A New Time: How To Be A Bible Believer In A Changing World (Episode #100)

A New Time: How To Be A Bible Believer In A Changing World (Episode #100)

christian life, epistemology, ethics, exhortation, gospel, hermeneutics, podcast, priesthood, rabbinic judaism, reception history, sacrifice, second temple judaism, social justice, temple, wisdom

The four cubits podcast has always been about taking seriously both our ancient Bible and our modern lives, even when doing so leads us away from easy, neat answers. Often, that approach will lead us towards personal and communal change - and despite what you might have heard from some Christians, theres nothing more biblical than change!

This episode explores some of the ways in which the people of God in scripture not only navigated changes in themselves, their communities, and their world, but how their experiences of God often drove those changes.

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minicast: Tum'ah (Leviticus 12-15)

minicast: Tum'ah (Leviticus 12-15)

law, minicast, podcast, temple

I got started on this week's episode... and I didn't finish it. But the Leviticus segment, sparked by a note in the Jewish Study Bible, was too interesting to leave in the archives. So this minicast is a look at the tum'ah - the uncleanness - of Leviticus 12-15, from a different perspective than the one usually taken in both Jewish and Christian commentary. The JPS Torah commentary volume on Leviticus also helps to place the text's concept of contagion within its ancient Near Eastern origin.

None of this is to say that the contagious miasma posited by some modern Jewish scholars is (or was) actually a phenomenon in the real world: only that this may have been the original concept behind these tum'ah texts. Re-framed with the language of ritual impurity rather than physical aura, the texts remain relevant even as Jewish thought moves on to re-read re-interpret them: because it's the theology of the text that gives it enduring significance.

Transcript coming soon!

SWALK (2020/02/23)

SWALK (2020/02/23)

christian life, Jo Kitchen, podcast, poetry, sexuality, slavery, social justice, temple, wisdom

So many of our reading skills depend on our cultural background: the memes, metaphors, and idioms that make up our literary vernacular. This week, Jo Kitchen and I take on 1 Corinthians 6, which turns out to be particularly densely packed and full of rhetorical flair.

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reframing (2019/10/20)

reframing (2019/10/20)

eschatology, exile, gospel, history, podcast, prophecy, temple

This week, each passage is a reframing a familiar, biblical narrative for a different moment in time. We consider how the Chronicler retells an Egyptian invasion of Judah; how Ezekiel recounts a vision of an Israel united under very different terms; and how the Evangelist in the gospel of John recasts the return of Jesus, the kingdom of God, and present community of faith.

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imagination and growth (2018/10/21)

imagination and growth (2018/10/21)

christian life, divine violence, gospel, history, podcast, prophecy, temple

Does God delight in the massacre of his people's enemies? In Chronicles this week, he enables the slaughter of towns and tents full of civilians. If that weren't challenging enough: when God will live with his people in the future Kingdom, will it look like ancient Near Eastern cultic worship? And just to cap it all off, Jesus likes you to believe some stuff, but what he really expects you to do is get out there and do something about it.

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promise and ambiguity (2018/07/22)

promise and ambiguity (2018/07/22)

gospel, monarchy, podcast, prophecy, second temple judaism, temple

Strap in for another short but fun week on 4QS, despite being late due to holidays and other stuff. There's quite a lot packed into these here 20 minutes: how God flips everything upside down by refusing David permission to build him a house, how Jeremiah takes God to court, and just what is all this hell talk from Jesus about anyway?

patterns and participation (2017/10/22)

patterns and participation (2017/10/22)

gospel, history, podcast, prophecy, temple

In our second week with Ezekiel's temple vision, we get stuck into the details and find that Ezekiel has a radical new agenda for God's people in this vision of startling and shocking new beginnings. Near the end of John's gospel, Jesus is preparing his disciples for the days ahead and facing a trial before Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. The expanded account of Asa's reign in Chronicles is a story of two starkly contrasting extremes.

temple and tradition: out-takes (Old Testament edition)

temple and tradition: out-takes (Old Testament edition)

history, law, out-takes, temple

Here are two clips that I dropped from the 1 Chronicles reading this week. In the first, the Israelite slave labourers that the Chronicler airbrushed out of the record hint at a kingdom fractured long before it finally divided under Rehoboam. In the second, we look at the Chronicler's unique record of the Levite musicians portrayed as serving in the first temple.

temple and tradition (2017/10/15)

temple and tradition (2017/10/15)

gospel, history, philosophy, podcast, prophecy, temple

In this episode we've got a double-helping of temple narrative: Solomon is dedicating the first temple in 2 Chronicles 5-6, and Ezekiel is envisaging the temple restored in Ezekiel 41. Meanwhile, in John's gospel, Jesus is subverting expectations and traditions in John 7, in the first of two weeks on the Fourth Gospel.