Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
When I wrote my commentary on Ecclesiastes A Table in the Mist I took Eccl. 11:1-2 as a reference to the risk of international trade. It sure did seem to me like a reference to Solomon’s risky trade with other nations. Israel exported grain (bread) and Solomon’s ships returned to…
When we read an alphabetical psalm in English, we miss the fact that each verse begins with a new letter of the Hebrew alphabet. I have found one way to get around this, which is for the leader to announce something relevant about each letter before reading his half of…
How does the Lord’s Supper proclaim the death of Jesus until He comes? (1 Corinthians 11:26). Historically, liturgists have attempted to locate some act in the rite of the Supper that corresponds to the death of Jesus: the fraction (breaking of bread), or the fact that bread and wine are…
These notes are posted here by request. We all now live in the age of slob worship thanks to the “sixties.” I never experienced sitting for prayer until 20 years ago. Jesus was unhappy when His disciples could not watch and pray for one hour. Today’s slob Christians complain if…
On September 11, 2001, Jesus brought judgment upon the United States of America. Following His normal procedure, He used an even more evil force to do it (Habakkuk 1-3). The warning Jesus gives throughout the Bible to those He uses to punish others is that they need to repent, or…
Because of Donald Trump, the “Birther” issue is heating up. It is not going away, and is only part of a larger cluster of issues in regard to the President. Virtually all of the relevant documents concerning who he is and where he has been, have been suppressed, at great…
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There are strange doings in the Reformed world these days. One of the strangest I’ve come across recently are comments from one Reformed elder who complained that NT Wright’s views on justification were introducing a new Romanism. According to this writer, it is no defense of Wright to point out…
Since I’ve said some favorable things about Virginia Postrel’s The Substance of Style , I should mention Anne Hollander’s very smart review in the December 22 TNR . Hollander is, after all, far better qualified than I to speak on matters of taste and fashion. One of Hollander’s essential points…
James Wood has an intriguing and self-revealing review of new translations of Leon Battista Alberti’s Momus and Erasmus’s The Praise of Folly in the December 22 issue of The New Republic . He begins with a contrast between antique comedy, which is “comedy of correction” and “modern” comedy, which is…
Why music? Well, for instance: What I want my life to be is better expressed by a 2-minute segment the Canzona of Beethoven’s A minor string quartet than by any words I could ever speak or write, expressed all at once in multiple registers and nuances. To say it all…
Graham Ward, writing about the “displaced body of Jesus,” argues that “none of us has access to bodies as such, only to bodies that are mediated through the giving and receiving of signs.” To which I want to say, Hmmm. On the one hand, I want to agree that our…
The current issue of Semeia (#45) is devoted to “New Testament Masculinities,” and is a contribution to the growing academic study of masculinity. Jerome Neyrey has an interesting article here on Jesus’ masculinity in the gospel of Matthew. Two of his conclusions are particularly noteworthy: 1) “Matthew rarely locates [Jesus]…
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