Multiple Names Can be Tricky

I spent a few minutes this morning updating my Bible Voices spreadsheet for the first 5 chapters of Exodus. Already I encounter an interesting situation. The father-in-law of Moses . . . was he Reuel or Jethro? The answer appears to be "both." Also, later in Judges we get the impression that his name is also "Hobab."

... Hobab the father in law of Moses. -- Judges 4:11

Then in Numbers it appears that Hobeb could be the name of Moses' brother-in-law (not father-in-law)

Hobab, the son of Raguel the Midianite, Moses' father in law... -- Numbers 10:29

Wait a minute . . . what about this "Raguel" -- now we have a 4th name! So which is it? Reuel? Jethro? Hobab? Raguel? 2 out 4? 3 out of 4? All 4? . . . Hmm.


Yes, this is tricky to the modern western mind. Much of this has to do with the fact that people from this period in history often had multiple names. Add to that the problem with the translation of "father-in-law" verses "son-in-law." Apparently these modern phrases were both represented by the same Hebrew word -- "chathan" (חָתַן). So Hobab could be the SAME as Reuel or the SON of Reuel. It's hard to know which.

I've added this whole name of Jethro thing to my list of "difficult text" that I have been compiling as I can see that it clearly qualifies as controversial (there are several conflicting theories), and little confusing, and truly difficult. Also I can see the that a study in multiple names in the scripture would be really very interesting (I can already thing of several examples of this) . . . I'll have to add that to my list as well.

Sometimes You Have to Just Read

I really love to study the Bible. It is a great passion for me. I can never get away from the awesome thought that we have, in written form, the words, actions, and even thoughts of the God of the universe -- right at our finger tips! Add to that the great privilege to live in the information age where scripture is delivered by every electronic means imaginable with so many reference tools, parallel translators, maps and images, expert commentaries, etc. It can get overwhelming at times just planning where to begin a new study project. I have amassed over the years all kinds of spreadsheets, databases, charts, and documents of my own discoveries based on just observation, studying, cross referencing, etc. It is thrilling to discover new bits and piece of truths along the way.

Despite all this, I must say I am convicted more and more to always remember to just read the Bible -- without all the extra stuff. Sometimes this is when God speaks to us the most. I have for about the past 8 month been forcing myself to simply read a chapter of scripture each day with no agenda -- no stopping to look up something or checking out a place on a map. Just read one chapter of the text and let it fall into my heart where ever it will. This is a good practice I believe and I have already been blessed so much by it. Just the other day I started yet another blog, Once Chapter Each Day to force myself to just stop and read. Almost always now after just reading a chapter of scripture some new impression is made on me which I never had after working on some Bible project related to the very same text. While I will always continue my deep studying and research (because it's so rewarding), I'm learning also that sometimes you just have to stop everything and just read.

The Concept of Sin

For some reason today I found myself thinking about the conversation God has with Cain in Genesis chapter 4. God is dealing with Cain's displeasure regarding the acceptance of his brother Abel's sacrifice and the rejection of Cain's sacrifice. Cain is visibly upset and God admonishes him.

If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee [shall be] his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. -- Genesis 4:7 (KJV).

What struck me was this phrase "if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door." It is clear that this is an early place in the scriptures where we are given a formula for dealing with sin. More specifically it is a warning about the nature of sin. Sin is an active force which envelopes our lives with no real action required on our part. I then began to key in on the words "if thou doest not" -- notice this is a passive phrase. Nothing is required to bring about sin. So often we think in terms of what actions to avoid or activities to shun in order to keep sin out of our lives. However, as early as in the days of Cain and Abel with no illegal drugs lurking, no Internet or television, no gang violence, no wars, no "bad crowd" to speak of, no dark places to stay away from, still God warns "sin lieth at the door."

It's interesting to note that although the word "sin" occurs 448 times in the King James Bible it is mentioned here in Genesis 4:7 for the first time. There is always something interesting to gleam from the first mentioning of something in the scriptures. I'm beginning to see this passage as God's primer on sin and it is a very important first lesson. It appears that God is impressing upon Cain (and all of mankind through the scripture) that sin is not some sort of booby trap which can snare us if we make the wrong move. Instead sin is more like the atmosphere which surrounds us, becoming part of the air we breath. Just sitting dormant in the atmosphere of sin is enough to become infected with its sickness. The admonition is more a call to action, to "do well" and not sit still and less a warning of what not to do. You can't make up a list long enough of what not to do to avoid sin. But, you can list a single thing which guarantees falling into sin -- do nothing!

So the point to gain here is sitting still is spiritual suicide. Of course there are so many lessons in the scriptures which teach us this point over and over. Many of these lessons are found in the 447 other times the word "sin" is mentioned and in yet even more places which do not specifically mention the word "sin" but directly deal with its nature. Many, to be sure, warn of certain activities and enumerate the various abominations to God so we can clearly see sin at work. However it is the very nature of sin abstracted from its many manifestations which is the hardest for us to grasp. The whole concept of sin seems elusive to our day to day, physical lives which is why it is so very helpful to have the many teachings from the scripture regarding sin. More importantly, we have the Holy Spirit which resides with the saints to shake us from our earthly tethers from time to time and remind us of what is real -- even though we cannot see it in the flesh.

It never ceases to amaze me how much information is compressed into even the most basic text in the scriptures. Even after hundreds of readings a new lesson can emerge. How many times have I read or thought about this passage in Genesis and not quite grasped the significance of what God was saying to Cain. You don't need to act to fall into sin. In fact it is "inaction" which renders you vulnerable. We learn this right from the start in Genesis 4! It would be the first of so many powerful lessons presented throughout the scriptures for us to receive.

