Category: The Bible as Literature

The interplay between the terms bayt and heykal in biblical Hebrew is simple. So simple that it can be explained to a child. A heykal is a building made of stone that serves as both a temple and a palace for the king. The writers of the old TV series Stargate SG1 got the basic…

Imagine searching for guidance on the best way to live life. You have the chance to speak with two advisors. The first lifts your spirits. After listening carefully to you, he explains that you have value, possess unique insights, and have something to say and contribute. He argues that your needs and feelings must come…

Yes, the Bible is about the propagation of God’s seed. Unfortunately, ignorant of biblical Hebrew, Christians of all kinds fall into the trap of Neoplatonism, mishearing Genesis and Galatians by saying, “Oh well then, it’s not really about making babies; it’s about making disciples.” No. Definitely not. You are not an eternal god. You cannot…

From the beginning, the Scriptural God commanded biological reproduction—be fruitful and multiply. Reproduce biologically because the generation yet unborn cannot be created by studying or preaching the Torah. But remember that God is King, and they are his children, not yours. But the human beings did not listen. Cain multiplied himself, raising offspring to his…

After expending significant effort to construct a genealogy—almost from scratch, only now, as he approaches his knockout punch, “Son of Man (ben adam), Son of God,” Luke draws upon pre-existing material to finalize his inverted dynasty. Climbing past an excerpt borrowed from Matthew detailing Abraham’s line, we now stumble across another collection of names, this…

Thus far in Luke’s genealogy, the writer has emphasized two critical points within the broader storyline of the New Testament. First, after paralleling Matthew’s dismissal of Joseph’s patrimony, Luke builds on Matthew’s handling of Hebrew terminology in Genesis, pushing the biblical tension between the positive, godly expression, “Son of Man,” and the pejorative worldly title,…

When a person experiences cognitive dissonance, that is, when they find themselves in a situation where exposure to conflicting ideas and information becomes too stressful or mentally uncomfortable, their natural inclination is to seek security in the safety of consonance. Humans naturally avoid, discredit, belittle, and delegitimize the ideas or people that cause them to…

As in the story of Genesis, for each generation of Luke’s genealogy, the functional names outline the literary framework of a recurring biblical dilemma: without God’s perpetual intervention, life from age to age is impossible. In science and engineering, numerous terms are used to describe similar mechanisms. In physics and thermodynamics, it is referred to…

When we set out to start a business, a project, a book, or an endeavor of any kind, most of us begin by asking ourselves, who is my audience, and how can I make my work relevant to them? Outside the arena of biblical preaching, these are normal, practical – even necessary – questions. However,…

For years on this program, in homilies and personal discussions with parishioners, family, and friends — I have explained that there is no such thing as progress. That you can’t earn anything. That nothing you have belongs to you. No one owes you anything, and even what you seem to have will be taken away,…