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The Rev. Dr. Gafney is associate professor of Hebrew Bible at Brite Divinity School and is an Episcopal priest canonically resident in the Diocese of Pennsylvania and licensed in the Diocese of Fort Worth. A former (...)

The book of Proverbs is known as a wisdom book in the Bible (Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes) which include in the Apocrypha the books of Sirach and Wisdom of Solomon. Wisdom, in these books, presumes (...)

Unlike the rest of Genesis, which comprises short, episodic stories that can usually stand alone, Genesis 37-50 reads like a short story or novella. Sometimes referred to as the “Joseph cycle,” this set of chapters (...)

This passage depicts an immanent creator trying to make a fitting partner for the original human. The process initially produces animals, who are deemed as unfit partners for the human. Ultimately surgical division of the (...)

The prophet Joel writes in response to an ecological disaster, a plague of locusts that exceeded their regular breeding and feeding cycles. His words are difficult to break into individual sermons. The internal markers in (...)

People are often surprised to find that the words from Ruth 1:16b-17, often heard at weddings, are not about the joys of beginning a new life together. Instead these words are an affirmation of Ruth’s (...)

By the time the reader gets to these passages, she knows that the characters in this story are beyond reproach. Naomi shares her wisdom with Ruth. Ruth follows Naomi’s sage advice. Naomi blesses Boaz. Boaz (...)