About the new website

If you've been to the SAB website lately, you have probably noticed that it has changed a bit recently.

It has the same content as the old site, plus some new additions. The main difference - and the thing we've been working on for a year or so now - is that the website is now entirely database-driven, rather than the tens of thousands of html pages and links that I had to create and manage by hand.

The new database-driven site will allow me to present the content of the site in ways that couldn't be done before. But there will be some problems that we will have to work out along the way.

Please let me know if you encounter any and we will try to address them - either by email (swwells@gmail.com) or by commenting on the web pages themselves.

(I have also copied many of the Blogger posts and moved them to the new website blog. I'll continue to double post for now, but at some time in the future I will be posting only on the new site. You can find the new blog here.

Father Mike Schmitz explains the law of jealousies to us

The most popular podcast in the United States is (or was according to the National Review in Jan 2021) "The Bible in a Year" by Father Mike Schmitz. In it, Father Mike reads the Bible to you, and explains it all for you.

Father Mike gets through the whole thing, from Genesis to Revelation in 365 twenty-five minute episodes - including the apocrypha or what Catholics call the Deuterocanonical books. Which is pretty darned impressive. But then he's a very fast reader.

Still, he doesn't just read the Bible for you. He also explains it.

Here, for example, is the podcast's synopsis for "Day 56: Jealous Husbands":

Fr. Mike explains how God elevates the dignity of women by providing new laws around husbands accusing their wives of unfaithfulness.

Now that sounds nice, doesn't it? God elevates the dignity of women with the law of jealousies in Numbers chapter 5.

Carole and I recently covered Numbers 5 in a recent podcast. Here is the text for that part of the episode.
(You can listen to the podcast and read the text that we read from here.)

¹¹ God said to Moses,

^12-15 When the spirit of jealousy comes upon a man, and he suspects that his wife has had sex with another man, he shall bring his wife to the priest. ¹⁶ And the priest shall set her before me.

¹⁹ The priest shall say to the woman,

^20-21 "If you’ve had sex with a man who is not your husband, God will cause this water to make your thigh rot and your belly swell."

²² And the woman shall say, "Amen. Amen."

²⁴ Then the priest will make her drink the bitter water that causes the curse.

²⁷ If she is defiled and has had sex with a man who is not her husband, God will make her belly swell, her thigh will rot, and she will be a curse among her people.

²⁸ But if she is not defiled, then she shall be free and will conceive seed.

²⁹ This is the law of jealousies, when a wife has sex with a man who is not her husband.

³¹ Or when the spirit of jealousy comes on a man, and he is jealous over his wife.

³¹ The man is guiltless, and the woman shall bear her iniquity.

Notice that this is God's law that he gives directly to Moses in his own words.

This is one of the most misogynistic passages in the Bible (perhaps even in all literature).

Is there anyone besides Father Mike who believes that this law "elevate the dignity of women"?

The Bible in Fewer Words podcast

As many of you may know, my wife, Carole, and I have started a new podcast.

Well, it's not new anymore. In fact, we have released 54 episodes since we began a few months ago. We began with Genesis in December, and just posted the last episode of Leviticus today.

It was all Carole's idea, actually. Over the last few years I had been revising the SAB website by adding side notes to summarize the text of the Bible. And Carole was my editor.

She and I would discuss the notes, trying to make them a fair summary of the Bible's content, and while doing so, she recorded a few of our conversations. That's where the idea of a podcast came from.

Our goal is to present the Bible as concisely as possible, without leaving anything important out, while excluding the boring, repetitive, and uninteresting parts. So far it's been a lot of fun for us to produce,

So we invite you to listen to podcast episodes. They are usually between 10 and 15 minutes and cover from one to five or so chapters. You can find the text that we are reading here, with notes and links to the verses in the KJV at the SAB website. You are welcome to make comments and ask questions on the podcast pages. It'd be great to have you with us as we work our way through the Bible (using fewer words).

What's new at the SAB

Anyone who has visited the blog in the last few years will have noticed that I haven't posted much here lately.

Sorry about that.

But I have a good excuse: I've been too busy at the site.

Over the last few years I have completely revised the Bible, Book of Mormon, and Quran at the SAB, fiinishing the Quran just a few days ago.

I've also started a page that I update daily, called What's new at the SAB.

Now I'm starting to annotate the Doctrine and Covenants, which is one of the three nonbiblical books in Mormon Scripture. (The others being the Book of Mormon and the Pearl of Great Price.)

I'm finding the D&C lots of fun, and I welcome you to join me as I work my way though it. I'm not on the seventh of the 136 sections.

Here's a link to what I have so far on the D&C at the SAB.

Why Douglas Wilson believes the Bible is the word of God

And how do you know that it's the word of God?
Is it because "a lot of people around me currently think" it is? Or is it because its contents are so good that only a God could have written it?
I mean, who else could write a verse like Leviticus 20:14?

— Steve Wells (@SteveWellsSAB) January 20, 2022

And if a man take a wife and her mother, it is wickedness: they shall be burnt with fire, both he and they; that there be no wickedness among you. Leviticus 20:14