Gospel of Matthew 1-2 - A New Hope

Matthew 1-2

We start the New Testament (NT) with the Gospel of Matthew.  This book seems to be a 'cliff notes' of the life of Jesus of Nazareth, a Jew born of a virgin mother, baptized by John the Baptist who then considers himself to be the son of the God of Moses.

I have to admit that the book didn't start out well for me.  A long list of begats is no way to draw in the reader.  And the end result is ultimately irrelevant!  So what if Joseph is a decedent of Abraham?  He has no blood ties to Jesus and is fairly unnecessary to the story other then to add a small amount of drama.  We should have gotten MARY'S lineage!

The Holy Ghost impregnates a teenager before her betrothed gets a chance.  Joseph is not happy but plays along.

Once Mary gets pregnant, the story kicks off and it's quite a tale.  Wise men on a quest, a jealous king, a family on the run.  We're off to an exciting start!

Deuteronomy 25-27 Dead Husbands and Shoes

Deuteronomy 25-27

Deuteronomy 25-27 Skeptics Annotated Bible

Whoops again.  Because of my mistake yesterday, I'm a day off on posting.  But, we still got the rest of the year to catch up so;

Judges can order a whipping and you can't muzzle a Ox when he's working the field.  WTF?  Again with the editing.
The brother of a dead husband  has to provide his seed to the deceased's wife so that his brothers line will continue. If he doesn't, she can take his shoe off and spit on him (?!?!).
This harkens back to the Book of Genesis when God smote Onan for spilling his seed on the ground instead of going into his dead brothers wife.

A woman that interferes in a fight between her husband and another man by grabbing the other mans yarbles will have her hands cut-off.  Pretty harsh don't you think?

"Thou shalt not have divers weights, great and small."  Sounds odd but according to the Skeptics Annotated Bible, it refers to treating people equally and fairly.

Joseph was Syarian?  Did we know this before?

Chapter 26 has more laws that we've seen before.

Moses tells the Israelites to put God's laws into stone in Chapter 27.  I've always liked this imagery.

We learn of things that will leave you cursed.  A lot of it has to do with sleeping with the wrong people/animals.

Say Amen.