Ask any church planter, and he’ll tell you that one of the dangers of starting a new work is that it tends to attract all the people who are disaffected and discontented from the churches of the surrounding area. They have made an utter nuisance of themselves in their own churches, and they can make the church planter’s life miserable. They will soon be disenchanted and disillusioned with the new church and its less-than-perfect pastor. Such is the conventional wisdom,... Read more
As noted in my sermon outline earlier this week, there is an intriguing reversal going on with Solomon and Pharaoh in 1 Kings 9. Solomon does not wipe out the Canaanites (v. 20-21), but Pharaoh does (v. 16). On the other hand, Solomon is acting like a Pharaoh, not only in the obvious sense that he builds stables for his horses and chariots (v. 19; cf. Dt 17), but also in the fact that he builds “cities of storage” (v.... Read more
Yahweh’s “Name” must be His personal presence. He “consecrates” the temple by setting His name in the house (1 Ki 9:3, 7), and consecration is accomplished by the presence of Yahweh, particularly the presence of His glory (Ex 29:43). Name and glory must be coordinate if not identical realities. The “Deuteronomist” is not “distancing” Yahweh from the temple; like the “Priestly Writer,” he believes that Yahweh is present. This supports the notion that “Name” designates the Second Person of the... Read more
Though resting a theological case on a linguistic “accident” would be a mistake, it is intriguing that the Hebrew word for “convert” is the same as the Hebrew word for “go apostate.” The word in both cases is SHUB, “turn,” which means “turn away” or “turn toward” or “turn back” in various contexts (used for apostasy in 1 Ki 9:6, for example). A few hypotheses suggest themselves, which would have to be proven and filled out on other grounds: 1)... Read more
Greeks are adolescents; Achilles is an overgrown hyper-sensitive hyper-muscled teenager. A student points out that this applies also to humor: Greek humor is adolescent humor. Consider Aristophanes, the only extant Old Comedian. Case closed. Read more
A Second Dream, 1 Kings 9:1-28 INTRODUCTION Solomon?s great building project was the house of Yahweh, which included the temple, the palace, and the government buildings (1 Kings 6-7). But Solomon also built a number of other buildings, fortresses and cities. 1 Kings 9 describes both Yahweh?s response to the temple (vv. 1-9), and the other building projects (vv. 15-19), and is framed by references to Solomon ?finishing?Ethe house (vv. 1, 25). THE TEXT ?And it came to pass, when... Read more
Commenting on Deuteronomy 30:9ff in his new translation of the Pentateuch, Robert Alter offers the following comment on “Who will go up for us to the heavens, etc”: “The Deuteronomist, having given God’s teaching a local place and habitation in a text available to all, proceeds to reject the older mythological notion of the secrets or wisdom of the gods. It is the daring hero of the pagan epic who, unlike ordinary men, makes bold to climb the sky or... Read more
A guest on Ken Myers’ Mars Hill audio magazine discusses the humor of The Ladykillers . What, he asks, are we laughing at when we see the plots of criminals return on their own heads? He suggests that we are laughing at the folly of humanity, and at the way human weakness foils the “best-laid” plans. (He points to the character who has irritable bowel syndrome as an example; it’s an almost Augustinian example of how we are, as Myers’... Read more
Doug Jones suggests the following, promising Trinitarian account of the quadriga: Literal – Father (origins) Allegorical – Son (obvious enough) Anagogical – Spirit (completion) That of course leaves the tropological, but this has to do with the formation of the believer. In a Trinitarian perspective, the tropological points to the incorporation of the believer into the Triune life originating from the Father, fulfilled in the Son, brought to completion in the Spirit. Scripture and particular passages of Scripture indicate what... Read more
1 Kings 8:2 Like the Christian calendar, Israel?s festival calendar did not cover the whole of the year. It began with Passover in the first month of the liturgical year, went through Pentecost in the third month, and climaxed with a series of feasts in the seventh month: the feast of trumpets on the first day of the month, the Day of Atonement on the tenth day, and the week-long Feast of Booths that followed the Day of Atonement. The... Read more
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