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August 22, 2025
Dear friends,
Last week, we finished our look at the Old Testament with a very brief overview of the prophets. We will skip the apocrypha and move directly to the New Testament. This is much more familiar ground for Christians. This week, we will take a look at the four Gospels and the book of Acts.
On my refrigerator I have a magnet that somebody gave Johnna and me that depicts Jesus sitting in the teaching position up on a high ledge looking down at the apostles and saying: “Okay everyone, now listen carefully. I don’t want to end up with four different versions of this…” This is pretty humorous, but it is interesting to understand how we ended up with four gospels. Here is the order they appear in our Bible:
Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
Acts
The Gospels are named after their traditional authors and they focus mostly on the adult life of Jesus of Nazareth. It is important to understand that these four are not the only Gospels of the early church. Some of the more prominent Extracanonical Gospels include the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Peter, and the Gospel of Mary. As Christian communities were cropping up across the Ancient Near East, they had their stories about Jesus and these stories were written down for the future generations of believers in these regions. There may be more out there that we have never discovered or have disappeared altogether. The four Gospels in our Bible came to be widely accepted by the late 2nd century as the authoritative Gospel accounts.
These four Gospels contain all types of literary materials. In these gospels we have birth narratives, for example, miracle stories, parables, teachings, healing stories, genealogies, etc. Most of the stories in the Gospel of Mark are also in the Gospel of Matthew and many of them are in the Gospel of Luke as well. Because these three share so much material in common, they are often called the Synoptic (seeing together) Gospels. The Gospel of John presents a unique version of the story of Jesus that is different from the other three. Now, the fifth book in the New Testament is the Acts of the Apostles. This was written by Luke as a sequel to his gospel and it narrates the story of the early Christian community. Both the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Peter play prominent roles in the Book of Acts. These five books together provide most of the narrative content in the New Testament.
Of all the Gospels, Mark is believed to be the first because of the common material found in both Matthew and Luke that is believed to have been derived from Mark. Now there is common material to Matthew and Luke that does not exist in Mark. This has led to the theory that there was another source out there that both Matthew and Luke knew about and utilized. This source has been called “Q” or “Quella” in German which means “source.” The Q source has never been found. The three Synoptic Gospels are thought to have been written around the same time, between 80 and 90 AD.
Matthew has its genesis with Matthew the Apostle who was a Jewish tax collector, a person who was most likely reviled by his community because he worked collecting taxes for the oppressive Roman authorities. It has been theorized that Matthew was written for a Jewish audience as this Gospel contains more material linking Jesus to Old Testament prophecy fulfillment than any of the other three. Matthew also contains the Sermon on the Mount. Many scholars believe that the Sermon on the Mount was an attempt to summarize all of Jesus’ teaching in one place so it could be easily referenced. It also is the only one with a genealogy of Jesus and is one of the two Gospels that record a birth narrative.
Mark has its genesis in a person named Mark who was thought to be a companion of the Apostle Peter. Many have theorized that the Gospel of Mark reflects the memoirs of Peter. Mark is the shortest of the four gospels and as I said above is thought to have been the first.
Luke has its genesis in a person named Luke who was a highly educated physician who was a companion of the Apostle Paul. Luke fashioned himself as a bit of an historian. As he states in the first verse of the first chapter of his Gospel, Luke it appears set out to write an orderly, historical account of the Life of Jesus. He followed up his Gospel with the Book of Acts in which he set out to write an orderly and historical account of the exploits of the early church. You can tell Luke was highly educated because of his masterful use of the Greek language. Luke has many unique parables in it and a variation of the Sermon on the Mount called the “Sermon on the Plain,” since it was spoken from a ”level place” or a “plain.” It also, along with Matthew, has a version of the birth narrative.
John probably has its genesis in John the beloved disciple who many scholars believe gave rise to a school of thought known as the Johannine Community or School. There has never really been any evidence that the Johannine Community or School ever existed and, while this was a widely accepted hypotheses in the 20th century, it has come under much scrutiny in the 21st century. The Gospel of John is thought to have been written years after the other three, perhaps as late as 100AD. So, as you can imagine there is some speculation as to whether the Gospel was written by the beloved disciple or one of his disciples. John is a unique gospel more interested in forming a theological perspective of Jesus and his ministry than an historical one. It is the Gospel with Jesus’ beautiful farewell address and his high priestly prayer. And it is the Gospel where Jesus can be found kneeling before the disciples washing their feet as an act of love and service. Unlike Luke, John utilized the simplest Greek of the four.
