We Are Launching a Bible Course and You're Invited

Join for a 6-week journey through biblical imagery.

Course Description

The Bible is vast. Its riches can never be fully mined. In addition to carrying the revelation and authority of God, it is also literature of great beauty and depth in its own right.

But how do modern people read this ancient literature without just reading our modern assumptions into the text? When we encounter the Bible’s images and symbols, how can we step back into the cognitive world of the ancients to see what those images meant to them? What happens when we trace those images all the way through the Bible to see how God reveals himself through them?

The answers might surprise you.

In this course, we’ll be looking at the biblical theology of the images of water, gardens, and mountains in the Bible – from Genesis to Revelation.

We’ll dedicate two weeks of this 6-week course to each of the three images. To see what passages and concepts we’ll cover each week, check out the full curriculum.

Course Details: When? What? How?

How

We’ll meet on Zoom.

Length

Each session will be about 90 minutes, 60 minutes to go through the passages for the week and 30 minutes for questions.

Time

The sessions will start at 2:00 pm Central Standard Time on Sundays, which is the afternoon for America and evening in Europe. (8:00 pm for you, U. K.)

Dates

The first session will begin on February 13 and continue every other week from there. The dates are: Feb 13, Feb 27, Mar 13, Mar 27, Apr 10, Apr 24.

How Much Does It Cost?

The course costs $50, but only if you are not a paid subscriber of Three Things or Andy’s two side projects, The Darkling Psalter (new translations of the Psalms + paired with new poetry) and Still Point (ruminations on deconstruction and deconversion).

However, if you subscribe to any of the three of those publications, the course is free.

So, you have a choice:

Option 1: This Course Only ($50=Course)

Use this link (or send it via Venmo to @andymatthewpatton) to pay $50 for this course only.

Option 2: Become A Member ($60=Course+Free Book+Member Perks)

Use this link to become a member for $60/year and get this course thrown in. (Also, we buy all our new members a new, custom-recommended book as a welcome gift.)

This means that if you have been teetering on the edge of becoming a paid subscriber, this could be a chance to kick in another $10 and join us.

What Are You Covering In The Course?

Here is the short version. For the full version, read the curriculum.

Week One—Water: The Sea of Chaos

We’ll be diving into the course (I dedicate that pun to you, Phillip) by looking at why the sea was an image of chaos in ancient times, as well as introducing some rules of thumb for reading this ancient book as modern people. We’ll begin to build a cross-section of ancient cosmology, focusing on the key role played by water.

Week Two—Water: The River of Life

Water has twin meanings in the Bible: death and life. In Genesis 2, the river of life is introduced as an image of God’s life-giving presence that flows all the way through the storyline of the Bible. This week we’ll look at the river of life in the Psalms, Ezekiel’s “river temple,” and Jesus’ conversation with the woman at the well.

Week Three—Gardens: The Garden Temple

The garden in Eden is the archetypal place where humankind dwells with God. When humanity was exiled from the garden, God chose many other places where his creation could come meet with him again—and they were all echoes of Eden. This week we will look at the geography of Eden, the decorations in the temple, the gardens in Babylon, and the garden temple of the New Creation.

Week Four—Gardens: The Tree of Death & The Tree of Life

The Tree of Life is known by certain traits that appear in other trees throughout the Bible, echoes of that first life-giving tree. But what does it mean? And why is everything hung on a tree cursed? We’ll be looking at the motif of the tree of life in Genesis, the psalms, the gospels, and asking why there are so many significant moments in the Bible when life and death depend on what happens around a tree.

Week Five—Mountains: The Mountain Temple

The Garden of Eden was not only a temple, it was a mountain. Starting in Genesis, humankind has meetings with God at the top of mountains (or tries to manufacture them) all the way to the book of Revelation. We’ll be looking at the moment when the first mountains emerge from the sea, what it means that God is likened to a mountain fortress in the psalms, why the kingdom of God is called a “city on a hill,” and the mountain of the New Creation.

Week Six—Mountains: The War of Two Mountains

The story of the Bible can be told as a war between two mountains: Mount Zion vs. Mount Babylon. Mount Zion is equated with Jerusalem and the anti-God mountain takes many forms, starting with the Tower of Babylon (Babel). We’ll be looking at what they were actually up to in Shinar in Genesis 11 and why it was so significant. We’ll also spend some on the other anti-God mountains of Mt. Hermon, the “high places,” and the empire of Rome.

This Is Great, but Is There a Free Version?

Yes. If you’re interested in the course, but can’t swing the $50, don’t worry. There are a couple of things that you can do.

• Feel free to email us at threethingsnewsletter@gmail.com and let us know if money is an issue. We care a lot more about how you read the Bible than we do about getting 50 bucks off you.

• Secondly, if you just want to read along at home, but not pay for the course, here is the list of Bible passages that we will be studying. That document has the important passages in each biblical image (water, gardens, and mountains) along with some key insights for each one.

• Thirdly, you can listen to The Psalm Code and How to Read the Story of Jesus in Every Part of the Bible. In these two lectures, Andy condenses the content we’ll spend six weeks exploring into two hours. If you want a sample first lesson, our discussion will start in the sea of chaos.

---

Three Things Newsletter is a member-supported publication. Most people just get the newsletter for free (which we are happy to provide), but some of our most frequent readers want to join as members and support the newsletter with a few dollars a month (which we are happy to receive).

As a welcome gift for new members, we will buy you a custom-recommended book and ship it your way, gratis.