Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Before considering the details of the Leviticus, we must have before us certain matters that have been established in Genesis and Exodus. These are things that we as Israelites already know when we first hear Moses report what God dictated to him in Leviticus. Adam Let us begin with Adam.…
(continued from issue 142) 2 “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘An adam, 1 when he brings near from you p a Nearbringing 2 to Yahweh, from livestock 3 from the herd and from the flock you p shall bring near your p Nearbringing. 4 2.…
Trying to Deal Honestly with Luke 10.25-37; 18.18-30; and Parallels When Christ enjoins upon the young man the duty of following him (Mt. 19:23), he does not give a counsel, but a command to all in common because no one can have a hope of salvation unless he follows Christ…
Initial Observations: How the Gospel Challenged the Pharisees In another paper , I argued that the “Law-Gospel” hermeneutic, as applied to Luke 10.25-37; 18.18-30, resulted in a fundamental misreading of the text. Thinking of the context of those passages in Luke’s Gospel has given me some further reflections on how…
I recently heard of a new English translation of the Bible being prepared by men concerned to preserve a literal word-for-word rendering of the Hebrew and Greek but also sensitive to ecclesiastical tradition. I wrote to the committee and asked if they were going to fix the traditional translation of…
All Christians struggle with sin. Many times even relatively mature Christians commit sins they thought they had long since left behind and end up struggling anew with sinful habits in thought, word, or deed. Naturally, this means they must rouse themselves to action in putting to death the deeds of…
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Jesus chooses a couple of sets of brothers to be among the Twelve: Andrew and Peter, James and John. Plus, there’s Thomas the Twin. Why did Jesus do this? Possibly, because the Old Testament so often shows us brothers in conflict, especially older brothers hating and abusing younger brothers, while…
In his 1676 parody, La Terre australe connue , Gabriel de Foigny describes the rationality and simplification of the Austral language, which works somewhat like chemical formula. All words are monosyllabic, and each letter is associated with either a substance (the vowels, which match the four classical elements, plus salt!)…
Linguistic values arise from differences between linguistic items in a system, Saussure argues. But on what basis do we conclude that those differences are differences between items at one moment? What can’t value and meaning arise in the difference between a word’s value now and a word’s value a century…
Saussure also suggests that phonetic changes sometimes have the effect of obliterating the distinct parts of composite words. Latin’s amicus (“friend”) was clearly negated by inimicus (“enemy”), but the French ami and ennemi are no longer so obviously related by derivation. Again, breaking of these historical links between words has…
Saussure notes that phonetic changes in a language can have wider consequences on a language. One of these effects is “to break the grammatical link connecting two or more words.” Where linguistic signs once wore their derivation on their sound, a phonetic change breaks the link. In Latin, house-house is…
Tom Perrotta creates a background buzz of sexuality in his 1998 novel Election . It’s appropriate to the story’s setting - an election for Winwood High’s student body president. What’s remarkable is how deftly he achieves this - mostly by gesturing and leaving a great deal unstated. We don’t know…
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