Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The first commandment given in the Levitical sacrificial legislation has to do with the animals appropriate to sacrifice: "When any man of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of cattle ( behemah ), from the herd or the flock" (Lev. 1:2). Cattle alone were…
This post was originally posted in 2004 The ultimate condemnation of a position in Reformed circles is to show that it “leads back to Rome.” Indeed, one gets the feeling that Rome is a worse destination for a Presbyterian than even hell itself. The accusation of Rome stings deeply, of…
There are countless scholars who have helped me in my reading of various passages of Scripture. I have gleaned insights and keys from them that have unlocked texts that once perplexed me. However, no scholar has done so much to teach me how to read the Scripture more generally than…
The Tortoise and the Hare is perhaps the most well-known of the Greek fables. Its story has been present in every era of human history. From the Indigenous retellings with hummingbirds and cranes to the Biblical account of David and Goliath, the basic furniture of an unlikely hero tale is…
Sexual sins are perhaps the most shame-inducing sins experienced by Christians and non-Christians alike. All sins can bring shame, but sexual sins are deeply personal and affect us in profound ways. For example, adultery leaves its victim devastated by betrayal; porn addiction leaves men feeling gross, pathetic, and lazy; losing…
If the mark of a good book is how many times a person can re-read it with pleasure, Richard Adams’ novel Watership Down is one of the best books of the 20 th century. I’ve taught this book in my middle school literature class for the past three years, and…
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George Steiner ( Martin Heidegger , 155-6) approaches the essence of Heidegger: ” Sein ist Sein and the rejection of paraphrase or logical exposition have their exact precedent in the ontological finality of theology . . . they are the absolute equivalent to the Self-utterance and Self-definition of the Deity…
Heidegger’s play with veiling and unveiling, of truth as a-letheia can seem pointless, but John Caputo offers this helpful description in Radical Hermeneutics: Repetition, Deconstruction, and the Hermeneutic Project (Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy) (273-4): “What better example of the play of concealment and un-concealment, of closure and dis-closure,…
Yahweh has no sooner promised the land to Abram than we learn that there is a famine in the land (Genesis 12:10). Isaac has to face another famine later, another famine “besides the first famine in the days of Abraham” (Genesis 26:1). And of course Jacob sends his sons to…
The sixth cause of absurdity in reason, Hobbes says ( Leviathan Publisher: Penguin Classics , 1.5) is “the use of Metaphors, Tropes, and other Rhetoricall figures, in stead of words proper.” Metaphors are lawful in common speech, but “in reckoning [i.e., in reasoning mathematically conceived], and seeking of truth, such…
Hobbes ( Leviathan Publisher: Penguin Classics , 1.4) argues that speech enables us generalize and so to avoid the labor that would come if we had to analyze and assess every new object of knowledge individually: “a man that hath no use of Speech at all, (such, as is born…
Isaiah uses the root yasha’ (save) nearly thirty times in his prophecy. After chapter 43, the participle form is used seven times as a substantive, a title for Yahweh, in statements like: “I am Yahweh your God, your Savior” (43:3, 11; 45:15, 21; 49:26; 60:16; 63:8). Along with the simple…
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