Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
WHAT IS THE OT PRECURSOR OF THE NT OFFICE OF PASTOR? HOW DOES THE FORMER ILLUMINATE THE LATTER? The first problem to address is: how do we know that there is an office of pastor in the New Testament? 1 Perhaps the way the question is put may permit me…
[This essay was originally published in December, 1981, in The Biblical Educator , a publication of the Institute for Christian Economics, and again with slight revisions in Contra Mundum 7 (Spring, 1993). It is reprinted here as a supplement to my book Creation in Six Days .] In 1979, Dr.…
Anyone seeking to reverse the meaning of this promise needs to come to grips not only with the phrase "God was with the lad" later on, but also with Hagar’s response in 16:13. She worships Yahweh, putting her trust in Him and obeying Him. In fact, Hagar is at the…
Ishmael is the narrator of Melville’s fantasy-romance Moby Dick. Melville takes up the traditional view of Ishmael as a wayward son of Abraham, driven out solely because of the Divine "caprice" of election, an angry man with his hand raised against all other men. He is a fitting "anti-hero," or…
There were five cities at the center of the Canaanite culture in the circle of the Jordan, a place like the Garden of Eden, like the land of Egypt, before it became the Dead Sea at the destruction of the cities (Genesis 13:10). Genesis 14:2 tells us their names: Sodom,…
Meditations by James B. Jordan Genesis 19, the destruction of Sodom and the rescue of Lot, is part two of a story that begins in Genesis 18. These two chapters happen in one 24-hour period: noon and evening in Mamre, and midnight and daybreak in Sodom. God and two angels…
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Some notes cut from a larger project. The story of the first books, as Stephen Mitchell explains in the introduction to his recent translation of the poem, is a story of civilizing. The entire poem is framed by references to the city of Uruk, but the city moves from a…
Jesus tells the Pharisees who accuse Him of casting out demons by the power of Satan that, on the contrary, He is the stronger man who binds the strong man and comes to plunder the “vessels” of his house (Mark 3). The only other place where Mark uses the word…
NT Wright suggests that Jesus’ response to the Pharisees’ complaint about his disciples “harvesting” on the Sabbath puts them in the role of Doeg the Edomite, who watched David get showbread from the priests at Nob (end of Mark 2). A student points out that the Edomite theme is still…
The structure of Mark 3:1-6 seems to be basically chiastic: A. Jesus’ entry to synagogue B. man with withered hand C. heal on Sabbath? D. Jesus to man E. Jesus to Pharisees F. Silence E’. Jesus angry and grieved at Pharisees D’. Jesus to man C’. ?? B’. restored hand…
How can we justify knowledge? Very roughly: Foundationalist justification is justification from the origin. We can’t let the argument stray from the source, lest it meander. Pragmatic justification is justification at the end. We know what is true because it proves true, it works. Foundationalist justification is “tragic.” Pragmatic justification…
Richard Muller points out the essential continuity of Protestant interpretation with patristic and medieval models: “The Reformers and, indeed, the Protestant orthodox all assumed that the living Word addressed the church directly in and from the text. In other words, they advocated a spiritual and ecclesial exegesis that participated in…
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