Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
When might the Gospel according to Matthew have been written? Of course, any answer can only be speculation, but that does not mean we are reduced to groundless opinion. In this series of articles I point the way to an approach different from the general consensus among scholars today which…
In my first essay on “synopticity” I offered a rather rough definition of the phenomenon and important, though not exhaustive examples. In this essay, I want to introduce broader aspects of the phenomenon of “synopticity.” The first example that I have in mind is conventional stories, stories of different historical…
Since the judgment of Babel was followed by the initiation of the circumcision, the impending end of the circumcision in AD70 explains the significance of the first century miracle of foreign tongues. Except for a few Aramaic “teasers” in the book of Daniel, the Word of God was monolingual and…
To the best of my knowledge “synopticity” is not a word used in theology or Biblical studies, but it seems an appropriate word to describe the kind of phenomena associated with the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. These three Gospels tell essentially the same story with significant — sometimes…
Humor is a funny thing. It is altogether familiar yet also mysterious. What makes us laugh? Why do we find things funny? There are academic fields of study dedicated to discovering what makes things humorous. These academicians even have a journal entitled International Journal of Humor Research . No joke.…
Out of all the characters in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales , the Pardoner has been called the “one lost soul.” The pious Parson, who closes out the collection of tales with a sermon on the seven deadly sins and how a sinner can absolve himself of them, connects the…
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her bandanna blue through the cattails by the pond in the green pasture in the pond morning clouds and sun flecks of moonlight like fireflies ?E the ripples of the pond across her chair shafts of sunlight through the lace curtain
Trinity Reformed Church is large enough that it is difficult to know everyone in the church. And now we have been around long enough that it is awkward and embarrassing for us to meet each other. When you introduce yourself and say something like ?Are you visiting??Ethe response might well…
Leviticus 22:10-16 In the sermon today, I addressed the some of the challenges and temptations of young adulthood, the priestly stage of life. It is biblically appropriate, as I tried to show, to describe young adulthood in these terms. But we should not let this perspective obscure the more fundamental…
Lee Harris has some fascinating comments on how the liberal West constructed the Islamic threat in his recent book, Civilization and Its Enemies . Harris points out that the early modern state developed in a kind of Darwinian political world, where only the powerful states could survive. A state was…
Freedman comments, “It may be pure coincidence that the Book of Genesis begins with the words beresit . . . elohim , ‘In the beginning, . . . God . . . ,’ while the book of Ezra-Nehemiah ends with the words elohay letoba , ‘ . . . my…
David Noel Freedman suggests in his book on the unity of the Hebrew Bible a reason for the repetition of the decree of Cyrus at the end of 2 Chron and the beginning of Ezra. He points to certain manuscripts in which Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah enclose the Writings: Chronicles at…
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