Does God tell us what we are allowed to eat and not eat? Do our religious beliefs inform our food choices or do we rely solely on cultural norms? Western religious traditions provide some guidance as to which kinds of meat are deemed edible, but that guidance is incomplete. In the Hebrew Bible, many kinds of animals are deemed unclean and therefore unfit for human consumption. The camel, the rabbit, the hyrax, the pig, marine animals lacking fins and scales,... Read more
In my last article, I introduced the concept of false prophets and posed the question whether the self-proclaimed apostle Paul (Saul of Tarsus) could be considered a false prophet. Let us examine the definition we are using to describe what we mean by prophet. Prophet: one who utters divinely inspired revelations: such as often capitalized: the writer of one of the prophetic books of the Bible capitalized: one regarded by a group of followers as the final authoritative revealer... Read more
How easy is it to spot false prophets in scripture and elsewhere? The Bible, in The Torah, the Prophets, the Gospels and the Epistles, warns the faithful, whether Jews or Christians, that false teachers and false prophets who claim to know the mind of God, will appear from time to time and attempt to lead people away from the true faith. The Open Bible website lists more than 50 examples from the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. We will... Read more
The God worshipped by Jews and Christians has been described as powerful, mighty, creator, emancipator, savior. He has been seen as merciful, as vengeful, as omniscient, as omnipresent, as eternal. He has not often been described as as funny. We know that humor and irony were used by the writers of the Hebrew Bible. Hershey Friedman and Linda Friedman, in their paper, “Humor of the Hebrew Bible,” cite several examples of how humor was used by the Bible authors. They... Read more
You might be surprised to find that many everyday phrases we use come from the King James Bible. How many times have you heard the expression, “Another one bites the dust?” That’s a line from the Queen song, right? Well…yes and no. John Deacon certainly used that expression in the song and in its title but he was not the first. The actual quotation is from the King James Bible, Psalm 72, verse 9: “They that dwell in the... Read more
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