(Lectionary for November 5, 2017) One can never approach the book of Joshua without reflecting on the terrible violence in the story, much of it apparently instigated and commanded by YHWH. If one read Joshua alone, and never confronted Hosea and Jeremiah or Ruth and Jonah, one might conclude that the Hebrew Bible is merely a remnant of an ancient warrior culture, glorifying conflict in the name of a God of battle, rather more Sparta than Jerusalem. And certainly, many... Read more

It is very rare that the authors of the lectionary give us a text from the book of Leviticus, but when they do it is quite often something from Lev.19. This is so for the obvious reason that Lev.19:18 is found on the lips of Jesus as the second half of that phrase that he uses when asked about the content of the greatest commandment: “Love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself,” he replies. For many Christians... Read more

( Lectionary for October 29, 2017) As the season formerly known as “Ordinary Time,” that very long swatch of Sundays from Pentecost to Advent, the collectors of the lectionary seem to grab for texts that are little heard in the community of faith, and this Deuteronomy piece may be one of those. This text concludes the long book that itself concludes the Torah, or Pentateuch, of the Hebrew Bible, and is thus the last scene of the long drama that... Read more

As a long-time student of the Hebrew Bible, I naturally spend a good deal of time thinking about the work of Is.40-55, a corpus of literature known prosaically as II-Isaiah. This bland nomenclature was chosen to differentiate this material from the older 8th century BCE Isaiah that preceded it, comprising Is.1-39 (within which various texts are assigned to later writers), and Is.56-66 considered to be a hodge-podge of writings from post-exilic hands. Universally, Is.40-55 has been seen as exilic literature,... Read more

(Lectionary for October 22, 2017) I have long found the text for today richly delightful in its feints between Moses and his God. After the long and wonderful Molten Calf story of the previous chapter, it is difficult to predict just what the relationship between the lawgiver and YHWH might now be. After all, Moses has first talked God into sparing the reveling people at Horeb’s base by using a series of odd and rather tendentious arguments, and then finally... Read more

I always try to be especially attentive to repeated words used in the Hebrew Bible. Since the total number of words in classical Hebrew is a mere 8,000 (modern English has over 1,000,000 words!), it is often instructive to note when any of those words show up more than once in a short text. So it is here in Is.25. In verses 3-5, the word “ruthless” shows up three times: “ruthless nations,” we are told, will fear YHWH; a “ruthless... Read more

(Lectionary for October 15, 2017) Once again we face perhaps the single best written narrative in the Hebrew Bible. This classic of biblical storytelling has a rich cast of characters, a stunning plot line, hilarious scenes of a lying weasel, and an all-too-familiar connection with modern life as we see it today. One short article can never hope to encompass all the wonders of this tale, a story that must include all of chapter 32, but can at best focus attention... Read more

It makes no difference which news source you access—Fox, MSNBC or somewhere in between—there is an inordinate level of commentary concerning questions of guilt and fault. Whenever some tragedy or other, whether natural, human-induced, or a combination of the two, you can always count on “expert commentators” to weigh in on the reasons these events occurred. To be sure, if you watch Fox exclusively, you are bound to hear words like “fuzzy-headed liberal” quite often when culprits are hunted and... Read more

(Lectionary for October 1, 2017) On the surface of this well-known story, we find a typical miracle tale in which the harried Moses is confronted again by the nagging Israelite mob, demanding that he provide something for them in the blasted wilderness where he has led them. This time the problem is lack of water, an obvious and all-too- familiar issue in the midst of a desert. It is more than reasonable for the thirsting people to make this demand,... Read more

I have loved the book of Jonah from the first time I read it. It never crossed my mind that it might have a shred of historical truth in it, since I had read and loved satiric masterworks since my boyhood—Gulliver’s Travels; Innocents Abroad; Tom Jones, Tristram Shandy—I loved them all. In satire everything is too big, too fast, too loud, too something in order to make one point or another about life as the author was experiencing it. And... Read more