four cubits and a span

The four cubits podcast has always been about taking seriously both our ancient Bible and our modern lives, even when doing so leads us away from easy, neat answers. Often, that approach will lead us towards personal and communal change - and despite what you might have heard from some Christians, theres nothing more biblical than change! This episode explores some of the ways in which the people of God in scripture not only navigated changes in themselves, their communities, and their world, but how their experiences of God often drove those changes. Read transcript Read more »

An image from the non-violent Civil Rights protests of 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama (USA). I am coming to feel that people of ill-will have used time much more effectively than the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people. – Rev. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter From A Birmingham Jail (April 1963) From a jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama in April 1963, Dr King wrote one of the most powerful Christian essays of the 20th century. It was a response to an open letter by eight local Alabama clergymen that criticised the non-violent Civil Rights protests in the city. It was the response of a Christian whose faith was not merely a set of beliefs and actions that he shared, but the reality in which he lived and the lens through which he both experienced the world as it was, and saw the world as it would one day be. In this special episode we consider the background to King's Letter From A Birmingham Jail and then we read it together. As Christians in July 2020, we should not need to be reminded that Black lives matter - and yet, here we are. We need only look back to Dr King for an appropriate Christian response, but it also behoves us to join his lament. It is nearly 60 years since King wrote this essay, and still our societies - let alone our churches - have failed to internalise some of the most basic tenets of racial justice and Christian fellowship. Transcript for introduction coming soon! Read more »

We're back! This is the Sunday morning talk that I would have given in church this morning, if we weren't all locked down trying to squash what's left of COVID-19 in Scotland. My wife and I prepared this together, and the subject - how do we connect with God? - has been on our minds for quite some time now. When a young friend posed the eponymous question we really just went off. Transcript coming soon! Read more »

When the gospel texts converge and diverge in their retellings of the Jesus story, it can be tempting to gloss over what makes each gospel text unique. Nathan Kitchen takes us through some examples to help us read the details better. As well as nerding out on synoptic studies, we also had a great conversation about sacred time and space, and what psalms fatigue means for our (lack of) appreciation for the Psalter. Transcript coming soon! Read more »

I got started on this week's episode... and I didn't finish it. But the Leviticus segment, sparked by a note in the Jewish Study Bible, was too interesting to leave in the archives. So this minicast is a look at the tum'ah - the uncleanness - of Leviticus 12-15, from a different perspective than the one usually taken in both Jewish and Christian commentary. The JPS Torah commentary volume on Leviticus also helps to place the text's concept of contagion within its ancient Near Eastern origin. None of this is to say that the contagious miasma posited by some modern Jewish scholars is (or was) actually a phenomenon in the real world: only that this may have been the original concept behind these tum'ah texts. Re-framed with the language of ritual impurity rather than physical aura, the texts remain relevant even as Jewish thought moves on to re-read re-interpret them: because it's the theology of the text that gives it enduring significance. Transcript coming soon! Read more »

What do Christians do with Leviticus? That's what Kameron Mazurek and I are talking about this week, and it mostly involves paying closer attention to Jewish interpretation and tradition. Jesus lived near the end of an era in Jewish history, and it's that time period that we're looking to for wisdom. Transcript coming soon! Read more »

So many of our reading skills depend on our cultural background: the memes, metaphors, and idioms that make up our literary vernacular. This week, Jo Kitchen and I take on 1 Corinthians 6, which turns out to be particularly densely packed and full of rhetorical flair. Read transcript Read more »

Psalm 81 features a classic, biblical counter-narrative. I leave it as a bit of an open question, so plenty to get stuck into here. This was fun to talk about for a few minutes last week, but I cut it for time because on account of how cool Psalm 82 is. I'm a bit behind on editing, so this week's conversation with Jo Kitchen will be along in a day or so! Transcript coming soon! Read more »

Psalm 82 and Mark 12 took me in unexpected directions this week. I hope that you find it as thought-provoking, challenging, and inspiring as I did. Transcript coming soon! Read more »

I had a lovely Sunday afternoon catching up with old friends in Wardley again, and this is the talk I gave at the eucharist service. I picked up on the threads of the Romans 12 segment from last week's podcast, cheerfully stealing Nat's comments as well as expanding on mine. The subject of renewal and transformation of mind/spirit as Christian is an easy one to talk about and say inspiring things about. But when it comes to really putting it into practice, well, that's where the real work is. Read transcript Read more »

The plague narrative is our jumping-off point for the epic that is Exodus, as our friend Nat Ritmeyer returns to 4QS to talk about how (and how not) to read it. We spend our time discussing how to let Exodus be Exodus, and not bring its towering theology crashing back down to a mundane level. There's just some much story to explore. Transcript coming soon! Read more »

A quick flashback this week, in lieu of a full-length episode, to a very brief mention a few weeks ago of the pastoral epistles. I promised a minicast giving an overview of the question of who wrote the letters to Timothy and Titus, and here it is. Many biblical scholars have good reasons to think it wasn't Paul, and there are reasons to pay close attention to this question. I'm going to suggest that it's not for the reason that you might at first think, but either way: more information is always better. Read transcript Read more »

