Quotes from John H. Walton

Worship took place at temples, but temples were not designed primarily to provide a place for worship.[1] They were designed to be residences for deities and, as such, places for the performance of cultic rituals. The implications of this distinction are far-reaching and affect our understanding of deity and the role of the temple in the cosmos. Temples

Darkness, weeping, and gnashing of teeth. This language in Matthew 25:30 would have been familiar to a Jewish audience. It was used to describe a place of judgment (hell, Gehenna) in literature that had been written in the centuries between the Old and New Testaments. The third steward was not a true member of the kingdom and would suffer the consequences.

Alternatively we could suggest that Eliphaz gives most weight to his personal experiences, Bildad relies on the wisdom of the ages and Zophar is most inclined to find understanding in a system of thinking in which everything is black and white.

Language itself is a cultural convention, and since the Bible and other ancient documents use language to communicate, they are bound to a culture.

we cannot translate their cosmology to our cosmology, nor should we. If we accept Genesis 1 as ancient cosmology, then we need to interpret it as ancient cosmology rather than translate it into modern cosmology. If we try to turn it into modern cosmology, we are making the text say something that it never said.

The Bible must retain its autonomy and speak for itself. But that is also true when we hold traditional interpretations up to the Bible. The biblical text must retain its autonomy from tradition. We must always be willing to return to the text and consider it with fresh eyes.

Because the conversation in heaven is never revealed to Job or his friends, they understandably misjudge precisely what is at stake. This hidden information is especially poignant because, as Job argues his case before God, he believes that he can "win" if he can force God into court to account for himself, to give an explanation for his actions. In reality, Job has nothing to win because he is not on trial.

Genesis is not metaphysically neutral—it mandates an affirmation of teleology (purpose), even as it leaves open the descriptive mechanism for material origins.

Though the gods often had their own individual purposes, as a group they were unanimous in their general expectations of people: "Their servants were expected to be quiet, to keep the land in good order and to attend to the needs of their creators."[3] The gods had needs, the gods had jobs, and the gods had whims—these were all addressed in the practice of religion at the state level.

In Matthew and Mark the story follows the discussion about divorce, and in so doing contrasts the simple acceptance of the gospel by children to the previous complex and difficult teachings

In all three Gospel accounts, it is followed by the rich young ruler's question of what he must do to enter the kingdom, providing a contrast to the children.

God's wisdom, not God's justice, forms the basis of God's activity in the world. Faith trusts that God is wise and that therefore his purposes are good, even if they don't seem that way to any system we can understand. God does not need to be defended; he wants to be trusted.

there is no concept of a "natural" world in ancient Near Eastern thinking. The dichotomy between natural and supernatural is a relatively recent one.

Matthew 27 makes numerous references to Psalm 22; however, that does not mean that the psalmist was speaking of Jesus. By the end of Psalm 22 it is clear that the one suffering had been delivered. Still, some of the details of the psalm were clearly appropriated by Matthew and applied to Jesus. It would not do justice to the psalmist's context, however, to suggest to students that he was describing the crucifixion of Jesus.

In Israel people also believed that they had been created to serve God. The difference was that they saw humanity as having been given a priestly role in sacred space44 rather than as slave labor to meet the needs of deity.

If God were intent on making his revelation correspond to science, we have to ask which science. We

We gain nothing by bringing God's revelation into accordance with today's science. In contrast, it makes perfect sense that God communicated his revelation to his immediate audience in terms they understood.

As we begin our study of Genesis 1 then, we must be aware of the danger that lurks when we impose our own cultural ideas on the text without thinking. The Bible's message must not be subjected to cultural imperialism. Its message transcends the culture in which it originated, but the form in which the message was imbedded was fully permeated by the ancient culture. This was God's design and we ignore it at our peril.

The precosmic condition in the Genesis account is described in Genesis 1:2 with the Hebrew expression tohu wabohu ("formless and empty").[1] No one suggests that this verse indicates that matter had not been shaped or that the cosmos described in verse 2 is empty of matter.

Be silent" (Matt. 20:31; Mark 10:48; Luke 18:39). It is likely that the crowd was aware that Jesus was going to Jerusalem to present himself as king, and they did not want to be delayed by something as seemingly insignificant as a blind man. But Jesus again indicated by his attention that his kingdom is made up of such people.

that material like Hammurabi's stele imposed no obligations on society or the courts. It did not represent at any level the "law of the land," and there is no call to obey. This assessment is confirmed by the fact that it does not serve as a reference in the judicial system, which is illuminated for us through thousands of court documents.

A modern empiricist historian's response to ancient (especially Israelite) transcendent historiography might be: "It has not provided information that is reliable since it is so full of deity." The ancient historian's response to modern empiricist historiography might be: "It has not provided information that is worthwhile since it is so empty of deity.

God has given us a privileged role in the functioning of his cosmic temple. He has tailored the world to our needs, not to his (for he has no needs). It is his place, but it is designed for us and we are in relationship with him.

In Israel the sections of the Pentateuch that have in the past been considered as laws could now be considered as not carrying the obligatory force of legislation (if it is true that in conjunction with the literature from the ancient Near East these are not laws or legislation). They nevertheless do carry obligatory force for Israel as stipulations of the covenant.[1]