Barth quotes one CJ Nitzsch on the significance of the doctrine of the Trinity: ?So long as theism only distinguishes God and the world and never God from God, it is always caught in a relapse or transition to the pantheistic or some other denial of absolute being. There can be full protection against atheism, polytheism, pantheism, or dualism only with the doctrine of the Trinity?EFaith in the eternal, holy love which God is can be achieved in both theory... Read more
Walsh has this intriguing comment about the man stone to death for blasphemy in Lev 24: “The man is oddly anonymous, although his Israelite mother, his maternal grandfather, and his tribal forefather are all named. This is a more subtle invocation of the law of the talion: the man who blasphemes the divine name shall lose his own.” Read more
Jerome Walsh (in Style and Structure in Biblical Hebrew Narrative ) points out the chiastic structure of Gen 12:6b: Pharaoh gives Abram “flocks-and-herds/jackasses/men servants//women servants/jenny asses/camels.” This arrangement highlights the gift of slaves to Abram, anticipating the “gift” of Hebrew slaves to Moses in the exodus. Abram leaves Egypt not only with wealth, but with a company of liberated slaves. Further, Walsh suggests that the whole episode has a chiastic structure: A. Abram goes to Egypt B. Sarai taken C.... Read more
Ever since first reading Milbank’s Theology and Society Theory , I’ve been intrigued by the work of JG Hamann. A recent brief article by John R. Betz in Modern Theology (April 2004) raised my interest again. Betz reviews Oswald Bayer’s recent Vernunft ist Sprache: Hamanns Metakritik Kants , and provides the best short summary of Hamann I’ve seen. Some highlights: 1) The title of Bayer’s book, Reason is Language , summarizes one of Hamann’s characteristic ideas. In a letter to... Read more
Iain Provan, Philips Long, and Tremper Longman’s A Biblical History of Israel begins with several excellent chapters on OT historiography, and on historiographical issues in general. Some highlights of the discussion (highlights to me at least): 1) The authors challenge the distinction between primary and secondary sources because it is based on a faulty “scientific” understanding of historical study: “The idea goes at least as far back as Ranke himself, who proposed that texts produced in the course of events... Read more
For all those readers out there who read Polish: Several of my articles have been translated and published in the Reformacja w Polsce ( Reformation in Poland ), a quaterly published by Evangelical Reformed Church in Wroclaw, Poland. Bogumil Jarmulak sent me the following links: “Why Sacraments” ( Dlaczego sakramenty ) is available at http://www.reformacja.pl/pl/rwp/archiwalnenumery/nr_4_2003/678.html . “The Serpent wears now the Crown” ( Waz nosi dzis korone – typologiczne czytanie Hamleta ) is availabel at http://www.reformacja.pl/pl/rwp/archiwalnenumery/nr_3_2003/649.html . And “Christ is... Read more
According to the critical consensus, 2 Samuel 8:18, 20:26 and 1 Kings 4:5 above show no acquaintance with ?P?s?Enotion that priesthood was restricted to members of the tribe of Levi; from this evidence, inter alia, the conclusion is drawn that P must not then have been in existence, for if it were, the authors of Samuel and Kings would certainly have condemned the presence of nonLevitical priests. In my interpretation of these texts in The Priesthood of the Plebs ,... Read more
According to the critical consensus, 2 Samuel 8:18, 20:26 and 1 Kings 4:5 above show no acquaintance with ?P?s?Enotion that priesthood was restricted to members of the tribe of Levi; from this evidence, inter alia, the conclusion is drawn that P must not then have been in existence, for if it were, the authors of Samuel and Kings would certainly have condemned the presence of nonLevitical priests. In my interpretation of these texts in The Priesthood of the Plebs ,... Read more
1 Cor 11:28-32 In our churches here in Moscow, we like to emphasize that the Lord?s Supper is a feast of joy, a time of gladness not gloom, a time for celebration not self-flagellation. These emphases are all right and proper, and are profoundly important. For centuries, many Christians reduced their celebrations of the Supper to opportunities for meditation on their sins and on the horrors of the cross. It is essential that we strike the note of joy that... Read more
Then assembled Shlomoh the elders of Israel All the heads of the tribes The chiefs of the fathers to the sons of Israel To the king Shlomoh in Jerusalem. To cause to ascend the coffer of the covenant of Yahweh From the city of David, that is, Zion. And they assembled to the king Shlomoh All the men of Israel In the month of the Ethanim On the feast, that is, the seventh month. And entered all the elders of... Read more
Leithart
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