Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The preceding essay has caused me to consider the possibility that the life of Abraham as recounted in Genesis contains a typological prophecy of the history of Israel; that is, that the events in Abraham’s life broadly anticipate events in Israel’s history. This kind of pattern is seen in the…
by: Jeff Meyers and James Jordan In the fifth chapter of John’s gospel we read of a man who had been ill for 38 years and who was lying by a pool located by the Sheep Gate of Jerusalem. This sheep waited, as did many other infirm people, for an…
What had been reduced to ruin by this sex, would by the selfsame sex be recovered to salvation. As Eve believed the serpent, so Mary believed the angel. The delinquency which the one occasioned by believing, the other by believing effaced. —Tertullian What is Paul saying about women and salvation…
Back in Biblical Horizons 132 I discussed the horrible abuse of the converted men of Salem/Shechem in Genesis 34. These Hivites had joined the covenant by circumcision and then were slaughtered by Simeon and Levi. That, however, is not the end of their story. In Joshua 9 we find the…
Genesis 14:14 says that Abram mustered his trained men, “born in his house,” to rescue Lot, and gives their number as 318. It is clear that the precise number is provided for some reason, but what is it? S. Gevirtz notes that 318 is the sum of all the prime…
Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three; and although there were so many, the net was not torn. (John 21:11) This is one of those texts in the Bible that many people puzzle over. It is not a puzzle…
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From the first moments of the creation, the Spirit of God has been working in the world to enliven and move it. As soon as there is a heaven and earth, the Spirit of God hovers over the formless emptiness of the waters, bringing light and order and moving the…
To many Americans, Christians complaining about our culture sound whiny, self-interested, and sectarian. We yell, “Fire! Cultural conflagration!” Our unbelieving neighbors sniff and wonder why they can’t smell smoke. To their ears, our critiques of culture take this form: Christians used to be in charge; we aren’t anymore; we’d like…
John's gospel differs in many ways from the three “synoptic” gospels. John begins with the majestic prologue that has no analogy in the other gospels. He never once hints that Jesus is an exorcist, he records Jesus' many visits to Jerusalem, he places the cleansing of the temple early in…
Early twentieth-century Spain is often characterized as Catholic-conservative, repressive, backward. In Cultures of the Erotic in Spain, 1898-1939 , UCLA's Maite Zubiaurre introduces “the ‘other' early twentieth-century Spain— sparkling, dynamic, uninhibited, freed from tradition, happily oblivious to sexual constraints and gender norms, so radically different from the somber, identity-searching country…
Jesus is the “living one” (Revelation 1:18). He doesn't mean that He has always been. He is the living one in the sense that He has been through the chiasm of death to life: A. and I became ( egenomen ) B. dead C. and behold B'. alive A'. I…
Jane Austen's Emma is centrally concerned with character formation and guidance. Rich, beautiful, independent, Emma Woodhouse has no one to shepherd her. Her father is too frail, and everyone else in Hughbury too intimidated. She doesn't think she needs to be shepherded, and instead spends her time meddling with other…
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