Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
We lost Crimea. That is very clear. Putin proved he was not lying when he said he would place women and children ahead of his soldiers to storm Ukrainian military bases. Russian soldiers did exactly that with women (some who volunteered and some who were forced). Russia now occupies all…
Sound is an indicator of life and energy. “Sound signals the present use of power, since sound must be in active production to exist at all.” Things don’t have to be alive to make themselves visible, and “a primitive hunter can see, feel, smell, and taste an elephant when the…
In the most famous section of his best-known novel, Dostoevsky’s Ivan Karamazov brings forward his case against God. He opens with a horrific litany of outrages against children. Turkish soldiers make a baby laugh and then shoot a pistol into his face. A little girl is beaten, thrashed, kicked by…
At the heart of Esther Lightcap Meek's splendid Little Manual for Knowing is a concept she picked up from Michael Polanyi, "subsidiary-focal integration." The concept begins from the insight that all our knowing, all our experience, is double. We focus on something, but we are capable of "indwelling" that focal…
Jesus promises the overcomers of Pergamum "hidden manna" and a "white stone." The hidden manna is often linked with the manna stashed away in the ark of the covenant. The white stone has proved more elusive. Exodus tells us that manna was white (Exodus 16:31) and like bdellium (Numbers 11:7),…
Leviticus 23 begins with a reference to “Yahweh’s appointed times” ( mo’ade-YHWH ). Mo’ed is the common term for the feasts of Israel. A few dimensions to this term. First, it means “appointed time” or “designated time.” It is a time set by Yahweh. Yahweh has claimed certain times as…
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Phyz.org reports that clothing still makes the man, but it may not be the most expensive of fashionable clothing that makes the best status statement. Harvard University researchers found that students attributed higher status to the more slovenly: “In one study, students were asked to rank the perceived professional status…
Exhaustion has become a popular topic in Germany, many complaining “We are the most exhausted age.” Wolfgang Martynkewicz provides some contrary evidence, though he doesn’t appear to know it. In Das Zeitalter der Erschopfung , he examines German bourgeois and bohemians of the early twentieth century and finds that they…
Jesus’ declaration to the prostrate John (Revelation 1:17-18a) is a neat little, rich little chiasm: A. I am ( ego eimi ) B. First C. Last D. Living One C’. Became dead B’. Behold! Alive A’. I am ( eimi ) to ages of ages Several observations: First, the whole…
In addition to heaven, earth, sea, and underworld, Mesopotamian cosmology believes in an intermediate region between the earth and the underworld, belonging to the god Ea. Though not entirely consistent in mythologies, and the relationship between the Apsu and the sea and the Apsu and the underworld is ambiguous, Horowitz…
David Biale observes in Blood and Belief that “the ancient Israelites were the only Near Easterners to make blood a central element in their religious rituals” (10). He fills out the picture: “There were, to be sure, magical and medical rituals mentioned in Akkadian, Sumerian, and Hittite texts that used…
Drawing on the work of Jonathan Klawans ( Impurity and Sin in Ancient Judaism ) and others, David Biale ( Blood and Belief ) points to the difficulty of reconciling the “Priestly” and “Holiness” sections of Leviticus. In the “Priestly” code, found in Leviticus 11-15 and Numbers 19,. impurity is…
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