Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
WHAT IS THE OT PRECURSOR OF THE NT OFFICE OF PASTOR? HOW DOES THE FORMER ILLUMINATE THE LATTER? The first problem to address is: how do we know that there is an office of pastor in the New Testament? 1 Perhaps the way the question is put may permit me…
[This essay was originally published in December, 1981, in The Biblical Educator , a publication of the Institute for Christian Economics, and again with slight revisions in Contra Mundum 7 (Spring, 1993). It is reprinted here as a supplement to my book Creation in Six Days .] In 1979, Dr.…
Anyone seeking to reverse the meaning of this promise needs to come to grips not only with the phrase "God was with the lad" later on, but also with Hagar’s response in 16:13. She worships Yahweh, putting her trust in Him and obeying Him. In fact, Hagar is at the…
Ishmael is the narrator of Melville’s fantasy-romance Moby Dick. Melville takes up the traditional view of Ishmael as a wayward son of Abraham, driven out solely because of the Divine "caprice" of election, an angry man with his hand raised against all other men. He is a fitting "anti-hero," or…
There were five cities at the center of the Canaanite culture in the circle of the Jordan, a place like the Garden of Eden, like the land of Egypt, before it became the Dead Sea at the destruction of the cities (Genesis 13:10). Genesis 14:2 tells us their names: Sodom,…
Meditations by James B. Jordan Genesis 19, the destruction of Sodom and the rescue of Lot, is part two of a story that begins in Genesis 18. These two chapters happen in one 24-hour period: noon and evening in Mamre, and midnight and daybreak in Sodom. God and two angels…
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To ordain is, in Hebrew, to “fill the hand.” Though in some passages the phrase describes priestly or quasi-priestly ministry, it normally refers to the rite of ordination itself. By the rite, Yahweh “fills their hands in order to priest” (Numbers 3:3) or “fills his hand in order to put…
In the third of his 2001 Stob Lectures, published as Common Objects of Love , Oliver O'Donovan explores the modern phenomenon of "publicity," the distinctly modern proliferation of images and information through advertising, news media, and entertainment. Publicity didn't exist in the ancient world. Kings had messengers and spies, but…
Exodus 29 lays out the instructions for the ordination rite for Aaron and his sons. Leviticus 8 describes the actual event of the ordination, and is organized by the eight-fold repetition of the clause, “as Yahweh commanded Moses” (Leviticus 8:4, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, 29, 36), which effectively divides…
As soon as our kids could speak, we taught them little gestures of civility. Say "thank you" and "please." Don't hide your face when an adult talks to you. Say "Yes sir" and "Yes ma'am," not ironically or grudgingly, but respectfully. I don't think I ever told my boys, "Don't…
David Martin (1929-2019) was a secularization skeptic. He acknowledged that modern societies typically undergo a process of "differentiation," in which various sectors of social and political life free themselves from the oversight of religious authority. He acknowledged that in many modern societies religious institutions and values are "marginalized." But he…
Aaron the priest is dressed in holy garments of glory and beauty (Exodus 28:2). So are his sons: They have tunics, sashes, and caps “for glory and for beauty” (Exodus 28:40). Yahweh pours glory on the head of Aaron, but it runs down on his beard, down to the skirts…
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