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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Before Yahweh ever promises that Abraham’s seed through Sarah will multiply, He promises that to Ishmael (Genesis 16:10). The line goes from Adam to Noah to Ishmael; he is the first Abrahamic new Adam, before Abraham himself is described in these Adamic terms. This is further support for Paul’s allegory…
“A wild beast has killed him,” Jacob says of Joseph when he sees the bloody robe. Suffering, death, wild animals, a robe stripped off - it’s all back in Psalm 22: “Many bulls have surrounded me; strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me. They open wide their mouth at me,…
MacMullen thinks Constantine deserves the title Maximus , if only for the establishment of Constantinople. After summarizing its place in Europe and role in subsequent European history, he says, “As a founder, Constantine belongs in the company of Romulus and Alexander.”
Constantinople’s “birthday” occurred on May 11, 330. Most of the festivities took place in the newly built forum, at the center of which “stood a porphyry column bearing a gilt statue of the emperor. It held on its right hand the orb of world power. Inside the orb was a…
In 324, Constantine, then ruler of the Western Empire, went to war with his Eastern counterpart, Lincinius. Ramsay MacMullen describes it as having the “character of a crusade”: “For Constantine, the battle cry was not legitimacy, though indeed he was the senior Augustus and thought he now dusted off the…
Athanasius that the God of the Arians cannot create. If God is a maker, then “his creative Word” must be “proper to him” and not outside Him: “If, on the one hand, the willing [to create] belongs to him, and his will is productive and sufficient for constituting the things…
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