This book is a mixture of verse and prose, of history, poetry, and biography. Sometimes the prophecy is woven directly into the historical narrative. And speaking of historical narrative, here’s a timeline of the major prophets that might be useful: Isaiah’s ministry, 740-681 B.C. Israel (northern kingdom) falls, 722 B.C. Jeremiah’ ministry, 627-586 B.C. Judah … [Read more…]
Ezekiel is a younger contemporary, if that’s not an oxymoron, of Jeremiah; Ezekiel was preaching to Babylonian Jews while Jeremiah was preaching to Jerusalem Jews (prior to its fall). Presumably some parts of the book were written — or at least delivered orally — before, and some after, the fall of Jerusalem: That is, it would … [Read more…]
The book of Daniel is the last and, next to Lamentations, the shortest of the major prophets’ books. It is also, to my mind, the most distinctive. It does not focus on warning of destruction to Israel or lamenting it, as the other major prophets do. It contains instead a narrative of six more … [Read more…]
This is a book of prayers, and it is fitting that it should be literally in center of the Bible and is one of its longest books (with its longest (119) as well as its shortest (117) “chapter”), since what is more important to a believer than prayer, and what can be more valuable to … [Read more…]
Lamentations is a book of five poems, each a chapter and the first four of which are acrostics (a typical form of poetry in Hebrew — see also Psalms 37, 119, and 145, and Proverbs 31:10-31). The author is Jeremiah: Having unsuccessfully warned his people in the book of Jeremiah to turn back to God … [Read more…]
Overview: Solomon — the king with great wisdom who also wrote two other Wisdom books, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs — is the principal author. Indeed, he wrote every chapter of Proverbs except the last two, which were written by Ajur and Lemuel, respectively. I’ll note at the outset that Psalms and Proverbs are … [Read more…]
Overview: Here’s a bare-bones outline of the book: It begins with a quick sketch of Job and his idyllic life as a good and very blessed man, with a big happy family and great wealth. In the next scene, God is meeting with his angels, and God brings up to Satan (!) the subject of … [Read more…]
Three of the Wisdom books — Ecclesiastes, Job, and Psalms — share a common theme: It’s permissible, even expected, that we should kvetch to God about the hardships we face, but this complaining and questioning should be accompanied by faith and trust and a recognition that God knows what He is doing, so that the … [Read more…]
Happy Easter! He is risen! Since I’m writing something about every other book of the New Testament, it would be odd to skip the Gospels. On the other hand, one always worries that it is presumptuous at best to try to boil down God’s word, and that is especially so with the Gospels. What’s more, … [Read more…]
Except for the Creation narrative in Genesis and the End Times discussion in Revelation, no book of the Bible can match the historical and geographical sweep of Acts. It stretches from Spain to Arabia over a period of thirty to forty years, telling the story of the early days of the spread of Christianity. And … [Read more…]