Elijah goes to Gilgal, and Elijah tells him to stay. Elisha refuses, and together they move on to Bethel. Elijah tells Elisha to stay put again, but again he refuses and the move on to Jericho. When Elijah has departed and Elisha returns to the land, he “stays” in Jericho (2 Kgs 1:18). He stays with the sons of the prophets, and is a healing presence among them, only after he has received the double portion of Elijah’s spirit. There... Read more
Mozart’s little Minuet in F from Don Giovanni has a simple form. After a 3-measure introduction, the main theme runs through several measures, and then repeats exactly. A second theme follows, and is again repeated identically, and the piece ends with a double repetition of the main melodic theme. This piece provides a helpful way of thinking through issues concerning the structural analysis of texts, and particularly of narratives. A central starting question for structural analysis is how to recognize... Read more
In his fine recent biography of John Williamson Nevin, DG Hart notes that the Old School Presbyterians failed to express “the mediated character of grace and of the church’s centrality in dispensing the blessings of the gospel” as clearly as Nevin himself. He attributes this failure not to the influence of Puritanism, but rather to the fact that the Old School were themselves heirs of the New Side revivalist Presbyterians of an earlier age. As a result, “Unlike Nevin, high-church... Read more
Mark Noll makes the following important distinction between the Puritans and later evangelicals: “Although Puritans stood against Catholic and Anglican formalism, salvation for the Puritans was still mediated by institutions – family, church, covenanted society; in evangelicalism (at least in American forms), salvation was in principle unmediated except by the written Word of God. Puritans protested against nominal ecclesiastical life, but they still treated institutions of church and society as given; American evangelicals created their own communities, at first ecclesiastical,... Read more
In an intriguing book published some years ago, historian David Noble described the origins of modern science among medieval monks and friars who lived in what Noble called “a world without women.” Though the book promoted every trendy academic fad existing in 1992 and was rife with contradictions (women are no different from men, yet it is tragic that women were excluded from the development of modern science), the questions Noble raises about the development of modern science are important.... Read more
INTRODUCTION All cultures draw lines between who is “inside” and who is “outside,” and between different classes of people within the culture. Cultures lift some people up “high” and consider some people “low.” The gospel confounds the boundaries of all worldly cultures, and redraws the lines between those who are “in” and those who are “outside” Christ. In the salvation of Samaria, we see a foreshadowing of the great confounding event of the gospel. THE TEXT “And it happened after... Read more
Isaiah 25:6-8: And the Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain; a banquet of wine, choice pieces with marrow, and refined, aged wine. And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples, even the veil which is stretched out over all nations. He will swallow up death for all time. And the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, and He will remove the reproach... Read more
Unlike our Bibles, which follow the order of the Septuagint, the Hebrew Bible ends with 2 Chronicles. The last word of the Hebrew Bible is the decree of Cyrus to the exiles of Jerusalem: “Let him go up.” The gospel of Matthew likewise ends with a command to “Go.” The two books end with the same command, but the two commands are different in critical ways. Cyrus gave the Jews permission to go to Jerusalem to rebuild their temple and... Read more
Acts 9:15-19: But the Lord said to Ananias, Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake. And Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me to that... Read more
For those inclined to have some sympathy with Dido, Wiseman offers a jarring bit of genealogical information: “according to Josephus . . . , [Ethbaal] was priest of the gods Astarte and Melquart. He ruled [Tyre] for thirty-two years. His granddaughter Dido founded Carthage. His daughter Jezebel married Ahab early in Omri’s reign to mark the political and economy ‘treaty’ between the states.” One wonders how Dido got along with Aunt Jezebel. Read more
Leithart
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