Worship and Pop Culture

In Selling Worship , Pete Ward’s thoughtful assessment of “how what we sing has changed the Church,” Ward notes that certain aspects of contemporary culture “will fit well with what we are doing while some other characteristics of the culture will be problematic.” He . . . . Continue Reading »

Structure in Isaiah 31-32

Isaiah 31-32 constitute a single passage, a single “woe” pronounced against those in Judah who rely on Egypt for help. The passage is structured in a simple chiasm: A. Weak flesh of Egypt v. strength of Spirit, 31:1-3 B. Yahweh defends Zion and turns away Assyrians, 31:4-9 C. Yahweh . . . . Continue Reading »

Rock that followed

Many commentators suggest that Paul borrows his notion of a Christological Rock that follows Israel through the wilderness from intertestamental commentary on the OT. That may be, but the notion of is already evident in the OT itself. Yahweh after all is the Rock of Israel, and both leads and . . . . Continue Reading »

River in Zion

Zion, like Eden, is a well-watered place: There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God (Psalm 46:4). Yahweh Himself is teh river of delights that refreshes Jerusalem’s inhabitants and nourishes its life. In Isaiah 32:4, the prophet foresees a new Davidic king surrounded by princes . . . . Continue Reading »

Leaving Paul Behind

Enns again: He admits that Paul, given the culturally assumed and conditioned conceptual framework he inherited from Judahism, believed that Adam was a primordial man whose disobedience was the cause of sin. Enns doesn’t believe that Adam is a historical first man, and acknowledges that he is . . . . Continue Reading »

Creation Myths

There’s something to object to on nearly every page of Peter Enns’s Evolution of Adam, The: What the Bible Does and Doesn’t Say about Human Origins , but let me limit myself to this one. After a comparison highlighting the similarities between Genesis 1 and the creation myth of . . . . Continue Reading »

Horace on Gratitude

Epicurus wrote an essay, now lost, on gifts and graces ( peri doron kai charitos ), and Norman DeWitt calls Horace’s epistle 1.7 to Maecenas a “sermon” on the theme of Epicurus’ essay. He commends the generosity of Maecenas, contrasting him with a proverbial “Calabrian . . . . Continue Reading »

Carpe Diem

This is the doctrine of Epicurus, but in a 1937 article in the American Journal of Philology , Norman DeWitt places this slogan in the context of that slogan in the context of the Epicurean doctrine of gratitude. He cites Seneca’s summary of the Epicurean view that “The life that lacks . . . . Continue Reading »

Krishna in love

In the aforementioned article, Rabin suggests that the poet of the Song lived in a time of extensive trade between Judea and the east, and that this fits the time of Solomon. He also suggests that the poem was likely written as an allegory: The poet “had in mind a contribution to religious or . . . . Continue Reading »