Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
21. Under three things the earth quakes. And under four, it cannot bear up. 22. Under a slave when he becomes king, And a fool when he is satisfied with food, 23. Under an odious woman when she gets a husband, And a maidservant when she supplants her mistress. The…
We have looked at the prima facie evidence for a short chronology in Ezra-Nehemiah, a chronology that assumes that the Artaxerxes of Ezra 7ff. and Nehemiah is in fact Darius. This month we examine the argument against the short chronology. There is only one argument, and that is that the…
The Priestly Genealogy Jeshua the high priest, who returned with Zerubbabel, was not a young man at the time. We know this because his father, Jehozadak, was taken into captivity (1 Chron. 6:15). Thus was 50 years before the decree of Cyrus (2 Kings 25:18-22, by implication). Jehozadak’s father Seraiah,…
Thomas C. Oden, After Modernity . . . What? Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990. Reviewed by Rev. Jeffrey Meyers. Reading Oden’s After Modernity . . . What? was tonic. There were passages that launched me out of my chair with a hoot to pace the office floor — of course, the…
Matthew records that Jesus "withdrew" to Galilee to begin His public ministry there after He "heard that John had been delivered up" (Mt. 4:12). Matthew’s typically matter-of-fact style veils the truly remarkable character of Jesus’ withdrawal. Matthew has been presenting Jesus as the Messiah, the Seed of Abraham and Son…
John Brown called this one of the most difficult passages in the entire epistle to the Hebrews, and Hebrews is no easy book. Several questions confront us as we read and meditate on these verses. First, in what sense did the Old Testament saints described in verses 4-38 not receive…
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Addressing the question of whether God is “object” to us, Jenson says that objectivity is essential to conversation: “In all true mutual discourse . . . each must be both subject for and object of the other.  As I am present to address you, I am a subject and you…
Athanasius’ letter to Amun (354) is a meditation on purity.  Defilement, he argues, occurs “when we commit sin, that foulest of things.”  That is what Jesus meant when He said that we are defiled by what comes out - out of the heart . Bodily functions, by contrast, do not…
A fragment of Athanasius’ Easter Letter #22: “Our Lord Jesus Christ, who took upon Him to die for us all, stretched forth His hands, not somewhere on the earth beneath, but in the air itself, in order that the salvation effected by the Cross might be shown to be for…
INTRODUCTION With the plotters closing in on Him, Jesus celebrates the Passover with His disciples, but in the process He transforms it into a meal centered on the gift of His body and blood and celebrating the cutting of a new covenant. THE TEXT “Now on the first day of the…
The poor you will always have with you, Jesus says in defending the woman’s “wasteful” devotion, but you won’t always have me. The key to understanding this is to recognize that Jesus speaks of the woman pouring oil on His “body.”  The key is to recognize the double body of…
Comparing the beginning and end of Matthew’s passion narrative (Matthew 26:1-16; 28:1-20), Daniel Patte notes that both involve a confrontation between Jesus and the Jewish leaders.  But the balance of that confrontation shifts; Jesus begins in apparent passivity (“delivered up”), but in the resurrection story He is the one making…
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