Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Part 2: Parallels Between Genesis 3, 1 John, and Revelation 2 Following part 1 that delineated the connectivity between 1 John 1-4 and Genesis 1-5, more evidence for the parallel between Genesis 3 and 1 John is found in the book’s parallel to the message to Ephesus in Revelation 2.…
Part 1: Proposal to Read 1 John Considering Genesis 1-6 Introduction Many authors have recognized that the prologue of 1 John is related to the same author's Gospel and to the first line of Genesis. However, commentators have not noticed that John alludes to the themes in Genesis 1-6. The…
I should begin by declaring my bias: I believe that the book of Colossians was written by the apostle Paul around AD 60, during the Roman imprisonment recorded in Acts 28. Douglas Moo offers a detailed defense of Pauline authorship, including dating the book in AD 60 during Paul’s Roman…
There’s a rule of on-line life: don’t feed the trolls. There’s a kind of person on social media who is desperate for attention and so provokes arguments just so he can be at the center of the fray. He’s called a “troll.” The common advice: don’t feed the trolls. Don’t…
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—-among whom we all once lived in the passions of…
On Thursday, September 8 th 2022, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II died. She was our longest-reigning monarch; the magnitude of her presence in the United Kingdom’s life defies most superlatives. The first of her fifteen British prime ministers was Winston Churchill; she appointed her final one, Liz Truss—who was born…
Showing page 39 of 309
Showing page 39 of 43
We can fill out Paul's exhortation to give thanks for all things in all circumstances concretely by bringing it more explicitly into connection with the liturgy of the todah and the Eucharist. Giving thanks is a pattern of acknowledgement, recital, memorial, and feast. Or: we give thanks when we take,…
The combined sacrificial-verbal todah (thank offering) carries over directly into the Christian Supper. The main elements of the ancient Israelite rite are present, either in the New Testament or in very early post-apostolic celebrations of the Eucharist. 1) Jesus instructs his disciples to “do this” – not only to eat…
Most English translations introduce the terminology of “thanks” in of Leviticus, as a translation of todah (Lev 7:11-15), a noun derived from yadah . In the Levitical system, todah does not refer to emotions or verbal expressions of gratitude but to a sacrificial ritual, a specific form of the peace…
The following is an excerpt from my commentary on 1-3 John, From Behind the Veil . The chapter division in our Bibles does not follow the flow of John’s argument in 1 John, which slips past the end of chapter 1 and flows into the beginning of chapter 2. The…
“What is thanks?” Scripture answers that thanks is neither an emotion nor a virtue. [1] It is accompanied by emotions, and as we get to the New Testament it broadens to become a tone or stance of life, something like a meta-virtue. Fundamentally, thanks is a name, a ritual, and…
Brian Jones argues that defenses of capitalism are anthropologically thin. They "need a more humane anthropology, sensitive to man’s social and communal nature, lest they forget to ask the crucial question of what economics is for." He cites a 2002 article from the American Spectator to illustrate the reductive character…
Showing page 145 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
