Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
WHAT IS THE OT PRECURSOR OF THE NT OFFICE OF PASTOR? HOW DOES THE FORMER ILLUMINATE THE LATTER? The first problem to address is: how do we know that there is an office of pastor in the New Testament? 1 Perhaps the way the question is put may permit me…
[This essay was originally published in December, 1981, in The Biblical Educator , a publication of the Institute for Christian Economics, and again with slight revisions in Contra Mundum 7 (Spring, 1993). It is reprinted here as a supplement to my book Creation in Six Days .] In 1979, Dr.…
Anyone seeking to reverse the meaning of this promise needs to come to grips not only with the phrase "God was with the lad" later on, but also with Hagar’s response in 16:13. She worships Yahweh, putting her trust in Him and obeying Him. In fact, Hagar is at the…
Ishmael is the narrator of Melville’s fantasy-romance Moby Dick. Melville takes up the traditional view of Ishmael as a wayward son of Abraham, driven out solely because of the Divine "caprice" of election, an angry man with his hand raised against all other men. He is a fitting "anti-hero," or…
There were five cities at the center of the Canaanite culture in the circle of the Jordan, a place like the Garden of Eden, like the land of Egypt, before it became the Dead Sea at the destruction of the cities (Genesis 13:10). Genesis 14:2 tells us their names: Sodom,…
Meditations by James B. Jordan Genesis 19, the destruction of Sodom and the rescue of Lot, is part two of a story that begins in Genesis 18. These two chapters happen in one 24-hour period: noon and evening in Mamre, and midnight and daybreak in Sodom. God and two angels…
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Ecclesiastes is for many Christians the strangest book in the Bible. It seems especially strange in comparison with Proverbs. Proverbs is encouraging and comforting. It tells us that those who pursue wisdom will attain it, and that with wisdom will come wealth and power and all sorts of other blessings.…
An old Pentecostal riff, in shadowy imitation of Christopher Smartt . Why celebrate Pentecost? Because the Spirit is the hovering wind that forms the formlessness, fills the void, brightens the darkness. Because the Spirit is the breath that gives Adam life. Because the Lord comes into the garden in the…
Last week at First Things , Sohrab Ahmari launched a blistering barrage against the views, public posture, and political theology of National Review's David French. In place of French's "earnest and insistently polite" demeanor, his insistence on civility and his appeals to pluralism, his struggle to carve out a safe…
What determines prices? Supply and demand, says anyone with a modicum of training in economics. Right, says Barry C. Lynn ( Cornered ): "In any open market that is populated by many small buyers and many small sellers, if the producers try to raise their prices high enough to make…
Well, here’s something interesting. At least it interested me. “Male” (Heb. zakar ) first appears in Genesis 1:27, paired with female (Heb. neqevah ). God creates ‘adam male and female, in His image and likeness. For the next several chapters of Genesis, zakar is always paired with neqevah . Genesis…
Romans 1:18-32 is is part of a section that goes at least to the end of chapter 3. More nearly, the subsection beginning at 1:18 goes to about 2:11. It's hard to find where the seams in the text are, but there are reasons to think that this section doesn’t…
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