Judah and the harlot city of Jerusalem have gone after idols, worshiping in terebinth groves and gardens. Yahweh intends to put an end to that worship (Isaiah 1:28-31). When He comes, He will make Judah ashamed of her trees and gardens. Instead of pleasant fruit, Judah will reap defeat and humiliation. It’s Eden all over again: Judah is Adam in the garden, taking forbidden fruit, and suffering shame as a result. Read more
Matthew records three quakings: First of the sea (8:24), then of the land at Jesus’ death (27:51), and then at His resurrection (28:2). Each time there’s a quaking, someone comes from a tomb. In chapter 8, after Jesus calms the storm He encounters two demoniacs in the country of the Gadarenes, who live in a cemetery. The demoniacs are evidently coming “out from among the tombs,” but the Greek is much more direct – “coming out of the tombs”... Read more
The opposition of literal v. figurative language is problematic for a number of reasons, one of them being that words can become quasi-figures without ever ceasing to be literal. Suppose I write a short story in which the word “gardenia” appears several times. In each case, it is literal, referring to actual (well, fictional-actual) gardenias. It doesn’t become a metaphor or simile for something else; I never say “she’s a gardenia” or “she’s fragrant as a gardenia.” By well-placed and... Read more
Wherever Jesus goes, people flock to Him seeking favors. Some want to be healed; some want a relative healed; some want to have a place on His right or left hand in the kingdom. Everywhere Jesus goes, He distributes favors. Jesus the Godfather. Read more
As soon as Jesus has come down from the mountain from which He preached, His new Sinai, a leper “coming-to worshiped Him” (Matthew 8:1). In the LXX, “coming-to” ( proserchomai ) means a liturgical approach, Aaron’s approach to the altar (Leviticus 9:7) or the unauthorized “coming-to” holy things by an unclean person (Leviticus 22:3). Coming-to a holy thing while suffering from skin disease was enough to get one cut off from before Yahweh (Leviticus 22:4-6). Yet, here comes a leper... Read more
In an article on dead metaphor, Andrzej Pawelec contrasts Lakoff and Johnson’s ballyhooed (by them!) notion of “cognitive metaphor” with the romantic view of metaphor propounded by Shelley and other poets. ”Lakoff’s view is ‘scientific’: he looks for a mechanism, a system behind a range of phenomena. Shelley’s view is ‘romantic’: he perceives phenomena as the work of a creative spirit. Lakoff’s approach is certainly at odds with the social, historical nature of his object. Conventional metaphors are not generated in the Cognitive Unconscious but... Read more
Knowledge cannot be separated into natural and supernatural. Why not? Because the object of both is the same: The object of both is Christ. Augustine over-schematized Colossians 2:3, but he was on the right path when he interpreted it to mean, “In Him are hid the treasures of wisdom (knowledge of God) and science (knowledge of temporal things).” Read more
What is Augustine’s de Trinitate about? Luigi Gioia ( The Theological Epistemology of Augustine’s De Trinitate ) summarizes the treatise in one phrase: “love comes first.” He fills that out with some lovely summaries. ” Love comes first because the inner life of the Trinity is a life of love ( dilectio ) and the substantial unity of the Trinity is a unity of love. Through the Holy Spirit, the Father and the Son dwell in each other.” This is... Read more
John Sailhamer ( Pentateuch as Narrative, The ) suggests that, contrary to most interpretations, Genesis 1:14 does not describe the creation of the sun, moon, and stars. He argues instead that the heavenly lights existed from the moment “God created the heavens and the earth” (taken as a merism for the whole universe). The fourth day displays the “author’s concern to emphasize that God alone created the lights of the heavens” and also states that the lights were put there... Read more
INTRODUCTION Jerusalem, the Daughter and Bride of Yahweh, has become a harlot (Isaiah 1:21). But Yahweh promises to purify her with fire, and raise her up as the chief of the world’s cities (2:1-4). THE TEXT “How the faithful city has become a harlot! It was full of justice; righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers. Your silver has become dross, your wine mixed with water . . . .(Isaiah 1:21-2:4). (more…) Read more
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