Kostenberger, Andreas J., Robert W. Yarbrough. Understanding the Times: New Testament Studies in the 21st Century. Essays in Honor of D.A. Carson on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday. Wheaton, Illinois. Crossway. 2011.
New Testament Studies and Ancillary Disciplines
The first part of the book opened with the essay of Stanley Porter entitled Greek Linguistics and Lexicography. Porter’s survey of literature showed the development and methodological trends in the field of lexicography and linguistics such as the rise of semantic field studies, verbal aspect theory, and discourse analysis. He evaluated the bearing of these developments on the study of New Testament Greek, and criticized scholars such as Daniel Wallace and Constantine Campbell for downplaying the part of modern linguistic theories in the field of NT Greek.
In Hermeneutics and Theological Interpretation, Grant Osborne gave a critique of a new hermeneutical movement in theology called Theological Interpretation of Scripture (TIS). The TIS movement is advocating for a church-oriented theologizing (theology of and for the church) that is controlled by ecclesiastical traditions (Rules of Faith), as against the destructive historical-critical exegesis of the academia. TIS calls for a return to “precritical” hermeneutics of the Early Church Fathers such as Origen and Augustine. Osborne observed that lying under the TIS hermeneutics is the assumed dichotomy between history (the intended meaning of the Biblical writers) and theology (the creeds and formulations of the church). But by emphasizing the discontinuity between history and theology, Osborne rightly stated that TIS is just following the lead of historical-critical scholars who also affirm this dichotomy. The author traced the tendency of TIS to privilege the context of readers (church) than the context of authors (Biblical writers), from the influence of postmodern and poststructuralist scholars such as Hans-Georg Gadamer, Paul Ricoeur, Stanley Fish, and Jacques Derrida. While recognizing the importance of ecclesiastical traditions (e.g. Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, etc.) in hermeneutics as affirmed by TIS against historical-critical method, Osborne argued for the supremacy of Scriptures over traditions. Instead of choosing history over theology (historical-critical exegesis) or theology over history (TIS), Osborne advocated for a middle way which takes into account four steps of a responsible Biblical hermeneutics: 1. Uncovering of history with the authorial intent of the Biblical writers (Exegesis); 2. Gathering of data from exegesis into a holistic grasp of the Bible’s storyline (Biblical Theology), 3. Conversation with past ecclesiastical traditions of interpretation (Historical Theology), and 4. Construction of contemporary system of interpretation (Systematic Theology). Through this we can be more confident that the Jesus of history and Christ of theology is really one and the same.
A specialist in ecclesiology, Mark Dever contributed for the volume The Church: A Summary and Reflection. The essay is a simple introduction in ecclesiology which tackles basic issues such as the church’s nature, roles, ordinances (Lord’s Supper and Baptism), governmental structures, and purposes.
The last essay in the first part of
the book is Evangelical Self-Identity and
the Doctrine of Biblical Inerrancy, written by church historian John Woodbridge. The essay is a
response to revisionist historical reconstructions of scholars like Ernest
Sandeen who insisted that the doctrine of inerrancy is not an original doctrine
of historic (both Catholic and Protestant) Christianity, but a late creation of
American Fundamentalism (thru A.A. Hodge B.B. Warfield), and so is not really
an essential part of Evangelicalism. Painstakingly mustering documentary
evidences, Woodbridge demonstrated that the doctrine can be traced back to
Patristic Period especially in the works of Augustine, to Catholic thinkers
such as Johannes Eck and Pope Leo XIII, to Protestant leaders such as Martin
Luther and John Calvin. He concluded that this historical reconstruction gives
warrant to the insistence that the doctrine of inerrancy, far from being a
fundamentalist creation, is a long held doctrine by historic Christianity,
upheld by the pioneers of Evangelicalism such as Carl F.H. Henry and Billy
Graham, and continues to be an essential part of the movement’s self-identity.
Special Topics in New Testament Studies
A former student of Carson who learned from his professor the importance of context, Andreas Kostenberger wrote Lifting Up the Son of Man and God’s Love for the World: John 3:16 in Its Historical, Literary, and Theological Contexts. He analyzed one of the most beloved Bible verses of Christians across time by putting it in what he calls hermeneutical triad of history, literature and theology. Historically, he set the book of John at the backdrop of its contemporary Jewish apocalyptic writings such as Apocalypes of Abraham, 2 Baruch, and 4 Ezra, noting that these three books, like John, are all written in response to the destruction of Jerusalem temple in 70 AD. While the three apocalyptic writings highlighted the vindication of Israel through the eschatological destruction of the Gentile nations, John 3:16 proclaimed the coming unity between the Jews and Gentiles under the Lordship of Christ, who will bring salvation to both of them. Literarily, Kostenberger noted that John 3:16 is the beginning of John’s commentary to the Nicodemus discourse, where Jesus explained new birth by typologically comparing himself to the bronze snake in Numbers 2:8-9. Here he stated that he must be lifted up (referring to his crucifixion and glorification), so that the corrupt world could look at him and be counted into the new covenant community of God (both Jews and Gentiles). Theologically, the author traced the theme of new birth, lifting up of the Son of Man, and God’s love to the world in John’s Gospel in particular, and New Testament as a whole in general.
