Atonement

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Finlan
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Lord's Supper ◽  
1 Corinthians ◽  
Apostle Paul ◽  
English Translations ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Paul's Letters ◽  
The Temple ◽  
First John

Theological usage of the term “atonement” refers to a cluster of ideas in the Old Testament that center on the cleansing of impurity (which needs to be done to prevent God from leaving the Temple), and to New Testament notions that “Christ died for our sins” (1 Corinthians 15:3) and that “we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son” (Romans 5:10). In English translations of the Old Testament, “make atonement” usually translates kipper, the verb for the cultic removal of impurity from the Temple or sanctuary, accomplished through the dashing or sprinkling of the blood of the “purification offering” or “sin offering” on particular Temple furnishings. Kipper occurs most often, but not exclusively, in sacrificial texts. Kipper is also performed over the scapegoat in one passage (Leviticus 16:10). Thus, scholarly discussions of atonement in the Old Testament focus on the sacrificial and scapegoat rituals but also attend to the procedure for making a redemption payment, for which the word kopher (cognate with kipper) is used. The most important day in the ancient Jewish liturgical calendar was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, when the supreme sacrificial rituals of the year were performed, and the only day of the year on which the scapegoat rite was performed. Atonement in the New Testament is expressed through metaphors of sacrifice, scapegoat, and redemption to picture the meaning of the death of Christ. The Apostle Paul is the main fountainhead of these soteriological metaphors, but they occur in the other epistles and in Revelation. Atonement imagery is much less common in the Gospels, possibly appearing in the Lord’s Supper and the ransom saying (Mark 10:45). Most (but not all) scholars would agree that atonement in the Old Testament concerns cleansing the Temple (the Deity’s home), not soteriology. In the New Testament, however, atonement is central to the soteriological metaphors in Paul’s letters, the deutero-Pauline letters, Hebrews, First Peter, First John, and Revelation.

Peter Singer's Interpretation of Christian Biblical Environmental Ethics

1998 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-68
Author(s):  
Cara Beed ◽  
Clive Beed
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Natural World ◽  
1 Corinthians ◽  
Apostle Paul ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Book Of Genesis

AbstractPeter Singer's (1990 and 1993) interpretations of Biblical texts dealing with the natural world are evaluated in the light of recent Biblical scholarship. The texts in question are among those in the Bible relating to Christian ethical teaching about the natural world. The specific texts Singer examined concern the meaning of dominion and the flood of the earth in the book of Genesis in the Old Testament, particular teaching by the apostle Paul in the book 1 Corinthians in the New Testament, and certain actions by Jesus in the New Testament book of Mark. Singer's interpretations have a lengthy pedigree commonly used to hold Biblical teaching partly responsible for adverse Western attitudes to nature. This article argues that such interpretations contradict a deal of recent Biblical scholarship on the texts at issue.

scholarly journals The Fourth Gospel and the Apostolic Mission: John’s Common Evangelical Theology

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 127
Author(s):  
MATTHEW D. JENSEN
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
The Other ◽  
Fourth Gospel ◽  
1 Corinthians ◽  
Close Attention ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Gospel Message ◽  
Evangelical Theology

Abstract: This article seeks to redress the imbalance of seeing John’s theology as distinctive and dissimilar to the other Gospels and New Testament documents by observing the essential consistency between the theology of the Fourth Gospel and the apostolic mission described by Paul in Galatians 2:1–10. First, it considers the origin of the New Testament documents in the mission of the apostles described in Galatians 2:1–10 and locates the apostles’ commonly agreed-on gospel message in 1 Corinthians 15:3–5. Second, the article examines the Fourth Gospel, paying close attention to the intrusive narrator’s comments about the purpose (John 20:30–31) and explicit use of the Old Testament (12:38, 39–40; 19:24, 28, 36–37) to demonstrate that John’s theology and epistemology was fundamentally the same as that of the other apostles.

In Quest of the Third Heaven: Paul & his Apocalyptic Imitators

2004 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-55
Author(s):  
J.R. Harrison
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Third ◽  
Authority Figure ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Paul's Letters ◽  
Social Agendas

AbstractIt is an irony of history that by late antiquity Paul had become the authority figure he never was during his lifetime. However, by the subapostolic and patristic periods Paul's apostolic authority was no longer considered quite so controversial. From 200 AD onwards Paul's letters were regularly cited alongside the Gospels and the Old Testament as 'Scripture'. It is therefore no surprise that the premier apocalyptic theologian of the New Testament would spawn several apocalyptic imitators. Two 'Apocalypses of Paul' have come down to us from antiquity, one gnostic, the other Christian. After discussing each work, the article asks to what extent the historical Paul would have agreed with these later works written in his name. The article will demonstrate how differing ecclesiastical traditions appropriated Paul for their own theological and social agendas instead of allowing the apostle to the Gentiles to speak to his first-century context

scholarly journals Covenants as an echo of the Eucharist. Typos of Lord’s Supper in the Old Testament

