Sunday, March 9, 2008

Deuteronomy, Gospels

It's been said that Jesus' most often-quoted book of the Hebrew Bible (at least in the canonical Gospels) is Deuteronomy. Can anyone cooberate or refute that? Any ideas why Jesus would have quoted this book the most? Did he regarded it as the best one? Or his listeners were more familiar with it than the other books? Because it was his personal favorite? What similarities and differences do you see between Jesus and Moses?

Psalms

The Psalms written by David seem to cover the gamut, inluding things which sound rather unsavory to our 21st-century American ears, like "Break the arms of these wicked, evil people! Go after them until the last one is destroyed." (Ps. 10:15) or "Slap all my enemies in the face! Shatter the teeth of the wicked!" (Ps. 3:7) Does this say something about God's character? Or does this say something about David's character? Or his view of God? Or his culture? Does this have any bearing on how we may/should talk to God? Is this sort of prayer disgusting? Or is it heartening? Or both?