Christ and the New Creation: A Canonical Approach to the Theology of the New Testament

By Matthew Y. Emerson

In Christ and the New Creation, Matthew Emerson takes a fresh approach to understanding New Testament theology by using a canonical methodology. Although typically confined to Old Testament theology, Emerson sees fruitfulness in applying this method to New Testament theology as well. Instead of a thematic or book-by-book analysis, Emerson attempts to trace the primary theological message of the New Testament through paying attention to its narrative and canonical shape. He concludes that the order of the books of the New Testament emphasize the story of Christ's inauguration, commissioning, and consummation of the new creation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Release date: Apr 10, 2013
• ISBN: 9781630871550

Matthew Y. Emerson

Matthew Y. Emerson (PhD, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary) is associate professor of religion at Oklahoma Baptist University. He is the author of The Story of Scripture: An Introduction to Biblical Theology, Between the Cross and the Throne: The Book of Revelation, and Christ and the New Creation: A Canonical Approach to the Theology of the New Testament.

Book preview

Preface

The thesis of this book is that the order of the books in the NT presents a reading strategy that points the reader to its theological focus, which is that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament’s eschatological messianic hope through inaugurating the new creation in his life, death, resurrection, ascension, and Pentecost and consummating it at his return.

This thesis will be supported largely through approaching the New Testament from the standpoint of canonical theology. Both the works of Brevard Childs¹ and John Sailhamer² in this field will be relied upon for methodological approaches. The main methodological approach, though, will be Sailhamer’s understanding of con-textuality, which he defines as . . . the notion of the effect on meaning of the relative position of a biblical book within a prescribed order of reading.³ The order of each individual corpus (Gospels, Pauline Epistles, including Hebrews, and the Catholic Epistles) will be considered, along with the placement of Acts between the Gospels and Pauline Epistles and Revelation’s placement at the end of the canon.

Additionally, attention to the grand narrative of Scripture, or the metanarrative of the Bible, will play a crucial role in supporting the thesis of the book. The story of Creation, Fall, Redemption, and New Creation is not only one supported by the overall sweep of the biblical narrative⁴ but, as will be shown throughout this book, is also emphasized by the order of the books within the New Testament canon.

A final note about method is that this book will not seek to exhaustively describe the theology of each individual NT book. Instead, I will attempt to demonstrate the significance of the order of these books based on some of the most important theological themes in them. In other words, the reader should not consider this a book-by-book NT theology but rather an exploration of the use of a particular method, canonical theology, and its effects on understanding the primary theological thrust of the NT.

1. See Childs, Biblical Theology; Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments; Introduction to the Old Testament as Scripture; Old Testament Theology in a Canonical Context; The Church’s Guide For Reading Paul; and The New Testament as Canon.

2. See Sailhamer, Introduction to Old Testament Theology.

3. Ibid.,

213

.

4. For an overview of the biblical narrative and the contention that the primary purpose for God’s redemption in Christ is the restoration, or new creation, of the entire cosmos, see, for instance, Alexander, From Eden to the New Jerusalem; Beale, A New Testament Biblical Theology,

29

–

186

and esp.

129

–

60

; Wolters, Creation Regained,

13

–

86

; Wright, The Mission of God, e.g.,

62

–

65

; Wright, Paul,

114

,

119

–

22

,

130

–

53

.

Acknowledgments

Many have been influential in the production of this book, but I want to thank first of all my wife, Alicia, for her continued support and encouragement to finish well both in my doctoral work and now in the completion of this manuscript. I cannot thank God enough for you. To my parents I also owe hearty thanks, for providing me with a solid Christian upbringing and encouraging me to pursue academic excellence. I could not have completed this project, nor even begun to understand how to approach the Bible with humility and through a Christ-centered lens, without the constant guidance of my doctoral mentor, David Hogg. Thanks also to Bruce Ashford, Heath Thomas, Keith Harper, Robert Cole, Tracy McKenzie, Steven Wade, and Greg Heisler for helping me in various ways to understand how to study Scripture. Finally, I want to give a special thank you to Christian Amondson and the publishing team at Wipf and Stock for the opportunity to publish this book and their help in completing the project. May it benefit the church through making much of Christ in the power of the Spirit to the glory of the Father.

