Child Catchers

Last updated on: May 17, 2013 at 1:16 pm By Peter Leithart

Writing in The Nation , Melanie Mock summarizes the findings of Kathryn Joyce’s The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel of Adoption . Mock writes: “Many secular adoption agencies have been implicated in corruption in the last decade and more. Joyce focuses on those evangelical adoption ministries that have used coercion, aggressive marketing, outright lies and other forms of malfeasance to promote what they believe to be a biblical agenda of caring for widows and orphans. Many adopted... Read more

Orgin, Agent, Destiny

Last updated on: May 17, 2013 at 6:28 am By Peter Leithart

N.T. Wright regularly points out how Paul inserts Jesus into the Shema in 1 Corinthians 8:6. “There is but one God, the Father,” he begins, and as a Jew there he would have ended. Instead, he adds, “and one Lord, Jesus Christ.” Hear, O Israel, the God is one, and the Lord is one, and this one God and Lord is the Father and Jesus. The verse also offers a neat bit of Trinitarian metaphysics. The Father is the origin... Read more

Political eschatology

Last updated on: May 16, 2013 at 11:10 pm By Peter Leithart

In an essay challenging the widespread notion that Tyconius was a millennialist, Paula Fredriksen notes the connections between eschatology and politics in the early church: “Diving the signs of the End in a period of Imperial persecution gave many of the early commentaries a decidedly political aspect. Irenaeus, for example. identifies the fourth beast of Daniel 7 and the beast from the sea in Revelation 13 with the ‘imperium quod nunc regnat’; the name of the second beast, encoded in... Read more

Age of Exiles

Last updated on: May 16, 2013 at 4:19 pm By Peter Leithart

According to Pamela Bright ( The Book of Rules of Tyconius: Its Purpose and Inner Logic) , the late fourth century was the “Age of Exiles” in the Western church. The Council of Milan (355), convene to deal with the question of Athanasius’s orthodoxy, ended with the exile of the Nicene party, including Hilary of Poitiers, Dionysius of Milan, Eusebius of Vercelli, and Luciver of Cagliari. The Arian George of Cappadocia took the see of Alexandria, and Athanasius was sent... Read more

Seven heads, seven kings

Last updated on: May 15, 2013 at 4:50 pm By Peter Leithart

Oecumenius ( Greek Commentaries on Revelation (Ancient Christian Texts) , 75) turns to more recent history to interpret the seven mountains-heads-kings of the beast of Revelation 17. The seven kings are not in order; rather they refer to the seven persecuting emperors of Rome: Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Severus, Decius, Valerian, and finally Diocletian. Five have fallen, and one is, namely Valerian. The one who will rule for a short time is Diocletian who “instigated his persecution in the final two... Read more

God-fearers

Last updated on: May 15, 2013 at 4:42 pm By Peter Leithart

The wounded and healed head of the beast (Revelation 13:1-3) represents, according to Oecumenius ( Greek Commentaries on Revelation (Ancient Christian Texts) , 58-9 ), “the death-bearing wound that the devil received on one of its heads . . . because of the reverent worship of Israel.” Yet this wound was not a death-wound because of Israel’s “subsequent idolatry.” The worship of the beast by all people also refers, Oecumenius thinks, to ancient history, not to the history of the... Read more

Jews and Greeks

Last updated on: May 15, 2013 at 9:59 am By Peter Leithart

What ought we say about the gospel and Hellenism? Many things, but this seems like a fruitful line of inquiry: The gospel is the fulfillment of Israel’s hope. The gospel therefore is known only by its similarity to and difference from the history and faith of the Jews. The gospel then enters the Greco-Roman world, and it is good news to the Greeks too. And in that setting it is known only by its similarity to and difference from the... Read more

Ephraim and Forgetfulness

Last updated on: May 15, 2013 at 7:31 am By Peter Leithart

Psalm 78 is a wisdom Psalm about Ephraim turning into his brother, Manasseh. Ephraim’s failure to come to Jephthah’s aid (Judges 12:1-6) initiates the Psalm’s review of Israel’s stubbornness and rebellion (Psalm 78:8-10). Ephraim refused to take up arms (v. 9), a sign that Ephraim had forgotten the Exodus (v. 11). The exodus should have inspired Ephraim to fight. After a long series of rebellions, Yahweh rejects Ephraim (v. 67) and instead chooses a king from the tribe of Judah... Read more

Apocalyptic Patience

Last updated on: May 15, 2013 at 5:37 am By Peter Leithart

I have a meditation on the “little apocalypse” of Isaiah 24 at the Trinity House web site today. Read more

Thousand years as a day

Last updated on: May 14, 2013 at 9:37 pm By Peter Leithart

In his commentary on Revelation (in Greek Commentaries on Revelation (Ancient Christian Texts) , Oecumenius interprets the millennium as the period between Christ’s incarnation and His ascension. During “the time of the incarnation of the Lord, the devil was bound and was not able to resist the marks of the Savior’s deity” (87). He is probably the only commentator ever to offer such an interpretation. On the other hand, the “little while” during which Satan is released is “the time... Read more