Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Because of sin, the arts sometimes do not serve to glorify but to debase. Sinful men make their environments ugly, and create ugly art to “enhance” their ugly words. But since all men are still God’s images, no men are able to live with such ugliness all the time. Thus,…
Arts and literature reviews in most evangelical Christian publications generally approach their subjects in terms of ideology. We are told whether or not the film or book is acceptable in terms of morals, sexual graphicness, and theological accuracy. While there is definitely a place for such reviews, I fear that…
We speak of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The early Church tended to speak of Him as Father, Word, and Spirit. In this short essay, I want to suggest some other ways to think of the Trinity, ways that I have found pastorally helpful in my own life…
I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and fourth of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and guard My commandments (Ex. 20:5-6). The Second Word forbids acts of ceremonial…
8. The Table of Nations If we assume births every two years, and about 30 years between generations (cp. Gen. 11:12-24), we can come up with an approximate series of dates for the generations recorded in Genesis 10. We shall assume that all three of Noah’s sons had their firstborn…
Zechariah’s first prophecy (Zech. 1:1-6) was delivered in the eighth month of the second year of Darius. The notation of this date serves a number of purposes. Most obviously, it relates Zechariah’s prophecies to those of Haggai. By the time Zechariah delivered his first prophecy, Haggai had already chided the…
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A friend and former student, Aaron Cummings, writes: “If Ruth is ‘adopted’ as a daughter to Boaz, then her story becomes the reversal of the original story of Moab (Gen. 19). Lot’s younger daughter successfully seduced her father while he slept, and she conceived Moab. Ruth, Elimelech’s younger daughter in…
A class discussion of Proverbs brought out some interesting points. Proverbs 11:18 says that whoever sows righteousness will receive a sure reward. The verb “sow” is zr’ , the verbal form of “seed.” Righteousness is a seed sown, and the metaphor implies that righteousness is potent. What a seed produces…
James Jordan points out that Boaz “adopts” Ruth into his household when he first meets her. The use of the Hebrew na’ar hints at this. Boaz speaks to his na’ar when he first arrives on the scene (2:5), and invites Ruth to drink water along with his na’arim (2:9). In…
Boaz calls Ruth “my daughter” (2:8), as does Naomi. This indicates the age difference between them, but also points in a typological direction. After all, Boaz marries his “daughter,” just as Yahweh is both Father and Husband to “Daughter Zion.”
Garber notes that Jaques’s “seven ages” speech numerically links the ages of man with “the number of the planets, and the virtues and vices, and the liberal arts.” Specifically the planets: “the schoolboy is mercurial; the lover, venereal; the soldier, martial; the justice, jovial; the old man, saturnine.”
Pastoral was a huge fad in Elizabethan England. Marlowe’s brief song of the shepherd exemplifies the conventions of the genre: Come live with me and be my love, And we will all the pleasures prove That valleys, groves, hills, and fields, Woods or steepy mountain yields. And we will sit…
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