Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The Paradosis Center at John Brown University in Siloam Spring, Arkansas, put on its first conference last week, it was a remarkable event. It was an ecumenical conference including Orthodox (John Behr, Edith Humphrey, others), Catholic (Rusty Reno, Michael Root, others), and Evangelical (Timothy George, David Lyle Jeffrey). Unusually for…
Naphtali Meshel observes in his new The "Grammar" of Sacrifice that scholars have been talking for decades about the "grammatical" character of ritual and sacrifice in general, but have never actually analyzed a specific ritual or sacrificial system grammatically. Some even talk about a "universal grammar" of sacrifice "even though…
Some Christians are rather breezy about the problem of evil. We shouldn't be. Do I need to remind you of the grisly beheadings that have taken place over the past few weeks? Do I need to remind you of the blood of innocents that’s been spilled in our own country?…
Have you ever been to a wedding where the heavens opened and a voice declared the couple “husband and wife”? Few of us have. Beautiful as they are, most marriages are quite mundane. Yet when Jesus talks about marriage, He describes it as something that God does: “What God has…
Jesus is the last and greatest of the Prophets. He is the Prophet that Moses predicted (Deuteronomy 18). That means He gives the final word, brings the blueprints for the final temple, speaks the final world into existence, and has complete and permanent access to the divine court, where He…
Paul stands against those who are “troubling” or “disturbing” the Galatians churches ( tarasso ; 1:7; also in 5:10). The reference seems to be two great troublers from the Old Testament. First, Achan is described as a “troubler” for the problems he causes in the aftermath of the battle at…
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There must be, I think, some connection between the parable of the sower in Luke 8 and the harvest Jesus talks about at the beginning of Luke 10. Jesus has been sowing the seed of the word of God, and some has begun to grow up. The harvest is ripe,…
A student of mine, Luke Jankovic, tracing the motif of “donkeys” in Genesis, came up with a couple of interesting angles. First, he noted that Abram first acquires donkeys in Egypt in Genesis 12, a proto-plundering of Egypt. And in this context the donkeys are involved in a dowry paid…
There are numerous indications of parallels between the history of the Omride dynasty and the history of the kingdom of Judah (and of the Northern Kingdom). One is that a king in both the Omride and Davidic dynasty dies at Megiddo. Ahaziah is shot by Jehu during Jehu’s rebellion, flees…
Exhortation for October 5: Luke’s account of the Transfiguration is one of the densest passages in the entire New Testament. In context, it is a preview of the glory the Son of Man will display when He comes in His kingdom. It is a sign of Jesus’ messianic glory, a…
Eucharistic meditation for October 5: We have seen Jesus at meals on several occasions in Luke’s gospel, and each time the meal has been an occasion for instruction about the kingdom of God. When Jesus went to Levi’s house, He was demonstrating by His meal practice that He is the…
Some very good material in Kenneth Bailey’s discussion of the end of Luke 9 (in Through Peasant Eyes ). Bailey is especially illuminating on the first of Jesus’ encounters with the reluctant disciples. This man volunteers to follow Jesus, but Jesus alerts him that the cost will be great. Jesus…
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