And announced ?Achav to ?Iyzevel all which did ?Eliyyahu And all which he killed all the prophets by the sword. And send ?Iyzevel an angel to Eliyyahu saying, ?Thus may the Elohim do And thus may they add If according to the time tomorrow I set your soul according to the soul of one of them.?E And he saw, and he arose, and he went/walked to/for his soul And he entered Be?er Sheva?Ewhich [is] to Yehudah And he rested his... Read more
INTRODUCTION At the end of the previous chapter, Elijah ?ran before?EAhab back to Jezreel. This is not just a sign of the Lord?s empowerment of Elijah; it is an offer to Ahab to receive Elijah as his chief advisor. As soon as Ahab tells Jezebel about it, however, that arrangement goes down the drain, and the covenant renewal accomplished at Carmel is quickly reversed. In response, Elijah goes to Horeb/Sinai to bring an accusation against Israel and the house of... Read more
A number of years ago, Regis Debray introduced the notion of “mediology” in an article in Le Monde . His intention was to break down the divisions between technology and culture, to show that the “higher” expressions of culture were shaped and even dependent upon the technologies by which they were expressed. This is not a new idea, as Brian Rotman says in a review of Debray’s recent God: An Itinerary : “this sort of mediality goes back to Victor... Read more
Is the covenant between God and His people more or less strictly legal, a contractual relationship of Lord to servant? Or does it describe an ordered relationship of filial love, a relationship of Father and Son? The parable of the “prodigal son” sheds some light. Brendan Byrne points out that the older brother sees himself as a servant in the house, working like a slave, rather than as a son: “He thinks that such work should have earned a decent... Read more
Would Adam have been admitted to eat from the tree of knowledge if he had kept the probation in the garden? Jim Jordan has argued from hints in Genesis 1-3 that the answer is Yes. Perhaps there’s also some further hint in Matthew 4:1-11. Jesus goes into the wilderness, and is keeping a fast; unlike the first Adam, He resists the temptation to eat forbidden food, and He triumphs over Satan. At the end of the passage, however, he eats;... Read more
?Then Elijah said to them, ?Seize the prophets of Baal; do not let one of them escape.?ESo they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there. Now Elijah said to Ahab, ?Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of a roar of a heavy shower.?ESo Ahab went up to eat and drink.?E One imagines that Ahab did not feel much like eating. He had gathered his 450 prophets of Baal... Read more
We are in the second week of the traditional season of Lent. Lent covers the forty days prior to Easter, and is a fast in preparation for the feast of the resurrection. In some of the earliest churches, baptismal candidates prepared during these forty days for their baptism at Easter. It gradually developed into a period of discipline, purification, and fasting. Today, many Christians observe Lent by ?fasting?Efrom some favorite food or activity. Since some of us here at Trinity... Read more
INTRODUCTION In Jesus?Eparables, the evangelistic invitation is often an invitation to a feast, a royal banquet (?the kingdom of heaven is like a king who gave a wedding feast . . . .?E. Christian liturgy is an enactment of that invitation and our response to it. In the call to worship, we are invited to draw near into God?s house. At the door, we confess our unworthiness, beg for cleansing and forgiveness, and receive assurance of pardon. Then we go... Read more
Merold Westphal offers this helpful definition of “onto-theology” in an article found here : “The term is often used by assistant professors who have appointed themselves campus terrorists and, alas, by senior scholars who should be more careful, as a kind of sci-fi conceptual zapper. You aim it at any theology archaic enough to affirm a transcendent, personal creator and vaporize it by intoning the magic word, ‘onto-theology.’ “But what do we find in Heidegger? He derives the term from... Read more
Destroy this Temple, Mark 13:1-37 THE KING RETURNS Palm Sunday celebrates the king?s coming to His city. On Palm Sunday, Jesus entered Jerusalem, hailed as a king. -He requisitions a donkey, claiming it as Lord: ?The Lord has need of it.?E -The donkey has been tied and needs to be untied (Mark 11:2), an echo of the prophecy of Jacob about the king from the tribe of Judah: ?He ties his foal to the vine, and his donkey?s colt to... Read more
Leithart
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