Genesis 34:1-31, 49:5-7, Dinah (02/10/22)

Although we know from Genesis 46:15 that Jacob had more than one daughter, the only one whose name we know is Dinah. The real Dinah reminds me of the possibly-mythical Helen of Troy. She was abducted, but loved by both her family and her abductor; she was the cause of a battle; and the events of her life caused long-term consequences for the men around her and for later generations. The tribe of Simeon got smaller and either disappeared as one of the 10 lost tribes or was eventually assimilated into the tribe of Judah, depending on who's talking. Levi became priests and tabernacle workers; they received cities throughout Israel and Judah, but no tribal lands of their own.

Judges 4:1-9, 17-24, 5:24-27, Jael (03/01/22)

I'm positive you've heard of Samson, and you've probably heard of Deborah. These were two of the judges of Israel. For a period of roughly 400 years, a tribe or group of tribes would be led periodically by a judge. The judge was raised up by God to be a military leader and then a settler of disputes for the rest of his or her life. In the case of Deborah, she settles disputes first and only becomes a military leader when she tells Barak to go out and fight the Canaanites. He sensibly replies that he'll only go if she comes with him. Barak and Deborah win the battle, but General Sisera escapes – he thinks! You might not have heard of Jael [JAIL], the real heroine of the story.

Job 9:13-15; Joshua 2:1-15, Matthew 1:5-6, Rahab, not to be confused with Rahab (03/21/22)

Sometimes when we don't know who some guy is, we're in good company. Neither does anybody else. One of these guys, or gals, or somethings, is the Rahab of Job 9:13. Look at some of these translations.

Some have Rahab as a name:

God will not turn back his anger; beneath him bowed the helpers of Rahab. (English Standard Version, also American Standard Version, Revised Version, Bible in Basic English, Jewish Publication Society, World English Bible, Easy-to-Read Version, International Standard Version, God's Word) Some have Rahab as a sea monster:

When God showed his anger, the servants of the sea monster fell at his feet. (Contemporary English Version, also Good News Bible) Some translate Rahab as proud or pride:

God withdraweth not his anger; the proud helpers stoop under him. (Darby, also King James Version, Webster, Modern King James Version) And some have something else entirely:

God, whose wrath no man can resist, and under whom they stoop that bear up the world. (Douay-Rheims) Now, I'm not criticizing translators – they've got a hard job. I'm just saying that if professional translators don't know whether Rahab is the name of a person or a sea monster, or maybe just means "proud," then how are we supposed to know? We should, however, know enough not to be too critical of someone who doesn't agree with us.

Whoever the Rahab in Job is, one thing we know for sure: it isn't the Rahab in Judges, who was a lady who helped some of Joshua's spies and later married a Jewish man named Salmon and became the great-great-grandmother of David and therefore the many-great-grandmother of Jesus.

2 Kings 22:1-20, Huldah the prophetess (03/22/22)

You've heard of Isaiah and Jeremiah, but who is Huldah? It's been a long time since we studied the relationships between the kings and prophets of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Here's the summary: the kings for the most part were a sorry lot who didn't follow God and didn't pay attention to the prophets who kept warning them. King Josiah of Judah was a notable exception. "Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him" (2 Kings 23:25). He reigned late in the history of Judah, when the rulers and the people had all but forgotten God. Nevertheless, he decides to renovate the Temple, and in the process, the workmen discover the Book of the Law, possibly the first five books of the Bible, and possibly just Deuteronomy. Well! When Josiah hears what the Book says, he knows that Judah is in big trouble, and he tears his clothes – a sign of repentance.

Far from ignoring the prophets, he immediately sends to a prophetess, Huldah, to find out what he should do. She reports that he is indeed in trouble, so much trouble that God is going to put an end to Judah; however, because Josiah was penitent and humble, the destruction would be postponed until after his death. Now, you or I might say, "Destruction is inevitable, but I won't live to see it, so I might as well save myself the trouble of fixing everything up." Not Josiah! He redoubles his efforts to cleanse the Temple and the land and restore the worship of the true God (2 Kings 23). He was a very good king, and Huldah was the prophetess who influenced his actions.

Matthew 13:55, Mark 6:3; Matthew 27:55-56 61; 28:1; Mark 15:40; John 19:25, 11:17-19; Acts 12:12; Romans 16:6, Several women named Mary (two or more of whom could be the same) (03/23/22)

Mary was an extremely popular girl's name in first-century Palestine. Several women named Mary are mentioned in the New Testament, and they are way more confusing than the Jameses and Simons. Three of them are mentioned several times, with enough detail that we know they are different: Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus. You need to know this first group of three.