Abbreviations

AnBib: Analecta biblica

AB: Anchor Bible

ABRL: Anchor Bible Reference Library

ACCS: Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture

ACNT: Augsburg Commentaries on the New Testament

BECNT: Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament

BETL: Bibliotheca ephemeridum theologicarum lovaniensium

CBC: Cambridge Bible Commentary

CBQ: Catholic Biblical Quarterly

FAT: Forschungen zum Alten Testament

ICC: International Critical Commentary

Int: Interpretation

IBC: Interpretation: A Commentary for Teaching and Preaching

JETS: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society

JSNTSup: Journal for the Study of the New Testament: Supplement Series

JSOT: Journal for the Study of the Old Testament

JSOTSup: Journal for the Study of the Old Testament: Supplement Series

LXX: The Septuagint, the Greek Translation of the OT

MT: Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible

NABR: National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion

Neot: Neotestamentica

NICNT: New International Commentary on the New Testament

NIGTC: New International Greek Testament Commentary

NSBT: New Studies in Biblical Theology

NTS: New Testament Studies

NovT: Novum Testamentum

NT: The New Testament of the Christian Scriptures

NTOA: Novum Testamentum et Orbis Antiquus

NovTSup: Novum Testamentum Supplements

OBO: Orbis biblicus et orientalis

OT: The Old Testament of the Hebrew Scriptures

SP: Sacra pagina

SBET: Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology

SBL: Society of Biblical Literature

SBLDS: Society of Biblical Literature Book Series

SNTSMS: Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series

SRHEC: Studies in the Religion and History of Early Christianity

SUNT: Studien zur Umwelt des Neuen Testaments

THKNT: Theologischer Handkommentar zum Neuen Testament

TynBul: Tyndale Bulletin

TNTC: Tyndale New Testament Commentaries

VTSup: Supplements to Vetus Testamentum

WUNT: Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament

Introduction

Contribution to the Field

While numerous works have been published in recent years on a canonical approach to the Hebrew Bible and the individual books contained therein,⁵ not much has been written on the effects of this approach on New Testament theology. Greg Goswell, in his article The Order of the Books of the New Testament,⁶ does explore this issue, but comes to rather routine conclusions. While admitting that the ordering of the books still influences reading, his conclusions are essentially that the New Testament is ordered primarily based on genre and (decreasing) size of the books.⁷ This may be broadly true in so far as genres are grouped together in the New Testament (Gospels, Acts, Epistles), but there are enough difficulties with length and size as the basis of order as to render this notion dubious. These two criteria surely do not tell the whole story. Perhaps the greatest shortcoming of Goswell’s rationale for the order of the books⁸ is that it falls short of a theological reading. It is ultimately only a historical reading of the canonical order. This is not to say that the storyline, or Grand Narrative, of Scripture is unimportant; on the contrary, this book will argue that it is of vital importance.⁹ It is to say, however, that Goswell’s particular articulation of the storyline only focuses on a timeline of events and not a theological interpretation of them. His entire explanation focuses on external motivating factors like genre, size, and historical timelines rather than on a theological rationale for a theological order.

Other authors have, unlike Goswell, attempted to provide a theological rationale for the canonical order. Robert Wall and Eugene Lemcio’s Canon¹⁰ and Dwayne Christensen’s The Unity of the Bible¹¹ are among the works that do so, but the former is more a collection of essays rather than a unified New Testament theology and the latter leaves much to be desired in terms of its chiastic approach, which may explain its obscurity in current scholarship. David Trobisch has produced a work on the formation of codices in the early part of the second century,¹² but he limits his suggestions as to the reading strategy presented in these codices to a few short pages at the end of the book. Furthermore, both Wall and Lemcio’s volume and Trobisch’s work generally reflect the Hegelian approach of F.C. Baur and Adolf von Harnack in their discussion of the effects of the order of the NT books, which is to say they believe the NT books are ordered in such a way as to synthesize Jewish and Gentile Christianity. Again, this approach is more historically oriented (in that it wants to explain the inclusion of certain books in the canon and thus their placement based on historical reconstructions) rather than theologically motivated. They are more concerned with Peter and Paul and their followers getting along both inside and outside the canon than with the theological message of it.

Finally, a few authors have attempted to provide a theological explanation of the order of particular books or place of a particular book in the New Testament, but they still approach the question much like Wall, Lemcio, and Trobisch.¹³ This book seeks to move away from this Hegelian dialectical approach to the order of the books of the NT canon and provide some differing conclusions as to the effects of order that can be used as a foundation for work in this area in the future. It also seeks to contribute to the field of New Testament theology by providing a different approach to answering the seemingly perennial question of where the center or focal point of New Testament theology actually occurs by suggesting that the order of the books of the NT points to the goal of Christ’s coming, which is to bring about the New Creation. This is a project that is being called for by scholars in the OT field (from which this approach to interpretation arose–more on that in chapter 2) such as Brevard Childs and Christopher Seitz,¹⁴ but it is yet to be pursued in NT studies with the vigor which one finds in OT studies.

