Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
In the beginning, this was home. The world, I mean. Creation wasn’t just a series of unconnected events, a flashy display of building prowess. Yes, creation was intended to give God glory—which I guess you could say means that the creation was supposed to show the greatness—the weight —of God.…
We think we know. God is a stern Rule-Maker who has a bit of an anger management problem. Or, God is the indulgent Daddy in the sky. Or, God used to be a stern Ruler, but he got nice. Christians don't believe any of that. Christians say the one God…
Unfortunately today, baptism seems so… tiny . It’s actually… cute (maybe sweet?) when it’s given to a child. A little baby, a small gathering of people, a little bowl of water, tiny drops sprinkled upon the little baby’s head followed by a small applause and a short prayer. How… small!…
Early on in the history of the church, Christians understood that the 1st century Jewish practice of meeting for prayer at set times of the day was a good and biblical practice to continue. We find references to this in several places in Scripture. In Acts 3 we find Peter…
Editors’ note: For those interested in a review of Richard Hays’s latest book, see here . Richard Hays is a renowned New Testament scholar. The professor of New Testament at Duke Divinity School originally studied English literature, giving his reading of Scripture a pronounced literary sensibility. He’s perhaps best known…
As many commentators point out, Genesis is structured by 10 uses of the word toledoth , "generations." The word means something along the lines of "begotten things," and the toledoth statements head the various sections of Genesis. When Genesis 2:4 announces "these are the begettings of heaven and earth" and…
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Following John McWhorter, I wrote recently about the religion of Antiracism . Tara Isabella Burton calls it the religion of social justice. We're talking about much the same thing, a novel religion that is a shadow form of Christian orthodoxy. "Social justice is a religion," she writes in Strange Rites…
Exodus 28 is organized outside-in, first describing the visible, exterior portions of the high priest's robes and then the hidden or partially hidden underclothes. There's also a movement upward, from torso to head. The passage is crowned with a description of Aaron's golden crown. The crown is called a tziytz…
When will the tumult die down and things get back to 2019-era normal? Maybe never. A pandemic that might have united the United States has divided us further. Demonstrations sparked by a real abuse of power have driven some policemen from the streets. While everyone was looking the other way,…
There are at least two sorts of hopeless Christians these days. One sort despairs as they survey America's history of abuse of blacks, the evils and hypocrisies of slavery and Jim Crow, the terror of lynchings and bombings and the Klan, the church's appalling racist theology. Will America ever find…
Yahweh's design for Aaron's robes in Exodus 28 moves from outside in, from the ephod and attached breastpiece (28:6-30) to the robe beneath the ephod (28:31-35) to the tunic (28:39) and underwear breeches (28:42-43). Verses 36-38 interrupt the movement with a description of the high priest's head gear. Otherwise, the…
Aaron’s breastpiece ( chosen ) is woven of gold, colored wool thread, and linen, square like. the Holy of Holies (Exodus 28:15). It’s a span in length and a span in width, folded double to form a pouch (Exodus 28:16), and attached to the ephod by gold rings and chains…
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