Psalms 147:4, The Names of the Stars

He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.

//This is why mathematicians get a headache when they read the Bible. If we estimate 100 billion galaxies of 100 billion stars each, that's a lot of stars to know by name!

They're big names to remember, too. If you create random names from letters, half vowels and half consonants, you'll need star names 19 letters long to name them all. And God's calls them all by name? If he started at the beginning of the universe 13.7 billion years ago, and pronounced 2,300 19-letter star names every second, he'd be about caught up.

Now you know why it's so hard to understand when God speaks. Nobody can listen as fast as he talks.

Book review: Odyssey of a Soul in Bondage

by Jon E. Quick

I was convicted of first degree pre-meditated murder thirty-four years, one month, and eighteen days after I was born.

This is a very disturbing autobiographical account of a man growing up in an obscure Christian sect with an abusive father. Sometimes known as the “friends and workers” or the “2x2s,” this is the same sect I grew up in. My own experience was radically different from Jon’s; I’m personally very happy to have been raised in what was, for me, a wholesome atmosphere. But the opinions of members and ex-members of this belief system are so extreme, some going so far as to call it a cult, that I must let you decide for yourself after reading the book. Because of my closeness to the topic, I feel uncomfortable rating it, so I’ll just review the book without a rating.

The state of mind of this persecuted man shows through clearly, the more so because we are reading his account from his own hand. Sometimes conflicted, sometimes accusatory, sometimes broken, sometimes resentful, sometimes repentant, it’s like a different Jon on each page. One person in his life is described as “evil” on one page and “sweet and loving” on another. The book ends with a plea to his ex-wife for forgiveness.

Before this final plea could be possible, however, Jon finds himself undergoing a Christian transformation in prison. While still behind iron bars, he is set free from his emotional bondage. “Having attained such freedom through the Grace of God, I can safely attest that I will never again be in bondage to the corruption, deceit, and lies of men, regardless of where I may be physically.”

Note to readers: If you’re not familiar with this Christian sect, a lot of the terminology won’t make sense. Start the book by reading the “terms used” in the appendix.

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Genesis 3:4-5, Thou Shalt Surely Die, part II of II

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

//Two days ago, I speculated about whether God told a little white lie to Adam and Eve. Today, we hear the serpent’s opinion on the matter. God is bluffing, he promises; not only will the fruit of the tree of knowledge be delicious, it'll open your eyes.

But did the serpent misunderstand? Perhaps God did mean a spiritual death, and the serpent was misrepresenting the spiritual promise of God, confusing the issue by speaking in terms of base, physical facts. You shall not surely die.

I grew up in a form of Christianity which encouraged abstinence from any form of religious reading other than the Bible. Such books were the work of men, not God; only the Bible is holy. But I stumbled; I ate from the tree of knowledge, and found myself outside Eden. Outside the protective fence of a belief system which shielded me from seeing the real world around me, and having to think for myself.

Did I die in that day? Yes.

But did I die in that day? No, of course not. It may be that I was born again.

Book review: Jesus: A story of Enlightenment

by Deepak Chopra 

★★★

Says Chopra, “This book isn’t about the Jesus found in the New Testament, but the Jesus who was left out.” This is a novel, about Jesus’ own period of enlightenment before he began his ministry, and how he found God. Or, rather, how he found himself, the Son of God.

Jesus turns down the opportunity to join the Zealots, studies with the Essenes (whom he disappoints), and eventually begins a long and dangerous trek to find a mysterious guru, where he discovers his true soul. By the end of the book, Jesus is ready to take on the Devil, in that famed three-part temptation.

Chopra’s Eastern/Buddhist background shines where it shouldn’t. Interesting and well-written, but certainly not scriptural! And not really my thing.

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Genesis 2:17, Thou Shalt Surely Die, Part I of II

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

//We all know the story. After God promised Adam he would die on the day he ate the forbidden fruit, the serpent showed up, contradicting God's promise. "Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." So Adam and Eve ate, and their eyes were opened, and nobody died.

I'm often accused of reading the bible too literally. Face value is best, unless there’s reason to think otherwise, right? God said they would die, they called God's bluff, and nobody died. What confuses me is, why does this story need reinterpreting? Early Hebrew writers certainly found no evil in deception. On the contrary, God bestowed his blessing on several acts of deception, from Jacob deceiving his father to steal Esau's birthright, to Jael pretending kindness before pounding a nail through Sisera’s temples as he slept.

God told a little white lie, it worked for a time until the serpent showed up and exposed the truth, and mankind fell. But by the time of the New Testament, even subtle deception seemed immoral, an activity that could never be attributed to God! Titus 1:2 even promises that God cannot lie.

So what do we do with the story of man's downfall? We gloss it over with wordplay. We pretend God didn't really mean "in that day," or we pretend God meant a spiritual death, not a natural one. We ruin a great story by denying God a personality. Be honest, now: wouldn't you find it much more interesting to meet the God that walked in the Garden, toying with his humans?

On Monday I’ll discuss another way of reading The Original Sin.

