Peter J. Leithart

The last two lines of Isaiah 14:29 create a dense web of allusiosn. This burden is delivered “in the year king Ahaz died,” which links the prophecy back to the call of Isaiah in the year Uzziah died (6:1). Seraphs appear in both chapters (“flying serpent” in 14:29 is saraph . . . . Continue Reading »

Isaiah uses the image of “root” a number of times in his prophecy (the word appears 7x). From the root of Jesse a Branch grows (11:1, 10). In chapter 14, the root that struck Philistia produces serpentine fruit that will cut Philistia to the root (vv. 29-30). In these early uses of the . . . . Continue Reading »

In a section discussing early nineteenth-century American expansion, Robert Kagan’s Dangerous Nation: America’s Foreign Policy from Its Earliest Days to the Dawn of the Twentieth Century (Vintage) , from which I drew the last several posts, includes several quotations from JQ Adams in . . . . Continue Reading »

Said smiling Alexander I to future President John Quincy Adams, “On s’agrandit toujours un peu, dans ce monde.” (From Adams’ diary, May 6, 1811.) A multiply revealing statement: The smile, a worldly smile, a smile of co-conspiracy; the Tsar’s evident presumption that . . . . Continue Reading »

John Quincy Adams was stung by British sneers that the US was a “peddling nation” with “no God but gold.” But we’ve shown them: The Brits are now attempt to “alarm the world at the gigantic grasp of our ambition.” This is America’s future: “If . . . . Continue Reading »

One last response to Witherington’s criticisms of Defending Constantine , and I’d be an ingrate if I didn’t express my appreciation for the many positive things that Witherington said about the book. I’m grateful that he thought the book worth interacting with at all. His . . . . Continue Reading »

In a post some months ago, I suggested that Isaiah 1:2-6 was a unit of the opening chapter. After further examination, it seems that 1:2-4 forms a separate section to itself (David Dorsey makes this same division). The verses are not perfectly symmetrical, but they are sufficiently so to indicate . . . . Continue Reading »

Back to Witherington, and nearly done. Several of his comments defend against my charge that pacifists tend toward Marcionism. He writes: “it is not Marcionism to recognize that the OT tells the story of covenants that Christians are no longer under, and which the NT says quite clearly . . . . Continue Reading »

A friend, Wes Baker, offers these additional thoughts on Genesis 3:15 as a Messianic prophecy: “First, it seems clear to me that Rev 12 is a direct reflection on the woman and seed of Isaiah 66, which in turn is a meditation by Isaiah on Gen 3.15. Pointing out the middle step can be helpful . . . . Continue Reading »

At the end of his comments regarding Genesis 3:15, Witherington says that “even if [the passage] were a reference to Christ, Christ solved the Satan problem not by being a warrior messiah and thus by killing but by dying on a cross!! Jesus was the antithesis of a warrior messiah when he . . . . Continue Reading »