Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Abbreviated Introduction to the Series Scripture is absolutely dripping with animal metaphors. Animal traits, characteristics, and appearances are attributed to God, Man, Angels, Nations, Armies. Since animals are the lowest creature in the three-tiered hierarchy, they are useful to metaphorically focus on a single aspect of God (bold like a…
Many years ago, while perusing Janice Anderson’s revised doctoral dissertation, Matthew’s Narrative Web: Over, and Over, and Over again , I was impressed by her attention to literary structures of repetition within and across Matthew’s Gospel. 1 Her research, in part, nudged me closer toward my present conviction that Matthew…
Abbreviated Introduction to the Series Scripture is absolutely dripping with animal metaphors. Animal traits, characteristics, and appearances are attributed to God, Man, Angels, Nations, Armies. Since animals are the lowest creature in the three-tiered hierarchy, they are useful to metaphorically focus on a single aspect of God (bold like a…
“Like a lily among the thorns, so is my love among the maidens… My beloved is mine and I am his; he pastures among the lilies.” Song 2:2, 16 In chapter two of the Song of Solomon, the Beloved compares his Love to a lily among thorns. The language of…
Introduction From the very beginning, angels and animals have played mediating roles between God and Man. Just as the World was made three-tiered (Heaven, Earth, Deep), so the creatures were made (Angels, Men, Animals). Before Christ came to build the permanent bridge across the chasm between God and Man, various…
Matthew 13, the third major discourse of the apostle’s gospel, is comprised almost entirely of parables. While it may seem that all the parables serve the same purpose in fulfilling the prophet Isaiah (Matthew 13:14), the parables found in verses 44–52, at the very least, function outside that purpose. This…
Showing page 3 of 309
Showing page 4 of 43
In her contribution to Envisaging Heaven in the Middle Ages , Beverly Mayne Kienzle summarizes Hildegard of Bingen's understanding of heaven and of the new Jerusalem. For Hildegard, “Jerusalem represents the vision of peace and salvation, the final resting place for those who perform good works in this life.” She…
In a 1998 article in VT, Giancarlo Biguzzi argues that John describes two different forms of idolatry in the book of Revelation. The first is the traditional idolatry of idols; the second is the beast idolatry that is the focus of the book. John “speaks explicitly of that given to…
“Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.” The comparisons are not random, argues Aldo Regalado in Bending Steel : “By measuring Superman’s powers against those of the bullet, the train, and the skyscraper, these phrases offer clues that…
In a recent article, Loren Stuckenbruck makes this striking comment about the heavenly worship of Revelation 4: “John’s vision of a ‘Christ-less' worship in chapter 4 is so different from chapter 5; indeed, it is different from the visions described in the rest of the book in which Jesus plays…
The last time we had a Rodin revival was during the 1960s, writes Jed Perl. He seemed to capture the revolutionary 60s “ambiguous, contradictory, and conflicted” relation to tradition. Rodin is enjoying something of a revival again today, and Perl thinks it is for much the same reasons.” Despite his…
Near the end of her book on The Heavenly Book Motif , Leslie Baynes notes the “negative attitude about writing that Plato’s Socrates expresses in the Phaedrus ” is absent from early Christianity. For early Christians, “Words are ephemeral and disappear as soon as they are spoken, but writing remains.…
Showing page 333 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
