Who is Matthew L. Skinner?

 Matthew L. Skinner is the guest speaker in the 10th Episode of the Covenant Bible Study, "Luke and Acts: The Spirit-Led Community." Here are a few quick facts about him:

1) He is a professor of New Testament at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN.  Although Luther is an ELCA seminary, Skinner is ordained as a teaching elder by the Presbyterian Church.

2) He has an M.Div. and a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary and an A.B. with a concentration in philosophy from Brown University.

3) He is a prolific writer, and his writing include two books of his own (Intrusive God, Disruptive Gospel: Encountering the Divine in the Book of Acts, and The Trial Narratives: Conflict, Power, and Identity in the New Testament), some co-authored books, contributions to commentaries, dictionaries, and encyclopedias, articles for Huffington Post, small group materials, blog articles, and material for EnterTheBible.org (a resource mentioned just a few posts back in this blog as an excellent resource for study).

4) He co-hosts a podcast called Sermon Brainwave, which is intended to help pastors interpret sermon texts and prepare for sermons.

5) He does a fair amount of public speaking: for conferences, congregations, colleges, seminaries, retreats, and continuing education for pastors.

To learn more about Matthew L. Skinner, visit his website here: http://www.matthewskinner.org/.  I especially appreciate this statement from his site:

When people read scripture together, they learn about the foundations of their religious beliefs, yet they also learn about one another and the God they follow. The conversations we have around the Bible can transform us, informing our hopes and propelling us to serve and love the wider world.

Revenge in the Book of Esther?

Many troubling questions arise as the story of Esther concludes with two bloody days of revenge. Chapter 9, verse 16 says, " Now the rest of the Jews who were in the king's provinces also gathered to defend their lives, and got relief from their enemies and killed 75,000 of those who hated them..." Despite searching through various commentaries and articles on the subject, it seems that there are very few satisfactory explanations for such wholesale violence. I invite you to "listen in" on a conversation among Jewish rabbis discussing this issue here: Rabbi Dev Noily and others on the Book of Esther and to take some time reading various understandings of the passage here: A Violent Ending by Rabbi Jill Jacobs. Though neither of these sites provides a definitive "answer," they offer various interpretations, concerns, and discussion points.

Briefly, the various interpretations include the possibility that Esther is an allegory, or at the very least, an exaggerated story. It is the closest thing to a Shakespearean drama that can be found in the scriptures - full of drama, courts, and plot twists. It is a story of danger and deliverance. The deliverance is swift and total. Perhaps the purpose is to communicate God's total love for the people, God's fury against those who mistreat the people of Israel, and the intent of God to deliver the people completely one day? Other commentators look carefully at the verses and draw the conclusion that only those who had directly oppressed the Israelites were killed. The text says, "The Jews struck all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them, and did as they pleased to those who hated them." This is taken to mean that they did not kill the rest, only plundered and humiliated them. Still, 75,000 seems like an awfully large number. Still others commentators deal with the story as just a story. Just because the story is in the Bible doesn't make every action in it right, though we can certainly learn something.

Who is Judy Fentress-Williams?

Judy Fentress-Williams is the guest speaker for episode 9 of the Covenant Bible Study, "Ruth, Esther, Song of Songs: Faithful Love, Committed Relationships." Here are some fast facts about her:

1) She is Professor of Old Testament at Virginia Theological Seminary.

2) In backwards order: She received her Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible from Yale University in 1999. She earned her M.Div. from Yale Divinity School in 1990 and her A.B. in English from Princeton University with certificates in African-American Studies and American Studies in 1984.

3) She was the director of the Black Ministries Program at Hartford Seminary in the years she spent teaching there. She is currently a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, is an active participant in the Bakhtin and Biblical Studies Group, and she serves on the Advisory Board for the Office of Religious Life at Princeton University.

4) She has a number of published essays and most recently published a commentary on the book of Ruth.

5) She is married to Kevin Williams, M.D. and they have two children, Samantha and Jacob.

(Info from the Virginia Theological Seminary website.)

Resources for Reading through the Bible - Covenant Study

Hello everyone! We're getting ready to begin book 2 of the Covenant Bible Study (Living the Covenant), and we'll be working our way through books 2 and 3 before summer. A number of resources have been mentioned to me that can help to enrich our reading through scripture together, and I wanted to pass them on to you!

First, Joanna let me know about The Bible Project. From the website:

The Bible Project is a Portland based non-profit that utilizes short-form, fully animated videos to make the biblical story accessible to everyone, everywhere. We create videos, podcasts, and study guides that explore the Bible’s unified story by focusing on its overarching themes and each book’s literary design. We are committed to understanding the Bible in its historical context and communicating its wisdom for the modern world.

The Bible Project videos can also be found on their YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/jointhebibleproject. These videos are excellent for engaging kids, as well as adults. They help scripture readers (that's use and me) grasp the larger concepts and see the stories as a unified whole. I am looking forward to learning my way around their website and using their resources in the coming months.

Then, I spent some time with the librarian at the Resource Center for Churches, and she shared a few other resources with me:

First, there's The Text This Week, which provides resources for study based on the lectionary reading from the Revised Common Lectionary. Specific scripture passages can be looked up in the scripture index, and resource pages include links to commentaries, journal articles, sermons, blog posts, video, music, movies, and artwork related to the specified passage. It's a little overwhelming, but it's a great starting point for finding additional information on scripture passages, aside from just the commentary in the Covenant Study. The Text This Week also has a facebook page and a mobile app!

Next, there's Enter The Bible by Luther Seminary. On this website, you can look up specific scripture passages also, just as you can on The Text This Week. clicking on a book of the Bible takes you to a resource page with a summary and links to information on the time period, people, places, and maps. There are also external links to other resources on the passage.

Hopefully these resources will add depth and meaning to your readings as we continue to work our way through the Covenant Series. I look forward to hearing about what you learn! 

...more to come...