A short note about design change, we are dropping the audio player right at the top of the post so if you want to listen before reading anything – or wish to listen to the audio and read nothing at all – it’s right there and easy to find. You can click the play button and listen in your browser or click the three dots on the right and download the .m4a file to listen later.
Continue readingWhen the Old Testament of the Bible was written, there were no books, paper had not been invented, the Hebrew language had no characters for vowels and the text was not divided into chapters and verses. The Bibles we have today are modern forms of ancient documents. God gave us his Word because he meant for us to have it. The scripture has been not only translated into new languages that did not exist in antiquity but God’s message has been preserved through the ages.
Chapter and verse divisions are a recent innovation, when we think about the whole timeline of human history. The archbishop of Canterbury added chapter division in the 13th Century (there were still no verses for another 300 years). If it were up to me, the first three verses of Genesis 2 might have appeared at the end of chapter 1. No one asked me. God finished his creation work and rested on the seventh day. Beginning at Gen. 2:4, we are given a more detailed description of the creation of man and woman.
Pictured above in a late 60’s Martin N-20. Martin is best known for their Dreadnought line of guitars, a term borrowed from ship building which denotes the full size, such as the D-28 or D-35. The N-20 is a classical guitar made for nylon strings. There is no pick guard as the strings are nylon and meant for finger picking. The N-20 was never a big seller with Martin producing less than 300 per year at the height of its popularity. The line ended production in 1992. So why would anyone even care?
Continue readingThis is the first post in a new series, an ambitious project to read one chapter of the Bible each day for the next 1,189 days. Realistically we will probably miss a day here or there. Some chapters are incredibly long; so we may add a few days by splitting them up but it would also be possible to read more than one of the shorter chapters to make that time up. It will take a little over three years in either case. The point is, we are not in a hurry.
Before starting the player I recommend opening a Bible to Genesis 1 and following along. Bible Gateway is an excellent resource online offering several English translations. Youversion is a popular Bible app or, hear me out, maybe open an actual Bible. What version will I be reading? Well… for the purposes of publishing this blog/podcast I need to read something in the public domain, such as the KJV or ASV. The Bible says what the Bible says but I am basically reading from the KJV text while updating a bit of archaic language. Thee and thine becomes you and your. In Genesis 1, most modern translations use expanse rather than firmament. If there is ever an issue where the translations offer a different meaning, we will discuss the differences and the thought process that led to divergent texts.
Let’s get to it. After the first couple of posts there will be less introduction and explanation. The Bible was written with a purpose. Our goal is simple: to read the Bible and see what God has to say.
This is the final update on Read the Bible before we launch into it which is to say, it’s happening! I invite anyone reading this now or in the future to join us on a journey through he scriptures from beginning to end (although not necessarily in order). I have recorded the first two podcasts – let’s call them podcasts for lack of a better term – and hope to get a couple more in the can before Saturday morning. It was on Saturday, February 1st, that I heard someone say he was reading one chapter of the Bible per day and that was the inspiration to begin this project. I did the math, mulled it over, researched publishers and their copyrights, posted a couple of times and eventually got to it in earnest.
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This is a real question I encountered in an online group this week. Most of the social media theologians that responded were on the same page but one guy that disagreed with the general consensus disagreed a lot. We went back and forth citing verses and discussing the nature of Jesus during the incarnation and what that meant in terms of his “being God.”
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So two or three weeks ago I speculated about a new project that might be on the horizon. In Read the Bible I proposed that reading one chapter of the Bible per day would let you get through the entire Bible in a little over three years. I considered posting a series of audio files in which I would read one chapter and offer brief commentary and post those at a rate of one per day. It would be ambitious for sure but if I had started one chapter a day when I started blogging in 2008 I would have been through the Bible five times already.
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How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? There are over 31,000 verses of text in the Bible and apparently they can all be etched onto a necklace bobble. I’m going to ignore Christians call it a miracle; let’s pretend we didn’t see that. The entire Bible can be etched onto a tiny necklace, which leads me to ask, why? If you cannot possibly read it, what’s the point of printing it? There’s an old riddle about a tree falling in the forest that asks if no hears it, did it really make a sound? The answer depends on your definition of sound. Unless you have a scanning electron microscope, you will not be reading that necklace. It becomes nothing more than a good luck charm. You could claim you are keeping the Word close to your heart, but again it cannot actually be read and that’s the way to keep the Word in your heart and mind. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And this item says nothing more than “Look what I have.”
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Can we talk about this? Not 2 Cor. 5:7, that’s great. That is the whole verse, not just a snippet, and then some commentary has been added. I want to talk about all the verses and quotes I see online these days with the word AMEN! tacked on at the end. The last sentence of this quote, “If GOD has been good to you.” is not even a complete sentence. They used to ask for you to type or reply Amen but lately it has just incorporated into the post. There are several issues here. One, I refuse to share that because the grammar is wrong. I posted something a week or two ago and didn’t realize it said “us” in the quote where it should have said “is” until it was too late. Secondly, If I say something you agree with and you say Amen, that’s one thing. But I am not going to Amen myself. In the case of the image I could easily have cropped the bottom off but sometimes cropping the Amen would ruin the picture. So my third gripe is I sometimes keep scrolling because the Amen ruins the pic that would otherwise have saved for Happy Monday or share on Facebook myself.
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There’s more than one way to read the Bible, what matters is that you are reading it. I have read the Bible through in a single year but I don’t push that on people. If there are books in the Old Testament you have never read then you need to sooner or later; even though I would agree that the New Testament speaks more directly to Christians. “All scripture is good” but all scripture is not equally useful to our daily walk.
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The Master's Table 