Isaiah’s Issue

Hear , O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the LORD has spoken.  Sons I have nurtured and raised but they rebelled against Me.  Isaiah 1:2  Robert Alter Nurtured and raised – Let’s look at Isaiah.  For centuries believers have turned to the prophecies of the son of Amoz for understanding and inspiration: understanding…

The End of the Beginning (1)

For Ezra had set his heart to seek the law of YHWH, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and ordinances   Ezra 7:10  JPS 1917 To seek – In a footnote, Gordon Tucker wrote, “It is worth noting that this verse expresses something of historic importance.  Previously, the root drsh was used…

The Moral Encyclopedia

And He said: ‘Incline thine heart to every word which I shall speak to thee on this mount, and write them in a book in order that their generations may see how I have not forsaken them for all the evil which they have wrought in transgressing the covenant which I establish between Me and…

Architecture of the Book

This is the book of the generations of Adam. On the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.  Genesis 5:1 NASB Book – Hopefully you realize that a “book” in the Bible is not what we imagine as a book.  The difference isn’t just between a scroll and bound pages…

The Scroll and the Book

And the LORD said to Moses, “Write this down as a remembrance in a record, and put it in Joshua’s hearing, that I will surely wipe out the name of Amalek from under the heavens.”  Exodus 17:14  Robert Alter Record – Compare the translation of the same verse in the NASB: Then the Lord said to Moses,…

Guttenberg Assumptions

“Oh that my words were written!  Oh that they were recorded in a book!”  Job 19:23  NASB Book – It seems obvious, doesn’t it?  Scrolls are not books.  The Bible wasn’t written as a collection of books.  We all know that, but what we might not realize is how this affects our understanding of the text. …

Law and Order

When God began to create heaven and earth—the earth being unformed and void,  Genesis 1:1-2a  Parsha: Bere’shit JPS Tagged Tanakh To create – Biblically-based religions are susceptible to a subtle but dangerous trap.  They can easily become religions of the book rather than religions of the God revealed in the book.  You and I, being familiar…

The Doomsday Prophet  (1)

to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.  Jeremiah 1:2  NASB In the days of – From Moses to Malachi God sent prophets to provide His people with His point of view.  But something happened about 2500 years ago.  The prophetic…