The Bible as Literature

In this episode of The Bible as Literature, Fr. Marc Boulos delivers a powerful Mother’s Day homily and biblical reflection on the meaning of Baal, husbandry, empire, and the anti-imperial function of scripture. Beginning with the Semitic root ב־ע־ל / ب־ع־ل (b-ʿ-l), Fr. Marc expl ...  Show more

I call out to Isaiah: اخرج من الكتب القديمة (ukhruj min al-kutub al-qadīmah), come out of the old books as they came out. The world needs you now.Mahmoud Darwish said it under the siege of Beirut, in 1982, watching human flesh hung from the walls over the openings of the Old Test ...  Show more

The Greek ὑπομονή (hypomone) is a compound: ὑπό (hypo, under) and μονή (mone, a remaining, from μένω, meno). Literally: remaining under. The one who endures is the one who remains standing under the pressure of weight. This is not a second concept grafted onto μένω (meno); it is ...  Show more

When Luke records Jesus commanding the Twelve to take nothing for the journey, neither staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money, he activates a deliberate stripping that recalls the scriptural logic of exile as exposure. The Hebrew root ג-ל-ה (gimel-lamed-heh) can function as “to unc ...  Show more

Homily: The Prodigal Son, The Lost Sheep, and the RavenFr. Marc BoulosSunday, February 8, 2026In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.Today’s Gospel (Luke 15:11-32) forms a diptych with the parable of the Lost Sheep (Luke 15:3-7), which unfortunately ...  Show more