tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-149001142024-03-15T18:10:20.512-07:00Annotated Skeptic's Annotated BibleA lay Christian's honest response to perceived flaws in the Bible.Bruckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08445755788968924719noreply@blogger.comBlogger386125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14900114.post-53649368744910372842024-03-15T10:48:00.000-07:002024-03-15T10:48:51.065-07:00Turn ye not unto idols (Isaiah 46)Isaiah chapter 46 is a short one, pretty much all about idolatry. God points out that when you make an idol, it becomes a literal burden, because you or your pack animals have to carry around this hunk of metal, but a hunk of metal can't answer prayers. On the other hand not only can the God of Israel answer prayers, but in times of weakness, he carries you. Speaking briefly about "the man that Bruckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08445755788968924719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14900114.post-21446071861758912092024-03-13T10:52:00.000-07:002024-03-13T10:53:41.724-07:00Even those did Cyrus king of Persia bring forth (Isaiah 45)Isaiah chapter 45 is mainly a message to King Cyrus, and opens by calling him "anointed one". Yes, as the SAB notes, this is "messiah", but this isn't a challenge to Jesus's status as Messiah; there simply happen to be many in the Bible who have such a title, as many had been anointed to serve God in a special way. (Really, if you look back, the priests were anointed, and so were all kings, Bruckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08445755788968924719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14900114.post-4858298112210002512024-03-06T11:00:00.000-08:002024-03-06T11:57:12.935-08:00The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus (Isaiah 44)Isaiah chapter 44 has some interesting things to say about idolatry and generally a very pleasant chapter. God talks about the restoration of Israel, calling it "Jeshurun" which is sort of a nickname (I don't know why it's spelled without the h here in the KJV, because it's always spelled the same in Hebrew); it means something like "upright". The Lord talks about how he is the only God, which Bruckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08445755788968924719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14900114.post-33878009493305330242024-03-04T11:10:00.000-08:002024-03-04T11:10:30.902-08:00All things are become new (Isaiah 43)Isaiah chapter 43 seemed pretty simple when I gave it a read through, but the SAB has a lot of notes, so let's see what's up.
First of all, in verse two, God says that the Israelites will walk through fire without getting burned, which the SAB calls absurd. Of course it's absurd, because it's describing a miracle, and perhaps it's referring to the event in Daniel chapter three where three Jewish Bruckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08445755788968924719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14900114.post-40112078440684171952024-02-29T10:52:00.000-08:002024-02-29T10:59:43.014-08:00This is my name for ever (Isaiah 42)Isaiah chapter 42 doesn't have a lot of notes in the SAB, and I don't think I have much to say about it. There's some odd imagery here, so let me see if I can sum it up. There is a lot more talk about God's servant here, and it's said he will judge the Gentiles, restore sight to the blind, and release captives from prison. It talks about God going to war and destroying...something? Perhaps the Bruckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08445755788968924719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14900114.post-30770892489605909592024-02-27T11:06:00.000-08:002024-02-27T11:07:26.232-08:00And thou shalt make the staves of shittim wood (Isaiah 41)Isaiah chapter 41 is mostly nice stuff, but there are a few notes here. First of all, there are a couple verses marked as absurd, both having to do with "islands"; I think it's intended to be understood that these are referring to the inhabitants of said islands, which hopefully makes them less absurd. Whether or not there was ever a righteous person was addressed in Genesis chapter 15 where I Bruckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08445755788968924719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14900114.post-39658142977260682692024-02-23T10:49:00.000-08:002024-02-23T10:52:38.992-08:00And he rested on the seventh day (Isaiah 40)Isaiah chapter 40 is supposedly (as the SAB notes) the beginning of "Deutero-Isaiah", under the scholarly assumption that the book of Isaiah was written by three authors. It's interesting to me to hear about this, as I had heard the theory of two Isaiah authors, but not three. The links given in the note outline this theory, but don't really get into the nitty-gritty of the details, however it's Bruckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08445755788968924719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14900114.post-23407492030955851122024-02-18T09:56:00.000-08:002024-02-18T09:56:30.637-08:00Even them the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon (Isaiah 39)Isaiah chapter 39 is a short one, and the SAB just calls the whole thing boring. It's certainly not very exciting, but the implications of this story are important in the long term. The son of the king of Babylon comes to visit Hezekiah, he shows off all the treasures he has. Isaiah says that he's just ensured that Babylon will eventually invade and conquer Judah to take away all these treasures,Bruckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08445755788968924719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14900114.post-38147953738127240082024-02-14T10:56:00.000-08:002024-02-14T10:56:59.412-08:00And Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs (Isaiah 38)Isaiah chapter 38 is a pretty simple one, I think, but it has a few notes that need to be addressed. King Hezekiah's sick, and Isaiah tells him that he is going to die, so Hezekiah prays to God to let him live. God speaks to Isaiah and tells him that Hezekiah is so good that he's going to get another 15 years and defend Jerusalem from Assyria. This brings up the issue of whether or not God Bruckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08445755788968924719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14900114.post-79437867251944071022024-02-11T08:01:00.000-08:002024-02-11T09:24:43.746-08:00When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib was come (Isaiah 37)I was considering taking a break for a few days before Isaiah chapter 37, but then I figured I should do it while the previous chapter was still pretty fresh in my mind, since this is just more of the same story. I was talking with Steve Wells about Rabshakeh's claim that God told the Assyrians that they could defeat Judah, and we both agreed that it was strange, however it seems from this Bruckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08445755788968924719noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14900114.post-28713595216104851722024-02-09T10:32:00.000-08:002024-02-09T10:39:54.683-08:00But Rab-shakeh said unto them (Isaiah 36)Isaiah chapter 36 doesn't sound like a prophecy, but rather a straightforward telling of an event in Judah's history. King Sennacherib of Assyria sends an army with a message, which boils down to, "Don't ally with Egypt; ally with us, because your own God has told us that we can destroy you." King Hezekiah's representatives ask Rabshakeh, the messenger, to speak in Assyrian so the inhabitants of Bruckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08445755788968924719noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14900114.post-15307808916847603492024-02-07T10:47:00.000-08:002024-02-07T10:52:07.692-08:00The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk (Isaiah 35)Isaiah chapter 35 looks a lot easier and much more light hearted than the last chapter. The SAB marks this chapter as boring, but I sort of wonder why verses three through six aren't marked "Good Stuff", because it seems like very positive things from any perspective (maybe verses one and two as well!).
Verse seven talks about dragons again, which I talked about in Isaiah chapter eleven. Verse Bruckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08445755788968924719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14900114.post-60976694198890460832024-02-06T14:51:00.000-08:002024-02-10T10:39:35.895-08:00Thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns (Isaiah 34)Okay, back to Isaiah chapter 34 for another end times prophecy, and it's a pretty violent one by the look of it, or at least the SAB marks it as such. I answered whether God gets furious in Isaiah chapter 27, and the answer was yes.
So, God here has fury on the armies of all nations, and slaughters them all. It's surely hyperbolic language, but the blood of this slaughter melts away mountains. Bruckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08445755788968924719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14900114.post-13721187239296113102024-01-31T15:03:00.000-08:002024-02-04T12:08:32.426-08:00They shall be burnt with fire (various, burning)So, because Steve Wells was not quite satisfied with my last post because he felt I didn't fully address the issue of What the Bible says about burning people to death (and I didn't, because I felt the burning in Isaiah chapter 33 was figurative language), I'm going to take a sidebar here and talk about that subject. I have already talked about capital punishment in Exodus and the nature of Hell Bruckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08445755788968924719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14900114.post-38830964240256567902024-01-28T11:49:00.000-08:002024-01-28T11:51:37.575-08:00He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller (Isaiah 33)Isaiah chapter 33, like the last chapter, doesn't really specify a time frame, but seems to be end times prophecy, chiefly because verse 21 talks about Zion being "a place of broad rivers and streams" which it certainly isn't today, or ever has been in the past. This suggests a miraculous change in geography, which is end times stuff. The SAB has very few notes, but there were a few things that IBruckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08445755788968924719noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14900114.post-26428947305408009602024-01-27T11:01:00.000-08:002024-01-27T11:01:01.918-08:00The liberal soul shall be made fat (Isaiah 32)Isaiah chapter 32 sounds almost like, rather than a prophecy about the future, an observation about what things are like in good times in Israel, although there is some lamenting in there, too. It opens talking about a righteous king, and people listening to good teaching, and "the vile person shall no more be called liberal." (The word "liberal" is used several times in this chapter, and it's Bruckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08445755788968924719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14900114.post-80157191889921228772024-01-23T15:03:00.000-08:002024-01-23T16:51:48.346-08:00Behold, this evil is of the LORD (Isaiah 31)Isaiah chapter 31 seems like it's really part of the prophecy in chapter 30, because we're still talking about it being a bad thing to go to Egypt for help. Also, the SAB doesn't have much to say about this chapter, with one real important exception.