Bible Voices: Who Said What

A few years ago I became intrigued with the idea of "who said what" as recorded in the scriptures. By this I mean who are the speakers aside from the narration of the text. Identifying the speaker in the text sounds like a trivial excerise, but as you get into it you quickly discover that much can be gained simply by asking the question "who is speaking." I set out to identify each speaker by building a series of Word documents (one for each book of the Bible) with the words of spoken text highlighted in blue and narrated text in black. For extra distinction I put the words of God in red text (much like what you see in most new testament copies of the Bible). When you do this a number of things jump out immediately. First of all, acknowledging the speaker gives extra meaning to the words spoken. It also humanizes the characters in the Bible in a way that helps to identify with them as real people. More importantly, very often you find the text itself can be best understood, even clarified, when you consider the speaker.

To date I am near the end of the book of Joshua in my Word document build out highlighting the speakers in each chapter. I have also started summarizing my findings by tracking the number of speakers and "unique" speakers (i.e. speaker who are introduced for the first time in the text) in a spreadsheet. I am posting the results of this information on my Voices in Scripture project page. This will be a work in progress of course with deadlines or timeline for completion. I'll just add more information as I find the time. I expect to use the completed Words documents and spreadsheet to build other useful tools related to this project. I am really learning a lot from this little exercise!

Bible Story Time

Just today it occurred to me that I should try and carve out some time to put together some Bible stories that I can read to my 3 year old daughter. So I added yet a 5th Bible project to my already full plate of projects exploring the scriptures. At our home, every night at my daughter's bedtime we have "story time" and 19 times out of 20 the duty of reading the bedtime story usually falls to me (with Mommy filling in on those nights when I'm away minding the grill or otherwise occupied). It's not really a chore of course -- I truly enjoy it! While we have obtained some very good books, and my daughter loves them, it has been really hard to find good Bible stories. Many of the Bible stories for children are either too sappy, overly wordy, or just plain boring. Trust me I know you only get just a few seconds to grab a kid's attention. If it doesn't register right away -- forget it!

The other day I found some cheap books with accompanying CD-ROMs of 4 popular Bible stories (Noah's Ark, Jonah and the Whale, Samson & Delilah, and David & Goliath). I was excited to play the CDs and let my daughter read along (she loves to do this). To my disappointment while the pictures were okay, the music was really poor, the narration was painfully boring, and the sound quality was just plain weak. I thought then I would have to search the Internet for something better when I find the time.

That was over 2 months ago. I have not yet gone out looking for better Bible stories and just today it dawned on me . . . "hey, why don't I just make something up." It would be a nice little project for me to take the scripture which contains the story and extract out a narrative and dialog with some added content to provide a more interesting snippet suitable to read to toddlers, pre-schooler, and grade-schoolers. So today, without giving it any further thought, I created a project folder on my computer and I'll browse through the Bible for an appropriate first story to tackle. My first thought is, well just start at the begging with the story of Adam and Eve and simply move through the Bible chronologically. But, I realize that just the Lee brain working . . . little kiddos don't care about that kind of structure and it doesn't matter whether they are in any kind of order.

So, the plan at this point is to just randomly pick a story and start building out something a little person can digest and make it something fun. This should be interesting.

Why Did I Create This Blog?

So why I did create this Search and Study blog? Well, I suppose it just sort of naturally followed after so many years of studying the scriptures and all the many personal Bible study projects I have worked on. I needed a way to consolidate these projects into a central place where I can store for reference, reflect, share and grow my hunger and ongoing quest to learn about the Bible. In this ancient text we learn about the amazing God of the Universe who left us a meticulous record of his past acts, insight into his current mind, and amazing glimpses into the future of mankind.

Why "Search and Study"? Well, It seems these two words best exemplify the path to understanding. Obviously there is much to be gained by simply reading the scriptures, but it has become abundantly clear to me that a true grasp of the truths reveals in the scriptures only come from diligent exploration (searching) and analysis (study). I believe God has very purposefully compressed huge stores of information about Him, about the universe, about His plan for humanity, etc. deep into the text of the scriptures which can only be "decrypted" by careful examination, cross referencing, and extrapolation of the data provided by the text.

I'm struck by one of my favorite passages in the new testament where, Jesus after being resurrected, is walking along the road to Emmaus from Jerusalem with a couple of believers. These believers were very down and discouraged because of the death of Jesus Christ who they had followed and "had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel (Luke 24:21)." They didn't fully understand what had happened. Then we are told that Jesus begins to talk with them and to open up their understanding as they make their journey from Jerusalem to their home in Emmaus. Jesus does this by revisiting what had already been given to that generation in the form of the ancient scriptures (Old Testament writings with which they would have already been familiar) "beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself (Luke 24:27)". This must have been more than just reciting the text. I believe this was a meticulous exploration of bits and pieces of information being pulled together to reveal deep truths which were embedded into the text well over a thousand of years earlier.

We first see this exploratory teaching from Jesus at the age of 12 when He is found in the temple participating in an impromptu study of the scriptures "sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions (Luke 2:46)". We are then told that "all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers (Luke 2:47)". I believe this is the first of many lessons in careful examination of the scriptures that Jesus gives both in public places and in private with his closest followers. The real lesson is -- don't just read the text, recite the words in song, etc., but "search the scriptures (John 5:39)". Indeed, study as one would study a course in physics or advanced mathematics. So much of the great truths can only be extracted by diligent exploration and prayer.

Honestly, I have no idea what will become of this blog, but it is nice to have a place to store all of my stuff (study notes, ideas, thoughts, Bible related projects, etc.). As this is my first posting I am still unclear as to what format to use and I guess that will develop over time.