Our Rabbi Jesus

I don’t know about you, but for much of my early years, I found it difficult to appreciate the overall storyline of the Bible. I skipped straight from Eve’s apple bite to Mary’s babe in the manger, not knowing quite what to do with everything in between.

How does the epic history of Abraham’s descendants relate to the overall story of salvation? What’s the logic of having it there?

I’ve believe I’ve discovered a clue that sheds a lot of light. It’s the utter centrality of family, and ancient ideas about how families were expected to function.

Over the history of the world, most people have understood the biblical emphasis on family…

I recently posted the article “Where Family is Everything,” which describes a Somali person who defines his or her identity entirely in terms of the larger family. Biblical peoples thought much this way too.

Here’s an interesting exercise for you – try giving your own biblical “self-introduction.” Nowadays you’d tell about yourself to someone new by talking about your job, your education and your personal interests. But consider how you’d conceive of your life in biblical times.

I wrote the following exercise for a Bible class I taught a few years ago. Feel free to fill in the blanks for yourself.

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1. I am                              (first name) of …