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5. Slate blogs the Bible
If you haven't yet checked out David Plotz's Blogging the Bible feature on Slate, do so. It's really quite interesting to read the non-observant Jew's reactions as he goes through the first few chapters of Genesis. He's a wonderful writer, if not the world's most trained exegete. For example:

Gen 9:9-17. God announces His first covenant with man, that He will never again destroy the earth with a flood. He doesn't rule out other catastrophes. (God, apparently, is the opposite of an insurance company. He offers flood protection, but no other coverage.) …

[Gen 18]: Jews had the three wise men before Jesus! Three strangers visit Abraham, and he welcomes them hospitably. One of the strangers—who are messengers of God—announces, "I will return to you next year, and your wife Sarah shall have a son." The Christ story is a clear rip-off. In the Christmas tale, it's impossible for Mary to have a child because she's a virgin, but she does, and three supernatural visitors herald the child's birth. Here it's impossible for Sarah to have a child because she's post-menopausal (as we are told very directly: "Sarah had stopped having the periods of women")—but she does, and three supernatural visitors herald it. The big difference: We Jews do not have any good songs about this incident. …

[Gen. 23] Real estate, again! It is the strangely dominant theme of Abraham's life. Practically every chapter about him is crammed with details about land—who owns it, who can buy it, whether God is giving it, whether it's a temporary deal or a permanent one. There's more about real estate than there is about the Lord.

It's fun and refreshing stuff, especially for us Protestants who have a long history of believing that all the answers to Scripture's mysteries are self-evident if we'd only read it for ourselves. For now, Plotz is only up to Genesis 25—we'll be even more impressed if he gets beyond Leviticus, the bane of many a "read through the Bible" project.

Quote of the day
"Pledgers promise to control intense bodily desires simply by exercising their wills. But Christian ethics recognizes that the broken, twisted will can do nothing without rehabilitation by God's grace. Perhaps the centrality of grace is recognized best not in a pledge but in a prayer that names chastity as a gift and beseeches God for the grace to receive it."

—Lauren F. Winner on teen virginity pledges in a Friday New York Times op-ed.

Sex and The Da Vinci Code | Banning The Da Vinci Code—and a response | More Da Vinci Code reviews | So dark the conspiracy theories | More on The Da Vinci Code | Religious freedom | Missions & ministry | Politics | Conservative groups back HPV vaccine | Sexual ethics | Life ethics | Immigration | Church and state | Education | Crime | Church life | Catholicism | Books | Other stories of interest

Sex and The Da Vinci Code :

1. Unfaithful to feminism | Dan Brown claims that Mary Magdalene made it to the top by sleeping with the boss (Thomas D. Williams, The Wall Street Journal)
   
   

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May (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50