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Book Release Day: Perpetual Fire

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Today, my new book is being released! The title is “Perpetual Fire: Temple, Ritual, and Biblical Theology.”

What is Perpetual Fire about?

I am proposing the book as a motif study in biblical theology. It seeks to answer “What is the ritual and theological meaning of the perpetual fire on altar?” It focuses on the ever-burning fire on the altar of sacrifice at the heart of the Temple. The story of the fire is a long story–from the theophany experiences of God-as-fire in the story of Abraham and the Burning Bush scene in the life Moses to the fire that descends on Mount Sinai at the giving of the Law to the fire that comes forth from the sanctuary of the Tabernacle in Leviticus 9:24. God reveals himself as “a consuming fire” (Deut 12:29). In Leviticus 6, the priests are charged by God with keeping the fire on the altar of sacrifice perpetually burning: “it shall not go out.” But why? I take a winding tour through the early cultic legislation, prophetic metaphors for divinity as brightness, through the meaning of the Wood Offering, the significance of darkness as shrouding the brightness of divine light and the cultic meaning of radiance. As the book comes to identify the ritual significance of ever-burning fire as representing the dynamism of God, truly being a “cult image” of the Lord, it then moves onto theological considerations. If “brightness” characterizes God, then what should we make of the legends that portray Adam and Eve as “bright” or “glorious” before the Fall? How do these themes come together in the New Testament where John the Baptist promises that “one is coming who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire”? I examine the Transfiguration scene alongside the scenes of Uzziah’s failed offering of incense in the Temple and Herod Agrippa’s failed apotheosis (reported both by Acts and by Josephus). I argue that the Transfiguration scene presents Jesus as a “restored radiant Adam” that becomes the archetype for the new creation and for resurrected humanity in Christ. Eventually, the book gets into the dual nature of the fire of God–as both a source of purification for the righteous and of destruction for the unworthy, the fire is cultic and centered in the Temple sanctuary, but it also consumes the enemies of God and burns up what is worthless (wood, hay, stubble). The book works with these themes to make sense of the New Testament’s theology of fire, or at least, its fiery theological themes that have to do with both divine presence and divine judgment.

Who endorsed it and what did they say?

I am very grateful to the two scholars who offered their endorsement of the book. Check out what they have to say:

“The ritual laws that are at the heart of the Pentateuch are a puzzle for many readers of the Bible. Despite their importance, they often play little role in biblical theologies. Mark Giszczak’s stimulating study of the perpetual sacred fire challenges the marginalisation of biblical ritual that has characterised much theological reflection. Tracing the unquenchable fire across Old and New Testaments, his book will help readers see fresh and under-appreciated connections across the canon.”
— Nathan MacDonald, Professor of the Interpretation of the Old Testament and Fellow of St John’s College

“In this innovative book we see biblical theology at its finest, solidly anchored in rigorous historical scholarship and providing clarifying insight into one of the most important ways God revealed himself to Israel and to the world. Mark Giszczak?s wide learning, sound judgement and balanced scholarship shine through on every page as he reveals the central importance of the sacred, ever-burning altar fire at the heart of Israelite sacrificial worship. The fire on the altar constituted a continuous theophany, effected the transfer of sacrificial gifts from the earthly to the heavenly realm, and served as an image of testing, purifying and sanctifying God?s people. Christian readers will find here the biblical background of the promised one who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire and who came to cast fire upon the earth and wished it were already ablaze.”
— Stephen D. Ryan, O.P., Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies

What are some other books about fire in the Bible?

In my research, I was inspired by a handful of other books that treat fire in the Bible. One older book that is hard to find now is The Fire Upon the Altar by Julian Morgenstern (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1963). Morgenstern was a fascinating mid-century Jewish thinker–very creative and boundary-breaking in his own way. No, not all of his theories are convincing, but he has a way of seeing things that pulls together. From my own water-damaged copy of the book, check out his interpretation of the relighting of the altar in the time of Nehemiah as reported by 2 Maccabees: Morgenstern writes, “The legend implies further that the sacred fire was latent in the liquid, and that it needed only the application to it of a proper kindling force or essence to burst again into the sacred flame. Here this kindling force was supplied by the rays of the sun, bursting forth from the enveloping cloud and falling upon the wood upon the altar upon which the thick liquid had been poured” (p. 63). I love this episode and interpret it in detail in my book.

