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

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Biblical Studies

Funerals and Flutes

Matthew 8-9 records three clusters of miracles, interspersed with snatches of Jesus’ teaching about various aspects of discipleship. Just as the Sermon on the Mount displays the authority of Jesus’ Word in teaching, these chapters display the authority of Jesus’ Word over sickness, uncleanness, the creation, demons, and death. In…

by Peter LeithartApril 17, 1992
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Baptism

Daddy, Why Was I Excommunicated?

Since the early 1980s, several of the conservative Reformed Churches have debated and wrestled with the issue of paedocommunion (infant communion). The PCA and the OPC assigned study committees to examine the question, both of which produced useful reports both in support of and against the position. Though the debate…

by Peter LeithartApril 13, 1992
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Biblical Chronology

Chronologies and Kings, Part 9: Jehu, Hazael, and Assyria

(This issue of Biblical Chronology concludes a discussion of the Biblical and Assyrian chronologies, begun in previous posts. Click on the category link of "Biblical Chronology" above to see previous issues. Did Shalmaneser Know Jehu? Allis writes: "The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser contains, in addition to brief accounts of the…

by James B. JordanMarch 23, 1992
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American Culture

Arts and Play, Part 4

Movies Movies as an art form have a powerful impact because they take place in a dark room, on a large screen, with no distractions, and because they entail many of the arts: music, acting, choreography, design and color, etc. A movie can be an overwhelming experience for a young…

by James B. JordanMarch 23, 1992
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Leviticus

The Ecology of the Tribute Offering

The Hebrew word translated as "grain offering" or "cereal offering" is minchah . Like the translation of `olah as "burnt offering," the translation of minchah as "grain offering" is somewhat deceiving, since minchah does not refer to grain or cereal. In liturgical contexts outside of Leviticus, in fact, the word…

by Peter LeithartMarch 13, 1992
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Ascension

Skinned and Cut

"He shall then skin the burnt offering and cut it into its pieces" (Leviticus 1:6). The normal word ( `olah ) that is translated as "burnt offering" and "whole burnt offering" has nothing to do with either burning or wholeness. It is the noun form of a verb meaning "to…

by Peter LeithartMarch 13, 1992

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Atonement

Not Images

Jenson admits in an essay on atonement in Theology as Revisionary Metaphysics that no single theory of atonement has won consensus. Some, he writes, “make a virtue of this proliferation of proposals and the absence of form or informal consensus around any one of them; others see in it a…

August 15, 2014

Nyssa on Divine Personhood

Thomas McCall acknowledegs in his Which Trinity? Whose Monotheism? that patristic and medieval writers weren’t “fond of such expressions as ‘center of consciousness and will,’” but argues that “it is not at all difficult to find language that coheres well” with such a formulation (238). He summarizes an argument from…

August 14, 2014

Evangelical Sex

Amy DeRogatis begins her study of Evangelical ideals of sex, Saving Sex , by recounting Texas Pastor Ed Young’s 2012 “bed-in,” which he held on the roof of Fellowship Church. With his wife, he spent 24 hours live-streaming interviews urging Evangelicals to have sex more often. Young considers himself a…

August 14, 2014

Extreme

Extreme by Emma Barrett and Paul Martin “examines extraordinary human endeavour and the psychological qualities that underpin it.” The authors are interested in assessing the psychological benefits and damage brought on by encounters with extreme environments - mountains, the deep ocean - and extreme activities like cave diving. They want…

August 14, 2014

Living Toward Death

One of the crucial differences is the role of death. According to Heidel ( Babylonian Genesis , 137-8), “The destructive power of death, according to Babylonian and Assyrian speculations, extended not only over mankind and over plant and animal life but even over the gods. While the proverbially immortal gods…

August 14, 2014

Numismatic Noah

Alexander Heidel ( Babylonian Genesis , 235) notes that the word for “ark” in Greek accounts of the flood is not the normal word for boat but kibotos , a chest or coffer. This term was used to distinguish the Phrygian (Syrian) city of Apamea from other cities of the…

August 14, 2014

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