All Episodes
Narcissism
Everything we treasure must be dismantled in our minds. Even the phrase “Bible Study” has been exploited, contorted, twisted, and distorted into a micro-narrative of o...
Take it Back Home or Leave it Outside
This week, Fr. Paul gives an example—one of his famous asides—an anecdote shared in class about a student’s old-school Greek uncle and his unsettling biblical attitude...
The Jubilee Year
This week, Fr. Paul reminds us that according to Scripture, anything we take with our hands is what someone else hands us. (Episode 304)
What Was Lost Has Been Found
You are probably waiting for me to move on from these painful monologues about ignorance, cultural chauvinism, settler colonialism, and the ultra-nationalistic tendenc...
Listen to the Torah
This week, Fr. Paul explains that the Hebrew text underscores the fact that the Lord deb-ber unto Moses in order that Moses would deb-berunto the children of Israel, i...
It All Belongs to God
Some time ago, on his Tuesday program, Fr. Paul observed how Western scholars, whom I now refer to with little affection as “Western Universalists,” often misread Gene...
Meetings Proclaimed by God
This week, Fr. Paul notes that the one who reads Scripture reads aloud so that all would hear God speak directly. (Episode 302)
Let’s Talk About the Amalekites
In recent weeks, I have stressed the fact that each time you hear biblical Hebrew or see a Semitic triliteral in the Bible, like it or not, you are hearing or seeing a...
Justice in the Marketplace
This week Fr. Paul explains that although Molech refers to a specific god, it can refer to any deity that is the owner of its people—a connection lost in the English l...
Choose a Side!
If you are still trying to figure out what to do with your life, you are the property of Satan. You are trapped. You are caught in a snare because it is not your life....
Common Sense
This week, Fr. Paul explains that when your mother puts a sign on the cabinet door that says “no,” she does not need to explain why. No means no. (Episode 300)
Wait for the Lord
“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the justice of all who are oppressed. Speak up and judge righteously; defend the rights of the afflicted and n...
You May Not Apply Two Rules
This week, Fr. Paul explains that you may not apply two rules in the land: one for insiders and one for outsiders. (Episode 299)
It Is Neither “Complex” nor “Sensitive”
Thanks be to the Scriptural God who spoke long ago—once and for all time—in the Syrian wilderness, long before the occupying powers of the modern world. Once again, w...
Adam Has No Clothes
This week, Fr. Paul explains that in Hebrew, the shame of nakedness is linked to exile, for example, when a soldier is put to shame and flees, stripped of his armor. N...
We Are All Elohim’s Human Animals
The colonials have sunk so low that it is no longer possible to argue with them, nor is it necessary. All one needs to do is record what they are saying right now on t...
The Blood is the Nephesh
This week, Fr. Paul explains what is impossible for Neoplatonists and Greco-Romans to hear and endorse, let alone submit to. In Leviticus, the nephesh of the flesh—me...
In Memory of Fr. Daniel Simon
Whether the soil in the parable of the sower, the earth itself (over which colonials love to impose the illusion of control), the movement of Jesus in Luke (imposed up...
Yom Kippur
This week, before explaining the centrality of atonement for the people, the high priest, and even the earth, Fr. Paul highlights the Bible’s emphasis that God is the ...
MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN
What does it mean to worship power? You imagine there is another question, but your art, politics, theology, television programs, pet social issues, news media, blogs,...
The Cancellation of the Priests
This week, Fr. Paul shows that from the beginning, the text of Leviticus imposes on its addressees that one must not place their trust or their hope in the priests, th...
‘abd allah
Reception history is a big fat joke. What? Were you expecting subtlety from a West Sider whose dad grew up in the Egypt of Gamal Abel Nasser? Ok. Let me start over. Re...
Last Words
On his eightieth birthday, Fr. Paul takes a step back from his regular weekly address to deliver a special farewell message to his students over the years—and all thos...
The Function Little Crow
The West Side is a haven for immigrant communities arriving in St. Paul, Minnesota. Historically, it has included people of German, Roma, Polish, Swedish, Irish, Jewis...
What is Being Offered
This week, Fr. Paul explains that the book of Leviticus begins with what is being offered in order to belittle the priests, in contrast with our attitude and that of a...
The Staff of Levi
The biblical text is epic, expansive, and integrated in specific and articulate ways. After 500 episodes (over 800, if you add in Tarazi Tuesdays), I am convinced that...
The Ecclesia is Moving
This week, Fr. Paul explains the interconnection between the Hebrew term qahal and the Greek ecclesia, from the verb kaleo—to call out—not to be confused with ʿedah, w...
To Muzzle, Dominate, and Overhelm
In 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul, with all authority, does not speak on human authority, “for it is written in the law of Moses, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox when it ...