Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The story of Judges 19 and the subsequent chapters are some of the most shocking and appalling accounts in all of Scripture. The callousness of the old host and the Levite, and the monstrous brutality of the men of Gibeah, leaves us feebly scrabbling for words by which to surmount…
David has become king. He has conquered the capital city of Jerusalem. He has brought the ark of Yahweh into the city and placed it in a tent. He has stationed Levites at the tent to offer sacrifices of praise. An anomaly hits him: He has a cedar-paneled palace, and…
In Part 2 of this series we traced what we have of the development of the epiclesis in the liturgy of the Church. In this third and final part we’ll look at the theological implications of this and how we may apply what we’ve learned. As we saw in Part…
In a 2014 piece published in First Things , I offered a "wish list" for Protestant churches, a checklist for a future catholic Protestantism. The wish list doesn't cover everything. It doesn't mention those things that Protestants, especially Evangelicals, already do, often exceedingly well, things like missions and evangelism and…
In the first part of this series we examined the meaning of “blessing” in Scripture and its parallels in Jewish liturgical tradition, but did not find anything that we could properly call an epiclesis (an invocation of the Holy Spirit). We did find examples of invocation of Jesus to “come”…
When the Aaronic priests were ordained, the blood of the ram of "filling” was placed on the lobe of the right ear, the right thumb, and the right big toe (Lev. 8:22-24). Similarly, the cleansing rite for a leper included smearing the right ear lobe, thumb, and big toe with…
Showing page 123 of 309
Showing page 42 of 43
Basil of Caesarea has this to say about the variety of plant life: “What a variety in the disposition of their several parts. And yet, how difficult is it to find the distinctive property of each of them, and to grasp the difference which separates them from other species. Some…
Michael Williams of Covenant Seminary provides a serviceable introduction to a covenantal/biblical-theological reading of the Bible in his recent book from P&R, entitled Far As The Curse Is Found . Williams’s interpretations are judicious and one of his fundamental themes is that salvation restores rather than cancels creation, a theme…
INTRODUCTION The Omride dynasty ends in a bloodbath, and will shortly see the Baal temple in Samaria destroyed. This is a warning for the house of David: Omri’s house began with a David-like hero, and ended disastrously. David’s house too will end in blood and Jerusalem’s temple will be destroyed.…
2 Kings 8:6: So the king appointed for her a certain officer, saying, Restore all that was hers and all the produce of the field from the day that she left the land even until now. Israel’s land was a land flowing with milk and honey, but it’s surprising how…
Galatians 3:26-29: For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all…
We often put our minds into automatic pilot when reading the “boring bits” of the Bible. The details of sacrificial ritual in Leviticus, the rules of uncleanness, genealogies, the repetitive accounts of kings – these are not the juiciest bits of Scripture, and we tend to skim over them without…
Showing page 1927 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