The Acts of the Apostles as mentioned above was penned by Luke as a sequel to his Gospel. Acts is full of wonderful stories of the Apostle Paul as he traveled throughout the Ancient Near East establishing churches. It also speaks to the complicated relationship between Paul and the Apostle Peter.
Next week we will take a look at the Pauline Epistles.
Peace,
Dave.
August 15, 2025
Dear friends,
I realize that I don’t have many weeks left, so I am going to go quickly through the rest of the Bible. The last section of the Old Testament is the prophets, and I want to talk about them this week. Next week, we will look at the Gospels and the book of Acts. The week after, we will look at Paul’s Epistles and the final week of this walk through the Bible will take us to the Catholic Epistles and the Book of Revelation.
An in-depth look at the prophets could take at least a year’s worth of weekly blogs to do it justice. There is so much to discuss in these seventeen different books of the Old Testament. I am sorry that I don’t have time to flesh all of this out for you, but here is a general look at these books.
Our Bible sorts the prophets into two classes: the Major Prophets and the Minor Prophets. What distinguishes them is the actual length of the book. There are four Major Prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. The rest of the books in this section make up the Minor Prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. The book missing here is Lamentations. Should it be included with the Major or the Minor Prophet? It is a short book, only five chapters, so it is certainly not a Major Prophet in that sense, but it is found in the canon just after Jeremiah and before Ezekiel, two of the Major Prophets. It was also written at the time of Jerusalem’s destruction at the hands of the Babylonians in 587, a pivotal event in Jewish history. As far as Lamentations goes, you can decide what you think about that. It is important to note, however, that the Hebrew Bible does not put either Lamentations or Daniel among the prophets. Our Jewish brothers and sisters put these two books in the “Writings” section of their canon.
Another way to view the prophets is to sort them by the time periods they were roughly written.
Eighth Century BC:
Amos
Hosea
Isaiah
Micah
Seventh Century BC:
Zephaniah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Sixth Century BC:
Jeremiah
Ezekiel
Obadiah
Haggai
Zechariah
Lamentations
Fifth Century BC:
Joel
Malachi
Jonah
Isaiah is perhaps the most significant of these books as it is the longest among the prophetic books and it appears to span several centuries from the eighth century BC through the siege of Jerusalem leading to the Babylonian Captivity and the subsequent return from exile in 538 BC. This would mean that it was probably not written by a single person. I was taught 30 years ago that one should think of Isaiah as three separate books, First Isaiah (chapters 1-39) Second Isaiah (chapters 40-56) and Third Isaiah (chapters 56-66). Some scholars have argued that Second and Third Isaiah are really just one book. Scholarship around how we understand Isaiah, however, is changing in the 21st century and all of that is way beyond the scope of what I can write here. Suffice it to say, however, that throughout history, Isaiah has been a treasure for Christian people. The suffering servant text of Isaiah 52:13-53:12 is read each year on Good Friday and is a prime example of the prominent role that Isaiah has played in the church through the centuries. Some have even referred to Isaiah as the fifth gospel because of the influence it has had on Christian thought.
The Prophet Jeremiah was quite different from Isaiah. He called for Israel to repent as he prophesied about the Babylonian conquest of Judah, the destruction of the temple, the exile and the return of a remnant to “Raise up a righteous Branch to reign as king.”(Jeremiah 23:5-6).
Ezekiel was literally one of those taken into exile by the Babylonians in 587 BC. In this book, we read the strange but beloved story about the valley of the dry bones (Ezekiel 37:1-14; assigned to be read at the Great Vigil of Easter). This story was one of his oracles of “Promise and Restoration.” His final vision was of a new temple. The prophet envisioned a new building with new gates and courts all with the glory of God residing within.
The Book of Daniel is the story about Daniel and his three Hebrew friends in the court of the Babylonian king. The book is a wonderful story about how Daniel was able to interpret the King Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams. As the story goes, at one point Daniel and his friends were thrown into a furnace, but they were not burned as they walked in the flames. Daniel understood Jeremiah’s prophesy concerning the seventy years of exile and prayed a long prayer, confessing the people’s sins (Daniel 9:2-29).
As far as the Minor Prophets go, I will just give a line about each.
