Theology of the New Testament: A Canonical and Synthetic Approach

by Frank S. Thielman

Overview

Studying the theology of the New Testament can be a daunting task, even to the knowledgeable Bible student or pastor. Each of the twenty-seven books, written by various authors, has its own theological emphasis and nuances. How do we elicit a coherent message from such theological diversity, especially given that some of the theological statements in the New Testament seem to be at odds with one another? Is such an endeavor achievable or even valid? Theology of the New Testament takes a balanced approach in response to these challenges. Frank Thielman presents a theology of the New Testament that is careful to take into account the cultural and historical circumstances surrounding each book and the New Testament as a whole. He not only examines each book’s theological content individually, but also in relation to the rest of the New Testament, particularly within each of the three theological units that comprise the New Testament: the gospels and Acts, the Pauline epistles, and the general epistles and Revelation. This canonical and synthetic approach honors both the theological diversity of the various books and the theological connections between the books. In the end, Thielman finds a unified theological vision of the New Testament, anchored in the centrality of Jesus Christ.Frank Thielman’s Theology of the New Testament is an outstanding achievement. The book is marked by scholarly depth, exegetical rigor, and theological profundity. Both students and professors will profit immensely from this lucid treatment of the theology contained in the New Testament documents. Thomas R. Schreiner Professor of New Testament, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary An accessible presentation of the key theological points of the New Testament books by an accomplished New Testament scholar and teacher. Its clear style, lucid organization, and sound theological insight make it a prime resource for serious students in both the academy and the church. Karen H. Jobes, Ph D Associate Professor of New Testament, Westmont College

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780310211327
Publisher:	Zondervan Academic
Publication date:	09/15/2005
Pages:	800
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 9.65(h) x 1.85(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Frank Thielman (Ph D, Duke University) is Presbyterian professor of divinity at Beeson Divinity School, Samford University, in Birmingham, Alabama. He is the author of Philippians in the NIV Application Commentary series.

Read an Excerpt

Introduction
Chapter 1
The Theology of the New
Testament: The Basic Questions
Since the eighteenth century, the discipline of New Testament theology has come under close scrutiny. Should the discipline be abandoned? Some have said so.
Does it only need to be restructured? Some have offered new models. In the discussion,
two problems with the discipline have repeatedly emerged as most significant.
The first problem, it is said, is an unhealthy blend in the discipline of dogmatics with historical concerns. On the one hand, theological convictions influence New
Testament theologians both in the conclusions they draw about the meaning of the
New Testament texts and in their insistence on examining only the canonical documents.
On the other hand, since the church values these documents largely for the historical claims made in them, New Testament theologians find that they must work as historians in much the same way that any historian would work with ancient texts.
Is it possible to bring together faith and reason in this way, or must New Testament theologians bracket their own dogmatic presuppositions about the importance of the
New Testament and place the canonical texts on a level with all other ancient texts?
If so, then they should shift their attention away from the theologically biased investigation of 'New Testament theology' to the more objective and universally useful task of describing the history of early Christian thought.
The second problem arises from the theological diversity of the New Testament texts. The New Testament documents not only express a variety of theological themes,
but sometimes they speak in different ways on the same theme. Do these differences sometimes amount to contradiction? If not, why is the theological coherence of the
New Testament sometimes so hard to detect? If so, is it accurate to speak of 'New
Testament theology' at all, as if we are speaking of some coherent whole?
Theology or History?
Since the sixteenth century, biblical theologians have struggled with the relationship between interpreting the Bible to find support for the church's traditional theological teachings and interpreting the Bible within its own historical context without consideration for the theological convictions of the church. Because the church has traditionally held to the primacy of Scripture over its traditions (even if extrabiblical tradition is given great weight), ideally no conflict should arise. In fact, the church's traditions and the theological emphases of the Bible have often been incompatible,
and so any study of biblical theology has often been characterized by the tension between theological conviction and historical analysis.
Biblical theology arose early in the Reformation era as a discipline intended to chasten the church's unbiblical theological speculations and to hasten its reform. The emphasis at this time was more on theological reform than on sensitivity to the historical situations in which the biblical documents were composed. Later, biblical theology fell under the spell of Enlightenment rationalism, and some of its practitioners began to define the discipline in terms of a historically motivated and theologically independent study of the Bible that could use human reason to sit in judgment not only on the teachings of the church, but on the content of the Bible itself.
Out of this link between biblical theology and the Enlightenment arose a criticism of the discipline itself. Why speak of 'biblical' theology at all? If the student of the biblical texts is to be truly an historian, then it is necessary to speak only of the history of Jewish and Christian thought and religion---to speak of the Bible, or of the New Testament, is already to speak in dogmatic language that the historian interested in the objective study of the past must find unacceptable.
Over the last three centuries, three criticisms of the discipline as theologically rather than historically grounded have been particularly influential. J. P. Gabler,
William Wrede, and Heikki R™is™nen, writing at the turn of the nineteenth, twentieth,
and twenty-first centuries respectively, called for the liberation of the historical study of the Bible or early Christianity from the dogmatic concerns of the church.
Gabler's seminal challenge differs from that of Wrede and R™is™nen because it is simply a call for methodological clarity in the theological enterprise rather than a disparagement of the theologically motivated study of the Bible. Nevertheless, both
Wrede and R™is™nen understand themselves to be standing on the shoulders of
Gabler. It is important, therefore, to consider Gabler's challenge to the discipline before evaluating the more direct attacks of Wrede and R™is™inen. In order to understand all three thinkers and to put our criticisms of their challenges in historical perspective,
it is necessary first to survey briefly the historical roots of biblical, and specifically New Testament, theology.
The Early History of the Discipline
The development of a 'biblical theology' had its roots in the age-old commitment of the church to govern its theology and practice by the canonical writings of the Old and New Testaments. One of the most important concerns of the Reformation was that the church reform its doctrine and worship so that it might be more faithful to the standards laid down in the Bible. In 1521, Luther's close friend and colleague at the University of Wittenburg, Philip Melancthon, published one of the earliest theological treatises of the Reformation---a brief treatment of important theological topics based on Luther's lectures on Paul's letter to the Romans given in the summer of 1519 and repeated the following year.
This treatment of Loci communes rerum theologicarum ('Fundamental Theological
Themes') provided a list of important theological topics and then briefly explained the teaching of Scripture, and Scripture alone, on each topic. Melancthon was weary of reading the lengthy speculations of medieval scholastic theologians on
Christian theology and wanted instead to discover how the Bible itself, and particularly
'Paul's own compendium of Christian doctrine' in Romans, described the
Christian religion. This urge to tap speculative theologians on the shoulder and point them back to the Bible remained a constant theme in the early history of biblical theology as a discrete discipline. Melancthon puts it this way:
I am discussing everything sparingly and briefly because the book is to function more as an index than a commentary. I am therefore merely stating a list of the topics to which a person roaming through Scripture should be directed. Further,
I am setting forth in only a few words the elements on which the main points of
Christian doctrine are based. I do this not to call students away from the Scriptures to obscure and complicated arguments but, rather, to summon them to the
Scriptures if I can.
As the Reformation matured into Protestantism, however, Protestant thinkers began to refine their theological commitments and to develop complicated theological arguments of their own. In their works, Scripture was often used not so much to set the theological agenda but to demonstrate that the various theological principles that Protestants considered important, and which were now growing increasingly complex, were, in fact, biblical. Those who first used the term 'biblical theology' to describe their theological studies made this proof-texting of preexisting theological systems their goal. A new Protestant brand of scholasticism began to develop with 'biblical theology' as its handmaid.
Under the influence of German pietism on one hand and rationalism on the other,
biblical theology began to break away from this role as a prop for systematic theology.

Table of Contents

Contents Preface...9 Abbreviations...13 Introduction 1. The Theology of the New Testament: The Basic Questions...19 One The Gospels and Acts 2. The Persistence and Importance of a Fourfold Gospel...45 3. Mark: The Death of God’s Son as Good News...57 4. Matthew: New Wine in Old Skins...84 5. Luke–Acts: The Place of Christians in the Progress of Salvation History...111 6. John: Faith in Jesus as the Means to Eternal Life...150 7. Four Diverse Witnesses to the One Gospel of Jesus Christ...181 Two The Pauline Letters 8. The Coherence and Center of Paul’s Theology...219 9. First Thessalonians: Maintaining Faith, Love, and Hope in the Midst of Suffering...234 10. Second Thessalonians: Perseverance Despite Persecution and False Teaching...250 11. Galatians: The Grace of God and the Truth of the Gospel...262 12. First Corinthians: A Plea for Peace, Holiness, and Fidelity...276 13. Philippians: The Importance of the Gospel’s Progress...307 14. Second Corinthians: Power Perfected in Weakness...323 15. Romans: The Gospel of God’s Righteousness...342 16. Colossians: Christ Preeminent in Cosmos and History...375 17. Philemon: Reconciliation in Practice...387 18. Ephesians: The Unity of Church and Cosmos in Christ...393 19. First Timothy: The Church as Pillar and Foundation of Truth...408 20. Titus: Knowing God, Doing Good, and Making Salvation Attractive...423 21. Second Timothy: Faithfulness to the Gospel...430 22. The Common Emphases and Central Convictions of Paul’s Letters...438 Three The Non-Pauline Letters and the Revelation of John 23. Finding Unity in the Non-Pauline Letters and Revelation...483 24. James: The Wisdom of the Undivided Life...496 25. Jude: Contending for the Faith against a Perversion of God’s Grace...512 26. Second Peter: Ethics and Eschatology...522 27. First John: The Truth about Jesus, His Death, and His Love Command...536 28. Second John: Avoiding Those Who Have Abandoned Truth and Love...556 29. Third John: Working Together with the Truth...562 30. First Peter: On Suffering as a Christian...569 31. Hebrews: Jesus as Perfecter of the Faith and Leader of the Faithful...585 32. Revelation: Meaning amid Oppression...612 33. The Clash of World Views in Hebrews to Revelation...651 Conclusion 34. The Theological Unity of the New Testament...681 Works Cited...727 Scripture and Apocrypha Index...763 Other Ancient Literature Index...787 Subject Index...791 Modern Author Index...795