I have been away from blogging on the lectionary readings for a couple of days (busy week at work). I sat down to look at the Old Testament reading for today and bam – The Decalogue. Impossible not to post on that. Then, I started thinking … “The” Decalogue. Is this a proper name for…

Kudos to Rob Kashow at Tolle Lege! (I found it through John Anderson at hesed we’emet) for finding this! It is a full version of the old International Critical Commentary series online. They are publishing new commentaries and the old ones are out of copyright. The uptake for you is that the older ones are…

Did anyone see that movie Signs with Mel Gibson in it? If so, there is not much reason for watching Knowing (unless you really, really liked Signs). The whole time I was watching it I kept thinking, “This is just like that movie Signs.” At any rate, there is a very loose Old Testament connection…

I’ve noticed a bunch of these “Seven Blogs I Read Most” posts lately. It looks like the posts started with number one in the list below. Most of the blogs listed on these pages are related to Biblical Studies, both Old and New Testaments. If you are interested, check out the lists on the links…

In today’s responsive reading (which comes from Exodus 15 rather than Psalms), the Exodus is presented as a Type of creation. This is suggested by verse 5 of the chapter, which reads “The floods/deeps covered them.” The word “deeps” is the same word from Genesis 1 where darkness is over the “deep.” In both scenarios,…

Last night I stayed up reading and thinking for a little while, and I decided to look ahead at today’s Old Testament readings (Ex 14:21-15:1). I am not sure why exactly I was struck by this again last night, but for whatever reason I was struck by just how matter-of-factly Biblical stories are told sometimes.…

In today’s reading (Ex. 14.5-18) we find a potential example of what is referred to as redaction, which is basically another word for editing. It looks like there may have been two sources for this particular story that were combined together by an editor. This can be seen in an abrupt shift that takes place.…

Form critical scholars who have studied the prophetic books have identified a number of common forms of prophetic speech. Today’s reading from Jeremiah 23.1-6 is an example of a prophetic “Woe Oracle.” These oracles begin with the Hebrew word that is translated “woe,” and there are strings of these types of oracles in places like…

I wanted to post this earlier but was unable. I hope that it will still prove useful for some. This is an excerpt from Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI’s Introduction to Christianity in which he deals with today’s Old Testament lectionary reading from Exodus 3. It is one of my favorite passages in the book: Since…

In todays’ reading, Moses encounters the Lord in a burning bush that is not consumed. The Lord identifies himself by saying “I am the God of your father…” In the phrase “God of your father,” we find what Albrecht Alt identified as one of the distinctive elements of the faith of Ancient Israel. There is…