Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Before considering the details of the Leviticus, we must have before us certain matters that have been established in Genesis and Exodus. These are things that we as Israelites already know when we first hear Moses report what God dictated to him in Leviticus. Adam Let us begin with Adam.…
(continued from issue 142) 2 “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘An adam, 1 when he brings near from you p a Nearbringing 2 to Yahweh, from livestock 3 from the herd and from the flock you p shall bring near your p Nearbringing. 4 2.…
Trying to Deal Honestly with Luke 10.25-37; 18.18-30; and Parallels When Christ enjoins upon the young man the duty of following him (Mt. 19:23), he does not give a counsel, but a command to all in common because no one can have a hope of salvation unless he follows Christ…
Initial Observations: How the Gospel Challenged the Pharisees In another paper , I argued that the “Law-Gospel” hermeneutic, as applied to Luke 10.25-37; 18.18-30, resulted in a fundamental misreading of the text. Thinking of the context of those passages in Luke’s Gospel has given me some further reflections on how…
I recently heard of a new English translation of the Bible being prepared by men concerned to preserve a literal word-for-word rendering of the Hebrew and Greek but also sensitive to ecclesiastical tradition. I wrote to the committee and asked if they were going to fix the traditional translation of…
All Christians struggle with sin. Many times even relatively mature Christians commit sins they thought they had long since left behind and end up struggling anew with sinful habits in thought, word, or deed. Naturally, this means they must rouse themselves to action in putting to death the deeds of…
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Yoder argues that from the time of the Babylonian captivity, the Jews developed a proto-“free church” model of community life. True in some respects. Jews didn’t have their own polity. But I’ve got doubts if that’s a fair characterization of Jews in and after the exile. Why? The Bible for…
Maximilian of Tebessa is often cited as an example of early Christian pacifism. When Roman officials pressured him to accept a military seal and swear the sacramentum by reminding him that other Christians served without qualms, he still refued, saying “They know what is expedient for them; but I am…
Warwick Ball’s Rome in the East is a treasure trove. Instead of telling the story of Rome from an occidental standpoint, he goes east and looks back. What does Roman history look like from Arabia, Syria, Edessa, India? One of his remarkable conclusions is that before the triumph of the…
In reaction to the lax respectability of the majority church, many hardy souls retreated to the desert or the frontier. So the story goes. Only the monastery was another form of cultural conformity. RA Markus ( The End of Ancient Christianity ) says that “the ideal of the philosophical life…
Florence Dupont points out in her Daily Life in Ancient Rome that in Latin enemy ( hostis ) andguest ( hospes ) “were formed from the same root, which had the meaning ‘the other who is similar to you.’”
In her study of Roman gladiatorial combat and arenas ( Blood in the Arena: The Spectacle of Roman Power ) Alison Futrell describes the Phoenician practice of human sacrifice transplanted to Carthage: “The young victim was placed in the arms of the bronze image of Ba’al Hammon, arms that sloped…
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