last Supper is viewed. Some dismiss it as purely the invention of the church. Others insist Jesus must have said, done, and meant exactly what the New Testament authors tell us he did. As you might guess from things I have written about Jesus and history recently, I think there is a path between the extremes that is preferable, recognizing the likelihood of both a basis in history and reinterpretation and elaboration... Read more
We are all well aware by now of the dangers and detrimental effects of social media. People can get themselves into an information bubble that shields them from information and perspectives that might challenge their thinking. They can be so poorly informed that they will stage an insurrection seeking to overturn democracy while believing sincerely that they are defending it. All of that, to be clear, was possible in the era before the Internet. The only difference now is that... Read more
In a recent blog post, Ian Paul pushes back on some points John Barton makes in one of his influential books. I find myself between the two, agreeing with Ian that there is a tendency to treat a widespread academic surmise about the dates of works and other matters as though they were known with a high degree of certainty, almost gospel truth. Yet I also tend to find that Ian prefers conservative dates and views because of his own... Read more
Yesterday was the day in my Bible and music class when we focus on metrical Psalms. That means it was the day I bring a guitar with me. This time I had a digital piano as well, which wasn’t too hard to accomplish since I was in my office and they were on Zoom. It was a very different way of doing things than anything I had tried previously. I turned my computer monitors around and made various other adjustments... Read more
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