In his novel The Seizure of Power , Czeslaw Milocz describes one Polish character’s preparation for life under the Soviets by telling the story of his school experience. At first, Peter wrote and thought for himself; he got bad grades and was the source of endless trouble. One day, he wrote for his teacher, and almost instantly everything changed: No more troubles at school, and he became a star pupil. “The whole secret lay in a pliant yielding to social... Read more
Who said this? “What I have said of America applies to almost all the men of our time. Variety is disappearing from the breast of humankind; the same ways of acting, of thinking and of feeling, the same pop songs and fashions, are encountered in all corners of the globe. This does not come only from the fact that all the peoples are more open to one another and copy each other more faithfully, but that in each country men... Read more
2 Kings 24:4: also for the innocent blood which Manasseh shed, for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; and Yahweh would not forgive. Manasseh’s reign, as we saw some weeks ago, was the turning point for Judah. After Manasseh’s idolatries and violence, Yahweh determined to destroy Judah, and no amount of reformation and repentance would change His mind. Here we have that same thing stated with frightening simplicity: “Yahweh would not forgive.” The particular sin mentioned here is the shedding... Read more
Zedekiah was the last Davidic king in Judah, and like many of his predecessors he “did evil in the sight of Yahweh.” We might imagine he oppressed the people, promoted idolatry, persecuted prophets, ignored God’s commandments and His prophets. We know from the book of Jeremiah Jehoiakim did all this, and Zedekiah did evil “according to all that Jehoiakim had done.” But the portrait of Zedekiah in Jeremiah is not what we expect. Jehoiakim scornfully burns Jeremiah’s scroll (Jeremiah 36).... Read more
Louis Dupre suggests that modern thought is riven by a fundamental tension. On the one hand, the real is still conceived, as it classically has been, as an unchanging order, while on the other hand the subject determines meaning and value. Modern thought, to put it otherwise, is caught between the classic understanding of static being and its own emphasis on time and history. Whether one refused history or metaphysics, “an identical refusal to assign an ontological significance to historical... Read more
Proverbs 15:6, translated according to the original Hebrew order, reads: “In the house of the righteous treasure aplenty; but in the revenue of the wicked disturbance.” Two structures overlap and interact here. There is the chiastic order: (more…) Read more
Jesus said that we should be wise as serpents, but how are serpents wise? Genesis 3:1 says that the serpent was more “crafty” (ARUM) than any of the beasts of the field, and the same word is used a number of times in Proverbs, often translated as “prudent.” A crafty man conceals what he knows (12:23). The crafty man acts knowingly, not impulsively (13:16). The crafty man is not gullible but considers his steps (14:15). Crafty men see evil coming... Read more
OK, one trouble, a trouble: There are, we are told, “three views” of the function of Matthew 1:1 – it’s the heading for the genealogy, it’s the heading for the whole book, or it’s the heading for the first section of the book (perhaps extending to 4:16). Why has it got to be one or the other? Anyone with more than an ounce of literary sense knows that well-chosen titles send resonances in all sorts of direction. Does Robinson’s “Gilead”... Read more
The logic of Scripture often moves from head to body: What Jesus did, His disciples are to do; we are to have the mind that was in Christ Jesus; we are to follow Him, not He us. Yet, the sequence of Matthew is inverted in several places. Before Jesus is delivered up, rejected, or cast out of the synagogue, He warns that His disciples will be (10:16-23). Pharisees and scribes are already opposing Jesus (eg 9:10-11), but not with the... Read more
Jerusalem is named 13x in Matthew’s gospel, the last of them in 23:37 where the name is doubled in Jesus’ lament (the city’s name is spelled differently in 23:37). Both at the beginning and end, Jerusalem is troubled by the coming of Jesus: All Jerusalem is upset with Herod at the announcement of a king’s birth (2:3), and when Jesus enters Jerusalem at Passover “all the city was stirred” (21:10). Jerusalem the troubled city is the city that kills her... Read more
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