Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Abbreviated Introduction to the Series Scripture is absolutely dripping with animal metaphors. Animal traits, characteristics, and appearances are attributed to God, Man, Angels, Nations, Armies. Since animals are the lowest creature in the three-tiered hierarchy, they are useful to metaphorically focus on a single aspect of God (bold like a…
Many years ago, while perusing Janice Anderson’s revised doctoral dissertation, Matthew’s Narrative Web: Over, and Over, and Over again , I was impressed by her attention to literary structures of repetition within and across Matthew’s Gospel. 1 Her research, in part, nudged me closer toward my present conviction that Matthew…
Abbreviated Introduction to the Series Scripture is absolutely dripping with animal metaphors. Animal traits, characteristics, and appearances are attributed to God, Man, Angels, Nations, Armies. Since animals are the lowest creature in the three-tiered hierarchy, they are useful to metaphorically focus on a single aspect of God (bold like a…
“Like a lily among the thorns, so is my love among the maidens… My beloved is mine and I am his; he pastures among the lilies.” Song 2:2, 16 In chapter two of the Song of Solomon, the Beloved compares his Love to a lily among thorns. The language of…
Introduction From the very beginning, angels and animals have played mediating roles between God and Man. Just as the World was made three-tiered (Heaven, Earth, Deep), so the creatures were made (Angels, Men, Animals). Before Christ came to build the permanent bridge across the chasm between God and Man, various…
Matthew 13, the third major discourse of the apostle’s gospel, is comprised almost entirely of parables. While it may seem that all the parables serve the same purpose in fulfilling the prophet Isaiah (Matthew 13:14), the parables found in verses 44–52, at the very least, function outside that purpose. This…
Showing page 3 of 309
Showing page 32 of 43
We have some difficulty understanding the biblical picture of prayer because we live in a country that sharply separates politics and prayer. Ancient Israel did not do that. The dedication ceremony for the temple began with the transport of the ark of the covenant from its location in the ?city…
As I’ve discussed in a previous post (and, more fully, in a forthcoming article in the Tyndale Bulletin ), Kings is organized by three parallel narratives: the story of the united kingdom (Solomon to Zedekiah and Jehoiachin); the northern kingdom (Jeroboam to the fall of Samaria and the destruction of…
I read from Genesis 2:21-23 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh at that place. And the Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken…
Throughout the OT, there are repeated references to Yahweh’s “name” dwelling in the place of Yahweh’s choosing (Deut 12; 2 Sam 7; 1 Kings 6-8). Frequently (as in 1 Kings 8:16), there is a pun on the word “name” (SHEM) and the word “there” (SHAM). If we can extrapolate from…
1 Kings 8:12-13 begins Solomon’s lengthy speech at the temple dedication. It is a poetic and formal utterance, and contins a number of intriguing features. First, it appears to be structured chiastically: Yahweh said A. to dwell (SHAKAN) B. in the gloom C. Building I have built B’. a house…
My son Christian noted a couple of cool things in the Bible this morning: 1) The law of the firstborn requires that the firstborn male of unclean animals like donkeys either be redeemed or killed: “every first opening of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, but if you…
Showing page 2050 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
