Reading for August 8th

Read 1 Thessalonians 4.1-12 Holy living toward each other and outsiders.
In verse 1 finally marks the past large section of the letter.
In verse 4 body, literally "vessel," could also mean "wife."
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 7th

Read Thessalonians 2.17-3.13 Separation and end-time orientation.
Paul tells of his separation and turn from sorrow to joy:
Because the church has survived, Paul will present them at the coming of the Lord as his joyful reward (2.17-20).
Timothy's visit encourages the congregation and Paul (3.1-8).
A third section (3.9-13) returns to the theme of joy, along with a prayer that the congregation will grow more in the present and will be found blameless at the Lord's coming.
In verse 3.8 stand, one of several military terms in this letter.
In verses 11-13 a hinge between the previous mention of the Lord's coming (2.19) and later themes of love (3.4, 9-12), holiness (3.13; 4.3), and the Lord's coming (4.11; 5.11).
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 6th

Read 1 Thessalonians 2.13-16 The suffering of the Thessalonians.
The anti-Jewish tone is uncharacteristic of Paul, but there is no evidence that it was inserted later,
and it is not directed toward all Jews.
Debate and angry argument between Jews occur in Jewish writings of the time (see Josephus, Antiquities 1.15.91; Philo, Cherubim 17).
Paul's point is his ministry's success despite opposition.
The passage functions like a hinge in reminding the Thessalonians how they suffered in receiving the word (2.14; see 1.6) and in foreshadowing Paul's account of his separation from the community
(2.176-3.13).
In verse 16 God's wrath, perhaps an actual event, but given the survival of the Judean churches and the Thessalonians, more likely that God at last has prevented opponents (some Jews or some gentiles) from destroying them.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 5th

Read 1 Thessalonians 2.1-12 The endurance of the mission team.
Paul denounces false teachers and praises the mission team for building up the congregation.
In verse 2 Opposition, a metaphor of athletic struggle (Epictetus Diss, 1.24.1-2; 4 Macc 16.16).
In verse 4 God...tests our hearts, see Gal 1.10; Prov 17.3.
In verse 7 the Greek word "epioi," gentle, found in some manuscripts, differs from "nepioi," infants, by only the letter "n" (see note c on p. 311).
Paul rarely uses "infant" positively (see Rom 2.20; 1 Cor 3.1; 13.11; Gal 4.1, 3),
so gentle is probably original.
In verse 11 father...children, see Gal 4.19-20; 1 Cor 4.14-21; 2 Cor 6.11-13.
In verse 12 lead a life worthy (Gal 5.16; Rom 13.13, "walk" a distinctive (holy) life even though the end time is not yet obvious to a world that is passing away (see 4.1-8).
Kingdom of God, rare in Paul (see 1 Cor 4.20).
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 4th

Read 1 Thessalonians 1.2-10 Thanksgiving.
Paul highlights his consistent prayers, signs of the congregation's ongoing life, and God's
initiative in the effectiveness of the gospel and Paul's mission team.
In verse 3 faith...love...hope, see 5.8; Rom 5.1-5; 1 Cor 13.13; Gal 5.5-6.
In verse 4 on the kinship expression brothers and sisters, see Deut 15.3.
Beloved by God, see Deut 33.12.
Chosen, see Deut 4.37; 7.6-8; 10.14-15; 14.2.
In verses 1.6-2.16 The suffering and endurance of the congregation.
Three sections depict how the Thessalonians suffered with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit (1.6-10), the endurance of the mission team (2.1-12), and what the Thessalonians suffered (2.13-16).
In verses 1.6-10 How the Thessalonians suffered.
In verse 6 persecution (3.3-4, 7), suffering or affliction, the woes that precede the
consummation of the new age.
In verse 8 sounded forth, the Greek implies continuous spreading of the word.
In verses 9-10 this may be a formal statement of belief.
Turned to God from idols suggests, contrary to Acts 17.4, that the converts were gentiles.
See 2.14.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 3rd

Read 1 Thessalonians 1.1 Opening.
A typical greeting, although written in an extremely simple form (see Phil 1.1-2).
In verse 1 Silvanus, Latin form of Silas, one of Paul's companions (Acts 15.22, 40; 17.4).
Timothy, one of Paul's emissaries and a traveling companion (Rom 16.21; 1 Cor 4.17;
16.10; Phil 2.19).
Grace and peace, likely a variation of the Jewish "mercy and peace" (see 2 Baruch 78.2,
a late Jewish apocryphal writing, probably from the first century CE).
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 2nd

