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Archive for the ‘Christology’ Category

The Shema in John’s Gospel

In Christology, Gospel of John, John, Lori A. Baron, Mohr Siebeck, R. B. Jamieson, Shema on February 24, 2023 at 3:00 pm
Cover of book

2023.02.04 | Lori A. Baron. The Shema in John’s Gospel. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament. 2. Reihe, 574. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2022.

Review by R. B. Jamieson, Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Washington, DC.

What causes John’s Gospel to stand out when set against the backdrops of the Synoptic Gospels, the whole New Testament, and early Judaism? In The Shema in John’s Gospel, a revision of the author’s PhD thesis submitted to Duke University in 2015, Lori A. Baron argues that one key factor is John’s unique development of the theology and ethics of the Shema.

After a brief introduction, the book surveys the role of the Shema in Deuteronomy (Ch. 2), the rest of the Hebrew Bible (Ch. 3), Second Temple literature (Ch. 4), the New Testament minus John (Ch. 5), and, finally, the Gospel of John, first considering chapters 5, 8, and 10 (Ch. 6), then the Farewell Discourse (Ch. 7). A brief conclusion considers the Shema’s role in John’s account of the crucifixion, John’s oft-alleged “anti-Judaism,” and the Johannine prologue. 

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Old Testament Conceptual Metaphors and the Christology of Luke’s Gospel

In Bloomsbury, Christology, HB/OT, Kai Akagi, Luke-Acts, Metaphor, New Testament, T & T Clark on October 30, 2020 at 6:27 pm

2020.10.19 | Gregory R. Lanier. Old Testament Conceptual Metaphors and the Christology of Luke’s Gospel. LNTS 591. London: T&T Clark, 2018.

Review by Kai Akagi, Japan Bible Seminary.

Gregory R. Lanier’s Old Testament Conceptual Metaphors and the Christology of Luke’s Gospel uses conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) to consider the christological significance of four metaphors in the Gospel of Luke: “horn” in 1:68–69, “dawn” in 1:78–79, “mother bird” in 13:34, and “stone-rock” in 20:17–18. After an opening chapter consisting of a literature review, a description of the topic of this volume, and an explanation of method and research objectives, the subsequent four chapters in turn each consider one of the metaphors. The final chapter summarizes the results and offers a synthesis of their christological significance.

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Origin of Divine Christology

In Andrew Ter Ern Loke, Cambridge University Press, Christology, Gospels, Historical Jesus, History of Religions School, Kai Akagi, New Testament on June 12, 2018 at 5:00 pm

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2018.06.08 | Andrew Ter Ern Loke. The Origin of Divine Christology. Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series 169. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017. 249 pp.

Reviewed by Kai Akagi, Japan Bible Academy.

Andrew Loke’s The Origin of Divine Christology continues the stream of works on early high Christology of the neue religionsgeschichtliche Schule by arguing that divine christology originated in Jesus’ own teaching as his first followers understood it. Loke presents his book as an interdisciplinary piece of historical-critical research in that he uses methods of historical research to argue what, in theological categories, the earliest Christians believed Jesus to have taught. While many of the supporting points of his arguments and responses to alternative positions are not new, Loke brings them together in an original way to make his own contribution. He explains his method as applying the “critical realism” of N. T. Wright and Alistair McGrath for interdisciplinary historical criticism. Read the rest of this entry »


Jesus the Eternal Son

In Christology, Eerdmans, Gospels, Michael F. BIRD, Michael Kok, New Testament, review, Synoptic Gospels on November 3, 2017 at 4:00 pm

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2017.11.22 | Michael F. Bird, Jesus the Eternal Son: Answering Adoptionist Christologies. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2017. ISBN: 978-0-8028-7506-8

Reviewed by Michael Kok, The King’s University in Alberta, Canada.

The Christian doctrine of the hypostatic union aimed to articulate how Jesus’s human and divine natures were united in one person. Over-emphasizing Jesus’s humanity at the expense of his divinity, or vice versa, was ruled out of bounds. One of the christological conceptions that was censured for falling short of the orthodox consensus on the incarnation has been labelled by modern scholars as “adoptionism,” which Michael F. Bird defines as “reducing Jesus to a human figure who had acquired divine status by merit” (7).

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You Are My Son

In Bloomsbury, Christology, Familial Metaphors, Hebrews, Shawn J. Wilhite on May 5, 2016 at 2:00 pm

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2016.05.07 | Amy L. B. Peeler. You Are My Son: The Family of God in the Epistle to the Hebrews. LNTS 486. London: T&T Clark, 2014. Pp. xiv + 224. ISBN: 978-0-56765-418-2.