Douglas Moo joined the debate on the New Perspective on Paul in his Justification in Galatians, by doing a word study on the occurrences of δικ word group (dikaioo/justify, dikaiosyne/righteousness, dikaios/righteous) in Galatians. While recognizing the importance of the theme “inclusion into the people of God” in the epistle, Moo insisted on the traditional reading of Galatians which states that the main concern of Paul is “how to be right with God.” The author also rejected the idea of the New Perspective advocates like James Dunn who insisted that Paul’s antithesis in Galatians is not between faith/grace and works/law, but between works from Jewish law and works from faith (i.e. Paul is arguing against Jewish ethnocentrism, not legalism, thus, justification as a solution is about being declared to belong to the people of God, and not to be declared righteous). By doing so, Moo maintained the classic Protestant definition of justification as forensic (being right) rather than moral (doing right).
In God as the Speaking God: ‘Theology’ in the Letter to the Hebrews, Peter O’Brien presented a sweeping exegesis of the whole book of Hebrews, centering on the theme of the speaking God. He noted that unlike the formula “it is written” in Pauline epistles, Hebrews presented a Old Testament Scriptures as a direct speech of God. Hebrews showed that God is speaking today through the Scriptures as real as he spoke during the Biblical times.
Another word study in the book is
the essay The Language of Baptism: The
Meaning of βαπτίζω in the New Testament by Eckhard Schnabel. He studied the
context of every passage in the New Testament that contained the term βαπτίζω, from its use in Jewish
immersion rites, ministry of John the Baptist, and ministry of Jesus and the
disciples, to the Christian water baptism and spiritual experience. Schnabel
noted that the evidences demonstrate that βαπτίζω
in the New Testament does not carry a technical meaning that always refer
or is related to Christian initiation rite. Instead, the New Testament use of βαπτίζω connotes a mundane meaning of to immerse, to cleanse, or to be overwhelmed as used by
contemporary extra-Biblical Greek and Jewish-Greek sources. Schnabel argued
that it calls for a change in translating βαπτίζω.
Instead of leaving it untranslated by using its transliterations baptism/baptize/baptizing which make its
meaning ambigious, it must be translated with immersion, cleansing, and overwhelm.
New Testament Studies around the World
The third part of the book consists of essays that presented the development of New Testament Studies in four different continents. The first among this is New Testament Studies in Africa by Robert Yarbrough. The author noted that despite of the fact that Africa has virtually small amount of contribution (in terms of journals and books) to overall global New Testament Studies, the rising population of Christians in the continent, together with the continuing establishment of universities and seminaries, will undoubtedly improve the state of NT Studies of the continent in the future. Yarbrough observed that unlike the NT Studies in Europe and North America that tend to be theoretical, NT Studies (and theology in general) in Africa is never divorced from the social reality of the church. It is almost always tied up with themes such as poverty, suffering, and social justice. Subsequently, Yarbrough discussed shortly different hermeneutical trends in NT Studies in Africa such as inculturation, liberation theology, feminist theology, and Black theology.
In New Testament Studies in North America, Craig Blomberg provided a bibliographical essay that presented and evaluated the works done in the continent for the first decade of the 21st century. After assessing the works of liberals (Dominic Crossan, Bart Ehrman, Elaine Pagels) and evangelicals (Craig Evans, Darrel Bock, Ben Witherington) on the topic of historical Jesus and Synoptic Gospels, Blomberg continued his listing and evaluating of books in different sectors of NT Studies such as John and Acts, Pauline Studies, and Hebrews, General Epistles and Revelation.
The next essay is New Testament Studies in Asia by David Pao. Pao started his treatment of the continent by presenting the Christological constructs done by major Asian theologians such as Kosuke Koyama (Japan), Choan-Seng Song (China), Jung Young Lee (Korea), and Rasiah S. Sugirtharajah (Sri Linka). He observed that one common theme among the four is their antagonistic tendency against NT Studies, which they perceived as Western and therefore an imperialist enterprise. Instead of embracing the historical Jesus presented in the NT, they privilege the Asian contextual reading of Jesus as sage, pro-poor revolutionary, and anti-imperialist. Pao then presented the critique against these Christological constructs provided by some Asian NT scholars such as Seyoon Kim, Kim Huat Tan, John Yieh, Maureen Yeung, and Hyeon Woo Shin. Pao argued that these Asian Christological readings of Jesus that is divorced from NT Studies is more Asian than Christological.
The last essay was written again by
Robert Yarbrough. In New Testament
Studies in Europe, he assessed the knowledge production in the field of NT
Studies of the continent. Instead of giving bibliographical notes on different
themes of NT Studies, he tackled some trends and tendencies of this field in
Europe. Among these are the tendencies to center around the ideas of major
luminaries (such as Rudolf Bultmann, Karl Barth and Hermann Samuel Reimarus),
to be gripped by dominant national and confessional traditions, to be tied up
with North American NT scholarship, and to be affected by changes in global
Christianity.
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