What the Bible says about evil is actually, I'm sure, far from an exhaustive lost of verses of the Bible that deal with evil; it's really a rather Bruckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08445755788968924719noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14900114.post-69879860811608798532024-01-22T08:21:00.000-08:002024-01-22T08:36:51.980-08:00Bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt (Isaiah 30)So we come to Isaiah chapter 30, which compared to many of the recent chapters is rather long and has a lot going on. It's not real clear who this prophecy is about, but I'm guessing Judah, and whoever it is, they're going to get into trouble for forming an alliance with Egypt. Isaiah declares that bad things are coming because the people won't rely on God, but on someone not godly, who I'm Bruckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08445755788968924719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14900114.post-4450621877933931822024-01-18T11:52:00.000-08:002024-01-18T11:57:15.139-08:00Seal up the vision and prophecy (Isaiah 29)Isaiah chapter 29 is a prophecy about Jerusalem, which for unknown reasons, Isaiah calls "Ariel" in this chapter. (Ariel means "lion of God" in Hebrew.) Isaiah says that Jerusalem will be besieged, and eventually destroyed, but also that those who destroy it will soon pass away.
There's talk in verses 11 and 12 of a mysterious book (probably a scroll, actually) that is sealed and has a vision Bruckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08445755788968924719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14900114.post-14911261278254916432024-01-18T07:52:00.000-08:002024-01-18T07:52:35.393-08:00Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently (Isaiah 28)Isaiah chapter 28 is a prophecy about Ephraim (a.k.a. Israel, the northern kingdom) that seems chiefly concerned with drunkenness. I discussed whether it's okay to drink alcohol in John chapter two, where I said it's okay in moderation; here in Isaiah, people are getting so drunk, they're apparently vomiting on everything (v. 8)! Also, priests and prophets are making poor decisions, which is veryBruckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08445755788968924719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14900114.post-40607192925514353742024-01-14T13:49:00.000-08:002024-01-14T13:52:47.688-08:00Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? (Isaiah 27)Isaiah chapter 27 seems to be more end times prophecy, and may be a continuation of the last chapter. It opens with mention of Leviathan and "the dragon that is in the sea" (probably the same) just to make sure we've mentioned all mythological beasts in this one book, I guess. I don't think that anyone really knows what "Leviathan" refers to, whether it's a mythological creature or a forgotten Bruckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08445755788968924719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14900114.post-39534320317488025752024-01-13T10:39:00.000-08:002024-01-13T11:16:02.450-08:00And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake (Isaiah 26)Isaiah chapter 26 gives us what appears to be end times prophecy, but it's mostly in the form of praise. There's not a lot of notes here, but the few there are are worth discussing. I answered whether there was ever a just person in Matthew chapter 13, where I said the answer is yes, and Solomon is essentially being hyperbolic in Ecclesiastes.
Will everyone see the majesty of God? As usual, I Bruckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08445755788968924719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14900114.post-51784579142817641342024-01-11T10:57:00.000-08:002024-01-19T17:38:34.264-08:00Get you out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city (Isaiah 25)In Isaiah chapter 25, the prophet gives praise to God, although the nature of the praise seems off to the SAB. First of all, Isaiah praises God for destroying a city. This can seem cruel, but I think from the context of the next verse, we're talking about destroying a powerful city in an evil nation (no specific nation is named, this may not be about any specific city). Isaiah talks about God Bruckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08445755788968924719noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14900114.post-20876665252229375372024-01-10T10:41:00.000-08:002024-01-10T10:59:33.408-08:00Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse (Isaiah 24)Isaiah chapter 24 is apparently a prophecy for the whole world, as no specific nation is named. The SAB comments on the first verse that, "The earth is like a flat plate. When God turns it over, the people fall off." Once again, I don't think you can say that this is what this verse means, and this phrase is metaphorical. Interestingly, the Hebrew word translated "upside down" in the KJV appears Bruckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08445755788968924719noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14900114.post-54672255973057022602024-01-07T15:29:00.000-08:002024-01-07T16:40:51.671-08:00Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon (Isaiah 23)Isaiah chapter 23 is another prophecy, this one against Tyre and perhaps Sidon/Zidon (these two cities are about 20 miles from each other, and are often grouped together in the Bible), two ancient cities located in modern-day Lebanon. There were a lot of places named here, so I looked them up and Tarshish is probably in Spain, Chittim is Cyprus, Shihor/Sihor is a branch of the Nile River, and Bruckerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08445755788968924719noreply@blogger.com0