Monthly Archives: November 2012

Knohl’s chaotic way of reading the Bible

Posted on November 30, 2012 by theoutwardquest

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I need to turn my attention to other things for a while.    But I did not want to leave my postings on Israel Knohl’s The Divine Symphony without reflecting a bit about it. You … Continue reading →

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Advent I-Jeremiah 33:14-16

Posted on November 28, 2012 by theoutwardquest

Advent, the Christian pre-Christmas season, begins Sunday.   I will again talk a little about one of the set scriptures from the Revised Common Lectionary each week. That may be the only blogging I get done for a  while.    The reason … Continue reading →

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Knohl-Genesis 22

Posted on November 27, 2012 by theoutwardquest

Ever since I read  The Life and Death of the Beloved Son by Jon Levenson (see here), I have been thinking about child sacrifice.  It was practiced by some of Israel’s neighbors.  If you dig down far enough into Israel’s … Continue reading →

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Knohl-the golden calves

Posted on November 21, 2012 by theoutwardquest

In reading Israel Knohl’s The Divine Symphony, I see he has a place for an old tradition from northern Israel.  This tradition isn’t quite the same as E or the Elohist of the old documentary hypothesis.  E, after all, is … Continue reading →

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Knohl-the two Ezekiels

Posted on November 20, 2012 by theoutwardquest

 Taking a chapter at a time in the first part of  Israel Knohl’s The Divine Symphony, worked.  I have decided, though, that the second part of the book will be more interesting if I just look at particular scriptures that … Continue reading →

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Knohl-the rise of the Holiness School

Posted on November 16, 2012 by theoutwardquest

More on Israel Knohl’s The Divine Symphony: The Jerusalem priests during the first temple period made a separation between morality and the observances and rituals required by God.  By the late eighth century this separation seemed out of whack because a … Continue reading →

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Knohl-Isaiah’s holiness and vision of peace

Posted on November 15, 2012 by theoutwardquest

Israel Knohl’s next chapter of The Divine Symphony discusses Isaiah and the Holiness Code.  Knohl says  Isaiah linked holiness to morality from within the priestly tradition. Isaiah, in about 740 BCE received a vision of YHWH in the Temple (Isaiah … Continue reading →

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Why the Affordable Care Act will be unaffordable

Posted on November 14, 2012 by theoutwardquest

Religious and spiritual folks are big on compassion.  This has led the mainline churches and many others to strongly support Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act.  See here for just one of hundreds of examples of this kind of argument. … Continue reading →

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Knohl-the theology of the Yahwist

Posted on November 12, 2012 by theoutwardquest

I am continuing to read Israel Knohl’s The Divine Symphony.   He thinks the Hebrew Bible has several different voices arising from  historical factions in ancient Israel.  The faction I discussed in my last post was that of the priests … Continue reading →

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Knohl-the theology of the priests

Posted on November 9, 2012 by theoutwardquest

I am reading Israel Knohl’s The Divine Symphony.  In his chapter about the Priestly Torah Knohl tells us how he understands the theology of the priests. First, the priests had a unique view of creation and evil.  They believed God … Continue reading →

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