Book review: God & Empire

by John Dominic Crossan 

★★★★

It’s Jesus vs. Rome. Who will win?

If you’ve read much about the first century, you’re already well aware of the conflict between Christian and Roman claims. Both sides laid claim to the Son of God. Both claimed the inauguration of a new, wonderful age. The Caesars, especially in Asia Minor, were worshipped as God and often went by the title Son of God. Caesar Augustus, in particular, was hailed as the savior of the world, the bringer of peace and prosperity.

The Christians claimed a coming kingdom, or a hidden kingdom; the Romans proved their kingdom by force and heavy presence. The Christian kingdom was not of this world; the Roman kingdom invaded every part of life. Jesus’ kingdom was one of nonviolence; the Roman kingdom was just the opposite.

Crossan highlights the conflict between the two, and what, exactly, the Christians were claiming in their “uprising.” Of particular interest, to me, was the discussion of Paul, whom Crossan divides into three categories: The radical Paul, the liberal Paul, and the conservative Paul, representing three stages of Pauline writings.

I give it four stars instead of five, not for the lack of quality, but because little is original from his other writings. It’s just organized and directed differently to emphasize a point.

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Ezekiel 8:14-15, Weeping for Tammuz

Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD'S house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these.

Here's a puzzle. Why is it such an abomination to sit and weep at the gates of the LORD's house?

It isn't that the women are weeping, it's who they weep for. They aren't weeping for a friend or relative; they're partaking in a widespread annual ritual, in which cult members mourn the death of the Sumerian god of food and vegetation.

The summer solstice marks the period of declining daylight hours, and this annually recurring cycle of the beginning of death was "celebrated" in Babylonia with a six-day funeral for the god, Tammuz. Tammuz is one of an array of dying-and-rebirthing gods, whose story is told in nature itself.

These women are honoring a Babylonian god, and doing so at the very gates of the Temple.

Book review: A New Introduction to the Synoptic Gospels

By Roland Meynet 

★★★★

This book is not what I was expecting when I saw the title! Wow. When Meynet titled his book an introduction, he didn’t mean he’d be providing a surface description. He meant that after you work your way through 415 pages of analysis, you’ll have barely turned the cover on the Synoptics.

You can give a man a fish, and feed him for a day. Or, you can teach him to fish, and feed him until they quit stocking the pond. This book is meant as a university text, to teach you how to analyze the Bible as a linguist, by taking note of the links which tie the pericopes together, and trying to grasp the logic which connects them. It’s a relatively new approach to Biblical study, sometimes at odds with the historical-critical method and normal form criticism. My rating of four stars does not represent my reading enjoyment, but rather, the teaching technique and depth of study. Reading Meynet’s book is not fun; it’s work.

Seriously. You’re going to study primarily two Bible pericopes in these 415 pages: the healing of the blind man at Jericho, and the calling of the rich man . You’ll study them in context, noting each text’s sub-sequences, carefully grinding out their meaning through rhetorical analysis of all three Synoptics.

This exhausting technique does yield results. As a simple example of the strength of this type of literary Biblical analysis, consider the story of the blind man at Jericho, as told in the Gospel in Mark. Or were there two blind men healed, as Matthew relates? Exegetes in the past have wondered which version is historically accurate; Matthew or Mark? But the question misses the point of the passage. Contextual analysis to the rescue: By reading up just a little bit, in both Matthew and Mark, we find the story of the sons of Zebedee, James and John, requesting that they sit on the right and the left of Jesus when he comes into his glory. Matthew has recognized the context, and aided in its interpretation by changing one man into two. The story of the blind man has become the story of two blind men in Matthew, and we now recognize the blind men as James and John. 

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Revelation 4:4, The Twenty-four Elders

Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads.

//Revelation paints a magnificent picture of the throne of God and, around it, twenty-four elders. 1 Chronicles 24 describes these twenty-four elders in detail. They comprise the governors of the house of God, of the tribe of Levi. King David gave them their priestly duties a long time ago, and the Chronicles list their names.

Ezekiel also experienced a vision of twenty-five men, representing the heads of these twenty-four orders and the high priest. Jesus, of course, serves as high priest in Revelation's version.

In Revelation, the actions of these twenty-four elders form a couple of sly innuendos. These innuendos can only be appreciated in the light of Revelation's denunciation of Nero Caesar, whom it refers to as the Beast of the Sea.

The elders are all wearing crowns, so the first thing they do (Revelation 4:10) is lay their crowns down at the feet of Jesus. First-century readers would be reminded of the Parthian prince Tiridates, whom Nero crowned king of Armenia. Tiridates once fell down before Nero publicly in worship, saying, "I have come to thee, my God, to worship thee as I do Mithras." Then he laid down his crown at Nero's feet. So, the twenty-four elders make a point of laying theirs at Jesus' feet.