Review by Shawn J. Wilhite, California Baptist University.

Many thanks to T&T Clark for providing a review copy.

The fact that familial motifs have remained relatively underdeveloped presents a bit of an anomaly. Given the data of filial language within the first major section of Hebrews — “you are my son” (Heb 1:5), “I shall be to him a father” (Heb 1:5), “God…has spoken to us by his son” (Heb 1:2), “but of the son he says” (Heb 1:8), “…bringing many sons to glory” (Heb 2:10), “not ashamed to call them brothers” (Heb 2:11) — Amy Peeler’s volume appears during a time when similar monographs have yet to enter Hebrews scholarship. In You Are My Son, Peeler attempts to fill such wanting lacuna of filial language in her revised dissertation (Princeton Theological Seminary, 2011). Peeler offers Hebrews scholars a helpful and needed work for fatherhood, sonship, and familial language within Hebrews. Read the rest of this entry »


The Birth of the Trinity

In Christology, Early Christianity, Madison N. Pierce, Matthew W. BATES, New Testament, Oxford University Press, Pneumatology on October 17, 2015 at 3:19 pm

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2015.10.20 | Matthew W. Bates. The Birth of the Trinity: Jesus, God, and Spirit in New Testament and Early Christian Interpretations of the Old Testament. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. Pp. 256. Hardcover. ISBN 9780198729563.

Review by Madison N. Pierce, Durham University.

Many thanks to OUP for providing a review copy.

While in previous decades it has been imprudent to speak of the “Trinity” prior to the fourth century, a number of recent works have set aside the stigma to re-examine the extent to which the NT is Trinitarian. Implicit in those studies is the question: What did the fourth century glean from the first? For Matthew W. Bates in The Birth of the Trinity, one of the most significant contributions is an explanation of the exegetical method termed “prosopological exegesis” (PE). This method re-interprets Jewish Scripture by identifying an otherwise ambiguous or unspecified participant in the text, a prosopon or character. This monograph draws upon Bates’ previously published thesis, The Hermeneutics of Apostolic Proclamation (Baylor University Press, 2013). Read the rest of this entry »


Union with Christ in the New Testament

In Christology, Grant MACASKILL, Kai Akagi, New Testament, Oxford University Press on March 31, 2015 at 9:58 pm

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2015.03.09 | Grant Macaskill. Union with Christ in the New Testament. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Pp. 353. ISBN: 9780199684298. Hbk.

Reviewed by Kai Akagi, University of St Andrews.

Many thanks to OUP for providing a review copy.

Grant Macaskill’s Union with Christ in the New Testament considers the conceptualization and theological role of union with Christ across the books of the New Testament. It approaches these in view of their Old Testament background and the context provided by other Jewish literature, and it places them in dialogue with the diachronic understanding of union in selected theological traditions in which union plays a significant role. Those considering a varied range of subjects within the fields of New Testament studies, systematic theology, historical theology, and, to an extent, patristics and Second Temple Judaism, may find this volume relevant to their work.

The first half of the book considers union in selected theological traditions (including patristic theology, modern Orthodox theology, and Lutheran and Reformed theology) and then turns to Old Testament and Jewish context for studying union in the New Testament. Read the rest of this entry »


Pioneer and Perfecter of Faith

In Christology, Christopher A. RICHARDSON, Hebrews, Mohr Siebeck, Nicholas J. Moore, NT Theology, Paul, Pistis Christou on June 21, 2013 at 11:20 am

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2013.06.11 | Christopher A. Richardson. Pioneer and Perfecter of Faith: Jesus’ Faith as the Climax of Israel’s History in the Epistle to the Hebrews. WUNT II/338. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2012. XI, 280 pp. Paperback. ISBN 978 3 16 150397 9.

Review by Nicholas J. Moore, Keble College, University of Oxford.

The debate over pistis Christou – whether this phrase refers to faith in Christ or the faith(fulness) of Christ – has generated a large literature focussing mostly on a few verses in Paul. Christopher Richardson’s monograph argues that the concept of Jesus’ faithfulness is clearly present in the New Testament, but in a place that few engaged in the pistis Christou debate have thought to look for it: the Letter to the Hebrews. Richardson’s study (a revision of his doctoral thesis completed under Francis Watson at Aberdeen in 2009) traces references to Jesus’ faithfulness throughout Hebrews in order to demonstrate that this is a recurring and important theme. Read the rest of this entry »