Cheers for the man who… – “Psalm 1” (NABT)

This is the beginning of our line-by-line examination of the poem Cheers For The Man (better known as Psalm 1) as it is found in Not A Bible Translation. See the previous post (and corresponding podcast episode) to read the full poem and to learn why I made this translation, along with the broad strokes […]

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Not A Bible Translation of “Psalm 1”

(Corresponding Podcast Episode – Follow/Subscribe to the Podcast) Poetry is meant to be pondered. It contains more treasure than what is apparent on the surface. Uncovering the hidden gems takes some time and effort, but this is no drudgery to a lover of wisdom. There is delight in discovery and elation in exercise. If you […]

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Before Spirit Was Spiritualistic: Philosophical Materialism from Genesis to Jesus (Series Info and Videos) – April-May 2023

(Corresponding Podcast – Follow Podcast) Before Spirit Was Spiritualistic: Philosophical Materialism from Genesis to Jesus ← This is the title of a series of talks we hosted and published over seven Saturdays, from April 8 to May 20, 2023. What’s the series about? It’s about Jesus and his philosophical predecessors and successors and how they […]

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Jeremiah Against Orthodoxy (Ancient and Modern)

The message of the prophet Jeremiah repudiated the orthodoxy of his day, and it repudiates the orthodoxy of our day. In doing so, it also positively teaches us some valuable lessons. Before getting into that, though, let’s go over a few important facts about Jeremiah. The When – Jeremiah delivered his message during the last […]

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Who May Travel Into Yahweh’s Tent?

(Podcast Version – Follow/Subscribe) I’ve recently been writing about a philosophy within ancient Israel that understood Yahweh to be the God of Truth and truth itself to be the supreme principle. This was actually part of the materialist school in ancient Israel. If you aren’t familiar with ancient Israelite materialism, I recommend reading/listening to the […]

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God: A Purely Material Person

(Podcast Version – Follow/Subscribe) So, it’s the Day of Atonement, and we’ve covered a lot in seven blog posts/podcasts over the past 10 days starting with Dirt You Are (Israelite Anthropology). Fittingly, today we’ll be talking about the subject that is holiest of all, the person of God Himself. In our last post, we covered […]

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Jesus: A Purely Material Person

(Podcast Version – Follow/Subscribe) In our last post, we saw that Jesus and his early followers had a materialistic understanding of human nature. They believed and taught that bodily resurrection is the only hope for a future life (a doctrine that is fundamentally inconsistent with the idea that we have immaterial souls). In this post, we […]

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Resurrection: The Only Hope of Future Life

(Podcast Version – Follow/Subscribe) In the past few posts, we’ve seen that ancient Israelite ideas of death were rooted in their ideas of human nature. Death, to them, consisted neither of “soul wakefulness” nor of “soul sleep” (that is, if by “soul” you mean what most people mean – a non-physical “self”). Rather, they saw […]

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