Category: Bible
Revisiting the Sacrifice of Isaac
J. Richard Middleton. Abraham’s Silence: The Binding of Isaac, The Suffering of Job, and How to Talk Back to God. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2021. 272pp, $26.99. Did Abraham pass the test in Genesis 22? And does it matter for how...
The Case for Rearranging the Old Testament Books
The ordering of the books in our English Bible is standard, if not universal―seemingly set in stone, even. But that order actually embodies a break with the wisdom and practice that came before. For many years, the Old Testament was...
Book Review: Paul and the Power of Grace by John M. G. Barclay
It would be futile to try to hide my appreciation for John Barclay’s Paul and the Power of Grace, and this review will make little attempt to do so. Indeed, it is my recommendation that the reader of this review...
The Book of Revelation is for the Church
Timothy Beal. The Book of Revelation: A Biography. Lives of Great Religious Books. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018. $26.95, 288 pp. First things first: Let me state my disagreement with two premises of Timothy Beal’s “biography” of the Book of...
Book Review: Sanctifying Interpretation by Chris E. W. Green
“God does not save us from interpretation but by it and for it.”[1] So claims Chris Green in the second edition of his marvelous book Sanctifying Interpretation: Vocation, Holiness, and Scripture. (Those familiar with the first edition of his book...
Advent IV: The Coming(s) of Christ and Our Hope
The Epistle to the Hebrews might not be the first place we turn for Advent readings. We hear nothing of Mary or a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes. In fact, Hebrews offers no reflections on the birth of Jesus and...
Straightening Out the Bible?: The Translator’s Text and Audience
Should a god who is neither male nor female be referred to by a masculine pronoun? Translator Jost Zetzsche raises this question in his essay, Is God Male? The Divine Chinese Pronoun. This problem, inevitable in English, was solved in...
In Defense of Premodern Exegesis
During my early training as a pastor and theologian, many of my mentors warned me that emulating the exegetical method of the Church Fathers is a dangerous game. The concerns were typically twofold. First, there is the concern that the...
The Sweeping View of the Gospel in Colossians
Paul’s letter to the Colossians rarely gets the attention it deserves. It may not offer the therapeutic comfort of Philippians or a much-needed guidance amidst mounting ethical concerns as in his Corinthian letters. However, in Colossians, Paul offers one of...
Martin Luther, the Rule of Faith, and the Bible
Luther teaches that the catechism holds the entirety of the Christian faith. Even the educated laity and clergy need simple words and short summaries; how much more the simple and uneducated? Actually that’s why Luther thinks the simple need the...