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Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.

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Romans

Robbing Temples

Paul writes to Jews, “You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?” (Romans 2:22b) The English translation “rob temples” makes readers think of pagan temples. There was only one Temple for Israel, so robbing more than one would indicate other temples are in view. And if the Jews wanted to…

by Mark HorneOctober 15, 2024
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Genesis

Regarding Abel’s Offering

Two offerings Humanity’s first vocation involves guarding and serving the trees that emerge from the ground (Genesis 2:15). God provides these trees to humanity for food. A serpent appears and tempts the couple to eat from a special forbidden tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Humanity…

by Scott FairbanksOctober 3, 2024
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Hermeneutics

The Trinity and Cross in Creation

At the outset of the Torah (as Christians understand it), a triune God creates the heavens and earth over the course of a seven-day week. Why? What’s the connection between the three and the seven? Could a triune God have created the world over any period of time he chose?…

by James BejonOctober 1, 2024
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Deuteronomy

Axe Heads and Parapets: Legal Edge Cases?

How relevant to the modern reader are the flying axe head of Deuteronomy 19:5 and the roof parapet of Deuteronomy 22:8? Indeed, how relevant were they to the daily lives of Israelites thirty-five hundred years ago? Suppose that accidental falls from rooftops were exceedingly uncommon in ancient Israel, or that…

by Josh JensenSeptember 24, 2024
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Political Theology

The Church Builds the World

1 For most of my life, the standing of the American church as a source of national social and political order was measured by reports from the front of the so-called “culture wars.” 2 Memory brings to mind battles over feminism and the ERA, so-called gay rights, the breakdown of…

by Gary YoungSeptember 17, 2024
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Matthew

That He would be called a Nazarene

But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel…’ And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the…

by Lyndon JostSeptember 10, 2024

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Feeding of the Five Thousand

Luke 9 is largely about the final stages of the training of the Twelve before Jesus moves from Galilee to Jerusalem. Part of their training comes in the story of the feeding of the five thousand. Eugene LaVerdiere’s treatment of this incident in Dining in the Kingdom of God highlights…

October 5, 2003

More on Two Faces of Islam

Well, there’s a problem with speaking well of a book before reading far enough in it. I’m still learning a lot from Stephen Schwartz’s Two Faces of Islam , but fairly early in the book he makes it clear that he’s working with the view that at least all “Abrahamic…

October 4, 2003
Theology

First Comes Love

Scott Hahn’s First Comes Love is, overall, a very fine book. It is a Trinitarian treatment of biblical theology that focuses on sacrificial self-giving as the mode of divine life that is to be replicated in the life of the church and to transform family life. “Family” is the dominant…

October 4, 2003

Schwartz on Islam

I have been reading Stephen Schwartz’s wonderful pieces on Islam in the Weekly Standard for several years. Schwartz has done as much as any journalist to highlight the responsibility and role of Saudi Arabia for the rise of radical Islam, and particularly the central importance of the Wahhabi sect in…

October 4, 2003
Politics

Bush Hatred

Jonathan Chait begins an article on “Bush hatred” ( TNR ) with the kind of rant that journalists are supposed to keep to themselves. He hates Bush’s policies, but he also hates the way Bush walks, the way he talks, the look on his face, and every thing else about…

October 3, 2003
Politics

Arnold’s Campaign

From the radio reports I hear, it seems that Arnold’s campaign is an extension of his movie career. At one stop, he unveils a bus bearing his mug, and buses for the press labeled “Predators.” At another stop, he talks about taxes, and says that in the movies he destroys…

October 3, 2003

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