Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Figure: Literary structure of the Garden narrative The Garden narrative describes God forming the adam , resting him in his presence, then provisioning for his appetites of food, vocation, and mate. It continues to describe a snake, the introduction of death, and humanity's expulsion from the garden. The pages of…
I’ve spent the last few years studying the theology of St. Irenaeus (d. circ. 200ad). In particular, I’ve been gripped by the way that Irenaeus consistently resisted the anti-body emphasis that emerged in later Christian theology. His eschatology is remarkably focused on the resurrection of the body, and the renewal…
Details of Jesus in Exodus 1:22-2:25 Although there are a great many Christ-types in the Old Testament, it is hard to overplay the obviousness of some that seem to necessarily rise to the top before others. One of these is Isaac, with his near sacrifice by his own father after…
What can we say about Cain's wicked sanctuary-city of Enoch? First that it was built with a brother's blood as its cornerstone. The Church is also built such, for Jesus was the younger brother of the whole Adamic race, slain by that company of older brothers because they hated Him.…
In Genesis 2:9 the ground brought forth trees good for food, delightful to view, and in two cases, life-giving or rule-bestowing. Adam, made of the ground (2:7), would by implication bring forth new trees, and thus trees and plants are among the symbols for human beings throughout the Bible. The…
One of the must fundamental teachings of the Bible and of the Christian religion is that man does not have life in himself. Man must get life from outside of himself, in order to maintain his life. The way this is done is through eating and drinking. Apart from life,…
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A few quotations on Adam’s “natural” capacities culled from Heppe: Polanus: “The original wisdom in man’s soul was that excellence and perfection of knowledge, by which unimpaired man rightly knew God and God’s work and himself and wisely understood all things unifold, singular, and universal, and rightly compounded or divided…
Barth (CD, 4.1) offers this challenging evaluation of the Protestant Orthodox notion of a Trinitarian covenant: “For God to be gracious to sinful man, was there any need of a special decree to establish the unity of righteousness and mercy of God in relation to man, of a special intertrinitarian…
Thanks to Joel Garver for pointing me to a couple of passages in Turretin’s Institutes where he explicitly discusses and rejects the idea of “pure nature.” A brief summary follows of Turretin’s discussion from the Fifth Topic, Question 9 follows: 1) Turretin offers several definitions of “natural,” and the relevant…
Modern-day Arians have answers to the standard NT texts on the deity of Christ. They aren’t good answers, but they have answers. What they don’t have are answers to the many texts that demonstrate the deity of Christ through intertextual echoes. Paul says in Philippians 2 that Christ existed in…
INTRODUCTION Hezekiah is a new David, Manasseh an idolatrous Solomon. Josiah reverses the sins of Jeroboam by bringing an end to Jeroboam’s liturgical experiments. Great as he is, he cannot save Judah from destruction. Huldah prophesies that Jerusalem, Judah, and the temple are doomed (22:16-20), and the narrator confirms that…
Luke 2219: Jesus said, This is My body, which is given for you; do this as My memorial. We saw in the sermon this morning that the name “Manasseh” means “Forgetful” or even “Causing to forget.” Judah went into exile because of her forgetfulness, because King Forgetful made her forget…
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