Netflix recently released a new crime docuseries that chronicles the the lives of former members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Church (FLDS) Church in Short Creek, Arizona. This extremist and fringe polygamist community is not recognized as part of the LDS, or Mormon, Church and is led by “the...

My son Lucas graduated from High School last week. It was a celebration. I haven’t been in a crowded setting like that or seen so many flowy sundresses in ages. The energy was palpable. We were there for a common purpose and that fostered a community spirit. I met more new people there than the last two years combined. People were open to...

Have you ever read the Bible and suddenly felt that an old friend was a perfect stranger? This happens to me all the time. Just when I think I know the Bible, I read something I didn’t know was in there. This is kind of embarrassing to admit because I’m a Bible scholar and an ordained pastor. If anyone should know what’s...

I teach a course on growth mindset and neuroplasticity to college students. Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to form new neural pathways, either by creating new pathways, or altering existing ones. We used to think that our brains' neural networks were highly adaptable in childhood, but then became more rigid in adulthood. Now we...

I teach general studies religion courses and for the past few years I have started classes on prophetic literature and wisdom literature by asking students a series of questions, including: What is your earliest or most vivid memory of the Bible? and What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament?

For...

Last week’s blog introduced the topic of an embodied God. I noted a dichotomy between anthropomorphic descriptions of the divine, which can be found in the Talmud and the Midrash, and later interpretations that insisted that the divine was transcendent. It is precisely this tension that gives the God of the Hebrew Bible a vibrant persona,...

How did the ancient Israelites glean their understanding of the divine? How was the God of the Hebrew Bible characterized? Theologians and scholars have long interpreted the God of the Hebrew Bible as multifaceted and complex. These complexities are not mere inventions of scholars, but have their roots in the text themselves. In some instances,...

Names are important. In the book of Genesis especially, names are often playful puns. 

Names

The name Adam (adam/אדם) in biblical Hebrew is a pun on the word adamah (אדמה) for land, soil, or ground. The name Eve (heva/חוה) is derived from the verb “to live, to be alive.” Likewise the name Abram is derived from av meaning...

So...I recently found myself conversing with my five year old about jeans.

It all started when my favorite pair of jeans sprang a leak.  In an effort to explain why I was so upset about it, I told her, “Good jeans are supportive and sturdy. They never pinch. They don’t hurt your stomach when you sit down. And they get softer and...

Enjoy this short clip from a recent live webinar event where Dr. Jody Washburn discusses the Hebrew midwives of Exodus 1 and interacts with the work of biblical scholars Tikva Frymer-Kensky and Kat Armas.

Our culture is built on multi-tasking and productivity. If we have a spare moment, we are often scrolling or looking over our to-do list. In the Old Testament, there are numerous times when we are encouraged to “be still.” There are actually at least 3 different verbs in Hebrew that can be translated as “to be still, to be...

When we pray, do we envision God with exclusively male motifs and characteristics, or is there room in our prayer and spiritual practice for the divine feminine, for the God who blesses breasts and womb?

Depictions of female figures as representations of the divine were commonplace in the ancient Levant, the region of the Bible’s origins....