I came across the article below today. It’s on a site for an old journal — all the issues are freely accessible. Here’s the article, but check out the site! Cohen From the Bible to the Talmud-The Prohibition of Intermarriage Note: The Old Testament...
law
Five Differences Between Qur’anic (Sharia) Law and Old Testament Law
I’d recommend this interesting essay to readers. It was published by the Christian Research Institute. The essay has some deficiencies, in that there are other important differences (and nuances within the differences noted). For example, the OT law was also...
Naked Bible 81: Leviticus 21-22
Leviticus 21-22 overlaps a great deal with earlier material in Leviticus. This episode focuses on certain mourning rites and Israel’s need to maintain a holiness distinction from pagan religions in that regard. Of special interest in this episode is Lev 21:5 (cp. Lev...
Naked Bible 80: Leviticus 19-20
This episode covers two chapters in Leviticus, chapters 19-20. Leviticus 19 is essentially a mini-Torah of sorts, in that it mimes a number of the Ten Commandments and a wide range of laws and commandments that are representative of the overall Torah. Chapter 20...
Naked Bible 74: Leviticus 11
This chapter of Leviticus describes the categories of clean and unclean animals allowed or disallowed for food. The Israelite “food laws” have long puzzled scholars. This episode overviews the various approaches to discovering a coherent rationale for these laws....
The Real Mystery of the Shemitah: How Did Christians Become so Biblically Ignorant?
Back in 2012 I wrote a short response piece to Jonathan Cahn’s inept handling of Scripture known as The Harbinger. I ended with this line: “A Christian enthralled by this twaddle deserves the label of biblical illiterate.” I haven’t changed my...
Ever Heard a Sermon on Numbers 5?
Me neither. I just got an email at work letting me know that an old Bible Study Magazine (BSM) article I wrote on the ritual for detecting adultery was re-run on the BSM blog today. It’s entitled, “Love Potion: Numbers 5.” Yes, it’s a cheesy...
Fun with the Mosaic Law: What to Do with Your Ox in a Flowchart
You have to check this out. The flowchart on what the Law says about oxen was created by a friend at Logos, Vincent Setterholm, a few years ago. I’m glad to see it’s finally gotten the attention it deserves via Christianity Today. This alone should make...
What is it with the Hebrew Roots Movement?
[Addendum, April 9, 2013: A week ago I did a podcast interview (“Extraordinary Intelligence”) where the host asked me about the Hebrew Roots Movement. I made the comment that I didn’t think all the HRM was cultish legalists or bizarre. Apparently...
Biblical Theology, Poverty, and Social Justice, Part 7
Time to get back to this series! Review of Earlier Part 6 It’s been a while since I posted Part 6 of this study/discussion. Hopefully by now many of you have read the two items I linked to in Part 6: “ Poverty and Poor: New Testament ” from Anchor...
Biblical Theology, Poverty, and Social Justice, Part 5
In the last installment of this series, I directed readers to the short essay by J. Levenson, “ Poverty and the State in Biblical Thought ” (13 pp). Levenson is a Jewish biblical scholar and a favorite of mine. I think the article is important for helping us think...
Biblical Theology, Poverty, and Social Justice, Part 4
In Part 3 of this series, I had assembled a list of verse references drawn from the ABD article (linked in Parts 2 and 3) on the poor / poverty which its author categorized as involving oppression of the poor in legal (and hence political) contexts. I then put an...
Biblical Theology, Poverty, and Social Justice, Part 3
Well, finally back to this. Since it’s been so long, I need to give readers the context of the first and second posts. Review In the first post, I had encouraged readers to keep the following items in mind as they read the essay from the Anchor Bible Dictionary...
Biblical Theology, Poverty, and Social Justice, Part 2
I’m hoping that by now those interested will have read the ABD essay I posted on terms for poverty and the poor in the Old Testament. In case readers did not take it upon themselves to do so, here is another PDF of the actual OT occurrences of each of the OT...
Naked Bible Podcast Episode 023: Legal Genre
In the last episode of our series on studying the Bible, we transitioned to an important area of study: learning to read the Bible in terms of the various types of literature found in its pages. Our first example concerned reading narrative, where I...