The Hebrew words for “navel” ( shorer ) and round ( sahar ) are each used only in Song of Songs 7:2a. That is no doubt partly for poetic reasons, since the word faintly alliterate, and both alliterate with the verb “lack” ( chasar ) in 7:2b. Possibly there is another . . . . Continue Reading »
Ralph Smith sent me a copy of John Gross’ Commentary review of James Shapiro’s Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? Shapiro argues that the search for an alternative author to Will Shakespeare arises from the clash between the sublime poetic achievement and the humdrum, even rather . . . . Continue Reading »
Scott Fairbanks writes to note parallels between the trial of Jesus and the murder of Abel. He says: Two brothers: Barabbas is the son of the father, while Jesus is the son of God. Each is an offering. One offering is willful, while the other is reluctant. Like Abel, Jesus says nothing, vs . . . . Continue Reading »
INTRODUCTION Modernity tells us that there is nothing wrong with the human race that a few adjustments can’t fix. The Bible tells us that the world is deeply disordered. At the center of human history is mangled, tortured and crucified body, the body of God. While gospel . . . . Continue Reading »
The exchange of prisoners in Matthew 27 is a Passover scene. One man goes to his death, the other goes free. Both are “sons of the Father,” so we can say that one son goes to death and the other goes free. In the original Passover, of course, Israel’s son is delivered, . . . . Continue Reading »
In a 2008 article in the Catholic Biblical Quarterly , Catherine Sider Hamilton appeals to the rabbinic legend of Zechariah’s unappeased blood, and from OT texts about the land polluted by blood, to the conclusion that the “traditional” interpretation connecting the blood of Jesus . . . . Continue Reading »
Eagleton again, explaining the significance of the biblical idea of creation: “Because there is no necessity about the cosmos, we cannot deduce the laws which govern it from a priori principles, but need instead to look at how it actually works. This is the task of science. There . . . . Continue Reading »
Terry Eagleton suggests in his Terry Lectures ( Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate (The Terry Lectures Series) ) that existentialism “was for the most part an ontologically imposing way of saying that one was nineteen, far from home, feeling rather blue, and like a . . . . Continue Reading »
The conflict in the trial of Jesus is a conflict over the crowd. For a long time, Jesus has controlled the crowd, but in the trial the Jews take over the crowd. We might say that the conflict is a conflict of rival lovers: Who will become head of the bride, Israel? It fits, then, that . . . . Continue Reading »
“O Sacred Head Now Wounded” is only a portion of a much longer poem by Bernard of Clairvaux, a blason on the crucified Jesus. The Baroque composer Dieterich Buxtehude set the whole poem to music in Membra Jesu Nostri , and there’s a wonderful performance by the Schola . . . . Continue Reading »
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