Peter J. Leithart

In today’s sermon text, Yahweh tells Moses that He performs signs so that Israel can recount His works in the ears of “sons and sons of sons.”  A few verses later, Yahweh says that He brings more locusts than “your fathers and the fathers of your fathers have . . . . Continue Reading »

Exodus 10:4-5: Tomorrow I will bring locusts into your territory.  And they shall cover the face of the earth, so that no one will be able to see the earth; and they shall eat the residue of what is left, which remains to you from the hail, and they shall eat every tree which grows up for you . . . . Continue Reading »

Cassuto suggests that there may be a reference to Ra the Egyptian sun god in Exodus 10:10.  Pharaoh dismisses Moses and Aaron with “look, for evil is before you,” but the word for evil is ra’a .  Cassuto suggests that Pharaoh means, “know that the power of my god . . . . Continue Reading »

Throughout the early chapters of Exodus, Yahweh is hardening Pharaoh’s heart.  By the end, there is a heart of stone in the heart of Egypt. To say that Israel has a heart of stone that needs to be turned to hearts of flesh is to say that Israel is an Egypt that needs to be re-Israelized . . . . Continue Reading »

Exodus 10 contains the first biblical references to locusts, and in that chapter the word is used 7 times.  It’s enough to make one suspicious – suspicious that there’s a creation motif here, suspicious that the seven references might obliquely hint at the days of . . . . Continue Reading »

Yahweh’s opening speech in Exodus 10 is arranged as a parallel structure: A. Go; I have hardened Pharaoh’s heart B. That I may perform signs C. that you may tell to sons and sons of sons A’. I made a mockery of Egypt B’. I performed signs C’. that you may know I am Yahweh A . . . . Continue Reading »

Steven Wedgeworth writes: “You might want to be more skeptical of Torrance.  You (and he) are right to sniff a problem, but the genealogy of that problem is a bit more complicated.  Just one example.  You blogged on visible and invisible and said that Torrance claimed later . . . . Continue Reading »

In his Beyond Greed , Brian Rosner makes the arresting claim that God is a contented God.  The fact that God has created a world distinct from Himself Rosner takes as a kind of divine self-limitation.  Put that to the side, we can still see the contentment of God in the creation account. . . . . Continue Reading »

Kevin Bywater of Summit Ministries adds this to my comments about Glenn Beck’s “9 principles”: “Beck, being nestled within the Mormon worldview, has no problem conjoining inspiration with imperfection. That is the Mormon understanding of the Bible, is it not? And the . . . . Continue Reading »

In the October 14 issue of TNR , Leon Wieseltier gives a curmudgeonly defense of publishing negative reviews, specifically of the negative review of Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom published in the same issue. It’s bracing: “A shabby treatment of a consequential subject or a . . . . Continue Reading »