Several others are mentioned only once or twice, with few or no details: Mary the wife of Clopas, Mary the mother of James and Joseph/Joses, Mary the mother of Mark, Mary of Rome, and the other Mary. Scholars seem to think there are three or four, or maybe five, distinct women in this group.

Wikipedia puts the total number of NT Marys between 6 and 9; however, I suspect practically everybody thinks "Mary of Bethany" and "Mary sister of Martha in Luke" are the same person. John Mark was in Rome with Peter, so Mary of Rome could easily be his mother; apparently, I'm the only one who thinks that. The other Mary could be just about anybody except Mary Magdalene. Mary the wife of Clopas could be also be the mother of James and Joses. (For that matter, Mary the mother of Jesus could be the mother of James and Joses at the cross, although that seems unlikely.)

So what you need to know about the second group is that nobody knows for sure who they are or how many they are. The only thing we know for certain is that they all loved Jesus.

Romans 16:1-16; Philippians 4:2-3, Phoebe, Prisca/Priscilla, Julia, Junia, Tryphena, Tryphosa, Persis; Rufus's mother, Euodia and Syntyche (03/24/22)

OK, I'm about to go on a rant, but it's a biblical-study rant, not a feminist rant. You will very often hear that "the Bible doesn't talk about women" or that "women weren't considered to be important" or, even worse, that "women were just property." Have the people saying that ever read the Bible?? Because it just isn't so. What is so is that many of the feminine names in the Bible are just as unpronounceable and unrecognizable as the masculine names. Having been taught all of the above, we just assume that all names we don't know are masculine. And occasionally some scribe decided to change a feminine name to the masculine version, like changing Patricia to Patrick, and these later manuscripts influenced translations.

Paul thought women were important enough to greet individually and by name in his letters. He names Phoebe as a deaconess, using exactly the same word that he uses for deacons in 1 Timothy 3:10. God's Word and the International Standard Version, bless their hearts, have deacon or deaconess; most translations call Phoebe a servant and only male church leaders deacons. Acts and the letters of Paul mention Prisca and her husband Aquila seven times, always together, and she is named first five times. Paul calls Junia an apostle. She's one of the ones whose name got changed to the masculine form, Junias, in later manuscripts, and even some modern translations have Junias. Anyway, Phoebe, Prisca, Julia, Junia, Tryphena, Tryphosa, Persis, Euodia, and Syntyche are all women and all beloved associates and even fellow-workers of Paul, as are Rufus's mother and Nereus's sister. So what you need to remember is that a lot of important people aren't guys at all.

Acts 16:11-15, 40, Philippians 1:1-7; 2 Timothy 1:1-7, Lydia; Lois, Eunice (03/25/22)

Three women were especially influential in Paul's ministry. Lydia was a businesswoman in Philippi and the first European convert to Christianity. (Philippi was located in what is now eastern Greece.) Paul was adamant that he would never depend on his converts or churches for support, but Lydia was so insistent that he had to make an exception for her. She started a house church, which continued to support him in his missionary work. Was she forceful because she was successful, or successful because she was forceful? Either way, Paul – no wallflower himself – had met his match.

Two other influential ladies – although more indirectly – are Lois and Eunice, Timothy's grandmother and mother. They may have raised Timothy in the faith, and certainly they encouraged and supported him in his faith. Timothy in turn was one of Paul's trusted and beloved students and helpers. We should always be aware of our influence on the younger members of our families and churches, so that the faith that lives in us may live also in them.

1 Kings 10:1-13, Queen of Sheba (03/28/22)

You know that there are scores of kings named in the Bible, and you personally could list of quite a few of them. What about the queens? Who are they? This week we'll look at a few queens.

By the way, I've known for practically my entire life that my name, Regina, means queen in Latin, and my sister's name, Candace, means queen (or possibly Ethiopian queen) in Greek. I was puzzled to find a number of websites that say Candace means pure/white/clear etc., in Latin, and I checked Google translate. Nope, it's Greek and means queen. Where do people come up with this stuff?? Do not believe everything you read on the Internet! I've mentioned before that some of the stuff you read about the Bible in particular (even my stuff!) should be ignored or regarded with deep suspicion. Before you accept what your read on the web, read the Bible, ask your pastor, or even send me an email.

Anyway, one of the queens you probably can name is the Queen of Sheba. Where is Sheba? Well, depending (as always) on which scholars and traditions you believe, Sheba was located in what is now southern Arabia or in what is now Ethiopia. Ethiopia has roots in antiquity, and several Ethiopian dynasties have claimed descent from Solomon and the Queen of Sheba; vs. 13 is taken to mean that Solomon gave her a child. According to Wikipedia, the modern nation is about 67% Christian and 30% Muslim, with a small but ancient Jewish community and a few other religions.