Two relatively recent books also treat the sacred fire. The first is Daniel Frayer-Griggs dissertation-turned-book: Saved Through Fire: The Fiery Ordeal in New Testament Eschatology (Pickwick, 2016). While Frayer-Griggs, a Protestant thinker, is primarily interested in how to interpret Paul’s cryptic saying that Catholic tradition regards as indicating the existence of purgatory, he ranges far and wide not only in biblical literature but in contemporaneous apocryphal literature as well. Here is a quote from his discussion of the River of Fire in apocryphal literature, “in many of the later Jewish and Christian apocalyptic visions the river of fire performs a dual function. It is an ordeal that must be endured, and those who are righteous will be saved while the wicked will be destroyed” (p. 141). By the end of the book, we find him saying some pretty compelling things that sound like exciting (and quasi-Catholic?) developments in his thought. For example, he says, “While our exegesis in no way confirms the doctrine of purgatory, it may open avenues for discussion of the origins of this doctrine and facilitate a Protestant reevaluation of the purificatory function of fire in New Testament eschatology” (p. 246).

The other recent book that examines the divine fire is “Your God is a Devouring Fire”: Fire as a Motif of Divine Presence and Agency in the Hebrew Bible (CBQMS 57; 2019) by Michael R. Simone, SJ. This book is deep and detailed study of the Hebrew passages that discuss the fire on the altar. Simone himself regards his main inspirations as Benjamin Sommer’s famous book Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel (Cambridge, 2008) and Shawn Zelig Aster, Unbeatable Light (Ugarit-Verlag, 2012). He works through passages, translating from the Hebrew, interpreting carefully and drawing from contemporary scholarly discourse. One of his main conclusions is that “Cultic fire did not represent a divine body, but it did represent divine agency sent out from Yhwh to accomplish his divine will. The primary purpose of cultic fire was the transmission of offerings to the divine realm” (p. 96). I interact with Simone’s work in my book, but Frayer-Griggs gets mentioned a bit more. Both of these books are important contributions to this scholarly discussion.

Where can I buy a copy of the book?

You can find my new book, Perpetual Fire: Temple, Ritual, and Biblical Theology at the Baylor University Press website: https://www.baylorpress.com/9781481323222/perpetual-fire/

It is also available at

Of course, I hope that you read my new book and I hope you enjoy what you read, learn something new about the ancient Temple, the worship of the Lord, and the power of fire as a sacramental symbol for divinity.

My New Book – Perpetual Fire: Temple, Ritual, and Biblical Theology

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Mark Giszczak - Perpetual Fire: Temple, Ritual, and BIblical Theology book coverI am very happy to announce the release of my new book: Perpetual Fire: Temple, Ritual, and Biblical Theology.

Ten Years in the Making

Years ago, I found myself intrigued by the many mentions of fire in the Bible, but most of all by the strange law mandating the maintenance of a perpetual fire on the altar of sacrifice: “it shall no go out!” (Lev 6:12). But why not? This question led me on a winding journey through many corners of ritual theory, biblical theology, temple history and even eschatology to produce this book. Why does Levitical law mandate that altar-fire be kept always burning? What does the fire symbolize? How was it understood in biblical times?

A Ritual Question with Theological Consequences

The book addresses two main ideas: 1) What is the ritual meaning of the ever-burning fire on the altar of sacrifice? and 2) What is the enduring theological significance of this fire? The first half of the book explores the ritual question, while the second half works toward a constructive biblical theology of the sacred fire. It turns out that a long and complex development of ritual symbols undergirds the Transfiguration scene, Jesus’ words about fiery judgment and fiery assimilation to divine life, but also St. Paul’s theology of resurrection. The perpetual fire on the altar has a significant theological afterlife in the New Testament.