Read Hosea 14.4-9 A second promise of restoration.
In the spirit of 11.8-11, God promises to restore Israel to faithfulness and well-being.
In verse 5 the forests of Lebonan were legendary for their magnificence (Ps 104.16).
In verse 9 the concluding verse in Hosea shares the vocabulary and perspective of the book of Proverbs (10.29) and is likely a conclusion added by Israel's sages.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 1st

Read Hosea 14.1-3 A call for repentance.
Hosea urges Israel to turn from reliance on other nations to reliance on its God.
In verse 3 to ride upon horses is to trust military strength more than God's protection.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for July 31st

Read Hosea 12.10-13.16
In verse 12.11 for Hosea's view of Gilead and Gilgal, compare 4.15, 6.8.
In verse 12 the land of Aram was the territory to which Israel's ancestor Jacob fled from his brother Esau's anger (Gen 27.41-45; 29.1-30).
In verse 13 the prophet to whom Hosea refers is Moses, who led Israel out of Egypt (Deut 34.10-12).
In verse 13.4 Hosea's idea that Israel learned to know its God in Egypt appears to be based on the tradition that the name of God was revealed to Israel there (Ex 3.13-15).
In verses 5-6 after delivering Israel from Egypt, God fed them manna in the wilderness (Num 11.7-9).
In verse 11 Hosea may share the viewpoint of the author of 1 Sam 8.6-8, who saw Israel's request for a king as a rejection of God's rule.
In verse 14 Sheol was a shadowy realm inhabited by the dead (Ps 6.5).
In verse 16 Hosea anticipates Israel's end with a vivid image of the fall of its capital, Samaria.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for July 30th

Read Hosea 11.12-13.16 The history of a rebellious people.
Hosea recalls major events in Israel's past to illustrate God's acts of salvation and
Israel's acts of rebellion.
In verses 12.3a Hosea describes the birth of Israel's ancestor Jacob (later renamed Israel)
who struggled with his brother Esau in their mother's womb (Gen 25.21-26).
In verses 3b-4a Israel's ancestor Jacob strove with God at the Jabbok River when he
returned home to meet Esau (Gen 32.22-32).
In verse 4b God appeared to Israel's ancestor Jacob at Bethel in a dream (Gen 28.10-22).
In verse 9 Hosea recalls Israel's deliverance from slavery in Egypt and its journey
through the wilderness.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for July 29th

Read Hosea 11.8-11 A promise of restoration.
The tone shifts from judgment to salvation: God shows compassion for Israel and
promises to return its people to their homes.
In verse 8 Admah and Zeboiim are cities which, like Sodom and Gomrrah,
symbolize wickedness (Deut 29.23).
In verse 10 this image of Israel returning trembling from the west assumes an exilic context and suggests that vv. 10-11 may have been added by a later Judean editor.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for July 28th

Read Hosea 10.9-11.7
In verses 10-9-15 Israel is compared to a female calf (v.11), once obedient but now
plowing wickedness.
In verse 9 for Hosea's criticism of Gibeah, see 9.9.
In verse 14 neither Shalman nor Beth-arbel can be positively identified, though some have
suggested that Shalman is a shortened form of Shalmanester V, who imprisoned Israel's last king, Hoshea, and laid siege to Samaria (2 Kings 17.3-5).
In verse 15 Bethel was on of Israel's major religious sanctuaries.
In verses 11.1-7 Israel is compared to a son who, though loved and raised with kindness,
is stubborn and rebellious.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for July 27th

Read Hosea 10.1-8
The comparison of Israel to a vine begins with images of bountiful fruit (v.1) and
concludes with images of thorns and thistles (v. 8).
In verses 1-8 pillars were common installations in Israelite sanctuaries (Gen 28.18-22).
In verse 3 the people's words, "We have no king," could anticipate the end of Israel and
its kingship; or they could mean that Israel has rejected the rule of God, its divine king (1 Sam 8.4-8), as the following line seems to indicate.
In verse 5 for Hosea's view of Israel's calves, compare 13.2 and 8.5-6 (see comment at 8.5-6).
In verse 8 the  high places of Aven (literally, "worthlessness") are the sites of Israel's
false worship (4.13).
Comments or Questions...

