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…
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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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