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Category Archive: Bible

Scripture and Philosophy - September 05, 2007
Kant admits that his philosophical interpretation of the fall is not "intended for Scriptural exegesis, which lies outside the boundaries of the competence of mere reason." Putting the "historical account" to "moral use" leaves the issue of the writer's intention,...

Scriptures and separation - July 03, 2007
Studying African independent churches, David Barrett concluded that the single most important factor in dividing independent churches from missionary-founded churches was the vernacular translation of the Bible. As soon as the Bible was available in the native tongue, readers could...

New Pentecost - July 03, 2007
John Mbiti, a Kenyan African theologian, describes the impact of a vernacular translation of the Bible: "When the translation is first published, especially that of the New Testament and more so of the whole Bible, the church in that particular...

Ear for Ear - June 08, 2007
Zeno of Verona wrote, "As the devil by his implausibility had found a way into the ear of Eve, inflicting a deadly wound, so Christ, entering the ear of Mary, brushes away all the heart's vices and heals the woman...

Israel is Egypt - December 16, 2006
The Lord says through Isaiah (chapter 19): "So I will incite Egyptians against Egyptians; and they will each fight against his brother and each against his neighbor, city against city and kingdom against kingdom." Jesus says of Israel, "Brother will...

Scripture's eloquence - December 06, 2006
De Lubac cites this passage near the beginning of his Medieval Exegesis: "The eloquence of Sacred Scripture takes many shapes, and its meanings are many and varied. For this reason someone has said: He compares things that are celestial with...

Philosopher or poet? - December 01, 2006
The doctrine of accommodation (which is rife in the tradition, as basic to Thomas as to Calvin) says: When God speaks in His natural voice, He speaks like a philosopher. He speaks like a poet in Scripture because He's dumbing...

Critical Scholarship - November 18, 2006
One of the most annoying things about critical biblical scholarship is the way that every discussion has to contribute to questions of composition, authorship, historical setting, etc. Harrington gives a very intriguing paper on holiness in Ezra-Nehemiah, but the whole...

Criterion of antiquity - November 18, 2006
John Milbank claims that the Wellhausen documentary hypothesis is shaped by what he calls the "liberal Protestant metanarrative," the view that Christianity moved from a religion of inner simplicity to a religion of complex external ritual (JEDP traces this story)....

Incarnational revelation - November 16, 2006
Westminster OT professor Pete Enns has been a friend since he taught me German at seminary nearly twenty years ago, and as editor of the Westminster Journal he regularly published my work. I have raised questions to him in private...

Wrestling with God - August 03, 2006
The story of Israel is the story of her repeated rejection of Yahweh's emissaries, and thus of Yahweh himself. The gospel is the announcement that Yahweh will not allow Himself to be rejected: Resurrection is the I in the TULIP....

Stones - August 02, 2006
Oscar JF Seitz has an interesting article in a 1960 issue of JBL. He connects the stones in the Jordan in Josh 4 with the stones that Jacob erects in Gen 28, which form the "House of God" in contrast...

Joshua Typology - August 02, 2006
George Wesley Buchanan notes that ancient Jewish writings pay comparatively attention to Joshua. But, "For the church fathers, Joshua was very important - much more important than Moses. It was Joshua who led the army while Moses stood on the...

Immanentized Eschaton - July 05, 2006
In his book on Mosaic typology in Matthew, commenting on Matt 5:1-2 in particular, Allison reviews some of the Jewish literature that suggests that Moses sat enthroned on Sinai. The idea was based on Deut 9:9, where Moses says "I...

Wise as serpents - June 30, 2006
Jesus said that we should be wise as serpents, but how are serpents wise? Genesis 3:1 says that the serpent was more "crafty" (ARUM) than any of the beasts of the field, and the same word is used a number...

Monogamy and Polygamy - April 17, 2006
Jim Rogers of Texas A&M sent along the following discussion of polygamy in the OT in response to some reflections I posted last week on the typology of Rachel and Leah. I'm reproducing it here with Jim's permission. Why is...

Rogers on Sodomy - March 25, 2006
Thanks to David Mills of Touchstone for passing this along, a news release from Westminster/John Knox: Taking on the most divisive issue in the church today the former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Jack Rogers, argues unequivocally for the...

