Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Figure: Literary structure of the Garden narrative The Garden narrative describes God forming the adam , resting him in his presence, then provisioning for his appetites of food, vocation, and mate. It continues to describe a snake, the introduction of death, and humanity's expulsion from the garden. The pages of…
I’ve spent the last few years studying the theology of St. Irenaeus (d. circ. 200ad). In particular, I’ve been gripped by the way that Irenaeus consistently resisted the anti-body emphasis that emerged in later Christian theology. His eschatology is remarkably focused on the resurrection of the body, and the renewal…
Details of Jesus in Exodus 1:22-2:25 Although there are a great many Christ-types in the Old Testament, it is hard to overplay the obviousness of some that seem to necessarily rise to the top before others. One of these is Isaac, with his near sacrifice by his own father after…
What can we say about Cain's wicked sanctuary-city of Enoch? First that it was built with a brother's blood as its cornerstone. The Church is also built such, for Jesus was the younger brother of the whole Adamic race, slain by that company of older brothers because they hated Him.…
In Genesis 2:9 the ground brought forth trees good for food, delightful to view, and in two cases, life-giving or rule-bestowing. Adam, made of the ground (2:7), would by implication bring forth new trees, and thus trees and plants are among the symbols for human beings throughout the Bible. The…
One of the must fundamental teachings of the Bible and of the Christian religion is that man does not have life in himself. Man must get life from outside of himself, in order to maintain his life. The way this is done is through eating and drinking. Apart from life,…
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God’s fiery presence descends from Sinai and no one can enter tabernacle. It happens again when the temple is finished. But when the Spirit falls, the disciples stand in the fiery presence and are not consumed. They have become asbestos. They are Daniel’s three friends in the furnace; burning bushes.…
David’s life recapitulates and predicts the history of Israel. Fleeing from Saul, he goes into exile westward among the Philistines, a repeat of the Egyptian exile. He comes out of Philistia to conquer the the land and take the throne. Later, his son Absalom rebels and drives David out of…
In his contribution to Martin Bucer: Reforming Church and Community (73), Ian Hazlett calls attention to Bucer’s sense of the breadth of the issues involved in the debate over real presence: “for Bucer by now the issue of the presence of Christ in Communion goes far beyond fixing one’s attention…
Ian Hazlett ( Martin Bucer , 78) observes that some Anabaptist groups taught “a radicalized Anselmian doctrine of the all-sufficiency of Calvary, by which Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross effects per se salvation for those who so believe. This reductionist externalization of Christ is then reinforced when it is…
When the angels come out with their trumpets, they “prepare ( hetoimazo ) to trumpet them” (Revelation 8:6). It’s not clear what that means. A warm up, with old jazz standards first improvised by Jubal? Cleaning the mouthpiece or valves? The more important point of the reference seems to be…
Jesus is “first and last” ( protos kai eschatos ) and He says so at the beginning and end of Revelation - at the first and the last (1:17; 2:8; 22:13). “First and last” is the first and last thing Jesus says. In between these two declarations, there are several…
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