The Place of This Project in Broader Biblical Scholarship

This project’s method, subject matter, and conclusions find commonality with a number of different current trends in biblical scholarship and theological studies. First, as will be noted in chapter two, this study has relied heavily upon the canonical approach of Brevard Childs and John Sailhamer. Namely, it has relied upon the idea that order matters and provides a reading strategy for the interpreter. Although this particular approach to biblical theology and canonical interpretation is becoming more common in OT studies, Childs and Christopher Seitz have both noted the lack of emphasis on this approach in NT studies.¹⁵ This book has been an attempt to provide one such study that emphasizes the shape of the NT canon, although it certainly is not comprehensive or intended to be a final statement on the subject.

Second, one of the most important recent contributions to the field of NT biblical theology comes from G. K. Beale in his A New Testament Biblical Theology.¹⁶ Beale strives in this work to demonstrate the exegetical evidence for the metanarrative of creation to new creation in the NT canon, and also to tie it to the same storyline in the OT. The conclusions in this book are similar in that I agree with Beale that Christ’s coming inaugurates the fulfillment of the eschatological hope of the OT, that the messianic son of David would come as the presence of Yahweh and deliver Israel from exile and defeat their enemies through suffering and resurrected vindication, and that his return consummates that hope. I also use similar methodology, in that the study of intertextuality¹⁷ will play a part in many of my conclusions about the particular theology of individual NT books as well as their canonical placement. The difference between Beale’s approach and mine comes in this latter consideration on my part. In contrast to Beale, this exploration of NT theology will primarily consider the canonical placement of particular books in the NT canon and the significance of that placement, as well as of the overall order, in developing a theology of the NT.

A third area with which this study finds affinity is the theological interpretation movement. Although a succinct definition of the movement is difficult to find, it essentially is concerned to . . . recognize (and practice) the . . . reading of Scripture with the conventional repertoire of textual, historical analytical methods,¹⁸ while at the same time seeking to . . . reverse dominance of historical criticism over churchly reading of the Bible and to redefine the role of hermeneutics in theology.¹⁹ In other words, it essentially attempts to interpret the Scriptures as an inherently theological and holistic work that is relevant and prescriptive for the church today, rather than a historically descriptive work with disparate voices. It also recognizes the need for a narrative, intertextual, and canonical reading of Scriptures.²⁰ This book has attempted to provide one such reading for the NT canon.

Finally, as noted in chapter one, the methodology used in this book is similar to that found in pre-Enlightenment interpretation. Like the Fathers and medieval theologians, this book has attempted to use a methodology that is oriented canonically (and intertextually),²¹ narratively,²² Christologically,²³ and con-textually.²⁴ Thus, there is continuity in this project’s methodology and approach to the study of the Scriptures with both historical and contemporary biblical interpretation.

The Term New Creation as an Overarching Theme

New creation is not a theme that arises only with the advent of Christ in the New Testament. It is a well-attested theme in the Old Testament and one that is prominent throughout the whole of Scripture. As Roy Ciampa argues, the entire biblical narrative is essentially structured around a move from Creation to Sin and Exile to Redemption and Restoration.²⁵ This can be seen in both the Old²⁶ and New Testaments.²⁷ Charles Scobie also notes this same structure for the biblical canon and demonstrates how each of his four major themes (God’s Order, God’s Servant, God’s People, God’s Way) culminates with New Creation in Revelation 21–22.²⁸ Finally, Christopher Wright in The Mission of God shows that the biblical narrative is structured around the plotlines of Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration, with Restoration serving as the endpoint or goal of that narrative.²⁹ This book intends to demonstrate how the New Testament books are ordered to emphasize this particular plotline, and specifically the way in which Christ’s redemptive act inaugurates, empowers the church to live within, and culminates the new creation.

This book does not intend to ignore or downplay other biblical-theological themes, nor does it intend to suggest that new creation is the only significant biblical-theological theme. What it will argue is that new creation, the goal of the biblical narrative, is emphasized in the order in which the New Testament books have been placed. In doing so discussion of other relevant and important theological themes will necessarily have to be either left out completely or only mentioned in passing. This does not mean that the thesis has little to do with other biblical-theological themes; in this author’s opinion, new creation serves as a goal not only for the biblical narrative, but also for other biblical-theological themes.³⁰ The focus, though, will be on the fulfillment of the grand narrative of Scripture in the New Testament’s presentation of Christ and his act of making all things new through his death and resurrection.

