The Bible as Literature

Latest Episodes:

Statutes of Your Fathers Jul 25, 2023

Show notes

In this week’s program, Fr. Paul begins his discussion of Leviticus, drawing on passages from Ezekiel and Numbers to illustrate how characters in the story twist the command of God. (Episode 284)

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Bread and Stone Jul 20, 2023

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The interplay between the terms bayt and heykal in biblical Hebrew is simple. So simple that it can be explained to a child. A heykal is a building made of stone that serves as both a temple and a palace for the king. The writers of the old TV series Stargate SG1 got the basic premise correct: people are fooled into worshiping their leaders as gods—and the bloody Pharaohs didn’t even have to be aliens. Just ordinary humans. That’s how gullible we are. Wear some flashy gold bling; execute a few poor people; build a shiny tower with your name on it, and everyone thinks you are the bomb.

In contrast, the term bayt can refer either to a constructed house or a household, as in the biblical bayt ab, the Father’s house, filled with flesh-and-blood sons and daughters. In Ezekiel and Isaiah, instead of having land and a capital city with a building constructed by men, Yahweh, your Elohim posits himself as the only point of reference for his household, the bayt ab, which looks nothing like anything of human construction, let alone the houses we build.

It is so simple. Yet we persist in pushing against it. It is so simple, yet we still insist on our own agendas and human dynasties because deep down inside, we love Pharaoh and want to be like him.

“Here’s the church, and here’s the steeple. Open the door and see all the people.”

It’s the people, not the steeple. Even your Anglo-Saxon nursery rhymes are more honest than your false teachings and your lying teachers.
Thank God that Scripture cannot hear you. Thank God that in the story of Scripture, Jesus did not listen to the Devil.

Richard and Fr. Marc discuss Luke 4:3-4 (Episode 491)

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The Utterances of God Jul 18, 2023

Show notes

This week, Fr. Paul concludes his discussion of the Exodus. (Episode 283)

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In the Wilderness Jul 13, 2023

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Imagine searching for guidance on the best way to live life. You have the chance to speak with two advisors. The first lifts your spirits. After listening carefully to you, he explains that you have value, possess unique insights, and have something to say and contribute. He argues that your needs and feelings must come first, that everything will work out, and that what matters most is what you want; your life, experiences, and goals count. He provides valuable advice on working diligently, saving wisely, planning strategically, building steadily, establishing, thriving, loving, and relishing a life well-lived, enriched by the company of family, community, friends, children, and grandchildren. He expresses affection, even nostalgia for the person you are, what your shared humanity represents, and who you will become—then you turn to the second advisor.

His name is Paul.

He is not interested in what you have to say. He can’t hear you; even if he could, he would not listen. Moreover, to make sure that you know, beyond the shadow of any doubt, that nothing of value can ever come from you, as the guest in your home, he ridicules and invalidates your family tree. He explains that you are nothing and have no value as a husband or a father. You are a tool to be used for a purpose until you are broken and eventually set aside, like a used-up oblation. He admits that this goes against your nature because no man is truly capable of hating his own flesh, but that’s his point; he is giving you a dark saying from Psalm 78; he is hitting you with the painful imposition of the words of Genesis, sealed in the content of his teaching of the Cross in 1 Corinthians: it is not your life. There is no such thing as “your” life. It is life, of which human beings are only a small part.

Your plans are not God’s plan. The things that you build—your dynasties and eternity projects—offend God. You want to please others, to be surrounded by friends and family, because you want to please yourself. But this is not love. You will not become anything. You are temporary, taken from dust and returning to dust. Like all men, your days are like grass, and the place where you once lived will not remember you. The only thing that stands is the Torah, which was here before you, does not come from you and will be here after you are long gone. As my student Luke now explains, there is a chance, after the cancellation of the kings and princes of Israel, that this Torah can be found again in the wilderness, in the arms of the Lamb of God, who will be slain for your sake. So, keep your mouth shut and listen to him.

Be honest. Which advice would take? You don’t have to answer today, but, believe me, you will have to answer.

Richard and Fr. Marc discuss Luke 4:1-2 (Episode 490)

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Even AI Cannot Depict This Jul 11, 2023

Show notes

This week, Fr. Paul notes the grammatical interconnection between Exodus and Revelation, which highlights the iconoclastic function of the Tent of Meeting, in which the Tabernacle, covered by the Tent, covers the Tabernacle, a warning that you are to live in the open wilderness, and not as the nations do, in temples of stone. (Episode 282)

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Epilogue: You Are Not Elohim Jul 06, 2023

Show notes

Yes, the Bible is about the propagation of God’s seed. Unfortunately, ignorant of biblical Hebrew, Christians of all kinds fall into the trap of Neoplatonism, mishearing Genesis and Galatians by saying, “Oh well then, it's not really about making babies; it’s about making disciples.”
No. Definitely not. You are not an eternal god. You cannot “make” anything. Moreover, Jesus warns, when you make disciples, “you make them twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.” (Matthew 23:15)

