Peter J. Leithart

Psalm 79 is a lament over the destruction of Jerusalem. The temple is defiled, the city ruined (v. 1). It is a macabre sacrifice: Bodies are left for the birds and beasts, and blood flows like water (vv. 2-3). And Israel’s enemies who have carried out this devastating taunt Israel and Yahweh . . . . Continue Reading »

Typology is not decorative icing on the Old Testament cake. Reading the Old Testament typologically is fundamental to New Testament theology . . . . . Continue Reading »

“God is Judge,” says Asaph (Psalm 75:7), and the rest of the Bible agrees. As Judge, He doesn’t just render verdicts. He raises horns (vv. 4-5); He cuts off the horns of power and lifts the horns of the righteous (v. 10). Exaltation and humiliation is His job (v. 6). as Judge, He . . . . Continue Reading »

Miles Hollingworth’s Saint Augustine of Hippo: An Intellectual Biography is an odd intellectual biography. He includes many generous quotations from Augustine, but Hollingworth sprinkles in references to Frantz Fanon, Whitehead, Cecil Day Lewis, C.S. Lewis and many other modern writers along . . . . Continue Reading »

Zechariah 5:3-4 threatens a curse to those who steal and those who swear falsely. It’s a somewhat unusual combination. Perhaps the implied scenario is this: A thief steals, he is questioned about his theft, and he swears falsely that he did not steal. His theft is compounded by an oath . . . . Continue Reading »

In response to his brother’s request, Photius, ninth-century Patriarch of Constantinople, write the Bibliotheca , which contained brief summaries and reviews of 279 books of theology, history, grammar, and literature. Among other things, it gives a glimpse of what an educated ninth-century . . . . Continue Reading »

As Raymond Van Dam points out ( Remembering Constantine at the Milvian Bridge ), one of Zosimus’s main complaints against Constantine was that he stopped the Secular Games ( Ludi Saeculares ), founded in 17 BC by Augustus and celebrated every saeculum (110 years) since. “Games” . . . . Continue Reading »

To interpret the Bible well, we need open ears . We need to know Jesus, who heals the deaf. . . . . Continue Reading »

I have occasionally given students a “pop culture” survey that tests their knowledge of movies, music, and TV. They do scarily well. Some of them remember advertising jingles and silly sitcoms from my childhood. Then I give them a Bible trivia quiz, asking them to identify the daughters of Zelophahad or give the weight of Goliath’s armor or identify Jeremiah’s birthplace. On that test they typically do, shall we say, less well… . Continue Reading »

In the title essay of his 1980 collection, Pietas: Selected Studies in Roman Religion , the Dutch classicist Hendrik Wagenvoort traces the Roman notion that their success was a result of their piety back to the Roman conquest of Greece. How, the Greeks wondered, could the culturally inferior Romans . . . . Continue Reading »