Hosea: Using the image of a harlot, the oracles in this book indict Israel for the sin of idolatry. They announce judgement on Israel and call on the people to return to God.
Joel: Describing a devastating locus attack on the country, a disaster that ruined crops and vines, this event led to a call for repentance.
Amos: This is a harsh book judging Israel for rejecting the teaching of God and for trampling all over the poor. Dr. Martin Luther King evoked Amos 5:25 in his I Have a Dream speech given in the 1963 march on Washington. Amos is harsh, but the last verse of the book offers an image of hope.
Obadiah: This is a prophesy against Edom, the ancient kingdom south of the Dead Sea. God promised to destroy the Edomites because they stood by and even gloated as Jerusalem and Judah were destroyed by the Babylonians.
Jonah: This is a story that many of us remember from our childhood. Jonah is called to go to Ninevah (the capital of Assyria) but decides to get into a boat headed for Tarshish instead, a much nicer place in the opposite direction. Jonah is thrown off the boat during a storm and swallowed by a great fish and spewed up on the shores of Ninevah where he prophesizes against the Ninevites. Surprisingly, they turn from their wickedness and God’s wrath against them is abated angering Jonah who really wanted them to experience the wrath of God.
Micah: This book is a mix of judgement and promise. It contains that most familiar verse. “He has told you, O Mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”(Micah 6:8)
Nahum: This is a prophesy against Nineveh.
Habakkuk: Here, the prophet complained about “wickedness and violence” and asked God to do something about it. Habakkuk was not satisfied with God’s answer and wondered why God wouldn’t act. God responded by noting that the proud and the oppressors would be punished and would not endure, but the righteous would live. The book concludes with a prayer praising God for God’s power.
Zephaniah: The prophet announces harsh judgement on Judah and Jerusalem through a series of judgement oracles. It concludes with a hymn commanding Israel to praise God because of God’s salvation of Jerusalem.
Haggai: Haggai focuses on the rebuilding of the Temple after the Babylonian exile.
Zechariah: This book begins with a call to return to God followed by eight oracles and it concludes with messages from another three oracles revealing a hopeful future.
Malachi: The Book of Malachi contains prophetic oracles concerning multiple topics and ends by speaking of a coming day of judgement.
Lamentations: I wanted to set Lamentations apart. This book contains a small psalter of communal laments (five in all) over Jerusalem following its destruction by the Babylonians in 587 BC. This is a profound book. The five laments go like this:
The city of Jerusalem was lamented because of the conquest as an empty city with little hope.
The second lament pertained to the destruction of Jerusalem itself.
In the third lament, the people complained about their suffering yet still maintained their trust in the goodness and love of God.
The fourth lament continued the theme of suffering among the people because of sinful leaders.
The final lament was communal and included an admittance of sinfulness and a plea for renewal.
Next week, we will take a look at the four gospels and the Book of Acts.
Peace,
Dave.
1 Tyler Mayfield, A Guide To Bible Basics, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, KY: 2018; pp. 131-176.
August 8, 2025
Dear friends,
My apologies for not getting a blog piece out to you last week. This week, I will look at the final two books in this section we have been calling the Poetic Books. Here is the list of the Poetic Books in the order they appear in our Bible:
Job
Psalms
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Solomon (also known as the Song of Songs)
The Book of Ecclesiastes is different from the Book of Ecclesiasticus which we sometimes read on Sunday mornings. Ecclesiasticus, which is also known as the Book of Sirach or the Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirach, is a book in the apocrypha. So, it is important not to mix up these two similar sounding but very different books.
Following Ecclesiastes, we find the last book in the poetic section of the Old Testament and that is Song of Solomon or Song of Songs. The perspective of these two books couldn’t be more unalike. I will try to explain that as we move along.
Ecclesiastes is a fascinating book. The Hebrew title for the book is Qohelet (pronounced Koheleth) which roughly means “the gatherer” or “the teacher.” The English title, Ecclesiastes, comes from the Greek translation of the Hebrew title. It is widely believed by scholars that the editor of the book, perhaps one of the author’s students, is responsible for the superscription that identifies him as the “son of David” (verse 1). Hence the work was originally attributed to Solomon because he was the son of David, but the language used in the book and the tenor of the book make it virtually impossible that Solomon would have been the author. In fact, it is more likely that it was written around 300 BC after the compilation of the Hebrew scriptures was largely completed. There are a lot of reasons that scholars believe this, but all of this beyond the scope of what I want to offer here.
