Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
10. Do not slander [tattle on] a slave to his master, Lest he curse [denounce] you and you be found guilty. The Sojourner of Proverbs 30 is a humble man. He makes this clear in verses 2-4, where he says that he is stupider than anyone else on earth, but…
In retrospect and at first glance, many of the issues that have plagued and divided the Church seem incredibly trivial. The Quartodecimians were branded as heretics for celebrating Easter on 14 Nisan. One of the issues that divided the Eastern and Western Churches in 1054 was the kind of bread…
The gifts of the wise men have been commonly interpreted as royal gifts to the infant King of the Jews. Each of the three gifts is, indeed, connected with kings and kingship in Scripture. The Lord’s anointed is pictured wearing a crown of gold in Psalm 21:3, and the gold…
The Church is not in good shape. Nearly every week we hear about another prominent Christian leader who has fallen into scandalous sin. Many shepherds feed their flocks a diet of baby food, if not outright poison. Few Churches celebrate the Lord’s Supper regularly, and few Christians appreciate its importance.…
Two things I asked of Thee, Do not refuse me before I die: Keep deception and words of falsehood far from me, Give me neither poverty nor riches, Feed me with the food that it my portion, Lest I be full and deny Thee, And say, "Who is the LORD?"…
During the Middle Ages, Joseph, the husband of Mary, was the butt of many jokes. Medieval theater and art often depicted him as something of a buffoon, decidedly marginal to the gospel story. In part, this was the unfortunate obverse of the exaltation of Mary; any man would suffer by…
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It’s hard to find interesting work on Leviticus 23. It’s easy to find tedious critical dissections of the history of the text. One of the conundrums is in verse 2: First we read about the appointed times of Yahweh. Then at the end of the verse we hear about “my”…
Yahweh’s pesach is to take place on the fourteenth day of the first ( ri’shown ) month (Leviticus 23:5). The timing echoes back to the dawn of time. The waters of the flood dried up on the first of the first month ( ri’shown ). Passover celebrates Israel’s deliverance from…
Israel’s feasts both followed the agricultural calendar and reenacted Israel’s past. Passover, Pentecost and Booths celebrated various phases of planting, growth, and harvest. Israel’s feasts reconciled nature with salvation history. The reconciliation was ritual, calendrical. The dual calendar protected Israel from becoming a nature cult, and from becoming a purely…
“Knowledge is a gift ,” writes Esther Lightcap Meek ( A Little Manual for Knowing , 8). She continues, “Epiphany comes as a surprising encounter equal parts knowing and being known. It could never have been achieved in a systematic or linear fashion. It transforms knower and known. Deep insight…
I offer some reflections on the theology of festivity in the Hebrew Bible, focused on Leviticus 23.
Thomas Mallon offers some qualified praise to Grace Metalious’s Peyton Place in the NYTBR . He thinks it is several cuts above today’s romance novels. He writes, “Metalious’s writing is mostly undemanding, but it’s also, often . . . not bad. Compared with Jacqueline Susann, her 1960s successor, she reads…
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