Well, this week's episode started out as a short look at Genesis 22 and the Binding of Isaac, known in Jewish tradition as the "Akedah" ("binding", from Genesis 22:9). It kind of grew legs, though, and it turns out to be an incredible passage to talk about some really important stuff when it comes to biblical narrative and interpretation. Transcript coming soon! Read more »

Happy new year from myself and Becky Lewis, my first co-host on four cubits in 2020! The Genesis segment comes to you in a slightly different format this week: Genesis 9 is Becky's jumping-off point for an overview of the themes in the whole book. It works really well as a reader's guide to the book, which will be very helpful as we read through it this month. I already have more co-hosts lined up to tackle some other books in a similar way this year, so get ready to hear new and familiar voices on the podcast soon! Transcript coming soon! Read more »

Looking at how a biblical text is written can help us focus on the right things when we're reading it. That's what we're looking at in Nehemiah and 2 Timothy this week: how the message is proclaimed and why it matters. On the other hand there's also Amos, who takes a prophetic flamethrower to his people in a scathing indictment of a religious piety devoid of social justice. Don't forget, you can now register for the Living Faith Study Day 2019 on EventBrite! It's a gathering for those exploring their relationship to faith, the Bible, and community. There'll be four thought-provoking topics packaged in short talks, with ample time for questions and discussion. I'll be giving one of those talks, "Christian Ethics and Social Justice: The Gospel of the Human Jesus". It's going to be a great day for building faith, and for taking the Bible seriously - both in its ancient context, and in the present day. Read transcript Read more »

We're back with Nehemiah this week, one of my favourite Bible characters. He's an early governor of post-exilic Jerusalem, but here we see him exercising his prophetic voice. After a few minutes in Hosea to look at the theme of reversal we dive into an extended NT segment in Acts, where the narrative is in transition to the final act of the book's story. Don't forget, you can now register for the Living Faith Study Day 2019 on EventBrite! It's a gathering for those exploring their relationship to faith, the Bible, and community. There'll be four thought-provoking topics packaged in short talks, with ample time for questions and discussion. I'll be giving one of those talks, "Christian Ethics and Social Justice: The Gospel of the Human Jesus". It's going to be a great day for building faith, and for taking the Bible seriously - both in its ancient context, and in the present day. Read transcript Read more »

The prophets in the Hebrew Bible urge the people of God to resist empire, but maybe they also confront their own community's traditions in search of better ways of worshiping and knowing God. In Ezra and Hosea this week, we're encouraged to see resistance as a mechanism of active change - and the prophets are nothing if not agents of change. Don't forget, you can now register for the Living Faith Study Day 2019 on EventBrite! It's a gathering for those exploring their relationship to faith, the Bible, and community. There'll be four thought-provoking topics packaged in short talks, with ample time for questions and discussion. I'll be giving one of those talks, "Christian Ethics and Social Justice: The Gospel of the Human Jesus". It's going to be a great day for building faith, and for taking the Bible seriously - both in its ancient context, and in the present day. Read transcript Read more »

Just one passage this week, as I've been busy working with the writer of a new blog series, One Woman's Journey: A Call to Reflect, which I'm really excited to host here on the four cubits and a span blog. If you haven't read part 1 yet, you should definitely go and read it right now. On the podcast this week, we're looking at the final chapter of Daniel, and the Second Temple-era revelation of personal resurrection. Don't forget, you can now register for the Living Faith Study Day 2019 on EventBrite! It's a gathering for those exploring their relationship to faith, the Bible, and community. There'll be four thought-provoking topics packaged in short talks, with ample time for questions and discussion. I'll be giving one of those talks, "Christian Ethics and Social Justice: The Gospel of the Human Jesus". It's going to be a great day for building faith, and for taking the Bible seriously - both in its ancient context, and in the present day. Read transcript Read more »

Some people like to say that Bible-believing Christians should not be political: but that's a difficult proposition when the Bible itself contains such deeply political texts. All three readings this week make striking political statements, so we're looking at how the inspired writers bring the lens of the past to bear on the present for the people of God. Don't forget, you can now register for the Living Faith Study Day 2019 on EventBrite! It's a gathering for those exploring their relationship to faith, the Bible, and community. There'll be four thought-provoking topics packaged in short talks, with ample time for questions and discussion. I'll be giving one of those talks, "Christian Ethics and Social Justice: The Gospel of the Human Jesus". It's going to be a great day for building faith, and for taking the Bible seriously - both in its ancient context, and in the present day. Read transcript Read more »

Monday's episode on 2 Chronicles 12-13 was notably missing any content from 2 Chronicles 13. Well here it is! A few minutes on Abijah/Abijam, son of Rehoboam king of Judah, who gets a post-exilic, Braveheart makeover by the Chronicler. It's epic, y'all. Don't forget, you can now register for the Living Faith Study Day 2019 on EventBrite! It's a gathering for those exploring their relationship to faith, the Bible, and community. There'll be four thought-provoking topics packaged in short talks, with ample time for questions and discussion. I'll be giving one of those talks, "Christian Ethics and Social Justice: The Gospel of the Human Jesus". It's going to be a great day for building faith, and for taking the Bible seriously - both in its ancient context, and in the present day. Read transcript Read more »