And beginning with Moses...

 Hello. Welcome to And beginning with Moses. My name is Jerry. 

I've been a blogger for a while (I think my first blog was started in 2007), but lately I have slipped a bit in my writing. This is because time and work and family have been a significant priority. I still maintain a blog at wordpress called Reading and Thinking Through the Daily Office. I hope someday that I'll be back to writing that blog too. 

Anyhow, this is a new adventure that I am excited to start. A friend of mine named Dave will also be writing here as well but I'll let him introduce himself in his own post. 

The idea behind this blog is avoid all the clutter and just read the Bible as it is, as I have it, as it has been given to me. Jesus said to his disciples after the resurrection: "'O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?' And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself." (Luke 24:25-27, ESV)

This verse has been a touchstone for me for as long as I can remember because it really helps me to understand Scripture and to narrow my focus when it comes to understanding what the Bible is teaching. The teaching, it seems to me, is simple: Jesus, from first to last, beginning to end, alpha to omega. The book is about Jesus and trying to interpret the Bible with any other objective is, it seems to me, silly. But more than that, my goal is simple reading. I want to approach the Bible very simply as a lay person. I will be reading through the Bible without the lenses of the scholar or the commentary or the technical stuff they teach us in college and seminary. 

That is, I'm just a fella in the pew reading along and noting what I observe. Thus I have no idea what I will see--although, I am looking for Jesus. I'm going to read the Bible in English--not the Greek or the Hebrew. I'm going to read the Bible as a typical American, reading the English Bible that has been provided to me, and from the beginning. This is not to say that Greek or Hebrew is unimportant. It's not to say that scholarship is meaningless. It's not to say that we should avoid the clerics in their hallowed seminaries. It is to say that the great majority of us are not reading Greek and Hebrew; the majority of us are not biblical scholars; and the great majority of us are not the least interested in the things that biblical scholars debate and write about in their monographs and books. 

It is to say we are people, pilgrims, disciples who wake up in the morning and read our Bibles over a cup of coffee or tea, who mutter a few words of prayer, and heave ourselves into our cars for another day of work. What does the Bible, the English Bible, say to those of us who are reading it each day? What would be carry around with us all day? How would what we read in our own language affect our worldview? Our politics? Our family life? Our work? And so on and so forth?  

That is the objective. 

Others can tackle the Greek and the Hebrew and the Spanish and the French and the German and any other language they wish. I'm interested in the English because that's what I read every day and it says something to me and I think it says something to others too. Don't miss my point: I am not concerned about translational accuracy. I am concerning myself only with what I have and what I think what I have says (or means). Others can debate the accuracy of the translations and the meaning of jots and tittles. I am only concerned with what the version directly in front of me says. 

So sit back and enjoy. Subscribe. Share. I'm not sure how often we will write, but the goal is frequently. I will be starting in Genesis. Dave may join me there or he may have his own starting place. We will see what happens. 

PS-I will primarily use the English Standard Version of the Bible, but I may occasionally use other translations.  

jerry