Articles in TynBul 49.2 (Nov.1998)

ROYAL EXPECTATIONS IN GENESIS TO KINGS: THEIR IMPORTANCE FOR BIBLICAL THEOLOGY
T. Desmond Alexander
Lecturer in Semitic Studies, The Queen's University of Belfast

Summary
This article explores two related issues in Biblical Theology: (a) the relationship between the testaments, and (b) the New Testament belief that Jesus Christ fulfils Old Testament expectations concerning a divinely appointed royal saviour or messiah. These issues are discussed from the perspective of the books of Genesis to Kings which, as a continuous narrative, form the backbone of the Old Testament. While many contemporary writers view these books as providing an account of Israel's history (the reality of which is debated), a careful reading reveals that they are equally interested, if not more so, in the fulfilment of divine promises centred on a future king through whom all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. According to the New Testament, the realisation of these promises, foreshadowed in the Genesis-Kings narrative, comes through Jesus Christ.

EFFECTUAL CALL OR CAUSAL EFFECT? SUMMONS, SOVEREIGNTY AND SUPERVENIENT GRACE
Kevin J. Vanhoozer
Research Professor of Systematic Theology
Trinity International University, Deerfield, Illinois

Summary
Classical theism is in danger of being overthrown by the current revolution in theological paradigms. The doctrine of the effectual call affords a good case study of the broader God/world relation: if God's call and divine action in general are interventions, then grace appears ultimately to be a matter of efficient causality-an impersonal relation. Panentheists argue that God need not intervene in the world because the world is in God and, therefore, is open to his general call. On the panentheistic analogy, God is to the world as the mind is to the brain, and divine grace, like the mind, does not intervene but 'supervenes' on the world, God's body. It is not clear, however, whether God's personal agency can be preserved in this model. Rethinking the doctrine of the effectual call in terms of 'speech acts' suggests a new picture for the God/world relation, where the Spirit 'advenes' on the Word to bring about not an impersonal but a uniquely personal effect: understanding.

A NON-POLEMICAL READING OF 1 JOHN: SIN, CHRISTOLOGY AND THE LIMITS OF JOHANNINE CHRISTIANITY
Terry Griffith
Pastor, Trinity Baptist Church, Bexleyheath, Kent

Summary
This paper offers a new paradigm for understanding the treatment of sin and Christology in 1 John that does not require gnosticising or docetic-like opponents to account for its contours. Both the ethical debate about sin (1 Jn. 1:6-2:11; 3:4-17; 4:20; 5:16-18) and the confessional statements about Jesus (1 Jn. 2:22; 4:2-3,15; 5:1,5,6) can be explained without reference to what the group that has left the Johannine community (2:19) positively believes. The issues at stake focus on the messiahship of Jesus, and the need to reinforce the limits of the Johannine community, not only by right confession but also by right conduct. Failure to keep either part of the dual commandment to believe in Jesus and to love one another (3:23) amounts to apostasy and places oneself outside the boundaries of Johannine Christianity. Confirmation of this approach is found in John's Gospel.

THE THEOLOGY OF DEUTERONOMY 27
Paul A. Barker
Vicar, Holy Trinity Doncaster, Melbourne, and
Visiting Lecturer in Old Testament, Ridley College, Melbourne

Summary
The problems of unity in Deuteronomy 27 are usually treated diachronically resulting in an impoverished theological appreciation of the chapter. Rather than offering two equally possible options, blessing and curse, the ceremony on Mt Ebal as instructed here is biased towards curse. No blessings are recited, despite their announcement; the stones are set up on the mountain of curse and the theme of curse brackets the Pentateuch. Nonetheless there is an optimism about the chapter. However this is a result of Yahweh's grace, not Israel's obedience. The provision of an altar and sacrifices and the allusions to the Abrahamic covenant in particular show that Israel stands under Yahweh's grace.

