Proverbs 10:17-26

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:03 am By Peter Leithart

INTRODUCTION Proverbs 10 begins a long central section of Proverbs. This is largely a collection of sayings, labeled “The Proverbs of Solomon” in 10:1. The organization is not random, but it is not obvious. At least one can discern topical categories in this section: speech, wealth, expectations for the future. Verses 17-32 are divided into several sections (following Waltke). Verse 17 is self-standing. Verses 18-21 concentrate on speech (“lips” appears in vv. 18, 19, 21, and “tongue” in v. 20),... Read more

Proverbs 3:1-26

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:03 am By Peter Leithart

STRUCTURE This chapter is divided into three main sections, of which we’ll look at the first two. Verses 1-12 form a section that is marked off by the reference to the father-son relationship at the beginning and end (vv. 1, 12). Within this section, Solomon gives a series of six commands to his son (vv. 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11), the first and the last (vv. 1, 11) being introduced by the phrase “my son.” Each of the commands... Read more

Uses of anti-Catholicism

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:50 pm By Peter Leithart

Locke is especially worried about Roman Catholicism, since Catholics hold “religious” opinions that are politically dangerous. But Protestants can help: “if restraint of the papists do not lessen the number of our enemies in bringing any of them over to us, yet it increases the number, and it strengthens the hands of our friends, and knots the Protestant party firmer to our assistance and defence . . . . The different parties will sooner unite in a common friendship with... Read more

Welfare of a kingdom

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:48 pm By Peter Leithart

In an aside in his Essay , Locke notes that the “welfare of the kingdom” consists in “riches and power.” LInking this with the previous post: Religious opinions are not tolerated if the state is endangered; the state exists to promote wealth and power. Would Amos survive in a Lockean world? Read more

Limits of Toleration

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:46 pm By Peter Leithart

Locke asserts in his Essay on Toleration that since “speculative opinions and religious worship” have “no direct influence upon men’s lives in society,” these matters have “a clear title to universal toleration, which the magistrate ought not to entrench on.” But of course there’s absolute and then there’s absolute. Believers can’t always tell what counts as a matter of speculative opinion and religious worship, and are inclined to “mix with their religious worship and speculative opinions other doctrines absolutely destructive... Read more

Origins of baptism

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:05 am By Peter Leithart

Hobbes again ( Leviathan 41) on the Mosaic predecessors to Christian baptism: “As the children of Israel had for a sacrament of their reception into the kingdom of God, before the time of Moses, the rite of circumcision, which rite, having been omitted in the wilderness, was again restored as soon as they came into the Land of Promise; so also the Jews, before the coming of our Saviour, had a rite of baptizing, that is, of washing all those... Read more

Surprised by Hobbes

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:56 pm By Peter Leithart

NT Wright’s thesis about the new heavens and new earth receives support from an unexpected source, Leviathan , chapter 38: “All these places are for salvation, and the kingdom of God , after the day of judgement, upon earth. On the other side, I have not found any text that can probably be drawn to prove any ascension of the saints into heaven; that is to say, into any coelum empyreum, or other ethereal region, saving that it is called... Read more

Wrath

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:48 pm By Peter Leithart

The first time the Hebrew verb “be wrathful” ( qatzaf ) occurs with Yahweh as subject is in Leviticus 10:6. The related noun occurs for the first time in Numbers 1:53. Both, importantly, have to do with the tabernacle. Yahweh warns that His wrath might break out against Aaron’s family if they mourn for Nadab and Abihu, and in Numbers 1 the priests and Levites encircle the tabernacle to prevent wrath from breaking out against the rest of Israel. Yahweh... Read more

Spirit and righteousness

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Following up an earlier post: How are we to understand the connection of the reception of the Spirit and being counted as righteous in Galatians 3:5-6? Some alternatives suggest themselves: 1) Righteousness is a status and the Spirit is the gift that God gives to those whom He counts righteous. 2) Righteousness is a status and the Spirit grants faith that is the instrument by which we accept that status. Or, following Wright, the Spirit grants the faith that marks... Read more

Out of faith

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:05 am By Peter Leithart

Faith in Protestant theology is instrumental, the passive human means by which we appropriate the righteousness of Christ, by which we stand righteous before God. In Galatians at least, Paul’s characteristic construction doesn’t use the usual prepositions of instrumentality – en and dia . Rather, he uses ek , which has the basic connotation of exit from, separation from, or source. ek can have an instrumental sense, and even seems to be used in place of en at times. So,... Read more