2 Peter part three

We are at chapter two verse seven. We have read about god's power to destroy the ungodly, which uses language similar to Jude 6 and 7. Now the author tells us god knows how to rescue the godly, like Lot. He says, "Lot was a righteous man who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men." Go back and read the story of Lot in Genesis 19. This is the Lot who offered his daughter to be raped by an angry mob to save the virtue of a couple of angels. This same Lot got filthy stinking drunk and was raped by his own daughters. Lovely story. Not.

The author continues on, talking of arrogant men who are not afraid to slander celestial beings. Good for them. Why should they be afraid? Well, the author says that not even very powerful angels will slander celestial beings in the presence of the lord. Maybe because none of them exist. Or is it because the slanderers are "brute beasts...born only to be caught and destroyed."

The next verses, from 13-22, are pure vitriol. They malign and slander the author's opposition in a particularly nasty way. He calls them blots and blemishes, carousers, adulterers, seducers, unstable, greedy, accursed, wicked, boastful,  and lustful. He also uses some pretty descriptive metaphors like springs without water, mists driven by a storm, slaves to depravity, dogs returning to vomit (Proverbs 26:11 quote), and sows wallowing in mud. Were they actually that bad? What is the other side of the story? Also,  I urge you to read through the book of Jude, which is quite short. So much of this passage is similar to the language found there.

What was the point of all that hatred? It was this, "If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our lord and savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning." This is a subtle threat  to those christians  who would dare to leave the group, dare to say anything against it,  and go back into the world. "Blackest darkness is reserved for them." This is cult language, calculated to make people fear and quake at the mere thought of leaving, questioning,  or complaining.

We have come to chapter three. The author says, "Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you." That is interesting because many scholars don't believe 1st and 2nd Peter were written by the same person. The language, the format, and the subject matter differ. The author of first Peter wrote in a very Jewish way, referring to the Old Testament with quotations. So far, the author of second Peter Has referred to various parts of the old Testament and to Matthew, but he has drawn significant amounts of  text directly from Jude. What's even more interesting, he used all the bits he got from Jude in the order that they appear in that book, interspersed with his own words. According to my study bible he clearly uses, in order, phrases from Jude 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, and 18. He is a plagiarist.

The author goes on to say he wrote both his letters to "stimulate the reader to wholesome thinking." He wants them to recall the words of the prophets and the command Jesus gave the apostles, but he doesn't say which words and which command. They also need to realize that in the last days scoffers will scoff. (Haters will hate.)They will question the whereabouts of Jesus, as well they should. He supposedly promised he would come back. He hadn't then, and he hasn't yet. The author accuses the scoffers of deliberately forgetting that god's word has the power to create and destroy. Then he explains Jesus's tardy return. "With the lord, a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day. The lord is not slow in keeping his promis as some understand slowness." In other words, time means nothing to god, whenever he decides to do something will be the right time.

Till next time.

Judges 19

After reading chapter 19:

*Here we have another odd story beginning  with the assertion that in those days there was no king. A Levite from the hill country of Ephraim had a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah. She ran away from him back to her father's house. The Levite went to Judah with a servant and two donkeys to get her back. The woman's father got the Levite to stay there for three days by plying him with food and drink. He wanted to leave but was convinced to stay another day with more eating and drinking. The father tried the same tactics again the fifth day, but the Levite finally left late in the day with his concubine and servant. They travelled toward Jebus where the Jebusites lived, supposedly another name for Jerusalem. However, there appears to be plenty of doubt that the Jebusites ever existed outside the pages of the Bible.

*The Levite's servant wanted to stay in Jebus, but the Levite didn't want to stay among non- Israelites. Instead, they went to Gibeah in Benjamin. When they got there, they sat in the city square waiting to be offered hospitality for the night but none of the Benjaminites invited them home. That evening an old Ephraimite who lived in Gibeah saw them and offered them room and board for the night.

*While they were eating and drinking, some wicked men of the city surrounded the house, pounded on the door, and demanded that the visitor be brought out so they could have sex with him. Sound familiar? Just as in the story of Lot, two women are offered to the men instead, the homeowner's virgin daughter and the Levite's concubine. Why didn't the homeowner sacrifice his own body to save his guest from the unwanted attention? It seems obvious that the women were considered less valuable and more expendable. The men would not listen to the homeowner, so the Levite sent his concubine out to the wolves. She has no Angels to save her. This story makes me so angry. It continues with the concubine being raped and abused all night. At daybreak she makes her way back to the house and falls down dead on the threshold. The next morning, as the Levite is leaving, he sees his concubine laying there and orders her to get up because it is time to go. How cold can you get? Even though it is a story, I wish she could get up, so she could spit in his face and vomit all over him.

*The Levite loads his dead concubine on a donkey and heads home. When he gets there, he cuts up his concubine into twelve pieces and sends the pieces to the twelve tribes of Israel. This event was the subject of much consternation, with people exclaiming that something must be done, people must speak up. What I wonder is which part or parts were they upset about? Was it the Levite's behavior, or the behavior of the men of Gibeah? Is this supposed to prove a king was needed in the land?

Genesis 19, part 2

The story of Lot's daughters is quite sordid. For some reason they don't consider any alternatives to what they chose to do, like making thier father take them to live with Uncle Abraham's family. No, the only solution to their plight is to get their old father drunk and have him impregnate each of them without him knowing anything about it. Does this seem highly implausible to anyone else? Of course, once is all it  takes and soon they both deliver sons who become the fathers of the Moabite and Ammonite nations. I would guess that this little gem of a story is supposed to be an etiological account of how the Moabites and Ammonites came into existence, and was written by someone who wasn't very fond of them.