Then in the next chapter (Revelation 5:8) the elders are seen holding a harp in one hand and a bowl of incense in the other.  An image of the Greek god Apollo in a similar libation stance, holding a lyre (harp) in one hand and a bowl in the other, would also be known to Revelation's first readers. Nero, as you might guess, played the lyre and thought of himself as the god Apollo. In Revelation, immediately after mimicking Nero, the elders fall down and worship Jesus.

The lesson, of course, is that Nero Caesar is not to be worshiped; Jesus is. Revelation is a fascinating book of deep symbolism, much of which is lost on current-day readers.

http://www.thewayithappened.com

Book review: Naked Pastor 101

by David Hayward

★★★★

This is David’s first collection of cartoons, 101 of them, and I hope many more follow. Cartoons just work! They help us laugh at ourselves, and then they help us think outside the box.  In a cartoon, serious topics can hide behind lighthearted drawings.

And David’s work is funny. LOL funny. As the Naked Pastor, he bares his soul (not his body, sorry) about problems in the Church … often, problems that result from rigid rules or non-acceptance or unfounded assumptions about the nature of God. Most are annotated with a bit of the thought process that went into their creation.

This book is in no way disrespectful to the Church. David  is an insider; he has completed masters in Theological Studies and in Ministry and Religion, and has been pastor of several churches over 25 years. That’s plenty of time for cartoonistic opinions to form, right? David admits that for this book he has purposefully chosen favorites among his less controversial drawings; rants against church vision and mission statements, and cartoons addressing the gay issue, have been omitted, so we may be drinking “Hayward light” at this time. Next time, David, lay it on us straight. We can take it.

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Matthew 4:19-20, Follow Me

And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.

//This is the Gospel call given by Jesus: Follow me. It’s a precious offer, repeated by ministers and evangelists everywhere.

The question is, how? When Jesus said the words, he meant them quite literally. Drop everything, separate from your family, give your wealth to the poor, and join my entourage. We’re going to spread the Gospel news, and then we’re going to Jerusalem for a little sacrifice. Follow me. But today, there ain’t no bearded, sandaled philosopher to follow to Jerusalem anymore, so we can no longer take Jesus’ words literally.

So, as Christians, we guess at what Jesus would have meant, had he been speaking directly to us. Then we argue over our guesses, condemn other religious interpretations, and humbly pride ourselves on knowing the Truth … what Jesus really expects of us, 2,000 years later.

I grew up in a strict Christian sect which interpreted many of the teachings of Jesus and the early church quite literally. We believed the ministry must give up all and be homeless; we believed the Gospel must be freely given, taking no pay; we believed church buildings were an economic hindrance, so we gathered in private homes or rented halls when necessary. We looked down our noses at other Christians who interpreted the words “follow me” in any different manner. Somehow, we knew what Jesus would have meant, had he been talking to us instead of to a cluster of backwoods fishermen in the first century.

And while I have no argument with the teachings I grew up with, neither do I any longer have any argument with the various denominational teachings around me. How could I, after reading the Bible for myself? We can’t follow Jesus the way he really meant it, so the best we can do is … the best we can do.

Book review: The New Complete Works of Josephus

by William Whiston and Paul L. Maier 

★★★★

I don’t know if this is a particularly good translation; I’ve nothing to compare it to, since I’ve never read any other. It’s not the translation I wish to promote, it’s the writings. Every Bible scholar, especially New Testament scholars, simply MUST read Josephus.

Josephus was a Jewish historian who wrote his books during the same years that most of the New Testament was being written. That is, the latter three decades of the first century. Josephus was not particularly well-liked among Jews; he abused his governorship, he defected to the enemy when captured by the Roman legions, and he wrote his history of the war to present the Romans in a good light. Given to exaggeration, he taints nearly every chapter of his War of the Jews with self-glorification and political and religious aims. Yet, he remains our most important historian for the war of 67-70 CE, which proved to be the springboard for the spread of Christianity, and to be honest, it’s his personal agendas that make his writing so interesting.

Oddly, as much as Josephus was hated, he became very important to Christians, because of his references to Jesus Christ. But scholars now doubt their authenticity. In one passage, the famed Testimonium Flavianum, Josephus names Jesus as the Messiah. Some through the centuries even claimed Josephus to be a Christian. (If you read my book about Revelation, you’ll come away with just the opposite opinion; Josephus may have played a surprising role in the story of Revelation!)

This book contains all four of Josephus’ writings:

The Jewish War, which describes the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple.

The Life of Flavius Josephus, his own autobiography, which ends up as little more than a defense against the various attacks on his integrity during his governorship in Galilee.

Jewish Antiquities, a Bible-driven history of the Jews from the beginning of time.

Against Apion, a defense of Judaism.

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Leviticus 13:40-41, Bald is Beautiful

When a man has lost his hair and is bald, he is clean. If he has lost his hair from the front of his scalp and has a bald forehead, he is clean.

//In the middle of a long series of chapters about the impurity of—well, about everything—we find this short reprieve. In an era where any hint of disease marks divine displeasure, the Law assures us that losing our hair is okay. Male pattern baldness (at least in front) is okay. This is a welcome relief for all of us fifty-somethings.