Reading for July 26th

Read Hosea 9.10-11.7 Images of a rebellious people.
With a series of images taken from Israel's agricultural and family context-grapes and figs,
a young palm tree, a vine, a female calf, a son-Hosea highlights Israel's past potential and
present waywardness.
In verses 9.10-12 the comparison of Israel to grapes and figs begins with images of fertility
and a new harvest and concludes with images of infertility and barrenness.
In verse 10 Baal-peor is a site east of the Jordan where the Israelites once worshiped Baal
(Num 25.1-5).
In verses 13-17 Israel is compared to a young palm with great potential (v. 13) whose roots dry up and whose fruit fails (v.16).
In verse 15 Gilgal, the site where Israel entered Canaan (Josh 4.19-20), is criticized by Hosea for its false worship (4.15).
In verse 17 Hosea refers here and elsewhere (5.13-14;10.14) to Israelites deported by conquering countries, a practice of the Assyrians described also by Israel's historian (2 Kings 15.29; 17.6).
Comments or Questions...

Reading for July 25th

Read Hosea 9.5-9
In verse 6 Memphis is a prominent Egyptian city known for its pyramids, tombs, and burial grounds.
In verse 9 Hosea's reference here and in 10.9 to the corruption in Gibeah may refer to the inter-tribal conflict and the crimes that led to it (Judg 19-21).
Comments or Questions...

Reading for July 24th

Read Hosea 8.7-9.4
In verse 8.13 when Hosea describes Israel's punishment as a return to Egypt, he reverses the
Exodus (2.15; 9.3; Ex 1-15), in which god delivered Israel from slavery.
In verse 9.1 since threshing floors are sites for worship (2 Sam 24.24-25), Hosea denounces
Israel's worship of Baal there.
The prostitute's pay to which he refers is likely the grain harvest Israel attributed to
Baal rather than to God (2.8).
In verse 4 mourners' bread may be translated literally in two ways: either "bread of sorrow,"
referring to bread eaten in exile (9.3), or "bread of idolatry," referring to Israel's
sacrifices that God has rejected.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for July 23rd

Read Hosea 8.1-9.9 Israel's religious crimes.
Hosea criticizes Israel's religious practices, blaming Israel for worshiping images (8.4-6), participating in empty rituals (8.13), following other gods (9.1), and persecuting the prophets (9.7-8).
In verse 8.4 by accusing Israel of making kings without God's knowledge, Hosea may refer to the installation of kings through violent palace uprisings rather than through proper religious and prophetic legitimation (7.1-7).
In verses 5-6 the calf was a prominent religious image in Israel from its beginnings when its first king, Jeroboam 1, set up calves in the religious sanctuaries at Bethel and Dan (1 Kings 12.28-30).
They may have been considered pedestals or throne images for God, as were the cherubim in the Jerusalem Temple (1 Kings 6.23-28, 8.10-11), rather than images of God or idols.
But both Hosea and Israel's historian (1 Kings 12.28) regard these calves as idols.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for July 22nd

Read Hosea 7.8-16
Israel's foreign policy appears to have vacillated between alliances with Egypt and Assyria,
the two great superpowers in whose sphere of influence Israel found itself.
The history of Israel in 2 Kings mentions Israel's cooperation with Assyria
(as explained in the comment on 5.13) and with Egypt (2 Kings 17.4) during Hosea's career.
In verse 14 gashing the body appears to be associated with earnest appeals to a deity,
whether to Israel's God (Jer 41.5) or to Baal (1 Kings 18.28).
Comments or Questions...

Reading for July 21st

Read Hosea 7.1-16 Israel's political crimes.
This speech focuses on the corruption of Israel's ruling elite by criticizing
political intrigue at home (vv. 1-7) and alliances abroad (vv. 8-16).
In verse 1 Samaria was Israel's capital through most of its history.
In verses 4-7 employing the image of a blazing oven, Hosea denounces the
court officials responsible for numerous assassinations in Samaria.
Four of the last six kings of Israel were killed in office.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for July 20th

Read Hosea 6.4-11 Israel's disloyalty.
God emphasizes Israel's lack of covenant loyalty (v. 7), concluding with the image
of prostitution (v. 10) that runs through the book.
In verse 6 steadfast love translates the Hebrew word "hesed," which describes
loyalty to a relationship.
Hosea's emphasis on right behavior rather than empty ritual is characteristic of
prophetic thought (Am 5.21-24).
In verses 7-10 the violent crime described here cannot be identified.
Adam may refer to a city near the Jordan River (Josh 3.16).
Gilead, located wast of the Jordan, was the home of a band of men who assassinated
Israel's king, Pekahiah (2 Kings 15.25).
Shechem, Israel's first capital, was one of its most important cities.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for July 19th

