I'm typing these notes a few days late, but here are my most recent gleanings in my 90 day read through the whole Bible....
In Genesis 20:2 Abram lets his wife off to another man a second time. This happened once already with Pharaoh.
20:12 It becomes clear that Abram is not lying when he claims his wife is is sister.... half-sister --- weird.
24:22 Makes a case for Nose Rings. See, we think of them as horrid, when here they're "biblical." I haven't seen a case for those nasty ear gauges yet.
25:1 Let's not forget that Abraham had 8 sons, not 2.
26:7 The family sin continues through the Generations... this time Abraham's son Isaac try's to pawn his wife off as his sister to a ruler -- the same ruler (Abimalech) that already had his mom!
29:9 Interesting that woman served as "shepherdesses" at this time. Many assume that the masculinist nature of this culture would not presume that a woman would work a field job like this...
29:28 I always thought from Sunday school that Jacob worked seven years, was forced to marry Leah, then worked another seven years, and then was able to marry his true-love Rachel. HALF TRUTH! Jacob married Rachel one week after marrying Leah. He just had to work an additional 7 years.
Anti-Arian verse: 32:22-32 Jacob wrestles with this Man who he believes to be God ... definitely a reference to Jesus, the man-God.
42:33 Joseph, in order to keep up his farce to his brothers and make them think he was not Hebrew, used an interpreter the whole time. I think it's neat how the Bible includes this subtle detail.
THOUGHTS ON GENESIS ALTOGETHER:
I am consistently surprised how sexual and violent the Old Testament is. Genesis is definitely PG-13 in our culture, verging on Rated-R. Take the story of Dinah, Jacob's only named daughter, for example. Here the local king "violates" her. Then he wants to to marry her. So Jacob and Sons insist the whole town be circumcised (nasty....), and when they're still in their circumcision pain, Jacob's sons Levi and Simeon roll into town and slaughter every man there. We're not in children's Sunday school anymore! We have rape, prostitution, legitimate incest (Abram and Sarai), illegitimate incest (Lot's daughters), intended Angel molestation (or close to it), murder, theft, deceit, lying and idolatry, at the least.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Friday, July 8, 2011
90 Days of the Bible
Well, as I mentioned previously, my blogging is very sporadic at best. At any rate, yesterday I began a program to read the entire Bible in 90 days (www.biblein90days.org) -- it takes about an hour a day and runs straight from Genesis to Exodus. At any rate here are some of my notes from yesterday's reading (Genesis 1:1 to 16:16)
Gen 1:24-26 -- Interesting that God doesn't make man ruler over the "wild animals". At least they're not named in this verse as they are in previous verses...
1:29-30 All creation (including beasts) are vegan. This changes in 9:3 when we're permitted to be omnivores.
2:17 There are two special trees in the Garden of Eden -- in case you didn't notice this: the Tree of Life (ToL) and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (TKGE). Eating from TKGE was forbidden. Eating from ToL was not. By 3:22 and after "the fall" they can't eat from ToL lest they live forever. I believe this tree comes back up in the Book of Revelation.
Anti-Arian Verse 3:8 (in my quest to defend against Watchtower heresies): God is walking -- literally -- in the Garden. This is a pretty strong reference to Jesus as God.
Worth memorizing: 4:7 "...sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."
Anti-Arian Verse 6:3 "My Spirit"
There is a discrepancy between verses 6:19 and 7:2. At first there are two of every animal going in the ark. By 7:2 there are different numbers for different classifications of animals. Very confusing.
I calculated out the ages from Adam through Noah. The flood hit the world 1656 years after Adam was created. Methuselah (Noah's grandfather), by calculation, died the same year as the flood -- presumably he died in the flood. Noah was born (1056) 126 years after Adam died, and only 14 years after Adam's son Seth died. No one whose age is given lived beyond the year of the flood excepting Noah and his sons.
There's another discrepancy between 6:3 and 11:11. God declares man's days will be limited to 120 years, yet a few generations after this declaration, man is still living into his 400's. To scripture's credit, it does dissipate below the 120 mark within 4-5 generations.
12:10-20 This scripture is fascinating -- one of the best Scandals of Scripture. Don't miss the part where Abram (later Abraham) fakes his relationship to his wife, and now the Pharaoh is sleeping with Abram's wife -- all because Abram wanted to spare his own life. Also notice that this is how Abram acquires a great deal of his wealth.