I have the sneaking suspicion that these two verses stem from the shiny dome of a bored copyist working his way through a series of tedious rules. Why else would we have this odd interruption to the Leviticus list of bizarre epidemics? Baldness in the Bible is usually a self-inflicted state, meant as a public sign of mourning. Like wearing sackcloth and sitting in ashes. Baldness, you would think, is a quality to be pitied.

My suggestion? Ignore that wayward copyist and hang on to the Rogaine.

Book review: Jerusalem

by Karen Armstrong 

★★★

One city. Three faiths. Christians, Jews, and Muslims all lay claim to the Holy City. Armstrong’s treatment is impartial as usual, more interested in promoting understanding than any one belief system. She leads us through 4,000 years of history, as this turbulent landmark in the middle of nowhere grew from a tribal village into a cultural and religious phenomenon.

The book of Revelation, about Jerusalem: “The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed.” Is this a prophetic inevitability, or is there hope for peace? I’m one of the many with a placard hanging on my wall, requesting that we pray for the peace of Jerusalem. I read Armstrong’s book as research for my own book about Revelation, because Jerusalem, both the Old and the New, is the focal point of John’s Apocalypse.

Karen’s topic is extremely important for today’s world of religious unease, and it’s an absolutely fascinating topic. Unfortunately, I found the writing to be a bit more dry than usual for Armstrong. I think the book could have been condensed to about 2/3^rd its size. But by the time you finish—if you’re able—you’ll have a better grasp of the bitterness and misunderstanding, and why all three religions claim Jerusalem as their own.

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Daniel 5:2; Nebuchadnezzar or Nabonidus?

While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem.

//Much of the book of Daniel concerns King Nebuchadnezzar and his son Belshazzar. However, Daniel has confused the order of the kings of Babylon. Multiple contemporary records attest to the following succession: 1) Nebuchadnezzar, 2. Awel-Marduk, 3. Neriglissar, 4. Nabonidus (who contested the rule of Labashi-Marduk and wrestled the kingship away from him), and finally, 5. Belshazzar, son of Nabonidus, (who was actually never king, but only a crown prince). Thus, in a well-known Biblical error, Daniel confuses Nebuchadnezzar with Nabonidus.

These center chapters of the book of Daniel are written in Aramaic, rather than Hebrew, and thus Daniel is generally recognized as the last book of the Old Testament written. This jibes nicely with my post two days ago, when I suggested that Daniel was written in the year 165 B.C. So, if written four centuries after the period it describes, would an error like this be a surprise?

There is another possibility. Some continue to believe that the book of Daniel was first written earlier, in Hebrew, presumably in the 6^th century B.C., when Daniel supposedly lived in Babylon. These Bible scholars blame the error surrounding Nabonidus on the misunderstanding of a later translator, who incorrectly added to the text.

Book review: Jesus, a Very Jewish Myth

by R. G. Price 

★★★★★

Thorough. Daring. Scholarly. Intelligent. Original. This work may be an undiscovered gem. I reviewed another book by R. G. Price a few weeks ago, but found this one to be even better.

Price begins with a provocative claim: “That Jesus Christ is a pure myth is the only explanation that is consistent with him being both larger than life and absent from history.”

Let me lead into the topic with a bit of personal commentary. There are a number of ways of reading the Bible, and each completes a paradigm of its own. For example, considering just the New Testament, you can read it in the traditional way, as if it describes the historical life of Jesus and his followers, and promises a future return of Jesus as a conquering Messiah. The New Testament makes perfect sense in this light, and reading the Bible doesn’t break, but rather strengthens, the paradigm. But you can also read the New Testament through the eyes of first- and early second-century writers, the audience for which it was written, and sense within its chapters the excitement of the expected immediate arrival of the Messiah and the absolute, complete assurance that the new age has either just begun, or is just around the corner. When read in this light, every word seems to emphasize the urgency of believers, who knew the world was immediately coming to an end. Another way to read the New Testament, another paradigm, is to recognize many of the stories as myth, midrash, and the retelling of Hebrew scripture, told with the intention of honoring a great man (Jesus). Again, you’ll find internal consistency, and the words of the New Testament make perfect sense in this light.

Finally, you can go all in. You can decide, as does Price, that not only are the stories mythical, their human subject is just as fictional. Jesus existed only as an allegory, or a mystical god, or an ideal. If you have never read the Bible this way, I encourage you to do so! Actually sit down with the New Testament, start with the presumption that Jesus never existed, order the books chronologically as best you can, and see if you can read it through. You may at some point recognize a turning point, a point at which Jesus became “real.” Or you may never be able to leave the old paradigm behind, that Jesus existed and lived exactly as described. Each reader forms their own comfort level, and though opinions are extreme on the topic, I would never tell you that one paradigm is “wrong” while another is “right.” The Bible is living word, and feeds each of us differently.