Table of Contents

I wanted to give you a sneak preview of what’s in the book, so here’s the Table of Contents as you will find it

  • Acknowledgements
  • Abbreviations
  • Introduction: A Fire Moving Through Time
  • Part I – Ritual Fire
    • 1 The Fire and the Second Temple: A Crisis of Legitimacy
    • 2 The Origin of the Fire on the Altar: Law and Tabernacle, Tradition and Influence
    • 3 The Cultic Fire: Function and Representation
    • 4 The Wood Offering: Maintaining the Unquenchable Fire
    • 5 The Sin of Kindling Fire: Violating the Boundaries of Cult
    • Kindling: Preliminary Conclusions
  • Part II – Theological Fire
    • 6 The Brightness of God’s Body of Fire: Darkness, Theophany, Radiance
    • 7 The Fiery Son of God: Jesus and the Restoration of Adam
    • 8 The Body of Glory: Paul and the Transformation of Believers
    • 9 The Fire of the Word: Torah and Revelation
    • 10 The Fire of Encounter: Purification, Punishment, Vision
    • Conflagration: Final Conclusions
  • Bibliography
  • Index

When Will the Book Be Released?

The book will come out on September 1, 2026 from Baylor University Press. I am grateful for BUP’s partnership in putting this together. Their editorial guidance and production process has improved the book and prepared it for this moment. You can pre-order the book now from these sites:

My Hopes for the Book

I hope that you will enjoy reading Perpetual Fire! Beyond that, I hope that it will give scholars and serious Bible students alike a new appreciation for the depth of ritual symbolism, the centrality of the altar fire in the cultic thinking of the Old Testament and the theological thought of the New. I hope that it will bring about a reappraisal of certain stock images from biblical vocabulary–whether fire, brightness, “unquenchableness,” radiance, darkness, and the meaning of biblical metaphors for punishment. It draws lines of connection from Levitical law all the way through to the final resurrection of the dead.

A Commencement Address

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Earlier this year, I had the delight of offering a commencement address to the graduating class of Our Lady of Walsingham Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. As the fall semester draws to a close, I thought I would share it with you along with some pictures of the event. It was a fun day and so encouraging to see young people launch out into life not knowing what is ahead. I did my best to give them a pep talk. I’ll let you judge the results of that effort in writing.

Commencement Address
Our Lady of Walsingham Academy
Mark Giszczak
May 24, 2025

It is a joy for me to be with all of you today for this celebration. I wish to thank your Headmaster, Andrew Rossi, for inviting me to come. And I want to thank all of you clergy, teachers, parents, guests and friends for supporting our esteemed and worthy graduates to whom I will address my brief remarks.

One day, the second President of the United States, John Adams, was walking down the street when all of a sudden he heard something unexpected—except he had heard the same sound before from the same house: a voice, singing. Intrigued by this unlikely sound, he went looking for the singer. And what did he find? A man, a shoemaker, busy at his work, happily singing as he pounded nails into soles, cut leather and went about his business. The man had a wife and many children, all living together in a single room. Adams asked him if it was difficult making a living and he said, “Sometimes.” But as soon as he had ordered a pair of shoes and left, Adams said “I had scarcely got out the door before he began to sing again like a nightingale.” But Adams reflected later: “Which was the greatest philosopher? Epictetus or this shoemaker?” The great Stoic was fond of saying, “He who is not happy with little will never be happy with much.” Another way he put it when asked “who is the rich man?” Epictetus offered: “He who is content.”

In other words, that poor singing shoemaker was the man that we should all aspire to be. He found a way to overcome adversity—yes, with hard work—but with more than that, by the outlook he adopted, the way he chose to be content and cheerful in spite of his circumstances. Just as St. Paul says, “there is great gain in godliness with contentment” (1 Tim 6:6 ESV).

Me and Mr. Rossi in the procession for the graduation ceremony

Now there’s a balance to strike here. We don’t want to become so content that we stand still and do nothing, that we never set goals, work hard to achieve them and wend our way forward. Be we should never become so dissatisfied with the circumstances of our journey that we lose sight of the fact that it is a journey, to become so discontent with the way things are that we become malcontents, holding the present circumstances in contempt because they don’t live up to our expectations. The reality is we make our circumstances. Yes, there are plenty of things outside our control—those are the things we shouldn’t worry about precisely because we cannot control them. But, there are also plenty of things within our control—things that we can change, and those are the things to focus on. What we want is to set our sights high, aim for the best, and not begrudge the uncomfortable parts of the trail to get where we want to go. They are part of the process. Success is not free. It is not easy. Life requires something of us.

