Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
When I wrote my commentary on Ecclesiastes A Table in the Mist I took Eccl. 11:1-2 as a reference to the risk of international trade. It sure did seem to me like a reference to Solomon’s risky trade with other nations. Israel exported grain (bread) and Solomon’s ships returned to…
When we read an alphabetical psalm in English, we miss the fact that each verse begins with a new letter of the Hebrew alphabet. I have found one way to get around this, which is for the leader to announce something relevant about each letter before reading his half of…
How does the Lord’s Supper proclaim the death of Jesus until He comes? (1 Corinthians 11:26). Historically, liturgists have attempted to locate some act in the rite of the Supper that corresponds to the death of Jesus: the fraction (breaking of bread), or the fact that bread and wine are…
These notes are posted here by request. We all now live in the age of slob worship thanks to the “sixties.” I never experienced sitting for prayer until 20 years ago. Jesus was unhappy when His disciples could not watch and pray for one hour. Today’s slob Christians complain if…
On September 11, 2001, Jesus brought judgment upon the United States of America. Following His normal procedure, He used an even more evil force to do it (Habakkuk 1-3). The warning Jesus gives throughout the Bible to those He uses to punish others is that they need to repent, or…
Because of Donald Trump, the “Birther” issue is heating up. It is not going away, and is only part of a larger cluster of issues in regard to the President. Virtually all of the relevant documents concerning who he is and where he has been, have been suppressed, at great…
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Feminists, rightly, attack the nymphet/Lolita treatment of incest, in which middle-aged father figures are victimized by precociously sexualized teens or pre-teens, as well as by their bitchy, frigid wives. This is the initial setup for the film American Beauty , though in the end the father figure refuses to consummate…
Leavings from a paper on Leviticus 18. Leviticus 18 is a chiastic structure consisting of smaller chiasms. 18:1 is an introductory formula, announcing the beginning of a new section of Leviticus. Verses 2-5 form the first section of the chapter, which repeats “I am Yahweh” three times and also contains…
From the introduction to Ellen Pollak’s Incest and the English Novel, 1684-1814 : According to Derrida, the prohibition against incest is “the unstable center of structuralist thought.” But in Derrida’s hands, it becomes “the condition of the possibility of meaning.” As Pollak explains it, Derrida’s “sexual fable of the production…
In her study of Incest and the Medieval Imagination , Elizabeth Archibald notes that medieval clerical writers were far more open about incest and incestuous desire than moderns have been until very recently: “On might have expected that the medieval church would have avoided telling stories about incest for fear…
At the end of 2 Corinthians 6, Paul quotes a series of Old Testament texts in support of his exhortation, “Do not be bound together with unbelievers.” God’s temple has no agreement with idols, and the Christian and the church are temples (v. 16). The church fulfills Yahweh’s promise to…
Hosea’s daughter is named Lo-ruhamah (1:6), and the Lord explains that her name signifies that He “will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel.” Lo-ruhamah means “no compassion.” But the word ruhamah is linked to the Hebrew word for “womb”; as many have pointed out, Yahweh’s compassion is…
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