Check out the content schedule for posts and reference the common resources I use when writing Notes from the Diaspora

Content Schedule

The engine behind this newsletter includes four dimensions of Jewish and Christian practice. These are the two annual reading cycles of the texts, the Jewish parshah and the Christian lectionary. The third dimension is the holiday calendar for both major Christian and Jewish holidays, and finally, the book series posts that I publish most Fridays—I say most because I have built breaks into the annual calendar to have at least one week of rest when switching from one book to another and breaks for personal needs and ritual observances.

Subscribers can expect at least two posts each week, often more. Posts are typically around 800 words—a three to five minute read. I’ll cite the major works from where I draw the information for readers to learn more. My regular sources are described below.

• Sunday: Each week the “Sunday Sermon” takes the primary gospel reading from the Christian lectionary. I’ll reflect on these verses by placing them within historical context and connecting them to political, cultural, or historical details that likely influenced their development. The lectionary is structured on a three-year cycle. I’ve chosen to omit the epistles. These are the letters written, sometimes by Paul and other times attributed to Paul but not authentically “Pauline,” but written by others in Paul’s name. I do plan to engage in Paul’s theology in several places

• Tuesday: Torah Tuesdays share information about the weekly portion of Torah reading. The Torah, nuances notwithstanding, are also called The Pentateuch or the Five Books of Moses. These are the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, or “Old Testament.” I’ll draw commentary from feminist commentaries, social justice commentaries, and the Jewish Publication Society (JPS) Jewish Study Bible, among others

• Friday Books and Holidays: Additional Friday posts include information summarizing the historical background and ritual practices for major Jewish and Christian holidays. We’ll also read a series of books related to themes recognized during the major seasons of Judaism and Christianity

Resources

My strengths as a communicator include reading, synthesizing, and presenting information to readers in digestible and informative ways. In other words, I see myself as a teacher, less so a “scholar.” My engagement with Biblical material is based primarily on secondary sources. What does this mean?

On Primary and Secondary Sources

Secondary source material In scholarship is work that discusses other original material, a primary source. For us here, the primary source, for example, is the original manuscript material of the Bible, or its earliest manuscripts that we are aware of. Those working in primary source scholarship are doing things like original translation from, say, Hebrew to English, or Aramaic to English, or Greek to English. Archeologists, also, would be working with primary sources, namely, stuff they dig up from the ground!

The work I study and present here is secondary source material. For example, the contributors to The Complete Gospel Parallels, one of the resources I often cite, worked with primary source material to produce an updated English translation that is now accessible to me, in the way working with primary manuscripts in Hebrew or Greek wouldn’t be. True, in the original Greek, equipped with a Bible Concordance, expert translation guidance, and a Greek to English dictionary, I could endeavor to translate some material, but as should be clear, a nonspecialist like me is better off to trust the professionals!

An instructive example may be useful: I can “read” from a Hebrew prayer book, a siddur, but my ability to identify and pronounce the Hebrew characters does not exactly mean that I am reading it. My kids can pronounce the Friday night Shabbat blessing over candles, but I always speak the English translation after reciting the Hebrew, so they do not merely memorize the brachot, or blessings, but they understand them.

I am a Teacher First

I don’t want to undermine my skills, here. It is the case that I’ve studied this material for decades, and I have a firm grasp on many aspects of Biblical authorship, translation, dating, ritual practice, cultural awareness, etc. I consider myself a credible and trustworthy source. I am prepared to defend my positions! But it would be foolish for me to think without years of training that I could present material to you in the way someone like Dan Mclellan does (I’m a big fan of his).

Let me try it this way: We don’t fault mathematics teachers for not inventing calculus, but we do praise a mathematics professor who is able to teach calculus in a way that is approachable, comprehensive, and sustainable.

We don’t say, “That teacher is awful; they didn’t even discover the first principles of mathematics on their own!”

We do say, “Wow, that teacher really helped me understand why the rules I memorized make sense when solving a problem!”

In short, I am a good teacher.

On my Limitations; Integrity

Moreover, it would be disingenuous for me not to declare my limitations and biases. As for the latter, biases, I am not sure any special acknowledgement is required here; read the damn posts! My biases are pretty clear! But as to the former issue, my limitations: I do not hold a PhD. I do not do my own translation. I am not regularly exposed to university seminars or academic conferences. I engage the information that is the outcome of university seminars and academic conferences. In other words, secondary source material! Now we’ve gone full circle.

Stating these limitations is a decision rooted in integrity. The rise of social media and faith-as-entertainment and faith-for-political-gain that I see perpetuated within at least some Christian traditions is often based on toxic theology, incomplete or incorrect translations, or unsupported bald assertions.

It seems to me that the confidence with which an assertion is made is inversely proportional to someone’s knowledge with the topic! Described by psychology as the Dunning Kruger effect:

The Dunning-Kruger effect effect occurs when a person’s lack of knowledge and skills in a certain area cause them to overestimate their own competence. By contrast, this effect also causes those who excel in a given area to think the task is simple for everyone, and underestimate their relative abilities as well.

Sadly, I think the desire to retain and increase power often manifests as bad faith rhetoric that is detached from fact or study. For example, assertions that “the Bible condemns homosexuality,” are not merely false, but are among the most often and confidently asserted statements by Christians bent on political gain. That issue isn’t exactly one of failing to assert biases and limitations, it is more of an intentional distortion of the Biblical source material to serve rhetorical and political aims, but that’s another topic.

Common Resources and Citations

Following are the resources that I used often, where you can find them, and my shorthand abbreviation for citing these resources in my regular posts.

• The Oxford Annotated Bible (Oxford)

• The Jewish Study Bible (JPS)

• The Jewish Annotated New Testament (JANT)

• The Social Justice Torah Commentary (CCAR)

• The Complete Gospel Parallels (Dewey & Miller)

• The Five Books of Miriam (Miriam)

• Bible Gateway: For most translations of the text I follow the New Revised Standard Updated Edition (NRSVUE)

One reason to share all of this with you is to provide my reference list, so that you can dig deeper into the material if you’d like, and it is also to show how I think good faith dialogue and study in religious topics should be carried out.