Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
From time to time, when I’ve lectured on how to read the Bible, I’ve used art-music as one example thereof. When we listen to a simple folk song, we hear the same melody over and over again, but this is not how composers write "high" music. Let me amplify. A…
Sermons are rarely more tiresome than when they strive for relevance. Drawing from the latest headlines transforms the preacher into a one-man MacLaughlin Group, a Crossfire without the cross though perhaps with some of the fire, and leave the congregation thinking, "If I wanted Meet the Press, I could have…
Part One: The Old Testament “Drink is in itself a good creature of God, and to be received with thankfulness, but the abuse of drink is from Satan, the wine is from God, but the drunkard is from the Devil” Increase Mather in Wo to Drunkards (1673). 1. The “wine”…
28. These are the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away into exile: in the 7th year 3023 Jews. 29. In the 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar 832 persons from Jerusalem. 30. In the 23rd year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile 745 Jewish people; there were 4600…
Revelation 21:24 says, concerning the light shining from the New Jerusalem, "and the nations will walk by her light, and the kings of the land will bring their glory into her." Similarly, Revelation 22:2 says, concerning the Tree of Life, that "the leaves of the tree were for the healing…
Jeremiah and the Beginning of Jehoiakim’s Reign Now comes Jeremiah, at the beginning of Jehoiakim’s reign, with similar words (Jeremiah 26). Harken to God’s law, he said, or else God will destroy the Temple the same way He sent the Philistines to tear down the Tabernacle at Shiloh (Jeremiah 26:6;…
Showing page 262 of 309
Showing page 5 of 43
It has been customary since the middle ages to define sacrifice in terms of death. To sacrifice is to give something over to destruction. Roy Gane points out in his Cult and Character that this does not conform to the biblical usage. The bread of the presence is described as…
In a 1997 review in First Things, Andrew McKenna suggests that Derrida’s most important contribution might ultimately be to deconstruct philosophy so thoroughly that one is left only with theology: “the Sermon on the Mount performs a critique of difference to which any deconstructor can subscribe. Subject to serious misuses,…
Jordan’s reflections on “leprosy” help to explain why Miriam, and not Aaron, becomes leprous in Numbers 12. Jordan notes that the term for “plague” used in Leviticus 13 is actually “touch,” and suggests that the leper is “touched” by Yahweh, sometimes in response to sacrilege, a violation of God’s holiness.…
Jordan’s reflections on “leprosy” help to explain why Miriam, and not Aaron, becomes leprous in Numbers 12. Jordan notes that the term for “plague” used in Leviticus 13 is actually “touch,” and suggests that the leper is “touched” by Yahweh, sometimes in response to sacrilege, a violation of God’s holiness.…
In his stimulating essay on Leviticus 13 (available from Biblical Horizons), Jim Jordan reflects on the fact that a white hair in the flesh makes a man unclean. White hair is associated with glory, and so the uncleanness results from the contradiction between glorification and flesh. The unclean “leper” is…
Robyn Horner helpfully expounds on Derrida’s deconstruction of the gift by considering whether the text can be construed as a gift. In a section of Given Time , Derrida discusses a text by Baudelaire, noting that it is a given “not only because we are first of all in a…
Showing page 1606 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
