Sunday, June 26, 2011

Two Things I Learned This Week - Old Testament Version

I learned two things I thought were pretty interesting this week, and both pertained to the Old Testament. 

The first has to do with today's first reading.  Manna from heaven.  

Some scholars believe they know where that manna came from. Without taking away from the divine part, they believe it could have been from the Tamarisk trees that grow in the Sinai. 
 
Walking the Bible author Bruce Feiler tells us that "plant lice suck on the sap of those trees, and excrete white resinous globules onto the branches."  He goes on to say that the sweet globules crystallize in the sun, fall to the ground, and if not harvested quickly, can dry up and disappear or get blow away in the wind.  

Despite the fact that he tells us this manna tastes like honey, lice excretion doesn't sound super appealing to me!  But I guess if I was stranded in the desert ....

The second has to do with the term Yahweh.  

Did you know that we aren't 100% sure that Yahweh is Yahweh?  

The only letters we have are YHWH - we do not have the vowels.  Therefore, we aren't 100% how it is pronounced!  

In fact, there are many scholars today that think the correct word is more like Yehowah, not Yahweh.



Hope you are having a blessed week.
 

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Michael,
I had heard about the thoughts on the name of Yaweh, but not about the lice-not sure I wanted to know about that one :) Thanks for this interesting Catholic science lesson.
God bless!

Shirley said...

Sometimes science gets in the way. I'd much rather think of manna as heavenly bread than lice poop!

Victor S E Moubarak said...

Did they at least put salt and pepper on the lice poop?

Michael, I did not receive your email. Some do go astray I believe. It's not in my junk mail folder or anywhere. Could you please resend? Thanx.

God bless.

Mary N. said...

Ewwwww! That's so gross! I had to snicker at the lice poop comments, though! Especially Victor's comment about the salt and pepper. I guess men don't get as grossed out as the ladies do :)

Very interesting post, Michael :>)