Matthew 23: Jesus tells the people to trust what the legal experts and Pharisees tell them, but don’t do what they do. He recognizes that they know what they are talking about, but their actions don’t reflect what they say. He then condemns the legal experts and Pharisees for all of their actions, calling them hypocrites. This chapter has a lot of examples of all of the bad things they’ve done.
Continue reading “Matthew 23-24”Matthew 21-22
Matthew 21: There’s a lot going on in this chapter and I’m struggling to unpack it. We first see a story about Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey and a colt. This apparently fulfills what was foretold in Zechariah. I sent off an email to Father Greg asking if the NT writers had access to the OT scrolls. I just wonder if since this was written AFTER Jesus’s death, did the authors add things like this to strengthen his story. For example, here’s what the notes say for this part of the text:
Continue reading “Matthew 21-22”Isaiah 28-30; Matthew 19-20
Isaiah 28: The Lord is a refuge and protection. Isaiah condemns the leaders of Ephraim and Judah for their drunkard actions and lack of trust in God. They have instead put their faith into others for their protection. According to Isaiah, God specifically says “One who trusts will not panic” (p. 1004 NRSV).
Isaiah 25-27; Psalm 102-103
Isaiah 25: The banquet of the Lord of hosts. This chapter is a complete 180 from the previous chapter. Whereas Isaiah 24 focused on the total destruction of the Earth, this chapter focuses on celebration. The first part of this chapter praises God’s actions, the good and the bad. Isaiah praises God for how he treats the least fortunate people as well as how he destroyed those who strayed, acknowledging that this will make others fear God.
Isaiah 22-24; Matthew 17-18
Isaiah 22: Warnings to Jerusalem and its leaders. The warnings stem from how the leaders behaved during wartime. They apparently stopped focusing on God and spent more time focusing on their defenses. At least this is according to the notes in the CEB study bible (p. 1124 OT).
Isaiah 19-21; Matthew 15-16
Isaiah 19: Threats concerning Egypt. So God strikes down Egypt because of what the people there are doing. We then see at the end of this chapter that the people turn (back?) to God and worship him again. As in, if you hold to a literal interpretation of the Bible, then you believe that the Egyptians followed God out of fear.
Again, strange way to view things. Doesn’t make any sense to me. It seems limiting.
Isaiah 16-18; Matthew 13-14
NOTE: From this point forward I will see a one sentence description of the overall message for that particular chapter. This is from the NRSV Access Bible. I like it.
Isaiah 16: More lamentations concerning Moab. This is pretty much a continuation of Isaiah 15. It’s still more about the destruction of Moab at the hands of God.
Isaiah 13-15; Psalms 99-101
Isaiah 13: Even though I am struggling with Isaiah a little bit, I really do need to get into the history of this book. I need to figure out what scholars have learned about the historical setting of this book.
This chapter is about the overthrow of Babylon. We learn in the beginning that God intends to unleash his fury on Babylon. God will put together a huge army to take out Babylon. There is a lot of description here about the horrible things that will help to these people. It’s kind of intense. For example, this is pretty intense: “Their infants will be crushed before their eyes; their houses plundered, their women raped” (CEB, v. 16, p. 1114 OT). DAMN!
Continue reading “Isaiah 13-15; Psalms 99-101”Isaiah 10-12; Matthew 11-12
Isaiah 10: The overall message in this chapter is that Assyria will not escape God’s judgment. As I read this chapter and this book overall I can’t help but think of the book by Rob Bell, What is the Bible. He argues, convincingly, that the Bible is pretty much a metaphor and guide, not to be taken literally. I need to reread what he says about the amount of violence of the Bible. Because these chapters are all about God wanting to destroy entire groups of people. Yikes.
Continue reading “Isaiah 10-12; Matthew 11-12”Visit to the Bible Collection at the Stuttgart Library
10/15/18
Today I met with Dr. Christian Herrmann, the head of the Historical Collections department at the Württembergische Landesbibliothek (State Library of Württemberg). I reached out to him a little over a week ago to see if I could set up a visit to look at the Bible Collection, which he also oversees. I was expecting a simple visit where he would set me up in a room with a few editions and let me just look over them. I was in for a surprise. He took me downstairs to the full collection and spent almost 2 hours with me showing me several different versions of the Bible.
Continue reading “Visit to the Bible Collection at the Stuttgart Library”