15:6, another to memorize: "Abram believed the Lord and he credited it to him as righteousness". This will come back up in the NT in the book of Romans (I think it's Romans).
Gen 1:24-26 -- Interesting that God doesn't make man ruler over the "wild animals". At least they're not named in this verse as they are in previous verses...
1:29-30 All creation (including beasts) are vegan. This changes in 9:3 when we're permitted to be omnivores.
2:17 There are two special trees in the Garden of Eden -- in case you didn't notice this: the Tree of Life (ToL) and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (TKGE). Eating from TKGE was forbidden. Eating from ToL was not. By 3:22 and after "the fall" they can't eat from ToL lest they live forever. I believe this tree comes back up in the Book of Revelation.
Anti-Arian Verse 3:8 (in my quest to defend against Watchtower heresies): God is walking -- literally -- in the Garden. This is a pretty strong reference to Jesus as God.
Worth memorizing: 4:7 "...sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."
Anti-Arian Verse 6:3 "My Spirit"
There is a discrepancy between verses 6:19 and 7:2. At first there are two of every animal going in the ark. By 7:2 there are different numbers for different classifications of animals. Very confusing.
I calculated out the ages from Adam through Noah. The flood hit the world 1656 years after Adam was created. Methuselah (Noah's grandfather), by calculation, died the same year as the flood -- presumably he died in the flood. Noah was born (1056) 126 years after Adam died, and only 14 years after Adam's son Seth died. No one whose age is given lived beyond the year of the flood excepting Noah and his sons.
There's another discrepancy between 6:3 and 11:11. God declares man's days will be limited to 120 years, yet a few generations after this declaration, man is still living into his 400's. To scripture's credit, it does dissipate below the 120 mark within 4-5 generations.
12:10-20 This scripture is fascinating -- one of the best Scandals of Scripture. Don't miss the part where Abram (later Abraham) fakes his relationship to his wife, and now the Pharaoh is sleeping with Abram's wife -- all because Abram wanted to spare his own life. Also notice that this is how Abram acquires a great deal of his wealth.
15:6, another to memorize: "Abram believed the Lord and he credited it to him as righteousness". This will come back up in the NT in the book of Romans (I think it's Romans).
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Soap Box: On Perusing
Since I used the word "peruse", I thought it may be worthwhile to explain that the word is an "auto-antonym". The original and proper definition of the word peruse is to examine something carefully and attentively. However, somehow in the past several years, people began mis-using it to mean the complete opposite: to examine something in complete haste and with lack of attentiveness -- essentially, to skim over something.
For example, "I perused the newspaper," truthfully means "I carefully read the entire newspaper, paying attention to as many details as possible." Many people (including in major publications) intend the opposite definition, implying that they quickly skimmed through the paper, perhaps reading a couple of headlines and some top sentences.
I use the word according to its proper, original definition, not its new slang re-definition. It's interesting to see that Merriam-Webster now gives both as definitions of the word. So in the previous post, I will be perusing the poultry section of the farm show, meaning very carefully walking through and investigating the area to obtain maximum information.
Okay, I'll step off my soap box now. Maybe next time I'll tackle the topic of "Bruschetta".
For example, "I perused the newspaper," truthfully means "I carefully read the entire newspaper, paying attention to as many details as possible." Many people (including in major publications) intend the opposite definition, implying that they quickly skimmed through the paper, perhaps reading a couple of headlines and some top sentences.
I use the word according to its proper, original definition, not its new slang re-definition. It's interesting to see that Merriam-Webster now gives both as definitions of the word. So in the previous post, I will be perusing the poultry section of the farm show, meaning very carefully walking through and investigating the area to obtain maximum information.
Okay, I'll step off my soap box now. Maybe next time I'll tackle the topic of "Bruschetta".
Farm Show
I just wanted to give a shout out that I'm super excited the Farm Show will begin next week. If you can make it to Harrisburg PA, it is well worth the trip. Sure, it's a little crowded (especially on weekends) and the parking is expensive ($8 i think), but loads of fun.
My favorite hotspot is the "Spice Man" in the East end of Maclay Street building. I usually re-fresh all of my cooking spices once a year. They sell decent sized bags of fresh spices, most of them for just $1. Compare this to the ridiculous price you get spices for in the grocery store. Example: I bought Cardamom pods last year for $3.50 for a rather large bag. The same item would cost $15 or more in the grocery store. It pays for my parking ticket and fighting crowds to visit the Spice Man booth.
