Jeremy Thompson Catholic PhD in Biblical Languages, Programmer, Runner

Chris Brady of the blog Targuman has posted the audio from a lecture he gave related to the book of Lamentations. Beforehand, he described the lecture as follows:

I will be exploring how the rabbis responded to the destruction of the Temple, how they responded to the text of Lamentations, and what that in turn can teach a community of faith about responding to our own times of crisis.

To listen to this lecture click HERE.

Do you get confused about the festivals and offerings in Leviticus? Lauren Stouffer has put together a “Leviticus Primer” for download in pdf format. In it, she has several charts that can be helpful for keeping the festivals and offerings straight. To get this download click HERE.

In one of the e-mails that I send out to my e-mail list, I note some of the other websites that I like for studying the Old Testament. One of those is Ralph Klein’s website, and today I am going to point there once again. Today’s lectionary reading is on the Tabernacle. Since this section of the Old Testament is one of the…okay I’ll just come right and say it, more boring ones to read, many people are unfamiliar with the Tabernacle. So, this topic requires a bit more than a brief blog post for those who want to understand it. Fortunately, Ralph Klein has written a good little introduction to the Tabernacle. You can find it HERE.

Posted earlier on the issue of Moses potentially having horns. Here is a picture of Michelangelo’s depiction of Moses with horns:

The lectionary reading for today presents probably one of the more interesting issues I have encountered. The word translated something like “had become radiant” or “shone” (vs. 29) also has a tradition of being translated “grew horns.” Both translations seem possible, and some have tried to find a way of combining the meanings. I would go into this issue in more detail; however, John Hobbins over at Ancient Hebrew Poetry has already done a very good job of dealing with this issue. Check out his post HERE.

Last week I blogged on the opportunity to download a free copy of the older version of the International Critical Commentary. I put a link to what I thought was all volumes; however, I realized in going back through the list that Exodus is not there. That is because it is not in the University of Toronto collection that I linked to in that post. It has, however, been uploaded by Princeton University. The Exodus Commentary is here.

Today’s lectionary reading presents an interesting issue. Did Moses see God face to face? For some there are two streams of thought in the Old Testament with regard to seeing God face to face. According to one, no person can see God face to face and live (Ex. 33.20-23). And according to the other, people can see God face to face with examples being Moses (Ex. 33.11) and (perhaps) Jacob. For others the use of the terminology face to face is an idiom that attempts to relate the intimacy of the relationship between God and Moses. These words are not to be taken literally and thus are not evidence that different sources are being used or that there are different streams of thought.

What do you think? Do you think there are two different streams of thought here? Or, do you think the “face to face” language is idiomatic? Or, is it some other option? Feel free to comment below.

Can you guess what is wrong with this picture? Scroll down to see the answer.

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Most modern translations either clearly indicate or at least suggest that the 10 Commandments were written both on the front and the back of two tablets (Ex. 32.15). However, most modern “replicas” (if you even feel you can say that about English versions) have the commandments only on the fronts of the tablets.

I came across a helpful set of resources yesterday from the Virginia Theological Seminary called Bible Briefs. They are very short introductions to Biblical books, both Old and New Testaments. The set of books is not complete yet; however, if you are studying a particular book, it would be valuable to check to see if one of these resources is available for it. They are in pdf format and are available for free download. If you want to check them out, click here. So far the volumes include:

Old Testament

Genesis

Exodus

Leviticus

Job

Psalms

Isaiah

Jeremiah

Lamentations

Daniel

Amos

Obadiah

Micah

New Testament

Matthew

Mark

Luke/Acts

John

Romans

1 Corinthians

Galatians

Ephesians

Philippians

1 & 2 Thessalonians

Hebrews

Revelation

Since today’s posts have all been about the Decalogue I couldn’t resist posting this Mel Brooks video that shows why we have 10 rather than 15 Commandments:

If you want to see more of Brook’s antics check out: