Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
WHAT IS THE OT PRECURSOR OF THE NT OFFICE OF PASTOR? HOW DOES THE FORMER ILLUMINATE THE LATTER? The first problem to address is: how do we know that there is an office of pastor in the New Testament? 1 Perhaps the way the question is put may permit me…
[This essay was originally published in December, 1981, in The Biblical Educator , a publication of the Institute for Christian Economics, and again with slight revisions in Contra Mundum 7 (Spring, 1993). It is reprinted here as a supplement to my book Creation in Six Days .] In 1979, Dr.…
Anyone seeking to reverse the meaning of this promise needs to come to grips not only with the phrase "God was with the lad" later on, but also with Hagar’s response in 16:13. She worships Yahweh, putting her trust in Him and obeying Him. In fact, Hagar is at the…
Ishmael is the narrator of Melville’s fantasy-romance Moby Dick. Melville takes up the traditional view of Ishmael as a wayward son of Abraham, driven out solely because of the Divine "caprice" of election, an angry man with his hand raised against all other men. He is a fitting "anti-hero," or…
There were five cities at the center of the Canaanite culture in the circle of the Jordan, a place like the Garden of Eden, like the land of Egypt, before it became the Dead Sea at the destruction of the cities (Genesis 13:10). Genesis 14:2 tells us their names: Sodom,…
Meditations by James B. Jordan Genesis 19, the destruction of Sodom and the rescue of Lot, is part two of a story that begins in Genesis 18. These two chapters happen in one 24-hour period: noon and evening in Mamre, and midnight and daybreak in Sodom. God and two angels…
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Somewhat surprisingly, the first references to golden crowns in the Bible do not refer to kings but to priests. The high priest has a “crown of pure gold,” a “holy crown” on his turban (Exodus 39:30; Leviticus 8:9). Even as late as Zechariah 6:11, the silver and gold crown is…
David v. Goliath is the ultimate one-on-one showdown. By the end of 2 Samuel, though, that single combat has expanded. Goliath has four relatives: Ishbi-benob (2 Samuel 21:16); Saph (v. 18); Lahmi (v. 19; cf. 1 Chronicles 20:5); and a giant with twenty-four fingers and toes (v. 20). Goliath is…
In one of the loveliest images in the Bible, David describes the just rulers as “the light of the morning when the sun rises / a morning without clouds / the tender grass out of the earth / through sunshine after rain” (2 Samuel 23:3). What might this mean? Rulers…
Smoke ascends from the abyss, and out of the smoke come creatures that look like locusts but sting like scorpions (Revelation 9). John gives an extended seven- or eight-part description (vv. 7-10): 1) Appearance as horses. 2) Crowns of gold on head. 3) Faces like faces of men. 4) Hair…
I watched Disney’s Old Yeller (1957) with my youngest daughter the other night, and was left marveling at the effortlessness of it all. Though it’s nearly 50 years old, it doesn’t seem dated, partly because it’s a frontier movie whose setting was long outdated even when it was made. The…
Douglas Campbell argues convincingly that pistis in Galatians 3 has a christological sense ( Deliverance of God , 867-75). It seems an irrefutable point. In an extended footnote, Campbell deals with Moises Silva’s interpretation of the term in Galatians 3, which wobbles between christological interpretation and something else. Silva says…
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