Who’s on First? Cabbala and the Church Nearly seventy-five years ago, Abraham Heschel wrote an essay on Jewish mysticism.[1] Originally published in 1949 in a collected volume of essays by many authors, it’s likely that you never heard of it and more likely that you haven’t read it. Republished in 2017 as a short book, this…
“Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” Jonah 3:9 NIV Who knows? – The king of Nineveh asked one of humanity’s most important questions. Does God change His mind? When the king of Nineveh asked this question, it was possible to imagine an empirical answer. Yes,…
For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. Romans 7:14-15 NASB Hate – Step back and think about this verse. Is it really possible…
For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. Romans 7:14-15 NASB Bondage – What if we read Paul’s letter to the Romans not as…
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1 NASB In the beginning – Recently we examined Heschel’s claim that this verse is not a proto-scientific statement of causality. It doesn’t tell us anything about how the world came into existence. Rather, it is a statement that God is alive, that He is sovereign,…
Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips will praise You. Psalm 63:3 NASB Better than – kî ṭôb pens the Psalmist. “Better than.” Better than what? mē ḥayyîm, he replies. ḥesed is kî ṭôb mē ḥayyîm. ḥesed is better than life! That is a powerful claim! Do we really think that ḥesed is better…
God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” Exodus 3:14 NASB I AM – Is this the biblical definition of God? Does He reveal His true essence in this conundrum of consonant/vowels? When you read…
I thought I should explain why some Today’s Word editions end up with no space between a word in italics and the next work (likethis). There is a bug in the WordPress program which intermittently and arbitrarily makes this mistake. It’s not in the original posted work and it isn’t uniform, so Mark and I…
