Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Abbreviated Introduction to the Series Scripture is absolutely dripping with animal metaphors. Animal traits, characteristics, and appearances are attributed to God, Man, Angels, Nations, Armies. Since animals are the lowest creature in the three-tiered hierarchy, they are useful to metaphorically focus on a single aspect of God (bold like a…
Many years ago, while perusing Janice Anderson’s revised doctoral dissertation, Matthew’s Narrative Web: Over, and Over, and Over again , I was impressed by her attention to literary structures of repetition within and across Matthew’s Gospel. 1 Her research, in part, nudged me closer toward my present conviction that Matthew…
Abbreviated Introduction to the Series Scripture is absolutely dripping with animal metaphors. Animal traits, characteristics, and appearances are attributed to God, Man, Angels, Nations, Armies. Since animals are the lowest creature in the three-tiered hierarchy, they are useful to metaphorically focus on a single aspect of God (bold like a…
“Like a lily among the thorns, so is my love among the maidens… My beloved is mine and I am his; he pastures among the lilies.” Song 2:2, 16 In chapter two of the Song of Solomon, the Beloved compares his Love to a lily among thorns. The language of…
Introduction From the very beginning, angels and animals have played mediating roles between God and Man. Just as the World was made three-tiered (Heaven, Earth, Deep), so the creatures were made (Angels, Men, Animals). Before Christ came to build the permanent bridge across the chasm between God and Man, various…
Matthew 13, the third major discourse of the apostle’s gospel, is comprised almost entirely of parables. While it may seem that all the parables serve the same purpose in fulfilling the prophet Isaiah (Matthew 13:14), the parables found in verses 44–52, at the very least, function outside that purpose. This…
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Matthew quotes Isaiah 53:4 to explain how Jesus removes illness and uncleanness (Matthew 8:17). Jesus radiates life, and that life heals the sick and raises the dead. Jesus also accepts death and uncleanness on Himself, to be borne away on the cross. This latter process shows Jesus as temple. Milgrom…
In City of God , Augustine condemns Rome for passing the Voconian law during the period between the second and third Punic war. This “forbade anyone to make a woman, not even an only daughter, an heir.” He adds, “I do not know of any law that could be said…
Peggy Noonan puts it this way in today’s Wall Street Journal online: “Bill Clinton, with his trembly, red faced rage, makes John McCain look young. His divisive and destructive daily comportment—this is a former president of the United States—is a civic embarrassment. It is also an education, and there is…
Augustine points out that the eclipse during Jesus’ death was not a natural occurrence, since Jesus’ death took place at Passover and eclipses normally take place only in the “last quarter of the moon.” So, why did the Lord rearrange the cycles of the heavens for this purpose? The symbolism…
Jim Rogers of Texas A&M writes in response to my earlier post on Bill and Hillary: Re your question: ‘Why run a candidate who immediately alienates a large proportion of the voting population?’ Answer: Because the median voter determines elections. If you alienate 49.99% of the voting population, you still…
Nuttall describes Love’s Labour’s Lost as manifesting an “hysteria of style” like the hysteria of Titus , but with a concentration on a “feast of languages.” The setting for the play is a humanist academy, but one that also follows a medieval rule of renunciation of the flesh in favor…
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