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Writing

Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.

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Revelation

The Seven Thunders, An Interpretive Suggestion

And He cried out with a loud voice, as when a lion roars; and when He had cried out, the seven thunders spoke their voices (Revelation 10:3). In Revelation 10 John sees Jesus come down to him from heaven with a little book in His hand. Jesus cries out with…

by James B. JordanOctober 7, 1994
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Biblical Chronology

Genesis 5 & 11: Chronological-Theological Reflections

The numbers found in Genesis 5 & 11 display characteristics that indicate a complex and meticulous symbolic schematization operating at several levels. Because these numbers are so potent symbolically, unbelieving scholars have universally (as far as I know) treated them as artificial. Believers take them literally, but believers must also…

by James B. JordanOctober 7, 1994
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Revelation

The Kings From the East

And the sixth angel poured out his bowl upon the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, that the way might be prepared for the kings from the east [sunrising]. (Revelation 16:12) The kings from the east in Revelation 16:12 are generally assumed to be enemies of…

by James B. JordanSeptember 10, 1994
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Biblical Studies

Covenants and Dates

During my brief sojourn as a pastor during the 1980s, I had several occasions to be involved in settling disputes between men in the congregation I served. A typical dispute went like this: Two men formed a company to do business. After a few years, the business went sour, and…

by James B. JordanSeptember 10, 1994
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Revelation

The Grape Harvest of Revelation 14:17-20

The two harvests of Revelation 14:14-20, of grain and of grapes, are most often understood as symbolic of God’s judgment against the wicked, or against Babylon, as amplified in chapters 16 & 17. Some commentators, however, notice that the gospels speak of the grain harvest as a reaping of the…

by James B. JordanAugust 10, 1994
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Deuteronomy

The Chronology of the Pentateuch (Part 6)

(Conclusion of Chapter 16 in the previous Biblical Chronology Article) Month 3, 2513 According to Leviticus 23:15-16, Pentecost was to be observed 50 days after the sabbath after Passover, or 49 days after the Feast of First Fruits. I initially based my reflections on the Jewish tradition that the Law…

by James B. JordanAugust 10, 1994

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Exhortation, Sixth Sunday after Epiphany

Each week, we kneel to confess our own sins and then go on to pray for the universal church, the nations, and the world. It’s obvious why we confess our sins. We are seeking forgiveness and cleansing. We are praying for one another as we pray together. The prayer for…

February 11, 2007

Cooled prayer

Prayer, Rosenstock-Huessy says, is “doubtful, agitated, despairing, searching.” Prayer desperately seeks answers. When prayer cools into a “residue,” it’s called “research”: “If research is real, it still has the dignity of prayer, although it is the last and most cooled-off phase of genuine prayer.” This cooling process is evident in…

February 11, 2007

Silencing women

Rosenstock-Huessy notes that the ancient world observed a division of labor with regard to speech: “Women are expected to contribute wild, passionate, inarticulate shouts of blind feeling. Men are expected to build on this natural stratum the structure of high and articulate speech . . . . Women and children…

February 11, 2007

Historical Jesus

Historical Jesus studies, Rosenstock-Huessy claims, attempt to reduce the four gospels to a single unified story, turning the gospels into “material for our reconstruction of the life of Jesus from all the material.” Or, historical Jesus studies attempt to place Jesus among the ancients: “He belonged with antiquity. He was…

February 9, 2007

Gospel biography?

It has become popular to describe the gospels as biographies, but Rosenstock-Huessy pre-challenged this trend (no doubt reacting to the lives-of-Jesus movement of the 18th and 19th centuries). Ancient biographies, he claims were actually “thanatographies,” while “the story of Jesus makes sense only when his death begins and antecedes our…

February 9, 2007
Literature

Spiritual colors

Christopher Smart wrote Jubilate Agno while confined in a madhouse. He would have said, no doubt, he found his sanity there. Newtonians, they are the madmen: For Newton’s notion of colours is ALOGOS unphilosophical. For the colours are spiritual . . . . NOW that colour is spiritual appears inasmuch…

February 9, 2007

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