Acts 8:26-40, Candace, Queen of Ethiopia (03/29/22)

The Ethiopian eunuch is a high official in the court of the Candace, or perhaps Queen Candace. Scholars can't quite decide whether this is a job title, like "queen," or a throne name taken by all the queens of Ethiopia. Either way, I think it's interesting that she has allowed one of her main guys to take time off to make the long trip to Jerusalem to worship. It's roughly 2200 miles, so he was probably gone for about a year. (Travelers on the Oregon Trail took 5 months to go 1500 miles, but without the kids, grannies, and livestock, he probably was making better time.) Who took charge of her treasury while he was gone? Did she let him go because she also was a believer in the God of the Jews? We don't know. The eunuch took the good news about Jesus back to Ethiopia, which could account for the 67% of the population that is Christian today.

Esther 4:9 – 5:8, 7:1-10, Queen Esther (03/30/22)

I'm pretty sure that you know who Queen Esther is, since she has a whole book of the Bible telling about her rescue of the Jews in exile from the nefarious plot of the evil Haman. You might even know that Esther is reputed to be the only book of the Bible that doesn't mention God. I say "reputed" because I said once before that it "is," and I was immediately notified by alert fellow-reader Daryl L. that neither does the Song of Solomon.

But did you know that the Septuagint, the Old Testament Greek translation prepared by (reputedly) 70 rabbis around 300 BC, has a more fulsome version of Esther that mentions God a lot? (If you have a Bible with Apocrypha, then you've probably got both versions.) I thought today we'd read about the same event from both the English Standard Version, which translates the Hebrew, and the Douay-Rheims Bible, which translates the Greek. Not only does the DRB mention God three times here, but it also gives us expanded pictures of Queen Esther and the king.

No one could approach the king without being summoned, upon pain of death. If you show up and the king withholds his scepter, it's curtains for you. Esther hasn't been summoned for a month, but after three days of fasting and prayer, she goes forward anyway, and the king extends his scepter toward her. The description of Esther in DRB 15:5-10 is certainly consistent with the idea that she hasn't eaten in three days. The king's tenderness toward her is also completely consistent with the picture we get of him from the Hebrew in Esther 7, where the king is enraged to find out about Haman's plot against her people and his actions against her person.

English Standard Version:

Douay Rheims Bible:

Jeremiah 44:7-28, The queen of heaven (03/31/22)

There's an interesting theological argument going on between Jeremiah and the Jews who have escaped to Egypt during the time of the Exile. Jeremiah is saying, "Stop worshiping the false goddess, the queen of heaven, or else really bad things will happen to you, just like the bad things that have already happened to exiles to Babylon!" The Egyptian Jews are saying, "Hey, we've been worshiping the queen of heaven for a long time, and things were just fine. So that's what we're going to keep on doing, and you can just go away." Jeremiah answers, "Why and how do you think Judah got exiled in the first place? But you do what you want to do, and see how it works out for you."

There doesn't seem to be a lot of agreement on who the queen of heaven might have been – maybe the moon, maybe Astarte, maybe some Egyptian goddess. The queen of heaven under discussion in Jeremiah, however, should not be confused with Mary, the mother of Jesus, who is known as the queen of heaven in Roman Catholicism and several other denominations.

2 Kings 11:1-21, Queen Athaliah (04/01/22)

Now, by this time you have figured out that there were lots of kings of Judah and Israel. Israel had a number of dynasties, most founded by assassins. Judah had only one dynasty, the Davidic dynasty, preceded by King Saul, who had no dynasty. This means that every king of Judah after David was descended from David. However, there was one queen, Athaliah [a-thuh-LIE-uh], who not only didn't descend from David, she actually descended from one of the assassins in Israel and was married to the old king of Judah. She was primarily responsible for introducing the worship of Baal into Judah. When her son, King Ahaziah of Judah, dies in battle, she thinks, "Cool! Now I can have my turn at assassination!" She kills all of her descendants except for one tiny boy, whom she overlooked. After six years of Athaliah's rule, the high priest brings the boy out of hiding, has Athaliah executed, and puts Ahaziah's son Joash on the throne.

This sad story has one very funny note when the usurper and assassin Athaliah cries, "Treason! Treason!"