2020 ◽  
pp. 11-44
Author(s):  
Sergiy Victorovich Sannikov
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
External Action ◽  
Lord's Supper ◽  
The People ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Important Sign ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Concept Of Law

The article uses typological understanding of the Lord's Supper to analyze Old Testament text. Intertextual hermeneutics, which connects the lexical units of various parts of texts for comprehensive understanding allowed to see an echo of the Eucharist in Old Testament. One of the most expressive prototypes or typos of the Lord's Supper in the Old Testament is the idea of the Covenants and changing of the covenants. The author analyzes the concept of testament and all cases of using this term in Old Testament texts, and concludes that the word “berith” in the biblical text cannot be identified only with the concept of contract, agreement or union. Also, it cannot be identified only with the concept of law, command or statute. The Testament should be taken holistically, combining different meanings of this concept. In this way, the “berith” describes the idea of a specific agreement, which has the character of a bloody decree. Therefore, on the basis of biblical ideas, the concept of a covenant in a broad sense can be presented as a relationship between God and people, which can be described as a God-initiated contract of a personal-corporate nature, which provides for mutual obligations. This kind of relationship is characterized by a fixed immutability and is accompanied by signs, evidence and a special memory procedure. Therefore, in the Old Testament period, we can confidently talk only about the Covenant with Noah, Abraham and Moses, who were revealed and showed their inner, spiritual essence in the New Testament of Jesus Christ. Only in these cases did the signs of covenant relations in the narrow sense be revealed, namely: God's initiative, personal-corporate relations, the invariability and obligatory commemorativeness are caused. Other ancient covenants do not contain a complete religious component and are not eucharistic prototypes. An important sign of the typos of the Lord's Supper in the Old Testament is the blood of the covenant. All covenants were accompanied by the shedding of sacrificial blood, which indicated the sacrifice of Christ and its echo in the Eucharistic cup. This emphasizes the difference between “berith” as a covenant and “berith” as a commandment or statute. Bloodless covenant are not testaments in the full biblical sense of the word. The idea of a testament as a bloodline expresses the highest seriousness of mutual testamentary obligations. That is, a Testament is an inviolable contract, the non-fulfillment of which threatens death. An additional feature of the testament, as shown in the article, was the theophanic Presence. It manifested itself not only at the time of the covenant, but also in an invisible way throughout its validity. The establishment of a covenant relationship has always been associated with theophany and could not have been otherwise, because the covenant is always personal, so God considered it necessary to show a personal presence at this crucial time. The author proves that in all pre-Christian covenants there is a single prototype line that was revealed in Jesus Christ. By the faith and merit of the ancestor, his descendants enter into the covenant and enjoy the benefits and blessings of their predecessor, as well as inherit all his obligations to God. The people of the New Testament enjoy all the benefits and advantages not because of their own merits, but only because of the merits of Jesus. The sign of entering into the Covenant of Jesus is water baptism (Col. 2: 11-13), which, as an external action, plays the role of a spiritual sign that indicates spiritual circumcision as a clipping of all sins. Thus, the intertextual analysis of the New Testament and Old Testament texts revealed the typos of Lord's Supper and shows the Christ as a single one, who determines the conditions of the covenants and makes it valid.

scholarly journals In Search of the Key to the Theology of Paul the Apostle

2021 ◽  
Vol 90 (5) ◽  
pp. 443-462
Author(s):  
Waldemar Rakocy
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Clear Definition ◽  
Apostle Paul ◽  
New Creation ◽  
Decisive Influence ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Pauline Theology ◽  
Theological Thought ◽  
The Relationship

The Author of the paper looks for a key to the theological thought of the Apostle Paul. The fact that it lacks a clear definition results in authors radically differing in their perception, for instance, regarding the relationship between the Old and the New Testament, and as a result, whether or not the Old Testament has a decisive influence on the Pauline thought, continuing along this line: whether the Apostle in his view always remained a Jew, or whether he distanced himself from Judaism. The fact that we do not have a category clearly defining the relationship between the Old and New Testament salvific reality results in an abundance of contradictory opinions. That is also transferred to other areas of the Pauline theology. The interpretation of Paul’s theology tends to be determined by preconceptions, built upon various ways of understanding the significance of the Old Testament, or various relationship to Judaism and its thought. The author of the paper indicates a concept, treated as marginal by scholars, of a new creation in Christ as the key to understanding the Pauline thought. It lays in the background of all themes treated by Paul and connects them into a single, coherent entity.

scholarly journals Jesus - Kind van God, Vaderloos in Galilea

2001 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 401-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.G. Van Aarde
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Biological Father ◽  
Gospel Of Thomas ◽  
The Public ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
John's Gospel ◽  
Paul's Letters ◽  
Literary Model

This article consists of four sections. Firstly, it reflects on the public debate regarding Jesus' alleged illegitimacy. The article argues that illegitimacy here refers to fatherlessness. Secondly, Joseph is focused on. According to New Testament writings of the latter part of the first century, Joseph is either Jesus' biological father (John's gospel) or the person who adopted him as son (the gospels of Matthew and Luke). Thirdly, Joseph as a legendary literary model is discussed (in the Old Testament, intertestamentary literature, the New Testament, writings of the Church Fathers and the dogtrines of the Orthodox Church). Fourthly, the articles sketches a picture of a fatherless Jesus based on evidence from the earliest intracanonical writings (the Sayings Gospel Q, traditions in the Gospel of Thomas, Paul's letters and the Gospel of Mark). Joseph does not appear in these writings. The article concludes with a reflection on the relevance of fatherlessness for today.

