Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Mrs. Marguerite Lane of Grand Rapids writes to ask if I have ever noticed a correlation between the eight beatitudes of Matthew 5 and the eight woes of Matthew 23. I confess that I have not. A glance at various commentators reveals that such a correspondence does not seem to…
1. The words of Agur, the son of Jakeh, the burden. The man declares to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Ucal: 2. Surely I am more stupid than any other man, And I do not have the understanding of a man. 3. And I have not learned wisdom, But I have…
Psalm 137 is widely regarded as one of the meanest of the imprecatory psalms. Certainly as we read it it is seems to be a song of pure vengeance. The exiles in Babylon, in grief over the judgment that Babylon has brought upon them, pray for the destruction of that…
In the Levitical law, the priests received two particular portions of each peace offering: the "wave offering" of the breast and the "heave offering" (or better, "contribution") of the right thigh. The purpose of this essay is to attempt to determine the reason why the second of these, the thigh,…
The story of Jesus’ visit, early in His ministry, to the synagogue in His home town of Nazareth is recorded for us in Luke 4:16-30. You may remember that Jesus read from Isaiah about how the Messiah would preach the gospel, care for the poor, work miracles, and bring in…
(The essay that follows concerns a rather touchy subject: how the Lord’s Supper is to be done. I am not writing to insult or offend, but to challenge. To that end I have not "held back" but have "gone ahead" and said what I think needs to be said —…
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Are the ritual texts of Leviticus “practical” texts designed to guide priests and people in sacrificial and other rituals? If so, argues Leigh Trevaskis in Holiness, Ethics, and Ritual in Leviticus , they don’t do a very good job of it. Too much is left out, and things that are…
In a few places, Leviticus uses the Hebrew word adam to refer to “any person.” Why adam ? Most commentators suggest that it’s to emphasize sexual inclusiveness. Trevaskis ( Holiness, Ethics, and Ritual in Leviticus ) thinks there’s more. He points out that the tabernacle is an architectural garden of…
In his masterful study of ancient Greek Miasma , Robert Parker notes death was intensely defiling: “Extramural burial was the norm in almost all classical Greek cities. It would be shocking to mingle the dwellings of the dead with those of the living, still more with those of the gods”…
A.A. van Ruler argues that “Israel is the great disturbing factor in the paganism of the world’s nations,” and the church follows Israel’s path ( Calvinist Trinitarianism and Theocentric Politics , 152-3). This is partly because Christianity “is wholly and completely oriented to concrete, visible reality,” since it “thinks and…
Brian Mattson of the Center for Cultural Leadership offers a lively, compelling analysis of Darren Aronofsky’s Noah . He shows that the film is consistent and sticks close to its sources. The only problem is that Aronofsky’s sources are Kabbalic and Gnostic. Mattson writes, “The world of Aronofsky’s Noah is…
I state a thesis: Dostoevsky is a polyphonic hedgehog. The subthesis is that Tolstoy is a monologic fox. The second part of that comparison comes from Isaiah Berlin’s The Hedgehog and the Fox . Berlin cites the Greek poet Archilochus’s dictum, “A fox knows many things; a hedgehog knows one…
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