Hourglass Bible Study
Curious about the Bible but unable to commit to study on your own? If so, the Hourglass Bible study may be just right for you. No reading is required before the class; instead, we read the scripture together one week and share our reflections on that passage the next week. It’s an opportunity to work scripture into your everyday life and to benefit from the varied and honest reactions of others in the class.
Current Topic
Beginning on April 12, the Sunday after Easter, the Hourglass Bible study will be reading the book of Jonah for two Sundays, and then tackling the historically important Deuteronomy. Join us for a little humor with Jonah and a lot of history with Deuteronomy! Questions? Contact Mary Ray
Reading Schedule for Jonah
Background information on Jonah is below.
April 12 Introduction and read chapters 1-2
April 19 Read chapters 3-4 and discuss
Reading Schedule for Deuteronomy
Background information on Deuteronomy is below.
April 26 Introduction to Deuteronomy and Chapters 1-2
May 3 Chapters 3-4
May 10 Chapters 5-7
May 17 Chapters 8-10
May 24 Chapters 11-12
May 31 Chapters 13-15
June 7 Chapters 16-17
June 14 Chapters 18-20
June 21 Chapters 21-23
June 28 Chapters 24-26
July 5 Chapters 27-28
July 12 Chapters 29-31
July 19 Chapters 32
July 26 Chapters 33-34
August 2 Review and reflections
Introduction to Jonah
Winter 2025 - Overview provided by Mary Ray
Author, date, and location in Bible.
The author is unknown and may well include multiple authors and editors over time. It was probably written during 500-400 BCE as the Jews were recovering from the Babylonian Exile which was in 586-538 BCE. Jonah is one of the twelve “minor prophets,” a reference used because these are all shorter books. It is possible that some of the minor prophet books were divided or combined to arrive at the number 12, echoing the 12 sons of Jacob, although Jonah was one unified story. In the Hebrew collection, Jonah’s position corresponds to the chronological location within the minor prophets’ timeline. In the Septuagint, Jonah comes at the end of the collection.
The name “Jonah” was likely a reference to “Jonah son of Amittai, a prophet mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25 who proclaimed God’s mercy and support for the northern kingdom of Israel. This is the only minor prophet named in the Old Testament outside of his own book. The name means “dove son of truth,” which is interesting because the dove is often characterized in the Old Testaments as easily alarmed (Ezek. 7:16, Ps. 55:6-8) and as lamenting when distressed (Nahum 2:7; Isaiah 38:14, 59:11).
General Information
I did not find that biblical scholars think that this story is an account of actual events, but rather a satirical short story written to communicate a deep truth about human nature and the nature of God. Jonah’s call to prophesy is unusual because he is called to go to another country, rather than to speak to his own nation, and to go to the capital of Assyria, the country that will defeat Israel 60 years after the original Jonah’s lifetime.
Jonah flees to Tarshish, whose location is uncertain but is generally in the opposite direction from Nineveh and whose name tends to evoke a distant paradise in writings of the time. His flight includes a series of descents, as if he is trying to find a safe place but it is associated with death. Oddly, his prayer in the belly of the whale is like a prayer of thanksgiving for having been delivered from death. The gourd and worm in the last chapter may be caricatures of the tree of life and the serpent, which were common images in Near Eastern mythology.
Introduction to Deuteronomy
Spring 2026 - Overview provided by Mary Ray
Date, Sources, and Authorship
Deuteronomy is traditionally attributed to Moses, but he did not write it. Instead, researchers say it was created over several centuries, with ages-old oral traditional accounts eventually written down and organized and with newer explanations added. Scholars seem to agree that Deuteronomy was assembled during the two centuries between 721 BCE (when Samaria fell to the Assyrians) and 535 BCE (when Cyrus the Great of Babylon allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem). As for the authors, there is no clear evidence, but the most likely authors are Levitical priests, who made judicial decisions in Israel. There are also theories that the wisdom community wrote it because wisdom principles are often included. Wisdom literature was found throughout the Middle East at the time. There are also theories that the prophetic community wrote it, because there are similar values, in particular to the book of Hosea.
The central portion of Deuteronomy may come from a document found in the Temple archives during King Josiah’s reign(640 to 609 BCE), in part because many of the provisions in that part closely correlate to changes Josiah implemented.
One of the important written portions is called the Decalogue, which means “ten words,” and refers to the Ten Commandments. These “ten words,” according to the Bible, were heard spoken by God to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai. Looking at the way Exodus and Deuteronomy are written, it appears that this portion began in wisdom literature and was inserted into these books (https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-origins-of-the-decalogue). The Ten Commandments are viewed by Christians and Jews as the core principles of God’s law, with the rest of the law expanding on these principles. Nevertheless, the actual text appears to have been inserted into the book. See Exodus 19:9 onward to see how the text seems interrupted by the Ten Commandments. However, this in no way suggests that the Ten Commandments were not valid or older—this just refers to how the text we now have was constructed. As a final note, the text of the Ten Commandments appears in three distinct versions: at Exodus 20:1–17, Deuteronomy 5:6–21, and Exodus 34:11–26.
