Peter J. Leithart

Sola scriptura is not a piece of epistemology. It is not a modernist quest for certainty and unquestionable foundations. It doesn’t pretend to bypass interpretation or the church or people with all their foibles and fallibility. It’s not a claim that Scripture is easy. It’s not a . . . . Continue Reading »

Yahweh’s promise to repeat Himself by bringing water to scorched Israel is laid out in fours and a seven (Isaiah 41:18-19). There are four topographies: high place, valley, wilderness, dry land. To these four topographical regions, Yahweh promises to bring an appropriate form of water: Rivers . . . . Continue Reading »

Why is Jacob a “worm” (Isaiah 41:14)? In his Isaiah: A Covenant to be Kept for the Sake of the Church (Focus on the Bible) , Allan Harman gives a good summary of the standard view: “Israel is called a ‘worm.’ The Hebrew word here ( tole’ah ) is used as a general . . . . Continue Reading »

Isaiah 41:8-13 forms a neat chiastic paragraph: A. Chosen servant: Israel, Jacob, seed of Abraham, vv 8-9 (inclusio with “chosen”) B. Do not fear, v 10a C. I am your God for strength and help; My right hand, v 10b D. Rescue from those who content, vv 11-12 C’. I am Yahweh your . . . . Continue Reading »

The opening verses of Isaiah 41 are laid out in a neat chiasm: A. Islands: be silent, draw near, v 1 B. Who awakens righteousness? v. 2a C. Feet, v 2a D. Gives nations, rules kings, v 2b D’. Sword and bow against dust and chaff, vv 2c-3a C’. Feet, v 3b B’. Who has performed? v 4 . . . . Continue Reading »

In nearly every passage of Scripture that mentions “chaff driven away,” it’s the wind that does the driving (Job 21:18; Psalm 1:4; 35:5; 83:3; Isaiah 17:13; Daniel 2:35). Yahweh’s Spirit is a wind storm taht drives the wicked away like withered chaff. Isaiah 41:2 is the . . . . Continue Reading »

Some of my critics have objected to my use of the word “catholic” to describe my “ecumenism.” I would point out that my use of “catholic” is a perfectly understandable one in English. Dictionaries define the word as “all-inclusive” or . . . . Continue Reading »

James Jordan has often said that Protestants regard the Lord’s Supper as a sermon cleverly disguised as a meal, and that Catholics see the Supper as a prayer cleverly disguised as a meal. There are sermonic features to the Supper, and aspects of prayer as well. But Jordan is right that . . . . Continue Reading »

One of the respondents to my recent First Things piece on communion acknowledged that the undivided table is intolerable, but qualified that with the statement, “If you assert that an undivided table is more important than defending the table’s main purpose, a means of salvation whereby . . . . Continue Reading »

Visser (p. 128) traces the separation of the household from the economy, and the resulting separation of economic relations from social relations. These divisions can be summed up as the division of Commodity from Gift: “In opposition to the invading force of cold, calculating, purely . . . . Continue Reading »