Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The Building of the Temple Solomon began work on the Temple in the second month of his fourth year. This was the year 2993, a sabbath year. He finished in the eighth month of his eleventh year, the year 3000, also a sabbath. (1 Ki. 6:1, 38). This is said…
The Bible expresses its chronology not only in sequences of years, but also in sequences of sabbath years and jubilees. This enables us to make a cross-check of our chronology, and when we find apparent problems, to refine it. If our chronology is right, we should find some significant correlations…
Adele Berlin, Poetics and Interpretation of Biblical Narrative Sheffield, England: Almond Press, 1983. This volume is the ninth in the "Bible and Literature Series" under the general editorship of David M. Gunn. According to its author, who teaches Hebrew at the University of Maryland, the book is an effort to…
V. Propp’s classic work Morphology of the Folktale (University of Texas, 1968) argues that one of the basic structures of folk literature is "lack, lack liquidated." A king sets out to look for a wife, and the tale ends with a wedding. Often, the hero sets out on some business…
Luke’s gospel begins and ends in the temple. It opens with Gabriel’s annunciation to the priest Zacharias (whose name, appropriately, means "Yahweh remembers") of the coming of a forerunner. Zacharias is performing priestly service at the time. The book ends with the joyful worship of a new priesthood in the…
Last time we arrived at the year A.M. 3960 as the date for the inauguration of the New Creation through the death, resurrection, ascension, and session of Christ, and the sending of the Holy Spirit. We also saw that this is most likely the year of Paul’s conversion. Fourteen years…
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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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