Read Hosea 5.8-6.3
In verses 8-15 God summons the guilty to announce the sentence.
In verse 8 why Hosea sounds the alarm in Gibeah, Ramah, and Beth-aven, all cities
in the southern part of Israel occupied by the tribe of Benjamin, is not entirely clear.
In verse 13 Hosea criticizes Israel for trying to save itself by an alliance with Assyria,
the imperial power threatening Israel in Hosea's time.
Two of Israel's kings, Menahem (2 Kings 15.19-20) and Hosea (2 Kings 17.3),
paid tribute to Assyria to remain in power.
In verses 6.1-3 Hosea anticipates Israel's response to judgment: Only after it is
punished will it try to change its ways.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for July 18th

Read Hosea 5.1-6.3 God sentences Israel.
An extended judgment speech describing God's punishment of Israel follows the indictment of Ch. 4.
5.1-7 God reviews Israel's sins.
In verse 1 Hosea does not explain the crimes of Mizpah, a town in southern Israel,
or of Tabor, a mountain in the Jezreel Valley in northern Israel.
In verse 7 the new moon marked the beginning of the month and of religious
observances in Israel (Isa 1.13, Am 8.5).
Comments or Questions...

Reading for July 17th

Read Hosea 4.11-19
God prosecutes Israel for heretical worship, employing the image of prostitution
introduced in chs. 1-3.
In verse 13 since mountains (Mt. Sinai and Mt. Zion) and trees (Josh 24.26) are associated
with authentic Israelite worship, Hosea appears to be criticizing the worship of other gods at
these sites (as in Deut 2.2) rather than these natural features themselves.
In verse 14 the term temple prostitutes translates the Hebrew word "qedeshot," literally
"holy women."
Partly because of the images of prostitution in the context, scholars have suggested that
these women may have been practicing ritual sex in sacred fertility rites.
But the Hebrew term does not suggest this in itself, and there is very little concrete
evidence of such practices in the biblical world.
In verse 15 Gilgal likely refers to a religious sanctuary marking the site near Jericho
where Israel entered Canaan (Josh 4.19-20).
Beth-aven, literally "house of worthlessness," appears to be a scornful name for Bethel
("house of God"), one of the key northern religious shrines (1 Kings 12.26-30).
Comments or Questions...

Reading for July 16th

Read Hosea 4.1-19 God puts Israel on trial.
The language of this section puts God's accusations against Israel into the context of a legal proceeding initiated by an indictment (v. 1) describing the allegations against Israel.
The judicial sentence that will follow (5.1-6.3) is already anticipated here (vv. 3, 6, 9-10).
In verse 2 this list of crimes is similar to those outlawed in the ten commandments (Ex 20.7, 13-16).
In verses 4-10 God prosecutes Israel's priests.
In verse 6 the law (Heb., "torah") is the basis for Israel's life and worship.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for July 15th

Read Hosea 3.1-5 Hosea marries an adulteress.
The details of this account are so sketchy that it is difficult to decide whether it describes
(1) Hosea's first marriage to Gomer in ch. 1, but from the first-rather than third-person perspective; (2) Hosea's marriage to a second woman; or (3) Hosea's remarriage to Gomer.
In any case, the point of his symbolic act is clear: Israel has been an unfaithful wife
but God desires her return.
In verse 1 while Hosea connects raisin cakes with worship of other gods (as does Isa 16.7),
they are also associated with legitimate Israelite worship (2 Sam 6.19).
In verse 2 the nature of Hosea's transaction is unclear.
Payment was made in ancient Israel for women slaves (Ex 21.7-11) and for wives (Ex 22.16-17),
but this amount is not mentioned elsewhere, and the narrative does not identify the
recipient of the payment.
In verse 4 Hosea predicts a coming judgment in which Israel will lose both political
and religious leadership.
The ephod (Ex 28.4) and the teraphim (Judg 17.5; Zech 10.2) are both associated
with priestly activity.
In verse 5 the reference to David their king may indicate that Hosea looked forward to the reunification of Israel and Judah under a single king (1.11), since David had once ruled
over a united kingdom (2 Sam 5; alternately, it may represent the perspective of a later editor
from the southern kingdom of Judah, over which David's descendants ruled for its entire history.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for July 14th

Read Hosea 2.14-23
In verses 14-15 references to the wilderness, the Valley of Achor, and the land of Egypt recall Israel's deliverance from slavery in Egypt (Ex 1-15), its journey through the wilderness (Ex 16-Num 36),
and its entrance into Canaan (Josh 7.24-26).
In verse 16 Hosea plays on the multiple meanings of the Hebrew word "ba'al": It can be used as a common noun meaning "husband" or "master" or as the name of the Canaanite god Baal.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for July 13th

