Babylon, bab-ilu, Babel, “Gate of the gods” was the Big Apple of its day. Yet we get “the whore of Babylon” and the “Tower of Babel,” Bob Marley’s Babylon site of oppression and reputation for excess. The biblical view of Babylon is no less real in its critique than the grandeur that we know Babylon […]
The Many Faces of Babylon Read More »
Bible Babel has been nominated for the 14th Annual Library of Virginia Literary Awards! I am honored even to be considered in the company of such Old Dominion authors as Carrie Brown, Richard Bausch, Edward P. Jones, Helon Habila, Deborah Eisenberg, Wesley Hogan, Donald McCaig, Scott Nelson, Melvin Ely, James I. Robertson Jr., Charles Wright,
Bible Babel up for Lit Award Read More »
I finally broke down and went all junior-high with my research — different colored pens for the different accounts of Cyrus’ taking Babylon. The most ancient records are notoriously problematic. Each one has a either a bone to pick or a bridge to sell, and they simply don’t agree on the facts. Did or did
Cyrus’ Problematic History Read More »
“The language of God,” Biblical Hebrew. I’m off soon to teach our third week’s class, and we’re in the thick of it now. The alphabet (or aleph-bet) is kind of fun — little ditties, the novelty of recognizing letters completely different from what we see in English, of reading from right to left. But the
The Particular Exasperations of Learning Biblical Hebrew Read More »
Stephen Dunn, poet extraordinaire. Among my favorites, a riff on the Leviticus scapegoat. It’s a prose poem in which God sympathizes with the goat and calls this method of atonement yet another human sin. I’d love to write it out for you here but haven’t asked permission. Do check it out yourself (I bought What Goes On,
AWP Surprise Highlight Read More »
I love the movie Groundhog Day. It’s such a great story about redemption, and I for one, an accomplished bumbler, would love a few do-overs to get things right. Besides, the film’s hilarious. I might have guessed that it would have some sort of religious theme to it, but until recently, I didn’t imagine that Punxsutawney Phil and
Jesus and Groundhog Day Read More »
When Republicans opened the 112th Congress with a reading of the Constitution, they faced a challenge that threatened to undermine the whole purpose of the reading, to demonstrate adherence to the original document. The trouble, you see, is that the times they’ve gone a-changing… For one thing, blacks actually count today not as three-fifths of a person
Flexibility in What Is Fixed — Constitution and the Bible Read More »
The small clay cylinder, 2500 years old and a bit beat up has quietly moved people all over the world since its very beginnings. Cyrus II, founder of the Persian Empire produced this declaration of intent for liberty and peace. The National Museum of Iran recently reported that besides Iranian schoolchildren, elites, and not-so, officials
Cyrus’ Enduring Document Read More »
Now that I’m again safely ensconsed in my office and seated at my desk, the golden retriever’s work of exuberant greeting and following from room to room is done. So he’s sleeping soundly on the floor behind me. The pound hound, a guy who prefers the outdoors even though (short-haired and prone to shivering) he has to wear
Snapshot from the Office Read More »
This is the first I’ve heard: the rising problem of bullying linked to the biblical Goliath. But it must be true, I read in my birth-town paper. Or at least I read that an expert on the topic made such a connection in his Duluth, MN presentation. Walter Roberts, who’s worked for years with kids
Bullying in the Bible? Read More »