As I said, Price goes all in. But he approaches the topic of a mythical Christ from a different angle, and his is a welcome addition to scholarship. Rather than emphasizing Christianity as a copycat religion among pagan beliefs, he grants it its own unique Jewish flavor. He sees Christianity’s beginnings as a mystery religion built primarily upon Jewish scripture. He points often to apocalyptic literature, both canonical and non-canonical, comparing it to New Testament writings, including the letters of Paul. The testimony of Paul is, of course, critical to the thesis; did Paul believe in a recent, flesh-and-blood Jesus, or did he not? Price’s treatment is balanced and fair, as he covers the writings of Paul, both those that bolster his argument and those that traditionally have been used to support the opposing view.

Price discusses the writings of Philo of Alexandria (a Jewish philosopher contemporary with Jesus, but who never wrote a word about him), Josephus (including the famed Testimonium Flavianum which purports to name Jesus as the Messiah but is nearly universally recognized among scholars as a forged passage) and others to expose the scarcity of historical collaboration regarding Jesus. But more than that, Price explains why Christianity should most logically be recognized as mythical. His coverage is in depth and convincing, and concludes with what he sees as a logical progression for how Christianity evolved into the worship of a god in human form, living within first-century history.

I loved the book, and the great research, even as I remain a hard sell. I’ll review, shortly, another book arguing the other side of the coin.

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Daniel 11:45, When was the book of Daniel written?

He will pitch his royal tents between the seas at the beautiful holy mountain. Yet he will come to his end, and no one will help him.

//Daniel, the central character of the book named after him in the Bible, was brought to Babylon about 587 B.C., when King Nebuchadnezzar conquered Judah. Daniel’s claim to fame comes from a series of visions and prophecies, many of which were fulfilled in the second century B.C., and many of which never did come true, so many Christians continue to look forward to their fulfillment today.

As Daniel’s dreams unfold, the story he prophesies becomes clear, and historians have traced an accurate line of political events up to the reign of Greek ruler Antiochus Epiphanes from these prophesies. Daniel promised four kingdoms, stemming from a vision of four colorful beasts, and the fourth beast appears to be the Greek empire inaugurated by Alexander the Great. This final beast sported an arrogant little horn, surely representative of Antiochus, who persecuted the Jews for three and a half years. When the author of Daniel writes in chapter 12, From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days (three and a half years), he refers to a pagan statue of Zeus erected beside the sacred altar of the Temple.

Scholars are nearly unanimous in dating the book of Daniel to around the year 165 B.C., rather than the 6^th century B.C. in which its main character lived. Why? Partly because that’s when the “prophecies” begin to fail. Today’s verse promises that Antiochus will die in battle somewhere between the Mediterranean and Jerusalem. But Antiochus died in the year 164 B.C., far to the east, in Persia.

Book review: The Help

by Kathryn Stockett 

★★★★★

The Help is a powerful victory celebration for the human race. Once in a while, a story comes along that transcends entertainment and hits us between the eyes. Watch the movie. Read the book. Watch the movie again.

This touching story about bridging the difference between white Mississippi homeowners and black maids in the 60’s will leave you laughing through your tears. Conflict grows over separate bathrooms, separate eating places, distrust, and legal inequity. It is only because we, as a nation, as a human race, have taken great steps toward conquering racism that we can look back together on the 60’s and smile at its heroes.

“God don’t pay no mind to color,” claims Aibileen, one of the “help” who raises a string of seventeen white children belonging to mothers too busy or uninterested to bother. These black maids, and the one white woman with enough fire to bridge the gap, are the heroes of the story. Stockett’s runaway bestseller overcame more than 60 rejections from literary agents and numerous sneers from critics wondering how a white author dare try to get inside the heads of black people who had long been considered property.

Please forgive my religious commentary over the remainder of the review. Racism has not been an easy monster to eradicate, and we still have obstacles to overcome. But we’re working on them, and are right to celebrate our progress. Sexual inequality has been another hurdle. Religious intolerance still occasionally rears its ugly head. But there is one area where the struggle against prejudice remains most fierce, and in this arena, our favorite religion (Christianity) has been far more of a hindrance than a help. This disturbing Biblical passage highlights the obstacle we must somehow overcome:

Romans 1:26-27, Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

“Due penalty” for their “perversion?” Sigh. We’ve come so far in some areas. Can we achieve the same level of victory in the arena of Gay Rights? Can we overcome the teachings of our holy books and leave behind our prejudices over differences in sexual preference? This would mean either recognizing that the Bible is imperfect, or rejecting the obvious translation in favor of a more humanitarian understanding. Frankly, I don’t care which we choose as Christians … as long as we choose one or the other. Let’s not let our Bible make us any less Christian.

Acts 1:18-19, The Many Stories of Judas

With the reward he got for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.

//Bible writers often seem to take liberty with facts, relaying a story more for its meaning than for its historical accuracy. This often leads to what we consider contradictions in the Bible, because we have such a habit of reading the Bible literally. But this expectation of historical accuracy is unfair to the flavor of the Bible. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the tale of Judas, where we have two completely different stories, but with a similar portrayal and moral, ending in a possible factoid … a Field of Blood.

