Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Chronicles, textures on June 8, 2008| Leave a Comment »
The two histories of Israel focus upon the kings of Judah and Israel, lending special attention to questions of royal conduct. Did this or that king do what is just and right in the sight of YHWH? Or did he not?
The verdicts pronounced on this score are concise. No doubt each one summarizes in a simple sentence moral complexities whose nuance and detail would fill libraries. (more…)
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Chronicles, textures on June 6, 2008| Leave a Comment »
It seems at first odd that a history of Israel that reserves an exalted space for good-hearted monarchs should clear a circle also for the rogue prophet who strides into the king’s courts to denounce his behavior. This scenario represents the narrative version of the more abstract declaration that Israel must not have kings like those of all the other nations.
Israel, and then the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah, are summoned to a new kind of kingship whereby the royal figure maintains a respectful subservience to YHWH’s instruction, whether this is delivered in the ‘law of Moses’ or by the words of a prophet. The dynamic this establishes sets up some of the more dramatic moments of the Bible’s twin histories of Israel. (more…)
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Chronicles, textures on June 4, 2008| Leave a Comment »
Asa’s own political machinations come under the disapproving gaze of the prophet Hanani, who again takes up the language of leaning or relying. By persuading the king of Aram to open a northern front against the Asa’s Israelite nemesis, the Judahite king successfully wards off pressure from that quarter.
Yet YHWH’s prophet, for all the apparent success of this stratagem, is not amused. (more…)
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Chronicles, textures on June 3, 2008| Leave a Comment »
The story of the Judahite kings Abijah and Asa is perforated with observations about two human endeavors towards YHWH: leaning upon him and seeking him.
Neither one of these activities is transparent to the modern reader. (more…)
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Chronicles, textures on May 31, 2008| Leave a Comment »
It is a good day in Jerusalem when the priests cannot stand. It means that YHWH has appeared in force.
If any biblical text places supreme confidence in the potency of organized worship, it is the twin books of Chronicles. The microscopic detail of this book’s passion for genealogical and cultic order is fascinating for those whose temperament aligns with its idiosyncrasy, offputting for others. (more…)
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Chronicles, textures on May 29, 2008| Leave a Comment »
YHWH’s promises to David are so lavish that they often accrue the adjective ‘unconditional’. Declared primarily in the Bible’s two great histories of Israel (Deuteronomy-2 Kings and Chronicles-Nehemiah) and then reflected upon in the Psalms and Prophets, YHWH commits himself to David’s ‘house’ in seemingly open-ended manner. (more…)
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, John, textures on May 26, 2008| Leave a Comment »
Though the Johannine Jesus’ response to news of Lazarus’ illness suggests a startling conflict of emotions, the equanimity of his conversation with Martha and Mary hews to a more placid line. I find the whole picture anything but posed and ungenuine. If Jesus is the person the Fourth Gospel has been suggesting, one might almost anticipate such experience and behavior in the context of the sickness and death of ‘the one whom (Jesus) loves’.
Deep friendship is the backdrop of this story. Those who have known this gift understand something of its potency, something of the forcefulness one confronts when its riches have been invaded by the contrary force of death. (more…)
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Chronicles, textures on May 25, 2008| Leave a Comment »
The Books of Chronicles are most like the Psalms in their focus upon Israel realizing her destiny in the context of worship. It would be easy to push this observation to reductionistic ends. The topic of worship seems almost to shove people rudely against that wall, often with their lustiest cooperation. This oversimplification and the obsession that ensues is perhaps testimony to the power of the worship idea that inadvertently fuels such passion. (more…)
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, John, textures on May 24, 2008| Leave a Comment »
The Johannine presentation is not shy about making exalted claims on Jesus’ behalf. The categories are large: he is light, he is life, he is the way, he is truth. One anticipates apotheosis rather than degradation of the gospel’s central figure. Indeed, apotheosis might be considered a guest too late for this party, since Jesus is presented from the outset in categories so fulsome and pristine that in the history of interpretation they’ve (mostly unhelpfully) been explained against a Platonic rather than a Hebraic background.
Yet one finds neither pristinization, re-pristinization, apotheosis, or an untroubled crescendo of recognition of Jesus’ glory and celestial origins. (more…)
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Chronicles, textures on May 23, 2008| Leave a Comment »
It is a moving thing to observe the heart of a people turning to a leader-in-waiting or gathering to him in force after events have lined up behind him. Such is the story of David’s rise to sovereignty over the whole of Israel and Judah. The story is studded with vignettes about heroes, heroism, and the remarkable loyalty that bound an increasing number of rebels, outcasts, and—eventually—societal pillars to the fate and person of this David. (more…)
Canter Bridge 