Peter J. Leithart

Here’s a sketchy, general structural analysis of Genesis 4. A. Adam knows Eve, vv 1-2 (Cain born/Abel born//Abel flocks/Cain ground) B. Cain and Abel, vv 3-16 C. Cain knows wife, v 17-18 B’. Lamech, vv 19-24 A’. Adam knows Eve, vv 25-26 B breaks down as follows: A. Offerings to . . . . Continue Reading »

In a long and penetrating review of Martin Amis’s The Pregnant Widow in a recent issue of TNR (July 22).  It’s more a review of Amis’s entire career and corpus, and along the way William Deresiewicz borrows a distinction from Michael Wood between “style” and . . . . Continue Reading »

INTRODUCTION Is the Reformation dead?  Leading Protestants have asked the question in recent years, and other leading Protestants have answered the question by converting to Rome or Orthodoxy.  We believe the answer is No. On the other hand: Living things grow and change. THE TEXT . . . . Continue Reading »

Exodus 12:25-27:  It will come to pass when you come to the land which the LORD will give you, just as He promised, that you shall keep this service.  And it shall be, when your children say to you, What do you mean by this service? that you shall say, It is the Passover . . . . Continue Reading »

In response to my earlier post about Walsh’s analysis of Abram’s exodus in Genesis 12, a friend, Kelly Kerr, sent along the following outline of Gen. 12:4-13:18: A.  a1. Abram departs Haran (12:4) a2. Abram, Lot, and all their possessions and people acquired while in Haran . . . . Continue Reading »

In one of his entries in Diary of a Writer , Dostoevsky makes this observation about talent: “almost all talented people have a bit of the poet in them, after all - even carpenters, if they are talented.  Poetry is, so to say, the inner fire of every talent.” . . . . Continue Reading »

Against Badiou and Zizek, who want to use Paul to defend a generic “universalism” that can become homogenization, John Caputo ( St. Paul among the Philosophers (Indiana Series in the Philosophy of Religion) ) argues that the universalism of Paul is more paradoxical, more Kierkegaardian . . . . Continue Reading »

In the table of nations in Genesis 10, we’re told that from the descendants of Japheth, the “coastlands of the nations were divided from their lands” (v. 5).  The chapter ends on a similar note: “These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their . . . . Continue Reading »

Walsh notes the unusual repetition of the imperative lek (“go”) in Genesis 12:1: ” lek-leka from your father’s house.”  He observes that the only other use of this particular form in the OT comes in Genesis 22:2, where Abraham is told, ” lek-leka to the land . . . . Continue Reading »

Genesis 12:10-20 is clearly an exodus story, but Jerome Walsh ( Style and Structure in Biblical Hebrew Narrative ) points out that the exodus story is told chiastically.  The following is a modified version of his outline: A. Abram in Egypt to escape famine, 12:10 B. Sarai taken to harem, . . . . Continue Reading »