Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
John 18, 19: Latter Prophets and the Writings John 18 and 19 record the arrest, trial, torture, and death of Jesus as laid out in detail in Isaiah 53. After the Roman soldier pierces Jesus’ side, John quotes Zechariah: “They shall look at him whom they pierced” (Zech 12:10). In…
John 12.12 – John 17: Latter Prophets In the Hebrew Scriptures, Kings is followed by the Latter Prophets. John 12:15 quotes Zechariah 9:9 as having prophesied Jesus’ triumphal entry: “Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.” [1] N.T. Wright…
John 6.16-70: Joshua The book of Joshua documents the nation of Israel entering the Promised Land. Consider the order of events: (1) Israel is still receiving the daily miracle of manna; (2) Israel miraculously crosses the Jordan on dry foot; (3) The day after Passover , Israel eats produce of…
Since my educational and professional training have revolved around story and narrative structure, I approach John’s Gospel from a literary and narrative perspective. In doing so, I have noticed structural story patterns and followed them where they seem to lead: the Gospel of John parallels the ordering of the books…
The Mt. Sinai Hospital was neolithic on the black hill of Hollow, New Hampshire. Winter dampened the trees and the wind bit at the sparse branches, the sidewalks and stairs were perilous with soggy leaves, and the dim yellow light cast a pallor upon the milky stone building. Ambling inside…
The Revelation can only be understood in the light of Old Testament symbols and sequences. The same is true of the epistle of Jude, which serves as a blistering hors d’oeuvre to John’s fiery feast. Possibly written by the apostle Judas Thaddaeus (Luke 6:16; Acts 1:13; John 14:22), the epistle…
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David Goldman (Spengler) acknowledges that “illegal immigration is a bad thing, and the social costs of a mass influx of poor and uneducated migrants from Mexico and Central America are significant.” Yet he doesn't think it is “one of America’s bigger problems.” That is partly because migration has been declining:…
Rebecca Denova( Things Accomplished Among Us ) provides a good summary of the complex pattern of parallelism that structures Luke and Acts. She points to the parallels between the gospel and the apostolic history: “The baptism of Jesus with water in Luke 3 is paralleled by the community's baptism with…
A section of Kant's Conflict of Faculties lays out “Philosophical Principles of Scriptural Exegesis for Settling the Conflict” of faculties. The first rule is that a scriptural text whose theoretical claims transcend reason and morality “may be interpreted in the interests of practical reason.” If it contradicts practical reason, it…
Moses isn't mentioned in Chronicles as much as he is in Exodus-Joshua. Naturally. But that doesn't mean that Moses is unimportant to the Chronicler. As James Sparks notes ( The Chronicler's Genealogies ), Moses is more prominent in Chronicles than in almost every other book outside the Pentateuch. The Chronicler…
According to WTH Jackson's Anatomy of Love , Gottfried of Strausburg's version of the Tristan story marks a critical change from courtly romance. Instead of the shadowy, unknown lady of those poems, she is a real character. Isolde is no mere “psychological catalyst” for Tristan , as Laudine is for…
In a characteristically pithy essay, Robert Jenson has decried the “two paired errors” of traditional atonement theory. On the one hand, the cross is separated “from its future, in the resurrection” and, on the other, from “its past in the canonical history of Israel.” For the apostles, crucifixion is “anything…
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