Isaiah 14:1-22, Lucifer (A name seen in a few translations) (04/04/22)

Just about a year ago during the livestream worship service, the following scene took place in my home:

This week we'll visit with five guys whose legends have grown beyond their reality. Our question won't be so much "Who is this guy?" as "Who is this guy really?" Thanks to fellow-readers Jack and Carol for helping me come up with this week's guys. We'll start with a well-known fellow, Lucifer, the king of Babylon.

"Lucifer" is a rather beautiful Latin name that means "light-bearer." It is a translation of the Hebrew "morning star" or the Greek "dawn-bringer." All three refer to the morning star, Venus. The word occurs only once in the Bible, as "Lucifer" only in some translations, and only metaphorically to refer to the king of Babylon, who was certainly no shining light. The biblical Lucifer does not refer to the Devil in any way, shape, or form! Isaiah says right there in the text that he is taunting the king of Babylon, partly by comparing the king's aspirations to his forthcoming destruction.

I suspect that the first time "lucifer" came into the Bible was in the Vulgate, a 4th-century Latin translation by St. Jerome. Later English translations took it as a name, as in the King James Version:

How

Somehow Lucifer was later taken to be a fallen angel, and then became a common name for the fallen angel, the Devil or Satan. I can't figure out exactly how that happened. If you know for sure, drop me a line, and I'll share it with our fellow-readers.

Exodus 6:23, 14:8-22; Numbers 2:3, 7:12; Matthew 1:4, Nahshon (Was he the first to enter the water?) (04/05/22)

A few months ago, after the UMC's NW Texas Conference had its annual meeting, my sister called me. The bishop had told an exciting story about the guy who was first into the water when the children of Israel were escaping from the Egyptians. The waters hadn't parted, but as soon as Moses gave the word, the guy waded in. He went up to his knees, but the waters still hadn't parted. He went farther, and the waters still didn't part. Finally, when only his nostrils and the top of his head were out of the water, the sea parted, and the Israelites passed through on dry land. My sister and her pastor were going crazy trying to remember the name of the guy and where this was in the Bible.

I didn't remember the guy or the story, so I checked Exodus 14. Not there. I checked the Septuagint, because as we saw last week with Esther, sometimes the Greek OT gives additional details. Not there. So I checked Google, and with a little searching around, I found the story, and guy's name is Nahshon son of Amminadab. The story turns out to be an ancient midrash, which is sort of a rabbinical sermon or commentary about a biblical text. The only thing we know about Nahshon is that he was the brother-in-law of Aaron, the chief of the tribe of Judah, and one of the ancestors of Jesus.

Nevertheless, somebody had to go into the water first, and that somebody had to be a leader, fearless and full of faith. We might as well call him Nahshon.

Reader Question:

Exodus 14:19-20a

Answer:

Matthew 1:18-25, 2:13-15, 19-23; Luke 2:4-5, 16, 21-24, 46-48; Mark 6:3, Joseph (Was he old and previously married?) (04/06/22)

I've heard of soteriology and even angelology, but I have to admit that Josephology, which I just heard of today, is a new one on me. Interest in Joseph is naturally very ancient, but centers for the theological study of Joseph, or Josephology, have been formed mainly since the 1950s. Seriously, people? Joseph was no doubt a good, hard-working, just man, right with God, and a good father to Jesus and his other children. But a theological study of the man?? Talk about your legend growing beyond your reality!

Here's what we actually know. He was a descendant of David and the husband of Mary; he was visited by an angel at least three times; and, per the Gospels, he was the father of Jesus as far as anybody knew at the time. He was a tekton – a builder or craftsman – by trade, although from the early days of Christianity he has been considered to be a carpenter, which is certainly one kind of tekton. He had other children.

Now for the famous things that we don't actually know about Joseph, all of which seem implausible to me. You may or may not agree. Joseph is often depicted as a man much older than Mary and as previously married. Presumably this is to explain the "brothers and sisters" of Jesus and the fact that we hear nothing of Joseph after Jesus is 12 years old. An alternative idea is that both Joseph and Mary were lifelong virgins, and the "brothers and sisters" are actually cousins. I have four objections to Joseph's advanced age and previous marriage or alternative virginity.

I've never seen an explanation of why an older man, presumably an established carpenter, was so poor that he couldn't afford the lamb for purification (Leviticus 12:6-8) and had to substitute a second turtledove.
Joseph took his very pregnant young wife with him to Bethlehem, but he didn't take the rest of his children. I suggest it's because he didn't have any other children at the time.
To believe in the perpetual virginity of Joseph, you have to ignore the various scriptures that explicitly refer to Jesus' "brothers and sisters" and not "kinsmen."
I've had enough ancestors and ancestresses who died young not to find his absence to be compelling evidence that Joseph was old when Jesus was born. I'll admit that he probably died sometime between Jesus' appearance in the Temple and the beginning of his ministry.

Matthew 2:1-12, The Wise Men (They were scholars from the East, and that's all we know!) (04/07/22)

Everybody knows that the wise men were three kings, Melchoir, Caspar, and Balthazar, who represented respectively Persia, India, and Arabia, right? Well, wrong.

The Bible does not say that there were three of them, does not say that they were kings, does not give their names, and does not say where they came from, other than "the east." As a matter of fact, it doesn't say that they were men, since the plural magi could include women as well. Worst of all, it doesn't necessarily say they were wise! This last point came as a bit of a surprise to me.

My Greek-English lexicon has two definitions. The first is "a Magus," which is a Persian or Babylonian "wise man or priest, who was expert in astrology, interpretation of dreams and various other secret arts." There's some thinking that they were specifically Zoroastrian priests. All this agrees well with Matthew's report that they showed up because they saw a star rise and interpreted it (correctly) to mean that a new king of the Jews had been born and that they should come and worship him.

The second definition in the lexicon is "magician." This is how it's usually given in Daniel 5 and Acts 13. Now, Daniel was in the east, so the "magicians" there were probably exactly the same crowd as the magi of Matthew 2, especially since the king was asking them to interpret the foreign writing on the wall. Furthermore, the magicians of Daniel 5 are a subset of "the wise" whom the king had summoned.

All in all, I still like non-reader Madison's suggestion of "scholars" best of all, because it seems to be the English word that best describes the magus's functions. Speaking as a certified scholar myself, however, I can assure you that not all scholars are wise. The legend of the Three Wise Men has grown well beyond the reality presented in the Bible.

1 John 2:18-23, 4:1-8; 2 John 1:7-11; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4; Daniel 11:21, 31; Revelations 13:1, The Antichrist (Is there one Antichrist or many antichrists? Whatever, he's not in Daniel or Revelation.) (04/08/22)

And finally, the guy you've all been waiting for, the guy whose legend has most outgrown his reality: the Antichrist! The legend is enormous, and the guy... hmm... isn't a specific guy at all. Don't be misled by "the" antichrist; this is just like saying "the dog has four legs." We aren't saying that there is a single Dog, nor even that all dogs have four legs, just that dogs typically have four legs. And don't be misled at all by that capital A. Remember that the original manuscripts were written completely in capital letters, and most translations have a small A.

Have you ever had your name in the paper or on the news? As near as I can tell, if you have, then the chances are good that somebody has accused you of being the Antichrist. In the course of my research (i.e., web-surfing) I discovered that just about everybody you've ever heard of – every current or former world leader, every pope, many actors, many entrepreneurs – has been thought by somebody somewhere to be the Antichrist. The accusers go into great detail about how their candidate matches the characteristics of the Antichrist in the Bible, normally in Daniel or Revelation and sometimes in 2 Thessalonians. Names with six letters are taken as proof. I saw nothing about 1 or 2 John.

Here's the problem: the Antichrist does not appear in Daniel, Revelation, or 2 Thessalonians! Any claim that somebody is the Antichrist based on the descriptions of the contemptible person of Daniel, the beast of Revelation, or the man of lawlessness of 2 Thessalonians is completely bogus ! Sorry for all the yelling, but this kind of non-scriptural, divisive, unloving nonsense really gets my goat. Oh goodness! I said "goat"! I must be the Antichrist, because Daniel talks about the goat three times, and my middle name has three letters!

So who is the antichrist really? Well, the word antichristos/antichrist appears only in 1 and 2 John, and John isn't talking about a specific capital-A Antichrist. He's talking about many people, each of whom is a little-a antichrist. "Antichrist" just means "against Christ." It doesn't mean some superpowerful polar opposite person who is going to be present at the end times. John defines an antichrist very clearly: anyone who denies that Jesus is the Christ or who denies the Father and the Son. In other words, anyone who is anti-Christ is an antichrist.

God is love. Jesus said, "Love one another." So love your neighbor, and don't be anti-Christ.

More of Who Is This Guy?
Introduction
Three guys named Ananias, Two Prophets, and Several Foreign Kings
Foreign gods and goddesses, Caleb, the Sons of Aaron, and Two Jehus
Gehazi, Four or five guys named James, Three Important Wives, Children with Ominous Names, and Ten Simeons and Simons
Biblical guys who are gals, Several queens, and who is this guy really?
Guys, and one Gal, with God in their Name

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