Peter J. Leithart

The JSOT also includes an article by Daniel Hays arguing that 1 Kings 1-11 portrays Solomon in a very negative light. It is not merely that Solomon falls in 1 Kings 11; there are hints throughout these chapters that Solomon has gone badly wrong. I don’t agree with everything in Hays’s . . . . Continue Reading »

F. Gerald Downing of Manchester has an intriguing paper on “Aesthetic Behavior in the Jewish Scriptures” in the December 2003 issue of the JSOT . Among the points he makes are these: 1) There has been remarkably little attention to Hebrew conceptions of beauty. This is due in part to a . . . . Continue Reading »

Matt Jackson-McCabe argues in the current issue of JBL that the epistle of James presents a version of Messiahship different from much of the NT. Instead of a Messianic idea centering on the death and resurrection of the Messiah, James describes a “national restoration” in which the 12 . . . . Continue Reading »

Gary Knoppers argues in a JBL article that, contrary to accepted scholarship, the Chronicler shows the signs of influence of Greek historiography. I find this kind of article tedious and this kind of evidence unconvincing, but along the way Knoppers makes some useful comments about the organization . . . . Continue Reading »

A student of mine, Erin Linton, is working on the rituals and theory of guest friendship in Greek culture, particularly in the Homeric epics. She has pointed to the inclusio within the Iliad, which begins with a duel between Menelaus and Paris to resolve the war and ends with a reconciliation, . . . . Continue Reading »

Azzan Yadin argues in an article in the JBL (122/4: 601-26) that in several passages of the OT, the Hebrew word QOL refers to a hypostatic, mediating reality. That is, when the text says “I heard the voice speaking,” it is not saying merely that someone is using his voice to speak but . . . . Continue Reading »

In a brief Critical Note in the JBL (122/4: 731-33) argues that the “stones” in Exodus 1:16 are neither a birthing stool nor a reference to male genitals. The author, Scott Morschauser, suggests that the word means potter’s wheel (referring to Jer 18:3), and points to Egyptian . . . . Continue Reading »

I am informed by a correspondent that Andrew Hoffecker of RTS Jackson is writing a biography of Hodge that will be published in 2006 by P&R. . . . . Continue Reading »

A review of the recent collection of essays on Charles Hodge claims that no biography of Hodge has appeared since his son’s 1880 account. This is fairly astonishing, given Hodge’s importance even to this day. It’s a gap in the Reformed past that needs to be filled. . . . . Continue Reading »

In the December 12, 2003 issue of the TLS , Jerry Fodor reviews a book by Brian Ellis on “the new essentialism.” In a nutshell, the new essentialism challenges an important feature of modern accounts of knowledge and reality. As Fodor puts it, modern philosophy has assumed there are two . . . . Continue Reading »