Peter J. Leithart

Jesus appears as glorified Man in the opening chapter of Revelation, and as glorified Man He sends messages to the seven churches. But when the next vision opens in Revelation 4-5, Jesus the man is absent. He is not present in heaven at all at the beginning of chapter 5, since no one is found to . . . . Continue Reading »

Isaiah 22:22: The key of the house of David I will lay on his shoulder; so he shall open, and no one shall shut; and he shall shut, and no one shall open. One steward of the Davidic house falls, and another takes his place. Yahweh elevates Eliakim – whose name means “God raises up” . . . . Continue Reading »

Wow. Robert Jenson knows how to write a review. In the latest Pro Ecclesia , he presents his “three complaints” against Nathan Kerr’s Christ, History and Apocalyptic: The Politics of Christian Mission (Theopolitical Visions) , which he describes as “important,” . . . . Continue Reading »

The Spirit is a dove. So is the Bride in the Song, since she is her Lover’s inspiration and since she is formed by the Dove into the image of the Dove, so that the Bride and the Dove can moan with one voice of longing for the Lover’s return. Jonah’s name means “dove,” . . . . Continue Reading »

My colleague Toby Sumpter suggests that Isaiah 22 ends with an image of the cross. Eliakim is compared to a peg on which hangs the glory of his father’s house, but the peg “gives way” and “breaks off” and is cut off. This is perhaps an image of the cross. The . . . . Continue Reading »

I offer my reflections on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 at www.firstthings.com/ . . . . . Continue Reading »

When nineteen jihadist hijackers slammed two airplanes into the World Trade Center towers and another into the Pentagon ten years ago, they saw themselves as heroes of an apocalyptic holy war. For a moment, it seemed that they had instead given new life to secular modernity. During the decades preceding 9/11, religion of an intense variety made a surprising comeback. Pentecostalism blazed through South America, an exotic stew of indigenous Christianities bubbled up in Africa, Chinese churches grew at an astonishing rate, Evangelicals had political clout in the U.S., Islamic fundamentalism was on the rise. As the Economist’s John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge put it in the title of their 2009 book, “God is back.” … Continue Reading »

In Genesis 1:16, the sun and moon are set in the firmament as rulers of the day and night. The word “ruler” or “dominion” is taken from the verb mashal , memshalah . Stars are called “rulers” of night in Psalm 136:9. The LXX of Genesis 1:16 translates memshalah . . . . Continue Reading »

Shebna is rebuked for wanting to carve a tomb in Jerusalem (Isaiah 22:16). What could be wrong with that? Plenty. The repeated questions of Isaiah 22:16, and the emphatic locative (“what are you here ? Why are you here ? You hew a tomb here “) indicate that Shebna is presuming a higher . . . . Continue Reading »

In response to invasion and siege, the people of Jerusalem do all the natural things people do in crisis - they shore up defenses, ensure the water supply, take account of the available weapons (Isaiah 22:8-11). They do everything they can to avoid defeat, and the exile that will no doubt follow on . . . . Continue Reading »