You are flesh and blood creatures born of a mother. You have no choice in the matter, and that is the genius of the Bible. As commanded by Elohim in Genesis, you must multiply sexually like any other mammal. In every generation, you “will die…and fall like any prince.” (Psalm 82) Cain desperately tried, but you cannot get around this through your foolish dynasties, dedicating your children to cities and monuments.
It is the words of Elohim—his seed—not your silly eternity projects, that stand forever:

A voice says, “Call out.” Then he answered, “What shall I call out?” All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; The people are indeed grass! The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. (Isaiah 40:6-9)

Richard and Fr. Marc discuss Luke 3:23-38 (Episode 489)

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The Ultimate Covenant Jul 04, 2023

Show notes

In this week’s program, Fr. Paul explains that we are paying a high price for the false teaching of theologians who cannot hear or understand Scripture because they are too busy defending their own theology, which emasculates the throne of the Judge, resulting in violence. (Episode 281)

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The Toledot of Elohim Jun 29, 2023

Show notes

From the beginning, the Scriptural God commanded biological reproduction—be fruitful and multiply. Reproduce biologically because the generation yet unborn cannot be created by studying or preaching the Torah. But remember that God is King, and they are his children, not yours.

But the human beings did not listen. Cain multiplied himself, raising offspring to his own dynasty, dedicating Encoch and his seed—not to God’s commandments—but to buildings of stone. This situation did not last very long.

After the flood, God established the oneness of the human race through Noah’s sons, demonstrating his intention that the nations live alongside each other under his rule. Among them was Shem, the forbear of Abraham, “by whom” God said, “all the families of the earth” shall be blessed. All.

From the sons of Noah to the settlement in Canaan, the Israelites were destined to live alongside the Gentiles already dwelling in Canaan, yes, Canaan, the term artificially doubled by Luke at the climax of his genealogy.

The stage was set from the beginning. Israel was never special or exceptional. They were one nation among many honored by Elohim with the special gift of his teaching. In the same way, the “prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee” (Matthew 21:11) had a special duty when God sent him to complete the work begun by Jonah of sharing this teaching.

From Genesis to Revelation—the Bible is not Adam’s story, Noah’s, Abraham’s, or Shem’s, let alone Israel’s; even David needed reminding when the Lord struck down his child by Bathsheba: Elohim is King and Judge. It is his dynasty, and they are his children, not yours.

In obedience to Elohim, Jesus, the unremarkable human being, refused the throne. Jesus, the Lord, with no army, property, children, or toledot. Jesus, the last of the prophets, who rejected everything Herod represents and went on to die a loser, in total shame, with no value in human terms.
The Lukan genealogy is what the Bible always was, the toledot of Elohim, and such a genealogy begins as it ends, bookended by the uncontested reign of our Heavenly King, who rules from age to age over all the nations.

Richard and Fr. Marc discuss Luke 3:37-38 (Episode 488)

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The Five Fingers Jun 27, 2023

Show notes

This week, Fr. Paul underscores the centrality of shepherd life over city life in the Book of Exodus, specifically in its presentation of the Tent of Meeting. He also notes how the story emphasizes God rather than Moses as its author. (Episode 280)

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Glorify the Canaanites so That You May Live Long in the Land Jun 22, 2023

Show notes

After expending significant effort to construct a genealogy—almost from scratch, only now, as he approaches his knockout punch, "Son of Man (ben adam), Son of God,” Luke draws upon pre-existing material to finalize his inverted dynasty.

Climbing past an excerpt borrowed from Matthew detailing Abraham’s line, we now stumble across another collection of names, this time from Genesis 11:10-26. The focus, of course, is shepherdism.

Human beings want to distinguish themselves as individuals while simultaneously criticizing exceptionalism in others.

We revel in tearing down heroes and authority figures while singing songs about heroism, congratulating ourselves about ourselves. Our politics, literature, and media celebrate this freedom. Unfortunately, some people confuse this with what Scripture is doing.

In making the line of Arpachshad under Shem functional in his genealogy, Luke proposes an alternative to sitcom ideology, which tries to be clever in its cultural critique but fails.

You cannot ridicule sin unless you yourself preach as one condemned. Otherwise, you glorify sin.

Approaching the end of chapter 3, Luke ridicules both the sin and the sinner, preaching the story of Genesis 11, in which all human beings are sheep under one Shepherd.

Sheep do not speak. Sheep are in no way exceptional or in a position to criticize unless, like Luke, the Shepherd gives them something to say.

Richard and Fr. Marc discuss Luke 3:35-36 (Episode 487)

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