Here, then, are some parallels to get you thinking:

1. Jesus’ face shines like the sun, just as Moses’ did.

2. Jesus’ disciples are terrified, just as the people were afraid of Moses.

3. Jesus took three people up the mountain with him (Peter, James, and John). Likewise, Moses took three people up the mountain with him (Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu).

4. Moses’ transformation was a result of coming into the glory of God. Jesus is transfigured by his own glory, transcending Moses.

5. A cloud envelopes the mountain where Jesus stands, just as it did Mount Sinai, where Moses stood.

The Septuagint–the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, written between the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC–gives a different figure. It lists Goliath’s height as four cubits and a span; about six and a half feet. Still unusually tall for that era.

Which version should be believed? Did the Septuagint translators, disbelieving the incredible height in the original story, change it to only four cubits? Or was the Hebrew version updated to turn Goliath into a mythical giant?

Your guess is as good as mine.

Here is what seems to happen. A group of bandits running a protection racket appear out of nowhere. They make the point that not one of them has bothered any of Nabal’s shepherds, and in fact, neither has anybody else while the bandits have been around. Don’t they deserve a little reward for protecting the shepherds? “Give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants,” they demand.

Nabal refuses to be threatened, and turns them down. Who is this David fellow, says he? Never heard of him.

So, four hundred bandits set out with swords to kill Nabal and take what he has by force. But Abigail, Nabal’s wife, catches wind of what’s going on.

“Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and an hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses.”

Abigail saves the day by succumbing to the bandits’ protection racket, and Nabal is allowed to live.

//It’s surely not my intention to discredit the Catholic Church, but one of its teachings doesn’t quite jibe with the Bible. It’s this idea that Peter was the successor to Jesus, the leader of the new community of Christians. The first Pope.

This doctrine is founded primarily upon today’s verse, in which Jesus seems to designate Peter as the foundation for the new church. Never mind that this is only one interpretation of the verse (naming Peter as the rock in question). Never mind that the authenticity of the verse is disputed among scholars. Never mind that this is the only verse—not only in the Bible, but in any early historical document we’ve uncovered—which names Peter as the new boss.

The real problem is that there are many passages in the Bible citing somebody else as the head of the church. The real successor seems to be James, the brother of Jesus. Peter may have been bishop of Rome, a satellite Christian assembly in a faraway land, but James was awarded the position of bishop of Jerusalem, the central and authoritative assembly. Christianity, in every example you read during the life of Peter, was centered in Jerusalem, headed by James.

Paul writes that James, Peter, and John were the pillars of the church (Galatians 2:9), but could it be that James, the first one mentioned—more than Peter, Paul, or John—as the true successor preserves the more authentic message of Jesus? Is the Epistle of James, with its doctrine of justification by works, the book we should really be reading?

Ezekiel’s promise of a life-giving spirit became an expectation of a gift from God in the messianic age. In that day, God would rule justly, and the world would be set right. We see this hope not only in Christian writings, but other Jewish writings as well, such as in the Dead Sea Scrolls. In Jubilees 1:23, God promises “I shall create for them a holy spirit, and I shall purify them so that they will not turn away from following me from that day and forever.” Today, Christians call this gift the Holy Spirit (the third part of the Trinity) and believe the delivery of the Spirit happened 40 days after Jesus resurrected, on Pentecost.

This is a little confusing to many, because if the Spirit’s arrival is meant to signal the beginning of the age of God’s rule, wouldn’t that mean the millennium has begun? Are we, or are we not, living in the messianic age?  Where are all the resurrected people?

Paul seemed confused as well. In too many verses for me to quote, Paul indicates that we are a new creation, infused with the promised Spirit, and thus the age has begun. Paul seemed to live his life in fervent desperation, carrying the message of Jesus to the ends of the earth, knowing that any minute, the resurrection would occur. How could it not, if the Spirit has arrived? Read again today’s verse in Ezekiel.

So where did Paul err? Was Paul wrong that there would be a resurrection, or was he wrong when he claimed the Spirit had arrived, or was he wrong to tie the two events together?

//This verse appears at the very end of our Bible, warning us not to tinker with any of the words in the book of Revelation. This threat surely doesn’t refer to the Bible as a whole, but to the covenant of Revelation … a covenant of a new heaven and new earth to come.

Yes, I said “covenant.” Revelation is more than a book of promises. It purposefully closes in covenantal language. Whether or not you believe everything in Revelation will come to pass in a literal manner, its author (somebody named John) claims a direct message from Jesus and frames this message as a covenant.

Compare the language of today’s verse, for example, with the covenant in Deuteronomy 4:2:

It is now firmly established by scholars that the structure of the Mosaic covenant–particularly as written in Deuteronomy and the Decalogue–reflects a common structure of established covenants of that day. Here’s another example, from the Hittite treaty of Tudhaliyas IV and Ulmi-Teshub:

Whoever … changes but one word of this tablet … may the thousand gods of this tablet root that man’s descendants out of the land of Hatti –Kline, Structure of Biblical Authority, p. 29

The logical conclusion is that Revelation was intended as divine scripture, a covenant between Jesus and his followers.

//In the Gospel of John, there is no trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin (the ruling council of the Jews). But the other three gospels tell of this trial, a sort of kangaroo court, in which Jesus is condemned by the Jews prior to turning him over to the Romans.

What did Job think of these adoring peons? Read on into the next chapter. They bray like disreputable animals. Their fathers Job disdained, for they did not deserve the company of dogs.

And now, after Job is brought low, the people mock Job instead of worship him. Poor Job.

Perhaps Job’s strongest quality was not his patience but his pride? Perhaps there was more reason than we think for this humbling act of God, bringing Job down to ashes?

//Yesterday, I discussed a vision Ezekiel had of the new City of God. In the center of the City was a temple, and flowing from the temple was a river that spread life to everything it touched. When these living waters reached the Dead Sea, even this salty sea was transformed into an abundance of living fish.

But what of Ezekiel’s promise of living water flowing from the temple … first a small stream, then rivers of life-giving water? Jesus explains this as well:

Thus this living water continues to flow out from the “temple” today, bringing life to everything it touches in the world. Ezekiel was right.

Ezekiel was seeing “living water.” While the phrase in Jewish antiquity generally only referred to flowing water (in contrast to stagnant water in a pond), you can see how the image of “living water” became glorious in its own right. Everything the water touched lived. Here is how today’s verse begins:

And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the [Dead Sea] may become fresh;

In Ezekiel’s vision, the water flowed from the temple into the Dead Sea, even converting the saltwater there into a living environment! Did this really happen as Ezekiel promised? Or is it yet in our future?

The rest of the story tomorrow.

Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality. –Revelation 2:14

James 1:2, Matthew 5:11-12

James 1:4, Matthew 5:48

James 1:5, Matthew 7:7

James 1:17, Matthew 7:11

James 1:22, Matthew 7:24

James 1:23, Matthew 7:26

James 2:5, Matthew 5:3-5

James 2:10, Matthew 5:18-19

James 2:11, Matthew 5:21-22

James 2:13, Matthew 5:7

James 3:12, Matthew 7:16-18

James 3:18, Matthew 5:9

James 4:2-3, Matthew 7:7-8

James 4:4, Matthew 6:24

James 4:8, Matthew 5:8

James 4:9, Matthew 5:4

James 4:11, Matthew 7:1-2

James 5:2, Matthew 6:19-21

James 5:6, Matthew 7:1

James 5:10, Matthew 5:11-12

James 5:12, Matthew 5:34-37