Old Testament

• Xulon Press presents a fascinating biblical commentary about the Old Testament's Book of Genesis to uncover some it's more challenging stories.
• This book provides a refreshing perspective on creation, a deep dive into everything discussed in Genesis, including big stories along with the book's minor characters and interpretation of "smaller" stories.
• As part of this thoughtful examination of Genesis, Sears explores the ever-present, all-important God-human relationship and the more challenging topics in the Book of Genesis.
• At that time, he held co-op jobs in the cities of Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Boston, Rochester, Philadelphia, Washington DC and Hialeah.

• Writings that didn’t make it into the Bible, on the other hand, are often called “apocrypha,” a Greek term that refers to hidden or secret things.
• There are hundreds of apocryphal Jewish and Christian texts that, for one reason or another, were not included in different versions of the Bible.
• Just because a text was deemed apocryphal, however, does not mean that it was unpopular or lacked influence.

Enslaved to God

• The Shepherd urges self-control and fear of God, trying to instill obedience and avoid allowing emotions like fear or doubt to overcome believers.
• My own research on the Shepherd focuses on how the text depicts believers as enslaved to God, as is true of some other early Christian literature as well.
• The writer imagines that God’s holy spirit is able to enter loyal believers’ bodies and possess them, urging them to do what God wills.
• Instead, readers find a story about an otherwise unknown enslaved man named Hermas experiencing visions and talking with divine beings in the Italian countryside.

‘Useful for the soul’

• The Shepherd became one of the most popular texts among Christians for the first five centuries C.E.
• The Shepherd is even included in what scholars consider one of the oldest and most complete Bibles in the world.
• The Codex Sinaiticus, however, a fourth- or fifth-century manuscript now held at the British Library, ends with the Shepherd.
• Even figures who did not include the Shepherd among New Testament texts thought it was too important to be discarded.

An open Bible

• As the Shepherd helps demonstrate, whether a religious text is included or excluded from the Bible is not necessarily an indicator of its popularity or significance.
• While scholars often lament that the Shepherd is boring, pedantic or too long, its style likely made it ideal teaching material for early Christians.
• In religious communities, the idea of “canonical texts” can be especially limiting, determining what believers can or can’t read or believe.

• Pasadena, CA, July 20, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fuller Theological Seminary is pleased to announce the appointments of nine distinguished faculty members, underscoring the institution’s commitment to strengthen its three campuses in Pasadena, Arizona, and Texas.
• In addition to Dr. Park, Fuller Texas gains two new faculty members, while Fuller Arizona and the main campus in Pasadena each gain three.
• The new faculty members at Fuller’s three campuses are:
  Fuller alumna Anna Diaz joins Fuller as instructor of marriage and family therapy and MFT-Arizona director of clinical training after receiving her MA in Theology and her MS in Marriage and Family Therapy from Fuller.
• Chloe Sun has joined the Fuller faculty as professor of Old Testament and program director of the Chinese Studies Center.

• The next phase of the trial will focus on sentencing, and whether Robert Bowers should face the death penalty.
• The name of the synagogue, Tree of Life, has almost become shorthand for the tragedy.
• In Jewish Scripture and Jewish thought, the tree of life speaks to fundamental aspects of what it means to be human in the world.

In the beginning

• The tree of life appears in the Book of Genesis, at the very beginning of the Hebrew Bible – what many Christians call the Old Testament.
• In the creation story of chapters 2 and 3, God places man in the Garden of Eden, then creates woman, Eve, from his rib.
• Biblical scholars debate the meaning of the tree’s name: what exactly do “knowledge” or “good and evil” entail?

Two trees

• These two trees, especially the tree of life, have long raised questions for scholars.
• The tree of life does not reappear until the end of the Eden story, when God expels Adam and Eve to prevent them from eating it.
• Some scholars have argued that the two trees in Genesis emerged from two distinct traditions in the ancient Near East.
• Similarly, the two trees in Genesis display how humanity is both like and unlike God.

Living wisdom

• Later in the Bible, however, “a” tree of life appears four times in the Book of Proverbs, a complex anthology that collects many sayings and gems of wisdom from the ancient world.
• Proverbs 3:18, for example, instructs that wisdom “is a tree of life to those who grasp her, and whoever holds on to her is happy.” Jewish tradition frequently pictures God’s teachings and scripture, the Torah, as the tree of life – deepening this connection between life and wisdom.

Reaching up to God

• In the Bible’s wisdom literature, however, it comes to represent how knowledge, wisdom and Torah connect God and Israel.
• These attributes, called “sefirot,” are often drawn as spheres, linked with branchlike lines as though they form a “tree of life” – a tree that connects human experience on Earth to an infinite God above.
• Like the synagogue in Pittsburgh, they can experience tragedy, even as they continue seeking ways to heal a broken world.