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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On the second day of creation, Yahweh divided waters, putting some waters above and some waters below. In between those divided waters, the Lord put the firmament, and he called that firmament “heaven.” At the end of Day 2, there were two heavens: In addition to the highest heaven in…
A qualification to the previous post: It is not dry land as such that produces fruit. After the waters are gathered, the dry land emerges, but God immediately called the dry land “earth” ( eretz ). As eretz , the land produces fruit (v. 11). The same holds for all…
The word for “dry land” in Genesis 1:9-10 is not adamah or eretz but the rare yabash . After Genesis 1, that word is not used again until Moses pours water that turns to blood onto the dry land of Egypt (Exodus 4:9), and the word shows up again at…
On Day 3 of creation, Yahweh commands the waters below heaven to be gathered in one place so that dry land can appear (Genesis 1:10). The sequence is repeated in the new creation after the flood:After the flood covers the earth, the seas again gather to a single place and…
A couple of thoughts inspired by grading a student paper on Nehemiah. First, the student, Courtney Wright, suggested that 2:9-20 form a chiasm, and that within this chiasm 2:11 and 2:17-18 match. The first tells us that Nehemiah was in the city for three days, and verses 17-18 records Nehemiah’s…
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