25 articles from 20 issues, 1995 to 2023
The Pentateuch ends with Moses dying outside the promised land. Dearman reads that anticlimax theologically, finding in it a pattern: ministry passes from one hand to another, the work continues without us, and the inheritance belongs to those who come next, all by God's design.
What does humility have to do with teaching the Bible? Bryant argues: everything. The breadth and mystery of Scripture, the humility of God's self-revelation in Christ, and the limits of every interpreter all push against confident overreach in the classroom and the pulpit alike.
Bruce Metzger's previously unpublished 1984 Princeton address on the theological stakes of inclusive language in Bible translation, published here for the first time. Translation always trades against itself, Metzger argues, and the trades around gender language are no exception.
John 14:6 is the most famous line in the Fourth Gospel and the only place there Jesus calls himself 'the way.' Edwards argues that 'way, truth, and life' aren't three separate virtues but characteristics of a single person, and that John 14 isn't about future glory but present access.
Lectionary preaching protects congregations from their preacher's pet agendas. Lectio continua, preaching consecutively through books of the Bible, was the Reformed alternative recovered from the Fathers. Old answers the practical questions raised by anyone trying to do it now: where to start, how long to spend, what to do with hard texts.
Christians who hold a high view of biblical inspiration are sometimes most tempted to wring policy prescriptions out of texts that weren't written for that purpose. Wisdom warns against the apocalyptic-prophecy approach to Mideast policy, and recovers a more sober use of Scripture for political discernment.
1 Corinthians 11 has supplied 'regimental colors' for centuries of arguments about women in worship. Bailey reads the passage in its larger literary context (1 Cor 11-14 as a single essay) and offers a careful answer to what Paul actually meant when he addressed women's prayer and prophecy.
Bailey brings thirty-five years of work on 1 Corinthians to bear on chapter 6's strenuous teaching about sexual practice. Paul wrote the letter for the Corinthians and for everyone everywhere on whom Christ's name is called, and the early church through Calvin agreed: he meant exactly what he said.
What does John see behind the veil of history in the last chapters of Revelation? Mark Atkinson reads chapters 20 to 22: the binding of Satan, the judgment and the new heaven and earth, and the city that God takes and transforms instead of leaving us a garden.
Is the church’s debate over homosexual practice about human desires, or about what God has done in Christ? Robert Gagnon answers from Romans and John, tests the analogies drawn from slavery, divorce and women’s ordination, and reviews the science on genes and change.
Can the Church bless same-sex unions without changing what marriage is? Stephen Noll argues from creation, law and the Gospel that marriage is by God’s design two sexes in one flesh, so that a rite for same-sex pairs cannot be a blessing of marriage at all.
What was Paul asking of the women who prayed and prophesied in Corinth? Kenneth Bailey takes the passage on head coverings apart line by line, argues that Paul affirms women’s leadership in worship, and shows how the key words change meaning when they are translated differently.
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