IN
THIS ISSUE
|
CONTINUING THE CONVERSATION |
Most of the articles in Issue 28 of Grace
& Knowledge follow up on articles from previous issues. This should
hardly be surprising. As people grow older, they often fall into the habit of
repeating themselves, and I am certainly no exception. It is also true that the
short articles in this magazine do not give the last word on any topic. There
always seems to be more to say.
One
aspect of the Bible that deserves repeated attention is its continual
repetition of themes and images. Recognizing these motifs can greatly enhance
our scriptural understanding. I discussed several examples from the first five
books of the Bible in the article "Deja Vu All Over Again: Learning from Recurring Themes in
the Pentateuch" in Issue 10. Then
in Issue 23 I talked about one more example, the way in which Abram and Sarai's journey to and from Egypt (Gen 12-13) foreshadows
Israel's later experience. In the article "Back to the
Future: the Narrative Typology of the Pentateuch," I also reflected on
what such examples say about the nature of history, the character of God, and
the interpretation of the Bible.
These
two articles only scratch the surface of a big subject, and so I am glad to
return to this subject in Issue 28. The article "Echoes of the
Exodus throughout the Bible" focuses on the ubiquity of motifs from
the Exodus in the Bible. It is based on a wonderful series of lectures by Dr.
David Emanuel of Nyack College that I had the privilege of attending in October
2013. The ideas covered in these lectures have been very helpful already in the
weekly Bible study on the Minor Prophets that we are having at the Church of
the Messiah in 2013-2014. I hope that you find the article useful in your own
study of the scriptures as well.
Another
article that appeared in Issue 10 was "Watch your
Antecedents!", a discussion of three examples
of pronoun ambiguity in the book of Genesis. In each of these examples (Gen
9:27; 35:4; 37:28) there are two possible antecedents for a pronoun, leading to
two different understandings of a verse. I argued in that article that it can
be edifying in such cases to consider all the possibilities. In Issue 28 we
present a sequel
that looks at four more instances of pronoun ambiguity, three from Genesis and
one from Exodus. In these verses the two possible antecedents are always two individuals
in a close relationship, and both possibilities seem to be valid. Israeli
scholar Dr. Brachi Elitzur
speculates that the ambiguity in these cases is deliberate and meant to convey
the idea that both antecedents are, in fact, intended.
In
the article "Of
Horns and History," Jared Olar continues the
discussion of pesher interpretation of prophecy begun in Issue 27,
focusing on a "historicist" reading of Rev 17 that sees the seven
heads and ten horns of the beasts in John's vision as revivals of the Roman
Empire. Charts of such models can look impressive, but how well do they really
square with historical data? A good dose of history is often exactly what is
needed to put prophetic speculations in perspective, as we have argued
previously.
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On 19 Jan 2014, 20:12.
