Isaiah 66 includes a terrifying warning to Israel: Yahweh is coming in fire, nose burning in anger, riding on the whirlwind that drives away the wicked like chaff. He’s coming with sword and fire to bring judgment (vv. 15-16). Sword and fire. That’s familiar. There’s the fiery sword of the cherubim at the gate of Eden, and the fire and sword of the sacrificial system. Both are in play in Isaiah 66. Yahweh’s judgment is like a sacrificial slaughter. Eden... Read more
In the fourth century BC, the Greek historian Hecataeus of Abdera offered this account of ancient Egyptian history (quoted in Bernal, Black Athena, 1.109): “The natives of the land surmised that unless they removed the foreigners their troubles would never be resolved. At once, therefore, the aliens were driven from the country and the most outstanding and active among them banded together and, as some say, were cast ashore in Greece and certain other regions; their teachers were notable men, among... Read more
As Joseph turns Egypt into a vast grain story, it’s said that he “stored grain in great abundance, like the sand of the sea, until he stopped measuring, for it was beyond measure” (Genesis 41:49). That “sand of the sea” reminds us of promises made to the patriarchs about the people of Israel (Genesis 22:17; 32:12), promises ultimately fulfilled in the time of Solomon (1 Kings 4:29). He “numbers” (saphar) grain until it cannot be numbered, another reference to the... Read more
After wonderful books on Bach, Handel, and the early Christian understanding of music, Calvin Stapert had added a volume on what he calls “music’s wittiest composer,” a composer full of surprises, Joseph Haydn (Playing Before the Lord). The book is organized biographically, and the account of his life is interspersed Stapert’s analyses of selected works. Stapert combines enthusiastic description (the first movement of Haydn’s sixth symphony depicts a sunrise in a pastoral scene, with shepherd’s playing panpipes surrounded by scampering... Read more
Ancient Athens and the Renaissance are today seen as the two great peaks of Western Civilization. Renaissance thinkers would not have seen things that way. Obsessed with sources as they were, they wanted to push behind Rome to Greece and from Greece to Egypt. Those who were seeking an alternative to Christianity found it not in Athens but in Alexandria and Thebes. Egyptian religion was not marginal to Renaissance sensibilities, but central. Martin Bernal writes (Black Athena, 1.152) “it is... Read more
Lawrence Buell’s The Dream of the Great American Novel addresses a long-standing question in American letters: Is there such a thing as a GAN, and if so, what is it? In her TLS review, Sarah Graham writes, “Introduced in print by John W. De Forest in January 1868, the phrase ‘Great American Novel’ had already been used by P. T. Barnum to mock publishers for puffing their latest books, Buell writes, confirming that the GAN is at least as much a marketing... Read more
“I will extend peace to her like a river,” Yahweh promises Jerusalem (66:12a). How is peace like a river? The parallel line that follows helps explain: “And the glory of nations like an overflowing stream.” Once, the glory of Jerusalem flowed out of Jerusalem to Babylon – the glory of people, gold, treasure. Now the glory is flowing back in. Once the Euphrates overflowed its banks and flooded Judah (Isaiah 8:8), but now the overflow will not drown Jerusalem but... Read more
The Hebrew word chul means whirl, twist, or writhe, and in some contexts “dance.” In certain settings, it takes on the sense of “travail in labor,” describing a woman who writhes to bring forth a child (cf. Isaiah 26:27-28; 45:10; 51:2; 54:1). The world itself writhes in Yahweh’s presence (1 Chronicles 16:30; Psalm 96:9; 97:4; 114:7), sometimes because He comes in a “writhing tempest” (Jeremiah 23:19). That this implies not only “quake” but “writhe in labor pains” is evident in... Read more
We hear much talk of “cruciformity” these days: Christians participate in the suffering and death of Christ, not only imitating Jesus in taking up His cross, but sharing in His death. Cruciformity is true, but only a partial truth. Consider Jesus: He didn’t get to the cross until the end, and before that He preached the kingdom, did good works, healed, debated Pharisees and scribes, provoked, flouted Jewish custom, spoke woes and predicted doom and in general made a right... Read more
My head started spinning only a few pages into Andrew Dean Swafford’s Nature and Grace. He offered initial support for maintaining a distinction of nature and grace by appealing to 1 Corinthians 2:9 and arguing that the “original creation is surpassed by man’s new creation in Christ” (4). To which one wants to say, Sure thing! Up with surpassing Adam! But then this temporal and covenant distinction between Adamic creation and Christic new creation gets conflated with “nature and grace” (5), and... Read more
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