The Notebook

Last updated on: August 25, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In his Notebooks, English Virtuosi, and Early Modern Science, Richard Yeo further dispels the myth of the lone scientific genius. Early modern science made its advances because of collaboration among researchers. And they used the highest of contemporary high-tech to pass around their research – the notebook. It was as important a piece of equipment as the air pump. According to the TLS reviewer, “Hooke was one of many late seventeenth-century Englishmen who emphasized co-operation as they investigated the natural world... Read more

Elam’s Afterlife

Last updated on: August 25, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

After the flood, the sons of Noah repopulated the earth. Shem’s first son was Elam (Genesis 10:22; cf. Genesis 14:1), the ancestor of the Elamite people that lived in the South of present-day Iran, with Susa as their capital. Elam is apparently the firstborn of the Shemites, displaced from that prominence, as far as the biblical story is concerned, by Eber, son of Shelah, son of Arpachshad, who was Elam’s brother (Genesis 10:22-25). Chedorlaomer, the overlord of Canaan during the... Read more

Numbers

Last updated on: August 25, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

The word “number” (Greek, arithmos) occurs ten times in Revelation, and the word occurs in climactic sections of the major sections of the book. It occurs first in 5:11, describing the “number” of the angels who join in worship, at the climax of the rippling expansion of praise from heaven when the Lamb ascends and takes the book. Both the sixth seal and the sixth trumpet use the word: The sixth seal reveals the “number” of the sealed saints (7:4),... Read more

Sons of Men, Daughters of God

Last updated on: August 25, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In his recent Trinity House lectures on Genesis, James Jordan argues that the sons of God (that is, the faithful line of Seth) are attracted to the “good” daughters of men (women from Cain’s line) not because of their beauty but because of the social and cultural advantages of allying with Cain. Cainites have made all the cultural advances, and allying with Cainites is the way to get ahead. Over the course of the book of Genesis, that begins to... Read more

Fourth-Born

Last updated on: August 25, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Jacob’s firstborn is Reuben, but he doesn’t become the preeminent son of Jacob because he takes his father’s concubine. Neither do the next two, Simeon and Levi, because they slaughter the men of the city of Shechem. It’s the fourth, Judah, who becomes the chief among his brothers. The same thing happens again with David, the new Jacob. Three sons are eliminated for one reason or another – Amnon (rapist), Absalom (murderer and rebel), and Adonijah (rebel). Solomon is the... Read more

Starstrike

Last updated on: August 25, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

A study from the Columbia Business School has discovered that “umpires grant a larger and more generous strike zone to All-Star pitchers, and were also less likely to miss pitches that were in the official strike zone for these pitchers.” The research reviewed 800,000 pitches from 2008-2009, comparing them to the official MLB strike zone. In general, “Umpires make a mistake on around 14% of all called pitches by either calling a pitch outside the strike zone a ball, or calling a... Read more

Starstrike

Last updated on: August 25, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Not Religious

Last updated on: August 23, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Mehdi Hasan presents evidence in an article in the New Statesman that jihadists aren’t the most devout of Muslims. Often the opposite. “In 2008, a classified briefing note on radicalisation, prepared by MI5’s behavioural science unit, was leaked to the Guardian. It revealed that, ‘far from being religious zealots, a large number of those involved in terrorism do not practise their faith regularly. Many lack religious literacy and could . . . be regarded as religious novices.’ The analysts concluded that... Read more

Early World, Our World

Last updated on: August 22, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

The world of Genesis can appear to be an alien world. It’s full of strange institutions, unknown names and peoples. But for the author of Hebrews, the world of Genesis is the world of Christians. More than half of his great chapter on faith (Hebrews 11) is taken up with a review of Genesis. Eight of the named heroes of faith in Hebrews 11 are taken from the book of Genesis. The world of Genesis is the world in which... Read more

Early World, Our World

Last updated on: August 22, 2014 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart