The Evolution of a Hebrew Vision Formula?: נשא + עין + ראה + הנה

(Preliminary note: This post got a bit inductive, so if you want to see where I'm going from the get-go, scroll to the bottom: I've bolded & underlined my provisional hypothesis!) Since preaching on Genesis 37 (the sale of Joseph by his brothers), I've been puzzling over the range of use in the Old Testament…

Al Wolters on Hermeneutics and Zechariah’s Night Visions

Al Wolters, in his very nice article “Confessional Criticism and the Night Visions of Zechariah,” (From Renewing Biblical Interpretation in Zondervan’s Scripture and Hermeneutics Series) draws out an interesting hermeneutical proposal; i.e., that of noting the coexistence of “top-down” relationships in hermeneutics with “bottom-up” relationships. Let me explain what Wolters means.  Starting at the bottom…

“Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi” by Iain M. Duguid

I'd like to give a word of thanks to the folks at Evangelical Press for sending me a copy of Iain M. Duguid's Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi to review. It is always a pleasure to read Duguid's writing.  His style is eminently pastoral and homiletical and he writes with an eye to preaching OT texts in…

The Locust Plague/Army in Joel: More from the Eastern Fathers

A while back I posted a blurb from Isho'dad of Merv wherein he identified the various kinds of locusts in Joel 1.4 as references to individual kings of Assyria and Babylon.  I had one other quote along the same lines I thought I'd share - this time regarding the "northerner" in Joel 2.20: "I will…

Avoid a Shallow Reading of the Minor Prophets

Christopher R. Seitz explains how: Attention to the canonical shaping helps us see that even the individual prophets belong to a larger history and sweep than they as individual were able to recognize at the time (and this pains Habakkuk when he does recognize it, in the transition from one age of violence, the Assyrian,…