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Category: hebrew

be there dragons in isaiah 6?

Posted on Monday, 24th October, 2016 by martin

Isaiah 6 is a magnificent account of Isaiah’s encounter with the true king. The scene features supernatural creatures, the שרפים (śĕrāphîm). Most translations going back as far as the Greek simply transliterate the Hebrew and so call the creatures “seraphim” (the Greek has σεραφιν). But I think there may be a viable alternative. Seraph is…

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when ‘desire’ is wrong

Posted on Monday, 5th September, 2016Tuesday, 11th October, 2016 by martin

Genesis 3 recounts the undoing of the intimate relationships established in the previous chapter between humans and God, between the man and the ground, between the woman and the man. In recent decades most of the discussion seems to have been over what God says to the woman, traditionally translated something like: [Yhwh Elohim] said…

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is god transgender?

Posted on Sunday, 14th August, 2016 by martin

The New York Times recently published an opinion piece by Rabbi Mark Sameth entitled “Is God Transgender?” You can read it here. In this he argues that “the Hebrew Bible, when read in its original language, offers a highly elastic view of gender.” His argument is very thin on the ground (he has a book…

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lying by and for god in the bible

Posted on Monday, 11th July, 2016 by martin

We all know that lying is wrong, and we all know that God does not lie. After all, 1Sam 15:29 reads: … the Eternal One of Israel does not lie or change His mind, for He is not man who changes his mind. (HCSB) But is it really true that God never lies? It turns…

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why adam before eve was not androgynous

Posted on Sunday, 12th June, 2016Sunday, 12th June, 2016 by martin

The story of the creation of man and woman in Genesis 2 begins with God forming the first human who is designated האדם (hāʾādām, ‘the human’). The word is used as a generic term referring to human beings in many places in biblical Hebrew. Furthermore, there are a number of other words which mean ‘man’…

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what’s in a name: name giving in genesis 2

Posted on Sunday, 5th June, 2016Wednesday, 8th June, 2016 by martin

Last week I heard Thomas R. Schreiner speak at Moore Theological College on the topic of “What the Bible says about Women in Ministry.” While briefly making reference to Genesis 1–3 he made a particular point that the man’s act of naming the animals and the woman is an exercise of authority on his part,…

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job’s wife

Posted on Sunday, 8th February, 2015Thursday, 9th June, 2016 by martin

February 8th is International Septuagint Day. In celebration, this year I thought I’d post one of the two major differences between the LXX and MT in the Book of Job, the details of Job’s wife. For those unfamiliar with her, this is all we hear of and from Job’s wife in the MT: ותאמר לו…

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genesis 1 is not poetry

Posted on Saturday, 1st February, 2014Tuesday, 14th June, 2016 by martin

What can I say? Genesis 1 is not poetry, nor is it some weird hybrid of poetry and prose. Genesis 1:27 alone is poetry, but the rest of the chapter is pretty much stock-standard biblical Hebrew narrative in regards to its syntax. It is not poetry! Why is this an issue? It’s an issue because…

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apple pages 5.0 finally supports hebrew

Posted on Saturday, 26th October, 2013 by martin

In the last week, Apple has released a flurry of software updates, including updates to its iWork productivity software. While there are some who are unhappy with the changes, the good news is that Pages — Apple’s versatile word-processing application — now supports right-to-left and mixed direction text entry. Previous versions of Pages would allow entry of…

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the origins of the use of κυριος for יהוה

Posted on Friday, 14th June, 2013 by martin

All extant manuscripts of the NT consistently use the Greek word κυριος (kyrios, ‘lord’) when translating the name of God in the OT, יהוה (Yhwh). The background to this is not entirely clear nor uncontested, but it is worth noting a few points about what is and isn’t known, and what is and isn’t likely.

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