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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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Memory and Imagination

I n her study of digital memory ( When We Are No More ), Abby Smith Rumsey distinguishes between data storage and memory. What makes memory important is not simply its capacity to store fact: Rather, “it is the ability for information to be useful both now and in the…

August 12, 2016

Peace of God, Truce of God

T he late 10th century was a period or feuding, pillaging, and general disorder. In their editorial introduction to The Peace of God , Thomas Head and Richard Landes cite the Peace of God as an effort to reign in in the chaos: “Leading regional bishops convoked councils of their…

August 12, 2016

Religion of Progress

P eter King is an avowed Antimodern, a reactionary with a sensitivity to the unintended consequences of any effort at reform (much less revolution) and skepticism about progress. Reactionaries don't necessarily have to move to be reactionaries. When progress is the reigning creed “anyone can be a reactionary, including trade…

August 12, 2016

Fellowship of Grievance

D ouglas Wilson frequently uses the powerful phrase “fellowship of the grievance” to describe communities formed by disgruntled people. Resentment is a powerful force for joining people together - at least for a time, until they discover they also have grievances with one another. Complaint is one of the most…

August 11, 2016

Who Shall Ascend?

L. Michael Morales's 2015 Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord? is a “biblical theology of the book of Leviticus,” but Morales doesn't turn his full attention to Leviticus until he is one-third of the way through the book. That's as it should be. Building on his earlier The…

August 11, 2016

Joy in Israel

I Chronicles 12:23-40 describes David's king-making at Hebron. The Chronicler lists the number of mighty men from each tribe, those who constitute a host, a set of constellations, around the king as Yahweh's angels are a host around his throne (vv. 23-38). There's nothing about an anointing or crowning ceremony.…

August 10, 2016

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