Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
I mentioned last month ( BH 82) in my essay "Like a Dove" that Genesis 8 is a recapitulation of Genesis 1. Let me explicate that assertion here. Of course, the world after the Flood is a new creation, so we may expect a recapitulation of the first creation. It…
The book of Esther is one of the most neglected of the books of the Bible. To be sure, sermons are preached on it, and commentaries have occasionally been written on it, but almost without exception Esther has been interpreted in isolation from the rest of Biblical history, chronology, and…
Dear Mr. ______, . . . Here is how I look at the geocentricity question. Since I don’t recall what I wrote you before, I may be repeating some things. 1. The Bible does not teach it. Biblical passages used to support the idea are being misinterpreted. My original paper…
Answer 4 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism is often taken as a magnificent answer to the question, "What is God?" It reads: "God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth." Presbyterians are fond of praising this statement, preaching on it,…
The gospels tell us that at Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him "in bodily form like a dove" (Luke 3:22 & parallels). Biblically sensitive commentators have associated this event with three Old Testament parallels: (1) the hovering of the Spirit over the creation in Genesis 1:2; (2) the…
This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. (John 8:6) The story of the woman taken in adultery (John 7:53-8:11) has been part of the canonical Christian Bible from its earliest…
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Teaching and learning never take place in no-place. They are always in an environment. The issue is always which environment and whether it is coherent with what is taught or at cross-purposes with content. Attention to the teaching environment may sound trendily modern, but it's ancient wisdom. Deuteronomy 6 records…
“The dead do not praise Yahweh, nor do any who do down into silence” (Psalm 115:17). It's a refrain in the Psalms: Death marks the end of the life of praise. The dead cannot give thanks to God. Sheol isn't just dark; it's silent. But then Revelation comes along and…
RW Southern ( Making of the Middle Ages ) sees a commonality between the romances of of the high middle ages and the theological and spiritual movements of the 11th-12th centuries. It's a shift from an epic mentality to the thought-world of romance. Southern argues that this movement is evident…
Prophets always initiate new covenants. They end one set of covenantal arrangements and bring in new ones. They are the hinges of history. Noah is a prophet who becomes an Adam in a new creation covenant. Abraham is the first man called a prophet, and is the recipient of covenant…
For medievals, allegory wasn’t simply a way of dealing with texts or a method of writing. It was science, a mode of understanding of the world as a whole. The world was a forest of symbols and allegories from which moral and theological lessons might be drawn. The great medieval…
In his 2014 study of The Royalist Revolution , Eric Nelson presents the counter-intuitive case that the American revolutionaries were not revolting against monarchy but against a legislature: “It was, indeed, a rebellion in favor of royal power” (2). Nelson elaborates: “Colonial whigs who had long been ‘slumbering under the…
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