A Woman of Authority

When Israel’s great reformer King Josiah is made aware of a stack of scrolls found by the priests in a major Temple restoration, he turns to Huldah the Prophet as the single person to be trusted for their interpretation. There are other prophets active at the time including Jeremiah, Zephaniah, Nahum and Habakkuk, but it is Huldah who authorizes the Book and for the first time in recorded history, a writing is officially declared to be scripture. Though her story is told quite briefly, both in 2 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 34, I have always been fascinated by Huldah, this respected woman on whose wisdom and judgment rested the initial entry of Hebrew Scripture canon. She is still memorialized in modern Jerusalem by the Huldah Gates in the south wall of the Temple Mount. (Illustration from Prints of the Prophets series.)

A Whirlwind Career

The books of First and Second Kings would not have been nearly as interesting without the addition of the most flamboyant prophet of them all, Elijah, who just showed up one day and in his career raised the dead, called fire down from heaven, confronted the unpopular King Ahab and the famously villainous Queen Jezebel, won a challenge match against the priests of Baal, was fed by ravens while in hiding as a fugitive in the wilderness, witnessed earthquakes and heard the "small quiet voice" of God among other adventurous activities. Without him, the histories of the kings would have been just another list of monarchs who did what kings usually do to receive (mostly bad) report cards from God. It was as if the writers had said, "This book is getting as boring as Numbers. We need an action hero." Elijah's final scene was certainly an appropriate hero's departure as he was taken up to Heaven in a whirlwind, escorted by chariots of fire as he passed his Prophet's Mantle on to his faithful assistant Elisha. What an exit! (Illustration from Prints of the Prophets series.)

Time Line Detail-The Exodus

The story of the Hebrew people's Exodus from Egypt is given a setting by the biblical writers as falling somewhere between 1100 and 1300 years before the birth of Jesus. While the Olmec civilization was thriving in what is now called Mexico and Ramses II ruled Egypt, Moses' story had its beginnings. Significant to his legendary early life is the number of courageous and creatively non-violent women who were essential to his survival, including the midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, his mother Jochebed, his sister Miriam, Pharaoh's Daughter and her female servants. Also seen on the Time Line is Moses' wife, Zipporah, who saved his life at a much later time. Without even one of them, there would have been no Moses, no "Let my people go," no nation of Israel. (This section of the Time Line wall chart is part of a 4000 year history, from the time of Abraham and Sarah to the present day. -click to enlarge)

Blue as a Color of Faith

As a liturgical color, blue is the color of heaven, of the divine. It represents purity, truth and fidelity. It is also the color of the fantastic and the unknowable mysteries of God. In icon art, blue clothing, symbolic of divinity, contrasts to the red clothing of humankind. Jesus is often seen wearing a blue tunic draped by a red cloak, depicting divinity hidden in human form; red symbolizing the flowing blood of life. (Illustration from "Colors of a Faith," a PowerPoint presentation.)

The Forbidden Fruit?

For many years, artists and writers have commonly depicted the apple to be the forbidden fruit of Eden's Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Genesis story, in fact, never names it as an apple or even uses the term "Forbidden Fruit." A possible origin of  the apple story could have come from early Latin translations of the word. In Latin, malum means both "apple" and "evil." They were also usually the fruit of choice to hang on the set piece trees used in medieval European mystery plays. Apples were not likely candidates as the fruit of the Middle Eastern writer of Genesis 3, however,  in a land that is generally much too hot for the fruit tree to survive. (Illustration from PowerPoint presentation, "From Eden to Esau.")

She's my sister...honestly.

One of the more bizarre incidents from the story of Sarah and Abraham (Called Abram and Sarai at this point) tells of Abraham, in fear of his own life, passing Sarah off as his sister, not his wife. It seems that Sarah, though well into her 70's, is so irresistible in her beauty, that her husband fears Pharaoh will dispose of him in order to add her to Pharaoh's harem. On hearing she is Abraham's sister, Pharaoh does just that and also rewards Abraham with some livestock. We are not told what Sarah thinks of the arrangement, but I can't imagine her being too thrilled. God finally intervenes, revealing through some inflicted diseases the truth to Pharaoh, who ends the situation by returning Abraham's rightful "property" to him. Abraham apparently doesn't learn from his mistake and repeats the same scenario with another foreign ruler, Abimelech king of Gerar, years later in the Genesis story. This time, the irresistibly beautiful Sarah is past 90 and also pregnant. I wonder what kind of diet and exercise program she had going? (Illustration from the PowerPoint presentation, "From Eden to Esau.")

Introduction

Welcome to Dan Peeler & Charlie Rose's blog. We will be adding posts and information including the following subjects with many more to come.

• This linear Peeler-Rose Productions time line as an actual printed product
  
• Power Point stories
• Prophet print series
• Christian Symbols and their meaning
  
• BibleKins: fictional stories about Bible characters when they were children
  
• The Seven Very Bad Choices (AKA The Seven Deadly Sins)
• The Liturgical colors series: What colors mean in a liturgical church
  
• The Stories and Symbols of the Seasons
• Printable craft pages (we're working on a link and details for this)