It seems like there's a tendency to view YHWH as egomaniacal and elitist in our OT readings. We've commonly referred to the incongruence of the death of the "stick-picker" and the lenience shown to David in the blatant census disobedience as examples of these traits in God. My question is a little early, in regards to the syllabus, but what are your thoughts on the possibility of two near-totally different gods represented in the Bible? The god of the OT seems to be an oppressive, prideful, even racist despot. The god in the NT is addressed by characters as if s/he/it is far away and unapproachable. In fact, Jesus seems to act in an almost priestly fashion by saying that no one can approach god without first approching him (Jesus). Maybe I am mis-reading, but that sounds a lot like the priest-speak that we read in the Pentateuch! I wonder if there's any study on a deuteronomic approach to the NT.
Also, has anyone checked out the first three words of 1 Maccabees?! I've not spent any time in the Maccabees so I'm pretty pumped to see that Alexander the Great is mentioned in the Bible. You Catholics get all the fun histories!
