Tag: politics in the Bible
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Reflecting on 1 Kings 22 15-23, 26-28
We are studying 1 Kings 22:15-23 and 26-28 for Sunday, May 2. This is the story of the final interaction between the prophet Micaiah and king Ahab of [the Northern kingdom of] Israel, and it’s a textbook example of the prophet as someone who “speaks truth to power.” Also, of the frankly political issues highlighted…
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Reflecting on Deuteronomy 18 15-22
We are studying Deuteronomy 18:15-22 for Sunday, March 7. [Some notes on the text are here.] This is the last paragraph in a larger section of Deuteronomy that deals with authoritative roles within the ancient Israelite community. That larger section begins at Deuteronomoy 16:18. The parallel structure of that section of the text pairs the…
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Reversal of Values
People talked less about politics on Sunday morning’s zoom calls than you might have guessed. Mostly we talked about the Bible. So come to think of it, I guess you could say we mostly did talk about politics. The Bible is an intensely political document, in the root sense of that word, as having to…
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Questions for Reflection and Discussion – 1 Samuel 18 1-5 & 19 1-7
We are studying 1 Samuel 18:1-5 and 1 Samuel 19:1-7 for Sunday, August 4. These are two short texts that describe the legendary friendship between Jonathan and David. [My notes on the text are here.] Here are a few questions about the text that we might want to reflect on before class or discuss in…
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A Little More Love for Judges?
This month’s “special study” was the book of Judges. The curriculum consisted of Marc Zvi Brettler’s short, interesting non-commentary on the book of Judges. I say “non-commentary,” because Brettler announces explicitly in his preface that the work, a volume in the Old Testament Readings series, is “not intended as a commentary; instead its focus, following…
Matters of Interpretation 