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Biblical Theology

Biblical Bestiary and Covenant Creatures, Part 3: Reunion of Man and Beast in Christ

Abbreviated Introduction to the Series Scripture is absolutely dripping with animal metaphors. Animal traits, characteristics, and appearances are attributed to God, Man, Angels, Nations, Armies. Since animals are the lowest creature in the three-tiered hierarchy, they are useful to metaphorically focus on a single aspect of God (bold like a…

by Jonathan WhiteOctober 27, 2025
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Matthew

Authority that Heals: Unpacking Matthew 4:18 – 10:4

Many years ago, while perusing Janice Anderson’s revised doctoral dissertation, Matthew’s Narrative Web: Over, and Over, and Over again , I was impressed by her attention to literary structures of repetition within and across Matthew’s Gospel. 1 Her research, in part, nudged me closer toward my present conviction that Matthew…

by Jonathan SedlakOctober 21, 2025
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Biblical Theology

Biblical Bestiary and Covenant Creatures, Part 2: The Animalistic Dehumanization of Sin

Abbreviated Introduction to the Series Scripture is absolutely dripping with animal metaphors. Animal traits, characteristics, and appearances are attributed to God, Man, Angels, Nations, Armies. Since animals are the lowest creature in the three-tiered hierarchy, they are useful to metaphorically focus on a single aspect of God (bold like a…

by Jonathan WhiteOctober 20, 2025
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Song of Songs

Like a Lily Among Thorns: Hailing the Suffering Christ in Canticles

“Like a lily among the thorns, so is my love among the maidens… My beloved is mine and I am his; he pastures among the lilies.” Song 2:2, 16 In chapter two of the Song of Solomon, the Beloved compares his Love to a lily among thorns. The language of…

by Mark BriansOctober 14, 2025
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Biblical Theology

Biblical Bestiary and Covenant Creatures, Part 1: The Shared Spirit of Men and Beasts

Introduction From the very beginning, angels and animals have played mediating roles between God and Man. Just as the World was made three-tiered (Heaven, Earth, Deep), so the creatures were made (Angels, Men, Animals). Before Christ came to build the permanent bridge across the chasm between God and Man, various…

by Jonathan WhiteOctober 13, 2025
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Matthew

Parables of Land and Sea in Matthew 13

Matthew 13, the third major discourse of the apostle’s gospel, is comprised almost entirely of parables. While it may seem that all the parables serve the same purpose in fulfilling the prophet Isaiah (Matthew 13:14), the parables found in verses 44–52, at the very least, function outside that purpose. This…

by David TownsendOctober 9, 2025
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The Body

The Winter 2003-4 issue of Image includes an interview with Gil Baillie that includes this nugget: “I’ve been fascinated by John Paul II’s theology of the body, which I think is a tremendously important contribution to the retrieval of God. To me it’s also filled with a marvelous irony. The…

May 21, 2004
History

Charles Wilkes’ Voyage

Also in the April 30 TLS is a review of Nathaniel Philbrick’s book on the South Seas expedition of 1838-1842, sponsored by the U.S. government and placed under the command of Charles Wilkes. It was one of the greatest sea expeditions ever launched: “six ships with a crew of 346…

May 21, 2004
History

Charles Wilkes’ Voyage

Also in the April 30 TLS is a review of Nathaniel Philbrick’s book on the South Seas expedition of 1838-1842, sponsored by the U.S. government and placed under the command of Charles Wilkes. It was one of the greatest sea expeditions ever launched: “six ships with a crew of 346…

May 21, 2004
History

The Persistence of Romanticism

Two reviews in the April 30 edition of the TLS highlight the continuing influence of Romanticism. Colin Falck’s American and British Verse in the Twentieth Century characterizes romanticism as the effort “to build a spiritual work in the context of a religious dogma that has failed, and a scientific and…

May 21, 2004

Prayer for Enemies

In 1 Kings 2, Bathsheba goes to Solomon to present Adonijah’s request that he be given Abishag for his wife. This is tantamount, Solomon discerns (v 22), to a request for the throne, and yet Bathsheba relays the request. Why? Some have thought her naive or sentimentally maternal, but that…

May 20, 2004

Structure of Samuel and Kings

Here’s a proposal for an outline of Samuel and Kings, considered as a single book. Some of these parallels are more obvious than others, obviously, but there is a sufficient number of links to make the outline plausible. It might also be possible to discern some hints of the creation…

May 20, 2004

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