The Oddity of biblical narrative - March 05, 2006
Gabriel Josipovici summarizes the story of Palti in 1-2 Samuel, the man to whom Saul gives Michal after David is driven into outlawry, and who follows Michal weeping when David demands his first wife back. What is this guy doing...

Nuggets from James Jordan - November 20, 2005
A few notes from the ever-stimulating James Jordan, who spoke at a conference in Lancaster, PA this weekend: 1) He connected the opened eyes of Adam and Eve after the fall with the Lord's seeing in Gen 1, where sight...

Far As The Curse Is Found - November 07, 2005
Michael Williams of Covenant Seminary provides a serviceable introduction to a covenantal/biblical-theological reading of the Bible in his recent book from P&R, entitled Far As The Curse Is Found. Williams's interpretations are judicious and one of his fundamental themes is...

Scripture and Tradition - November 03, 2005
Patrick Henry Reardon writes concerning the use of "tradition" in the NT (2 Thes 2:15 especially): "In this respect it is important, I believe, not to interject into Paul's formula a later controversy between the Protestants and the Council of...

Harnack on Marcion - September 29, 2005
Harnack described Marcion's main impulses as follows: "The innovations of Marcion are unmistakable. The way in which he attempted to sever Christianity from the Old Testament was a bold stroke which demanded the sacrifice of the dearest possession of Christianity...

Marcion and Biblical Studies - September 29, 2005
Peter Jones writes, "In spite of Marcion’s massive rejection of early Christian orthodoxy, and his denunciation and excommunication by the second century Church, the great nineteenth century Liberal historian and theologian, Adolf von Harnack, called Marcion 'the first Protestant.' For...

Imprecatory Psalms - September 26, 2005
Kregel has just released John Day's Crying For Justice, a study of the imprecatory Psalms by a PCA minister in Washington state. It's the most careful, balanced, and biblical treatment of the subject I've seen. Day addresses all the current...

Metonymic Imagination - September 20, 2005
One sometimes hears references to a "metaphorical imagination," but biblical imagery often works also by metonymy. It is not only that the tree of, say, Psalm 1 "stands for" strength or stability. It is that, as the Psalm makes clear...

Hermeneutics test - September 20, 2005
Many object to typology because it seems to lack control, but one obvious control is historical context. Consider this piece of poetry: Jack-booted waves march down a silent street, Cross the thresholds of besieged homes, Batter doors, and smother all...

Accommodated revelation? - September 16, 2005
Accommodation is often trotted out as a way to account for the unscientific language of Scripture. We now know that the earth does not rise and set, but the ancient Hebrews did not know that, and so God accommodated Himself...

Allegory: A Test - November 29, 2004
The test: Who wrote the following comments on the birth of Jesus? "He lies in the manger. Notice here that nothing but Christ is to be preached throughout the whole world. What is the manger but the congregations of Christians...

De Lubac and the Bible - November 20, 2004
There were a few interesting insights from the session on de Lubac and biblical interpretation at SBL this morning. Margaret Adam of Duke presented a comparative study of Frei and de Lubac, arguing that Frei's notion of a "stretchy literal...

Essentially Literal Translation - November 18, 2004
Jack Collins of Covenant Seminary gave a fine paper on translation theory at ETS. He argued for "essentially literal" translation, or what he also called "transparent translation." The goal of such translation is to render the original text in the...

Scattered Thoughts - September 30, 2004
My son Christian noted a couple of cool things in the Bible this morning: 1) The law of the firstborn requires that the firstborn male of unclean animals like donkeys either be redeemed or killed: "every first opening of a...

Ministerial Conference Lecture - September 15, 2004
INTRODUCTION When they allude to the typology of the temple, the NT writers seem to be operating with something like the medieval �quadriga,�Ethe �fourfold sense of Scripture.�E They know about a literal temple in Jerusalem; they see the temple allegorically...

Exhortation, August 15 - August 15, 2004
Slavery is back in the local news, and it�s a good time once again to reflect on how we should deal with this subject. First and foremost, we must examine what the Scriptures say about slavery, since the Bible is...

Numerology - August 13, 2004
I continue to be very impressed with Victor Wilson's Divine Symmetries. Here are a few excerpts from his brief discussion of numerology: 1. Abraham is 140 when Isaac and Rebekah marry. Isaac and Rebekah's marriage lasts precisely that long, and...

