Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
An addendum to the earlier post on Romans. In my first essay, I pointed out how the role of the sin of Joseph’s brothers in bringing about Joseph’s exaltation in Egypt, and the resulting salvation of the world from famine, might show us and explanation to some of the distinctive…
When Paul wrote to the Romans, he was obviously writing a missionary support letter of a sort. One can read Romans 1.15 and then jump into 15.23 (“[S]ince I no longer have any room. . . .) without losing virtually any coherence. Yet into this letter he “dropped,” as it…
The Westminster Confession says that each passage has one meaning , not many, and that gets picked up on by lots of people who are suspicious of and do not like typological readings of Scripture. I will defer to wiser and more learned heads than mine as to exactly what…
By arresting, torturing, and killing Jesus, the authorities thought that they were securing well being and peace again in their society by means of the tried and true method of a single-victim scapegoat. Everyone’s thirst for violence will be satisfied and we can get on with the business of everyday…
This is the second in a series of essays on "Continuing the Reformation." In his important though sadly unavailable book, Calvin's Doctrine of the Church (Brill, 1970), Benjamin Charles Milner argues persuasively that in Calvin's view God's perfect order for His creation, an order that was to grow and develop…
Trinity House Fellow James Jordan recently gave a series of lectures in London on how to read the Bible. They are available online at NorthLondonChurch.org .
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Charles Hodge challenged the abolitionist view that slavery was always sinful so effectively that his essay was included in the pro-slavery compendium Cotton is King . Mark Noll points out that the editor deleted Hodges dire prophecies about the future of American slavery (this in 1835): “The South . .…
Yahweh places words in the mouths of prophets through His Spirit. Sometimes, though, the words that He places there are spoken back to Him. Inspired by the Spirit, the prophet becomes part of an internal conversation within Yahweh. Hence: Yahweh, Spirit, and Prophet = Father, Spirit, Son.
INTRODUCTION Proverbs 24:10-20 continues, structurally speaking, in the same pattern as the 22:22-24:9. Instead of the two-line Proverbs we find elsewhere, these are small paragraphs, at least four lines long. 24:10-20 returns again and again to situations of distress, attack, battle, and the success of enemies. Verse 10 talks about…
After the flood, Noah releases a dove, which finds no rest ( manoach ; Gen 8:9). The ark finds rest ( nuach ) on Ararat (8:4). It is one of a dozen puns on the name of Noah in the flood story. Centuries later, the ark of the covenant (not…
Matthew begins and ends with scenes of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. In chapters 1-2, the Mary and Joseph are his parents; in chapter 27, there’s Joseph of Arimathea and Mary has doubled into Mary Magdalene and the “other Mary.” The first story is a story of life, the second a…
Barnes writes, “when Christians were executed by imperial order under Decius and Valerian, crowds still openly jeered at martyrs and their sympathizers. In the ‘Great Persecution,’ however, evidence of similar hostility is almost entirely lacking; by the last decades of the third century, the Christian church had become an established…
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