OT SS Lesson #36 LDS Sunday School students will soon take a quick leap through 66 chapters of Isaiah in five forty-minute lessons. All too …
Yom Kippur and the Symbolism of Jonah’s Spiritual Journey
OT SS Lesson #33 If your ward happens to be just a little bit behind on the Sunday School lessons, you might experience the synchronicity …
Adversity: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
OT SS Lesson #32 After the Satan figure is given permission to afflict Job as a test of his faithfulness, three of Job’s friends, Eliphaz, …
Sophia of the Proverbs and the Feminine Divine
OT SS Lesson #31 Feminist readers of the scriptures are well aware of the passages in Proverbs 8 which personify Wisdom (GK Sophia, HEB Hokhmah). …
Passing the Mantle
OT SS Lesson #29 The prophet Elisha is introduced for the first time in 1 Kings 19. Elijah has recently had his encounter with the …
The Divided Kingdom Today
OT SS Lesson #27 “Take an old piece of clothing,” our SS lesson advises, “or a piece of paper that is cut in the shape …
The Question Solomon Couldn’t Answer
OT SS Lesson #26 Our Sunday School lesson this week attempts to deal with the conundrum with which we are faced when considering that Israel’s …
King David and the Doctrine of Blood Atonement
OT SS Lesson #24 The following statement was made by the LDS Church last Wednesday in conjunction with the execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner by …
Official Doctrine vs. Personal Speculation
Mormonism, in its very short history, has a rich tradition of theological speculation. The foundations of the Church were based on burning desires to know …
Homosociality and the Friendship Between David and Jonathan
OT SS Lesson #23 The story of David and Jonathan is one of the most inspiring examples of true friendship anywhere. Our LDS SS manual …
You Can’t Ride Two Donkeys With One Ass: Saul and Spiritual Rebirth
OT SS Lesson #22 Ever since I was introduced to the word “liminal,” I have claimed it as my own. This word describes a threshold …
Patriarchal Hierarchy and the Kingship Model
OT SS Lesson #21 When we lived in Saudi Arabia a few years ago, I obtained a faculty position in the fairly newly-formed department of …
A Closer Look at that Virtuous Woman
OT SS Lesson #20 Sometimes I wonder how women in the Judeo-Christian tradition got stuck with the gender role identifications they have. The Old Testament …
Feminist Musings on the story of Jephthah
OT SS Lesson #19 You are going to talk about the Biblical Judges in this week’s Sunday School class, and the lesson’s got it pretty …
Circumcision Rock & Roll
OT SS Lesson #18 The advantage of blogging the SS lessons instead of teaching them is that I get to cover the chapters that are totally skipped …
The Angel and the Ass
OT SS Lesson #16 The story of Balak and Balaam is a study in the marvelous complexity and richness of Biblical literature. The pericope includes …
Limiting Revelation: The LDS Concept of Stewardship
OT SS Lesson #15 A scripture in the Doctrine & Covenants encourages us to “be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of [our] …
The God of the OT vs. the Golden Calf
OT SS Lesson #14 Sometimes I have a hard time with the Jehovah of the Old Testament. I’m not always sure how much of the …
The Seder, Social Justice, and Leroy Jessop
OT SS Lesson #13 At a Passover Seder this week, President Barack Obama’s message to American Jews focused on social justice. Obama said that the …
What Dreams May Come
OT SS Lesson #12 Whether dreams come from the unconscious mind or directly from God, they are valuable sources of revelation. Dreams can tell us …
The Virgin and the Whore: Thinking Beyond Dinah and Potiphar’s Wife
OT SS Lesson #11 Lesson 11 in the Old Testament manual employs several stories from Genesis 34-39 to develop the theme of sexual morality. Joseph’s …
Jacob’s Ladder: More on Faith Vs. Works
OT SS Lesson #10 Though it’s only an “additional teaching idea” in Lesson 12, Jacob’s ladder has captured my imagination due to some conversations I’ve …
Bad, Worse and Worst
I would like to use Genesis 12 (and an interesting post by Aaron B from BCC) to examine the inverse of Elder Oak’s famous talk …
Putting an Edge on Abraham
OT SS Lesson #9 This story is so very, very familiar to us that I think it’s important to look at it with a fresh …
Where the Lord Annihilates all the Gays
OT SS Lesson #8 “The Genesis passage is very clear, that the sin of Sodom that brought on the destruction of the city was indeed …
Sod, Seed, Salvation: Abrahamic Covenant and the Claim to Palestine
OT SS Lesson #7 Sod, seed, and salvation — it’s how I like to describe the Abrahamic Covenant. There were three promises in the covenant. …
Joseph Smith Didn’t Believe in Watchers
OT SS Lesson #6 Hidden in our scripture reading for this week is a strange little passage which many modern Biblical scholars say was originally …
Why I want to Live the United Order
OT SS Lesson #5 I have often thought that had I not joined the Church at age 19 I would have liked to have joined …
Adam & Eve as UFOs (Unidentified Figurative Objects)
OT SS Lesson #4 Although our SS lesson for this week presents Adam and Eve as two literal, physical characters, the temple ceremony hints that …
The Creation Accounts — Unharmonized
OT SS Lesson #3 Several years ago I did a study of Joseph Smith’s different accounts of the First Vision. It was fascinating to see …
Chosen or Posin’ ? Abraham, Buffy, and Other Choice Spirits
OT SS Lesson #2 This was an interesting lesson to read after last year’s brou-ha-ha over an alleged “generals in the war in heaven” quote. …
This is my Work and my Game Plan
OT SS Lesson #1 With Jeff’s interesting introduction to the OT course of study, I’m sure many of you have peeked at the first OT …
Time to Study The Old Testament…Again – Part 2, The Books
In this part 2 of the Studying the Old Testament series, we will discuss the books of the Old Testament, how they were organized, different …
Time to Study the Old Testament……..Again – Part 1 – Introduction
As part of the four-year LDS Sunday School study cycle, it is time to open up that voluminous book known as the Old Testament. Many …