But the trouble is, we don’t know what it will require when we set out. The only thing certain is uncertainty. The future is always foggy. We feel blind because we are. We are working and hoping and planning and looking, but rarely are we collecting lots of  trophies and hauling in bags of money. No, the way is hard. It is not clear. We do not get a blueprint. Yes, the Lord has a calling on your life, but he doesn’t give you a script. You have to make up your part as it goes along. And besides, he is the Lord of uncertainty: “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Luke 9:58 ESV). If you want to follow Jesus, you are following a homeless man who died by execution. It was precisely in his self-sacrifice, his self-abnegation, that he taught us the deepest lesson of love: my life is not about me, it’s about you. Your life is not about you, it’s about everyone else. The only way to find yourself is to give yourself. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13 KJV). He was the omnipotent Lord of the Universe, but he adopted the humblest possible position in the whole universe: to die as a falsely accused criminal on a cross. He sacrificed everything for us. He taught us what love looks like. He emptied himself, poured himself out for the sake of love.

Mr. Rossi speaking (you can see me sitting in front of the podium)

And that’s thing – thinking will only get you so far. Reading, analyzing, studying, even arguing are all just warmups, precursors to when the rubber hits the road. Action is required. You have to actually do something—to speak those lines, to walk across the stage, to launch out on a career, to open a business, to start climbing at the first rung of the ladder. Hard work is required. It is a first step, a prerequisite, a sine qua non, a necessary condition of success. Yet hard work will not get you all the way. You must be driven by something deeper than desire, deeper than greed or ambition. You must be driven by what drove our Lord—love. Love of God, love of self, love of neighbor. You cannot lay down your life out of love for others if you do not love yourself. You cannot “love others as yourself” if you do not love yourself. We cultivate love of God in prayer. We cultivate love of others in selfless service. We cultivate a healthy and appropriate and necessary love of self by developing habits of virtue: of temperance, prudence, justice and fortitude. You can’t control others, but you can control yourself—only by means of virtue. Those who lack self-control will not climb this mountain. They will not succeed.

The Stoics had a saying for this as well: mens sana in corpore sano—a sound mind in a sound body. Sleep, exercise and healthy eating habits are the foundation of physical health. Physical health is foundation of mental health. Mental health is the foundation of spiritual health. If we do not treat our bodies with care and respect, giving them the nourishment and exercise they require, we will be plagued by dysregulated internal systems, distracted by doctor visits, unable to focus on developing our lives because we are stuck in a state of acedia—unable to cope with life, spiritually sick. Sadly, so many in our generation are stuck—depression, anxiety, substance-abuse, loneliness. But that’s no way to live. There is more to life than complaining about how tough it is. The path ahead is hard—of course it is! That’s not something to sit down and mope about, but it is a chance for us to summon our courage, to press on despite the difficulties, to embrace the challenge and allow it to shape us into the men and women we were meant to be.

Peroration – Quo Vadis?

So this day is a signpost, a landmark, a moment to pause and reflect on everything that has happened before setting out on the new journey ahead. As your time here fades into memory and new paths open before you, I hope that you will take courage that you have been well prepared for the road ahead.

The proud graduating class of Our Lady of Walsingham Academy (and I’m on the far left in the back row)

As we press on into that uncertain future, we should begin with the end in mind. That happy, singing shoemaker, gives us an image of the path. He has not arrived, but he is on the journey. The journey is joyful even when it is hard. It is beautiful because it is ours: the one life, the one brief story that we get to live, the gift that we receive by the very living of it.

Thinking about this journey of life brings me back to that legend about St. Peter fleeing Rome in the midst of a persecution. Along the way out of the city, the Lord appears to him and simply asks him, “Quo vadis? Where are you going?” Peter understood what was implied. He stuck his walking staff in the ground right there and went back into the city to die a glorious martyr’s death. But that question still lingers for us: where are you going? It is a question that can only be answered fully in hindsight, but now, we can get a glimpse, a hint of an answer in conversation with the Lord, seeking his call on our lives, trying to hear his voice inviting us down a certain path, and eventually responding with loving obedience. As we take one step, and then another, the path will become clear, the way will open up. And we can say yes to what the future holds. He has promised to be there with us, “…even to the end of the age” (Matt 28:20).

