Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
1 Chronicles 9:1 seems to bring the genealogies of 1 Chronicles to an end. The Chronicler has recorded the genealogy of the human race from Adam, focusing on the descendants of Abraham through Jacob. Summing it all up, he says, “So all Israel was enrolled by genealogies; and behold, they…
The “personalist” understanding of the Trinity, articulated most influentially in the work of John Zizioulas, has fallen on hard times. Recent scholars have attacked Zizioulas’s idea that Cappadocian Trinitarianism represented an ontological revolution, hammering on the distinction between divine and human personhood. Michel Barnes’s conclusion is the most drastic of…
Biblical Theology is often defined as the historical unfolding of God’s revelation, or of God’s revelation and of the history of his covenantal redemption and transformation of humanity and the world. In practice, Biblical Theology is usually broader than this, and also includes the study of literary structure and of…
We are made to be happy. Created to enter into the eternal joy of God, our whole being inclines to that end, but the fallen world has put forth barriers and by our own sin we bar ourselves from that endless delight, and death blinds us to that reality. Yet…
At the end of Revelation, John sees the heavenly city descending to earth. The city shines with the brilliance of God's glory, which lightens the nations, so that kings bring their glory to the city. This is not a vision of the final new heaven and new earth. It's a…
“No one has ever seen God,” writes John (John 1:18). If this is the case, then how can we speak about God? Some people say we actually cannot. Or at least we cannot speak about God positively, i.e. who He is. We can only say who or what God is…
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Four times Babylon is called “Babylon the great” ( Babulon he megale ) in Revelation, and the uses of the phrase form a simple chiasm: A. Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, 14:8 B. Babylon the great is remembered before God, 16:19 B'. “Babylon the Great” on forehead of harlot,…
Stan Van Hooft's Cosmopolitanism pays closer attention to religion themes than many works on this theme. He clearly recognizes the role that religion plays in human life, and criticizes Martha Nussbaum for her avoidance of the point: Despite basing her description on an analysis of the cultural productions and literatures…
Paul-Francois Tremlett ( Levi-Strauss on Religion ) provides this neat precis of the central claim of Levi-Straussian structuralism: “new way of thinking about questions of culture and cultural difference. Language had been seen as a transparent medium for expressing thoughts and for describing or re-presenting objects. In structuralist thought, however,…
When Paul lived among the Thessalonians, he wasn't a layabout and didn't ask them for any necessities. He paid for everything he got (2 Thessalonians 3:7-8). Paul did have the right ( exousia ) to ask for food and shelter. He brought spiritual gifts, and could have expected material gifts…
It took a parody. I devoted a section of a chapter in Deep Exegesis to Peter Enns’s work, I’ve critiqued him on my blog here and here and here , as well as the similar work of John Walton, here and here . To my knowledge, neither Enns nor Walton…
The verb “descend” ( katabaino ) is used ten times in Revelation, and the uses form a neat pattern: A. Jerusalem (3:12) B. Angel in cloud with book (10:1) C. Devil (12:12) D. Fire of false prophet (13:13) E. Hailstones (16:21) B'. Angel with glory (18:1) C'. Angel to bind…
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