Sep 10 2023 - People in the Bible

 

It occurred to me that there are a lot of people in the Bible.  How many? There are 2,026 names and nearly 3,400 individuals - from Aaron to Zurishaddai.   There are so many questions about who's there and why.  Here's a question that might interest us all.  Can we verify the people in the Bible actually existed?  There's a researcher who is doing this and has verified 53 people in the Hebrew Bible. Here's an excerpt from the article HERE: "Although the Hebrew Bible names almost 3,000 people, Mykytiuk states that for an overwhelming number of these, it only gives the person’s name and does not supply enough specific information about them to identify them in any other writing. The number of individuals for whom the Bible gives enough information to identify them specifically is far smaller, surely no more than a few hundred, he estimates. With 53 of the people mentioned in the Hebrew Bible now verified through years of research, Mykytiuk will move on to the New Testament, first with a BAR article on 23 verified political figures, then to another one covering about six religious figures. In 2015, he published an article in BAR titled, Did Jesus Exist? Searching for Evidence Beyond the Bible." Notable is that there are so few women in the Bible: another article on the total number of names says that there are 1,700 distinct personal names with 137 of them being women.   If we go to dummies.com, we learn that the Bible has a "cast" of thousands, but some of them play more important roles than others.  They go on to list the 11 important people in the Bible. They start with Adam and Eve, move on to Noah, Abraham, and Moses and conclude with Jesus, Peter and Paul. Those remain familiar names, but there are others that are unusual and strange: Dorcas, Dodo, Gomer, Ishbi-benob, Ham, Ichabod, Mash and Mushi.   Now we know where "Gomer" Pyle came from.

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Aug 22 2022 - Casting Lots by Random Numbers

 

We humans are not very good at making random numbers.  We need something other than us to decide this.  I remember having to generate random numbers for some database testing, and I couldn't do it from my head.  They ended up in patterns. We figured out some external method. It got me thinking about the purpose of dice - those little random number generators on a cube.  I think of dice as gambling devices more than mathematical instruments.  So I looked it up, and both are the historical case.  The mathematical instrument historically is often known as casting lots.  That's mostly divination - asking for knowledge of the future or something unknown.  In the past this was significant as humans thought that there were a lot of gods/God overseeing human things and we should get their guidance. That's why the Bible's Old Testament is full of references to casting lots.  My favourite is that a guilty party is found by lot.  Remember Jonah and the whale - he was chosen by lot.  Land was divided up  by casting lots - so the numbers generated weren't random - they were "God's will" as to who got what.  That wouldn't be so pleasing for everyone.   Some ordinary things were decided by lots - who got which guard duties.  But what about the Book of Esther in which Haman casts lots to decide the date on which to exterminate the Jews. That's the Old Testament is a harsh and cruel world. The New Testament is different. That's where love is meant to conquer all and prayer is the vehicle for answers.  The 2 references  to casting lots - to divide up Jesus' clothing and for choosing Judas successor in the apostles group.   That last one is Divination  -  reverted to after Christ died - “Lord, you know everyone’s heart.  Show us which of these two you have chosen".   Other than those two, there don't seem to be any references to Jesus teachings/preachings on the practice of casting lots. Should we make decisions today by casting lots or throwing the dice?  I think most of us think that's a silly question rather than an unusual one. There isn't a dominant worry about "God's will" and subsequent wrath of being doomed to hell fire.  Turn left or turn right - flip a coin.  We like to make meaning when it comes to things.  We like to turn right or left for a reason.

There are lots of flower crops in Niagara - in the greenhouses and in the fields.  This one is on Fourth Avenue towards Jordan.  I think this must actually be a sunflower seed crop - if it were a flower crop these would be gone by now - harvested before the blooms were this far out. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca