Twice in the New Testament, people appear crying out to God for salvation, or praising Him for accomplishing it, holding palm branches. Why palm branches? The Hebrew word “palm” is tamar , the name of Judah’s daughter whose husband die and who has to disguise herself as a temple prostitute to get a son and to be plugged into the line of Judah. Perez and Zerah were born of her, and these were the sons of Judah who produced the... Read more
“My belived” ( dodi ) is as a cluster ( eshchol ) of camphire or henna from the vineyards (Song 1:14). The word eshchol is typically used for bunches of grapes. The dream of the cup-bearer that Joseph interpreted involved wine from eshchols of grapes (Genesis 40:10), and the spies brought back giant clusters of grapes from the land of promise (Numbers 13:23-24). In the Song of Moses, he predicts that the clusters of Israel will become bitter (Deuteronomy 32:32).... Read more
The Hebrew word “give” ( natan ) is used in a wide variety of senses in Scripture. It is used in contexts where it means “teach”: Wisdom is given to the wise man (Proverbs 9:9). Words are “given” as well as “spoken.” Privileges are “given.” Miracles are “given” (Exodus 7:9). Musical sounds are “given” by instruments (Psalm 81:2). Things set in place are “given” (Genesis 1:17). Things are “given before the face” of others (1 Kings 9:6). Being set in... Read more
Reflecting on the precipitous decline in Lincoln’s reputation in the last third of the twentieth century, Barry Schwartz ( Abraham Lincoln in the Post-Heroic Era: History and Memory in Late Twentieth-Century America , pp. 258-9) notes in passing: “Before the 1960s, textbook writers literally ignored African Americans; since the 1980s, they have distorted by overstatement. Crispus Attucks, a totally unknown dark-skinned man shot during a demonstration against British troops in Boston is now defined as a black man, America’s first... Read more
In the last week, I posted a tweet where I raised the question whether “doctrines of substance and natures” constitute a form of idolatry. Some friends have suggested this is too complicated a subject to twitter about. They are right. It’s a subject too complicated and fraught to address in that limited format. I should have presented an argument, and here is the gist of that argument. Do things have natures? As I am posing the question, it is not... Read more
Building on some insights from James Jordan’s lecture on Revelation 7, where he explains the absence of Dan from the tribal list there. Dan is the first Rachel son, not a son of Rachel herself but of her handmaid Bilhah. He is the firstborn that comes from Rachel’s house. Dan means “judge,” and Rachel calls him that because in giving her maidservant a son Yahweh “judged” or vindicated Rachel (Genesis 30:6; she says, “Danned me has God and also heard... Read more
We can see, hear, taste, touch, smell. Why? Where do senses come from? What’s the theological rationale for sensation? Why this “mediation” of the world through sensible experience? (Or, is that even the right way to ask the question?) My speculative guess that the answer is in pneumatology. The Spirit is linked in various ways with several of the senses: The burning eyes of the Lamb are the seven Spirits of God; the Son is the Word, but the Spirit... Read more
The scene in the first stich of Song of Songs 1:12 pictures the king “at his table.” Some translations say that the king is at his couch. The Hebrew word here is from a verb that means to “surround” ( sabab ). It might be translated as “While the king was compassing about.” But the word instead refers to a “low couch or divan on which participants in a banquet reclined” (Pope, 347). So the different translations pick up different... Read more
Bonnie MacLachlan considers archaic Greece the The Age of Grace . Charis was everywhere: It “flickered when beautiful women sparkled; soldiers brought charis to their commanders when they fought well; charis graced appropriate behavior and speech and was a distinguishing mark of nobility; it was at the center of the feast; in the verses of love poets it sat upon the hair or the eyes of the beloved. For the epinician poets it crowned that moment of supreme glory when... Read more
At the end of a highly technical 1966 article in the Journal of Hellenic Studies , JH Quincey contrasts Greek expressions of thanks to modern English expressions: “The Greeks’ habit in accepting an offer, service, etc. was to confer praise and not thanks. The difference between their usage and ours is not just a verbal one but reflects a fundamental difference in outlook. The Englishman with his ‘Thank you!’ is content to express his feelings, the Greeks, although no less... Read more
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