BABEL AND DERRIDA: POSTMODERNISM, LANGUAGE AND BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION
Craig G. Bartholomew
Research Fellow, Cheltenham and Gloucester College of
Higher Education, Cheltenham

Summary
This article assesses the challenge postmodernism constitutes for biblical interpretation via an analysis of Derrida's reading of the Tower of Babel narrative. Derrida's setting of the text in play is found to be an unhelpful model for biblical interpretation, but his foregrounding of language in the narrative and the implications of philosophy of language for interpretation are useful. The contours of Derrida's Babelian philosophy of language are explored and its insights noted. It is argued that the ultimate issues in philosophy of language are theological and that Christian scholars need to articulate a Christian view of language.

'BE IMITATORS OF ME': PAUL'S MODEL OF LEADERSHIP
Andrew D. Clarke
Lecturer in New Testament, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen

Summary
In a number of letters, Paul urges his readers to imitate certain examples. The principal models are those of himself, Christ and God, but he also directs the attention of his readers to the behaviour of other individuals, and occasionally reminds them of the example of other churches. In addition to these injunctions to be imitators, there are also exhortations that his readers become 'models' for others to imitate. It would seem that both to imitate appropriate examples and to be an example to others are commendable characteristics of the Christian life. In recent years, questions have been asked regarding the motivation behind Paul's use of these injunctions. This article seeks to reconsider the relevant Pauline texts and evaluate the author's use of the mimesis motif.

THE LANGUAGE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
Lars Rydbeck
Assistant Professor of New Testament,
University of Lund, Lund

Summary
Critical evaluation of the language of the New Testament has been marked in the last two hundred years by conflicting view-points, which can still be heard frequently today. In particular, two positions can be identified: (1) The language of the New Testament is situated within the context of the historical development of written Greek, stretching over the period from Alexander the Great to the first century A.D. Here one might mention contributions by A. Deissmann, J.H. Moulton, A. Wifstrand, as well as my own and that of G.H.R. Horsley. (2) The language of the New Testament is unique and must be viewed as an independent phenomenon, outside of and concurrent with the normal development of the Greek language. Some advocates of this view speak of semiticising Greek (e.g., J. Wellhausen ), while others speak of a special form of Christian Greek, an ad hoc language inspired by the Holy Spirit (e.g., N. Turner ).

THE LXX OF 1 CHRONICLES 5:1-2 AS AN EXPOSITION OF GENESIS 48-49
P.J. Williams
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Tyndale House

Summary:
In the middle of the genealogical survey of history in the opening nine chapters of 1 Chronicles we encounter details of the descendants of Reuben (5:1-10). At the very beginning of his genealogy Reuben is described as the firstborn of Jacob. However, before his genealogy proper commences, there is a brief note explaining in what sense he may still be called 'firstborn', despite his misconduct recorded in Genesis 35:22.

MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS IN THE EARLY-POST-EXILIC PERIOD
Wolter H. Rose
University Lecturer in Semitic Languages, Theological University of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, Kampen

First paragraph:
This thesis examines (1) the identity of the coming ruler who is given the name Zemah (tzmch, usually translated 'the Branch'), the main character in the tzmch oracles (Zc. 3:8 and 6:9-15) in the visions in Zechariah 1-6, and (2) the nature of the expectations set on this figure. It is argued that a wrong translation of the word jmx is one of the factors that has led to flawed interpretation of these oracles. The real meaning of jmx, 'vegetation, greenery, growth', implies that the background for the interpretation of the tzmch oracles in Zechariah should not be found in the plant imagery of Isaiah 11:1 (where different terminology and different imagery is used). The use of the tzmch imagery in Zechariah 3:8 and 6:12-13 is analogous to that found in Jeremiah 23:5, where in a time of collapse of the monarchy the same jmx imagery is used to evoke the idea of an intervention by YHWH as the only means for guaranteeing the restoration of the monarchy. In this scenario, 'David' will not contribute, but only receive. The adjective tzdiq in Jeremiah 23:5 does not raise the issue of legitimacy, as has often been claimed, but has the usual meaning 'righteous', an interpretation that can be supported from the context of the passage. The claim that there are many examples of North-West Semitic tzdq meaning 'legitimate' is tested and found seriously wanting.

