Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Optimism is “an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome.” 1 On the other hand, pessimism is “an inclination to emphasize adverse aspects, conditions, and possibilities or to expect the worst possible outcome.” We can see that optimism and…
If we wish to understand the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, we must begin with seeing them as a part of the creational order. Trees, along with plants and seed-bearing things, come to life by the word of God as part of…
“I chant slips and irreversible disasters, wiltings, failures, scars, the little disappointments and the large, blue streaks down a world that wishes it was only suncolors.” Paul J. Pastor from Kintsugi Song I recently lost something very valuable. Something I’d had for years and used every day. But, it wasn’t…
In his eponymous book, Jonah follows an exodus pattern. He travels through the waves and east of the city into the wilderness. On a first reading, it looks like another use of this common literary shape in the Old Testament: salvation through the waters of death and the wilderness of…
“Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” The unknowing master of ceremonies didn’t know how right he was. We see this play out in John’s apocalypse. The end is like the beginning,…
Read in isolation, The Test of Adultery (Num 5:11-31) presents the reader with a seemingly bizarre ritual, conjuring up ideas bordering on the Salem Witch Trials. Beyond this, pressing questions linger—such as, “Why is the woman in particular singled out, while no test is provided for the husband of a…
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Those who keep ( tereo ) Jesus’ words will be kept ( tereo ) from the hour that is coming (Revelation 3:10). It’s a global hour, coming on the whole oikoumene . And it will test the ones who dwell on the earth ( ge ). Is that simply saying…
Diaspora Jews “stood aside virtually completely” from the Jewish war of 66-70, writes Mary Smallwood in her Jews Under Roman Rule (356). By that, she means that Diaspora Jews didn’t send men or material to help their brothers in Judea, She admits that “Possibly rather more help was offered than…
God has no needs. He is independent of His creation, perfectly blissful before He created it. But that’s not the same thing as saying that neediness is in no way a feature of the life of God. God doesn’t need anything outside Himself, but God does need God. Unless we’re…
Jesus has a triple title in both the letter to Philadelphia (Revelation 3:7-13) and the one to Laodicea (3:14-22). To the Philadelphians, He is holy, true, the one-with-keys. To the Laodiceans, He is the Amen, the martyr, the beginning-of-creation. Those traids suggest the Trinity, perhaps in detail. The Father is…
When the father welcomes the prodigal back, he instructs his slaves to bring a robe, a ring, and sandals to adorn his son, and to slaughter a fatted calf for a celebrated (Luke 15:22-23). This in response to the son’s confession, “I have sinned against heaven and in your sight;…
Herodotus thought it a silly story: “how Herakles came to Egypt and was taken away by the Egyptians to be sacrificed to Zeus , with all due pomp and the sacrificial wreath upon his head; and how he quietly submitted until the moment came for the beginning of the actual…
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