Outline

The first task in any hermeneutical exercise is to lay theological foundations. In chapter 1 I will consider the particular theological foundations, as well as historical precedent for those foundations, used in a canonical approach. This chapter will provide the reader with an understanding of the foundation for the theological practices and conclusions that follow in the rest of the book. Special attention in this chapter will be given to issues of the locus of revelation and whether one should read the parts of Scripture in light of the whole. At the end of these considerations a theological method will be proposed. Chapter 2 will focus on a hermeneutical method and the exegetical products of the previous conclusions about theological foundations, and namely on the method known as canonical criticism or canonical hermeneutics. Here issues pertaining especially to why a reader should take each book as part of the larger canonical context while he is attempting to interpret that particular book will be taken into account. Finally, historical precedent will be given for this type of approach.

Chapter 3 will give details for evidence of an intentional ordering within the Gospel corpus, with special attention given to the beginning of Matthew and the end of John as it relates to the beginning of Acts. It will also contain a brief look at each of the Gospels and their presentation of Jesus, with Matthew presenting Jesus as a New Moses,³¹ Mark presenting Jesus as the bringer of Isaiah’s New Exodus,³² Luke presenting Jesus in the light of the Samuel/Kings narrative,³³ and John as the New Adam and bringer of the New Creation. This chapter will conclude with a discussion of the role of the book of Acts as a transition between the Gospels and the Epistles. Close attention will be paid to the effect of John preceding Acts, and it will be argued that this order emphasizes new creation because John ends with a heavy emphasis on New Creation and Acts is concerned with how the church is fruitful and multiplies through the power of the Holy Spirit. Attention will also be given to the places in which Acts alludes to the Adamic Commission of Gen 1:28 to be fruitful and multiply, as well as to the narrative structure of Acts and its Jew/Gentile focus.

Chapter 4 will begin with textual and thematic evidence for the fittingness of Romans following Acts, especially in light of the Acts narrative and the Jew/Gentile structure of the book, and will then move to a critical analysis of the shape of the Pauline corpus. It will be argued that Romans through 2 Corinthians and Galatians through Colossians comprise the first two sections of this corpus and show much of the same shape (gospel explanation that begins with the Jew/Gentile issue and presents the individual and church as a new creation, followed by ethical exhortation in light of that). Because Colossians is followed by books of a much different character that put much more emphasis on living in light Christ’s second coming than any of the previous epistles and not as much on what Christ has already done for them, it seems that Colossians structurally ends these first two sections of the Pauline epistles. Furthermore, it does so through emphasizing new creation; this is parallel to the ending of the Gospel corpus with John’s gospel and its emphasis on new creation.

Chapter 5 will focus on the second section of the Pauline epistles, and it will be argued that in this section (1 Thessalonians–Hebrews) the reader is pointed forward to the second coming of Christ and the consummation of his new creation (1–2 Thessalonians, Hebrews). It will also be argued that this forward-looking direction given in the beginning of the section directs the reader how to live orderly lives until that second coming (1 Timothy–Philemon).³⁴

Chapter 6 will be concerned with the theological shape of the letters from James through Jude, and will argue that they are primarily concerned with admonishing believers to persevere in faith and good works until the second coming. This is in continuity with the shift in emphasis begun in 1–2 Thessalonians toward the second coming but also differentiated from that section. While 1 Timothy through Philemon are concerned with how to live orderly lives, especially as a church body, until the second coming, James through Jude are more concerned with ethical exhortation in light of that second coming. There is also much more rhetoric in this last section concerning judgment and perseverance through trials and suffering than in the third section of the Pauline corpus.

Chapter 7 will attempt to show how the book of Revelation provides an appropriate structural ending to both the NT canon and the biblical canon as a whole. Arguments will be made for its appropriate structural position at the end of the epistolary section of the NT, its continuity with and conclusion of the inaugurated eschatology of the NT, and its conclusion of the grand narrative of Scripture that began in Genesis 1–3. Special attention will be given to this last point, and especially to the fact that Revelation ends in a way that provides an inclusio with Genesis 1–3. This in turn will be used to once again show that New Creation is emphasized by, in this case, Revelation’s position in the NT canon.