Read Hosea 2.2-23 God pleads with faithless Israel.
The scene moves from Hosea's actions to God's speech, in which God assumes the
role of the husband and pictures Israel as his wife.
In verse 3 stripping a woman naked is regarded as punishment for her unlawful sexual activity,
and image used by other prophets w ho employ this marriage metaphor (Ezek 16.30-43).
The following phrase, make her like a wilderness, shows that the images of Israel as wife and
as land are blended in God's speech.
In verse 5 Israel's lovers are other gods; the Canaanite god Baal is mentioned directly (vv. 8, 13).
In verse 8 God accuses Israel of failing to recognize that its own God, not Baal, makes the
land fertile and ensures agricultural productivity (vv. 21, 22).
Comments or Questions...

Reading for July 12th

Read Hosea 1.2-2.1 Hosea marries the prostitute Gomer.
In chs. 1 and 3 Hosea acts out the message he wishes to convey to Israel: Just as the wife he
marries has been promiscuous, seeking out other lovers, so Israel has been unfaithful to its LORD,
seeking out other gods to worship.
In verse 1.2 whoredom translates the common Hebrew term for prostitution.
In verse 4 Hosea's first son Jezreel is named after the broad valley in northern Israel where
Jehu led a bloody coup (2 Kings 9.14-10.11), establishing a dynasty in which Jeroboam,
Hosea's contemporary, was the fourth king.
The name symbolizes the imminent end of the dynasty, which occurred during Hosea's
career when Jeroboam's son Zechariah was assassinated in 745 BCE.
In verses 6-9 the names of Hosea's daughter, Lo-ruhamah ("Not pitied"), and second son,
Lo-ammi ("No my people"), symbolize God's rejection of Israel for its faithfulness.
In verse 7 scholars disagree whether references to the southern kingdom of Judah here
and elsewhere in Hosea are from Hosea himself or from later Judean editors who wished
to relate Hosea's message to their own time and place.
In verses 1.10-2.1 the marked shift to future salvation here, in which the meanings of Hosea's children's names are reversed to their positive counterparts, may either reflect the tension
between despair and hope in Hosea's own thought, or represent a later editor's positive
resolution to Hosea's words of judgement.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for July 11th

Read Hosea 1.1 Title.
The reigns of these Judean kings span almost a hundred years (783-687 BCE), while the reign of the single Israelite king mentioned, Jeroboam, lasts for only 41 of these years (786-746).
Since Hosea's speeches are directed to Israel in particular and reflect events leading up to its fall to Assyria in 721 BCE, it is peculiar that the six kings who followed Jeroboam to the throne of Israel during this time are not mentioned here.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for July 10th

Read Colossians 4.7-18 Epistolary closing.
A re-emphasis on the importance of maturity and commendation of persons firmly entrenched in the ethos of the new dominion.
In verses 7-10 Tychichus, Aristarchus, see Acts 20.4.
In verse 14 see Philem 23.
In verse 15 Nympha: Some manuscripts treat Nympha as a female name, others as a male name, perhaps because of a scribe who did not consider the possibility of a woman's owning a house, though the patronage of women in early Christianity is generally accepted.
In verse 16 the letter from Laodicea is lost, though Marcion, an early Christian writer who died around 160 CE, thought it was our letter to the Ephesians.
In verse 17 Archippus, see Philem 2.
In verse 18 a scribe would have written the letter, with the author approving the dictation
in his own hand.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for July 9th

Read Colossians 3.1-4.6
In verse 1 Right hand of God, see Ps 110.1.
In verses 5-11 on the use of vice lists in Paul, see Rom 1.29-31; Gal 5.19-21.
Hellenistic teachers often used vice and virtue lists to challenge their students.
In verse 11 Barbarian, non-Greek.
Scythian, a wild person; no longer will there be different ethnic groups, nor groups and sub-groups.
The author commends ethnic and class equality but not the equality of the sexes as found in Gal 3.28.
In verse 16 see Eph 5.19.
In verses 3.18-4.1 household codes governed life within the extended family.
See Eph 5.22-6.9; 1 Tim 2.8-15; 6.1-2; Titus 2.1-10; 1 Pet 2.13-3.7.
In verse 5 making the most of time, see Eph 5.16.
In verse 6 seasoned with salt, carefully or wisely selected.
See Mk 9.49-50; Mt 5.13.
Comments or Questions...