Paul quotes, alludes to, or echoes Isaiah 40-66 over twenty times in the letter to the Romans. Many of the major moves of the letter are linked with references to Isaiah, argues J. Edward Walters. The thesis that God reveals His righteousness to the Jew first and also to the Greek is similar . . . . Continue Reading »
Where does Paul get the notion that Abraham is “heir of the world”? Mark Forman argues in a 2009 JSNT article that it arises from Paul’s seeing the story of Abraham through the lends of Isaiah 54. Applying Richard Hays’s criteria for identifying echoes, Forman . . . . Continue Reading »
In a 1962 article, one Leslie Allen connections Paul’s discussion of the work of the Last Adam in Romans 5 with the work of the Servant of Isaiah: ”In Paul’s great formulation of the origin and effect of sin and its redemptive counteraction in Christ (Romans v. 12 ff.) it . . . . Continue Reading »
“It used to be believed by the vulgar,” wrote Evelyn Waugh, “that there were enough pieces of this ‘true cross’ to built a battleship.” Waugh disagreed: “In the last century a French savant, Charles Rohault de Fleury, went to the great trouble of . . . . Continue Reading »
The concept of nature is front-loaded. Nature is what things are in their origin. Hence physis sometimes means “birth.” Hence too Arius: If the Father is ungenerated and the Son begotten, then they must have distinct natures. Athanasius and the Cappadocians deny the premise. . . . . Continue Reading »
Aristotle argued that certain kinds of things have “a principle of motion and of stationariness,” an “innate impulse to change.” Artificial things do not have such an impulse or principle, insofar as they are products of art, though “in so far as they happen to . . . . Continue Reading »
What does it mean to call God “God”? Gregory of Nyssa says (in his letter “On Not Three Gods”) that the word theos is derived from the word for “vision” ( theas ), so that to call God “God” is to call Him the “Beholder” ( theoron ). . . . . Continue Reading »
Augustine defends Abraham in his fathering a child with Hagar on several grounds ( Contra Faustum 22). His intention was to father a child, not to satisfy lust. Since evil is in the will, and Abraham acted with good will, his action was not adultery. Sarah shows the same virtue: . . . . Continue Reading »
The title “Holy One of Israel” is used a handful of times outside Isaiah, but regularly in that prophetic book. What does it mean? Isaiah 8:9-15 helps. While the phrase is not used in the passage, verse 13 exhorts Judah that “it is Yahweh of armies whom you should . . . . Continue Reading »
Assmann again, on “the fantastic but probably not totally inaccurate statements made by Herodotus about the purity commandments observed by the Egyptians in their contact with the Greeks and probably with all foreigners.” Herodotus reports, “No Egyptian would touch a knife or . . . . Continue Reading »
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