The Temple

1950 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 278-287
Author(s):  
Thomas Hannay
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Main Structure ◽  
The Real ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Temple

For some time past there has been a great need that theology should become more biblical, and that biblical studies should become more theological. To-day there are welcome signs that this is coming about, which is in effect a reviving sense of the authority of the Bible. There is a feeling that if criticism has not finished its task—which can hardly be the case—it is time that it was supplemented by something else; that it has too long dominated biblical studies as though it were the very building, whereas it is in fact a means of securing the foundations on which the main structure can be raised; that its necessary method of analysis, increasingly elaborated, has tended to destroy the recognition of the majestic structure of the biblical revelation and its unity. Thus Dr Vincent Taylor in the introduction to his Jesus and His Sacrifice confessed that after twenty-five years devoted to the minutiae of synoptic criticism, he had a great desire to consider what the Gospels really have to say for themselves. In the realm of Old Testament studies there has emerged a sense that, Israel's history being so remarkable, it is useless to brush aside all the later developments of, let us say, the Priestly Code as regrettable and retrograde; it is wiser and more helpful to ask what their significance really is, and whether they do not rather witness to the rich fulness of religion under the old covenant. The point to be driven home is just this: when the sources have been analysed and dated as far as may be, then begins the real task of considering what is the significance of the contents. That can and will only be found in our Lord Jesus Christ. But that in effect means allowing the Bible to be its own interpreter, explaining one part by another. Especially when seeking for the significance of the Old Testament must the search be carried over into the New Testament. It seems worth while to try and work this method out on the theme of the temple.

Letting (H)Anna Speak: An Intertextual Reading of the New Testament Prophetess (Luke 2.36–38)

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-74
Author(s):  
Sarah Harris
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Temple

The story of (H)Anna is a brief description of a faithful prophetess (Lk. 2.36–38) which is consciously paired with the previous and more developed narrative of Simeon (22–35). Hannah’s story is significant to the Lukan Gospel and yet her voice, which men and women visiting the temple heard repeatedly (2.38), is not articulated by Luke. She has been the topic of much research, in as much as three verses in their context can provide, while no one has sought to let Hannah speak for herself. This article aims to do this by exploring her story within the Lukan narrative, considering prophetesses in the Old Testament, and echoing the dynamics of the Jewish story of Judith with which she is intertextually paired.

scholarly journals ‘De God van de vrede’ in het Nieuwe Testament

2015 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rob Van Houwelingen
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Near East ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Apostle Paul ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
The World ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Roman Culture

‘The God of peace’ in the New Testament. Why does the New Testament use the expression ‘the God of peace’ and what is the meaning of this phrase? In the Old Testament, the God of Israel is often connected with peace, but he is never called ‘the God of peace’. Not until the Hellenistic period is this expression sporadically found in Judaism (once in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs and once in Philo). As for the biblical Umwelt, the gods of the ancient Near East were not very peace-loving, and in the perception of Greco-Roman culture the god of war, Arès/Mars, as one of the twelve Olympians was much more prominent than Eirènè/Pax. However, the expression ‘the God of peace’ is found several times in the Corpus Paulinum and once in the letter to the Hebrews. This article investigates all New Testament texts that have this formula, suggesting that the apostle Paul could be responsible for the wording. In conclusion, Paul states that the God of Israel desires to establish a definitive peace in his creation through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ and by finally defeating all powers of evil. This apostolic message further indicates that Christians are supposed to be bearers of peace, promoting a peaceful atmosphere in their environment and in the world.

Four Old Testament Books as Inspired and Inspiring

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald O’Collins, SJ
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Wisdom Literature ◽  
Ben Sira ◽  
Adam And Eve ◽  
Christian Art ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Paul's Letters

This chapter examines the inspired composition and inspiring impact of four Old Testament books (Genesis, Psalms, Isaiah, and Sirach). Biblical texts came from many anonymous persons (e.g. Genesis and the Psalms) and from known individuals (e.g. Sirach). In both cases, the Holy Spirit effected the formation of the final texts, and the subsequent use of such symbolic stories as that of Adam and Eve by biblical and patristic authors (e.g. Paul in Romans; Irenaeus), and in Christian art and literature (e.g. icons and Masaccio; Donne and Milton). The Psalms and Prophets fed into the preaching of Jesus and the New Testament (e.g. Paul’s letters). After the Psalms, Isaiah was the book most quoted by New Testament authors, proving a reservoir for their understanding of God. Ben Sira, author of Sirach, was aware of his authority within the wisdom-literature tradition but not of being inspired by God in writing his book.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document