In the “how other people live” category: Hernando de Soto ( The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else ) argues that the key obstacle to Third World prosperity is the invisibility of their assets, and the assets are invisible because property rights are in chaos. Poor people in poor countries have a lot of assets and they’re worth a lot, and poor people in poor countries work hard and creatively. But their assets... Read more
How do we sense objects? Our instincts tell us that objects are just there, waiting for us to come along to sense them. Augustine’s instincts were otherwise. He admitted that “the sense does not proceed from the body that is seen but from the body of the sentient living being to which the soul is adjusted in its own wonderful fashion,” yet the object or “body” plays a role in the formation of a sensation: “sight is begotten of the... Read more
Augustine’s trinitarian account of love is often understood as a purely formal correspondence: Love requires three – the lover, the beloved, and the love itself – and, whaddya know?, there are three Persons in the God who is love. Augustine sometimes sounds like that: “Love means loving and something loved with love. There you are with three, the lover, what is being loved, and love. And what is love but a kind of life coupling or trying to couple together... Read more
“Classical theism” is supposed to have given us a static, immobile God. On the contrary: One of Athanasius’ central complaints against the Arians is that they denied the inherent fruitfulness, generative power, and creativity of God. If the Son is not eternal, “proper” to the essenceof the Father, then the Father is not inherently, eternally productive. The fact that He has an eternal Son shows that he has a “generative nature” ( gennetikes phuseos ); only such an eternally fruitful... Read more
INTRODUCTION Jesus goes to a garden to reverse Adam’s sin. Instead of seizing fruit, the Last Adam submits to His Father and drinks the cup. In the end, all His helpers – His Eve – flee, and He is left alone to face His accusers. THE TEXT “Then Jesus said to them, ‘All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written: I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will... Read more
When Jesus announces the betrayal by Judas at the Passover, He alludes to Psalm 41:9. The one who dipped his hand with me in the dish, Jesus says, betrays Him; centuries earlier, David had written, “My close friend, in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.” That is Judas; he lifts his heel to crush Jesus. This all seems wrong. Jesus is the conquer; Jesus is the seed of the woman. He should... Read more
Given its prominence in the NT, it’s striking that the LXX rarely speaks of “breaking bread.” One of the few times the phrase occurs is in Jeremiah 16:7, where, strikingly, it is joined to a statement about a “cup of consolation.” Broken bread and cup is Eucharistic. Jeremiah is warning about the calamity about to fall on Jerusalem: Marriages will end, people will die and be exposed without burla, there will be no voice of bride or groom. Likewise, there... Read more
Matthew 26:17-19 is a chiastically ordered pericope, centered on Jesus’ announcement that His “time is at hand” and that He intends to do the Passover. A. Disciples approach: prepare pascha ? B. Jesus commands: Go to city C. My time is at hand; do pascha B’. Disciples did as Jesus commanded A’. Disciples prepared the pascha Read more
My co-pastor Toby Sumpter wondered whether Matthew was up to something in describing the first day of the feast as the “first of unleavened” ( te prote ton azumon , 26:17). It seems so. The other gospels don’t use the same phrase; Mark says “first day” and Luke uses the word “feast.” What might Matthew be up to? Several possibilities. First, protos is used here not as an adjective modifying “day” but absolutely, and as such it may carry the... Read more
Through much of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus is surrounded by multitudes who marvel at His teaching and works (5:1; 7:28; 9:8; 12:23; 13:2; etc.). They marvel all the way up to His battles in the temple (21:46; 22:33). The last time He teaches a multitude is in chapter 23 (v. 1). After that, Jesus is progressively isolated. First one, then all the disciples leave Him. And Matthew begins using the word “multitude” not to describe the adoring throngs but for the... Read more
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