Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Why there is more to Jephthah than meets than eye It was not that long ago that I realized the Jephthah-story and the Jesus-story were basically the same story. Sounds crazy, I know. But here is a one-paragraph synopsis of both: The people of God have gone their own way,…
G.K. Chesterton famously said that the Gospels don’t reveal Jesus’ mirth. It’s true we never catch Jesus laughing. But can we believe He never did? I don’t think so. Laughter is human, and Jesus was fully human. Jesus promised that those who mourned would laugh. He mourned; would He not…
Matthew 2 has all the elements of an exodus story. There’s a murderous king, who slaughters Jewish babies. There’s a infant who will be Israel’s future deliverer, saved from the murderous king so He can later return to save His people and lead them to the Promised land. There’s an…
The calendar of Israel was primarily theological, centered on commemorating the salvific acts of God, but also agricultural, celebrating the creation-restoring effects of those salvific acts. The feasts of the first month celebrated the reviving of the world in the Spring, and typified the cutting off of the Savior in…
The chiastic shape corresponds to the shape of human life. This should not surprise us, because we are made in the image of God, and God is manifest in Word and Spirit. If we are living epistles, our lives will look a bit like the literary shape of the books…
Back in January, Venkatesh Rao wrote a fascinating post on the Ribbonfarm blog, discussing different forms of models of narrative. Engaging with Ursula LeGuin’s talk ‘The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction’ , Rao explores her contrast between the (male) ‘hero narrative’ and the (female) ‘carrier-bag story’, and suggests a third…
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Two very different evaluations of the Enlightenment appear in recent books. First from Robert Darnton, historian of the French Enlightenment, who, according to the reviewer in the October 6 TNR , devotes the first and most substantative essay in his recent book George Washington’s False Teeth to defending the Enlightenment.…
There’s a breakdown in the traditional typology that links “promised land” with “heaven.” Though the promised land is eschatologically a new heavens and new earth, the typology is more exactly fulfilled in the church’s fulfillment of the great commission on earth. After all, we don’t embark on a “conquest” of…
Moses is the matchmaker who brings the bride to a trysting place with her lover, Yahweh. He is the “friend of the bridegroom” who, like John the Baptist, prepares the bride for her husband. As such, Moses and John are models for all Christian ministry, which is also all about…
Something to check: Is Moses the first “horned man” in the Bible? He comes down from the mountain, having seen the glory of God, with “horns” on his head, rays of glory radiating out. This may be the source of the horned man image used elsewhere, in the Psalms for…
Douglas A. Campbell argues forcefully for interpreting the phrase ek pisteos (from faith) in Romans 1:17 as a reference to the faithfulness of Christ in his obedience to death. This, in turn, suggests strongly that Paul’s later use of pistis Christou (faith of Christ) as Christ’s own faithfulness rather than…
Douglas A. Campbell argues forcefully for interpreting the phrase ek pisteos (from faith) in Romans 1:17 as a reference to the faithfulness of Christ in his obedience to death. This, in turn, suggests strongly that Paul’s later use of pistis Christou (faith of Christ) as Christ’s own faithfulness rather than…
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