This post marks the second in a series of many in which I will read through Beth Moore’s books and provide chapter-by-chapter reactions to what America’s most popular female Bible teacher has written to her massive audience. The name of this series, which is hopefully self-explanatory, is #MooreTripe. The posts in this series will be less book review and more running commentary. It is my hope that this commentary provides pastors, education ministers, and husbands helpful insights into what LifeWay Christian Resources has been foisting upon their church members, and particularly wives, for years. I begin with Moore’s 2003 book, The Beloved Disciple.
Chapter 2 – The Identity of Family
“The people we will study together were Jews at a time when Judaism had perhaps never been more Jewish. By this expression I mean that although they were under Roman rule, they enjoyed significant freedom to live out their culture. They were firmly established in their land and had their temple. Every sect of religious life was functioning at full throttle: the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the teachers of the law, to name only a few.” p. 12
The Jews did not live under the Old Testament theocracy but were rather under an Idumean client king (Herod) and a Roman Governor (Pilate). In the recent past the Hasmonean Dynasty had provided independent Jewish rule. Furthermore the Sadducee were a heretical sect who rejected any Old Testament book beyond the Torah along with the resurrection of the dead. This is hardly a status of never being more Jewish.
John 6 recounts an incident where some Jews wanted to make Jesus King “by force”. Counted among the 12 Apostles was a zealot, Simon. The Zealots, who favored revolution, would eventually see it come and fail. In 70 AD a Roman Army under Titus sacked Jerusalem because the Jews had rebelled. Clearly the Jews were not satisfied with their situation. Beth Moore is just making things up.
“A fisherman would have been hard to convince that the glory of God dwelled more powerfully in a building made of stone than in a bright pink and purple sunset over the Sea of Galilee. I know this for a fact. I live with a fisherman.”
Here Moore provides a forensic psychoanalysis of the Apostle John and his companions who were Jewish 1st-Century commercial fisherman, based on her knowledge of her own wealthy 21st-Century American gentile husband who fishes for sport. Her statement is equal parts fluff and conjecture and it’s bad conjecture at that.
A commentary on Chapter 3 is forthcoming.
Until then, I would humbly commend to your reading, two of my own books:
*Please note that the preceding is my personal opinion. It is not necessarily the opinion of any entity by which I am employed, any church at which I am a member, any church which I attend, or the educational institution at which I am enrolled. Any copyrighted material displayed or referenced is done under the doctrine of fair use.
