Gordon again, on Jacob’s return to Bethel (Genesis 35) and the command to change garments: “Jacob’s return to Bethel is an example of the homecoming, or nostos , motif common in ancient Near Eastern literature. In the Odyssey, Odysseus changes his clothes upon returning home to . . . . Continue Reading »
According to Cyrus Gordon ( The Bible and the Ancient Near East (Revised Edition) ), Laban’s trick of Jacob - Leah for Rachel - put Jacob in an even more vulnerable position than is usually noticed. In one of the Nuzu tablets, Gordon finds “a combination adoption-marriage . . . . Continue Reading »
2 Corinthians 5:16: From now on we recognize no man according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. It’s not too much to say that the truth expressed in our sermon text is the heart of Calvin’s understanding of the . . . . Continue Reading »
“From now on,” Paul says in today’s sermon text, “we know no man according to the flesh.” Paul defends his ministry against Corinthians who find him unimpressive and weak. Paul understands this fleshly perspective because he once shared it. Before Jesus revealed His . . . . Continue Reading »
What keeps us from doing as we ought? Peer pressure, sloth, fear, honor, desire to be liked, our own wants, wealth, selfishness. Paul’s word for this is “flesh.” “Flesh” is not a bad person living inside me. “Flesh” names a social and political order, also, . . . . Continue Reading »
You can feel the outrage when David Carrasco ( City of Sacrifice: The Aztec Empire and the Role of Violence in Civilization ) observes, “all significant theories of ritual sacrifice, from Robertson Smith through Hubert and Mauss, Rene Girard, Walter Burkert, Adoph Jensen, and J.Z. Smtih, . . . . Continue Reading »
Does it matter whether we say the events recorded in the Bible happened? Couldn’t we draw the same “lessons” regardless? Not if one of the “lessons” has to do with the pattern of God’s action in history. Whether tropological or allegorical, “timeless” . . . . Continue Reading »
Many have commented on the lack of focus in the “Occupy X” movement that has spread throughout the world. That’s not surprising, though, if we recognize that the movement is taking its theoretical cues (such as they be) from writers like Hardt and Negri. If, as they argue, we have . . . . Continue Reading »
Hobbes, Leviathan : “The nature of Power is in this point, like to Fame, increasing as it proceeds; or like the motion of heavy bodies, which the further they go, make still the more haste . . . . So that in the first place, I put for a generall inclination of all mankind, a perpetuall and . . . . Continue Reading »
Homi Bhabha (in an essay in Redrawing the Boundaries: The Transformation of English and American Literary Studies ) sees the connection clearly: “My growing conviction has been that the encounters and negotiations of differential meanings and values within ‘colonial’ textuality, . . . . Continue Reading »
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