Going Deeper (1)

Then the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark of the Lord went on continually, and blew the trumpets; and the armed men went ahead of them, and the rear guard came after the ark of the Lord, while they continued to blow the trumpets.  Joshua 6:13  NASB They continued to – According…

Here It Comes Again (2)

Then [a]he said to the people, “Go forward and march around the city, and the armed men shall go on ahead of the ark of the Lord.”  Joshua 6:7 NASB He said – During the summer we encountered two American girls at a gelateria in Reggio Emilia.  Meeting English speaking Americans is still unusual enough to generate…

Here It Comes Again (1)

Then [a]he said to the people, “Go forward and march around the city, and the armed men shall go on ahead of the ark of the Lord.”  Joshua 6:7 NASB He (they) said – Did you notice the little footnote in this text.  It reads:  “Joshua 6:7 Another reading is they.”  It’s pretty hard to confuse “he” and “they.” …

And While We’re Thinking About It

Now it came about when all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard how the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan before the sons of Israel until [a]they had crossed, that their hearts melted, and there was no spirit in them any…

Mystical Explanations

You will bring them and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance,  Exodus 15:17a  NASB You will bring them – What do you do with a text that has grammatical oddities?  Well, you could chalk it up to transmission error.  Copyists make mistakes and mistakes are handed on as if they were part of the original. …

The End of the Beginning (2)

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 – Ezra changed forever the way we interact with God.  Now we read instead of listen.  That wasn’t the only result of this monumental shift. …

Text and Tradition

It came about when the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord had come up from the middle of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up to the dry ground, that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place, and went over all its banks as before. …