Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
21. Under three things the earth quakes. And under four, it cannot bear up. 22. Under a slave when he becomes king, And a fool when he is satisfied with food, 23. Under an odious woman when she gets a husband, And a maidservant when she supplants her mistress. The…
We have looked at the prima facie evidence for a short chronology in Ezra-Nehemiah, a chronology that assumes that the Artaxerxes of Ezra 7ff. and Nehemiah is in fact Darius. This month we examine the argument against the short chronology. There is only one argument, and that is that the…
The Priestly Genealogy Jeshua the high priest, who returned with Zerubbabel, was not a young man at the time. We know this because his father, Jehozadak, was taken into captivity (1 Chron. 6:15). Thus was 50 years before the decree of Cyrus (2 Kings 25:18-22, by implication). Jehozadak’s father Seraiah,…
Thomas C. Oden, After Modernity . . . What? Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990. Reviewed by Rev. Jeffrey Meyers. Reading Oden’s After Modernity . . . What? was tonic. There were passages that launched me out of my chair with a hoot to pace the office floor — of course, the…
Matthew records that Jesus "withdrew" to Galilee to begin His public ministry there after He "heard that John had been delivered up" (Mt. 4:12). Matthew’s typically matter-of-fact style veils the truly remarkable character of Jesus’ withdrawal. Matthew has been presenting Jesus as the Messiah, the Seed of Abraham and Son…
John Brown called this one of the most difficult passages in the entire epistle to the Hebrews, and Hebrews is no easy book. Several questions confront us as we read and meditate on these verses. First, in what sense did the Old Testament saints described in verses 4-38 not receive…
Showing page 298 of 309
Showing page 33 of 43
Paul appeals to the Galatians to “become as I, because I also as you” (4:12). In what respect are they to become like Paul? In what respect did Paul become as they? Paul immediately follows with: “you know that through a weakness of flesh I preached to you at first”…
Max Boot defines terrorism as “the use of violence by nonstate actors directed primarily against noncombatants . . . in order to intimidate or coerce them and change their government’s policies or composition” ( Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present ). So…
Josephus is known mainly as a historian of ancient Judaism and the Jewish war. Frederic Raphael’s lucid A Jew Among Romans: The Life and Legacy of Flavius Josephus pays more attention to the life than the work, and presents Josephus as archetype as well as man: “The attachment, in midlife,…
Anselm is commonly charged with portraying the Father as a sadistic child-abuser who demands a death from His innocent Son. In a 2009 article in The Saint Anselm Journal , Daniel Shannon argues that Anselm says no such thing, and that in fact “God did not compel the innocent to…
The Reformers are often charged with diminishing the potency of baptism. The opposite is the case. George Huntston Williams (article in Church History , 1957) notes the gradual “depression and routinization of baptism” in the early medieval period, a process that he says was nearly complete by the 11th century.…
In an old (1957) Church History article, George Huntston Williams explored the sacramental background to various atonement theories. Patristic theories ( Christus Victor in its various forms) he associates with baptism; Anselm with penitence and Eucharist. Along the way he notes that Athanasius speaks of baptismal appropriation of the work…
Showing page 792 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
