A Texas oilman is using his Bible as a guide to finding oil in the Holy Land.
John Brown, a born-again Christian and founder of Zion Oil & Gas of Dallas, can quote chapter and verse about his latest drilling venture in Israel, where his company has an oil and gas exploration license covering 96,000 acres.
"Most blessed of sons be Asher. Let him be favored by his brothers and let him dip his foot in oil," Brown quotes from Moses's blessing to one of the 12 Tribes of Israel in Deuteronomy 33:24.
How absurd. The men who wrote the bible would not even have known what oil (petroleum, that is) was, nor, one would think, would they even have had a word for it. The Hebrew word in this passage is shemen. Strong's Concordance defines this word as "grease, especially liquid (as from the olive, often perfumed)", which is consistent with biblical notions of annointing and a culture in which washing and annointing one's feet was a sign of wealth. It has precisely nothing to do with petroleum. Proof yet again that PT Barnum was an optimist. Then again, I've always found it amusing that God allegedly led his "chosen people" to a "promised land" that just happened to be practically the only spot in the Middle East without any oil.
All together now for John Brown: DUH! Christians often use the Bible as a sort of divination tool, taking verses out of context and applying them to their lives.
On the other hand, there are a lot of atheists who were once ministers or theology students. Dan Barker, Charles Templeton, and Micheal Shermer are a few examples. When a person stops playing games with the Bible and studies it earnestly, faith becomes very hard to maintain.
