Tag Archives: literature

Unilateral and Conditional Covenants in Scripture: A Biblicist White Paper on Their Nature, Structure, and Mode of Establishment

Introduction Covenant is one of the central architectures of biblical revelation. Scripture presents God’s relationship with humanity—not least with Israel and the Church—through covenantal forms that articulate promises, obligations, blessings, and curses. Yet not all covenants in the Bible operate … Continue reading

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A Biblicist White Paper: Distinguishing Job’s Eloquent Self-Defense from the False Accusations of His Friends and From the Charge of Self-Righteousness

Executive Summary The Book of Job contains one of Scripture’s most intricate examinations of suffering, righteousness, and divine justice. Job’s speeches are often misunderstood as lapsing into self-righteousness, while the friends’ speeches are mischaracterized as orthodox defenses of divine justice. … Continue reading

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White Paper: The Literary Phenomenon of “Self-Discovery Through Abandonment”: A Biblicist Analysis of Modern Memoirs and Barely-Fictional Novels About Women Leaving Their Husbands

Executive Summary Over the past several decades, a major subgenre of contemporary fiction and memoir has emerged in which a woman abandons her husband, marriage, or family responsibilities in order to “find herself,” pursue self-actualization, or discover an authentic identity … Continue reading

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The Irony of Denying Language: A White Paper on Works That Claim Words Cannot Communicate

Executive Summary Across musical, poetic, and literary traditions, creators have long produced works that paradoxically use language to deny the power of language. Songs that insist “words don’t mean anything,” poems that confess “I cannot say what I feel,” and … Continue reading

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White Paper: Buster Scruggs as a Compelling Character for Feature Films and Serialized Television

Executive Summary Buster Scruggs, the white-suited singing gunslinger from The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018), stands out as one of the most singular Western characters created in the 21st century. Though he appears only briefly in an anthology film, his … Continue reading

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A Biblicist White Paper on the Implications of Judah’s Kings Having Their Mothers Listed While Israel’s Kings Do Not

Abstract In the historical books of 1–2 Kings and 1–2 Chronicles, a striking editorial pattern appears: the kings of Judah are almost always introduced with the name of their mothers, while the kings of the northern kingdom of Israel are … Continue reading

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White Paper: The Challenges of Defining the Distinction Between “Language” and “Dialect”

Executive Summary Determining where a “language” ends and a “dialect” begins is among the most persistent challenges in linguistics. While popularly framed as a purely linguistic matter, the distinction is deeply entangled with politics, identity, history, and administrative decision-making. Though … Continue reading

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White Paper: Portrayals of English-Based Pidgins and Creoles — Convergence, Confusion, and Cultural Erasure

Executive Summary Across global contexts, English-based pidgins and creole languages arise from specific social, historical, and cultural conditions. Yet their portrayals—especially in written form—often collapse distinct languages into stereotyped spellings or caricatured “non-standard English.” This paper examines why readers sometimes … Continue reading

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White Paper: A Biblicist Perspective on the Public-Health Approach of the Priests in Leviticus

Executive Summary The book of Leviticus presents one of the earliest systematically codified public-health frameworks in human history. While not framed in modern epidemiological terms, its prescriptions concerning uncleanness, inspection, quarantine, environmental hygiene, bodily emissions, infectious skin conditions, mold remediation, … Continue reading

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White Paper: “Woke Up Dead”: The Meaning and Context of the Hebrew Phrase in the Assyrian Army Narrative: A Linguistic, Historical, and Biblicist Analysis

Executive Summary The destruction of Sennacherib’s Assyrian army in a single night—recorded in 2 Kings 19:35 and Isaiah 37:36—is one of the most dramatic deliverance narratives in the Hebrew Bible. Popular preachers sometimes describe this event with the phrase “they … Continue reading

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