The Bible as Literature

This week Fr. Paul laments the way we shortchange the biblical function “steadfast love” in which the scriptural God, a jealous God, who visits the iniquity of the fathers upon children, the compassionate and gracious God, listening to prayers but not necessarily answering them, is the faithful judge whose steadfast love endures from age to age in the heaviness of his words. (Episode 268) ★ Suppor...

Sorting out one's personal priorities is the most difficult aspect of committing to anything of value. Well, let’s qualify that statement. Committing to your priorities is easy when you measure value using money or self-interest. Everyone happily, readily, half-consciously, and with much pomp, fanfare, and self-justification explains how busy they are pursuing money, a career, and their jam-packed...

In today’s episode, Fr. Paul offers a practical tip to pastors and teachers: as in the case of the specific example of the Decalogue, when someone says, “I know what the Bible says,”  ask them to recite it. (Episode 267) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

When Christians emphasize the deep spiritual meaning or transformative power of human suffering, they unwittingly transgress the authority of the scriptural God. Yes, you heard correctly—no need to rewind the tape. For those baptized into the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Lord’s instruction, not human experience, must serve as our only reference point for understanding the world. Unlike so many huma...

This week Fr. Paul calls out the standard error of rendering “unto the age” as “eternal” in English translations of the Bible.  (Episode 266)  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Theologians love to philosophize about the darkness in the world because, like politicians, they fancy the work of their own hands as a city of light set upon a hill. They see themselves as the administrators of light in a world gone astray. Nothing could be further from the story of the Bible, which shines its powerful light to expose the darkness in each of us, unimpeded by our crafty designs on...

This week, Fr. Paul emphasizes from Exodus what the Apostle Paul underscores in Galatians and people of all religions systematically ignore: “if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession among all the peoples.” (Exodus 19:5), (Episode 265)  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

When coming across a word, a phrase, or a passage in the Bible, our natural tendency as modern disciples is to interrogate a text and then assign meaning to it. If we can pin a piece of text down, it’s like having a part of the puzzle solved in our heads once and for all. The inconvenient idea that a text’s value and usage can change—that its meaning depends on where and how it is placed in a stor...

This week Fr. Paul deftly points out that in the story of the Bible, the personal and singular primacy of Moses is the individual and singular primacy of the five books of the Law. (Episode 264) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The use of Isaiah 40 in all four gospels underscores the centrality of the wilderness as God’s base of operations for preaching the gospel outside of and in opposition to the things that human beings construct both mentally and physically.  Still, this fact does not give us a license to claim an abstract understanding of the meaning of Isaiah 40 or what it implies for the writers of the New Testam...

This week, Fr. Paul explains that, unlike adults, children between the ages of six and ten, upon hearing the story of the battle with Amalek in the book of Exodus, will immediately understand that despite the weariness of Moses, it is God, not Moses, who is leading the battle. (Episode 263)  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

What’s in a name? When Richard and I began this week’s episode, we were struck by the wealth of information packed into two verses. Through the simple arrangement of people and places, Luke leaves a trail of names, like breadcrumbs, along a path that moves all through the Bible, well beyond his gospel. In this sense, the beginning of chapter 3 is like an easter egg, a road sign that pops up along...

This week, Fr. Paul explains that Shepard culture has no settlements because there is no settling and, therefore, no buildings. (Expose 262) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

“Let the canon of our and holy God-bearing Fathers be confirmed in this particular also; that a presbyter is not ordained before he is thirty years of age, even if he is a very worthy man, let him be kept back. Our Lord Jesus Christ was baptized and began teaching when he was thirty. In like manner, let no deacon be ordained before he is twenty-five, nor a deaconess before she is forty.” - Canon 1...

This week, Fr. Paul reminds us that because the biblical manna comes from heaven, it is a gift over which we have no control. (Episode 261) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Western philosophy is obsessed with (dare I say, oppressed by) the illusion of choice. Let’s paraphrase a helpful example from Luis Elizondo to illustrate this point: Imagine you were given the power to build anything you want using your chosen materials. Your goal is to build something that can withstand the test of time, at least as long as the planet’s lifespan. Remember that the oldest structu...

In today’s program, Fr. Paul explains that a prophet is an individual put in their position by God to speak God’s words according to his own divine will. (Episode 260) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

In the natural world, as observed through the lens of the scientific method, when counting a person’s age, we measure their lifespan against the time it takes for our planet to revolve around the sun. We observe and measure phenomena. But we do not observe or measure phenomena in literature—perhaps especially in biblical literature. Instead, when dealing with a written text, we operate in an artif...

This week, Fr. Paul highlights Hebrew terminology in Moses’ Song of Victory that underscores the centrality of shepherdism in Scripture. (Episode 259) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

In his letter to the Romans, St. Paul explains that God’s people are held up as an example of sin, not so that sin is excused or justified, but as a cautionary tale, codified in the story of Scripture, an example to all peoples of how not to behave. The parallel teaching, also found in St. Paul’s exegesis of the Old Testament, is the non-example of Abraham’s trust in God’s commandment. Not in his...

This week, Fr. Paul notes that the commonly used expression “the original text” is misleading since there is only one text, which, in fact, is the original. (Episode 258) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Scripture is clever. When Simeon stands in the temple waiting, he does so at the pleasure of his master. He has no agency, control, or personal expectations, yet he has a duty. As his very name suggests, he is to hear and obey the words of God until his death, trusting that God will fulfill his promise to achieve salvation, carrying those words in victory over the nations. He has no right to insis...

This Week, Fr. Paul notes the importance of the hiphil and how English translations of Exodus fall short in rendering its functional meaning. (Episode 257) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Universities, schools, and centers of faith are giving up on knowledge and selling out. What happened this past week at Hamline University indicates a trend in which an agenda other than the mission to impart knowledge controls what is permissible in the classroom.  Knowledge is not a popularity contest. A teacher does not share information to offend or pacify feelings. A teacher imparts whatever...

This week, Fr. Paul explains that a sign in the Bible is distinct from a miracle and is used to assign a function or meaning to something within the story. (Episode 256) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★