Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Hearing, Seeing, and History God is Word, not picture. He speaks, but He is not visible in Himself. Thus, God initiates history through language. He speaks the world into existence, and speaks to us to bring us out of formlessness and emptiness into the fullness of being His Bride. Similarly,…
The consensus of modern critical scholarship is that the book assigned to Isaiah was in fact composed by several different hands. "Deutero-Isaiah" supposedly begins with Isaiah 40:1. There are many good reasons for rejecting this conclusion. Among these, the narrative pattern of chapters 36-39 is a neglected piece of evidence.…
Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy has pointed out throughout his many fascinating and occasionally quixotic writings and lectures that human life exists in four directions. These four directions are inward, outward, backward, and forward. In this article I want to explore these as they relate to the work of the Church. Each of…
14. Joseph and Judah Genesis 38 tells us about Judah’s sons and grandsons, and if we try to get these events into the time before the descent of the Hebrews into Goshen, it is very difficult to do so. But this passage is almost certainly dischronologized. Thematically Genesis 38 is…
From time to time I am asked what is good SF and fantasy that teenagers in Christian and home schools might enjoy. The following brief discussion is my answer that question. I’ve tried to point out authors and stories that are not widely known, and therefore have set aside G.…
"And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awaken, some to life everlasting and others to disgrace, to contempt everlasting." This verse is often cited as proof that there was a belief in the resurrection of the body in the Old Testament times. In fact,…
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I can’t fit it all together, but in general outlines, it’s clear that Matthew’s Passion narrative is tracking with Zechariah 9-14.  There are a couple of fixed points: Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem explicitly fulfills Zechariah 9 (cf. Matthew 21:5), and despite the fact that he attributes the prophecy to Jeremiah,…
The woman pours perfume on Jesus’ head (Matthew 26:7).  Jesus says she has “cast” ( ballo ) the perfume on his “body” ( soma ; v. 12). It is like the precious oil upon the head, that runs down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard, down to the skirts of…
The opening episodes of Matthew 26 are organized in a fairly neat chiasm: A. Passover, delivered up, chief priests, plot, 26:1-5 ( paradidomi , v 2; archiereus, v 3) B. Woman  pours myrrh on Jesus, 26:6-7 ( muron , v 7) C. Disciples complain: give to poor, 26:8-9 ( ptochos…
Abraham received the coins from Thares (i.e., Terah), and bought a field with them from the people of Jericho; Joseph was also purchased with them (” his etiam Joseph est emptus ab Ismahelitis”); then they came into Pharaoh’s treasury, and then into the treasury of the Queen of the Arabs,…
The priests and elders who plot against Jesus determine not to do it during the Passover, to avoid an “uproar” (26:5).  The word is used only one other time in Matthew, to describe the “uproar” among the Jews who are rioting in front of Pilate’s Praetorium (27:24).  Because of the…
“Jesus had finished all these words” (Matthew 26:1).  Not only has Jesus finished the last of the five discourses; He has stopped speaking to Israel altogether.  Through the next several chapters, He barely speaks at all. This is an announcement of judgment against Israel.  From the beginning of His ministry,…
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