Life was much easier when we could dismiss people who talked about these kinds of things as ‘conspiracy theorists’,

but, sadly, Austria has now imposed a lockdown on everyone aged twelve and over (bbc.co.uk/news/world-eur…) who has *not* received a vaccine--a vaccine which...
...the Lancet says still allows Covid to be efficiently transmitted, albeit a third less efficiently than is the case with those who are unvaccinated (sciencedirect.com/science/articl…)...
...and which is said by researchers to increase teenage boys’ risk of vaccine-related heart problems more than it reduces their risk of Covid-related problems (theguardian.com/world/2021/sep…).
I don’t have the know-how to subject these sources to much critical scrutiny, but if they’re even in the right ballpark, we might want to start asking ourselves some serious questions.
For starters:

Would we have believed we’d have ended up here twelve months ago?

Do we think our own government will behave any differently from Austria’s? (If so why?)

And do we plan to do anything about it?

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More from @JamesBejon

14 Nov
THREAD: Jacob and the Complexities of his Family

SUB-TITLE: God is in the Details

Genesis 46’s presentation of Jacob’s family tree is a remarkable composition.

One of its lists of names is accompanied by an unusual person count,...
...which is typically dismissed as an artefact of inconsistent sources/traditions.

In the context of the book’s narrative, however, it serves an important purpose:

it invites us to engage with the text’s numerical details in a careful and sustained manner...
...and, in the process, to ponder its numerically-expressed messages.

Nothing in Scripture is present by accident.
Read 57 tweets
4 Nov
THREAD: The glory of God in thought, word, number, and deed.
The text of Exodus 3–15 recounts YHWH’s self-revelation to the people of Israel and his epochal victory over Pharaoh, the self-professed god of Egypt.

Its narrative makes use of three key words in order to emphasise its central themes.
[1.]

The first is the Hebrew word yad (יָד), which designates a person’s ‘hand’ or ‘arm’ and/or by extension their power.

At the outset of Exodus 3–15’s narrative, YHWH hears his people’s cry and comes down to deliver them from the ‘hand’ (yad) of the Egyptians (3.8, 14.30).
Read 24 tweets
23 Oct
THREAD: Judah’s Last Days

SUB-TITLE: What Jehoiachin and Aššur-etel-ilāni-mukīn-apli have in common

The Moral of the story: Never mix up your Jehoiakims and Jehoiachins!

#TheBigQuestionsOfTheDay
The text of 1 Chronicles 3.1–16 lists the kings of Judah from David through to the time of the exile.

Like many Biblical lists, it has some nice numerical features.

In 1 Chronicles 1, a list of ten descendants takes us from Adam down to Noah,
and then a second list of ten descendants takes us from Shem down to Abraham (1.1–4, 24–27).

Here in chapter 3, we begin with a pool of twenty descendants (David plus his six Hebron-born sons, plus his nine Jerusalem-born sons, plus his four other sons: 3.1–4),
Read 44 tweets
26 Aug
MINI-THREAD: Strands of Salvation in the Synoptics.

Joseph isn’t the only beloved son to be given a multi-coloured coat in Scripture.

Jesus is given one too, though by the Roman soldiers.

In Matthew, it’s scarlet (kokkinos).

In Mark, it’s purple (porphyra).
And, in Luke, it’s resplendent (lampros), like the linen of the saints (Rev. 19).

In each Synoptic, the colour of Jesus’ robe answers to the way Jesus’ life is framed.
Mark introduces us to Jesus as Israel’s king--the one whom messengers run before, crying, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord!’.

For Mark, then, Jesus is clothed in purple,
Read 13 tweets
24 Jul
MINI-THREAD.

Respect for our leaders is a good thing, as is love for our neighbours.

Naivety, however, is not.

‘A few weeks to flatten the curve’ soon became a year and more.

‘Vaccinate the over 70s and cry freedom!’ was just as quickly abandoned.
‘No vaccines for children’ and ‘No vaccine passports’ fared similarly. (Why trust leaders whose wives can’t trust them?)

And, as estimates of vaccine efficacy plummet in Israel, freedom has now been made dependent on a 3rd dose of the vaccine...

...which won’t be the last (since Israel has apparently procured about 30 million doses, which makes 4 or 5 for each person, children included).
Read 15 tweets
20 Jul
Dear #Semitics folks.

I’d be grateful for some help with some nominal patterns.

Hebrew has a whole bunch of qiṭṭēl-shaped adjectives which describe physical conditions, often defects.

Examples include pissēaḥ = ‘lame’,

gibbēaḥ = ‘bald’,

ḥerēš = ‘deaf’,
ʔiṭṭēr = ‘left-handed’,

ʕiwwēr = ‘blind’,

piqqēaḥ = ‘well-sighted’, and

gibbēn = ‘hump-backed’.

Quite a few more turn up in Mishnaic Hebrew, e.g.,

qiṭṭēaʕ = ‘without a hand/foot’,

giddēm = ‘without a hand’,

ṣimmēaʕ/ṣimmēm = ‘with misshapen ears’,
ʕiqqēl = ‘clubfooted’, and

ḥiggēr = ‘lame’.

These sorts of conditions/defects form a well known type of personal name/nickname, which is attested all over the ANE.
Read 10 tweets

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