THE STATUS AND FUNCTIONS OF JEWISH SCRIBES IN THE SECOND-TEMPLE PERIOD
Christine Schams
University of Oxford

First paragraph:
The thesis conducts a historical investigation into the status and functions of Jewish scribes during the Second-Temple period. The author employs a new approach for the selection and interpretation of the problematic evidence. Chapter One provides an overview of the various strands of previous scholarship on scribes and its major shortcomings. In general terms, the latter are identified as a lack of distinction between evidence from different periods, the creation of an artificial category of Schriftgelehrter/Torah scholar, and a strong bias towards only one of the major sources. The imposition of an artificial category on the ancient sources has led to a conflation of evidence for scribes, sages, rabbis, sophists, and other teachers and experts in the scriptures. The tendency to accept only one major source as historically reliable results at least partly from several apparent contradictions between sources with regard to the functions and status of scribes. On account of differences in the portrayal of scribes in the New Testament, Josephus' writings, and rabbinic literature and their functions in non-Jewish contemporary society, many scholars have tended to accept only one major source as historically reliable while others are neglected or ignored. The contradictions are rarely explained and, in most cases, not even mentioned.

Articles in TynBul 49.1 (May.1998)

THE ELISHA NARRATIVES AND COHERENCE OF 2 KINGS 2-8
Philip E. Satterthwaite
Research Fellow in Hebrew and Aramaic,
Tyndale House, Cambridge

Summary
2 Kings 2-8, containing most of the narratives of the prophet Elisha, are generally held to be somewhat incoherent. Many of Elisha's miracles, in particular, seem both trivial and ill-related to their context. This article argues that the key to 2 Kings 2-8 is provided by the portrayal of Elisha as a 'second Joshua' in ch. 2. In a logical outworking of this chapter, the subsequent narratives set over against each other Elisha's followers and the Northern Kingdom, raising the hope that Elisha's followers will 'conquer' the land, bringing the North back to YHWH. This hope is ultimately not realised. The miracle accounts find their place in this interpretation.

THE FUNCTION OF 'LIKEWISE' (WSAUTWS) IN ROMANS 8:26
Geoffrey Smith
Minister, Park Woods Presbyterian Church
Overland Park, Kansas

Summary
Paul uses the comparative adverb wsautws in Romans 8:26 to compare the Spirit's ministry of helping Christians in their weakness to something he had written previously. Interpreters of this text, however, have not been able to reach a consensus in their attempts to identify the antecedent subject of the comparison. This article proposes a fresh consideration of the view that Paul is comparing the Spirit's ministry in 8:26 to the Spirit's ministry in 8:16.

DID MOSES PERMIT DIVORCE? MODAL weqatal AS KEY TO NEW TESTAMENT READINGS OF DEUTERONOMY 24:1-4
Andrew Warren
Wycliffe Bible Translators, High Wycombe

Summary
The New Testament discussions of divorce, both in Matthew 19 and elsewhere, are dominated by a distinction between Permission and Obligation. It is generally assumed that the debate arises from a 'presupposition' of divorce in Deuteronomy 24. An improved syntactic analysis of the Old Testament text shows Moses to have in fact issued a specific directive on divorce, but in such a way that it was open to the kind of misunderstanding that we see corrected by Jesus. This analysis is supported by all the New Testament texts. By applying the categories of linguistic modality to main-clause verbs, verbs of reporting, verbs of divorcing and conditional clauses, it is possible to shed more light on how Jesus and the Pharisees dealt with the Old Testament text, and to show just what was wrong with the Pharisees' understanding of Hebrew grammar.

