Jesus comes to bring a sword that sets sons against fathers, daughters against mothers, etc. (Matthew 10:34-39). What is the sword? Perhaps Rome; and when Jesus wields the sword of the Roman armies against Judea and Jerusalem, He sets family members against one another. With Rome threatening, some Jews will cooperate with the enemy to save themselves, willing to turn in mom and dad if necessary. Read more
What is the “Parable of the fig tree” that Jesus mentions in Matthew 24:32? The fig tree’s branches and leaves will tell you that summer is near, and that when the things he describes take place the time of the end is near. But what does this refer to exactly? Structure helps here. The Olivet Discourse (Matt 23-25) chiastically matches the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5-7), and each includes a reference to ripening fig trees. In Matthew 7:16, Jesus... Read more
In her contribution to Hagar, Sarah and their Children (WJK), Phyllis Trible develops an interesting feminist reading of the story of Hagar. Her targets (surprise!) patriarchy and hierarchy, but along the way she makes some insightful observations on the text. She notes, for instance, that Hagar’s departure from the household of Abraham into the wilderness (Gen 16) is described in language reminiscent of the expulsion from Eden and anticipatory of the exodus. She “suffers affliction” from Sarah, just as Israel... Read more
Some notes on Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona . 1) Garber has a long helpful list of the devices first used in Two Gentlemen and repeatedly used in later plays: a love triangle that leads one heroine to find refuge with a friar; a second heroine who disguises herself as a boy to pursue the man she loves and who intercedes for that man as he attempts to woo another woman; outlaws who have stepped right out of Gilbert and... Read more
Charles Lock comments, “Linearity of reading is the fundamental principle by which the text is established in modernity as a text. That is to say, when we read a text we do not see an image: the type and size of font, the disposition of words on the page, the very look of the page, are entirely accidental features. A text might be defined as that which, while being visual, is entirely independent of image, scale and perspective. Yet texts... Read more
Of John 8, Northrup Frye commented, “There is also the woman taken in adultery who has firmly established squatter’s rights on the beginning of John 8, despite the efforts of nervous editors, ancient and modern, to get her out of there.” Read more
Cyril of Jerusalem wrote: “But Jesus, son of Nave, was a type of Him in many things; for when he began to rule the people, he began from the Jordan; thence also did Christ begin to preach the Gospel after He was baptized. The son of Nave appoints the twelve to divide the inheritance; and Jesus sends forth the twelve Apostles, heralds of truth, into the whole world. He who was the type saved Rahab, the harlot, who had believed;... Read more
The redoubtable Caitlin Flanagan has an insightful and funny review of Edward Kline’s biography of Katie Couric in the current issue of the Atlantic . Part of the review details Flanagan’s own “friendship” with the Couric of the Today show, but Flanagan characteristically goes beyond autobiography to explain Couric’s appeal. She found Today most necessary during the time when she was at home raising twin toddlers; Couric provided adult company after all the other adults had left the house: “It... Read more
In his introduction to the wisdom literature, Roland Murphy notes some of the numerological structures of Proverbs: “First, 1:1 has three names [Solomon, David, Israel], which have the numerological value of 375, 14, and 541, for a total of 930 . . . . this hint in the title of the book is verified by the total number of lines in the book, 930.” Then, “the title of 10:1 has [Solomon], equivalent to 375, and this is the number of... Read more
Mundus reconciliatus Ecclesia (Augustine, Sermon 96). “The world reconciled is the church.” Read more
Leithart
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In