Bart Bruehler points out in an article from CBQ that the oracle to Zerubbabel in Zechariah 4:7 employs language (“might and power”) typically used to describe military prowess. Yet Zerubbabel doesn’t lead an army; he organizes a construction project. He is a new Solomon. . . . . Continue Reading »
Stead again. He points out the intertextual connections between Zechariah 4:7 and Isaiah 40:4, 42:16. In all these passages, mountains are being brought low. One of the remarkable contrasts is that in Isaiah (especially 42:16), Yahweh Himself levels mountains; in Zechariah, . . . . Continue Reading »
Michael Stead ( The Intertextuality of Zechariah 1-8 (Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies) ) the golden lampstand of Zechariah 4 is not Yahweh nor Israel but the temple. He notes that verses 2-3 provide a vision that verses 6-14 answer, in the same sequence. In verses 2-3, the . . . . Continue Reading »
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoE9Zm7NtWo . . . . Continue Reading »
Shakespeare’s Troilus stated the dilemma of desire with poetic concision: “The desire is boundless, but the act is a slave to limit.” Human desire is indeed boundless, and that is so deeply embedded in human existence that it is hard to imagine human beings otherwise. . . . . Continue Reading »
Jenson notes that the university arose as a place of discourse, an institution centered on the word, and adds that “Mediterranean antiquity’s specific ideal of knowledge would never by itself have made the university. The organ of truth, in the classic tradition, is the . . . . Continue Reading »
Robert Jenson ( Essays in Theology of Culture ) gives this clever summary of the work of Alasdair McIntyre: “MacIntyre ended [After Virtue] by saying that what our civilization must have to survive is something like the Benedictine order. Many who read this wondered how there could be . . . . Continue Reading »
Jonathan Israel ( A Revolution of the Mind: Radical Enlightenment and the Intellectual Origins of Modern Democracy ) distinguishes between a “radical” and “moderate” Enlightenment, locating the main difference in metaphysics rather than national setting or politics: . . . . Continue Reading »
People get outraged by changes in liturgy. Christian Smith ( Moral, Believing Animals: Human Personhood and Culture ) points to the studies of Harold Garfinkel from the 1960s and 70s that highlight this reality: “Garfinkel and his students uncovered standards and boundaries of these . . . . Continue Reading »
Zechariah 2 seems to divide between verse 5 and 6, as we move from a promise of Yahweh’s dwelling in Jerusalem to an exhortation to “flee from the land of the north.” While I have not been able to discern an overall structure in the passage, there are signs that it’s . . . . Continue Reading »
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