I often wonder about the ontological view of a short-lived mayfly that only lives long enough to watch the tide come in. What must it imagine will happen to the world after it dies?

I don't typically agree with him, but he's quite compelling here.

I'm now at Genesis 34 in my years-long study of Genesis. This is the chapter about a young girl who gets violated by a wealthy and powerful man who thought he could possess her, just because he was wealthy and powerful.

The first one to repent (declare the harm, own the responsibility of the harm, seek to make restitution for the harm, accept the consequences for harming) wins.

The evidence seems to indicate that being rich and powerful is a curse. May it never happen to me.

All of the -isms and -phobias of hatred (racism, ageism, ableism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia) tell followers of Jesus precisely who we are meant to love first, if only we would listen.

Perhaps every reader or hearer of scripture who comes to discover that God is for them and not against them must acknowledge their own "model of atonement," and carry with them their own unique story of the way God redeemed them and made them whole.

Sometimes, I think about the way the KJV includes "unicorn" as a translation of the wild ox in Numbers 23:22 and Job 39:9-10, and think about all the sermons that must have been built around the idea, and how much Christian artwork included it, and how much it shaped culture... and it cracks me up.

Fun fact: In the four gospel accounts, there are SIX different Marys identified. Mary, the mother of Jesus Mary Magdalene Mary of Bethany, sister of Martha and Lazarus Mary, the mother of James and Joses Mary, the mother of James (the Less) Mary, the wife of Clopas

Too many people have their theology exactly backwards.

So many "but Leviticus and Hebrews says that blood is required for forgiveness!" as though it's some kind of special ingredient in God's spell book in order for Him to have compassion on our brokenness.

The depth of wickedness is breathtaking. It's hard to read these E-Files without feeling like I have to gasp for air. The darkness it contains is choking the life out of all of us. It's hard to have hope that things can be made right.

Maybe it’s simpler than we’ve made it. Maybe “forgiveness requires the shedding of blood” isn’t a teaching about the mechanism of forgiveness and salvation. Maybe it’s meant to get you to look at the story of when blood was first shed.

Perhaps the cross isn't the mechanism of forgiveness. Perhaps the cross is simply man's brutality, and Jesus is suffering at our hands the very suffering we impose on one another. God taking on our wounds, and allowing himself to be slain. And yet... forgiving us anyway.

Knowing all the details of your theology and not grasping God's love for us is like knowing all the words to the song and not knowing the melody.

If you think that Jesus "had to die on the cross to forgive your sins," and that "there is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood" in a literal and causal sense, what's going on here in this story?

Contemplate a theology that doesn't set "punishment" as a first lesson. The first lesson is "rescue." In Genesis 3, after Adam ate the fruit, God came and walked through the garden, calling to Adam. Adam hid in shame, seeing his own nakedness, perhaps aware of his own mortality for the first time.

There is a difference between the Gospel of Jesus and Christianity. We might rightly say that the whole of Scripture must be viewed through the lens of Jesus, but we are dead-wrong if we say that the whole of Scripture must be viewed Christianity.

John 1 obviously calls back to Genesis 1, with the very language being meant to tickle the ears of the Jews who knew at least the first line of their scripture. John 2 (water to wine) is a call back to Exodus, where the Nile is turned to Blood.

Jesus to Thomas: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6) Jesus, in Parable to the crowd: "Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me." (Matthew 25:40)

"The Son of God" is such an interesting concept. You know John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

Imagine a world where we look dilligently for reasons to love people instead of looking for reasons to villianize and kill them.

PHEW. Finally got all of my Genesis 33 notes copied over to the Genesis Project site. It's a lot of work, you guys. I hope it's worth it for you all!

If you want to stand in defiance against the curse of death, then live fully: love your neighbor rightly.

Martin Luther, who hated the Jews, simply could not build a theology that was kind to them, nor could he take into account their faithfulness to the scriptures and to God. For Christians of the Reform tradition, this is our heritage. We have so much work to do to repair this.

