Isaiah 53 has often been read as a text dealing mainly with “atonement theory.” That is, it is a text that explains the mechanics of how the atonement dealt with sin. That is certainly part of what we’ll find, but the text itself is really more a prediction of the passion of the Servant Messiah rather than a treatise on atonement theology. It’s like Psalm 22 or 69, or Zechariah 11 and 13, all of which are quoted in the... Read more
In the ancient world, Aries was, Bruce Malina observes, “the first of all constellations, the first created celestial body marking the inauguration of the cosmos” (The New Jerusalem in the Revelation of John, 67). He cites Cicero in support: “When the vault of the sky returns to the position it had at the time of creation, it will be with Aries at the point of preeminence, the head of the cosmos. And such a return to beginnings was expected. For... Read more
William Dumbrell’s The End of the Beginning examines the Old Testament backgrounds to the final visions of Revelation, chapters 21-22. He looks at those chapters through various lenses – new Jerusalem, new temple, new covenant, new Israel, new creation. Reviewing Ezekiel’s vision of restoration, he points to the obvious, that Ezekiel presents an eschatology focused on a restored temple. Then he makes this not-so-obvious comment: “The purifying and sanctifying influence of the building upon the land is . . .... Read more
Following hints from David Aune, Alastair Campbell argues (in an Evangelical Quarterly article) that Revelation 19:11-21 does not describe a last battle but a triumphal parade modeled on a Roman Triumph. He quotes the following description of such an event: “The victorious general whom the senate had granted the right to a triumph, entered Rome standing on a high two-wheeled chariot, the currus triumphalis, which was drawn by four horses… The triumphator is clothed in the vestis triumphalis: the tunica... Read more
Over at The Spectator, James Mumford offers a hard-hitting analysis of the response to the recent Anglican summit. Mumford doesn’t analyze the summit itself, but the blustering response from politicians and the press: “On Thursday the Labour shadow cabinet minister and former Anglican priest, Chris Bryant, declared he had left the Church of England for good. The Church’s decision will one day ‘seem [as] wrong as supporting slavery’ he tweeted. On Saturday the Times published a full-blown invective. The Church has... Read more
God is a God of speech. Robert Jenson has said we worship a talkative God, The first thing we learn about God is that He creates by speaking. John 1 deepens our understanding of that by telling us that God not only speaks, but that speech is one of His inherent qualities. “Talkativeness” is not merely an “attribute” of God. God is the Word, the Word is God; the Father is never speechless, never silent, never lonely or taken aback, never... Read more
In her contribution to The Apocalypse in English Renaissance Thought and Literature, Florence Sandler suggests that “Spenser presents to the Elizabethan reader a moral allegory with an Erasmian cast,” a “poem modelled on the Apocalypse” (150). The whole first book of the Fairie Queene, she suggests, can be read as a reimagination of John’s Revelation: “The Red Cross Knight, the hero of the Legend, is introduced as one ‘Faithful and True’ (cf. Rev. 19:11), who must yet endure temptations and oppressions,... Read more
Biblical scholars commonly criticize other biblical scholars for being inconsistent in their handling of literal and figurative language. If one bit of a text is literal, it is assumed, the whole must be; and vice versa. This demand for consistency is mistaken, and can only lead to absurdities. Take the figure of “Babylon” in the book of Revelation. Babylon is a great city, and a great harlot. The word “Babylon” has to be taken literally. A city might be full... Read more
“For three transgressions of Damascus and for four. . . . for three transgressions of Gaza and for four. . . . For three transgressions of Tyre and for four. . . . For three transgressions of Edom and for four.” That is how Amos opens his prophecy: A series of oracles against the nations that surround Israel. Ammon and Moab are next, and his readers and hearers are getting excited. The Lord is finally going to punish the nations... Read more
Catherine Keller argues (God and Power) that apocalyptic vision turned “a local, territorializing Israelite faith” into a global one. Apocalyptic “formed first as a response to the imperial aggression of Babylon, which had traumatically deterritorialized Israel; then the Babylon of Isaianic apocalyptic became code for Rome.” In Christian hands, the territorial homeland of Jerusalem “morphed into the transcendent Christian (non)space,” which “deterritorialized Jerusalem” and then reterritorialized it with settlement by Crusaders (41). The apocalyptic thus inspired an imperial form of... Read more
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