Finally, a conclusion will give an overview of the arguments for each section, and a concluding re-statement of the thesis in light of those arguments will be given. This proposed re-statement is that, The NT order emphasizes New Creation: the Gospels show that Christ has inaugurated the New Creation through his life, death, and resurrection; Acts shows that Christ mandates that his Church live out their New Creation by being fruitful and multiplying; the epistles exhort the reader to holy living first by explaining the gospel to them and the implication that they are New Creations in Christ (Romans–Colossians) and second by reminding them that this New Creation will be consummated at the second coming of Christ and his judgment (1–2 Thessalonians–Jude); and finally by showing in Revelation that the aim and purpose of Christ’s redemption is to restore creation to wholeness and purchase humanity out of darkness so that they might dwell in his Light in the New Creation. Additionally, some final clarifying thoughts on the place of the methodology and conclusions of this book in broader biblical scholarship will be given to close the project.

5. See e.g. Bartholomew et al., eds., Canon and Biblical Interpretation; each chapter has a separate bibliography, and most reference a significant number of works on canonical theology both for the entire OT canon and for individual books.

6. Goswell, The Order of the Books of the New Testament.

7. Ibid.,

241

.

8. A storyline thread also plays a part, so that the events of the life and ministry of Jesus are placed first (Gospels), then an account of the post-ascension spread of the message about Jesus (Acts), followed by letters addressed to churches that resulted from the proclamation (Letters), and completed by the final placement of Revelation that encourages a hermeneutic that stresses its futuristic orientation. Ibid.

9. See chapter

1

.

10. Wall and Lemcio, The New Testament as Canon.

11. Christensen, The Unity of the Bible.

12. Trobisch, The First Edition of the New Testament.

13. See, for instance, Smith, The Canonical Function of Acts; and Nienhuis, Not By Paul Alone. These works will be discussed in the individual chapters that deal with the particular book or books on which the authors focus (so, chapters

3

and

6

, respectively).

14. Childs, The Canon in Recent Biblical Studies,

40

,

42

,

44

; Seitz, The Canonical Approach and Theological Interpretation,

101

–

5

; and Seitz, The Goodly Fellowship of the Prophets,

127

–

32

.

15. See n.

14

.

16. Beale, A New Testament Biblical Theology.

17. See chapter

2

for a full discussion of this topic. Also cf. Beale, A New Testament Biblical Theology,

3

.

18. Adam, Fowl, Vanhoozer, and Watson, Reading Scripture with the Church,

10

.

19. Treier, Introducing Theological Interpretation of Scripture.

20. Ibid.,

23

,

40

,

42

,

63

,

65

,

70

,

75

,

117

,

201

.

21. Hall, Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers,

41

,

152

–

53

; Bray, Biblical Interpretation,

156

.

22. Hall, Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers,

191

.

23. Ibid.,

192

–

94

; de Lubac, Medieval Exegesis I,

237

–

38

,

260

.

24. Evans, The Language and Logic of the Bible: The Earlier Middle Ages,

44

n.

66

; and idem, The Language and Logic of the Bible: The Road to the Reformation,

2

n.

1

.

25. Ciampa, The History of Redemption.

26. Ibid.,

256

–

89

.

27. Ibid.,

290

–

308

.

28. Scobie, The Ways of Our God,

65

–

71

,

91

–

93

,

175

–

82

.

29. Wright, The Mission of God,

62

–

65

.

30. For instance, Joseph Fitzmeyer links the Pauline theme of transformation (seen in such passages as

2

Cor

4

:

6

; Phil

3

:

21

; and Rom

12

:

2

according to Fitzmeyer) to the theme of new creation. See Fitzmeyer, Paul and His Theology,

69

–

71

.

31. See Allison, The New Moses.

32. See Watts, Isaiah’s New Exodus in Mark.

33. See Brodie, The Birthing of the New Testament.

34. See Beale, The New Testament and the New Creation,

172

.

Chapter 1

Theological Foundations For a Canonical Approach to Reading Scripture

Introduction

Behind every hermeneutical strategy lie particular theological foundations. These foundations are often assumed or even ignored, though, in many texts on interpretation in order to get on to more pressing questions.³⁵ Almost every conceivable answer to these questions and more has been given in various biblical interpretation texts.³⁶ These difficult issues and the various solutions given, though, are not the foundation on which interpretation stands. It is without exception that every hermeneutical method has behind it a particular theological method. While many contemporary works on hermeneutics do not address the theological foundations for their interpretive practices,³⁷ this does not mean that those foundations are nonexistent or unimportant.

Furthermore, many of the controversies in current hermeneutics texts, such as the propriety of a Christological reading, the place of historical background information in exegesis, and the place of the reader in interpretation,