partsofspeaking

When God said His name was "I AM," He put a period, not a blank for us to fill in more words from our own imaginations and devices.

I’ve seen more tweets and such this year about Mary, the mother of Jesus. Evangelicals are criticized for not emphasizing Mary enough, although I don’t know why we should emphasize a Bible character in the first place. But I suppose that since we create Bible character studies on every personage in the Bible except Mary, they make a good point. We know as much about Mary’s life and biography as we do most characters: her lineage, birthplace, husband, other children, some of her experiences as a mother, her activities during Jesus ministry and death, and how John was given custody of her at Jesus’ death (interesting since his brothers should have taken care of her). We know she was part of the early church. So we don’t have a dearth of information about her. Since I don’t think much of character studies as a Bible study tool, I don’t have much use for a character study of Mary, but that is a personal matter; if we study Esther, Abraham, or Joshua, we should study Mary. So why ...

Great article on how Amazon sellers can get scammed by competitors (and therefore the buyers can be) and how Amazon benefits. https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/19/18140799/amazon-marketplace-scams-seller-court-appeal-reinstatement

Check this out . Funniest thing I've seen in a while; heard about it on the incomparable This American Life podcast, which I recommend even if I don't share all their values. Also this for the editor's favorites. You should know I post some things on this blog so I can go back and find them; I'm archiving my life.

This the last installment on my lessons about Joseph. Let's start with some background. In comparison to Mesopotamian civilizations, the Egyptian civilization provided a distinct environment for the Israelites.  They were superstitious about death, more focused on it. Mesopotamians had a harsher climate, evil gods that wanted human sacrifices, constant wars and rising and falling civilizatins, and little idea of afterlife. Egyptians civilization was stable, affluent, agricultural (based on the floods from the Nile depositing rich minerals in the soil), protected. Life on earth was good and so was life afterward.  Joseph would have looked and dressed like an Egyptian (even face paint), spoken Egyptian, and 20 years later, so it’s no surprise he wasn’t recognized. Broad outlines of the story: Jacob’s brothers, minus Benjamin, come to Egypt. Joseph recognizes them, sends them back with their money in their bags, keeps Simeon, says not to come back without Benjamin. Eve...

For what is definitely a more intelligent and appreciative review, see this piece from CT. I saw that this film was on Prime Video, free, so I took two hours out of my life and watched it. The question is whether I would recommend another person to do so. However, I often have this experience with a film: I watch it, and get mad because there is something about the plot, resolution, or theme that I don't like and find objectionable. And yet I can't get the film out of my head; it bugs me, for days, forcing me to examine what it was I didn't like and to ask what I missed or misinterpreted. Such was the case with Sling Blade , for instance, and with the very different First Reformed. The CT article gives one the outlines of the plot (spoiler alert!) and I will write here about the ending of the film. For the first half of the film I was enthralled; reviewers on Amazon said, of course, that is was slow and boooorrrrrriiiiiiing, but that is the opinion of children. I was ...

I like this from Bertrand Russell, not because his world view was congruent with mine but because I think there is wisdom here, gleaned from old age. https://sites.google.com/site/gobenyan/essay