The Bible as Literature

This week Fr. Paul explains that the command of God in Genesis is interconnected with his command to Moses in Exodus and, ultimately, his command in the letter to the Romans. (Episode 242) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

In tribal experience, as in American mythology, life originates with the forefather. How often on this program have we mentioned the blasphemous depiction of George Washington seated in glory, riding upon the clouds, flanked by the angelic hosts? In this sense, the Capital Rotunda is a kind of  Platonic Fold: an event horizon where the crisp, clean philosophical constructs inside our brains collid...

This week, Fr. Paul explains that you should not enjoy scripture but rather hear it and obey. (Episode 241) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Self-styled students of the Bible often impose personal arguments on their study of the text. In some cases, this problem is obvious, for example, when religious thinkers take sides on either side of the culture wars or when political thinkers assume their ideological conviction or political stance is somehow “scriptural.” It gets nastier when our religious ideas shut us out of the gospel because...

This week, Fr. Paul relies on grammatical functionality to explain how the shepherd leads his flock in Scripture with the biblical dabar. (Episode 240) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Zacharias was silenced for speaking his own words. Words that build defend and secure the things that serve Herod’s agenda: a thriving community centered by a bountiful temple life.  Everyone believes in and worships this agenda as much as, if not more, than the Romans prayed to their emperors. In reality, the two idols are in symbiosis. A happy mob, a happy emperor, vice versa, etc., etc.  So the...

This week, Fr. Paul reminds us that the wilderness in Scripture is like a visit from God, it can be good news, or it can be bad news. (Episode 239) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Institutional thinking has no comprehension of personal loyalty. Fierce loyalty. The kind you don’t get to choose. The kind you are born under. Like someone in Luke born under the authority of Zacharias. That someone doesn’t get to choose another priest any more than a sheep could a shepherd; or a slave their patrician; or a Bedouin their sheikh. But in the institutionalized west, the community is...

This week, Fr. Paul explains the technical link between the blood of birth-giving and the blood of circumcision in the story of the Bible. (Episode (238) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Regurgitate. To throw up or vomit; to eject what has previously been swallowed. To repeat verbatim. ([https://www.synonyms.com/synonym/Regurgitate]) Unless you happen to be Jonah, it’s not an exciting prospect, and even then, not preferable—but, beginning with the Ezekiel, the Father of Sctipture, it’s the DNA of the biblical text: “Then he said to me, ‘Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scro...

This week, Fr. Paul explains that zera’ is the same, whether it’s a plant, or a tree, or a fish, or an animal, or a human being. (Episode 237)  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

When Americans think of a “neighborhood,” the first thing that comes to mind is “value.” What type of homes are in the area? What size? How old? What amenities? What facilities are nearby? Notice that we have taken a term that refers to the generational fellowship of a community of human families and repurposed it to refer to buildings. Without realizing it, you drive past an empty development and...

This week Fr. Paul explains that Midian is practically the Arabian desert, highlighting the importance of shepherdism as the setting for the biblical storyline. (Episode 236)  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

When Mary proclaims the Lord’s help toward his servant Israel, it’s easy to reduce her prayer to yet another platitude about mercy from our perspective, elevating Israel in human terms. We like to do this because—let’s face it—we identify with Israel. Oddly enough, in Scripture, we should identify with them, but not how you think.   As we’ve said many times over the years on this program, there ar...

This week, Fr. Paul continues his discussion of Exodus, stressing the importance of submitting to and not circumscribing the biblical text. (Episode 235) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The difficult teaching of Ecclesiastes warns us that all people share the same fate. This wisdom is pervasive in Scripture, from the violent imagery found in Deuteronomy to the razor’s edge of Paul’s argument in Romans. There is no difference between Jew and Greek; between the wise man and the fool; between the righteous and the wicked—all men share one fate. All things rest in the palm of God’s h...

This week, Fr. Paul stresses that in Hebrew and Greek the word house reflects the meaning of both house and household. (Episode 234) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Having established that God—not herself—is her only reference, Mary moves to the next logical step from Scripture’s perspective: the proclamation of the fear of God. The terrible might of God; that the mere mention of his name strikes fear and brings the hope of mercy: mercy to those once enslaved and humiliated like Mary.  In our fake philosophical systems of human mercy and institutional compass...

This week, Fr. Paul explains that God is in travail in Scripture and gives birth to children through his teaching. (Episode 233) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

When someone of authority speaks, it is only natural for people of lessor status to use his words to establish their position. Politicians do it, corporate underlings do it, and Christians do it in their mishandling of the Bible. When God speaks in Scripture, his words come down from above. We plagiarize. We want to use his words in our story. We act as though God has a part to play in our life wh...

In today’s program Fr. Paul discusses four verbs in Hebrew: be fruitful, multiply as fish, became many, and became great in status. (Episode 232) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

As the Spirit moves through chapter one of the Gospel of Luke, it exhibits its power as a mechanism of destruction but also as an implement of God’s control—prompting one to submit, teaching another to bless, and causing the Lord’s prophet to rejoice, even from his mother’s womb. The first to be filled with the Holy Spirit in the Gospel of Luke, John recognized Mary’s voice as she who trusted what...

This week, Fr. Paul proceeds with his discussion of Exodus emphasizing the importance of hearing Scripture with the entire story in view. (Episode 231) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Scriptural God is not the God of a statue, a temple, a city, or a mountain, but the God of a story. For those who submit to this God as their heavenly Father, it is forbidden to stray outside his narrative in any thought, word, or deed that pertains to him. In life, this means we follow his precepts without adding our words to his or using his words to justify ours; in the act of hearing his s...

This week Fr. Paul transitions from Genesis to Exodus, showing the interconnection between the books of the Pentateuch.  (Episode 230) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★