Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Summary In what follows, I will consider the “year-stamps” employed in Scripture, i.e., statements of the form, “Such-and-such an event took place in the Xth year of Y.” In the process, I will suggest some ways in which the Biblical narrative might relate to events in the extra-Biblical world, though…
In the first essay on the parable of the Prodigal Son, I suggested that the problems commentators and others encounter in interpreting Jesus three-part parable are not accidental. These are not just problems in our ignorance of cultural background. They are intentional features of the stories —stories designed to poke…
The story of the Prodigal Son is perhaps the most well-known story in the Bible. As others have observed, it may also be one of the most misunderstood. In two short essays, I will point out features of this story that are commonly neglected, aspects of Jesus’ parable that might…
The parable of Lazarus and the nameless rich man is not an independent story. It is part of a long context that begins in Luke 15:1, where Jesus is eating with tax collectors and sinners and the scribes and Pharisees grumble. In response to their hardheartedness, Jesus tells a three-part…
The Bible is written so that even when a reader cannot pick up on what might be deeper or more detailed aspects of a text, there is virtually always a message to be heard. In the ancient world, where the “reader” of Scripture would likely be a church official facing…
The distinction between garden (or vineyard) and field begins in Genesis 2. This relates to the ordering of the formless world. Plants of the field are contrasted with the garden planted by God in Genesis 2:5&8. Later on, under the Old Covenant the Israelites will be required to keep their…
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An Eternal Kingdom, 1 Kings 16:8-34 INTRODUCTION Reading 1-2 Kings from beginning to end might give the impression that the book is about the unfaithfulness of Israel. It tells the story of Solomon?s rise and fall, the division of the kingdom, the deterioration of Israel and Judah, and the beginning…
Alessandro Baricco, Without Blood . Translated from Italian by Ann Goldstein. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004. 97 pages. Without Blood , Alessandro Baricco’s fifth book, begins in horror. Four-year-old Nina Roca hides beneath a trap door in an old farmhouse listening as several men murder her father and brother.…
Donald A. Norman, Emotional Design: Why we love (or hate) everyday things (Basic Books, 2004), 257 pp. When Israeli scientist Noam Tractinsky first heard of studies in Japan that ATM machines with an attractive arrangement of buttons were perceived as functioning better than machines with an unattractive arrangement, he was…
Psalm 107:22 We saw in the sermon that song accompanies the ascension offering in the worship of the tabernacle. A sacrifice of praise is a means of ascent to God, calling on Him to draw near in glory and responding to His glory as He draws near. Through song, our…
God created a world with three environments. At the center of the world was a garden, the sanctuary where Adam and Eve were to worship their Creator. Surrounding the sanctuary was the land of Eden, and outside the land of Eden were other lands like Havilah, Cush, and Assyria. We…
Luke 14:21-24 The parable of the wedding feast is a parable about the kingdom, where the kingdom is envisioned, as it often is in Jesus?Eteaching, as a dinner, a banquet, a wedding feast. The key point in this particular parable is about who is invited to the wedding feast. First…
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