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Hermeneutics

Beginning and New Beginning in Luke

Although the events are, of course, not perfectly parallel, Luke in his gospel intends us to connect Jesus’ birth from the womb and His re-birth from the tomb. Luke 1:27 introduces us to Joseph and in verse 30 we learn that his betrothed wife was named Mary. An angel appeared…

by James B. JordanDecember 28, 1996
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Matthew

A Note on Matthew

The apostle Matthew is also known as Levi son of Alphaeus. While not much is said about this man, the few things that are told us are significant. Matthew in Greek is Matthaios and comes from the Hebrew name Mattithiah, or Mattith-Yah, "Gift of Yah(weh)." Matthew’s other name is Levi,…

by James B. JordanDecember 28, 1996
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Biblical Horizons

Twelve Fundamental Avenues of Revelation (Part 1)

Theologians often speak of "special" and "general" revelation, or of "natural" and "supernatural" revelation, or of "word" and "deed" revelation. While there are many worthwhile insights in these discussions, particularly in the discussions in Cornelius Van Til’s Introduction to Systematic Theology , I have not found any that satisfied my…

by James B. JordanDecember 28, 1996
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Ezekiel

Countdown to Exile IV: Ezekiel and the Structure of History

Ezekiel’s 430 Years In Ezekiel 4, the prophet is told to begin his ministry by setting up a model of Jerusalem and lying on his side and prophesying against it. He is to do this for 430 days, a day for a year. 390 days are against "Israel," and 40…

by James B. JordanDecember 28, 1996
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Biblical Horizons

The Oddness of the Feast of Booths

The Feast of Ingathering in the seventh month of the Sinaitic calendar is also called the Feast of Sukkoth, of Booths, also called Feast of Tabernacles. I have usually called it by that last phrase, and it is the most common today; but there is a problem: A tabernacle is…

by James B. JordanDecember 28, 1996
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Ezekiel

Countdown to Exile III: Warnings Against False Hopes

The End of Jehoiakim’s Reign We have seen that Jehoiakim rejected Jeremiah’s prophetic warnings at the beginning of his reign. Let us now make a year-by-year survey of his reign down to its end. In the spring of 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar defeated the Egyptians at Carchemish. In the summer, he…

by James B. JordanNovember 28, 1996

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Age of Bull, Age of Ram

Giorgio de Santillana ( Hamlet’s Mill , 59-60) gives a brief description of the sun’s precessional “year” as it moves through the constellations of the Zodiac: “The sun’s position among the constellations at the vernal equinox was the pointer that indicated the ‘hours’ of the precessional cycle - very long…

August 2, 2014

Darwinian Age

De Santillana ( Hamlet’s Mill , 68) on our the soporific of Darwin: “Our period may some day be called the Darwinian period, just as, we talk of the Newtonian period of two centuries ago. The simple idea of evolution, which it is no longer thought necessary to examine, spreads…

August 2, 2014

Covering

In a NYRB review of several new books on gay marriage, Edmund White reflects on the price paid by gays for the success of their efforts: “Why did mainstream America come to accept marriage equality? Gay leaders had made a convincing case that gay families were like straight families and…

August 2, 2014

Lamb and Cherub

When John first sees four multi-eyed living creatures, they are in the midst of the heavenly throne (Revelation 4:6-7). They lead the heavenly worship (4:8), but they don’t seem to act at all on earth. Then the Lamb takes the throne, and becomes the throne (5:6), displacing the creatures. And…

August 2, 2014

Pneumatology and the Neighbor

One of the most intriguing claims in Travis Ables’s Incarnational Realism is that “Christology and pneumatology do not operate on the same register; one is doctrinal, the other is the performative dimension of that doctrinal speech.” More fully: “The missions of the trinitarian persons do not necessarily entail distinct redemptive…

August 1, 2014

Earth and Sky

In his Sacred Geography of the Ancient Greeks , Jean Richer writes, “during more than two thousand years, the Phoenicians, the Hittites, the ancient Greeks, and then the Etruscans, the Carthaginians, and the R?mans, had patiently woven a fabric of correspondences between the sky, especIally the apparent course of the…

August 1, 2014

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