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Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.

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Biblical Studies

Is Abraham’s Life a Type?

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 James B. JordanMay 5, 2001
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Hermeneutics

Thirty-Eight Years by the Sheep Pool

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…

by Jeff MeyersDecember 5, 2000
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Biblical Horizons

How Are Women Saved?

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…

by Jeff MeyersOctober 5, 2000
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Jeremiah

The Return of Hamor

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…

by James B. JordanOctober 4, 2000
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Biblical Horizons

Abram’s 318 Men

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…

by James B. JordanSeptember 4, 2000
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Hermeneutics

153 Large Fish

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…

by James B. JordanSeptember 4, 2000

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De-Baptism

Europeans are finally making honest men of themselves. Instead of pretending they are Christian, they are seeking legal means to erase their baptismal records. They can do it through the internet. According to Breitbart.com, “More than 100,000 Britons have recently downloaded ‘certificates of de-baptism’ from the Internet to renounce their…

March 30, 2009

Sermon Notes

INTRODUCTION Last week, we saw that for Paul the cross delivers us from all powers, human and angelic and demonic, that rule human life. For Paul, one of those powers is the Law, but the cross delivers us from that too. THE TEXT “For I want you to know what…

March 30, 2009

Images of Jesus

A few weeks ago, I posted a summary of Van Drunen’s argument against depictions of Jesus. I wrote: “Christology, he argues, does not support the conclusion that we may make pictures of Jesus, but the opposite. Because Jesus is still the Incarnate Son, because He is still fully human, He…

March 30, 2009

Eucharistic meditation, Fifth Sunday of Lent

Colossians 1:15: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. As we’ve seen in this morning’s sermon, Paul uses the word “firstborn” twice in Colossians 1 to designate Jesus as the new Adam, the new Isaac, the new Israel , the new man. He also…

March 29, 2009

Exhortation, Fifth Sunday in Lent

Over the centuries, Christians have invented all sorts of lore about Satan, hell, and the underworld. Most of it is pure fancy. Dante is instructive in many ways; he is not instructive in giving us a map of hell. This may seem harmless speculation, but at a fundamental level it…

March 29, 2009

Reconciled powers

Unlike many who write about Paul’s teaching on the “powers,” GB Caird pays attention to Colossians 1:20, where Paul claims that things in heaven - which much include powers and principalities (1:16) are reconciled and pacified by the cross. When they do notice this verse, writers like Walter Wink push…

March 28, 2009

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