Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
10. Do not slander [tattle on] a slave to his master, Lest he curse [denounce] you and you be found guilty. The Sojourner of Proverbs 30 is a humble man. He makes this clear in verses 2-4, where he says that he is stupider than anyone else on earth, but…
In retrospect and at first glance, many of the issues that have plagued and divided the Church seem incredibly trivial. The Quartodecimians were branded as heretics for celebrating Easter on 14 Nisan. One of the issues that divided the Eastern and Western Churches in 1054 was the kind of bread…
The gifts of the wise men have been commonly interpreted as royal gifts to the infant King of the Jews. Each of the three gifts is, indeed, connected with kings and kingship in Scripture. The Lord’s anointed is pictured wearing a crown of gold in Psalm 21:3, and the gold…
The Church is not in good shape. Nearly every week we hear about another prominent Christian leader who has fallen into scandalous sin. Many shepherds feed their flocks a diet of baby food, if not outright poison. Few Churches celebrate the Lord’s Supper regularly, and few Christians appreciate its importance.…
Two things I asked of Thee, Do not refuse me before I die: Keep deception and words of falsehood far from me, Give me neither poverty nor riches, Feed me with the food that it my portion, Lest I be full and deny Thee, And say, "Who is the LORD?"…
During the Middle Ages, Joseph, the husband of Mary, was the butt of many jokes. Medieval theater and art often depicted him as something of a buffoon, decidedly marginal to the gospel story. In part, this was the unfortunate obverse of the exaltation of Mary; any man would suffer by…
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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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