Let's begin with Luke's tale, as it seems just a bit more plausible. As in Mark and John, here Judas receives an untold amount of money for betraying Jesus. Afterward, Judas purchases a field with the money, but divine justice catches up with him. He falls in the field, spilling his guts (quite literally), so they name it the Field of Blood.

Matthew tells an entirely different story. In Matthew’s version, Judas receives exactly thirty pieces of silver for betraying Jesus, which is clearly meant to bring to mind the story of the rejected shepherd in Zechariah. (Matthew mistakenly attributes the "prophecy" of thirty pieces of silver to Jeremiah, but it was Zechariah.) Lets look at that story now, to see where Matthew is going with this line of thought.

Zechariah 11:12-13, I told them, "If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it." So they paid me thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter"--the handsome price at which they priced me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD to the potter.

Zechariah’s shepherd takes the money and throws it into the temple, the "house of the LORD.” So, Matthew revises his story of Judas. Please don’t ask why Judas is playing the “shepherd” role instead of the bad guy; I don’t know. But Judas no longer purchases a field with his money. Filled with regret, he brings the money back to chief priests—exactly thirty pieces of silver, of course—and throws it down in the temple.

In Mark’s Gospel, the story of Judas provides a literary reference to 2 Samuel, where Ahithophel is the betrayer of David … just as Judas betrayed Jesus. In that story, Ahithophel hanged himself, and so Matthew reports the same end for Judas.

But that presents a problem for Matthew. How, then, to account for the field of blood? Matthew finds another solution; in his version, the returned money is used by the chief priests to buy the “Potters Field” because it is “blood money.” Thus the field comes to be known as the Field of Blood.

Book review: The Feasts of the Lord

by Kevin Howard and Marvin Rosenthal 

★★★★★

Excellent! Whether you are a Jesus scholar or a Christian, this book is for you. And if you’re both, this book can’t be missed. You’ll learn about:

Passover

The Feast of Unleavened Bread

The Feast of Firstfruits

Shavuot – The Feast of Weeks

Rosh Hashanah – The Feast of Trumpets

Yom Kippur – The Day of Atonement

Sukkot – The Feast of Tabernacles

Hanukkah – The Feast of Dedication

Purim – the Feast of Lots

Also there's a great discussion of the Jubilee year. Inspirational and informative, complete with pictures, photos and charts, Howard and Rosenthal first explain the Jewish calendar and discuss the flavor and atmosphere of the Spring and Fall seasons. Then they go through each of the feasts in more detail, presenting their Biblical observance, modern-day observance among Jews, and most fascinating of all, their fulfillment by Jesus. Preterists and historical-critical scholars will easily relate the fulfillment of each feast to the first century, while believers in a futuristic return of Christ will be just as satisfied. (Howard and Rosenthal subscribe to the traditional futuristic interpretation.)

I can’t overemphasize how much more meaning you’ll find when you read Paul and the Gospels if you start with a basic understanding of the Jewish Feasts. The New Testament just reads so much more rich and inspirational from a Jewish perspective! Particularly the Johannine literature, John’s Gospel and Revelation, in which an underlying theme is the fulfillment of the Jewish Feasts. Both these Biblical books recognize the destruction of the Temple as the end of an age, presenting Jesus as the replacement for all the Jewish rituals.

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Revelation 8:11, Wormwood

[T]he name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.

//In Revelation, seven trumpets blare in turn, initiating multiple horrors upon the earth. This verse stems from the third trumpet, which foretells a great star, burning like a torch, falling from the sky. John of Patmos names this star "Wormwood."

Wormwood is a bitter plant. John gave this blazing star (or perhaps just a particularly large fireball--many have related the imagery of this chapter to the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D.) the name "Bitterness." It may be a reference to the polluted waters from the falling ash. Deuteronomy uses the term "Wormwood" to warn Israel of their destruction if they become disobedient. If this chapter in Revelation truly refers to the volcanic eruption of Vesuvius, then John connects the pestilence caused by its spreading ash to the covenantal punishment described in the books of Moses.

The next trumpet to sound marks a third of the sun being struck, and a third of the day going dark, an eerily precise description of the ashen haze when Vesuvius erupted, as reported by Pliny the Younger: "The sun was blocked out by the eruption and the daylight hours were left in darkness." Ash from the eruption reached Africa, Syria, and Egypt, causing pestilence. John's name for the fireball he describes, Wormwood, is perfect.

Book review: The Message Bible

by Eugene H. Peterson

★★★★

I love this contemporary Bible! It’s not the most accurate translation—it’s really not fair to even call it a translation, but rather a paraphrase betraying Peterson’s religious convictions—but I just find it enjoyable to read. It’s poetic and beautiful. Do not use it as a study Bible, but as an inspiring read.

I chose the book of John to highlight some of the translations, so you can get a feel for the wording. These aren’t my favorite passages, but they do highlight what I mean by a “paraphrasing.”

