Status Updates From Murder-Bears, Moonshine, an...

"Johanna Stiebert, First-Degree Incest in the Hebrew Bible: Sex in the Family (New York: Bloomsbury, 2016), 158." (199) book titles that I wish couldn't exist, example 5000

"It's sort of like how cable companies make you pay for Syfy, even though no one you've ever met or heard of actually watches Syfy." (196) I think you must run with a very different crowd than I do, Luke T. Harrington

"Having the donkey speak here isn't an entirely random choice; animals gaining the gift of gab to suggest the presence of deities is a bit of a motif in Near Eastern literature (which also accounts for that talking snake in Genesis, in case that was also still bothering you, Mr. Dawkins)" (164) weird "gotcha" attempt--if the Bible were just lit, there'd be less scrutiny of this stuff. But it's claimed it isn't just.

"Ezekiel, who lived about two hundred years after Hosea, returns to that same well and then drinks it dry" (158) aqueous example of eats and leaves no crumbs

"I used to wonder why Jerusalem itself would be 'troubled' along with Herod, but when you're ruled by a despot, his problems tend to be yours, whether you want them to be or not." (88)

"In 2013, the journal Pediatrics published a study that found movies rated 'PG-13' were, on average, *more* violent than movies rated 'R.' ... it's easy to make violent acts seem less violent simply by neglecting to show their consequences. ... heroes mow down rows and rows of nameless bad guys who don't bleed, that's 'PG-13' ... character gets a hole blown in his chest and slowly bleeds to death, that's 'R'." (85)

"Horrific Violence, Some of It Involving Bears" (85) a good chapter subtitle

“Sometimes it's hard to punish the guilty without punishing the innocent as well.” p. 174

“Judah tells her he' pay her a whole goat, because goats were the Bitcoin of the ancient world, he doesn't actually have one with him, but he's good for it, he swears.” p. 146

“…you remember John the Baptist, right? The guy who baptized Jesus, along with basically everyone else he met (hence the nickname)? He didn't disappear after Jesus' baptism; he just kept doing what prophets do--he wandered around in a loincloth yelling about how sinful everyone was. As you can imagine, people didn't react super positively to that, especially the people in charge.” p. 52