ИНОСТРАННЫЕ

A study of King Solomon as portrayed in Israel’s tradition and memory opens up an investigation of immense complexity. It invites entry into some of the most demanding questions of Old Testament faith. By way of entry into those complexities and questions, I begin this study by noting the playful openness of the subtitle of the book.

 

The Celts and Ourselves 

 

Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1993

ISBN-10: 0-8024-4155-6

ISBN-13: 978-0-8024-4155-3

 

The church confesses that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah. He is God incarnate. He is the Savior. He is the Lord of the church and of the world. He is the center not only of Christian faith but also, Scripture asserts, of the universe itself, the one through whom all things were made: “He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Col 1:17). Christianity is a nonsensical enterprise apart from Jesus, its central figure, its source, ground, authority, and destiny.

 

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells a parable about a landowner who finds that his field has unexpectedly produced a mixture of wheat and weeds. His workers ask whether they should pull out the weeds, but the owner decides to let them grow together with the wheat until the time of harvest, when the reapers will be instructed as follows: “Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn” (Matt 13:30b).

 

Mention the word archaeology, and people often conjure up images of digging under a blazing desert sun and unearthing an ancient treasure trove. Talk about biblical archaeology, and topics like the Ark of the Covenant or chariot wheels at the bottom of the Red Sea frequently make their way into the conversation. But aside from potential riches and sensational finds, the real purpose of archaeology is to gain an understanding of past cultures by studying what they left behind: their pottery, tools, buildings, graves, bones, etc. 

 

"The principal value of precritical exegesis," says David C. Steinmetz, "is that it is not modern exegesis; it is alien, strange, sometimes even, from our perspective, comic and fantastical."^- The essays in this volume introduce the reader to alien, strange and, yes, comic and fantastical interpretations of Genesis 1- 3.

 

Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2013. – 520 p.

ISBN 978-1444330090

 

As 1996 drew to a close, I began waking up periodically with these splitting headaches that were far worse than any hangover I’d experienced during the years when booze and drugs ruled my life. There were mornings when it felt like someone had put my skull in a vise ... mornings when I thought my head was going to explode into a million pieces. The pain was beyond excruciating.