All Episodes
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During the Christmas season, when we use the expression “peace on earth,” we reduce it to a platitude, an absurd, utopian ideal where one day everyone will magically h...
The Lord’s Passover
In today’s program, Fr. Paul explains the technical scriptural understanding of the assembly as being something to which the people are called, not a place at which th...
Mashallah
The Arabic expression *mashallah* which means "what God wills" or "what God desires has happened," may be the best chance English speakers have at unlocking the spirit...
Signs of the Spoil
This week, Fr. Paul notes the mistranslation of the term Passover in English, which refers to the feast of salvation from Egypt. (Episode 251)
The Fallacy of Identity
A thousand years before the birth of Greek philosophy, the forbears of the biblical authors inhabited a world in which the families of the earth coexisted in the land ...
The Green
What is Fr. Paul’s thing? Sometimes a thing is not a thing, especially when there is no thing in Hebrew, just a green. (Episode 250)
Dividing the Flock
“Each tree,” Luke will soon explain, “is known by its own fruit.” (Luke 6:44) When Gabriel speaks the command of God, a prophet is born of Elizabeth to “turn many of t...
Sleight of Hand
This week, Fr. Paul notes a clever “sleight of hand” employed by the author in the use of Moses’ staff in Exodus 9:23. (Episode 249)
Anti-History, Anti-Romulus
When a character from Roman history appears in Luke, the worst thing any of us could ever do is go back to accounts of Roman history to try to piece together a timelin...
The Ten Plagues
This week, Fr. Paul notes the significance of the term blood in the symbolism of the ten plagues in the story of Exodus. (Episode 248)
Grudge Match
At the beginning of Luke 2, the author sets up an artificial parallel between the Lukan “things accomplished among us” and Caesar’s “decree that a census be taken.” In...
Let My People Go
This week, Fr. Paul explains that the turning of the Nile into blood in Exodus is figurative, denoting destruction. (Episode 247)
Which Spirit?
When biblical interpreters decide on capitalization when translating Greek or Hebrew to a modern language, they impose two layers of subjectivity. First, they impose t...
Listen, Don’t Read
This week, Fr. Paul observes that the best audience for the book of Exodus is made up of children, because they appreciate and are able to follow a good story. (Episod...
Tender Mercies
What do you get when you combine a cloud service provider outage, one co-host recovering from illness, and the other recording from a parked car somewhere with only t...
Speak My Word
This week, Fr. Paul explains the irresistibility of the Scriptural God, who executes his will despite the stand of Pharaoh, unlike the other gods, who disappear with t...
Amnesty and Accountability
In the Gospel of Luke, the news of the forgiveness of sins is the knowledge that John the Baptist was born and commissioned to share with absolute urgency. It is the d...
God From God
This week, Fr. Paul reminds us, once again, that unless you hear the original consonantal text, you are hearing not Scripture but your own narrative. (Episode 244)
Be Neighborly
Throughout the story of Scripture, it is the Lord who delivers his people from their enemies. This deliverance is not about victory in the conventional sense, where on...
God Speaks Biblical Hebrew
This week Fr. Paul explains that even if God understands your language he will only answer you in the Biblical Hebrew he wrote. (Episode 243)
The Command of God
This week Fr. Paul explains that the command of God in Genesis is interconnected with his command to Moses in Exodus and, ultimately, his command in the letter to the ...
Romulus Was a Thug and a Criminal
In tribal experience, as in American mythology, life originates with the forefather. How often on this program have we mentioned the blasphemous depiction of George Wa...
You Should Not Enjoy Scripture
This week, Fr. Paul explains that you should not enjoy scripture but rather hear it and obey. (Episode 241)
Quiet, Zacharias is Speaking
Self-styled students of the Bible often impose personal arguments on their study of the text. In some cases, this problem is obvious, for example, when religious think...
Dabar, Voice, Staff
This week, Fr. Paul relies on grammatical functionality to explain how the shepherd leads his flock in Scripture with the biblical dabar. (Episode 240)
It Was Zacharias
Zacharias was silenced for speaking his own words. Words that build defend and secure the things that serve Herod’s agenda: a thriving community centered by a bountifu...
The Wilderness
This week, Fr. Paul reminds us that the wilderness in Scripture is like a visit from God, it can be good news, or it can be bad news. (Episode 239)
Fierce Loyalty
Institutional thinking has no comprehension of personal loyalty. Fierce loyalty. The kind you don’t get to choose. The kind you are born under. Like someone in Luke bo...