Numbers 20:1-12 —But God informed Moses that he would be barred from the Promised Land because he failed to address the rock. This passage is usually interpreted as a stern lesson about obeying God, but I choose to think that God was also asking Moses to respect the rock as a sentient being.

Mark 10:25 —One day I was at church, and the gospel reading included Matthew 19:24, which goes, “Again, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.”  The minister said that people take every line of the Bible literally except for that one, when it is the only line that is meant literally.

Matthew 1:1-17 — Rather than arguing for an unbroken ancestral line, the writer punctuates the series by drawing attention to its signal moments, including exile, which would be extraneous if the point were to document ancestry, but which is very relevant indeed if the point is to present Jesus as the next defining act of God toward Israel.  … preserving a record of God’s mindfulness of Israel over time, and of his acting toward them decisively through the lives of particular human beings.

Philippians 2:8 — Jesus’ role, according to the ancient hymn, is not only humble relative to his divine nature, but humble among men …