Ecclesiastes does not have a well-defined plot or structure. The opening line is familiar, “Vanity of vanities! all is vanity (1:2b). Some translations insert the word “futility” for “vanity” in the text. Whereas most commentators on the Book of Ecclesiastes believe that the author draws a rather grim picture of life, there are others who believe differently. Rabbi Rami Shapiro in his commentary on Ecclesiastes takes a very different tact. The Hebrew word that is most commonly translated as “vanity” or “futility” is hebel, which literally means “vapor,” or “breath,” or “impermanence.” If everything in the material world is vapor or impermanent, it is easy to see how one could argue that life is futile. But it is just as easy to understand how one might rather live in the moment to experience life as we are living it. Instead of painting a grim picture of life, Rabbi Shapiro looks at the book as a guide to living well in the midst of the uncertainties of the world. Given the impermanence of all things including life itself, Rabbi Schapiro writes that the author of Ecclesiastes teaches us to live in the moment and root our lives in moderation, meaningful work, and friendship.
The Song of Solomon is quite different from the Book of Ecclesiastes. You may also see the title of this book written as the “Canticle of Canticles.” The literal translation from the Hebrew is “Song of Songs.” Scholars have never been able to date the book as to when it was written. It is attributed to Solomon again because he is referenced in various places in the book. There is also an interesting allusion to all the proverbs and songs that Solomon supposedly composed in First Kings 4:32. Some have made the connection of this verse with the Book of Proverbs and the Song of Solomon.
The book contains the love song or love poems of Israel. There are two principal characters in the book, a female and a male lover. Through dialogue and monologue, they convey their passion and desire for one another. Throughout the eight chapters of the book, a delicate mood of love and devotion is sustained. The woman, to whom most of the lines are to be attributed, and the man portrayed both as king and shepherd, express their love for each other in poems that reflect desire, admiration, and even boasting. Each delight in describing the physical charms of the other.
It is an uncomfortable book for many to read because it can be explicit at times and many think that such allusions to sexual desire don’t belong in the Biblical corpus. So, both the Jewish and Christian traditions found another level of meaning to the work, namely the love between God and God’s people. In this understanding the main characters would be God and Israel or Christ and his Church. This is how church fathers, Origen and Bernard of Clairvaux understood it in their writings. The idyllic love language expressed in the Song of Solomon is quite different from the dour view of life expressed in Ecclesiastes, or at least how that book has been interpreted over time.
Next week, we will begin discussing the prophets, the largest section of the Old Testament. I am still trying to figure out how I will tackle that section given the limited time that I have left with you. Until next week, take care.
Peace,
Dave.
i Rami Schapiro, Ecclesiastes, Annotated and Explained, Turner Publishing Co., Nashville, TN; 2010. ii The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocryphal / Deuterocanonical Books, Bruce M. Metzger and Roland E. Murphy eds., Oxford University Press, New York, NY; 1991; pp. 853 OT.
July 25, 2025
Dear friends,
Currently, we are in the third section of the Old Testament known as the Poetic Books. There are five books in this section. Last week, we looked at the Book of the Psalms and today we will discuss the Book of Proverbs. Here is the list of the Poetic Books in the order they appear in our Bible:
Job
Psalms
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Songs (also known as the Song of Solomon)
The Book of Proverbs is the third book in this section, and it is one that I fear most people don’t spend much time with. There are 31 chapters in the book, and it appears to consist of several collections. Each collection has its own title if you read carefully through the book. Most of the Proverbs have been attributed to Solomon, but this is due mostly to his legendary wisdom as discussed in 1 Kings 4:29-34. Most all scholars see the Book of Proverbs as a product of many “authors” and editors of collections over at least several centuries, beginning during the time of the monarchy (tenth to the sixth century BC) and continuing until the final form of the book was shaped, perhaps as late as the third century BC.[i]
The purpose of the book is stated in Proverbs 1:1-6. It is a book of wisdom compiled to convey insights so that a “youth” might learn to cope with life. These insights were gathered from the insight of the elders (Proverbs 4:1-4 for example) and from experience and observation (see Proverbs 6:6-11). Certain key elements appear in the process of moral formation: honesty, diligence, trustworthiness, the ability “hear” and obey, control over one’s appetites, the cultivation of true and proper speech, the correct attitudes toward riches and poverty. Some of the sayings are observations, but more often than not, a moral ideal is inculcated, that is, it is learned by a sort of relentless repetition of doing the right thing and making the right decision. As you read through chapters 10-15, you will, for example, see a stark contrast of the way of the righteous versus the way of the wicked.
