Before moving on from the topic of Satan I think it is important to consider other depictions of the figure in the New Testament. While I argued last time that the Leviathan myth better explains the portrait of Satan as a many-headed dragon in the Apocalypse and various other early Christian texts having to do … Continue reading Satan, the serpent, and the myth of the rebellious angels
In my last post I argued that the early Christian portrait of Satan as a serpent (cf. Revelation 12-13, Luke 10:18-19, Romans 16:20) was primarily built upon the ancient Near Eastern Leviathan myth as appropriated by the writers of the Hebrew Bible (cf. Isaiah 27:1). I conceded, however, based largely upon Wisdom 2:24 and Revelation … Continue reading Was Eve deceived by Satan?
The Lord God said to the serpent, 'Because you have done this... I will put hostility between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring; her offspring will attack your head, and you will attack her offspring's heel.' (Genesis 3:15 NET) Christians have classically identified Genesis 3:15 as the Protoevangelium, the first announcement … Continue reading Did Christ strike the serpent’s head?
The great theological traditions by whose lights we read the Bible tend to prioritize the spiritual and the heavenly over and against the physical and the earthly. Such traditions often distort the Bible's more syncretic picture of the spiritual and physical realms in their commitment to these supposedly higher priorities. Desiring to find Christ's sacrificial … Continue reading What function does the forgiveness of sins serve?
Behold, I have appointed you today over nations and kingdoms, so that you might uproot and undermine and destroy and rebuild and plant. (Jeremiah 1:10) Just before Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians in 586 BCE, God enlisted Jeremiah as his prophet. Jeremiah was to prophesy concerning all the peoples of the earth. He would decree … Continue reading The prophet like Jeremiah and the wrath to come
I've put together here a very incomplete list of common biblical terms. With the top bullets I try to replicate conventional theologically-oriented evangelical thinking and with the bottom bullets I reach out for a more historically-grounded understanding of these Biblical concepts. Old Testament Tells of the world's perfect creation and subsequent fall into sin; foreshadows … Continue reading A quick comparison of terms
Following the pattern set down by the New Testament writers themselves, Christians often speak of Jesus as the fulfillment and culmination of Old Testament covenant promises (cf. 2 Cor 1:20, Luke 24:27). While the precise meaning of such claims is sometimes difficult to ascertain, the consummation of God's promise to Abraham is usually prominent in … Continue reading What kind of blessings did the churches inherit from Israel?
A Christian fluke I'm currently watching a Great Courses lecture series entitled The Fall of the Pagans and the Origins of Medieval Christianity with professor Kenneth W. Harl of Tulane University. Dr. Harl spends much of the course tracing the development of Christianity from a marginal and marginalized Jewish apocalyptic kerygma under the first Christians to … Continue reading Like a thief in the night: Constantine and the sudden death of paganism
A while ago I put forward the argument that Paul's apocalyptic eschatology was drawn primarily from the social and psychological needs of the marginalized Christian communities throughout the pagan empire. Paul's strange beliefs about the future apocalypse were in this way "functional" rather than speculative or mystical. The parousia and all its imaginative constituent parts … Continue reading So we will be with the Lord forever
The Gospels convey two types of information to readers: intentional information and unintentional information. Much of what we know about Jesus is represented by this first type; the evangelists intended to inform us that Jesus was a powerful teacher, an awesome wonderworker, and an obedient son. This is biased information but it is still information. … Continue reading Jesus: angel summoner?
Scribes of the Kingdom 