Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Matthew’s gospel is a replay of Israel’s history, and this replay occurs at two different levels. On the one hand, Jesus relives Israel’s history and does it faithfully. He is the Son, the true Israel, called out of Egypt, baptized in the sea, tempted in the wilderness. He is the…
Trinity House President Peter Leithart will deliver two lectures at the Eighth Day Institute annual conference in Wichita, Kansas, January 16-18. The conference theme is "Constantine, Christendom, and Christian Renewal," and Dr. Leithart will be lecturing on Constantine. Dr. Leithart will preach on Sunday, January 19, at Trinity Covenant Church…
In the previous article, we considered the life of Abraham up to the birth of Isaac and the way in which his life up to that point foreshadows later redemptive history. Our reason for this consideration was at the Gospel of Matthew's behest. He pointed us in that direction. He…
The Spirit of Speech The last period in Israel’s history arrives almost from nowhere. The prophets appear unannounced, give short, but earth-shattering messages and then are whisked away by the Spirit (1 Kings 18:12). They do not hold high positions in Israel, but their words give them great political sway.…
Trinity House Institute is delighted to announce our first annual series of Nevin Lectures. Timothy George, Dean and Professor of Church History at Beeson Divinity School, will deliver four lectures on “Sacramental Theology from a Baptist Perspective” on February 7-8, 2014 at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama. More information...…
Revelation 1: 7 states the theme of Revelation. It is a self-standing verse, beginning and ending with “Amen” (the “Amen” at the end of verse 6 should be taken as the beginning of the statement in verse 7). A double Amen as a double witness, and it becomes a threefold…
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In his history of Christianity, August Neander distinguished between gnostics who arose from within Judaism and those whose inspiration came from “Oriental” modes of thought. Here is his description of the Jewish sources of gnosticism: In the following respect, all these Gnostics agree ; they all held . . .…
A few scattered notes from Jarl Fossum’s book examining the links between the figure of the “angel of Yahweh” in Samaritan theology and the “demiurge” of gnosticism. 1) Fossum points out that Simon Magus, legendarily the fountain of Gnosticism, venerated the Torah, and that some of the church Fathers said…
In a 2006 book on the origins of gnosticism, Carl B. Smith offers an alternative account of the connections of Judaism and gnosticism. According to the JETS reviewer: Smith “proposes that gnosticism arose in a social context of ‘alienated Judaism’ influenced by Greco-Roman and early Christian ideas in the aftermath…
In a book published in 1959, R. M. Grant attempted “to explain Gnosticism as arising out of the debris of apocalyptic-eschatological hopes which resulted from the fall or falls of Jerusalem.” According to a reviewer in Theology T0day , “Grant stresses the Jewish element which, as he rightly says, has…
Origen says that the Ophite demiurge had the face of a lion and was connected with Saturn, and this has led some scholars to conclude that Jaldabaoth was a combination of Baal and Kronos. John of Damascus says that the Phoenicians held Kronos to be a kind of demiurge, and…
According to Alfred Honig (writing in the late 19th century), the Ophite name for the demiurge, Jaldabaoth, comes from a Hebrew phrase meaning “child of chaos,” and the etymology goes back at least to the 1820s. Scholem argued, however, that the name was invented by a Jew and is a…
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