One of the intriguing aspects of Elisha’ ministry is his attitude toward Jehoram. The house of Ahab was doomed before Jehoram ever became king. Their fate was sealed during the lifetime of Ahab. And Jehoram shows few signs of repentance. He put away the pillar of Baal that had belonged to his father (2 Kgs 3:2), but continued in the sins of Jeroboam. He was not a faithful king. And yet Elisha, leading this free church movement, forming an alternative... Read more
Apart from a few suggestive comments in Ephraim Radner’s The End of the Church , I know of no study that examines the Reformers’ use of Israel’s history as a paradigm for understanding the Reformation itself and as a program for that Reformation. (Radner cites an article by Congar that I haven’t been able to get my hands on, and one by von Allmen. Both Congar and von Allmen are reflecting more directly on modern ecclesial divisions rather than specifically... Read more
Much as I like the Nevin that’s emerging from Hart’s biography, he seems to be stuck in modern dualisms that need to be overcome. Hart quotes him as saying that if the Supper were only a sign it would “carry with it no virtue or force, more than might be put into it in every case by the spirit of the worshipper himself.” But that assumes that signs in themselves are inert and require “something more” to make the effective;... Read more
Much as I like the Nevin that’s emerging from Hart’s biography, he seems to be stuck in modern dualisms that need to be overcome. Hart quotes him as saying that if the Supper were only a sign it would “carry with it no virtue or force, more than might be put into it in every case by the spirit of the worshipper himself.” But that assumes that signs in themselves are inert and require “something more” to make the effective;... Read more
A couple of quotations from Hart’s biography of Nevin: “The force of the question in the end is nothing less than this, whether the original catholic doctrine concerning the Church, as it stood in universal authority through all ages before the Reformation, is to be received and held still as a necessary part of the christian faith, or deliberately rejected and refused as an error dangerous to men’s souls at war with the Bible?” And Hart on Nevin: “Nevin .... Read more
John Milbank’s opening essay in the recently-released Radical Orthodoxy and the Reformed Tradition (edited by James KA Smith and James Olthuis) is a challenging critique of Calvin and the Reformed tradition, one that I hope to interact with more in the future. One particularly striking passage had to do with how the conception of the relation of Old and New affected racial conceptions within Calvinism. Milbank contrasts Calvin’s view that the “old alliance [was] salvific in its own right” to... Read more
Yahweh is the trickster God of 1-2 Kings. He tricks the Moabites into thinking that the three kings have slaughtered each other (2 Kings 3), and Israel rises from their camp and slaughters them. He tricks the Arameans in the opposite way: chasing them away from their camp so that Israel can plunder them (2 Kings 6-7). The two chapters are chiastically linked, and are neatly inverted: In one, an army leaves a city expecting to find an empty camp... Read more
Why the delay of judgment throughout 1-2 Kings? Two reasons: First, judgment is passed, but Yahweh waits for the sin of the Amorites to come to completion, for sin to ripen to be utterly sinful. Second, Yahweh gives time for the declaration of judgment to work repentance among a remnant. Hence: Elijah pronounces the end of the Omride dynasty; there is a long delay, during which Yahweh forms a remnant. This remnant forms no doubt partly because some want to... Read more
Another aspect of the “satire” of royal power in 1-2 Kings comes out when we examine scenes of womena appealing for help before an authority. Early in Kings, women appeal to Kings and receive what they need (Bath-sheba and David; prostitutes and Solomon). Sheba is overwhelmed by Solomon’s kingdom. For most of Kings, however, women find no relief from kings (cf 2 Kings 6), but the women who consult with prophets receive life and food and justice (1 Kings 17;... Read more
Why does Yahweh send two prophets to the Omrides? Two witnesses no doubt. But their ministries are so similar in many respects; why double it? And what, if any, are the differences between them? One difference is geography. Elijah spends a good bit of the narrative on the far side of the Jordan. He goes to Cherith and then to Zarephath (1 Kings 17), and then travels all the way to Sinai (1 Kings 19). Elijah is out of the... Read more
Leithart
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