Given the high view of marriage and sexuality in Scripture, Paul’s instructions to the Corinthians are odd and out of character. Why would Paul think it good for everyone to be as he is? Jeremiah 16 provides a clue. In verse 2, Yahweh instructs Jeremiah not to take a wife or raise children “in this place,” because Yahweh is bringing distress on the fathers, mothers, and children who are born in doomed Jerusalem: “They will die of deadly diseases, they will not... Read more
In Genesis 20, Abimelech takes Sarah. In chapter 21, Isaac is born and Hagar is sent away. At the end of chapter 21, though, Abimelech is back, and Abraham brings up a complaint against Abimelech about the seizure of his wells. As Larry Lyke notes, “Following the events of chapter 20, it is hard to miss the significance of Abraham’s complaint that Abimelech has taken his ‘well.’ The juxtaposition of these texts is as close as our text comes to... Read more
In his book on Gregory of Nyssa ( Presence and Thought: Essay on the Religious Philosophy of Gregory of Nyssa (A Communio Book) ), von Balthasar contrasts Nyssa’s epistemology with that of Zeno and the Stoics. Zeno described a progression of thought under the image of the hand: an open hand is sensation, a half-closed hand is assent, and when the hand grips something tightly, it has comprehended. In sum, “Intelligence is . . . above all a possession, and,... Read more
What is Galatians about? Augustine says that the question at stake was how to induct Gentiles into the people of God. Paul circumcised Timothy, since “these rites and traditions [of Judaism] were not harmful to people born and raised in that way,” but for those who came from outside “those who were bound by no such requirement but came as it were from the opposite wall, that is, from those without circumcision, to that cornerstone, which is Christ, were forced... Read more
Augustine famously declared that the sacraments are bodily things and actions that function as “certain visible words.” Sacraments are word-like, but operate in the visual rather than the audible sphere. And the analogy between the two is often taken to be communication: Words teach us audibly, sacraments teach the same things visibly. What impresses Augustine about language, though, is not its ability to communicate. Early on, in fact, he wrote a treatise ( de Magistro ) demonstrating that words teach... Read more
Why do men (almost always men) expose themselves to strangers? The redoubtable Diane Ackerman ( A Natural History Of Love ) suggests that what happens after the victim shrieks and runs reveals the motivations: “The flasher rarely runs away. Flashing the woman fills only the smallest part of his need. His real goal has many aspects, including the woman’s upset and disapproval; the humiliating arrest; the appearance in court; the embarrassment to his family; the risk of losing his job. ... Read more
Song of Songs 5:2 (as Albert Cook points out in The Root of the Thing ) says, “the voice of dodi knocking,” implying that the voice itself has become personified and seeks entry to the bride’s chamber. Then we allegorize, in light of Revelation 3:20, where it is Jesus who knocks at the door of the church at Laodicea. That too is the voice of the beloved knocking, for Jesus is the incarnate voice of Yahweh, the incarnation of the... Read more
Larry Lyke ( I Will Espouse You Forever: The Song of Songs and the Theology of Love in the Hebrew Bible ) notes the use of the word “skirts” (Heb. shwl ) in Lamentations 1:9, and comments that outside Jeremiah, Nahum, and Lamentations the term “is always used in reference to clothing worn in the temple.” Isaiah 6:1 envisions Yahweh enthroned in temple garb, using the same word. He suggests that “Jeremiah’s use may suggest that the term was heavily... Read more
In response to the overview of the Song of Songs that I proposed a few days ago, James Jordan suggests the following, more compressed, scheme: 1. Israel in bondage, longing for her sleeping Lord to awake, 1:2-2:7. 2. Yahweh comes and calls Israel to the springtime, 2:8-17. 3. Yahweh’s absence = Yahweh’s withdrawal from Israel because of Israel’s grumblings, 3:1-4. 4. The construction of the tabernacle and the beginning of Israel’s love-feasts with Yahweh, 3:6-5:1. 5. Israel’s rejection of Yahweh... Read more
Yesterday, I suggested that the sequence of sacrifice in the Bible, reflected in Leviticus and the Song, is this: Like the original Adam, adams are divided and pass through the fire into order to be transformed into fiery bridal food, fragrance satisfying to God. That is only an extension of natural reality: Earth passes through the fire of the sun and the many waters of rain in order to produce fruit. Earth is plowed and planted, divided and broken in... Read more
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