Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Higher critics have, for a long time, posited a Second Isaiah to account for the structural and tone differences in the book from chapter 40 on. Now, we do believe in a Second Isaiah, but believe that the form critics have generally suffered from a lack of imagination both in…
A couple of the most serious mistranslations in our Bibles are found in the book of Leviticus. The main reason these errors have gone unreformed, I believe, is because Leviticus is simply not studied often enough, so the problem has never been fully addressed. The first mistranslation is found right…
Thomas Kuhn’s book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions , is really a parenthesis inside of the larger reality of Christian history. Progress and forward movement inside of science is a footnote to the larger and more general reality of covenant renewals in both Biblical and Christian history. The fundamental mark…
James Jordan, in the June/July 1995 Biblical Horizons, wrote a very helpful essay, "The Great Hangover," the gist of which I entirely agree with. The theme of the essay was that the Church to move forward must shuck off the old husks of Hellenism, Rabbinism, and undo admiration for all…
Traditionally, the three offices in the Presbyterian churches have been teaching elder, ruling elder, and deacon. These have been associated with priest, elder, and Levite respectively. We have seen that the deacon is in fact an apprentice and assistance elder. We have also seen that Levites as well as priests…
John 7:39 interprets Jesus’ offer of living water as an offer of the Spirit to those who believe, "for," John continues, "the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified." John was not making an ontological statement about the Spirit, as if the Spirit did not exist until…
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Jeannine Verdes-Leroux doesn't like Pierre Bourdieu, not one bit. In her Deconstructing Pierre Bourdieu , she calls him of offering a “con-artist's sociology” (22), a lazy evidence-free sociology based more on Bourdieu's personal experience than on research. Some of her complaints could be lodged against any number of intellectuals. Does…
In Making Good , Trevor Hart summarizes an earlier vision of artistry as craftsmanship: “a human activity of skilled making or forming” (22), and unpacks several dimensions of this definition. Craft is not “a mode of ‘making' linked primarily to the realization or gratification of an artist's burning individual vision…
Revelation 20 - the millennium prophecy - is divided into four sections with the repeated phrase “and I saw” (vv. 1, 4, 11, 12). The first section, verses 1-3, forms a neat chiasm of its own: A. Angel from heaven with key and chain, v. 1 B. Satan bound for…
Revelation 21:7-8 is set up as a chiasm: A. It is done. B. I am Alpha and Omega, beginning and end. C. I give water to the thirsty. D. Those who overcome will inherit these things and be sons. C'. Cowardly, etc. B'. Have share in the lake of fire.…
Michel Faber's 2014 novel, The Book of Strange New Things , may be the first of a new subgenre: The intergalactic epistolary novel. Syfy meets Pamela . Pastor Peter Leigh has been chosen by the mysterious USIC corporation for a unique mission - to serve as spiritual leader to the…
Every society has some over-arching religious structure, Will Herberg argues, echoing many social scientists ( Protestant, Catholic, Jew , 87-90). What unites Americans is clearly not our particular religious creeds. Rather, it is what Herberg calls the “American Way of Life.” He offers this splendid description: “It would be the…
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