TYWKIWDBI (a perennial favorite of mine) has an interesting post on “the war on Christmas” from colonial America. Go check it out! If you’re looking for more Christmas related holey goodness, I also highly recommend the Christmas Wikipedia page. Oh, and happy holidays!
There always seems to be a way to connect current events to the Bible, in some fashion, relevantly or irrelevantly. (It’s usually the latter.) But in the case of the David Petraeus scandal, however, it’s (surprisingly) the former: The Washington … Continue reading
We’ve covered what the Bible says about marriage, women, and sex several times here on Holey Books (here’s the most recent post in the series). A common theme throughout this series is that women are not considered the equals of men … Continue reading
A frequent theme to many posts on this site has been the combining of separate elements — and the ways in which the Pentateuch has involved two or more sources being combined into a single narrative. We have seen this … Continue reading
In Exodus, God finally reveals his law to the Israelites. Some of it is reasonable and timeless (i.e. don’t murder, don’t steal) but much of it is irrelevant and just plane kooky (i.e. laws about slavery and cheeseburgers). Death is … Continue reading
Isaac stays in Gerar per God’s request. Once the men start asking about his beautiful wife, Rebekah, he pulls a classic straight from Abraham’s playbook: When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is … Continue reading
God reassures Abraham that it’s okay to dismiss Hagar and Ishmael for a couple reasons: Abraham’s offspring will be reckoned through Isaac, and Ishmael will get his own nation (Gen. 21:12-13). Thus ended the drama of how God would hold … Continue reading
Let’s do some math. Sarah is 10 years younger than Abraham (Gen. 17:17). To keep things simple, let’s just assume it’s 10 years to the day. Abram was called by God at the age of 75 (Gen. 12:10), meaning Sarai … Continue reading
As Greg recently pointed out, Abram/Abraham is not the great moral leader you would expect from the founder of God’s great nation. He gives up his wife to Pharaoh in Gen. 12, is treated well as a result, but eventually … Continue reading
While the flood/Noah’s Ark figure prominently in Jewish and Christian tradition, no modern scholars today believe that the story was original to the ancient Hebrews. In fact, most everyone recognizes that in fact the story of the flood originates from … Continue reading
