Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Why there is more to Jephthah than meets than eye It was not that long ago that I realized the Jephthah-story and the Jesus-story were basically the same story. Sounds crazy, I know. But here is a one-paragraph synopsis of both: The people of God have gone their own way,…
G.K. Chesterton famously said that the Gospels don’t reveal Jesus’ mirth. It’s true we never catch Jesus laughing. But can we believe He never did? I don’t think so. Laughter is human, and Jesus was fully human. Jesus promised that those who mourned would laugh. He mourned; would He not…
Matthew 2 has all the elements of an exodus story. There’s a murderous king, who slaughters Jewish babies. There’s a infant who will be Israel’s future deliverer, saved from the murderous king so He can later return to save His people and lead them to the Promised land. There’s an…
The calendar of Israel was primarily theological, centered on commemorating the salvific acts of God, but also agricultural, celebrating the creation-restoring effects of those salvific acts. The feasts of the first month celebrated the reviving of the world in the Spring, and typified the cutting off of the Savior in…
The chiastic shape corresponds to the shape of human life. This should not surprise us, because we are made in the image of God, and God is manifest in Word and Spirit. If we are living epistles, our lives will look a bit like the literary shape of the books…
Back in January, Venkatesh Rao wrote a fascinating post on the Ribbonfarm blog, discussing different forms of models of narrative. Engaging with Ursula LeGuin’s talk ‘The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction’ , Rao explores her contrast between the (male) ‘hero narrative’ and the (female) ‘carrier-bag story’, and suggests a third…
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Paul uses the phrase “elements of the world” several times in his letters. The phrase had an accepted meaning by the first century, referring to the four elements of Greek science—fire, air, water, earth. Paul uses the phrase, but he doesn’t use the phrase in the accepted sense. What conclusions—substantive…
In a 2002 essay in the Andrews University Seminary Studies, Sigve Tonstad reviews the debate over the phrase pistis Christou - faith in Christ v. faith of Christ. The debate is typically confined to Paul’s letters, but Tonstad rightly points out that the last use of the phrase in the…
Several parallels link John fifth-seal vision of martyrs under the altar (Revelation 6:9-11) with the climactic sixth-seal vision of a multitude before the throne (7:9-17). Revelation talks a lot about clothing, and a lot about white clothing in particular. Only three times, however, does the book use the Greek stole…
Douglas Farrow has some wise observations about the same-sex marriage debate in his Touchstone review of Girgis, Anderson, and George, What Is Marriage? He commends the authors’ courage and insight, and is thoroughly in agreement with their effort to defend traditional marriage. But Farrow doesn’t think that the book hits…
Cherubim have four faces: ox, lion, eagle, man. As James Jordan has argued, those four faces are associated with different offices of Israel and phases of Israel’s history: the ox is sacrificial and priestly, the lion is royal, the eagle is prophetic, and Jesus is the man of the new…
When the Lamb appears in heaven, heaven bursts into song (Revelation 5). After the seven trumpets (Revelation 8-11), John sees a long series of visions depicting the dragon’s various attacks on the church. When the saints have all been safely harvested and raised above the firmament, they burst into song…
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