So, there you have it. I gave a commencement address! It was great to be there with these young people at such a milestone. Who knows where they will end up, but I hope they all find themselves on great paths through life!

Interview with Bryan from Across the Canon

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Bryan, host of the new “Across the Canon” program on YouTube, and I talked about Pope Francis’ biblical initiatives, the Wisdom of Solomon and how biblical wisdom literature applies to Christian life. I hope you enjoy this conversation!

It’s available on video:

And you can find an audio version here:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-11-pope-francis-wisdom-literature-and-the/id1810192752?i=1000705544349

Two Interviews: Suffering Video and Wisdom Radio

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Last week, I got to speak with Bob Krebs on “Catholic Forum” out of the Diocese of Wilmington about my book on Suffering. It aired on Relevant Radio and Bob recorded it as video and put it on YouTube for you:

Yesterday morning, I appeared on Spirit Mornings Catholic Radio out of Omaha with my friends Bruce and Jen. We got to talk about the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture series and my new volume on Wisdom of Solomon. It was early and it was a fun conversation. Check it out:

My Post on Catholic Bible Study at the Verbum Blog

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As a blogger known as “Catholic Bible Student,” I felt honored to be asked to write a blog post for the Verbum Blog on “Catholic Bible Study.” So, while I know most of my blog posts show up here, I thought my readers would not mind if I did a guest column somewhere else as long as I provided an excerpt and a link. Over at Logos/Verbum/Faithlife (providers of the best Bible software known to man), they have been doing a series of posts on the distinctive nature of Bible study done by different denominations. So far, they have posts on:

St Jerome by Bernardo Strozzi – Gallerie Accademia

They needed a Catholic take, and I’m glad I could help. Of course, the post comes with a hefty helping of links to Verbum-provided electronic resources that can help further your journey in studying the Bible, along with references to Dei Verbum and Verbum Domini. Here’s an excerpt from the beginning of my post:

Catholics love the Bible. From the Easter Sunday stroll on the road to Emmaus when the risen Jesus conducted the very first Christian Bible study—“he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45)—to today, Christians have always been drawn to the Lord through the sacred page.

Catholics are conscious of abiding in a millennia-old tradition that is mediated by Jesus and moderated by the successors of the apostles, that is, the bishops. As the Second Vatican Council taught, “It is clear therefore that, in the supremely wise arrangement of God, sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture, and the Magisterium of the Church are so connected and associated that one of them cannot stand without the others” (Dei Verbum 10).

Since the time of St. Jerome, the patron of Catholic Bible study, we have been told that ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.

You can read the full post here: https://blog.verbum.com/2024/03/catholic-bible-study/

Interview on Suffering with Church Life Today Podcast

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I was recently interviewed by Leonard DeLorenzo on the Church Life Today Podcast regarding my new book on Suffering.

This is a summary of our conversation from their site:

Suffering is universal. But how do we understand suffering? Does it have meaning? Can it have meaning? And most of all, what is the meaning of suffering in Christian life? Questions like these inform the work of my guest today, Dr. Mark Giszczak, author of the new book Suffering: What Every Catholic Should Know. Dr. Giszczak is Professor of Sacred Scripture at the Augustine Institute Graduate School of Theology, where he teaches a course on the Theology of Suffering that gave rise to this new book. In our discussion today we will talk about whether and how God suffers, how Christians might suffer well, obstacles to suffering well, and the importance of confronting rather than perpetually running from death.

Here’s the link to the episode: https://churchlifetoday.osvpodcasts.com/2061699/14711091

Interviews on Wisdom and Suffering

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Yesterday, I appeared on Catholic Faith Network, talking about my new commentary on Wisdom of Solomon (starting at 13:07):

CFN Live – March 7, 2024 from Catholic Faith Network on Vimeo.

I also appeared on the Busted Halo Show with Fr. Dave Dwyer talking about Suffering: What Every Catholic Should Know on SiriusXM: https://bustedhalo.com/radio-shows/thursday-march-7-2024