Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Midwives are rarely mentioned in Scripture, but play a prominent role in the first chapter of Exodus. The word midwife is used seven times in verses 15-22, though it is used only twice elsewhere in the Old Testament. The reason, I think, is not merely that the midwives were heroic…
Leviathan (41:1-11) is the climax of the theophany, the culmination of the Lord’s speech. His final answer to Job’s injudicious charges against God’s justice. After hearing God rehearse the characteristics of Leviathan and His absolute power over him, Job instantly repents in dust and ashes. He confesses, "I know now…
Our purpose in this study is to lay out the chronology and history of the Kingdom of Judah from the reign of King Josiah to the completion of the exile of the Jews under Nebuchadnezzar, with particular attention to the events recorded in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. The Empire of Assyria…
Protestants have always insisted that the sacraments bring no benefit without a response of faith, but this seems to undermine infant baptism, since infants do not appear to be able to exercise faith. Luther and Calvin held together their insistence on faith with infant baptism by claiming that infants can…
Traditional Presbyterian theologians regularly cite 1 Corinthians 11:28 as an argument against the practice of paedocommunion. Children must be able “to examine themselves” before they come to the table. Supposedly this text demands a certain level of intellectual capability as well as the capacity to engage in self-conscious introspection, both…
Yahweh’s two speeches at the end of the book of Job (38-41) should bring some closure to the book. The prologue has the whole cosmic order arrayed against the blameless and upright Job, "a man who feared God and shunned evil" (1:1, 8; 2:3). Yahweh’s capstone speeches affirm God’s absolute…
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Here’s another sermon outline, again shamelessly borrowing material from Jim Jordan ‘s From Bread to Wine . Priestly Service, 1 Kings 4:1-20 INTRODUCTION Priests are servants in a royal household. They live to serve their master, and they are regulated by detailed rules and regulations. The priestly stage of life…
No doubt I’ve said this before, but perhaps not so clearly: 1) Derrida makes the point that all language is fundamentally metaphorical, and that even what appears as pure dialectic is rhetoric all the way down. 2) Derrida says that because of this communication and meaning are indeterminate, deferred, etc.…
No doubt I’ve said this before, but perhaps not so clearly: 1) Derrida makes the point that all language is fundamentally metaphorical, and that even what appears as pure dialectic is rhetoric all the way down. 2) Derrida says that because of this communication and meaning are indeterminate, deferred, etc.…
According to the etymological and historical study of Wilfred Cantwell Smith , “believe” once had the range of meaning of the Greek PISTEUO and the Latin CREDO, and meant basically to entrust or commit oneself to something, to pledge allegiance. As Smith says, this notion had changed significantly by the…
Before Nabokov wrote his scandalous book , one Heinz von Lichberg had published an 18-page story about a middle-age man who falls in love with the daughter of the woman who runs the boarding house where he lives. He has sex, and in the end the girl dies, while the…
A new edition of Daniel Defoe ‘s The Political History of the Devil (hitherto unknown to me) has recently been published, and receives a review in the April 2 issue of the TLS . The book covers not only Satan’s involvement in biblical history, but his continuing involvement in the…
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