The Bible Challenge: Day 80

The scriptures read are Joshua 7-9, Psalm 67, and John 1.

Joshua 7. What happens when you take plunder and you're not supposed to.

Joshua 8. Joshua uses clever tactics to take the city of Ai.

Joshua 9. The people of Gibeon use a clever tactic so they don't end up like Ai.

Psalm 67. A prayer for a good harvest.

John 1. Last of the 4 gospels to be written, John seems to know about the other 3. So he skips familiar things but gives us a lot of background and reasons why the stuff the other gospels narrate happened.

But John starts with a deep theological poem that is meant to echo Genesis 1. "In the beginning was the Rhyme and Reason for everything, and the Rhyme and Reason for everything was with God, and the Rhyme and Reason for everything was God."

John the Baptist kicks things off as in the other gospels but John the Evangelist neglects to narrate one thing: the actual baptism of Jesus. The Evangelist does this a lot. The theological discussion of the event is there, just not a description of the event itself.

Jesus starts gathering followers from the start: Andrew, Peter, Philip. Nathaniel, though billed as a cynic, is easy to impress. Except for Thomas, there's a lot less doubting in this gospel.