For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart." Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

st. paul, 1 corinthians 1:17-25

remember Solomon. truly, all is vanity, and much studying is wearisome to the soul. 

the hebrew word for lion is ariy, and is used 80 times in the Old Testament. 


Isaiah 29:1-2

Ah, Ariel, Ariel,
   the city where David encamped!
Add year to year;
   let the feasts run their round.
Yet I will distress Ariel,
   and there shall be moaning and lamentation,
   and she shall be to me like an Ariel.

here, Ariel is the proper hebrew noun 'Ari'el, literally translated "lion of God" or "lioness of God."
only other place 'Ari'el is used in the Scriptures is in ezra as the name of one of the leaders in the return from exile. 


2 Samuel 23:20

And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was a valiant man of Kabzeel, a doer of great deeds. He struck down two ariels ('ariy'el) of Moab. He also went down and struck down a lion in a pit on a day when snow had fallen.

this is the common noun version. the king james version translates ariy-el as "lion-like men." would it make more sense to mean, "lions of the gods of moab?" i'm tempted to think that benaiah ben jehoiada slew two demon-possessed moabite warriors. Yahweh has sampson, who conquers lions. would not other gods try to copy this? 


Ezekiel 43:13-17
"These are the measurements of the altar (mizbeach) by cubits (the cubit being a cubit and a handbreadth): its base shall be one cubit high and one cubit broad, with a rim of one span around its edge. And this shall be the height of the altar (mizbeach): from the base on the ground to the lower ledge, two cubits, with a breadth of one cubit; and from the smaller ledge to the larger ledge, four cubits, with a breadth of one cubit; and the altar hearth (ari'eyl) , four cubits; and from the altar hearth (ari'eyl) projecting upward, four horns. The altar hearth (ari'eyl) shall be square, twelve cubits long by twelve broad. The ledge also shall be square, fourteen cubits long by fourteen broad, with a rim around it half a cubit broad, and its base one cubit all around. The steps of the altar (lit. "his steps") shall face east."

these are the only three uses of ari'eyl in Scripture. Yahweh our God is a lion, and in the mouth of the God-lion is a consuming fire. 


Daniel 6:7
All the presidents of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction, that whoever makes petition to any god or man for thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions (aryeh).
(so throughout the passage, every time we see lions is aryeh)

Daniel 7:4
The first was like a lion and had eagles’ wings. Then as I looked its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man, and the mind of a man was given to it.

these two chapters contain the only 10 uses of aryeh in Scripture. seems to be a babylonian lion, what with the nebuchadnezzar allusion of 7:4, and with the fact that daniel is in babylon when he's thrown into the pit. 

Genesis 14:1-2

In the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim, these kings made war with Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar).

Daniel 2:12-16, 24-25

Because of this the king was angry and very furious, and commanded that all the wise men of Babylon be destroyed. So the decree went out, and the wise men were about to be killed; and they sought Daniel and his companions, to kill them. Then Daniel replied with prudence and discretion to Arioch, the captain of the king’s guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon. He declared to Arioch, the king’s captain, "Why is the decree of the king so urgent?" Then Arioch made the matter known to Daniel. And Daniel went in and requested the king to appoint him a time, that he might show the interpretation to the king....   Therefore Daniel went in to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus to him: "Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon; bring me in before the king, and I will show the king the interpretation." Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste and said thus to him: "I have found among the exiles from Judah a man who will make known to the king the interpretation."

arioch means "lion-like," and is the name of only these two men in the Bible. the babylonian arioch seems to be the answer to the old -- no longer is the sword lifted up against the Yahweh's people (genesis 14 is about abraham saving lot from chederlaomer's and arioch's armies). now arioch comes doing the bidding of a king but provides safety for Yah's people, safety which, like abraham's deliverance of lot, saves also the lives of the gentiles around the chosen. arioch's actions immediately save daniel, but also the other wise men of babylon. yet these same men will not learn their lesson and will later try to turn lions against daniel in ch. 6. 


suffice it to say, lions are a big deal to the Lord. also to daniel, who spends much of his time being attacked/accused by lions. good thing that Elohim is his judge (daniel = God, El, is my judge). 

