Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
A while back a friend told me that his church had finally introduced weekly communion. He told me that they were having an 8:00 a.m. service on Sundays for anyone who wanted to have communion. At present only about five people were coming to this service, but he was hopeful…
According to James B. Jordan’s outline of Deuteronomy, the first commandment section runs from 6:1 to 11:32, and the second commandment section begins with 12:1. 1 That this division of the text is sound is confirmed by a comparison of 6:1 with 12:1. Deuteronomy 6:1 announces that "this is the…
Calling Jerusalem the "holy city" comes so naturally to Christians that it comes as something of a surprise to realize how infrequently the phrase is used in Scripture. Not only is Jerusalem rarely called holy, but in the Old Testament this classification is found only in texts that refer to…
Nicodemus’s conversation with Jesus in John 3:1-15 is often regarded as an illustration of the tremendous stupidity of the Jews of our Lord’s day. Those who take the passage this way fail to recognize the profound nature of Nicodemus’s questions and of Jesus’ answers. In verse 3, Jesus tells Nicodemus…
In his book 1994? , Harold Camping asserts that the life spans of the primeval patriarchs of Genesis 5 & 11 were actually epochs, one after another. This together with other mistakes in interpretation yields for him a creation date of 11013 B.C. From here, Camping tries to work out…
I have received a number of letters asking for my comments on this difficult passage. Here is my best shot! 2. Now I praise you because you remember me in everything, and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you. This statement opens a new section…
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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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