John describes Jesus’ appearance following a wasf form, listing off His features from white head to face to feet and back to face 1. Head and hair 2. Eyes 3. Feet 4. Voice 5. Hand 6. Mouth 7. Face That list probably has some correlation with the days of creation: White hair is light on the . . . . Continue Reading »
Jesus is “like the son of man” (Revelation 1:13), a clear allusion to Daniel 7. He also sports a head of white hair like wool, white as snow (1:14), another clear allusion to Daniel 7. But the two allusions to Daniel 7 describe two different people. The Ancient of Days, not the Son of . . . . Continue Reading »
Bruno Blumenfeld makes the intriguing comments that “Paul lived in a world in which ethics was the only field of intellectual speculation left to the philosopher.” The polis was dead. But, Blumenfeld continues, “Paul transcends morals and makes his way into the political.” . . . . Continue Reading »
Traditional treatments of the ordo salutis often assume a firm distinction between accomplishment and application of redemption. Terminology, for instance, is strictly distinguished: Sacrifice, redemption, cross, resurrection are on the “accomplished” side, while regeneration, . . . . Continue Reading »
How did Jesus’ death defeat the powers? Jenson, simple-minded in the best sense, says, “Jesus really and straightforwardly did defeat the high priest and the Roman procurator, the powers and principalities of political empire and religious self-assertion. An actual historical conflict . . . . Continue Reading »
Jesus was killed because He forgave, not to gain our forgiveness, says Gerhard Forde. I don’t agree with the second part of that, but the first part intrigues. It sounds like the typical liberal nostrum that Jesus was put to death for being too nice, and we don’t like niceness. Is a . . . . Continue Reading »
When Jesus died as a sin offering, God “condemned sin in the flesh” (Romans 8:3), with the result that the righteous requirement of the law can be fulfilled in us (v. 4). James Dunn paraphrases: In the cross, God “passed effective judgment on sin.” In Christ’s death, . . . . Continue Reading »
Romans 3:25 says that God set Jesus forth as a hilasterion to “demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forebearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed.” That translation conformed to the “God is just in condemning us all” viewpoint, but the Greek is . . . . Continue Reading »
In her essay “On Interpretation,” Susan Sontag argues that interpretation that seeks the “meaning” of a work of art is always destructive. She says, “It is always the case that interpretation of this type indicates dissatisfaction (conscious or unconscious) with the . . . . Continue Reading »
When Daniel appears before Nebuchadnezzar to interpret the dream of the tree, he says this: “break away now from your sins by doing righteousness and from your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor” (Daniel 4:27). This is interesting on several levels. First, Daniel isn’t just . . . . Continue Reading »
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