Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Genesis 3 ends on a decisive, and decisively negative, note. Yahweh “drove the man out” of the garden, and, in addition, “at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim, and the flaming sword which turned every direction, to guard the way to the tree of life.”…
When she died in 2005 at the age of 72, Anna Haycraft, the author who published under the name Alice Thomas Ellis, was a celebrated writer in Great Britain. While working at Duckworth Publishers(which her husband owned), she produced a dozen novels, a collection of short stories, a cookbook, volumes…
Some have suggested recently that my "project" is postmodern. To clarify my views on postmodernism, I'm re-posting something I wrote in 2005, with a few modifications. For a fuller discussion, you can check out my Solomon among the Postmoderns (Canon, 2008). First, it is helpful to distinguish, as many writers…
Calling Jerusalem the "holy city" comes so naturally to Christians that it comes as something of a surprise to realize how infrequently the phrase is used in Scripture. Not only is Jerusalem rarely called holy, but in the Old Testament this classification is found only in texts that refer to…
Asking why the church doesn’t sing hymns or even why men don’t sing in church is a bit like lamenting over the lame man who can’t waltz on the dance floor. While it is a valid question, the more immediate question would seem to be, “why doesn’t the lame man…
The theme of 1 Timothy is the distinction between the true children in the Household of God and false children who really belong to the household of Satan. This is seen in the fact that in the chiastic structure of the Epistle, heresy is the subject in the center (…
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Ox, Lion, Eagle, Man. The faces of the cherubim. And the faces of four constellations of the Zodiac: Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius, spaced every four constellations around the ecliptic. Scorpio ? He’s no eagle. There is an eagle constellation, Aquila, but it’s along the celestial equator rather than the ecliptic;…
There is war in heaven, Michael & Co. versus Dragon and angels. Michael wins and casts the dragon from heaven to earth, where he chases down the woman’s offspring (Revelation 12). Caird ( A Commentary on the Revelation of St. John the Divine , 155-7) draws from this an integrated…
John sees in heaven a woman in labor ready to give birth to a son while a dragon waits to devour the newborn (Revelation 12). It’s a scene of Mary and Jesus and Herod, Eve and the Seed and Satan, Israel and the Messiah. It is also a story that…
One of the ways Augustine distinguishes between the “invisible” and “visible” church is in terms of the complex interaction of Old and New covenants ( On Baptism, Against the Donatists , 1.15 in St. Augustin the Writings Against the Manicheans and Against the Donatists ). Old and New are not,…
In the course of his On Baptism, Against the Donatists (in St. Augustin the Writings Against the Manicheans and Against the Donatists ), Augustine considers the case of someone who seeks baptism “in deceit.” Are his sins remitted? Yes, Augustine says, but only for a moment. The “holy power” of…
Jesus Is Lord, Caesar Is Not: Evaluating Empire in New Testament Studies , edited by Scot McKnight and Joseph B. Modica, aims to provide an accurate and balanced treatment of the New Testament’s treatment of empire. In their introduction, McKnight and Modica define empire criticism as a mode of interpretation…
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