Jeremy Thompson Catholic PhD in Biblical Languages, Programmer, Runner

Boils.  My daughter has a staph infection and it’s manifesting itself as boils on her knee, elbow, and side.  I guess they’re probably not the same thing as Biblical boils, but not pleasant nonetheless.  This might be a good place for a picture, but I’m going to spare you …

A couple of weeks back I posted a video pointing out that there are a couple of differing opinions in the text about who exactly led the people out of the land of Egypt.  That video sparked an audio post by Tim Bulkeley on his 5MinuteBible.com.  Check out my video and his audio explanation.

HERE is a link to commentary on Exodus 32:7-15, which is the Old Testament lectionary reading for today.  The author takes note of the people being called the people of Moses as I did in this video earlier today.

Exodus Posts

Exodus 32:7-15 is an interesting reading that presents us with three different opinions about who brought the people out of the land of Egypt.  Check it out:

Okay, I can’t be the only Christian who thinks parts of the Bible are boring, can I?  I’m listening through the Old Testament currently.  And, I thought I was going to slip into a coma this morning because I was listening to the beginning of the Book of Numbers.  I understand the whole “the Bible is not boring, Avatar is boring thing,” though for the life of me I can’t stomach listening to John Piper anymore (BTW, isn’t it possible that both the scripture and Avatar could be interesting? Not an either or thing in my opinion.  Avatar was one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time).  People are trying to say that the scripture is really interesting.  And I agree, or else I wouldn’t have invested a significant portion of my life studying the Bible both as an individual and in a formal academic setting.  But, I think we have to at least be honest that there are parts of the Bible are BORING.*  A list of my top three are:

1. The beginning of Numbers
2. The beginning of Chronicles
3. The instructions for building the tabernacle in Exodus

What do you think?  What parts of the scripture do you read to put yourself to sleep at night?  Or, am I just being impious?

* By “boring” I do not mean unimportant.  Certainly genealogies are not my cup of tea, but I understand that they would have been of the utmost importance to an Ancient Israelite.

I was listening to Exodus today and 32:24 sounded a bit funny.  So, I looked at the Hebrew and compared a few translations.  Sure enough … Aaron sounds like a weasel.  Moses comes down from the mountain and finds the people with their golden calf.  And, here is Aaron’s response (translation comparison a cut and paste from BibleWorks 8):

So I told them, ‘Let anyone who has gold jewelry take it off.’ They gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and this calf came out.” (Exodus 32:24 New American Bible)

“I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them tear it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.” (Exodus 32:24 New American Standard)

So I said to them, ‘Whoever has gold, take it off’; so they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!” (Exodus 32:24 New Revised Standard)

Notice Aaron doesn’t say anything about fashioning the calf.  He threw the gold in and a calf popped out.  Right … Maybe I’ll use that one next time I order something from Amazon without discussing it with my wife first.  “No, sweetheart.  I just punched in my credit card number for them to save on file and this book showed up.”

Related:

Genesis 1.1 and the Importance of Comparing Translations

Psalm 1.1 – Translation Comparison

Isaiah 41 – An Interesting Translation Issue

An Ancient of Days or The Ancient of Days: Does it Really Matter?

Some people are reading through the Bible this year … or, said they were going to and have already stopped.  By this time maybe they hit the instructions for building the tabernacle and their commitment gave up the ghost so to speak.  I on the other hand am starting to listen through the Bible.  If I keep it up, I don’t think it will take me a year.  And, I don’t think things like the Tabernacle will deter me … because I can just zone out (But, wait does it really count as listening through the Bible if I zone out for a little while).

Anyway … back to my post title.  It seems like every time I read or listen to law codes something sticks out to me.  Sometimes it sticks out to remind me just how distant and different Ancient Near Eastern culture was from our own.  Or, sometimes it sticks out to remind that people have always been the same.  This morning the one that stuck out was the one about a master knocking his slave’s tooth or teeth out.  Check it out:

If the owner knocks out a tooth of a male or female slave, the slave shall be let go, a free person, to compensate for the tooth (Exodus 21:27).

A tooth for your freedom … that sounds like a pretty good deal (unless you think it’s going to detract from your marriageability).  Good enough to make me wonder if any slave of an Israelite ever tried to coax his or her master into knocking a tooth out.  Or, maybe they knocked it out on their own then put it back in their mouth waiting for their master to strike them, even lightly.  Then they could simply spit out the tooth that had already fallen out to regain their freedom.  Were there safeguards to make sure that this law was not abused by slaves …

I guess I should not have been thinking about all of that … I probably missed out on another interesting law when I was thinking about all of that.

Bible Briefs are not available for every book of the Old Testament, but these free short introductions are available for Exodus and Leviticus.  The Exodus volume is written by Dr. Murray L. Newman Emeritus professor of Virginia Theological Seminary.   And, the Leviticus volume is written by Prof. Kevin A. Wilson of Lithuania Christian College.  These are high quality short introductions, so don’t fail to check them out.

Interested in other Old Testament book introductions? Click HERE.

Douglas Stuart’s commentary on Exodus is available in limited preview format from Google Books.  You are able to read the entire introduction to the commentary HERE.  This is Douglas Stuart of How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth fame.  He is a prolific author on the Old Testament who is evangelical in his outlook.  If you are interested in many of his other works you might check out his author page at Amazon.com.

HERE is a link to Janzen’s commentary on Exodus at Google Books.  There is a limited preview and the entire introduction is available.