Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The Building of the Temple Solomon began work on the Temple in the second month of his fourth year. This was the year 2993, a sabbath year. He finished in the eighth month of his eleventh year, the year 3000, also a sabbath. (1 Ki. 6:1, 38). This is said…
The Bible expresses its chronology not only in sequences of years, but also in sequences of sabbath years and jubilees. This enables us to make a cross-check of our chronology, and when we find apparent problems, to refine it. If our chronology is right, we should find some significant correlations…
Adele Berlin, Poetics and Interpretation of Biblical Narrative Sheffield, England: Almond Press, 1983. This volume is the ninth in the "Bible and Literature Series" under the general editorship of David M. Gunn. According to its author, who teaches Hebrew at the University of Maryland, the book is an effort to…
V. Propp’s classic work Morphology of the Folktale (University of Texas, 1968) argues that one of the basic structures of folk literature is "lack, lack liquidated." A king sets out to look for a wife, and the tale ends with a wedding. Often, the hero sets out on some business…
Luke’s gospel begins and ends in the temple. It opens with Gabriel’s annunciation to the priest Zacharias (whose name, appropriately, means "Yahweh remembers") of the coming of a forerunner. Zacharias is performing priestly service at the time. The book ends with the joyful worship of a new priesthood in the…
Last time we arrived at the year A.M. 3960 as the date for the inauguration of the New Creation through the death, resurrection, ascension, and session of Christ, and the sending of the Holy Spirit. We also saw that this is most likely the year of Paul’s conversion. Fourteen years…
Showing page 286 of 309
Showing page 7 of 43
Finlan ( Paul’s Cultic Atonement Metaphors ) wants to distinguish sharply between sacrifice and the removal ritual of the day of atonement. He is not persuasive. He claims that “Hebrew sacrifice must be performed in the temple, and it is used to cleanse the temple, which is the center and…
Finlan doesn’t think there’s any idea of substitution in the sacrificial rites, though there is in the scapegoat ritual ( Paul’s Cultic Atonement Metaphors , 91). To see a penal substitution in sacrifice, “assumes something that is never stated in Hebrew texts: that the animal is being somehow punished.” He…
Dorothy Sayers once said that the incarnation and atonement prove that, whatever God may be up to with His world, He is determined to play by the rules. Paul would have agreed. Stephen Finlan writes ( Paul’s Cultic Atonement Metaphors , 101), apropos of Paul’s use of cultic terminology in…
Yahweh brought Israel out of Egypt “on eagles’ wings” (Exodus 19:4). John A. Davies argues ( A Royal Priesthood ) that this is no trite metaphor: “Representations of [eagles and vultures] are found in close association with royalty in both Egypt and Mesopotamia. A series of temple scenes in Egypt…
Priests have been despised throughout the modern era, but in Scripture the priest is a foretaste of the destiny of the human race. He is a sign of the restoration of the imago Dei . John Davies explains how ( A Royal Priesthood , 164-5): “Just as the original creation…
Hosea 6:7 has been a Reformed proof text of an Adamic covenant: They broke covenant like Adam. Recent commentary has been skeptical. “Adam” can mean “mankind,” rather than the individual first man. John Davies ( A Royal Priesthood , 202) thinks the older interpretation, however “unfashionable,” has something to commend…
Showing page 678 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
