Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Summary In what follows, I will consider the “year-stamps” employed in Scripture, i.e., statements of the form, “Such-and-such an event took place in the Xth year of Y.” In the process, I will suggest some ways in which the Biblical narrative might relate to events in the extra-Biblical world, though…
In the first essay on the parable of the Prodigal Son, I suggested that the problems commentators and others encounter in interpreting Jesus three-part parable are not accidental. These are not just problems in our ignorance of cultural background. They are intentional features of the stories —stories designed to poke…
The story of the Prodigal Son is perhaps the most well-known story in the Bible. As others have observed, it may also be one of the most misunderstood. In two short essays, I will point out features of this story that are commonly neglected, aspects of Jesus’ parable that might…
The parable of Lazarus and the nameless rich man is not an independent story. It is part of a long context that begins in Luke 15:1, where Jesus is eating with tax collectors and sinners and the scribes and Pharisees grumble. In response to their hardheartedness, Jesus tells a three-part…
The Bible is written so that even when a reader cannot pick up on what might be deeper or more detailed aspects of a text, there is virtually always a message to be heard. In the ancient world, where the “reader” of Scripture would likely be a church official facing…
The distinction between garden (or vineyard) and field begins in Genesis 2. This relates to the ordering of the formless world. Plants of the field are contrasted with the garden planted by God in Genesis 2:5&8. Later on, under the Old Covenant the Israelites will be required to keep their…
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INTRODUCTION Sex and wisdom are closely intertwined in the OT. Wisdom and Folly are both pictured throughout the early chapters of Proverbs as women – one honorable and blessed, the other seductive and ultimately deadly. Further, the Song of Songs is included among the wisdom books. In some way, skill…
Jehoram the son of Ahab is a whiner. He musters his army to fight against rebellious Moab, forges an alliance with Jehoshaphat of Judah and the king of Edom, and then marches South to attack Moab. When they get into the wilderness, they run short of water. As soon as…
Robert Pogue Harrison, The Dominion of the Dead. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. 208 p. Tradition, Chesterton remarked, is the “democracy of the dead.” For Robert Pogue Harrison, Rosina Pierotti Professor in Italian Literature at Stanford University, this form of democracy at least is inescapable. In The Dominion of…
Translation, 2 Kings 7 And said ‘Eliysha’, “Hear the word of Yahweh, Thus says Yahweh, ‘According to the time tomorrow a seah of fine-flour by a sheqel And a double-seah of barley by a sheqel in the gate of Shomron.” And answered the officer who was to the king -…
Psalm 90: A thousand years in the Lord’s sight are like yesterday when it passes by, as a watch in the night. He sweeps them away like a flood, and they fall asleep. In the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew. In the morning it flourishes and sprouts…
And said the sons of the prophets to ‘Eliysha’ “Look, please! The place which we ourselves [are] living there before your face [is too] confined for us. Let us go/walk, please, unto the Yarden, and let us take from there each one beam And let us make for ourselves there…
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