'WHO CAN REFUTE A SNEER?' PALEY ON GIBBON
Graham A. Cole
Principal, Ridley College, Melbourne

Summary
'Who can refute a sneer?' is a famous quotation from William Paley. It was his reaction to Edward Gibbon's massive The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire with its oblique, ironically delivered critique of Christianity. This article places the quotation in its context in Paley's works and seeks to show how he addressed the sneer in his A View of the Evidences of Christianity in more than one place. In particular, Paley's argument for the candour of the New Testament writers as evidence of their integrity (contra Gibbon) is examined and likewise his argument against the view that the rise of Islam is more impressive in some ways than that of Christianity (contra Gibbon). Paley's response to David Hume's writings has received some scholarly attention, but his response to Gibbon has been hardly explored. This article seeks to fill that lacuna.

PUBERTY OR PASSION? THE REFERENT OF UPERAKMOS IN 1 CORINTHIANS 7:36
Bruce W. Winter
Warden, Tyndale House, Cambridge

Summary
The word uperakmos has a male as opposed to female referent and should be translated 'full of sexual passion'. It is based on a survey of this term in ancient literature and the verb aschmonew (to behave unseemly) in the preceding clause. It is further re-enforced by the grammatical constructions following the particles ei and ean (if), the role of kai outws (and thus it is bound to happen) in the following statement, the meanings of thelhma (sexual desire) and anagkh (sexual necessity) in verse 37 and the Greek word for 'past one's prime', i.e., parakmh.

READING THE OLD TESTAMENT IN POSTMODERN TIMES
Craig Bartholomew
Research Fellow, Cheltenham and Gloucester College
of Higher Education


Summary
This article explores the impact of postmodernism on Old Testament studies by looking at the recent proposals of Rendtorff, Brueggemann and Clines. Rendtorff discerns a crisis in Old Testament studies with the demise of the Wellhausenian paradigm. He argues for a methodological pluralism in the present. Brueggemann stresses the epistemological shift that postmodernism entails and argues for a hermeneutic that funds postmodern imagination. Clines welcomes the pluralism of postmodernism and articulates a consumer hermeneutic while favouring ideological critique of the Bible. This article argues that some form of metanarrative shaping one's hermeneutic is inevitable and that at its best postmodernism re-opens the debate about a religiously shaped hermeneutic.

NATURAL REVELATION AND THE PURPOSE OF THE LAW IN ROMANS
Mark A. Seifrid
Associate Professor of New Testament Interpretation
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville

Summary
In Romans 1-2, Paul argues the justice of divine wrath upon idolatry and upon the one who judges another. Jews and Gentiles enter his argument only as individuals, not as ethnic groups. Only in Romans 3 does Paul bring the charge that all human beings are idolaters. In establishing the justice of God's wrath, Paul claims that even Gentiles without the Law fully possess the knowledge of God's will, through their participation in the created order. Consequently, the advantage of the Jew lies in the possession of the oracles of God, which make known divine judgement and salvation. Correspondingly, a distinctive function of the Law emerges in Romans 3:19-20, namely, the outward and objective establishing of human guilt. It is this aspect of the Law which sets it apart from natural law, and which makes it a witness to the righteousness of God given in Christ.

DIONYSUS AGAINST THE CRUCIFIED: NIETZSCHE CONTRA CHRISTIANITY, PART II
Stephen N. Williams
Professor of Systematic Theology
Union Theological College, Belfast


Summary
This is the second part of a two-part study of Nietzsche and Christianity (TynB 48 [1997] 219-43). Nietzsche's phrase 'Dionysus against the Crucified' is used as a kind of text for the articles. 'Dionysus' is the principle of life: raw, tragic, joyful, but real, subject to no extraneous principle. 'The Crucified' is the principle of death: anti-natural, symbolising consciousness of sin and foreboding authority of God, imposing a morbid principle on life. This second part is an analytic response to Nietzsche from a Christian point of view. While the course of Dionysus by-passes the reality of human suffering (since attending to it introduces compassion and wrecks joy), the strength of the crucified one lies in his embrace of what is darkest and deepest in reality.

