Pete Enns & The Bible for Normal People

Old Testament

exile

Rachel Is Weeping for Her Children

By Pete Enns, Ph.D.

This blog series is taken, more or less as is, from my latest book How The Bible Actually Works. You can read the first posts in this series here, here, here, […]

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book of jonah

Don’t Put God in a Box, Unless You Want to Be Swallowed by a Fish

By Pete Enns, Ph.D.

This blog series is taken, more or less as is, from my latest book How The Bible Actually Works. You can read the first posts in this serieshere and here and here. The […]

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jesus movement

Judaism and the Jesus Movement Were Both Solving an Old Testament Problem

By Pete Enns, Ph.D.

Hear me out. One way (not the only way, but one way—hold your horses) of describing the Old Testament is as a story of striving for national identity. Yeah, that […]

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original sin

5 Old Testament Reasons Why “Original Sin” Doesn’t Work

By Pete Enns, Ph.D.

Does the Old Testament portray Adam’s disobedience in the garden of Eden as the cause of universal human sinfulness and guilt? No it doesn’t. Not even remotely.

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David and Goliath

King David, Time Travel, and Whoa, What the Heck is Going on Here!?

By Pete Enns, Ph.D.

It was more important to these ancient editors who produced the Old Testament to preserve conflicting traditions and put them together somehow, even if awkwardly, than to eliminate them for the sake of achieving logical coherence.

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Abraham Sarah and Hagar

Why Abraham Pimps Out His Wife and His Wife Pimps Out Her Slave (or, This Week’s Children’s Bible story)

By Pete Enns, Ph.D.

While I don’t think there is any intention here to present Abraham as a model of virtue, neither do I think Abraham is simply kicking into fight-or-flight reptilian brain mode.

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