The long wisdom poems in chapters 1-9 differ in the style of the shorter sayings that predominate through the rest of the book. These longer poems are strongly hortatory, somewhat in the spirit of the Book of Deuteronomy. These poems exhort or encourage one to follow the good path. Wisdom, generally equated with righteousness, brings success, whereas folly or wickedness brings about destruction. One of my favorite texts that I memorized many years ago is from Proverbs 2.
My child, if you accept my words and treasure up my commandments within you,
making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding;
if you indeed cry out for insight, and raise your voice for understanding;
if you seek it like silver, and search for it as for hidden treasures –
then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.
(Proverbs 2: 1-5)
These longer poems are wonderful, but much of the book is made up of very short-line poems that are parallel in thought. An example of this might be from Proverbs 16.
Pleasant words are like a honeycomb,
sweetness to the soul and health to the body.
(Proverbs 16:24)
If you haven’t read through the Proverbs, I invite you to do so. There are 31 chapters, as I mentioned above, so it lends itself to reading a chapter a day for month, a discipline that I know a number of people follow. Next week we will take a look at the Book of Ecclesiastes.
I think that is about it for now. I hope to see you this coming Sunday, but if not, I hope to see you soon. Take care and God bless!!
Peace,
Dave.
[i] Leo Perdue, Interpretation: Proverbs, John Knox Press, Louisville, KY: 2000; pp. 2.
July 18, 2025
Dear friends,
Currently, we are in the third section of the Old Testament known as the Poetic Books. There are five books in this section and last week we looked at the first, namely Job. Here is the list of the Poetic Books in the order they appear in our Bible:
Job
Psalms
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Songs (also knows as the Song of Solomon)
The second book in this section is the Book of Psalms known as the psalter. The psalter is beloved and has been used by the church since the very beginning. Jesus certainly knew the psalter and most likely used it in his own personal devotional life and in the synagogue when he would worship in community. In our liturgy, we recite a psalm every week and if you do one or all four of the daily offices in the Book of Common Prayer (Morning Prayer, Noontime Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Compline) we see the psalms scattered throughout these offices. St. Benedict in the Rule that he wrote for his monks in the early sixth century outlined the order in which the psalter should be said or chanted. He wanted all 150 psalms to be read or chanted every week.
The psalter is the hymn book of ancient Israel. Tradition has it that David wrote the psalms and clearly some of the psalms, seventy-three to be exact, have been ascribed to King David. Crediting nearly half of the psalms to David is a testimony to the regard in which this great leader of Israel was held. The tradition that David wrote all the psalms, however, is much later than the book itself. A close study of the psalter will reveal that it is the product of many minds over many centuries. The psalter reflects many aspects of the religious experience of Israel. “It’s intrinsic spiritual depth and beauty have made it from the earliest times a treasury of resources for public and private devotion in both Judaism and Christianity.”
Most of the psalms were likely composed to accompany acts of worship in the temple. Odd as it may sound to us, the psalms were not first written down and then sung, but vice versa. Most of the psalms were first sung and prayed long before they were written down. Those who wrote them down were not the same ones who composed them, rather, they were the ones who collected them. There are various ways to classify the psalms. The late Claus Westermann, who was professor of Old Testament at the University of Heidelberg, in his classic book The Psalms, Structure, Content & Message offers us one way to look at these categories.
Let’s look first at the Community and Individual Lament Psalms. These psalms are characterized by the community asking for help in time of distress or by an individual seeking deliverance from illness or false accusations. There are not many Community Lament Psalms, but if you want to look at what this genre of psalm is about you might read Psalms: 44; 74; 79; 80; 83; 89. The Individual Lament Psalm is by far the most frequent type found in the psalter. About 50 psalms belong to this category. Examples of Individual Lament Psalms that you may want to look at include Psalms: 3-17; 31; 69; 71; 73; 86; 88; 102; 109; and 130, to name a few.
