“A wild beast has killed him,” Jacob says of Joseph when he sees the bloody robe. Suffering, death, wild animals, a robe stripped off – it’s all back in Psalm 22: “Many bulls have surrounded me; strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me. They open wide their mouth at me, as a ravening and a roaring lion . . . . They divide my garments among them . . . Save me from the lion’s mouth; and from the horns... Read more
MacMullen thinks Constantine deserves the title Maximus , if only for the establishment of Constantinople. After summarizing its place in Europe and role in subsequent European history, he says, “As a founder, Constantine belongs in the company of Romulus and Alexander.” Read more
Constantinople’s “birthday” occurred on May 11, 330. Most of the festivities took place in the newly built forum, at the center of which “stood a porphyry column bearing a gilt statue of the emperor. It held on its right hand the orb of world power. Inside the orb was a piece of the True Cross.” MacMullen comments on the speed of Constantine’s rebuilding, a speed made possible by the fact that Constantine reused materials from other cities: “In the forum,... Read more
In 324, Constantine, then ruler of the Western Empire, went to war with his Eastern counterpart, Lincinius. Ramsay MacMullen describes it as having the “character of a crusade”: “For Constantine, the battle cry was not legitimacy, though indeed he was the senior Augustus and thought he now dusted off the memories of his ties with Maximian; it was not his just claim to have defended the realm where his rival proved incapable; rather he emphasized the need to rescue his... Read more
Athanasius that the God of the Arians cannot create. If God is a maker, then “his creative Word” must be “proper to him” and not outside Him: “If, on the one hand, the willing [to create] belongs to him, and his will is productive and sufficient for constituting the things which come to be, and, on the other hand, his Word is producer and creator, then it is beyond doubt that this Word is the living will of the Father,... Read more
Daniel Miller’s The Comfort of Things begins from the premise that our relationship to things is not opposed to relationship with people but rather that “the closer our relationships are with objects, the closer our relationship are with people.” Visiting the Clarke family at Christian (as summed up by the TLS reviewer), Miller estimates that they have “800 separate decorations for the tree, some handed down, some given, some newly bought, but all with a memory attached. In personal terms,... Read more
Joel Marcus has an intriguing article on the Markan crucifixion account in JBL (2006). He points out that Mark reserves the title “king” until chapter 15, where Jesus is called king six times. As in the other gospels, Mark presents the crucifixion as an exaltation. Old news, that. Where Marcus shines is in showing that the connection between crucifixion and exaltation predates Christianity. Crucifixion was reserved for criminals who had tried to “exalt” themselves, to lift themselves up to a... Read more
INTRODUCTION In this “divided kingdom” portion of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus sets out the way of life and the government for His church. THE TEXT “When they had come to Capernaum, those who received the temple tax came to Peter and said, ‘Does your Teacher not pay the temple tax?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ And when he had come into the house, Jesus anticipated him, saying, ‘What do you think, Simon? . . . ” (Matthew 17:24-18:14). (more…) Read more
Matthew 17:19-20: Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, Why could we not cast out the demon? Jesus said to them, Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Move from here to there, and it shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you. As we’ve seen this morning, Jesus’ evaluation of the disciples’ faith is puzzling. On... Read more
Malachi 4:5-6: Behold I am going to send Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of Yahweh. And he will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse. What is the ministry of Jesus? He comes to deliver us from sin, death, and the devil. He comes to bring us to everlasting life. He comes... Read more
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