Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The drink offering or libation ( nesek ) is mentioned in only three places in the book of Leviticus. When the sheaf of the firstfruits was waved before the Lord, a grain offering was to be burned, along with "its libation, a fourth of a hin of wine [approx. one…
When I became a Calvinist it wasn't long before I learned that John Owen’s The Death of Death in the Death of Christ was regarded as the masterful treatise on what is known as "Limited Atonement"--the "L" in the TULIP mnemonic device for "the five points of Calvinism." This wasn't…
One of the advantages of paying very close attention to the details in the Bible, especially chronological and genealogical details, is that they can shed light on situations that don’t seem to make much sense apart from them. One such situation is that of Bathsheba. It appears that Bathsheba willingly…
The Feast of Ingathering in the seventh month of the Sinaitic calendar is also called the Feast of Sukkoth, of Booths, also called Feast of Tabernacles. I have usually called it by that last phrase, and it is the most common today; but there is a problem: A tabernacle is…
When Matthew’s Gospel was first read aloud to the fledgling Christian congregations, the experience must have been like seeing the words “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” appear afresh on cinema screens in 1999. Yet, unlike The Phantom Menace, the New Testament did not disappoint. Why?…
Fragmentation and integration are phenomena which artist Makoto Fujimura feels bodily, and about which he is concerned profoundly. What do these mean for him? How may we draw his insights into this ongoing consideration—itself integrative—of integration in a fragmented world? Thus far I have been acquainting you with matters already…
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"Follow the science" has been the basso continuo of the coronavirus epidemic. Following the science, many nations went into more or less severe shutdowns. These same nations intend to follow the science in deciding when to re-open, to allow businesses, schools, and churches to start operating again. Skeptics who question…
The tabernacle is surrounded by an open space that is bounded by a curtain of white, fine-twisted linen. The curtain is 100 cubits long on the south and north side of the court (Exodus 27:9, 11), held up by twenty wooden pillars, one pillar every five cubits (Exodus 27:10-11). On…
Get ready for the backlash against scientific expertise, especially against public health experts, writes Damon Linker . The line will be: "We deferred to the geniuses for no good reason, and now they have the blood of the economy on their hands." Many will be grateful to the experts for…
The veil ( paroket ) that separates the Most Holy from the Holy Place organizes the tabernacle. Once this "firmament" is in place, the rest of the tabernacle gets itself organized - the ark on the west side of the veil, the table and the lampstand on the east (Exodus…
Is the world under judgment? Is COVID-19 the kind of "pestilence" Yahweh warns of when He says, through Jeremiah, that Judah will be plagued by "sword, famine, pestilence"? It's hard to read it any other way. An individual illness is a trial; a worldwide pandemic is of a different order.…
An old Easter homily, more relevant today than when I gave it . Jesus knew fear. He was no passionless Stoic sage, as the Stoic critics of the church recognized from the beginning. Instead of reaching for the hemlock like Socrates, He shrank from the cup the Father offered Him…
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