From the November Archives
(avg. read time: 3–6 mins.)
Waiting for the Lord: A Biblical Theme
This was my first proper post on this Substack. It was developed for something I wrote for Advent years ago, and it is a subject I have had to reflect upon many times since then, especially in this difficult season of waiting I am currently in. But something that the Bible pervasively shows us is that waiting for the Lord is part and parcel of biblical faith, and it is something we all need to get used to, just as many, many people in the Bible did.
When Was Jesus Born? An Analysis of the Gospel Evidence, Part 1: Introduction
This is the start of a long series based on a long essay I wrote on the subject. How long was the essay? Well, you can see that I got twelve parts out of it. In total, the series is in excess of 35,000 words. I wrote this as a cooldown project between the end of my comprehensive exams and the beginning of dissertation work. I am not so dismissive as many are that Jesus could have been born on December 25 of a given year. I have concluded that it is, in fact, a definite possibility. I have also concluded that Jesus was born later than the commonly suggested range of 6–4 BCE. But if you want the details of that case, you will need to start here.
Roman Literature and the NT, Part 1: Introduction
November of 2022 featured two extensive series of posts. The first of these was developed out of a project I did for my Roman Hellenism class. The original idea was that it would contribute to a book, but the book never came to fruition. In any case, I thought this might be of interest to someone. The part I most enjoyed was the last part on epics, poetry, and so on. I link to Part 1 because it has the links to the other parts.
Who Were the Corinthian Resurrection Deniers?
This is based on one of my published articles. I disagree with the common theories about the beliefs of the Corinthians who denied the resurrection of the dead. I propose that the deniers probably represented people with multiple beliefs, including those who were philosophically inclined to deny the eschatological resurrection, even if they allowed Jesus’s resurrection, and those could imagine Jesus as being analogous to other children of the gods who had been resurrected in their myths, but they did not believe that his resurrection was any more relevant to their fate than they previously believed about the resurrections of these other heroes.
Paul’s Theology of Resurrection, Part 1: Paul’s Theology in Context and the God Who Raises the Dead
This is the other series from November of 2022, and it served as a preview of things to come. It was built out of notes for a lecture I was tasked with for an Exegesis of 1 Corinthians class, the last time I was able to work as an assistant for the wonderful Dr. Ruth Anne Reese. This series summarizes six dimensions of Paul’s theology of resurrection that are explicated in more detail on individual texts elsewhere.
The Rings of Power, Episode 8: “Alloyed”
Believe it or not, this is not my longest post on this Substack, but I think it might be second. These reviews for season 1 of The Rings of Power proved to be longer than I anticipated. The whole series of reviews was cumulatively longer than my dissertation, and that was helped by this review of an episode that was the culmination of failure (not least because of how they told Sauron’s story). This review also shows why I did not wish to waste my time on season 2, and I am perfectly fine with this decision I made two years ago.
The Trinitarian Theology of Revelation, Part 1: God the Father
November of 2023 was primarily focused on the book of Revelation. And it began with this four-part series on Trinitarian theology in Revelation. This post has links to the other parts, but I also highlight it because too often people tacitly de-emphasize theology proper/paterology. But the fact is that Revelation has quite a lot to say about God the Father and John’s christological presentation is dependent on what he says about the Father.
Hermeneutical Obstacles to Revelation (paid subscriber exclusive)
This is essentially a germ of an idea for a volume I would like to write as part of a multi-volume commentary on Revelation. As it is, there are many obstacles to people engaging with the book of Revelation. I have tried to outline these obstacles here in anticipation of dealing with them in much more detail another time. But if there are any that stand out to you that I have missed, I would like to hear from you, provided that you are a paying subscriber, since this post is one of my exclusives.
An Adaptational Review of The Lord of the Rings, Part 1: General Thoughts
This is the start of another book-length review series on Peter Jackson’s LOTR movies. Like most people who have seen the movies, I love them. And my appreciation for them grew when I minutely scrutinized how their adaptation decisions. With the same kind of lens I used for The Rings of Power, I thoroughly review these movies scene-by-scene to examine how Jackson and co. handled the adaptation tasks, and that includes areas that could have been improved or which I thought were just wrong-headed. But it begins with this post of general thoughts. This post has links to the others.
The Harlot of Babylon in Rev 17
There has certainly been no shortage of writing about the Harlot of Babylon. Much of it is quite sensational, of course. Modern scholars most often identify her with Rome or some particular aspect thereof. I maintain that any identification with any part of Rome is false. I argue that we should rather look at another city, that being the earthly Jerusalem of the time and the powers who were operating there.
Revelation and Its Grand Story: The Use of the Old Testament in Revelation
The title is pretty self-explanatory. This is not a truly comprehensive examination of the use of the OT in Revelation, but it is fairly thorough to give you an idea of just how pervasive the influence of the OT is in Revelation. This is quite fitting for a work that is presented as envisioning the climax of the grand story from which so much language and imagery is drawn.
Revelation as the Climax of the NT
Of course, Revelation is not only the climax of the story conveyed through the OT. It is also the climax of the NT in many underappreciated ways. This post is the complement to the previous one.
Resurrection and Identity Formation in Revelation (paid subscriber exclusive)
My longest post on Revelation is written in anticipation of a much more expanded volume on resurrection in Revelation. It is thus another exclusive. This particular post links resurrection to how John seeks to form the identity of his audience and others, while also hinting at other aspects of the theology of Revelation resurrection is linked with.
This is a two-for-one deal, as I wanted to explore these particular motifs in Revelation with more focus. After all, most of the material in these posts is excerpted from posts in my Trinitarian Theology of Revelation series, since inevitably the references to God’s throne and sanctuary were involved in theological expressions that were examined in that series. But in these two posts, I focus more directly on those particular images.