Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Midwives are rarely mentioned in Scripture, but play a prominent role in the first chapter of Exodus. The word midwife is used seven times in verses 15-22, though it is used only twice elsewhere in the Old Testament. The reason, I think, is not merely that the midwives were heroic…
Leviathan (41:1-11) is the climax of the theophany, the culmination of the Lord’s speech. His final answer to Job’s injudicious charges against God’s justice. After hearing God rehearse the characteristics of Leviathan and His absolute power over him, Job instantly repents in dust and ashes. He confesses, "I know now…
Our purpose in this study is to lay out the chronology and history of the Kingdom of Judah from the reign of King Josiah to the completion of the exile of the Jews under Nebuchadnezzar, with particular attention to the events recorded in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. The Empire of Assyria…
Protestants have always insisted that the sacraments bring no benefit without a response of faith, but this seems to undermine infant baptism, since infants do not appear to be able to exercise faith. Luther and Calvin held together their insistence on faith with infant baptism by claiming that infants can…
Traditional Presbyterian theologians regularly cite 1 Corinthians 11:28 as an argument against the practice of paedocommunion. Children must be able “to examine themselves” before they come to the table. Supposedly this text demands a certain level of intellectual capability as well as the capacity to engage in self-conscious introspection, both…
Yahweh’s two speeches at the end of the book of Job (38-41) should bring some closure to the book. The prologue has the whole cosmic order arrayed against the blameless and upright Job, "a man who feared God and shunned evil" (1:1, 8; 2:3). Yahweh’s capstone speeches affirm God’s absolute…
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INTRODUCTION Isaiah prophesies the Babylonian exile, but also promises that Yahweh’s Servant will deliver Israel not only from Babylon but from the numbing effects of her own idolatry. THE TEXT “Where is the certificate of your mother’s divorce, whom I have put away? Or which of My creditors is it…
Colossians 2:16-17: Let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day – things which are a shadow of what is to come, but the body of Christ. When Paul talks about regulations…
Food fads come and go, especially in America. Not so long ago, white bread was the miracle food that would perfect and purify. For many today, organic is savior. Food was an issue in the early church, and Paul gives us coordinates for navigating through. First, do not let yourself…
Peter Green writes to offer this further reflection on venomous wine: “The word for ‘serpent’ or ‘dragon’ in Deut 32 is also in Is 27:1—the Song of the Vineyard, Redux. YHWH slays the dragon who produces dragon wine, and then his vineyard is able to ‘fill the whole world with…
In Against Christianity , I made the bold, unsupported, impressionistic claim that theologians are persnickety types who avoid talking about things the Bible talks about: hair, blood, sweat, entrails, menstruation and genital emissions. Matt Jepsen was looking for something a bit more factual, and checked several theologians to see if…
In an article recently published in the Phoenix Law Review , my oldest son, Woelke, explores how the Supreme Court has deployed what William Cavanaugh has called The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict . The Court first mentioned the “myth” in Everson v.…
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