Ancient Wisdom Today » Amos http://maer.vidanovaphilly.org Ancient Wisdom Today: seeking to understand the past to make sense of the present Mon, 11 Jan 2010 16:09:17 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 Hebrew: Beyond the Basics http://maer.vidanovaphilly.org/2009/12/12/hebrew-beyond-the-basics/ http://maer.vidanovaphilly.org/2009/12/12/hebrew-beyond-the-basics/#comments Sat, 12 Dec 2009 16:46:14 +0000 Maer http://maer.vidanovaphilly.org/?p=780 These are just a few books that I’ve read recently that have helped me get a little beyond the basics of Biblical Hebrew.

Arnold, Bill T., and John H. Choi. A Guide to Biblical Hebrew Syntax. Bilingual. Cambridge University Press, 2003.

This is a great book for a quick review of Biblical Hebrew syntax, and the wealth of examples makes it an enjoyable reading. Although it was written to be used as a reference, I recommend reading through the whole book at least once as it may help you get a general sense of syntactical issues and exegetical possibilities. This might be a good book to read before working through An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax by Bruce Waltke and M. O’Connor which is a much larger work and also highly recommended.

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]]> http://maer.vidanovaphilly.org/2009/12/12/hebrew-beyond-the-basics/feed/ 0 Amos in the First and Twentieth Century http://maer.vidanovaphilly.org/2008/12/09/amos-in-the-first-and-twentieth-century/ http://maer.vidanovaphilly.org/2008/12/09/amos-in-the-first-and-twentieth-century/#comments Wed, 10 Dec 2008 04:21:26 +0000 Maer http://maer.vidanovaphilly.org/?p=50 I had the privilege of preaching on Amos 5:18-27 in my church, and the time spent preparing for it was precious. One of the things that impressed me as I read what people had to say about chapter 5, and in particular 5:18-27, is the different ways that Amos can be appropriated and used in various times and cultures.

I would like to show you an example of how Amos is used in the 1st and 20th centuries. First I want to consider how Stephen quoted verses 5:26-27 in Acts 7 and then how Martin Luther King Jr. quoted verse 5:24 in his famous I Have a Dream speech.

Beyond Babylon

As Stephen talked about the idolatry of Israel in the wilderness, he makes a connection between that idolatry and later worship of false gods. He cites Amos 5:25-27 which basically follows the Septuagint (LXX) with minor variations. Although the differences between the Masoretic Text (MT) and the LXX are worth studying, I am only interested here in Stephen’s use of “Babylon” at the end of Acts 7:43. The basic context is that Israel committed idolatry and, because of that, God would send the people into exile. Here are the verses:

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