Biblical Challenges to a Theology of Love

2003 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 640-653 ◽  
Author(s):  
Werner Jeanrond

AbstractA contemporary systematic theological reflection upon love requires a cross-disciplinary attention to the plurality of approaches to love within the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament. This article explores the retrieval and development of Jewish love traditions within three New Testament traditions, namely the Synoptic Gospels, the Johannine texts, and Paul. These approaches agree on the divine origin and gift-character of love, but differ in their assessment of both the horizon of love and the significance of love for the Christian community. John stresses the community's need to be united in love against a hostile environment; Paul recommends the praxis of love as means of dealing with difference, otherness and conflict within the community; and Luke considers the universal scope of neighbourly love. Thus, acknowledging God as the author of love and reflecting upon God's nature as love does not necessarily lead to the same theological convictions or praxis of love in church and world. Moreover, the rich and ambiguous history of biblical love includes a shifting emphasis on human desire, the erotic, and the body. A critical theology of love would need to pay close attention to both the possibilities and ambiguities of the plurality of approaches to love in the Bible.

Author(s):  
Д.К. АСРАТЯН

Письма патриарха Константинопольского Николая Мистика архиепископу Аланскому Петру – основной документальный источник по истории христианства на Северном Кавказе в X в. Изучение «Аланского досье» патриарха Николая сохраняет актуальность в связи с ростом интереса к духовной истории народов Кавказа, находившихся на стыке цивилизаций, религий и культур и сформировавших под их влиянием собственные самобытные национально-культурные традиции. Основным методом исследования стало сопоставление лексических и семантических средств, используемых апостолом Павлом и патриархом Николаем в двух различных, но соотносимых исторических и религиозных контекстах. Цель исследования – выявление жанровых и литературных связей писем патриарха с книгами Нового Завета. Научная новизна заключается в обосновании лингвистических, семантических и богословских параллелей между письмами Николая и посланиями апостола Павла, особенно пастырскими (1-2 Тим и Тит). Хотя сравниваемые тексты хронологически разделены почти тысячелетием, отмечается типологическое сходство исторических контекстов, в которых они были написаны (духовный наставник – ученик в епископском сане – молодая христианская община из «варваров», нуждающихся в просвещении). В интерпретации Николая миссия – это именно тяжкий труд, но совершаемый по прямому повелению Бога и ради награды свыше, и в этом смысле патриарх вполне укоренен в новозаветной традиции. Как показали результаты исследования, риторическая и богословская насыщенность писем Николая Мистика не снижает их историческую ценность, однако для корректной интерпретации необходимо учитывать их литературный характер. Letters of Nicholas Mysticus, Patriarch of Constantinople, to Peter, Archbishop of Alania, remain the chief documentary source for the history of Christianity in the North Caucasus in the 10th century. The study of the "Alan Dossier" of Patriarch Nicholas remains relevant due to the growing interest in the spiritual history of the peoples of the Caucasus, who lived at the crossroads of civilizations, religions and cultures and formed their own distinctive national and cultural traditions under such diverse influence. The main research method was the comparison of lexical and semantic means used by the Apostle Paul and Patriarch Nicholas in two different, but correlated historical and religious contexts. The purpose of the study is to identify genre and literary connections between the letters of the Patriarch and the books of the New Testament. Scientific novelty lies in the substantiation of the linguistic, semantic and theological parallels between the letters of Nicholas and the letters of the Apostle Paul, especially the pastoral ones (1-2 Tim and Titus). Although the compared texts are chronologically separated by almost a millennium, there is a typological similarity in the historical contexts in which they were written (a spiritual mentor - a bishop student - a newly formed Christian community of “barbarians” in need of education). In the interpretation of Nicholas, mission is a hard work, but it is done at the direct command of the God and is rewarded from above, and in this sense, the Patriarch is completely rooted in the New Testament tradition. As the results of the study have shown, the rhetorical and theological richness of the letters of Nikolas the Mysticus does not diminish their historical value, yet for correct interpretation it is necessary to take into account their literary character.


