Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Summary In what follows, I will consider the “year-stamps” employed in Scripture, i.e., statements of the form, “Such-and-such an event took place in the Xth year of Y.” In the process, I will suggest some ways in which the Biblical narrative might relate to events in the extra-Biblical world, though…
In the first essay on the parable of the Prodigal Son, I suggested that the problems commentators and others encounter in interpreting Jesus three-part parable are not accidental. These are not just problems in our ignorance of cultural background. They are intentional features of the stories —stories designed to poke…
The story of the Prodigal Son is perhaps the most well-known story in the Bible. As others have observed, it may also be one of the most misunderstood. In two short essays, I will point out features of this story that are commonly neglected, aspects of Jesus’ parable that might…
The parable of Lazarus and the nameless rich man is not an independent story. It is part of a long context that begins in Luke 15:1, where Jesus is eating with tax collectors and sinners and the scribes and Pharisees grumble. In response to their hardheartedness, Jesus tells a three-part…
The Bible is written so that even when a reader cannot pick up on what might be deeper or more detailed aspects of a text, there is virtually always a message to be heard. In the ancient world, where the “reader” of Scripture would likely be a church official facing…
The distinction between garden (or vineyard) and field begins in Genesis 2. This relates to the ordering of the formless world. Plants of the field are contrasted with the garden planted by God in Genesis 2:5&8. Later on, under the Old Covenant the Israelites will be required to keep their…
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INTRODUCTION Jesus sows the word, and it falls on different sorts of soil. The right response is to give up everything in order to gain the kingdom ( 13:44 -46), but those closest to Jesus scorn Him ( 13:53 -58). THE TEXT “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure…
Matthew 13:33: The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three pecks of meal, until it was all leavened. We noted in the sermon that leaven often represents something dangerous, poisonous, evil, contemptible, unclean, abominable. Leaven was not allowed on the altar of God,…
As much as pragmatic Americans might wish it to be otherwise, the Bible is not an answer-book. It includes advice, and laws, and rules, but a lot of it consists of puzzling prophecy, ancient history, obscure parables and apparently abstract theology. What are we supposed to get from that? We…
Athanasius: “the Son is in the Father . . . because the whole being of the Son is proper to the Father’s ousia , as radiance from light and a stream from a fountain; so that whosoever sees the Son, sees what is proper to the Father and knows that…
“Classical theism” is charged with rendering God remote, immovable, unfriendly. But the reality is the opposite; Nicene orthodoxy said God was near, far nearer than Arius wanted Him to be. Thomas Weinandy writes: “The Creed . . . professes that this God who is Father is almighty and thus, contrary…
When Hillary and W. got to college, both had posture photos taken, nude or in underwear. So says M. F. Burnyeat in the May 16 TLS . Burnyeat adds, “Officially, the idea was that the pictures would reveal which students needed remedial treatment for poor posture. In reality, the project…
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