Westermann also describes Community and Individual Praise Psalms as well. “One characteristic of all community laments is their cry for deliverance from trouble. But when God broke [the] silence and came to the aid of the people, when [God] reversed their trouble and brought deliverance, then [God’s] deed had to awaken the jubilation of those who had been liberated, the praise of those who had been saved” Examples of Community Psalms of Praise would be Psalm 106 and 124. Just as the psalms of community praise correspond with the community psalms of lament, so too does the praise of the individual correspond to the lament by the individual. Examples of Individual Psalms of Praise are: 9; 18; 30; 19-24; 32; 92; 116; 138 to name a few.
The next category is the Psalm of Descriptive Praise. This type of psalm is a uniquely liturgical song, the song of a congregation gathered for worship. Every Sunday, we sing a Hymn of Praise right up front before the opening Collect. So too, the psalter included hymns of praise: 8; 29; 33; 65; 100; 103; 104; 111; 113; 117; 145-150 to name a few.
The next category is the Creation Psalms. These psalms extol the greatness of God the Creator and this finds expression in Psalms 8; 104; 139; and Psalm 148.
There are also liturgical Psalms. These Psalms are shaped by some liturgical activity. In its simplest form this might consist of clearly recognizable antiphonal dialog; an interchange between two groups or between a liturgist and a congregation – call and response. If this is confusing to you, think about what we do on Sunday morning. We normally read the psalm on Sunday morning either responsively by half or whole verse. This is what is meant by “call and response.” The psalter does not contain many psalms of this nature. In fact, no psalm reproduces a compete worship service and the liturgical action is always merely alluded to. Psalm 118 would be a good example of this type of psalm. It is easy to see in this psalm how it could be used in the context of worship.
There are also Royal Psalms and Enthronement Psalms. Royal Psalms like Psalm: 2; 20; 21; 45; 72; 110; and 132, to name a few, are psalms in which the king plays a role. Enthronement Psalms, on the other hand, talk about the Lord as King. Examples of Enthronement Psalms are: 47; 93; 96-99.
Finally, Wisdom Psalms are psalms that quite frankly could just as easily appear in the Book of Proverbs and nobody would know the difference. These psalms contain nuggets of truth that people might want to find a way to apply to their lives. Examples of Wisdom Psalms are Psalm 127 and Psalm 133.
A couple of final points. There are traditionally nine psalms that were done in an acrostic fashion, including the longest psalm, Psalm 119, which is also considered a Wisdom Psalm. An acrostic is poem that has a distinctive pattern using the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Unfortunately, our English translation is unable to capture this. Psalm 119 is perhaps the most elaborate demonstration of this type of poetry. Psalm 119 has 176 verses divided into 22 sections of 8 verses each. If you were to read the psalm in the Hebrew language, you would see that the first word of each of the eight verses in each section begin with the same Hebrew letter. So, Psalm 119 verses 1-8, each verse or stanza begins with the letter Aleph, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Each of the verses, 9-16 begin with the letter Beth, the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It goes on like this through the end of the alphabet. You might notice if you look at Psalm 119 in most of our Bibles, that each of the sections is labeled with the name of the Hebrew letter that corresponds with the acrostic in that section and if flows in the order of the alphabet Aleph through Taw, the last letter in the Hebrew alphabet. This is not only interesting, but it is important to understand that parts of the Hebrew Scriptures were not written just to provide information. In this section, in particular, the poetic section, we find poetry, but poetry that also has a visual aesthetic. We find acrostic poetry in Proverbs and in the Book of Lamentations as well.
The other thing I want to mention is that you might come across some Bibles that have the palter numbered differently. There are 150 psalms in every Bible, but some Bibles follow the Hebrew Masoretic numbering, including most of our Protestant Bibles, while others follow the numbering of the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Bible from the Hebrew. Some Psalms were combined in the Septuagint and others were divided. Some Roman Catholic and most Orthodox translations number the psalms differently than what we are familiar with. I just wanted you to be aware of this in case you run across it in your travels. Next week we will take a look at the Book of Proverbs.
