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Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.

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Biblical Studies

Is Abraham’s Life a Type?

The preceding essay has caused me to consider the possibility that the life of Abraham as recounted in Genesis contains a typological prophecy of the history of Israel; that is, that the events in Abraham’s life broadly anticipate events in Israel’s history. This kind of pattern is seen in the…

by James B. JordanMay 5, 2001
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Hermeneutics

Thirty-Eight Years by the Sheep Pool

by: Jeff Meyers and James Jordan In the fifth chapter of John’s gospel we read of a man who had been ill for 38 years and who was lying by a pool located by the Sheep Gate of Jerusalem. This sheep waited, as did many other infirm people, for an…

by Jeff MeyersDecember 5, 2000
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Biblical Horizons

How Are Women Saved?

What had been reduced to ruin by this sex, would by the selfsame sex be recovered to salvation. As Eve believed the serpent, so Mary believed the angel. The delinquency which the one occasioned by believing, the other by believing effaced. —Tertullian What is Paul saying about women and salvation…

by Jeff MeyersOctober 5, 2000
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Jeremiah

The Return of Hamor

Back in Biblical Horizons 132 I discussed the horrible abuse of the converted men of Salem/Shechem in Genesis 34. These Hivites had joined the covenant by circumcision and then were slaughtered by Simeon and Levi. That, however, is not the end of their story. In Joshua 9 we find the…

by James B. JordanOctober 4, 2000
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Biblical Horizons

Abram’s 318 Men

Genesis 14:14 says that Abram mustered his trained men, “born in his house,” to rescue Lot, and gives their number as 318. It is clear that the precise number is provided for some reason, but what is it? S. Gevirtz notes that 318 is the sum of all the prime…

by James B. JordanSeptember 4, 2000
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Hermeneutics

153 Large Fish

Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three; and although there were so many, the net was not torn. (John 21:11) This is one of those texts in the Bible that many people puzzle over. It is not a puzzle…

by James B. JordanSeptember 4, 2000

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Bible and Episcopacy

H. W. Montefiore, one-time vice-principal of Westcott House, Cambridge, and a priest in the church of England, argues that the episcopacy is of the plene esse of the church. Of those who claim it is if the esse , he writes, “if episcopacy were to be essential to the life…

September 20, 2007
Philosophy

Ethical and Religious

Calvin O. Schrag helpfully clarifies what Kierkegaard means by the “teleological suspension of the ethical” ( Ethics , 70, 1959). It’s essential to distinguish between the “ethical” as a mode of existence and the ethical as universal moral requirements. When Kierkegaard uses the category in the former sense, he is…

September 20, 2007
Philosophy

Fear and Trembling

Some notes on Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling . 1. Kierkegaard uses Abraham as the exemplar of the limitations of the Hegelian system. The Hegelians claim to have arrived at the eschatological form of philosophy, encompassing everything, including Christianity, within its scope. Kierkegaard brilliantly discerns that Abraham won’t fit. He’s trying…

September 20, 2007
Philosophy

I Banish You

Kierkegaard’s theatricality, sensitivity, and sense of importance, are evident in his diary entries during 1848-49, when he was under fairly scathing attack from the journal The Corsair . One entry reads: “And even though Denmark were willing to do so, it is very questionable whether Denmark could make good the…

September 20, 2007
Theology

Sketch of Contemporary Theology

This is a partial, prejudiced, personal list of some of things going on in theology today. It’s very much limited by my own knowledge and interests. It is in no particular order. I. Theology: Movements and Trends. A. Political theology 1. Players: William Cavanagh, Oliver O’Donovan. 2. Agenda: Opposition to…

September 19, 2007
Philosophy

Caputo’s oversignt

A friend, Bret Saunders, writes the following in response to my post summarizing Caputo’s account of the “postmodern turns”: “Caputo appears to have omitted the so-called ‘theological turn,’ such as is found in J.-L. Marion and J.-F. Courtine. Of course, this is because Caputo continues to deny that Marion’s work…

September 17, 2007

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