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

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Biblical Studies

Is Abraham’s Life a Type?

The preceding essay has caused me to consider the possibility that the life of Abraham as recounted in Genesis contains a typological prophecy of the history of Israel; that is, that the events in Abraham’s life broadly anticipate events in Israel’s history. This kind of pattern is seen in the…

by James B. JordanMay 5, 2001
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Hermeneutics

Thirty-Eight Years by the Sheep Pool

by: Jeff Meyers and James Jordan In the fifth chapter of John’s gospel we read of a man who had been ill for 38 years and who was lying by a pool located by the Sheep Gate of Jerusalem. This sheep waited, as did many other infirm people, for an…

by Jeff MeyersDecember 5, 2000
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Biblical Horizons

How Are Women Saved?

What had been reduced to ruin by this sex, would by the selfsame sex be recovered to salvation. As Eve believed the serpent, so Mary believed the angel. The delinquency which the one occasioned by believing, the other by believing effaced. —Tertullian What is Paul saying about women and salvation…

by Jeff MeyersOctober 5, 2000
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Jeremiah

The Return of Hamor

Back in Biblical Horizons 132 I discussed the horrible abuse of the converted men of Salem/Shechem in Genesis 34. These Hivites had joined the covenant by circumcision and then were slaughtered by Simeon and Levi. That, however, is not the end of their story. In Joshua 9 we find the…

by James B. JordanOctober 4, 2000
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Biblical Horizons

Abram’s 318 Men

Genesis 14:14 says that Abram mustered his trained men, “born in his house,” to rescue Lot, and gives their number as 318. It is clear that the precise number is provided for some reason, but what is it? S. Gevirtz notes that 318 is the sum of all the prime…

by James B. JordanSeptember 4, 2000
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Hermeneutics

153 Large Fish

Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three; and although there were so many, the net was not torn. (John 21:11) This is one of those texts in the Bible that many people puzzle over. It is not a puzzle…

by James B. JordanSeptember 4, 2000

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The Body

The Winter 2003-4 issue of Image includes an interview with Gil Baillie that includes this nugget: “I’ve been fascinated by John Paul II’s theology of the body, which I think is a tremendously important contribution to the retrieval of God. To me it’s also filled with a marvelous irony. The…

May 21, 2004
History

Charles Wilkes’ Voyage

Also in the April 30 TLS is a review of Nathaniel Philbrick’s book on the South Seas expedition of 1838-1842, sponsored by the U.S. government and placed under the command of Charles Wilkes. It was one of the greatest sea expeditions ever launched: “six ships with a crew of 346…

May 21, 2004
History

Charles Wilkes’ Voyage

Also in the April 30 TLS is a review of Nathaniel Philbrick’s book on the South Seas expedition of 1838-1842, sponsored by the U.S. government and placed under the command of Charles Wilkes. It was one of the greatest sea expeditions ever launched: “six ships with a crew of 346…

May 21, 2004
History

The Persistence of Romanticism

Two reviews in the April 30 edition of the TLS highlight the continuing influence of Romanticism. Colin Falck’s American and British Verse in the Twentieth Century characterizes romanticism as the effort “to build a spiritual work in the context of a religious dogma that has failed, and a scientific and…

May 21, 2004

Prayer for Enemies

In 1 Kings 2, Bathsheba goes to Solomon to present Adonijah’s request that he be given Abishag for his wife. This is tantamount, Solomon discerns (v 22), to a request for the throne, and yet Bathsheba relays the request. Why? Some have thought her naive or sentimentally maternal, but that…

May 20, 2004

Structure of Samuel and Kings

Here’s a proposal for an outline of Samuel and Kings, considered as a single book. Some of these parallels are more obvious than others, obviously, but there is a sufficient number of links to make the outline plausible. It might also be possible to discern some hints of the creation…

May 20, 2004

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