KJV: John 1:12-13, But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Message: But whoever did want him, who believed he was who he claimed and would do what he said, He made to be their true selves, their child-of-God selves. These are the God-begotten, not blood-begotten, not flesh-begotten, not sex-begotten.

KJV: John 1:31, And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water.

Message: I knew nothing about who he was—only this: that my task has been to get Israel ready to recognize him as the God-Revealer. That is why I came here baptizing with water, giving you a good bath and scrubbing sins from your life so you can get a fresh start with God.

KJV: John 3:29-30, He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.

Message: The one who gets the bride is, by definition, the bridegroom. And the bridegroom’s friend, his ‘best man’—that’s me—in place at his side where he can hear every word, is genuinely happy. How could he be jealous when he knows that the wedding is finished and the marriage is off to a good start? That’s why my cup is running over. This is the assigned moment for him to move into the center, while I slip off to the sidelines.

KJV: John 6:43-44, Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to me, except he Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Message: Jesus said, “Don’t bicker among yourselves over me. You’re not in charge here. The Father who sent me is in charge. He draws people to me—that’s the only way you’ll ever come. Only then do I do my work, putting people together, setting them on their feet, ready for the End.

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Amos 4:6, Clean teeth

And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities … yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.

//Here’s an odd verse. God seems to be saying that he granted Israel snow-white choppers and still they didn’t turn to him.

As I admire the manicured smiles of American Idol contestants, I wonder how many of them give glory to God for their oral hygiene?

OK, enough toying with you. “Clean teeth” in Bible days is no gift. It means an empty stomach, and it’s God’s way of saying that as much bad fortune as he smote Israel with, they would not give in.

Book review: God Soul Mind Brain

By Michael S. A. Graziano 

★★★★★

Can a science book be also a feel-good book? This one is. Thank you, Graziano, for the lift.

Graziano brings to the table a professorship in social neuroscience, and builds atop the work of Dawkins and others in social memes, to explain what makes us human. He explains the workings of the brain to model the world around us, helping us interact socially and “feel” our way through life. Consciousness, the great mystery of our age, is merely “social perception applied inwardly.” It’s a process, not a thing. The book is short and very readable, but if you do find yourself struggling to grasp or appreciate the material, then skip over parts, but don’t put the book down before the final chapter.

Graziano is an atheist who thinks religion is complex and marvelous. That’s a good thing, because he also feels religion cannot be outgrown. He wants nothing to do with the aggressive new atheism which seeks to ridicule the religious into discarding dangerous beliefs for rational thinking. “I simply think that eradicating religion is not possible. It is a fallacy that ignores the specs of the human machine. We are not rational entities. Religion, like all culture, grows on the social machinery in our brains.”

God, it turns out, is the amygdala, though Graziano would never say this outright, and he’ll probably hunt me down for misrepresenting him. His own definition of God is “the perception of intentionality on a global scale. It is the perception of a single, unified mind behind every otherwise inexplicable event.” Don’t worry if this sounds like geek-speak, because the discussion of intentionality will make the definition clear and simple. In fact, everything in the book is clear and simple, enjoyable and unforgettable. Read it!

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Genesis 1:1, What holds the earth up?

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

//So begins our story of the creation in Genesis chapter 1. Picture a flat earth, unmoving, poking up out of the water. A bowl, or dome, covers and protects the entire earth, which separates the waters below from the waters above. Doors in the heavens (the top of the dome) allow water from above to come through as rain.  If you would like to think of an enclosed dome-shaped snow globe, one of those Christmas scenes you shake upside down and then turn right side up to watch the snow fall, you'll have the general idea.

The sun and the moon, the two great lights, track across the underside of this dome every day and night to provide light. At night, most people imagined the stars to be either gods or angels, while some pictured them as little holes in the dome for the gods to peek through. Below the waters is hell (Sheol), the realm of the dead.

But here's the puzzle. What holds the whole thing up? The Bible actually provides several solutions to the puzzle:

Psalm 24:1, For he hath founded [the earth] upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. That's all fine and well, but what keeps the earth from sinking into the sea, or at least floating away?

Psalm 104:5, Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever. Ah! So we have a foundation beneath us, keeping us stabilized. But it's still not clear what keeps us on top of the water.

1 Samuel 2:8, The pillars of the earth are the LORD'S, and he hath set the world upon them. Here's the answer. Pillars! Pillars run down from the earth, through the waters, to Sheol, where they hit bedrock. This was a common belief in antiquity, shared between several ancient Mediterranean civilizations, and the earth’s pillars are mentioned multiple times in the Bible. But not everybody believed this; Job has his own idea:

Job 26:7, [God] stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.

Perhaps we'll never know for sure how it all stays afloat.

Book review: Jesus Potter Harry Christ

by Derek Murphy 

★★★★★

Was Harry Potter molded in the form of Jesus Christ? This book touches on the similarities between Jesus and Harry, but only as a surface introduction and running theme floating above a much deeper topic. The meat of the book is in its serious research into Jesus as a nonhistoric figure, a developed myth. Like our favorite little wizard.