1948 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-73
Author(s):  
R. Stuart Louden

We can trace a revival of theology in the Reformed Churches in the last quarter of a century. The new theological interest merits being called a revival of theology, for there has been a fresh and more thorough attention given to certain realities, either ignored or treated with scant notice for a considerable time previously.First among such realities now receiving more of the attention which their relevance and authority deserve, is the Bible, the record of the Word of God. There is an invigorating and convincing quality about theology which is Biblical throughout, being based on the witness of the Scriptures as a whole. The valuable results of careful Biblical scholarship had had an adverse effect on theology in so far as theologians had completely separated the Old Testament from the New in their treatment of Biblical doctrine, or in expanding Christian doctrine, had spoken of the theological teaching of the Synoptic Gospels, the Pauline Epistles, the Johannine writings, and so on, as if there were no such thing as one common New Testament witness. It is being seen anew that the Holy Scriptures contain a complete history of God's saving action. The presence of the complete Bible open at the heart of the Church, recalls each succeeding Christian generation to that one history of God's saving action, to which the Church is the living witness. The New Testament is one, for its Lord is one, and Christian theology must stand four-square on the foundation of its whole teaching.


Author(s):  
Song Gang

This essay examines the first Chinese New Testament translated by the missionary of the Paris Foreign Missions Society (M.E.P.) Jean Basset (1662–1707) in collaboration with Confucian convert Johan Su in the early Qing period. Though they did not complete a full translation of the New Testament, the work carried unique characteristics that went beyond the limitations of its time. One of the original manuscripts also exerted direct influence on nineteenth-century Protestant translations. With in-depth analysis of this exemplary piece among early Catholic endeavors, the essay addresses a set of key concerns that have not been sufficiently studied, including Basset’s vision of a Chinese Bible, the translation principle and techniques, Christian and Chinese terminology, and the interface of biblical translations and Chinese language and literature. The findings of this study offer fresh insights and facilitate a re-evaluation of Catholic contributions and legacy in the history of the Bible in China.


Author(s):  
David H. Price

Renaissance artists represented the Bible as the preeminent monument of classical culture well before humanist scholars began their revolutionary efforts to recover the ancient forms of biblical texts. Once Renaissance humanism and the Reformation turned decisively to biblical philology (and began overturning the authority of the Vulgate Bible and medieval theology), artists supported their creation of innovative conceptualizations of the Bible. Remarkably, the three most influential artists of the Northern Renaissance—Albrecht Dürer, Lucas Cranach the Elder, and Hans Holbein the Younger—made profound contributions to all the major Renaissance and Reformation Bibles in Germany and Switzerland and to the biblical humanist movement generally. The chapter concludes with an introduction to the history of biblical humanism, including the emergence of new authoritative Bibles beginning with Erasmus’s first edition of the New Testament in the original Greek.


Author(s):  
Ольга Николаевна Афиногенова

Основная цель статьи - проследить историю отождествления Ангела Господня с архангелом Михаилом и выявить основной этап формирования культа архистратига. Методом сопоставления текста Священного Писания, апокрифов и византийских агиографических текстов выявляется чёткая картина влияния апокрифической традиции на византийский культ архангела Михаила. В Ветхом Завете Михаил упомянут по имени всего три раза - в Книге пророка Даниила; в Новом Завете - только однажды в Откровении ап. Иоанна Богослова. Вместе с тем в Священном Писании есть многочисленные упоминания безымянного Ангела Господня. Ориген впервые отождествил князя Михаила из Книги пророка Даниила с архангелом Михаилом, что было воспринято поледующей традицией. В апокрифах, однако, почитание Михаила не всегда наделено теми аспектами, которые будут фигурировать в более позднее время. Возможно, то, что почитание Михаила вобрало в себя функции других архангелов, связано с популярной агиографической традицией, посвящённой архистратигу. Первый текст этой традиции, ставший широко распространённым в Византии, - «Чудо в Хонах» (VIII в.). Но наиболее исчерпывающе традиция почитания архангела отражена в «Повести» Пантолеона Диакона (IX в.). Текст демонстрирует окончательное закрепление отождествления безымянного Ангела Господня из Ветхого и Нового Заветов с Михаилом, а также приводит наиболее полное изложение аспектов почитания архангела в Византии. The main purpose of the paper is to trace the history of the identification of the Angel of the Lord with the Archangel Michael and to identify the main stage in the formation of the cult of the Archangel. By comparing the text of Holy Scripture, apocrypha and Byzantine hagiographic texts, a clear picture of the influence of the apocryphal tradition on the Byzantine cult of Michael the Archangel is revealed. In the Old Testament, Michael is mentioned by name only three times - in the book of Prophet Daniel; in the New Testament - only twice in the Revelation of John the Divine and in Epistle of Jude. However, in the Bible there are numerous references to the nameless Angel of the Lord. For the first time Origen identified Prince Michael from the book of the Prophet Daniel with the archangel Michael, which was accepted by the following tradition. In the apocrypha, however, the worship of Michael is not always endowed with those aspects that will appear later. Perhaps the fact that the worship of Michael has absorbed the functions of other archangels relates to the popular hagiographic tradition devoted to the archestrategos. The first text of this tradition, which became widespread in Byzantium, was the “Miracle in the Chonae” (8th century). But the most exhaustively tradition of worship the archangel is reflected in consolidation of the identification of the nameless Angel of the Lord from the Old and New Testaments with Michael and provides the most complete exposition of the aspects of veneration of the archangel in Byzantium.