Content and Structure
“Deuteronomy” means the “second law.” The Hebrew name for the book comes from the opening words of the book: “these are the words.” It restates or reinterprets the covenants established in the period of the Exodus. One distinctive point it makes is that worship should be centralized in the Jerusalem temple. The purpose of this may have been to prevent other local worship traditions from other Gods or customs from infiltrating the worship. It offers an overview of Israel’s history, somewhat revising the history that is stated in the books of Joshua through Second Kings
It is structured like a story told by Moses and a narrator, who quotes Moses and God. Only 56 verses in the whole book are direct statements from the narrator. Most of the book is made of quotations, and quotations within quotations, which can get fairly complex. The setting for Deuteronomy is established in the final chapters of Numbers, where the Israelites are on the plains of Moab getting ready to enter the promised land. Deuteronomy sums up the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, and sets the stage for the history and prophets to come.
The book had three apparent audiences: the original group of Israelites listening to Moses, the Jews in Judah after the return from Babylon, and the future Jewish community. Thus it has layers of meaning. Presenting the words as from Moses and God gives the text great credibility. But including the narrator “forces his contemporary audience, intent upon Moses’ discourse, occasionally to focus upon their own temporal distance from Moses’ words.” (The Literary Guide to the Bible, p. 94)
The first part of the book (1:6-4:40) is Moses telling the history of Israel’s experience. The second part (5:1-28:68) is Moses looking to the future. The third part (29:2-31:6) concerns the immediate and distant future. The last part (31:7-34:10) includes Moses’ final words blessing Joshua and the people and tells of his death. Deuteronomy 12–26, the Deuteronomic Code, is probably the oldest part of the book and the core around which the rest developed. “Most scholars have accepted that this portion of the book was composed in Jerusalem in the 7th century BCE in the context of religious reforms advanced by King Hezekiah (716–687 BCE)” (Wikipedia, Deuteronomy entry).
In the first part, Moses reports God’s word. In the second part, the distinction between when Moses is speaking or quoting God is not as clear. The specific laws Moses set forth are introduced by the words “These are the statutes and judgments”(12:1) and conclude with “This day the Lord thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments.” (26:16).
In general in Deuteronomy, statements about God’s mercy are not emphasized, because they are almost always preceded by a statement of God’s vengeance or of the need for obedience. Yet it communicates that Israel is going to receive a land even though it has been repeatedly disobedient.
Deuteronomy's concept of God changed over time. In the earliest 7th century layer, it doesn’t denying that other gods exist but says only Yahweh should be worshiped. In the later, Exilic layers from the mid-6th century, especially chapter 4, it says that only one god exists. God is also simultaneously present in the Temple and in heaven – an innovative concept.
There are multiple theories about Deuteronomy’s construction. The history theory is that Deuteronomy was originally just the law code and covenant, written to cement the religious reforms of Josiah, and later was expanded to stand as the introduction to the full history. An older theory sees Deuteronomy as belonging to Numbers, and Joshua as supplement to Numbers. The mainstream understanding is that Deuteronomy, after becoming the introduction to the history, was later detached from it and included with Genesis–Exodus–Leviticus–Numbers because it already had Moses as its central character. According to this hypothesis, the death of Moses was originally the ending of Numbers, and was simply moved from there to the end of Deuteronomy. (Wikipedia, Deuteronomy entry).
When scholars compared Deuteronomy to international treaties written in the Middle East in the same time period, they discovered that Deuteronomy used the classic structure of those treaties. It uses this to form a covenant between the people and God. Here’s a sample of that structure used in Deuteronomy with the locations listed. There is some debate about this theory, but Deuteronomy does use elements of the traditional treaties, as shown below.
Preamble 1:1-6a; 5:6a
Historical prologue 1:b-3:29; 5; 9:7-10:11
Stipulation of allegiance 4:1-23; 6:4-7:20; 10:12-22
Covenant clauses 12-26
Invocation of witnesses 4:26: 30:19; 31:28
Blessings and curses 28
Oath spoken curse 29:9-28
Deposit of documents 10:1-5; 31:24-26
Periodic reading 31:9-13
Duplicates, copies 17:18-19; 31:25-26
Significance
Deuteronomy provides a bridge between the first four books of the Torah and the historical books from Joshua on. It also is special in that it is written to speak to future generations, and it is used extensively in the New Testament. It establishes the moral and ethical principles of Judaism, and the importance of the Jewish form of worship. As such, it sets up basic principles for Christianity.
Sources include The Harper Collins Study Bible, New Revised Standard Version; The New Oxford Annotated Bible, New Revised Standard Version, An Ecumenical Study Bible; The Literary Guide to the Bible; Whose Bible Is It?; A Short History of the Scripturesby Jaroslav Pellikan, chapters 1-3; Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, Deuteronomy by Patrick D. Miller; the Wikipedia entries on “Deuteronomy” and “the Ten Commandments.”