Peace,
Dave.
i The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocryphal / Deuterocanonical Books, Bruce M. Metzger and Roland E. Murphy eds., Oxford University Press, New York, NY; 1991; pp. 674 OT. ii Claus Westermann, The Psalms, Structure, Content, and Message, trans. Ralph D. Gehrke, Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis, MN: 1980; pp. 47
July 11, 2025
Dear friends,
Last week, we started our conversation about the third section of the Old Testament as we have it in our Bibles, the section we call the Poetic Books. There are five books in this section and here is the list in the order they appear in our Bible:
Job
Psalms
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Songs (also knows as the Song of Solomon)
For this piece I am going to cover the Book of Job
You might be surprised that the Book of Job is a part of the poetic section, but it is a book that employs some wonderfully poetic language. I think most of us know that the Book of Job is about human suffering. The Book of Job does not explain the mystery of suffering or “justify the ways of God” with human beings, but it does probe the depths of faith amid the trials of human suffering. The book is divided into three sections: a discussion between Job and his three friends (chapters 3-31), a statement by Elihu, a contemporary of Job and his friends, (chapters 32-37) and the speeches of the Lord (chapters 38-42). Satan plays a critical role in this story. Satan is a Hebrew word that literally means “adversary” or “accuser.”
The story introduces a profound question that comes on the lips of Satan: “Does Job serve God only because it is profitable for him, that is, because God has been good to him?” Job was a good man with ten children, many animals and many servants. The text says that he was blameless and upright. When Satan suggested that Job only feared God because God had protected him and blessed him, God agreed to test Job. Job lost all his property and even his children. He responded by mourning and worshipping, but not by sinning or by charging God with any wrongdoing. As if that wasn’t enough, Job then developed sores all over his body. His wife suggested that he should curse God, but Job would not. Three of his friends heard about his situation and traveled to be with him in his suffering. After a week of sitting with his friends in silence, Job finally spoke and cursed the day he was born. His friends took turns speaking to Job. They accused him of wrongdoing and suggested his troubles were punishment for his sin. They presented a traditional understanding of God’s action in the world and the presence of suffering. Job hated his life and was unable to find any peace. Wicked people went unpunished, but Job, who was guiltless, lost everything; how could that be? Finally, God answered Job from the whirlwind with an extended series of questions about Job’s participation in the creation of the world, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding…” (Job 38:4). Job responded by acknowledging that God could do all things, most of which were beyond his understanding, and he repented. In the closing verses of the book, God told Job’s friends that they were wrong and that Job was right about the nature of God. The friends were instructed to offer sacrifices to Job and were told that Job would pray for them. He did pray for them and God heard his prayer. Job’s fortunes are restored twofold and again was given ten children and many animals.i
In the poetic language of the book, God is at work in the universe, even “to bring rain on the land where no one lives” (Job 38:26). God is fully aware of evil (personified by the monsters Behemoth and Leviathan (Job 40:15 – 41:34), but at the same time God cares for Job so much that God reveals Godself personally to him and shares with him the vision of cosmic responsibilities. A God who confesses the burdens God carries to a human being is a God who is profoundly involved in human destiny. The restoration of Job in chapter 42 beginning at verse 7 and following is not the point of the book, it merely serves to reveal Job’s integrity and the truth of Divine generosity.ii
Peace,
Dave.
i Tyler Mayfield, A Guide to Bible Basics, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, KY: 2018; pp. 111-112.. ii The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocryphal / Deuterocanonical Books, Bruce M. Metzger and Roland E. Murphy eds., Oxford University Press, New York, NY; 1991; pp. 625 OT.
July 6, 2025
Dear friends,
We have now come to the third section of the Old Testament as we have it in our Bibles and that is the section that has been termed the Poetic Books. The Bible is full of different genres that need to be read with different sensibilities. For example, a person doesn’t read a history book the same way they might read a book of poetry. We approach those two kinds of literature very differently with different expectations. We have just come through the historical section of the Old Testament and now we will need to change gears a bit as we look at the beautiful prose and poetry offered in this section of the Old Testament. Here is the list of books in the poetry section in the order they appear in our Bible:
Job
Psalms
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Songs (also knows as the Song of Solomon)
All five of these books appear in the “Writings,” section of the of the Hebrew Bible. The “Writings” is the third and final part of the Hebrew canon. Lamentations and Daniel also appear in this section of the Hebrew Bible, whereas they are listed among the Prophetic books in our Bible. You may, from time to time, come across the designation “Wisdom Literature.” This is a more modern designation that refers to three of these five books on our Bible namely: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. The term “Wisdom Literature” also refers to two additional books that we find in our apocrypha: Sirach, also known as The Wisdom of Ben Sira or Ecclesiasticus (not to be confused with Ecclesiastes) and the Wisdom of Solomon.
These are wonderful books, we know them and we love them. Next week, I will attempt to cover all five of these books in more detail.
Peace,
Dave.