Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 5000 The word anthropology appears intimidating at first glance, but it points to one of the most practical questions theology addresses: what, exactly, is a human being? Not in the sense that evolutionary biology or social science would frame the question, but in the sense that asks what the Creator says about His own…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 5024 Something notable happens when the biblical story of humanity begins. Before the breath, before the garden, before the command, there is the ground. “The LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground” (Genesis 2:7). The word translated “dust” is the Hebrew Ężaphar, referring to dry earth, loose soil, the fine powdery…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 5025 There is a single verse in Genesis that contains one of the most remarkable statements in all of Scripture about what human beings are. “Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature” (Genesis…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 5028 The relationship between the body and the soul is one of the oldest questions in human thought, and one that Christianity answers very differently from the surrounding culture in almost every age. The ancient Greek world tended to regard the body as a prison, the soul as the real person temporarily trapped in…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 5029 The opening chapter of Genesis moves through the days of creation with a recurring pattern: God speaks, things exist, God declares them good. But when the creation of humanity approaches, something different happens. The narrative slows, and God speaks in the plural: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 05017 Genesis 1:26 contains one of the most theologically loaded sentences in all of Scripture: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” The presence of two terms has generated centuries of theological reflection. Do they refer to the same thing? Do they describe distinct aspects of what it means to be…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 05018 Psalm 8:5 contains one of Scripture’s most arresting descriptions of the human condition: “Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honour.” The phrase reappears in Hebrews 2, where the writer applies it to Jesus with a precision that opens the text in…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 05019 The question of whether animals have souls is one that comes up more often in pastoral contexts than in academic ones. It tends to surface when someone has lost a beloved pet, or when a child asks whether their dog will be in heaven. But it is also a question with genuine theological…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 05020 Angels and human beings are both creatures made by God, and both appear throughout Scripture as conscious, personal beings who respond to him. But the differences between them go considerably deeper than the obvious observation that one is usually visible and the other is not. Understanding what sets human beings apart from angels…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 05021 Psalm 139 is one of the most intimate passages in all of Scripture. From beginning to end, David is meditating on what it means to be completely and personally known by God. By verse 13 he moves from the general truth of God’s omniscience to its application to his own individual life, and…