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Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.

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Biblical Studies

Funerals and Flutes

Matthew 8-9 records three clusters of miracles, interspersed with snatches of Jesus’ teaching about various aspects of discipleship. Just as the Sermon on the Mount displays the authority of Jesus’ Word in teaching, these chapters display the authority of Jesus’ Word over sickness, uncleanness, the creation, demons, and death. In…

by Peter LeithartApril 17, 1992
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Baptism

Daddy, Why Was I Excommunicated?

Since the early 1980s, several of the conservative Reformed Churches have debated and wrestled with the issue of paedocommunion (infant communion). The PCA and the OPC assigned study committees to examine the question, both of which produced useful reports both in support of and against the position. Though the debate…

by Peter LeithartApril 13, 1992
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Biblical Chronology

Chronologies and Kings, Part 9: Jehu, Hazael, and Assyria

(This issue of Biblical Chronology concludes a discussion of the Biblical and Assyrian chronologies, begun in previous posts. Click on the category link of "Biblical Chronology" above to see previous issues. Did Shalmaneser Know Jehu? Allis writes: "The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser contains, in addition to brief accounts of the…

by James B. JordanMarch 23, 1992
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American Culture

Arts and Play, Part 4

Movies Movies as an art form have a powerful impact because they take place in a dark room, on a large screen, with no distractions, and because they entail many of the arts: music, acting, choreography, design and color, etc. A movie can be an overwhelming experience for a young…

by James B. JordanMarch 23, 1992
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Leviticus

The Ecology of the Tribute Offering

The Hebrew word translated as "grain offering" or "cereal offering" is minchah . Like the translation of `olah as "burnt offering," the translation of minchah as "grain offering" is somewhat deceiving, since minchah does not refer to grain or cereal. In liturgical contexts outside of Leviticus, in fact, the word…

by Peter LeithartMarch 13, 1992
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Ascension

Skinned and Cut

"He shall then skin the burnt offering and cut it into its pieces" (Leviticus 1:6). The normal word ( `olah ) that is translated as "burnt offering" and "whole burnt offering" has nothing to do with either burning or wholeness. It is the noun form of a verb meaning "to…

by Peter LeithartMarch 13, 1992

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Ephraim and Forgetfulness

Psalm 78 is a wisdom Psalm about Ephraim turning into his brother, Manasseh. Ephraim’s failure to come to Jephthah’s aid (Judges 12:1-6) initiates the Psalm’s review of Israel’s stubbornness and rebellion (Psalm 78:8-10). Ephraim refused to take up arms (v. 9), a sign that Ephraim had forgotten the Exodus (v.…

May 15, 2013

Apocalyptic Patience

I have a meditation on the “little apocalypse” of Isaiah 24 at the Trinity House web site today.

May 15, 2013

Thousand years as a day

In his commentary on Revelation (in Greek Commentaries on Revelation (Ancient Christian Texts) , Oecumenius interprets the millennium as the period between Christ’s incarnation and His ascension. During “the time of the incarnation of the Lord, the devil was bound and was not able to resist the marks of the…

May 15, 2013

Self-fulfillment

In Love and Responsibility , John Paul II pointed to the impossible possibility of betrothed love. On the one hand, “no person can be transferred or ceded to another. In the natural order, it is oriented towards self-perfection, towards the attainment of an ever greater fullness of existence - which…

May 15, 2013
Uncategorized

Adam at rest

Gregory Beale notes in The Temple and the Church’s Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God that the verb used in Genesis 2:15 for “put” is not the expected sim , but the rather rarer yanach , which bears some relation to the verb nacham , which…

May 14, 2013
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Obama’s war

Mark Mazetti’s The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth explains that Obama’s expansion of drone war is linked with his opposition to black sites and Bushian enhanced interrogation. The TNR reviewer writes: “To John Rizzo, the carryover general…

May 13, 2013

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