In last week’s reading of the Hebrew scriptures…

…I came across one of my favorite passages, the throw-down between Elijah and the 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of the goddess Asherah — or, more accurately, the throw-down between God, and Baal and Asherah. Baal is a continual annoyance and worse for the early kingdoms, and the Israelites are continually warned away …

In last weeks’ reading of the Hebrew scriptures:

I am into Leviticus, and the beginning of the book and at the end of Exodus there’s a lot of very specific rules as to sacrifices. In fact, though my inclination is to skip over some of the stuff about goats without a blemish, it struck me that the priests had to be pretty deft …