Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
I thought it might be good to put this up here, since it is 14 years old, and itself reflects earlier discussion. From this you can see that we at BH have been considering this notion for quite some time. Clearly, the last word has not been said. — James…
Hopefully, my commentary on James will be out later this year. But here are a few chiasms for your consideration. I think the James 5 chiasm orginally came from Doug Jordan. The entire book of James is focused on how the pastors and leaders (“brothers”) of the church use their…
In my first post I noted that the parables of Jesus were not simply illustrative stories. They are really nothing like the kind of simple, homely illustrations that preachers often use to explain difficult concepts to their congregations. Just to be clear: there’s nothing wrong with illustrating one’s sermonic statements.…
Ephesians is often treated as a pure type example of the Pauline method that “the indicative preceds the imperative.” But what Paul does first is pray . Simply reading verse 3 and following involves readers in a prayer of thanksgiving to God–and much more so for those listening to the…
Yesterday, I took part with my oldest son in a church-sponsored city outreach project (not because I’m especially prone to such behavior but because my son has a Boy Scout requirement that this would help him meet). Before we were sent out on our various jobs, the leader gave a…
There is a scene in Prince Caspian , the second in C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia that helps explain why it is we have four Gospels, that is four accounts of the Good News of Jesus Christ—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It is the account of Lucy’s longed-for experience…
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We’re ready to obey God, but our eagerness often lasts only as long as we have guarantees that obedience will be easy. As soon as obedience causes discomfort, we look escape routes. In a sinful world, easy obedience is impossible. If we are agents of the Lord’s righteousness, we will…
The song of the twenty-four elders in Revelation 11:17-18 begins with thanksgiving for God’s exertion of power that inaugurates His reign. Verse 18 describes how that reign comes to pass. It is a complexly organized verse. It begins and ends with lex talionis judgments against God’s enemies, and in the…
In an essay on ” Abortion and Personhood ,” Alastair Roberts suggests that “”taking a stand against same-sex marriage is essentially a pro-life matter.” Roberts continues: “the paradigmatic family of liberal ideology is the same-sex couple with adopted children or children born through reproductive technology, a family of purely volitional…
One of my students, Susanna Winecoff, pointed to the parallels between the famine that drove Israel into Egypt and the famine in Jerusalem mentioned at the end of Acts 11. For support, one can point to the parallel of Genesis and Acts: “Famine was over all the face of the…
I report on the Christian revival in the Muslim Middle East next door at First Things this morning.
Isaiah 50:7-9 is structured chiastically. On either side of verse 8 are declarations that “Lord Yahweh will help me” (vv. 7, 9; the clause is identical in Hebrew). In verse 8 itself, we have this structure: A. Near my vindicator B. Who brings a case? C. Let us stand as…
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