Greek Purity

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:43 pm By Peter Leithart

We typically think of Greeks as Apollonian and rational. We don’t think of Greeks as people concerned with pollution and purity. Like all ancient peoples, though, they were, as Robert Parker details in his wonderful Miasma: Pollution and Purification in Early Greek Religion (Clarendon Paperbacks) . Early on, Parker cites from Hippocrates (the physician), who wrote a book On the Sacred Disease , and said this about Greek religion: “we mark out the boundaries of the temples and the groves... Read more

Messengers

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:10 am By Peter Leithart

Herod tells the wise men to search for the Child king, and when they find Him to “bring me word” ( apaggelo ) so that Herod too might worship. the verb becomes important at the end of Matthew’s gospel, when an aggelos appears at the open tomb, and both soldiers and women run off to report ( apaggelo ) the news. The chief priests and scribes who receive the news from the soldiers don’t come to the tomb to worship... Read more

Joseph’s Wisdom

Last updated on: August 24, 2010 at 7:54 am By Peter Leithart

Joseph of Genesis, son of Jacob, was a dreamer and a sage, an interpreter of dreams. He was a wise man. So too Joseph of Matthew, father of Jesus. The angel addresses him as “son of David” (Matthew 1:20), a title used almost exclusively of Solomon in the OT (1 Chr 29:23; 2 Chr 1:1; 13:6; 30:26; 35:3; Prov 1:1; Ecc 1:1), and exclusively of Jesus elsewhere in the NT. Jesus is a new Solomon, a sage, but like Son... Read more

Joseph’s Wisdom

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:45 pm By Peter Leithart

Matthew 1-2

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:10 am By Peter Leithart

Matthew 1:18-2:23 sorts out into a neat chiasm: A. Joseph, angel, dream, Jesus born B. Wise men search for Jesus: to Herod C. Wise men visit Jesus: dream D. Joseph, dream flee to Egypt C’. Herod tricked by wise men B’. Herod kills children A’. Joseph, angel, dream, Jesus settles in Nazareth Sections A, D, and A’ are particularly intimately related. Each is about a dream of Joseph in which an angel appears. In all three, Mary and the child... Read more

The Dreamer

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:56 pm By Peter Leithart

Joseph, human father of Jesus, is a dreamer (Matthew 1:20; 2:13, 19). In each case, an angel appears in a dream to protect Jesus. The first dream prevents Joseph from tucking Mary away, and the other two actually save Jesus’ life. Joseph is a dreamer, like his namesake from Genesis. Joseph son of Jacob dreamed in order to preserve life: “God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a... Read more

History and Justice

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:43 pm By Peter Leithart

In his Of God and Gods: Egypt, Israel, and the Rise of Monotheism (George L. Mosse Series) , Jan Assmann argues that justice is a “generator of history,” that is, it is the concept/action that makes history a field of interaction between God and man. In the Bible, in contrast to Egyptian, Greek, and Roman religion, “History is seen as the manifestation of the will of God, of a god who reacts to the deeds of mankind by punishing, rewarding,... Read more

Voice of the Bridegroom, Voice of the Bride

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:50 pm By Peter Leithart

A long title for a short post. The prophets sometimes portray the collapse of Jerusalem by saying that the “voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride will be heard no more” (Jeremiah 7:34; 25:10; 33:11; Revelation 18:23). ”I say there shall be no more marriages,” Yahweh says. But of course the voices of the bridegroom and the bride are also the voices of Yahweh and Israel. Those voices too cease: Yahweh no longer will woo His bride,... Read more

Nature again

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:09 am By Peter Leithart

My colleague Jonathan McIntosh takes issue with my post about nature in Aristotle: “I like the idea of questioning or challenging Aristotle’s notion of nature, but is it possible that your remarks confuse ‘not being impeded by an external influence for the fulfillment of one’s nature’ with therefore somehow ‘not needing any external influences for the fulfillment of one’s nature’? My understanding is that Aristotle is not trying to exclude the role of external influence (indeed, the very idea of nature,... Read more

According to Logos

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:45 pm By Peter Leithart

In 2006, Pope Benedict came under intense criticism for citing the harsh words of a fourteenth-century Byzantine emperor about Islam. The Pope’s point was to highlight the importance of Greek philosophy in the Christian tradition. He cited the following passage from the emperor’s dialog with a Persian Muslim: “‘God,’ he says, ‘is not pleased by blood – and not acting reasonably ( sun logo ) is contrary to God’s nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever... Read more