After several days away from blogging, I have returned to my blog and have posted again. My post today deals with Azazel, the goat that was sent away into the wilderness on the Day of Atonement, bearing the sins of the people and the sins of the nation (here is the link).

I enjoy blogging and I also enjoy the dialogue with my readers through their comments and their emails.  But, let us face it, blogging is time-consuming.

I generally do not blog the way many of my fellow bloggers do. When I blog, I like to offer some new insights on biblical texts or biblical problems. To do this requires extra reading and at times, extra research. I have my own ideas and my own views on all of the issues I cover in my posts. After all, I have been teaching now for almost 30 years.

When a person has been teaching for more than a quarter century, that person has read many books and articles on different subjects. This is what has happened to me. I have ideas and views that I would like to share with my readers. In order to do that, I need to put my thoughts in order and that requires additional reading and additional research.

I could just blog and tell readers about things that are peripheral to the Old Testament. However, that is not my style.  I am a teacher and I like to teach through my blogs. In fact, most of my posts come from issues and discussions I have had in class with my students. I like to say to my students that the readers of my blog are receiving a free course on the Old Testament. I just wish I had more time to cover more of the difficult passages in the Old Testament.

This quarter blogging will be a difficult issue again. I am teaching an overload, preparing a lecture on the theology of prayer in the book of Chronicles, writing an article on wealth in the Old Testament, and doing additional reading for a book I am planning to write on my sabbatical, which begins on July 1.

Although I have not been consistent with my blogging, it does not mean that I am not committed to my blog. I will try to write as often as possible. I know that there are thousands of people who read my blog regularly, both here in the USA and in many parts of the world. In fact, the largest concentration of readers outside the USA is in China. I am glad to be able to be a teacher to a large number of Chinese Christians.

I would like to thank you, the reader of this blog, for your support and words of encouragement. I hope to continue writing articles of interest, articles on topics that are hard and controversial. Somebody has to address those difficult biblical issues and those “texts of terror” that we find in many places throughout the Old Testament. I am happy to do that and I am always energized by the challenge in trying to make those difficult texts more comprehensible to my readers.

I will see you at the blog.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary