James McGrath on Elisha and the Two Bears

If you are familiar with some of the more bizarre stories of the Old Testament, this one is probably near the top of the list.  A number of youths ridicule the prophet Elisha, he curses them, and two bears come out of the woods to maul the boys.  Four bloggers have recently interacted with this story if you are interested in seeing a couple of different approaches.  I think McGrath’s post is the best among the four if you only have time to check out one of them today.  Sometimes scholars in the field of Biblical Studies can take themselves a bit too seriously, but his post is both humorous and instructive at the same time:

  1. James McGrath – Bad Boy Bible Study
  2. David Ker – Bad Boy Bible Study Meets Ship of Fools
  3. Douglas Mangum – Bizarre Bible Stories: 2 Kings 2.23-34
  4. Tim Bulkeley – Watch Out or the Bears will Get You