Peter J. Leithart

Enns again: He admits that Paul, given the culturally assumed and conditioned conceptual framework he inherited from Judahism, believed that Adam was a primordial man whose disobedience was the cause of sin. Enns doesn’t believe that Adam is a historical first man, and acknowledges that he is . . . . Continue Reading »

There’s something to object to on nearly every page of Peter Enns’s Evolution of Adam, The: What the Bible Does and Doesn’t Say about Human Origins , but let me limit myself to this one. After a comparison highlighting the similarities between Genesis 1 and the creation myth of . . . . Continue Reading »

Epicurus wrote an essay, now lost, on gifts and graces ( peri doron kai charitos ), and Norman DeWitt calls Horace’s epistle 1.7 to Maecenas a “sermon” on the theme of Epicurus’ essay. He commends the generosity of Maecenas, contrasting him with a proverbial “Calabrian . . . . Continue Reading »

This is the doctrine of Epicurus, but in a 1937 article in the American Journal of Philology , Norman DeWitt places this slogan in the context of that slogan in the context of the Epicurean doctrine of gratitude. He cites Seneca’s summary of the Epicurean view that “The life that lacks . . . . Continue Reading »

In the aforementioned article, Rabin suggests that the poet of the Song lived in a time of extensive trade between Judea and the east, and that this fits the time of Solomon. He also suggests that the poem was likely written as an allegory: The poet “had in mind a contribution to religious or . . . . Continue Reading »

In a 1973 article comparing the Song of Songs to Tamil poetry, Chaim Rabin points to evidence of contacts between the Indus Valley and lower Mesopotamia during the time of Solomon. On the spices listed in Song 4:12-14, he writes that these verses evoke the “atmosphere of a period when Indian . . . . Continue Reading »

Gill again, stating the obvious: “Neither those who dominate and lead our industrialism - that is our bankers and financiers - nor those thousands and millions of men and women who are its more or less irresponsible instruments - neither, that is to say, the masters nor the men, are moved, . . . . Continue Reading »

In his 1939 lecture on Sacred and Secular in Art and Industry , Eric Gill compared the artist and the modern industrial laborer. They have much in common: “Both are normally engaged in making things. Both are normally workers with their hands. Both are normally paid for what they do and not . . . . Continue Reading »

INTRODUCTION Isaiah pronounces a double woe against those in Judah who rely on Egypt (30:1; 31:1; cf. Isaiah 13:1-14:27). When Judah repents and casts away her idols (31:6-9), Yahweh will set up a just king (32:1) and pour out His Spirit to renew the land (32:15-20). THE TEXT “Woe to those . . . . Continue Reading »

In the midst of a swirling, fiery description of Yahweh’s appearance as a flame-snorting Warrior, Isaiah refers a few times to Israel’s liturgical institutions (30:27-33). While Yahweh’s Name is taking care of Israel’s enemies, Israel will be singing in their homes as they . . . . Continue Reading »