Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
1 Introduction ESTHER and RUTH are similar stories. Each details the changing fortunes of a young woman. Each begins with the protagonist in a destitute situation. The fortunes of each reverses by story’s end. Intriguing parallels exist: Scenes : The stories transition through a similar set of scenes, see Table…
Maybe this is not the best venue to reveal that I sometimes wonder about all that deep exegesis: the chiasms, the numerology, vowel modifications, the typological labyrinthes, the innumerable exodus patterns that are so often limned by Peter Leithart or James Jordan or Alastair Roberts. Maybe it’s because I am…
In 1923, J. Gresham Machen wrote the book he is perhaps most remembered for, “Christianity and Liberalism”. Machen wrote it to help map out the cultural currents that were impacting the church with the hope that the church could be vigilant against the dangers theological liberalism posed to historic Christianity.…
March 25, nine months before Christmas, is the date that is often associated with the Annunciation to Mary, Gabriel’s announcement to Mary that, by the coming of the Spirit upon her, she would conceive and bear the heir to David’s throne, whose kingdom would have no end. The story is…
Race and Covenant: Recovering the Religious Roots for American Reconciliation , edited by Gerald R. McDermott (Grand Rapids, MI: Acton Institute), 278 pp. A group of notable thinkers gathered to discuss biblical resources for addressing racial conflict in America in February 2019 at Samford University in Birmingham. Race and Covenant…
“Covenant Creationism,” which might be the most consistent brand of full preterism, is merely dispensationalism turned inside-out. The main cause of disputes over the interpretation of the Scriptures is the practice of interpreting texts in isolation. This applies not only to interpreting a passage without reference to other passages, but…
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“A tradition of seven heavens and seven earths was popular in the Near East during the later part of the first millennium B.C.E. and the first millennium C.E.,” writes Wayne Horowitz ( Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography , 217). He elaborates: “Surviving Hebrew and Arabic texts from this time present cosmographies in…
Yahweh destroys the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot escapes with his daughters to a cave, where they get their father drunk with wine, and seduce him, giving birth to Moab and Ammon. Late in Judges, Gibeah of Benjamin has become a Sodom, and Yahweh sends the rest of Israel…
When there’s a famine in the land, people leave for brighter horizons. They find food; they multiply; they get rich. It happens to Abram in Egypt, to Jacob in Haran, to Israel in Egypt. Exile agrees with Israel; they always return with children and treasures. Except Naomi. She goes to…
The gods fight back chaos and form a universe, and set up an image to mark the boundary of their ordered realm. A god instructs a king to build a temple, who places an image of the God in the inner sanctuary. The zones of ancient cosmology - heaven, sky,…
John hears a voice behind him and turns to see the voice. First he sees lampstands (Revelation 1:10, 12). Austin Farrer ( The Revelation of St. John Divine , 65) points out that the turning and the lampstands come from Zechariah 4:1-2. He explains, “Zechariah’s vision was familiar to Israelites…
Jesus has eyes of fire (Revelation 1:14). Eyes are organs of judgment, and to get near Jesus you have to pass through the fire. In the next phrase, Jesus is said to have feet like bronze, glowing as if “fired in a furnace” (v. 15). He has walked through the…
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