Why didn’t the Son come in the flesh just outside Eden? The erotic theology of the Song of Songs provides a possible hint. Throughout the Song, the lovers admire each other’s bodies and express their longing desires to be together. Union comes at the end of reciprocal . . . . Continue Reading »
When I taught literature, I told students that poetry is a “concentrated excess of language.” Song of Songs 2:16a is poetry of poetry. Woodenly translated, it says, “My beloved to me, and I to him.” The overlapping structures in that deceptively simple statement . . . . Continue Reading »
David Dorsey points out that Song of Songs 2:11-13 contains seven descriptions of spring and seven imperatives. Sevens make me think of the creation week: Spring is new creation. But can we fill that out in more detail? Verse 11a says that winter is past. Winter is darkness. . . . . Continue Reading »
God is identified “by” and “with” temporal events, Jenson argues. What can we make of that? Perhaps this: Yahweh is compassionate, slow to anger, in the Hebrew idiom “long of nose.” He is kind to the weak, generous to the needy. These are all . . . . Continue Reading »
As you’ll notice in the icon to the right, my commentary on 1-3 John is now available on Amazon. . . . . Continue Reading »
Yahweh’s nose burns a lot. You can’t see it in English translation, but that’s what the Hebrew says whenever Yahweh’s “anger” burns: What’s actually burning is His nose. His nose burns first, though, not at Israel but at Moses. Exodus 4:14 is . . . . Continue Reading »
Human beings are clay shaped by the Almighty Potter. So are events. Isaiah says that long before the events happened the Lord “fashioned-like-a-potter” the Assyrian invasion and devastation of city and country in Israel and Judah (Isaiah 37:26). If the Lord is a potter fashioning . . . . Continue Reading »
Isaiah 2:12-22 warns of a day when Yahweh will cast down the tall trees and high mountains, the proud men, and the idols. The passage ends with a warning not to esteem man who has breath in his nose. This last is often taken as a reference to the frailty and weakness of man, who should . . . . Continue Reading »
Nietzsche nails the issue in the section of Twilight of the Idols on “reason” in philosophy. Philosophy kills and mummifies in order to analyze. Philosophy especially wants to rid itself of the body: “You ask me which of the philosophers’ traits are most . . . . Continue Reading »
Descartes (Second Meditation) considers a piece of wax that, when heated, changes its properties yet remains wax. He concludes that the “wax” must not be accessible to the senses, since sensible properties all change but the wax remains: “what was there in the wax that was so . . . . Continue Reading »
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