Wedding Sermon, May 18 - May 19, 2004
�May he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine.�ESo says the Bride at the beginning of the Song of Songs. And the chorus agrees: �We will rejoice in you and be glad;...

Exhortation, May 16 - May 16, 2004
Today�s sermon is about raising priests and kings, and a few of the things I say in the sermon today refer to touch. I�m going to encourage you all to hold and caress and cuddle with your infants, and I�m...

Sermon Outline, May 16 - May 13, 2004
Raising Priests and Kings, Deuteronomy 6:1-25 INTRODUCTION We have been applying the sequence of priest, king, and prophet to Israel�s history and to our own biographies. God raises us to maturity by leading us through a period of service and...

Exhortation, May 9 - May 09, 2004
If you have read a number of books by the same author, or a number of books in the same genre, you have developed a feel for how the plot is developing. When Inspector Poirot begins to suspect the maid...

Sermon Outline, May 9 - May 05, 2004
Prophetic Insight, 1 Kings 22:1-40 INTRODUCTION The stages of Israel�s history overlap a great deal. Priests served in the sanctuaries of Israel throughout her history, and Abraham was a prophet (Genesis 20:7). Yet, different offices come to prominence at different...

Groaning and Enemies - May 01, 2004
The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery entry on "enemy" points out that "groaning" in the Psalms is "frequently focused on the enemy, such as the anguished rhetorical lament, 'How long will my enemy triumph over me?'" The article points out that...

Sermon Outline, May 2 - April 27, 2004
Again, much of this is from Jim Jordan's From Bread to Wine. Kingly Rule, 1 Kings 3:1-28 INTRODUCTION Israel moved from its priestly to its kingly phase through a process of destruction and renewal. The Mosaic order broke down after...

Sermon Outline, April 25 - April 20, 2004
Here's another sermon outline, again shamelessly borrowing material from Jim Jordan's From Bread to Wine. Priestly Service, 1 Kings 4:1-20 INTRODUCTION Priests are servants in a royal household. They live to serve their master, and they are regulated by detailed...

Exhortation, April 18 - April 19, 2004
Our confession that we believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, is foundational to everything in Christian faith, but it is a serious error to limit God�s creativity to the original act of creation. Such a...

Sermon Outline, April 18 - April 17, 2004
This outline is the first for a series of sermons on "seasons of life." Most of it is taken, shamelessly, from Jim Jordan's wonderful study, From Bread to Wine, and from other things I have learned from Jim over many...

Patristic Dispensationalism - March 03, 2004
Among the projects that Julian the Apostate took on was the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. This was intended to deflate Christian apologetics who pointed to the destruction of the temple as a sign of Judaism's demise and Christianity's...

Tragedy and Biblical Narrative - December 03, 2003
Cheryl Exum's Tragedy and Biblical Narrative (Cambridge, 1992) argues that there is a "tragic" dimension to the Bible, but in offering her initial explorations she actually seems to be supporting something like the opposite conclusion. 1) She stresses the importance...

Obedience and Sacrifice - November 10, 2003
Obedience, Scripture says, is better than sacrifice. By analogy, moral purity is better than ritual purity. This analogy plays a big role in the gospels....

JSOT Articles - October 29, 2003
Several interesting articles in the current issue of JSOT: 1) Yairah Amit of Tel Aviv University writes on "Progression as a Rhetorical Device in Biblical Literature." The concept is fairly simple: He's pointing to places where, in narrative or speech,...

Promised Land and Heaven - October 18, 2003
There's a breakdown in the traditional typology that links "promised land" with "heaven." Though the promised land is eschatologically a new heavens and new earth, the typology is more exactly fulfilled in the church's fulfillment of the great commission on...

Moses the Matchmaker - October 18, 2003
Moses is the matchmaker who brings the bride to a trysting place with her lover, Yahweh. He is the "friend of the bridegroom" who, like John the Baptist, prepares the bride for her husband. As such, Moses and John are...

Horned Man - October 18, 2003
Something to check: Is Moses the first "horned man" in the Bible? He comes down from the mountain, having seen the glory of God, with "horns" on his head, rays of glory radiating out. This may be the source of...

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