Jesus is the light of the world, the eternal radiance of His Father. When He comes into the world, He chooses to dwell in a place of darkness and gloom, a place under the shadow of death, the despised borderland of Galilee. Good for Jesus, we say. We’re happy He brings light to our dark places. We’re happy that we aren’t in darkness any longer. We think that, because of Jesus, we can avoid the place of the shadow of... Read more
Isaiah 9 describes not only a dawn, but the dawn of victory. With the light comes a multiplication of the nation, a repopulation of the land, gladness like the gladness of harvest (v. 3). This gladness is the result of a deliverance, a new exodus that will deliver Israel from the yoke of the oppressor, and gain a victory like the victory at Midian (v. 4). The battle in view, of course, is Gideon’s victory over Midian with a handful... Read more
Matthew says that Jesus’ residence in Capernaum fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah 9 about the dawning in the land of Zebulun and Naphtali. There are several aspects to this. 1) Isaiah 9 comes at the end of a prophecy concerning the Aramean crisis in Judah. Rezin of Aram and Pekah of Israel are ganging up on Ahaz of Judah to force Judah into an anti-Assyrian alliance. Isaiah warns that the Lord is going to bring the bees of Assyria (Isaiah... Read more
It’s no wonder that the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, the region of Galilee, was considered a place of darkness. Towns had been sold to the Gentile Hiram, and apparently pronounced worthless (1 Kings 9). This region was the first to go into exile (2 Kings 15:29), and the Assyrians resettled Gentiles in the land (2 Kings 17). Galilee was not a thoroughly Gentile region, but it was considered a borderland, not quite fully Gentile but not quite fully Jewish... Read more
Though Austen lived almost two decades into the nineteenth century, she is usually characterized as a writer of the eighteenth. Her aesthetic and tastes were set in stone by 1800 (when she was 25), and she was untouched by romanticism. Indeed, she is often read as an anti-Romantic writer. The situation is of course more complicated. Cowper, her favorite poet, was already developing “romantic” themes in his eighteenth century poetry. And William Deresiewicz has argued that Austen is quite directly... Read more
Gabrielle White offers an abolitionist reading of Austen’s work, and of Emma specifically. Part of the evidence is circumstantial. Some of Austen’s best-loved writers favored not only the abolition of the slave trade (which happened in 1807) but also the abolition of chattel slavery in British colonies (which didn’t happen until the 1830s, well after Austen’s death). Samuel Johnson pondered, “how is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?” and once gave a... Read more
Ellen Belton points out that in the 1995 BBC production of Pride and Prejudice , “Elizabeth and Darcy (Colin Firth) are hardly ever frames together until well into the second half of the film, and when they are shown in the same shot, the effect is to emphasize the obstacles between them. In the private interview at Hunsford that precedes the first proposal scene, Elizabeth and Darcy rarely look directly at one another. In the one shot in which both... Read more
In The Historical Austen , William Galperin notes that Austen understood that certain kinds of realistic art or aesthetics could naturalize and “realize” what is really only an ideological construct. And he notes the somewhat surprising political ramifications of such aesthetic theories. He points to the theory of the picturesque, which Austen satirizes in a number of works ( Northanger Abbey , for instance): (more…) Read more
Watch that no root of bitterness grow up, Hebrews 12:15 warns. What’s a root of bitterness? Sounds like someone who’s bitter in the church. But Deuteronomy 29:18 uses a similar phrase to describe those who turn aside from Yahweh to serve other gods. This fits the context of Hebrews very neatly: The root of bitterness in Hebrews is the Christian who intends to turn back from Jesus to Moses. With the coming of the New Covenant, that’s an equivalent of... Read more
Yahweh curses Israel for breaking covenant. More specifically, Israel will become a sign and wonder to the nations “because you did not serve Yahweh your God with joy and a glad heart, for the abundance of all things” (Deuteronomy 28:47). What satisfies God is not just obedience, but joyful obedience. Read more
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