Vernant ( The Cuisine of Sacrifice among the Greeks ) writes of Greek sacrifice, “Because it is directed towards the gods and claims to include them with the group of guests in the solemnity and joy of the celebration, it evokes the memory of the ancient commensality when, seated together, men and gods made merry day after day at shared meals. However, if in its intent sacrifice hearkens back to these far-off times of the golden age when, sharing the... Read more
According to Galatians 4:17, the Judaizers seek to arouse the Galatians to see association with them by shutting them out. They shut the Galatians out so that those outside will clamor to get in. A clever and recurring ploy in all sorts of groups. Paul uses the verb ekkleisai (“shut out”), a transparent pun on ekklesia . The church of Jesus has a table at the center; it is a place of hospitality. A church that shuts out, or a... Read more
What does Paul mean by the phrase stoicheia tou kosmou , “elementary principles of the world”? We get a clue by looking at the meaning of related Greek works. Stoicheion is related to a set of words that carry the connotation of “rank” or “series” or “order.” Stoichos (used by Herodotus) means “rank”; s teicho means “to go in ranks” or “to march,” especially in military array; stoichein comes to mean “to belong to a series,” and is used in... Read more
INTRODUCTION When Yahweh takes away the rulers of Judah (3:2-3), there’s no one left to lead besides children (v. 4) and women (v. 12). In Isaiah’s viciously satiric portrait of the “daughters of Zion” (3:16-24), we get a glimpse of the women who lead Judah. Yahweh will afflict them as He has afflicted the men. THE TEXT “Moreover the Lord says: ‘Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with outstretched necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as... Read more
Isaiah 3:13-15: Yahweh stands up to plead, and stands to judge the people. Yahweh will enter into judgment with the elders of His people and His princes: For you have eaten up the vineyard; the plunder of the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing My people and grinding the faces of the poor? You are what you eat, and at this table, we eat bread and wine. So at this table, we are, and become,... Read more
Romans 6:3-4, do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life . . . . Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. Pascal... Read more
In a recent issue of The New Yorker , Malcolm Gladwell dismissed the notion that social media can promote deep social change. Activists, he points out, take courage from the companionship of like-minded and close friends. Without that shared courage, movements buckle and die. And, he argues, social media cannot create the kinds of bonds necessary for revolutionary political movements. Gladwell writes, “‘Social networks are particularly effective at increasing motivation,’ [Jennifer] Aaker and [Andy] Smith write. But that’s not true.... Read more
A wonderful passage from Chesterton, quoted with approval (for obvious enough reasons) by Slavoj Zizek: “When the world shook and the sun was wiped out of heaven, it was not at the crucifixion but at the cry from the cross (‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?’), the cry which confesses that God was forsaken of God. And now let the revolutionists choose a creed from all the creeds and a god from all the gods of the... Read more
Postmodern sensibility has been described as the priority of image over reality, surface over depth, style over content, signifier over signified. The immediate Christian instinct is to turn those upside down – we are for reality and depth and content. That’s a superficial response. The more fundamental, the more Trinitarian, response, the real subversion of postmodern subversion, is to undo the opposition. Just as the Father is never without His Son, and (so Athanasius) cannot be Father at all without... Read more
In her essay, Pickstock notes the synaesthetic biblical exhortation to “taste and see.” It’s a regular biblical theme, not only in the Psalm 34. Adam and Eve taste and see. So does Jonathan. So do the disciples on the road to Emmaeus. So do we, each week as the Lord’s table, as we taste the Lord and begin to have our senses healed. Read more
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