THE PLACE OF THE APOCALYPSE IN THE CANON OF ST. GREGORY NAZIANZEN
Frank Thielman
Presbyterian Associate Professor of Divinity
Deeson Divinity School, Samford University


First paragraph:

After explicitly naming every other New Testament book but the Apocalypse, St. Gregory Nazianzen closes his poetical list of 'the genuine books of the inspired scripture' with the statement, 'You have all. And if there be any outside these, it is not among the genuine books' (Pavsa" e[cei". ei[ ti de; touvtwn ejktov", oujk ejn gnhsivai"). Studies of the New Testament canon commonly understand the omission of any clear reference to the Apocalypse in the list and these definitive closing statements to mean that Gregory did not view the Apocalypse as canonical. If so, then Gregory, whose list comes from sometime in the 380s, did not agree with Athanasius' judgement in his famous Easter letter of 367 but took the position of many in the fourth-century eastern church that the Apocalypse stands among the excluded books. Three pieces of evidence, however, should caution against coming to this conclusion too hastily.

THE OLD TESTAMENT CONCEPT OF SOLIDARITY IN HEBREWS
G.W. Grogan
Former Principal, Glasgow Bible College

Summary
Despite the criticisms of some, the concept of solidarity is an important one in the Old Testament. It is seen in kinship, marriage, common residence and occupations, covenants and, more subjectively, in affection. It applies to Yahweh's relationship with Israel in terms of covenant and representation and has many-sided consequences and implications. In the New Testament it is particularly important for Hebrews, which applies it in its inaugurated eschatology. Christ's oneness with his people as the true human being, high priest and sacrifice are central to the author's thought, and the people of Christ are shown to be one with each other as members of the city of God.

JESUS' DEFEAT OF DEATH AND MARK'S EARLY READERS
Peter Geoffrey Bolt

First paragraph:
This thesis is an inquiry into the potential impact of Mark's Gospel upon its early Greco-Roman readers. The Gospel of Mark's powerful drama and impact is often acknowledged, but not enough has yet been done concerning the nature of this impact and the means by which it is achieved. In order to examine Mark's 'narrative impact', this thesis is an exercise in literary reception. The last decades have seen a spate of studies which seek to apply literary tools to the understanding of Mark's narrative. Many such studies stop short of the problematic interface between 'text' and 'world' and are often sceptical about whether this divide can or should be crossed. If questions of textual impact on real readers are broached, it is usually modern rather than ancient readers who are in view. This thesis seeks to move beyond the literary study of Mark to its reception in the real world of first-century Greco-Roman society.

FOOD OFFERED TO IDOLS IN 1 CORINTHIANS 8-10
Derek Newton

First paragraph:
This thesis investigates the conflict which existed in Corinth around the mid-first century C.E. concerning Christian involvement in cultic meals. Scholarly attention has focused either on detailed exegesis of Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 8-10 or on Greco-Oriental cultic meal evidence from Classical and Hellenistic times. Little attention has been paid to the nature and dynamics of the sacrificial food issue itself, or to the available evidence of Imperial Cult which so dominated Roman Corinth in the early Christian era. Scholarship has paid insufficient attention to the conflicting viewpoints of the Corinthians themselves concerning food offered to idols.

STUDIES IN THE SYNTAX OF THE PESHITTA OF 1 KINGS
P.J. Williams


First paragraph:
The Peshitta (Syriac version) of the book of 1 Kings has until recently suffered neglect. The only monograph examining it to date was published in 1897. This thesis uses the corpus of 1 Kings as a basis for what is only the second detailed study of the syntax of the Peshitta of the Old Testament. It seeks to examine both those constructions in Syriac that contrast in form with their Hebrew Vorlage, and those constructions that contain variations within the Syriac language as yet unexplained by researchers. For each construction the contribution of previous studies such as those by Nöldeke, Duval, Avinery, Muraoka, and Joosten is summarised.