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More Than Grammar

Last updated on: September 5, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Matthew Easter summarizes the back-and-forth of the arguments in the debate over pistis Christou. It’s a careful, judicious summary, and his conclusion seems irrefutable: The debate won’t be resolved by grammar alone, since “interpreters resort either intentionally or unintentionally to their larger models for reading Paul that are already in place” (42). Easter knows that there’s a necessary relation between whole and part, but he worries when the relationship goes unacknowledged. He quotes Thomas Schreiner’s comment that “[N]owhere is there any... Read more

More Than Grammar

Last updated on: September 5, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Matthew Easter summarizes the back-and-forth of the arguments in the debate over pistis Christou. It’s a careful, judicious summary, and his conclusion seems irrefutable: The debate won’t be resolved by grammar alone, since “interpreters resort either intentionally or unintentionally to their larger models for reading Paul that are already in place” (42). Easter knows that there’s a necessary relation between whole and part, but he worries when the relationship goes unacknowledged. He quotes Thomas Schreiner’s comment that “[N]owhere is there any... Read more

What Is Marriage?

Last updated on: September 4, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Douglas Farrow has some wise observations about the same-sex marriage debate in his Touchstone review of Girgis, Anderson, and George, What Is Marriage? He commends the authors’ courage and insight, and is thoroughly in agreement with their effort to defend traditional marriage. But Farrow doesn’t think that the book hits the problem head-on because it “brackets” the question of homosexuality. The authors are trying to avoid the charge of bigotry, but Farrow notes that they’ll be labeled bigots anyway, since their opponents... Read more

Souls In White

Last updated on: September 4, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Several parallels link John fifth-seal vision of martyrs under the altar (Revelation 6:9-11) with the climactic sixth-seal vision of a multitude before the throne (7:9-17). Revelation talks a lot about clothing, and a lot about white clothing in particular. Only three times, however, does the book use the Greek stole: 6:11; 7:9; 22:14. Within the space of a chapter, we hear a promise that a group is going to be robed in white stolas, and then we see a multitude... Read more

Souls In White

Last updated on: September 4, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Several parallels link John fifth-seal vision of martyrs under the altar (Revelation 6:9-11) with the climactic sixth-seal vision of a multitude before the throne (7:9-17). Revelation talks a lot about clothing, and a lot about white clothing in particular. Only three times, however, does the book use the Greek stole: 6:11; 7:9; 22:14. Within the space of a chapter, we hear a promise that a group is going to be robed in white stolas, and then we see a multitude... Read more

Holding the Faith of Christ

Last updated on: September 4, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In a 2002 essay in the Andrews University Seminary Studies, Sigve Tonstad reviews the debate over the phrase pistis Christou – faith in Christ v. faith of Christ. The debate is typically confined to Paul’s letters, but Tonstad rightly points out that the last use of the phrase in the New Testament comes in Revelation which commends those who “hold to the commandments of God and the pistin Iesou” (14:12). Tonstad comments, “The indebtedness of the standard interpretation to Lutheran categories of... Read more

Holding the Faith of Christ

Last updated on: September 4, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In a 2002 essay in the Andrews University Seminary Studies, Sigve Tonstad reviews the debate over the phrase pistis Christou – faith in Christ v. faith of Christ. The debate is typically confined to Paul’s letters, but Tonstad rightly points out that the last use of the phrase in the New Testament comes in Revelation which commends those who “hold to the commandments of God and the pistin Iesou” (14:12). Tonstad comments, “The indebtedness of the standard interpretation to Lutheran categories of... Read more

Pauline Variations on a Greek Theme

Last updated on: September 4, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Paul uses the phrase “elements of the world” several times in his letters. The phrase had an accepted meaning by the first century, referring to the four elements of Greek science—fire, air, water, earth. Paul uses the phrase, but he doesn’t use the phrase in the accepted sense. What conclusions—substantive and methodological—might we draw from that? 1) Paul employs a phrase well-known in Hellenic thought, an idiom as much in the first-century air as “quantum physics” might be today. Paul... Read more

Pauline Variations on a Greek Theme

Last updated on: September 4, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Paul uses the phrase “elements of the world” several times in his letters. The phrase had an accepted meaning by the first century, referring to the four elements of Greek science—fire, air, water, earth. Paul uses the phrase, but he doesn’t use the phrase in the accepted sense. What conclusions—substantive and methodological—might we draw from that? 1) Paul employs a phrase well-known in Hellenic thought, an idiom as much in the first-century air as “quantum physics” might be today. Paul... Read more

Washed in Blood

Last updated on: September 4, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

The innumerable multitude that appears in Revelation 7:9 wears white robes, made clean by being washed in the blood of the Lamb (7:14). This cleansing gives them a sevenfold blessing: 1) They are before the throne, serving God day and night; 2) they are covered with the Lord’s tabernacle; 3) they aren’t hungry or thirsty; 4) the sun doesn’t beat down on them; 5) the Lamb serves as shepherd; 6) they receive the water of life; 7) and God promises... Read more

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