The Expository Times

In consideration of Catholic theology, and leaving aside much else that might be mentioned, we focus on ‘the Bible in its traditions’; John Paul II’s ‘theology of the body’ or ‘nuptial theology’; and the renewed debate about the relation between grace and the natural order, including the significance of Henri de Lubac and the continuing place of Thomas Aquinas.

The book of Joshua is more flexible (and better known in the Gospels) than often supposed. The debate between the majority west of the Jordan and the minority to the east over which biblical texts supply a relevant precedent leads to compromise, but is differently reported in the Hebrew and Greek Bibles: MT more sympathetic to the nine-and-a-half tribes, and LXX to the two-and-a-half (who may represent the diaspora). Even the built structure at issue is differently introduced: ‘altar’ in MT and ‘high place’ in LXX — but both sides of the river finally accept whatever-it-is as a ‘witness’.

Instead of reading this psalm as expressing a merely sentimental ideal of sibling harmony, this article shows how a cohesive reading of the more difficult middle section can illuminate a way through the tensions of sibling rivalry and betrayal. Here the central images are taken to evoke the parallel relationships between brother mountains (Hermon and Zion) and the brothers involved in priestly anointing (Moses, the missing but implied brother, and Aaron).