Hosea is the first book of the twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible. It is one of the shorter books of the Bible. The text suggests that Hosea was an active prophet during the reign of Jeroboim II, during the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel (“Samaria”), which happened…
Tag: theology
Notes on the Context of the Tanakh
The ancient national identity of Israel arose as a separate and unique group from the Canaanite and Philistine tribes of the ancient Levant (French meaning “rising” coming from the Arabic phrase for the ‘rising sun in the east’). Today the Levant roughly comprises Cyprus, Jordan, Israel, Syria, Palestine (the territories),…
Thoughts on Ezra-Nehemiah
As with other books of the Bible, such as Chronicles, the books of Ezra and Nehemiah were once read as a single scroll by ancient eyes. In the third century AD, Origen, a Christian scholar from Alexandria, proposed dividing the scroll into Ezra I and II (or in Greek “Esdras”), however this never transpired, and…
Thoughts on Chronicles
In (re)reading the Books of Chronicles, I was reminded of the significant amount of time Homer spends listing the various kingdoms of the Achaean armies in the Iliad. In a way, Homer’s lists parallel the genealogical records of Chronicles. Both texts provide extensive lists as a matter of record. What is…