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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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Written Allegorically

In a recent article on Galatians 4:21-31, Ardel Caneday argues in part that Galatians 4:22 should govern 4:24. That is, Paul’s claim “it is written” should be extended to his statement that “which is allegorical,” yield “the natural sense, these things are written allegorically ” (55). Allegory isn’t an apostolic…

September 26, 2014

Embodiment and Religion

Susan Babbitt’s Humanism and Embodiment isn’t a book of theology. Babbitt draws on Marxist and feminist sources as much as on Eastern religion and Christianity. But she does think that religion offers unique resources for philosophy. Secularists, she thinks, are wrong to reject religion, because religion can become an ally…

September 26, 2014

Johannine Theology

Everyone knows that John’s writings are vastly important in the New Testament and in Christian theology, but Paul Rainbow claims in his recent Johannine Theology that “a comprehensive survey of the Johannine theology is wanting in current English-speaking New Testament scholarship” (32). In a footnote, he lists a half dozen…

September 26, 2014

Is John Anti-Semitic?

John talks much of “the Jews” as the enemies of Christ, and this has led many to charge him with anti-Semitism. Paul Rainbow finds these charges groundless ( Johannine Theology , 130-6). John is Jewish, and “takes obvious pride in his own people’s religious heritage.” Jewish Scriptures are integral to…

September 26, 2014

Sex Trafficking Lecture

Justin Holcomb, co-founder of Real Escape from the Sex Trade (REST), will speak in Birmingham, Alabama on sex-trafficking on November 19. See details and register at the Trinity House site . Holcomb serves as Canon for Vocations in the Diocese of Central Florida and teaches at Gordon-Conwell and Reformed Theological…

September 26, 2014

Ancient Christian Worship

Andrew McGowan’s Ancient Christian Worship is a very fine introduction to the subject. Though it is up-to-date academically, and, as McGowan says, includes the results of some of his own research, it is accessibly written, clearly organized, and highly informative. McGowan traces early Christian worship from its origins in the…

September 25, 2014

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