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Hermeneutics

The Structure of the Joseph Narrative

(Genesis 37:2 – 50:26) A. Generations of Jacob, 37:2a B. Joseph hated by brothers, 37:2b C. Jacob’s discriminatory blessing, 37:3-4 D. Rule over family: vision, 37:5-11 E. Joseph seeks brothers, 37:12-17 F. Joseph "killed," 37:18-36 G. Judah’s sin, ch. 38 H. Imprisonment, though undeserved, ch. 39-40 I. Famine and Pharaoh,…

by James B. JordanJanuary 4, 1999
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Exodus

Crisis Time: Patriarchal Prologue, Part 5

Moses and Jesus The gift of the Father is a son, but we must be ready to give our sons back to Him when it is time. The gift of the Brother is an estate, but we must be ready to give our estates back to Him when it is…

by James B. JordanJanuary 4, 1999
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Ecclesiology

Of The Church

An Exposition of Chapter XXV of the Westminster Confession of Faith I. The Catholic or universal Church, which is invisible, consists of the whole number of the elect, that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ the head thereof; and is the spouse, the body, the…

by Mark HorneDecember 5, 1998
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Biblical Horizons

From Plato to NATO: The Idea of the West and Its Critics

From Plato to NATO: The Idea of the West and Its Critics , by David Gress (New York: Free Press, 1998). This book came into my hands after I had finished my series of essays on Western Civilization. It is so good that I was tempted to summarize it in…

by James B. JordanDecember 4, 1998
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American Politics

Buchanan and Free Trade

In a recent issue of the Chalcedon Report (March, 1999), R. J. Rushdoony praises Patrick Buchanan’s book The Great Betrayal (Boston: Little Brown, 1998), a defense of protectionism. Rushdoony claims that the conflict between free trade and tariffs is a religious conflict, and he is correct. Unfortunately and surprisingly, he…

by James B. JordanDecember 4, 1998
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Esther

Crisis Time: Patriarchal Prologue, Part 4

Joseph and Esther The third patriarch was Joseph, and the third phase of pre-gospel history is the Restoration. We have not spent time looking particularly at the Joseph narrative heretofore, because it is different in cast from the Abraham and Jacob ones. There is no explicit promise, fulfillment, and crisis…

by James B. JordanDecember 4, 1998

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Dumbing Down

Charles Simic laments the decline of educational standards: “An educated, well-informed population, the kind that a functioning democracy requires, would be difficult to lie to, and could not be led by the nose by the various vested interests running amok in this country. Most of our politicians and their political…

May 20, 2014

Storied Theory

Critical scholarship has made hash of Leviticus. Scholars try to understand the rituals of “P” and “H” without much consideration of the narrative of division, death-sleep, and union that is the creation of Eve. Even the story of Abraham and Isaac is often put to the side as an irrelevancy,…

May 20, 2014
Atonement

Levitical Atonement

Darrin Belousek argues in Atonement, Justice, and Peace that “penal substitution is inadequate to explain the textual evidence concerning the several rituals of atonement-making” (177). He’s right. Sin offerings were done in cases where sin is not at issue. Following Jacob Milgrom and others, he points out that the rites…

May 20, 2014
Uncategorized

Confession and Anti-Liturgy

In his Trinity House lectures on liturgical theology, Jeff Meyers called attention to the anti-liturgy of Genesis 3. Yahweh shows up in glory, meets Adam and Eve, gives a little sermon, kills animals to make skin tunics. The finale is not happy: Adam and Eve are excluded from the garden.…

May 20, 2014

New Song

When the Lamb appears in heaven, the angels begin singing a new song (Revelation 5:9). What’s new about it? Why a new song? The phrase “new song” is used six times in Psalms (33:3; 40:3; 96:1; 98:1; 144:9; 149:1), and once in Isaiah (42:10). The position of these Psalms in…

May 19, 2014

Do Chickens Dream of Electric Fields?

Austin Stewart of Iowa State may have designed a way to fool chickens into believing they are free range. “Second Livestock” offers “a free-range world wherein chickens stuck in tiny cages in factories would be able to, at least mentally, live out their lives wandering an endless field.” We have…

May 19, 2014

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