Articles by BibleProject

In this episode of The Bible Project Podcast, Jon and Tim explore a story about two Harvard Business School Graduates who are confronted with a biblical view of money that changes their lives.

John Cortinez and Gregory Baumer were young, successful Christians making more money than most of us dream of. They were faithful Christians tithing to their church regularly, but when they take an elective class at Harvard Divinity school about God and Money their paradigm about money turns upside down.

Does the Bible say we have to tithe? How does the Bible ask us to view money? What does it look like when God’s view of money confronts two young Christian businessmen?

Hanging out with Ecclesiastes isn’t fun. The book goes on about the endless march of time that results in death for everyone. Everything dies––humans and animals. We can see that all living creatures go to the dirt, and we don’t have any concrete proof of what happens after that. Depressing, right? Yes––it can be. The teacher is trying to shake things up and dismantle the illusions of the reader, but it can be rough to read. The guys will talk about the context of Ecclesiastes, and why we as Jesus followers can see things differently.
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n the first part of the episode (02:37-11:14), the guys talk about the “endless march of time.” Ecclesiastes has a whole poem about aging. We are all moving towards old age, and on top of that, life is unpredictable. We can’t guarantee that when we do the right thing it will work out. Where is the hope?

In the next part of the episode (11:45-21:37), Tim and Jon discuss the teacher’s warning about being overly righteous. According to the author of Ecclesiastes, it is good to be righteous and strive to live an upright and moral life, but when that becomes our sole focus we can become entitled.

In the next part of the episode (22:15-35:38), the guys try to make sense of all of the despair in this book. What are we supposed to do with this? We need to come to terms with our inability to control the circumstances of our lives. Acknowledging this is the secret to enjoying our lives.
In the final part of the episode (36:04-1:07:10), the guys talk about how to live beyond all of the hevel of life. The teacher is talking about “life under the sun,” or our metaphor, “life in the fog.” Life still has meaning long into the future even though it can be hard to see in the present. Justice will come, life won’t always be shrouded in hevel, and one day the fog will be lifted.

Video:
This episode is designed to accompany our video on the book of Ecclesiastes. You can view it on our youtube channel here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeUiuSK81-0

Scripture References:
Ecclesiastes

Show Music:
Defender Instrumental by Rosasharn Music
Blue Skies by Unwritten Stories
Flooded Meadows by Unwritten Stories

The book of Ecclesiastes is a unique book in the Bible that has delighted and confused Christians throughout the years. It is our second book in the Wisdom Series. One thing that makes it unique is where scripture relies on ancient wisdom as core to understanding God’s world, Ecclesiastes’ Wisdom is based off of experimentation. The core conclusion of Ecclesiastes is that life is Hevel. “Hevel, Hevel, everything is Hevel.” And while modern translations typically translate that Hebrew word as “Meaningless”. And it is all over the book. In Hebrew, it is the word for smoke or vapor.

This book is for understanding Proverbs and Parables and Riddles for the wise. This book claims that there is a powerful, mysterious force in the universe called Hochma, we translate into “Wisdom”. Wisdom is built into the universe principle in which the whole universe is ordered and which it coheres. The book starts with nine chapters of speeches encouraging us to seek after Hochma.

Tim and Jon discuss the Wisdom Literature in the Bible: the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job.

All of these books are wrestling with a particular set of questions. We’ll talk about how we got these wisdom books in our holy scriptures We’ll discuss why there are three different books with three very different perspectives on why their is suffering in the world and the perspective we should have on how to live.

What does it mean to glorify God? Is it simply singing songs? Does it somehow how to do with our behavior. Why is God so interested in his glory? How does this connect to the Image of God?

A Question + Response episode on the Biblical theme of holiness.