2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-6
Author(s):  
James A. Sanders

The concept of the Jubilee, or the collective forgiveness of all debts and debtor/slaves, had its origins in the Ancient Near East where it was a secular practice of kings. It came into the Bible originally also as a secular practice of kings but then became the province of priests and a calendar observance to be celebrated every 50 years. It was finally understood in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament to rest in the hands of God alone, an eschatological concept of the forgiveness of all debts/sins and the redemption of all human sins, or debts to God, that became the very basis of the theological history of Luke/Acts.


2017 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-37
Author(s):  
Daniel King

The present paper highlights the importance of attending to the ancient textual tradition within the process of translation. It argues that many of the scribes of the NT manuscripts perceived their own work in a similar light to many Bible translators today, since they considered clarity of communication to be one of their goals. For this reason, they often made emendations of a sort similar to those that are recommended to contemporary translators. Translators are able to derive benefit from attending carefully to the NT textual tradition to learn how ancient scribes understood the text and sought to communicate its meaning clearly to their readers.


The Septuagint is the term commonly used to refer to the corpus of early Greek versions of Hebrew Scriptures. The collection is of immense importance in the history of both Judaism and Christianity. The renderings of individual books attest to the religious interests of the substantial Jewish population of Egypt during the Hellenistic and Roman periods, and to the development of the Greek language in its Koine phase. The narrative ascribing the Septuagint’s origins to the work of seventy translators in Alexandria attained legendary status among both Jews and Christians. The Septuagint was the version of Scripture most familiar to the writers of the New Testament, and became the authoritative Old Testament of the Greek and Latin Churches. In the early centuries of Christianity it was itself translated into several other languages, and it has had a continuing influence on the style and content of biblical translations. In the Oxford Handbook of the Septuagint leading experts in the field write on the history and manuscript transmission of the version, and explain the study of translation technique and textual criticism. They provide surveys of previous and current research on individual books of the Septuagint corpus, on alternative Jewish Greek versions, the Christian ‘daughter’ translations, and reception in early Jewish and Christian writers. The handbook also includes several ‘conversations’ with related fields of interest such as New Testament studies, liturgy, and art history.


1950 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 278-287
Author(s):  
Thomas Hannay

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.


Author(s):  
James Riley Estep

Of increasing interest to New Testament scholars is the educational background of Paul and the early Christians. As evangelical educators, such studies also engage our understanding of the Biblical and historical basis of Christian education. This article endeavors to ascertain the early Christian community's, and particularly Paul's, assessment of education in first-century A.D. Greco-Roman culture as one dimension of the interactions between the early Christian community and its culture. It will (1) provide a brief review of passages in the New Testament that reflect or interact with the educational community of the first-century A.D., (2) Conjecture Paul's assessment of education in Greco-Roman culture, with which early Christians interacted, (3) Itemize implications of Paul's opinion on Greco-Roman education for our understanding on the formation and history of Christian education, and finally (4) Address the need for further study of the subject.


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