Take Matthew's case ... The lawyer has the last sentence in mind when he writes the first. Such a brief, we are told, is planned on one plane, and is of one mind (at least this is the theory; I do not believe in it). But Matthew begins: 'Jesus was the king of the Jews' and at the end, he knows of himself: 'For heaven's sake, I no longer am a Jew' and leaves.

rosenstock-heussy, fruit of lips, p.39

But at the same time the Cross blocks the road backwards towards any of these streams [of speech] ... The modern Greeks, i.e., the physicists, and the modern Jews, i.e., the Zionists, certainly are not the Greeks or Jews of antiquity. The Greeks glorified the beauties of the cosmos; our physicists empty it of meaning. The Jews glorified nothing but God. The Zionists have built a university in Jerusalem, as their first communal building. This road-block of the Word, then, is a fact.

rosenstock-huessy, fruit of lips, p.9

[The New Testament] is a Jewish book, telling Jewish-style stories, yet telling them for the world. It is a book of the world, retelling the story of the world as the story of Israel, and the story of Israel as the story of Jesus, in order to subvert the world's stories, and to lay before the world the claim of Jesus to be its sovereign. It is a Christian book, pouring new wine into the old bottles of Judaism, and new Jewish wine into the old bottles of the world, intending that this double exercise should have its inevitable and explosive double effect.

bishop n.t. wright, the new testament and the people of God, p.469

But why did Jews persecute Christians? Were they not both in the same boat -- branded as atheists, regarded as the scum of the earth, scorned when doing badly and resented when doing well? The answer here clearly lies in the ferocity of polemic between different pressure-groups, parties and/or sects within the same parent body. Sibling rivalry is fiercest when the siblings have an inheritance to share, or when one feels that another is ruining the chances of any of them inheriting it at all.

bishop n.t. wright, new testament and the people of God, p.450

interesting. also why i think it likely that islam arose out of arian/jacobite heresy and is not simply a different religion than Christianity.

Now when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. And there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue. And falling at Jesus’ feet, he implored him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying.

As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. And Jesus said, "Who was it that touched me?" When all denied it, Peter said, "Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!" But Jesus said,"Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me." And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. And he said to her,"Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace."

While he was still speaking, someone from the ruler’s house came and said, "Your daughter is dead; do not trouble the Teacher any more." But Jesus on hearing this answered him, "Do not fear; only believe, and she will be well." And when he came to the house, he allowed no one to enter with him, except Peter and John and James, and the father and mother of the child. And all were weeping and mourning for her, but he said, "Do not weep, for she is not dead but sleeping."And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. But taking her by the hand he called, saying,"Child, arise." And her spirit returned, and she got up at once. And he directed that something should be given her to eat. And her parents were amazed, but he charged them to tell no one what had happened.

Gospel of Luke 8:40-55

jairus represents the rabbis, perhaps even the pharisees, who know Yahweh's promise but lack faith. his daughter is Israel, dead in her sin while he, faithless, is unable to help her. the woman with a discharge is the Gentiles, unclean and cut off, left helpless despite all the wealth she has wasted searching for life in her gods. yet she has faith, this woman covered in red (her blood) like rahab and the proverbs woman, and this faith makes her well. she too is a daughter, just as jairus' child is.

The sons born to Hezron were: Jerahmeel, Ram and Caleb. Ram was the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, the leader of the people of Judah. Nahshon was the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz...

according to the legends of the rabbis, Nahshon was beside Moses as he led the people of Israel out of Egypt. when they arrived at the red sea, the armies of pharaoh were close behind. the fiery tornado came down from heaven, keeping pharaoh's men back from the people, and Nahshon asked Moses where the people were to go. Moses told the people to watch for the salvation of Yahweh. Nahshon looked down from the cliff they stood on into the raging red sea below them. he turned to Moses and asked, "Yahweh will open the sea for us?" Moses nodded his head and raised his staff over the sea, and immediately Nahshon jumped off the cliff. he landed in shallow water and walked further into the sea, until at last only his head remained out of the water, but still he walked. when his nostrils went under water, the wind came down from Yahweh and split the sea in two before him.

this, they say, is why Nahshon is the first elder to bring an offering to Yahweh, and how he received his name, which means "stormy sea-waves." Nahshon's descendants include David, Solomon, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah (though we know them as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego), and Jesus Christ.