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Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.

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Biblical Horizons

OPEN BOOK: Views and Reviews

Isaac E. Mozeson, The Word: The Dictionary that Reveals the Hebrew Sources of English (Northvale, NJ: Jacob Aaronson Inc., 1995), 310 pp. Reviewed by James B. Jordan. Once there was only one language in the world, the language God spoke to Adam. At the Tower of Babel, there came to…

by James B. JordanJune 28, 1996
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Esther

Esther: Historical & Chronological Comments (IV)

2. The Setting of the Book of Esther A. Xerxes (continued from previous issue) Ezra 6:14 says that the Jews finished building "according to the command of the God of Israel and the decree of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia." The problem with this verse is that…

by James B. JordanJune 28, 1996
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Acts

Jesus and Amalek

This essay goes with our previous study of the Amalek pattern back in Biblical Horizons No. 2. Since many do not have this essay, entitled "The Battle of Gog and Magog," let me cite the relevant paragraphs: Note in Genesis 12-15 that Abram moves into the land after escaping Pharaoh…

by James B. JordanJune 28, 1996
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Proverbs

The Strange Woman

Proverbs 7:6-23 is one of several passages early in the Proverbs in which Solomon warns his son about the wiles and dangers of the "strange woman." It is certainly quite proper to take these as straightforward warnings against sexual sins, and these are certainly warnings that need to be impressed…

by Peter LeithartJune 27, 1996
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Biblical Studies

Some Observations

1. In Luke 4:20 we read that after Jesus finished reading from Isaiah, "the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon Him." This is usually taken in a psychological sense: They were amazed at Jesus somehow. I suggest that, as always, a merely psychological reading is a modern…

by James B. JordanMay 28, 1996
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Esther

Esther: Historical & Chronological Comments (III)

2. The Setting of the Book of Esther Up to now we have assumed what we must prove, that the king in Esther is Darius the Great. While Biblical chronologists have usually taken this position, commentators on the book of Esther have often taken others as the king. One view,…

by James B. JordanMay 28, 1996

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For My Name’s Sake

Yahweh does many things for the sake of His Name, to maintain a good reputation. This might sound self-focused, as if Yahweh were a particularly large version of the ancient hero. I think something like the opposite is the case. Yahweh shows mercy to Israel, refrains from judging them with…

October 22, 2012

Iron sinews

Yahweh addresses Israel as the “house of Jacob” who is “named Israel” (Isaiah 48:1). They have Yahweh’s name in their mouths in oaths and commemorations (v. 1), but not in truth and righteousness. They have in fact become stiff-necked like the Hebrews who were brought from Egypt; they turn to…

October 22, 2012

Sermon notes

INTRODUCTION Isaiah 48 closes out a section of the prophecy that began in chapter 40. It ends with the warning that “there is no peace for the wicked” (48:22), a warning echoed in 57:1 and again at the end of the book (66:22-24). THE TEXT “Hear this, O house of…

October 22, 2012

Seeking worshipers

The genealogy of Levi is at the chiastic center of the genealogies of 1 Chronicles 1-9, and at the center of the genealogy of Levi is the description of the Levitical singers (1 Chronicles 6:31-32). Prior to this point, the genealogies move forward in time, from Levi to his sons…

October 22, 2012
Philosophy

Responsive craft

In What Is Called Thinking? (14-15) Heidegger asks what it is that an apprentice cabinet maker learns from his master. He learns skills, but not only that. He gains useful information, but not only that either. Fundamentally, Heidegger says, the apprentice is supposed to learn to think , which means…

October 20, 2012

Ratzinger’s ecumenism

From Joseph Ratzinger in Communio: Vol. 1, The Unity of the Church (Ressourcement: Retrieval & Renewal in Catholic Thought) : “The true chance for ecumenism does not lie in revolt against the Church as it is, in a Christianity as free of the Church as possible, but in a deepening…

October 20, 2012

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