Also, the farm show milkshakes are always awesome and the baked potatoes just melt in your mouth. Meghan and I also like to spend a great of the time watching events in the Equine and Main Arenas. After a few years, the vendors get a bit old -- but the events are more exciting each year we go to them.
Meghan and I are pondering raising chickens for fresh eggs and perhaps fresh poultry, so rest assured we will carefully peruse the poultry areas of the farm show and find folks to ask lots of questions.
On another point of interest, I recently invested in a new lemon squeezer which was recommended on PBS's America's Test Kitchen. Apparently, lemon squeezers work counter-intuitively -- the curve of the squeezer should be back-to-back with the lemon, so when you press it, the lemon half will invert inside-out.
My favorite hotspot is the "Spice Man" in the East end of Maclay Street building. I usually re-fresh all of my cooking spices once a year. They sell decent sized bags of fresh spices, most of them for just $1. Compare this to the ridiculous price you get spices for in the grocery store. Example: I bought Cardamom pods last year for $3.50 for a rather large bag. The same item would cost $15 or more in the grocery store. It pays for my parking ticket and fighting crowds to visit the Spice Man booth.
Also, the farm show milkshakes are always awesome and the baked potatoes just melt in your mouth. Meghan and I also like to spend a great of the time watching events in the Equine and Main Arenas. After a few years, the vendors get a bit old -- but the events are more exciting each year we go to them.
Meghan and I are pondering raising chickens for fresh eggs and perhaps fresh poultry, so rest assured we will carefully peruse the poultry areas of the farm show and find folks to ask lots of questions.
On another point of interest, I recently invested in a new lemon squeezer which was recommended on PBS's America's Test Kitchen. Apparently, lemon squeezers work counter-intuitively -- the curve of the squeezer should be back-to-back with the lemon, so when you press it, the lemon half will invert inside-out.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Today
Okay, I'm trying once more. I am not a good blogger in that I'll go months between posts. But inspired by some others (okay, it's trendy... although technically not by Millennials according the to the Pew Research survey done not too long ago), I give it another go.
Met this morning with Gilbert, lead pastor of ExponentialChurch.tv to finalize Christmas Eve plans. The service is going to have some very moving and exciting parts. If you're in Harrisburg, come check it out at 7:00pm at the Regal Theater. We also hashed out the worship band audition process, etc. etc. All good stuff and moving us forward.
Today I was in the big collaboration room ("Java Hut" as it's affectionately called), all by myself. I think this is a first time in the < 3 years I've worked at Serco. It was deafeningly quiet. Deafeningly is a real word, believe it or not. The day absolutely dragged on. My mind was so numb that when Meghan called me I couldn't make sense of what's she was saying. I responded "uh... duh... yeah.. uh...blah...". Homer Simpson on steroids kind of deal.
On some exciting news, I nabbed a couple of tickets for Meghan and I to attend the PA Governor's inauguration in January. The weather always seems to be nasty for these outdoor events, but it's always invigorating to witness history.
The Dum-Dum's lollipop I'm eating right now is one of the mystery ones. Apparently those are the "in between" flavor batches. The one I'm eating is coconut and some other flavor that doesn't go together. Pretty gross. I've since dropped this in the trash since I began writing this paragraph.
Until next time....
Met this morning with Gilbert, lead pastor of ExponentialChurch.tv to finalize Christmas Eve plans. The service is going to have some very moving and exciting parts. If you're in Harrisburg, come check it out at 7:00pm at the Regal Theater. We also hashed out the worship band audition process, etc. etc. All good stuff and moving us forward.
Today I was in the big collaboration room ("Java Hut" as it's affectionately called), all by myself. I think this is a first time in the < 3 years I've worked at Serco. It was deafeningly quiet. Deafeningly is a real word, believe it or not. The day absolutely dragged on. My mind was so numb that when Meghan called me I couldn't make sense of what's she was saying. I responded "uh... duh... yeah.. uh...blah...". Homer Simpson on steroids kind of deal.
On some exciting news, I nabbed a couple of tickets for Meghan and I to attend the PA Governor's inauguration in January. The weather always seems to be nasty for these outdoor events, but it's always invigorating to witness history.
The Dum-Dum's lollipop I'm eating right now is one of the mystery ones. Apparently those are the "in between" flavor batches. The one I'm eating is coconut and some other flavor that doesn't go together. Pretty gross. I've since dropped this in the trash since I began writing this paragraph.
Until next time....
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