Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
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: 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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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Anxiety, writes Oliver O'Donovan ( Finding and Seeking ) is a “sin against time” (173-4). Anxiety is a form of fear, situated “on the border between anticipation and purpose.” Anticipation may make us fearful or optimistic, but it doesn’t make us anxious. Anxiety arises when we face the future with…
Below is an excerpt from an address given at last week's Theopolis Epiphany Feast. I am grateful to Erik van Versendaal for sending my a copy of his superb paper, "Reason for Being" (Communion, 2017), which inspired much of the following . We must eat to live. That’s not a…
Back in July 2020, Josh Michaud and Jen Kates published an essay on China’s public health program in Foreign Affairs . Chinese policy is summarized in the word fangkong , “prevent and control.” The term is dense with meaning. It refers to “crisis management involving control over diffuse forces (inside…
The tabernacle texts of Exodus are bisected by the account of the idolatry of the golden calf (Exodus 32-34). On one side of that episode is the seven-speech prescription for the building of the tabernacle (Exodus 25-31), and on the other is a second description of the tabernacle furnishings and…
Joe David Brown was born and grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, graduating from the University of Alabama and taking a job at the Birmingham Post. He wrote several novels, including one that became the film Paper Moon . In March 1963, he published a piece for the Saturday Evening Post…
The seven speeches of Exodus 25-31 conclude, fittingly, with a reiteration of the Sabbath law (Exodus 31:12-17). It’s one of the clearest indications that the tabernacle is a new creation. After Moses, the sub-creator, has completed the tabernacle, he enters into Yahweh’s Sabbath, ceasing as Yahweh ceased. This concluding speech…
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