Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Abbreviated Introduction to the Series Scripture is absolutely dripping with animal metaphors. Animal traits, characteristics, and appearances are attributed to God, Man, Angels, Nations, Armies. Since animals are the lowest creature in the three-tiered hierarchy, they are useful to metaphorically focus on a single aspect of God (bold like a…
Many years ago, while perusing Janice Anderson’s revised doctoral dissertation, Matthew’s Narrative Web: Over, and Over, and Over again , I was impressed by her attention to literary structures of repetition within and across Matthew’s Gospel. 1 Her research, in part, nudged me closer toward my present conviction that Matthew…
Abbreviated Introduction to the Series Scripture is absolutely dripping with animal metaphors. Animal traits, characteristics, and appearances are attributed to God, Man, Angels, Nations, Armies. Since animals are the lowest creature in the three-tiered hierarchy, they are useful to metaphorically focus on a single aspect of God (bold like a…
“Like a lily among the thorns, so is my love among the maidens… My beloved is mine and I am his; he pastures among the lilies.” Song 2:2, 16 In chapter two of the Song of Solomon, the Beloved compares his Love to a lily among thorns. The language of…
Introduction From the very beginning, angels and animals have played mediating roles between God and Man. Just as the World was made three-tiered (Heaven, Earth, Deep), so the creatures were made (Angels, Men, Animals). Before Christ came to build the permanent bridge across the chasm between God and Man, various…
Matthew 13, the third major discourse of the apostle’s gospel, is comprised almost entirely of parables. While it may seem that all the parables serve the same purpose in fulfilling the prophet Isaiah (Matthew 13:14), the parables found in verses 44–52, at the very least, function outside that purpose. This…
Showing page 3 of 309
Showing page 1 of 43
The notion that the church is an “extension” of the incarnation has been a source of controversy. For many, especially Protestant theologians, the notion seems to blur the necessary distinction between Head and body, Husband and bride, Lord and servants. If the church is an extension of the incarnation, the…
Those who come through the great tribulation need white robes. Their own robes aren’t white, and their own blood isn’t enough to wash them. But once they have shed their blood and been washed in the blood of the Lamb, their robes are white enough to pass inspection in the…
Temple University Sociologist Amanda Czerniawski is interested in how fatness functions in contemporary culture, and especially in contemporary understanding of beauty. Considering herself a vivacious, attractive plus-size woman, and with some acting experience under her belt, she decided to become an under-cover sociologist in the plus-size modeling world. Her forthcoming…
Two linguists - Jack Grieve of Aston University and blogging linguist Mark Lieberman - have been sifting through millions of tweets trying to uncover the “geography of filler words,” Quartz reports . Their results show a clear preference for “um” in the Plains States and the central Midwest. “Uh” is…
Some reflections on the judgment scene from Matthew 25 over at the Trinity House site .
The angels who receive trumpets are identified as “the seven angels who stand before Yahweh.” The phrasing suggests that they have already been identified somewhere, somehow. Where? The angels who perform various actions in Revelation are the twenty-four elders that were identified at the beginning of the book. These are…
Showing page 527 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