This idea of a nonhistorical Jesus greatly disturbs most Christians. Murphy takes a stab at explaining our unease: “If Jesus was not historical, he would have been no different from other myths and fables … he would be meaningless, and it is impossible for him to be meaningless, because he is meaningful to me. Therefore he is historical.” He’s right, the idea of Christ as a myth is more than a bit disconcerting; it hits at the very heart of many of us.

Yet Murphy’s intent is not to demote Jesus to the role of an ordinary fictional being, or even an ordinary god. Jesus was never meant to be the same as other contemporary figures of mythology; to his storytellers, he was the epitome of such. “Jesus would be something entirely new simply by virtue of his being an assimilation of the best features of each. Jesus is the culmination and combination of all other religious traditions of his time.”

Murphy sifts through various mystery religions and myths of a dying and resurrecting god, and their possible influence upon the Gospel story. For once, it’s done tastefully and without sensationalism. Maybe you’ve read works by Freke, Dougherty, and Harpur. While I don’t want to take anything away from those researchers—their books are interesting in their own right—I found Murphy’s tempered treatment much more to my taste. Without trying to foist a Gnostic version of Christianity on me, and without succumbing to overzealous scholarship, Murphy gently yet forcefully introduces the strong similarities between Christianity and other first-century religious philosophies and mystery cults, concluding in the strong likelihood that Jesus was a mythical savior.

I cannot help but add my two cents. Part of Murphy’s argument seems to be that it’s unreasonable to expect first-century writers to knowingly attribute mythical qualities and stories to a historical person. Ergo, Jesus must have been understood mythically. I must confess that my area of research biases me in favor of a historical Jesus. I’m a hard sell, because for years I immersed myself in the topic of divine attributions awarded to real, historical persons in the Imperial Cult (the cult of the Caesars) and I recognize much of the New Testament as a response on the same playing field; Christians lifting up their guy in the same manner. I find nothing strange about honoring a man such as Jesus in supernatural story and find it a quite plausible explanation for the plethora of Jesus’ similarities to pagan gods and heroes.

Additionally, in order for Murphy to prove Jesus was never a real person, so much hinges on Paul, our earliest Christian writer, and Paul is an enigma. Murphy points out many interesting similarities between the teachings of Paul and the mystery religions, where the central rite, it appears, was a symbolic death of the initiate, followed by rebirth into a new life. Sounds a lot like Paul, doesn’t it? Murphy argues that Paul recognized Jesus’ crucifixion metaphorically, and expected his converts to experience the same death. Unquestionably, Gnostic strands of Christianity did worship Jesus in the form of a mystery religion, and such groups did embrace the writings of Paul. But would such an understanding of Jesus drive Paul to such great suffering and imprisonment? Would it leave him absolutely convinced that the world was ending—quite literally and quite rapidly—and that believers in Christ would be swept up to heaven? Remember, Paul was so convinced the end of the world drew near that he even encouraged abstinence, telling his readers that the time grew so short that they needn’t bother marrying.

So, even though it’s hard for me to fully embrace Murphy’s conclusion, I loved the book, and found it to be a fascinating and scholarly contribution to a very hot debate. It should be welcomed as such.

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Jeremiah 13:23, Can a leopard change its spots?

Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.

//Can’t say I ever paid much attention to this verse before. An Ethiopian (Hebrew: Cushite) is a black-skinned person, probably from the upper Nile region. As many times as I’ve heard the popular saying about a leopard changing its spots, I’ve never heard anyone mention the first half of this verse, about whether a black person can change the color of his or her skin skin.

Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.

OK, I don’t really think the Bible is being racist, here. Elsewhere in the Bible, the Cushites are treated with respect; particularly, the lovely lady of Solomon’s affection in Song of Solomon. Still, I hope the first part of the cliché never catches on.

Book review: Adam, Eve, and the Serpent

by Elaine Pagels 

★★★★

Augustine, arguably Christianity’s greatest teacher, often stressed the sinful nature of sexual desire. Adam’s sin corrupted the whole of nature itself, and infants are infected from the moment of conception with the disease of original sin. When did this idea come about that sex is inherently sinful? When did the fall become the Fall?

In Genesis 1, God gifted the power of earthly rule to Adam. Yet, in the late fourth and fifth centuries, this message began to change. Adam’s prideful desire for self-government led to the fall—I mean, the Fall—of mankind, and ever since, humanity has been sick, helpless, irreparably damaged. Human beings are incapable of self rule, not in any genuinely good way.

Says Augustine, “even the nature of the semen from which we were to be propagated” is “shackled by the bond of death.” Every being conceived through semen is born contaminated with sin. Christ alone is born without this sin, this libido. Because of Adam’s disobedience, “the sexual desire of our disobedient members arose in those first human beings.” These members are rightly called pudenda [parts of shame] because they “excite themselves just as they like, in opposition to the mind which is their master, as if they were their own masters.”

Okay, perhaps I have overemphasized Augustine and his hangup about sex. There’s more to the book, and Pagels is a good writer who manages to turn even this dubious topic into a fascinating read.

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