One of the earliest extra-biblical accounts of Moabites is from the time of Pharoah Ramesses II, in the 13th century B.C.E., over 500 years from the time of this story, if we follow Ussher's Chronology. They continue to be mentioned in other sources until the Persian era.

A significant source of information about the Moabites is the Mesha Stele from about 840 B.C.E. , over 1000 years from the supposed date of this story. The Mesha Stele shows that the Moabites and Israelites (supposed descendants of Abraham) were mortal enemies at the time it was inscribed. Interestingly, it contains the earliest confirmed extra-biblical mention of  Abraham's God Yahweh. Where was God for the three thousand years (by the bible) that came before that?

The earliest extra-biblical evidence I can find for the Ammonites is from the 10th century B.C.E. Both the regions of Moab and Ammon were east of the Jordan and had more natural resources than the Canaanite hill country. They also lay along lucrative trade routes.

This chapter is the last appearance of Lot. Apparently Abraham has nothing more to do with him.

Genesis chapter 19, part 1

After reading chapter 19:

*The two angels that left Abraham arrived at Sodom, and Lot just happened to be sitting at the gate of the city. He insists they go home with him, where he feeds them.

* All the men of the city surround Lot's house and demand that Lot send the visitors out so they can have thier way with them. ( Yes, I know. I'm being a prude because of internet filters.) This sounds. almost like a zombie apocalypse movie.

*Apparently Lot is not in any danger, because he goes outside and calls these people his friends. He offers his virgin daughters to the men as a trade for the two angels. Because angels can't defend themselves and God won't rescue them? Hospitality to strangers is more important to Lot than his daughters. What a great guy. I wonder how his daughters felt at that moment.

*The men of the city begin to threaten Lot as well, but the angels inside the house pull Lot back in and magically blind those at the door.

*It seems that 10 righteous people could not be found, even among the women and children. If Sodom was such a horrendous place, why was Lot living there? So, the angels told Lot to take everyone who would go with him and get the heck out of there. The lord was about to destroy the city.

*Lot went back out to tell his future sons-in-law to get out of the city. (You mean he was planning on marrying his daughters to a couple of those villains?) They didn't believe him anyway.

*The angels grabbed Lot's family and led them out of the city, telling them to run as fast as they could to the mountains without looking back. Instead, Lot negotiated for a small nearby town. When they reached the town safely, minus Lot's wife, burning sulphur rained down, destroying the cities and vegetation of the entire plain. It's a shame that no concrete evidence of their existence, or their destruction, was left for future archaeologists to find. Now it looks just like this story might never have happened.

*The story ends with Abraham standing above, surveying the smoking landscape. Very cinematic.

Genesis chapter 14

After reading chapter 14:

*It came to pass that there was a lot of fighting between a bunch of small kingdoms from the hill country to the desert to the Salt Sea (Dead Sea). There were so many kings that they must have been more like chieftains.

* With a few exceptions, evidence of  most of the people and place names in this chapter has been found nowhere outside religious sources. This includes Sodom and Gomorrah.

*It is interesting to find Amalekites here because Amalek was a descendant of Esau, Abram's grandson who isn't born yet.

*Lot and his household were living in Sodom at this time,  and were captured by Sodom's opposition. Abram was still living in Hebron and had some allies in the area. He got together his own army, chased down Lot's captors, and retrieved him and his possessions.

*Abram returns in glory and is met by a few kings, not the least of whom is Melchizedek, the special king of Salem, priest of El.  Melchizedek brings out bread and wine and blesses Abram. Abram gives him a tenth of everything. Here we see the introduction of tithing.

*Abram apparently brought back spoils of war, but keeps nothing for himself because he does not want it to be said that he is a beneficiary of Sodom.

Genesis chapter 13

After reading chapter 13:

So, Abram, who is now very wealthy, leaves Egypt. He and his entourage go back to the Bethel that isn't named Bethel til chapter 28. There Abram and Lot divvy up the land, because there aren't enough resources for all of them to stay in one place. Lot chose to go east to the well watered plain of the Jordan and Abram stayed in Canaan's hill country.

Again, God talks only to Abram and tells him all the land he sees, north, south, east and west, will be given to his descendants. Later, we will see that Abram's descendants make sure God keeps his promise.

So,Abram travels again, scoping out the land God will give him and ends up traveling south through the hills to Hebron where he builds a barbecue pit, um, altar to the Lord.

So far Abram has built three altars, one in Shechem, one in Bethel, and one in Hebron. Two of those places are said to have sites with "great" trees. There are a few other great trees mentioned in other books of the bible. These trees had special cultic significance. My study bible tells me Canaanites sought advice from thier gods by these trees, maybe Abram followed that practice. The chief Canaanite God was El, whose name appears as part of many place and people names we will encounter in later passages. A couple of examples are Beth-el and Isra-el.

*In many English versions of the Old Testament, when we see the words "the lord,"  the Hebrew is Yahweh. When we see the word God, it is almost always a version of El. Later, we will come upon scriptures that will explain why there are two versions of the supreme being.

Edited.

Genesis chapter 12

After reading chapter 12:

*Approx. 1981 B.C.E., when Abram is 75, he and Lot and thier families set out for Canaan, which God has supposedly promised to give Abram's descendants. Abram appears to be the only one to have seen or heard this pronouncement from God.

*They pitched their tents east of Bethel, which is named that by Abram's grandson Jacob in chapter 28. Huh?

*They travel to Egypt to escape a famine and pharaoh falls for Abram's wife Sarai, who is at least 65 by this time. For fear of his life, Abram does not tell pharaoh Sarai is his wife, but instead accepts slaves and animals in exchange for her.

*Pharoah's household gets sick and it is obvious to him that Abram's wife is the cause. He sends her back and kicks them out of Egypt.

*Amenemhat I was Pharoah from about 1991-1962 B.C.E.