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Biblical Horizons

Who Rules the Land? The Meaning of the Noahic Covenant, Part 1

It is commonly held in Reformed thought that the Noahic Covenant is given to all men equally. The Noahic Covenant concerns "man," not simply "church," and establishes civil government as an institution among "mankind" — that is the theory. Sometimes the Noahic Covenant is regarded as a "covenant of common…

by James B. JordanNovember 23, 1990
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Daniel

The Babylonian Connection

The Fall of Jerusalem we have dated (provisionally) at 3426 Anno Mundi. In current B.C. dates this is 586 B.C. From this point forward in Biblical chronology we are required to make use of prophetic numbers rather than historical ones. Jeremiah prophesied that the captivity would last 70 years, but…

by James B. JordanNovember 16, 1990
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Biblical Horizons

Taking the Situation Seriously

Evangelicals have in recent years become more interested in looking into their Bibles for wisdom to deal with modern problems. This is undoubtedly a welcome development, after many years of neglect. But there are dangers and costs as well. One of these is the tendency to fall into a modern…

by Peter LeithartOctober 19, 1990
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Hermeneutics

The Unseen Things

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). The famous definition of faith with which the eleventh chapter of Hebrews opens has received a number of different interpretations. The crux of the problem is the interpretation of the words translated in…

by Peter LeithartOctober 19, 1990
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Proverbs

Advice From a Sojourner, Part 8

15. The leech has two daughters, "Give," "Give." There are three things that will not be satisfied, Four that will not say, "Enough": 16. Sheol, And the barren womb, Earth, that is never satisfied with water, And fire that never says, "Enough." We are assuming, at least for the purposes…

by James B. JordanOctober 16, 1990
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Biblical Chronology

Confusion Among the Kings

As we have seen in previous installments in this series, the Old Testament is quite concerned with chronology, and carefully records chronological data for our use. For this reason, we can assume when we come to the chronology of the kings of Judah and Israel that the writers of the…

by James B. JordanOctober 2, 1990

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That Serpent the Devil

At the same SBL seminar, Rusty Reno examined Genesis 3:1, following the traditional interpretation that the serpent is a disguise for the devil. He dealt with the larger pattern of biblical evidence first, showing that the Bible links the devil and the serpent, and links the devil to acts of…

November 19, 2007

The First Sin

J. Richard Middleton gave an intriguing paper on Genesis 2-3 at an SBL seminar on the theological interpretation of Scripture. He was trying to answer the question of the nature of the first sin, and concluded that the first sin, which led to a proliferation of sin in succeeding generations,…

November 19, 2007
History

Celebrity

An article in the current issue of Sociological Theory explores the status-hierarchy created by celebrity, a kind of status ignored by Weber in his treatment of status in capitalist societies. The abstract says, “Max Weber’s fragmentary writings on social status suggest that differentiation on this basis should disappear as capitalism…

November 17, 2007
Politics

Obama’s faith

In the December issue of The Atlantic , Andrew Sullivan describes Barak Obama’s conversion. In an interview with Sullivan, Obama said, “I didn’t have an epiphany. What I really did was to take a set of values or ideals that were first instilled in my from my mother, who was,…

November 17, 2007
Politics

Obama’s faith

In the December issue of The Atlantic , Andrew Sullivan describes Barak Obama’s conversion. In an interview with Sullivan, Obama said, “I didn’t have an epiphany. What I really did was to take a set of values or ideals that were first instilled in my from my mother, who was,…

November 17, 2007
Literature

The Gaze

David Bevington points out in his performance history of Shakespeare that in both Measure for Measure and The Tempest , the villainous characters are those that attempt to elude the all-seeing surveillance of the Duke and Prospero. Villains are particularly villainous when they think they can do evil without detection.

November 17, 2007

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