Ezekiel the book

Italicized paragraphs below are extracts from Christine Elizabeth Hayes’ book Introduction to the Bible (The Open Yale Courses Series). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition. The lecture, titled “Literary Prophecy: Perspectives on the Exile (Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and 2nd Isaiah),” explores the theological responses to the destruction of Jerusalem, focusing on the books of Ezekiel and Second […]

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Accumulated Guilt and Transgenerational Punishment

Italicized paragraphs below are extracts from Christine Elizabeth Hayes’ book Introduction to the Bible (The Open Yale Courses Series) (pp. 304-305). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition. After 586 [BCE], some accepted the idea that the nation was suffering because of the accumulated guilt of previous generations (notably the Deuteronomistic historian), but for others the idea […]

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Didache, Alms and Eucharist by Burton Mack

Paragraphs below were extracted from https://www.earlychristianwritings.com/didache.html. There are many extracts from other scholars at the page. Burton Mack notes two interesting features of the text of the Didache. One concerns alms, and the other concerns the Eucharist. Of the first, Mack writes (Who Wrote the New Testament?, p. 240): “There are several interesting features of […]

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El – אֵל

Isaiah 10:21–23 Only a remnant shall return,Only a remnant of Jacob,To mighty El.Even if your people, O Israel,Should be as the sands of the sea,Only a remnant of it shall return.Destruction is decreed;Retribution comes like a flood!For my lord Yahweh of Hosts is carrying outA decree of destruction upon all the land. Most closely aligns […]

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Isaiah

First Isaiah, (Isaiah 1-39) The book of Isaiah is the longest prophetic book, and the interpretation of many passages as symbolic references to Jesus makes it one of the books of the Bible most quoted by Christians. The historical prophet Isaiah from Jerusalem was a contemporary of Amos and Hosea. However, he was active for […]

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Amos

Elizabeth Hayes, Christine. Introduction to the Bible (The Open Yale Courses Series) (p. 249). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition. The first of the literary prophets, Amos preached in the northern kingdom of Israel during a relatively stable period in the reign of Jeroboam II, around 750 B.C.E., before the Assyrian threat became very apparent. In […]

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Judges

Dr. Christine Hayes, Yale Online Lecture 12. The Deuteronomistic History: Life in the Land (Joshua and Judges). Italicized paragraphs below are from her book related to the course. The book of Judges is set in the transitional period between the death of Joshua and the establishment of the monarchy (1200–1020 B.C.E.) and is an imaginative and embellished […]

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1 and 2 Kings

First and second Kings contain the history of Israel from the death of King David to the fall of Judah and the Babylonian exile in 586. These books appear to be based on older sources, some of which are explicitly identified, such as the subsequently lost “Book of the Acts of Solomon” (1 Kings 11:41) […]

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