Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
I mentioned last month ( BH 82) in my essay "Like a Dove" that Genesis 8 is a recapitulation of Genesis 1. Let me explicate that assertion here. Of course, the world after the Flood is a new creation, so we may expect a recapitulation of the first creation. It…
The book of Esther is one of the most neglected of the books of the Bible. To be sure, sermons are preached on it, and commentaries have occasionally been written on it, but almost without exception Esther has been interpreted in isolation from the rest of Biblical history, chronology, and…
Dear Mr. ______, . . . Here is how I look at the geocentricity question. Since I don’t recall what I wrote you before, I may be repeating some things. 1. The Bible does not teach it. Biblical passages used to support the idea are being misinterpreted. My original paper…
Answer 4 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism is often taken as a magnificent answer to the question, "What is God?" It reads: "God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth." Presbyterians are fond of praising this statement, preaching on it,…
The gospels tell us that at Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him "in bodily form like a dove" (Luke 3:22 & parallels). Biblically sensitive commentators have associated this event with three Old Testament parallels: (1) the hovering of the Spirit over the creation in Genesis 1:2; (2) the…
This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. (John 8:6) The story of the woman taken in adultery (John 7:53-8:11) has been part of the canonical Christian Bible from its earliest…
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The Psalmist complains that the “arrogant” lie about him (Psalm 119:69), and these same arrogant have “fat” hearts (v. 70). Fat is normally a positive description in the Bible. Fat is a sign of prosperity; you want your land to be fat and your hills to drip with fatness. I…
Patricia Ryberg, Assistant Professor of Biology at Park University has been studying tree fossils buried under a mile of ice in the Antarctic. She discovered that “the pattern of growth in the Antarctic tree samples showed habits typically associated with evergreen trees. However, the fossilized leaf impressions demonstrated what appeared…
L. Michael Morales’ The Tabernacle Pre-Figured examines a cluster of related themes in the narrative texts of Genesis. The rites of Torah follow the cosmic pattern established in creation, in which one moves through the waters of death to the cosmic mountain in order to offer worship to God the…
Morales ( The Tabernacle Pre-Figured ) argues that the trajectory of the creation account in Genesis 1 has not been fully appreciated because the import of the opening verses have not been fully appreciated: “that emphasis is stark enough to serve as the foil for the six days of creation…
Water ordeals are a common mythical and ritual theme in the Ancient Near east. Hostile waters threaten the life of someone who is trying to cross, and the fact that the person survives the ordeal is a judgment in his favor, a declaration of innocence. Morales ( The Tabernacle Pre-Figured…
Morales’s The Tabernacle Pre-Figured is an insightful study of the “cosmic mountain ideology” in the Bible, which Morales understands in terms of a progress through the dangerous waters of chaos to the mountain of the Lord’s house for the purpose of worship. At points, though, Morales collapses and conflates when…
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