Skip to content

Commentary

Reading Fast and Slow

Combing through verse by verse brings up a lot of questions and interpretive decisions, and I've realized this is a years-long journey, not a quick project. However, I think I can make it useful faster if I implement the same method I use for my personal Bible study: reading fast and slow. I daily read through the Bible quickly with audio, and I get through it in a little under a year--I get some amazing insight here and there because I'm getting the repetition and connections that I would normally miss if it's been months between the scrolls. But I also do deep dive studies slowly and meticulously. In the context of the Bible connections project, I think I can do something similar: I can go through and grab all the family-based connections quickly, and also slowly work through the more nuanced connections on another track.

Saul's New Heart

In 1 Samuel, we read that God changed or gave Saul a new heart when he was anointed as the first king of Israel. It's a strange phrase that brings to mind the kind of thing we would expect in the new Kingdom age--empowered by the spirit of Jesus. The phrase has stuck in my mind, and I wanted to see if there were any other references to God changing or giving someone a new heart in the Hebrew Bible or New Testament.

Reflections on Psalm 19

My grandmother called this afternoon to discuss the apparent synonymity of "law," "testimony," "precepts," "commandments," and "ordinances" in Psalm 19:7-11. She was curious if there were any distinctions between these terms, as they all seem to refer to God's instructions in some way. She had dug into the definitions and pulled out some interesting nuances, but I wanted to explore the original Hebrew to see if there were any differences in meaning or emphasis that might not be immediately apparent in English translations.

Reflections on Ruth

I chose to dissect Ruth as a test subject for my biblical connections project because it is a short book that is fairly self contained. I didn't expect to find anything surprising or insightful as I worked out how to standardize or automate my process for importing and tagging the text. Never underestimate the Bible.