Understanding the Bible: Review #1

Adamah

"dirt creature", not gender specific

Sheol

"murky" realm of the dead in which spirits or shades emerge; unknown nether-realm

"And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves; but the Lord will not answer you in that day."

1 Samuel. Samuel delivering word of the lord to Israelites. When the war between the Philistines and the Israelites is over, the people say that they need a king. Samuel feels rejected but God tells him that they have rejected not Samuel but God. Connects to a passage in Judges; it is not a contradiction, but a collection.

"Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight?"

2 Samuel. Nathan speaks to David about how he ordered Uriah to be killed in order to take his wife. This verse demonstrates that disobedience to God is equivalent to despising His word.

Gentile

A non-Jewish person

"Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."

Amos. Amos asserts to people of Israel that god refuses the worship, sacrifices, and thanksgiving the people offer at religious festivals. God wants justice and righteousness rather than worship. Its not about special acts, but showing neighborliness.

Messiah

Anointed one

Day of the Lord

Day righteousness thrives

"A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous."

Deuteronomy. Moses tells the Israelites The Aramean is Jacob of Israel and although the Israelites lived as aliens for a period of time God kept his promise to Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky.

"Am I not your donkey, which you have ridden all your life to this day? Have I been in the habit of treating you this way?"

Donkey to Balaam Numbers. a donkey who saw the Angle of the Lord speaks to Balaam after he hits the donkey several times. It is important because it allows the figurative interpretation of the bible verses a literal one. I.e., if you were to go back x amount of years you probably would not find a literal donkey speaking, but a story being told to teach a valuable lesson.

"And I thought the dead, who have already died, more fortunate than the living, who are still alive, but better than both is the one who has not yet been, and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the son."

Ecclesiastes. Claims that it is better to be dead than to be living; Dumbledore, "Don't pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and above all those who live without love."

"You shall not oppress a resident alien; you know the heart of an alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt."

Exodus. Love the outsiders and the loners, because everyone will experience isolation at some point in their life. Be kind to your neighbor regardless of their nationality, race, color, or birth place.

"I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery."

Exodus. Moses says that God says to the Israelites that God had brought Israelites out of the land of Egypt - Therefore they were bound in gratitude to obey him, because he had brought them out of slavery into a glorious liberty. The people must purify themselves before coming so close to god

Trinity

Father, Son, Holy Spirit; all God; three manifestations of God

"She is more in the right than I."

Genesis. In a Jewish Patriarch, Judah tells a crowd of people that Tomar, a woman/ member of his family, was in the right of her actions of having sexual relations with the owner. As a Canaanite, she works her way into the line of Jesus.

"Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today."

Genesis. Joseph tells this to his brothers who enslaved him for money and then came to him for survival. Significant in that God can direct human affairs to a positive end, even when human beings act in immoral and unprincipled way. Well-being is not dependent on human action/achievement but divine blessing

YHWH

I am becoming who I am becoming

Jewish Scripture

In 2nd Timothy 3:16, what does the phrase "all scripture" refer to in the context of the letter's immediate concerns?

Amos says, "I am no prophet, nor a prophet's son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.''' He claims to be no different than the other followers of God; he is just following the mission given to him by God to prophesy to the people of Israel.

In what sense is it right for Amos to assert that he is not a prophet?

Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek

In what three languages is the Bible written?

"They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks."

Isaiah. Isaiah speaks of the future house of God, where weapons will become farming tools. This is the opposite of what the prophet Joel proclaimed.

"For in the day that I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this command I gave them, 'Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk only in the way that I command you, so that it may be well with you.'"

Jeremiah. Here a Jeremiah is saying to decedents of the Israelites that God never said burnt offerings even though that is in the bible earlier in the OT. This shows the bible is a COLLECTION. Israelites were mistaking when thinking what God wanted

"And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?"

Jonah. Jonah says this to and angry at God because He did not destroy the evil people who wrecked havoc on Israel. He, a prophet, wanted The people of Nineveh to suffer.

"Let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon."

Judges. The bramble in this parable speaks to the trees. This parable is meant to display the dangers of a people anointing a king over themselves (which God told them not to do)

"He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich empty away."

Luke. Magnificat; Mary tells Elizabeth of the future divine blessings of the poor and the teachings of the good news

"He has told you, O mortal what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"

Micah. Micah tells Israel as a worshiper that Material offerings are rejected. Worship is acceptable to God only when accompanied by practices of justice, kindness, and humility. Points out that the worshiper's life should conform god's will.

"They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading."

Nehemiah. Ezra and the Levites interpreted and applied the Law of God so that people could understand it. The Bible is meant to be read aloud and interpreted.

"How could we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?"

Psalms. This verse is from a time when Israel was in captivity. The captors were demanding the Israelites to sing the songs of Zion to them as a form of mockery. The Israelites were trying to remember Zion while also mourning it. The Psalmist asks an existential question.

Orthopraxy

Right practice, correct practice

Orthodoxy

Right teaching, correct teaching

Deal with your trauma by writing it down, instead of doing bad actions

What do you find striking about Psalm 137?

Ham sees Noah naked; brothers tell Noah; Noah curses Ham and his descendants, the Canaanites, to be the slaves of the other brothers' tribes; Curse of the Canaanites

What's going on with the so-called "Curse of Ham?"

It references 1 Enoch, which is a piece of scripture that is not included in the biblical canon

What's the seemingly strange thing about Jude verses 14 and 15?

One of the "seven prophetesses"; the first person to declare certain writings to be Holy Scripture; solidifies Deuteronomy in 2 Kings (She said it was from God) (She held the authority to do it)

Who was Huldah?

Kosher

appropriate; fitting

Marcionite argument

argued that we not think of the old writings as Scripture; argument did not win; heresy

chutzpah

boldness, nerve

Pentateuch

first 5 books of the bible, traditionally attributed to Moses

Supersessionism

idea that all Judaism is one big arrow pointing to Jesus; heresy

Lex Talionis

law of retaliation; eye for an eye

Canon

measure, authorized

Nephilim

offspring of divine and human

Satan

one who opposes; accuser/prosecutor

Tikkun Olam

repair the world

Israel

strives with God; identity of people struggling with what God requires of them

Torah

the essential, the Books of Moses

Theodicy

the theological question that tries to connect belief in God's justice with the reality that sometimes good people suffer unjustly and die

Apocalypse

unveiling; revelation

Theophany

vision of God; the Bible is a collection of theophanies