Kathy Brasby Blog
The Bible: distant connections
Biblical authors sometimes use connections between the Old Testament and New Testament to help pry open deeper meaning than at first reading. An example is found at the end of John 1 where Jesus talked to some new disciples. They were impressed because he told one of...
Dousing the dragon
I had one of those coughs that made your toenails rattle and, after a morning of listening to my hacking, a co-worker gave me the evil eye. “That sounds like a smoker’s cough,” he said. “I’ve never smoked in my life,” I said. But I had to take it back. There was this...
The Bible: vivid imagery
Vivid imagery able to carry several layers of meaning allows a writer to add depth to their work. The Bible illustrates that principle well. For example, water is a powerful term in the Bible both literally and figuratively. Biblical stories were set in the Middle...
Setting Goldie free
I’m always amazed at how common life experiences translate into metaphors of meaning. When my daughter and son-in-law moved from one apartment to another, they were forced to leave their beloved goldfish behind. They’ll probably read this account so I’ll try to be as...
The Bible: an overarching motif
We talked about the use of a motif a few weeks ago, looking at the motif of the barren woman. Today we’ll look at a bigger motif that affected not only imagery in the Old Testament but in the New Testament as well. And this motif is commonly used in Christian...
Wise and not so
My younger brother was a high school wrestler, which made for an interesting lesson in the folly of letting siblings mature. His first practice of the season came shortly before my visit home from college. We hadn’t seen each other in a little while and he wanted to...
The Bible: The End of the Story
A well-written fiction piece will have an ending that hopefully deals with all the threads of the plot and subplot. A well-written nonfiction piece contains a conclusion that summarizes the points of the article or book. Stories in the Bible also use the ending as a...
It wasn’t the fish
You know how there are some statements that parents should never make? Like, I will never give my child cookies for breakfast. Or, I will always listen to my child. Or, I don’t like to go fishing. When my kids were invited to a special group outing that included...
The Bible: laugh along
One of the unexpected aspects in the Bible is the laugh-outloud humor you can discover in various books. An example comes from Daniel 3, where the king of Babylon - then the most powerful emperor in the world - decided to make a huge statue of himself and demand the...