I'm convinced that Paul's epistles that address "works vs faith" weren't intended to teach us about a method of salvation. Given that the Gospels contain such little similar messaging from Jesus, I think they were addressing something else.

In light of Jesus’ parable on the “least of these,” loving your neighbor “as yourself” must mean to see your face in their face, in the same way you must see God in them.

I wonder a lot about the people who have harmed us and harmed those we love... and I wonder.

Wisdom doesn’t begin until you learn and accept that you are dying. Perhaps this is what it means to fear the Lord.

It’s time to remind you good folks that the primary context of Scripture is of a people who are oppressed by an authoritarian regime, crying out to God to send his fierce wrath against it. “And God heard the affliction of His people…” May God obliterate the systems of oppression.

You know the story of Jacob taking the blessing meant for Esau & how Esau wanted to murder his brother in response. Now look at Jacob's words. The text is very precise here. While Jacob cannot give away his spiritual blessing, there is *something* we are meant to to see here.

If you love someone you believe is "living in mortal sin," something should stir inside of you that says, "I will stand between you and God; may God take me instead." 1/

When Jacob offers his abundance to Esau in Gen 33, the English doesn't capture the theological importance of what is being said.

I do not believe that the angel with whom Jacob wrestles represents a theophany (pre-incarnate Jesus), or that the writers/editors were trying to get the readers to understand that God personally came down and wrestled with Jacob.

For the Christian who believes that God did not save us due to our merit, but purely by God's own grace, and that we lay hold of a promise that doesn't feel like it belongs to us... maybe we see a glimpse into Jacob's wrestling.

This sounds backwards, but hierarchy leads to chaos. The only way to resolve this is to invert the hierarchy. The powerful must lift up the weak. The rich must lift up the poor. The quick and clever must lift up the slow-footed and slow-minded.

One day, someone will read the phrase "kangaroo court" and nobody will be able to explain the meaning. Even to this day, we know what it means... but we don't know its origin. Time obscures things like this. And this is why saying "the Scripture is clear" is unhelpful.

The way we hate people confirms everything they believe about the God we serve.

It's difficult for many men to stand up against patriarchy and misogyny because they benefit so much from it. The most heroic thing a man can do is to lay down his privilege and lift up those who don't have it.

Christians, if you want to move your faith out of the theoretical & into the practical, stop saying "Jesus loves you." Instead, say "I love you" and prove it in a practical and meaningful way. Demonstrate the mercy, kindness & forgiveness you want people to believe about God.

The Scriptures are a mirror. If you are haunted and hiding from the cosmic Deity of Punishment and Retribution, the story of God calling out to Adam the garden feels like horror. 1/

There's a hard teaching that comes out of Genesis 33 regarding wicked authority figures, and it helps to frame some of the Christian teachings on "obey the governing authority because they carry the sword."

May your love for others be so extraordinary that people are convinced that God must also love them.

The Masoretic text of the Hebrew Scriptures include a very strange set of dots above the word "kissed" in Genesis 33:4. The dots are not part of the word, and nearly every rabbinical commentary calls this out. It's like an underline or a highlight. They debate about the meaning.

The rabbis point out that Jacob organized the women in children based on his person attachments: the maidservants and children first, Leah and kids next, and finally Rachel and Joseph. 1/

There's a note in the teachings of Rabbeinu Bahya that say that Jacob bowing to the ground seven times is a nod to a teaching found in Proverbs.

A cursory glance at Scripture will lead you to think the point is the rules, and that righteous living is about obeying the rules. Disobedience leads to punishment. However, 1/

If you really want to experience time-travel, read a book more than once.

Jesus, a rabbi of Jewish descent, taught from Jewish scriptures. The Jewish understanding, based on their scriptures and oral traditions, do not believe in Eternal Conscious Torment at the hand of God as a means by which to punish people. 1/

If more men were feminists and believed that women should be treated as equals, women wouldn’t have to fight as hard for equality. The clear solution to “too many women are becoming feminists” is for more men to become feminists.