Peter J. Leithart

Isaiah’s vision of the procession of nations to Jerusalem includes this beautiful image: “Who are these who fly like a cloud, and like the doves to their windows” (Isaiah 60:8). A cloud - Yahweh’s glory, which is the nations. A cloud coming to a house, consecrating it. A . . . . Continue Reading »

The last five words of Isaiah 24:16 are all from the same root, bagad , which means “to deal treacherously.” The Hebrew sounds something like this: bogdim bagadu ubeged bogdim bagadu , and might be translated like this: “traitors do treachery and treachery traitors do . . . . Continue Reading »

After the desolation of the city, Isaiah holds out the hope that there will be a remnant left, pictured as the gleanings of olives and grapes (Isaiah 24:13). The following verse suddenly uses third person plural verbs: “they raise voices, they shout, they cry.” The only evident . . . . Continue Reading »

Isaiah is the great prophet of tohu , formlessness. Of the 20 uses of the word in the Hebrew Bible, 11 are in Isaiah. Isaiah is the great prophet of the dissolution of form, and its re-establishment. Cities are cities of tohu (24:10). Nations are tohu before Yahweh, and so too are their princes and . . . . Continue Reading »

Isaiah 24:7-8 consists of six clauses, each of which begins with a verb, most of them verbs of lamentation: “mourns the wine, languishes the vine, sighs all joyful-hearted ceases mirth of tabrets ends noise of rejoicers ceases joy of the harp.” The parallel clauses highlights the links . . . . Continue Reading »

The Hebrew verb lawah means “to join, to adhere.” It also means “to lend” and, confusingly, to “borrow.” James Barr will be upset with me, but I can’t help but wonder if ancient Hebrews viewed loans as a sort of glue that joins the borrower and lender. And . . . . Continue Reading »

There are problems all over the place in Panikkar’s Trinitarian theology, but there are some lovely, profound passages, like this: “A non-trinitarian God cannot ‘mingle’ much less unite himself with Man without destroying himself. He would have to remain aloof, isolated. No . . . . Continue Reading »

Why did Jesus refer to the Father as “my God”? Perhaps to head off reasoning such as this (Panikkar, The Trinity and the religious experience of man;: Icon-person-mystery ): “God is only God for the creature and with reference to it. God is not ‘God’ for himself. The . . . . Continue Reading »

A splendid Dostoevskyan passage from Bonhoeffer’s ethics speaks for itself. “The place where this recognition of guilt becomes real is the Church . . . .If my share in this is so small as to seem negligible, that still cannot set my mind at rest; for now it is not a matter of . . . . Continue Reading »

For a man in the disunited state of sin, each individual is a standard and criterion of good and truth. Thus, Bonhoeffer argues, the essence of fallen man is to be a judge. Obviously, this is a false judgment, since it does not arise out of union with God. Reversing common sense, Bonhoeffer says . . . . Continue Reading »