LITMIR.BIZ

Скачать книгу

of the OT. The story, as Matthew frames it, begins with Abraham and runs to David, then from David to the exile, then from the exile to Jesus: “Therefore all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the time of Christ fourteen generations” (1:17). Matthew, therefore, is announcing in Jesus that the era of the exile is over and the story of Israel has come to its fulfillment in Jesus.

      Why does John 1:1 begin with a clear allusion to Genesis 1:1? The Gospel of John begins by quoting Genesis because John wishes for us to see in the coming of Christ the beginning of the New Creation. Thus, for John the “beginning” is a new beginning in Jesus.

What might this mean for us? First, it means that in Jesus we have the fulfillment of God’s covenant promises and that we must read the Bible in this light. Secondly, it means that the eschaton (end times) has begun in Jesus. We live in the “last days.” The “last days” then are not something to query about as though they are future and potentially not important. Instead, they are something for us to presently endure.95 Finally, the inauguration of the New Creation in Jesus means that our mission as God’s people entails the bringing in of the New Creation.96

      One of the difficulties that many have at this juncture relates to the problem of the future of the kingdom. Many of us have become so accustomed to thinking of the end times as something wholly in the future that we have trouble grasping the present reality of the kingdom. Some, perhaps, are concerned with how this might affect our view of the return of Christ. Though this is understandable, we must warn against the urge to hold so tightly to one perspective that we neglect other truths simply because they are problematic for us. We must find room in our convictions for the whole counsel of God.

      The end has begun in Christ, and yet we also affirm that Christ will return to consummate his kingdom.

50. Schnabel, 40 Questions, 25.

51. I am not making any claims as to the nature and timing of the millennium. For the reader who is aware of such theology, I will only say that whether the millennium is present or future is secondary at this time. I am fully aware of the theological intricacies of premillennialism, postmillennialism, and amillennialism. However, I do believe that proponents of each of the views should be able to affirm the main thrust of this chapter and this book as a whole.

52. Beale, New Testament Biblical Theology, 18. On the same page Beale adds, “This means that the doctrine of eschatology in NT theology textbooks should not merely be one among many doctrines that are addressed but should be the lens through which all the doctrines are best understood.”

53. Cf. Matt 3:13–17; Mark 1:9–11; Luke 3:21–22; John 1:29–34.

54. The word “Synoptics” means “seeing together” and refers to Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The term comes from the fact that these three Gospels are very similar in their overall content.

55. The five “fulfillment passages” in Matt 1–2 are: 1:18–25; 2:1–12; 2:13–15; 2:16–18; 2:19–23. In each account Matthew narrates an event in Jesus’ birth and childhood in accord with the OT in order to demonstrate that Jesus fulfilled the Scripture.

56. Cf. 1 Chr 2:1–15; 3:10–24.

57. One need only realize that the third section of Matthew’s genealogy spans five hundred years and has only fourteen generations to see that names have been omitted. See Leon Morris, Gospel according to Matthew, 22.

58. That is, the prophet that ushers in the end times. Now, I fully understand that Jesus was much more than the eschatological prophet. The focus here is merely on this aspect of Jesus’ identity and ministry.

59. That Matthew’s genealogy serves to identify Jesus with the story of the OT and not merely the lineage of Abraham and David is evident in the intended structure of the genealogy. Matthew notes in 1:17 that there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, and from David to the exile, and from the exile to Jesus. This arrangement of the genealogy suggests that the story of Israel, which moves from Abraham to David, from David to the exile, and the exile to Jesus, finds its consummation in Jesus. (Note: The exile refers to the sending out as captives of the people of Israel at the hands of foreign nations. The northern kingdom of Israel was sent out by the Assyrians in 721 BC and the southern kingdom of Judah was sent out in 605 BC.)

60. Cf. Mark 1:2–3.

61. Luke’s use of the OT is significant despite the fact that he does not extensively cite the OT. Pao and Schnabel note, “Luke’s use of the OT Scripture underlies his conviction that the OT prophetically announced Jesus’ life and ministry” (“Luke,” in Beale and Carson, Commentary on the NT Use of the OT, 252).

62. Beale goes so far as to claim, “it should not be astonishing to discover that eschatology is a dominant idea in the NT” (New Testament Biblical Theology, 129).

63. In Isa 40–66 the people of Israel are in exile. They are viewed as already having been sent out of the land. Isa 40–66 then predicts the eschatological return of the people. (Note: Isaiah employs an abundance of exodus imagery to depict the return of the people to the land.)

64. In Malachi the coming of the messenger clears the way and the “Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come into His temple” (3:1). Thus, Malachi associates the future restoration of God’s people with the exodus of the past and looks forward to the restoration of God’s presence among his people. See ch. 7 for a look at the temple in the NT.

65. The more technical answer as to the nature of apocalyptic itself is that it is “A genre of revelatory literature with a narrative framework, in which a revelation is mediated by an otherworldly being to a human recipient, disclosing a transcendent reality which is both temporal, insofar as it envisages eschatological salvation, and spatial insofar as it involves another, supernatural world” (Collins, “Introduction,” 5). David Aune proposed a change that omits mediation by an otherworldly being, and adds “in autobiographical form” and “revelatory visions . . . so structured that the central revelatory message constitutes a literary climax” (Aune, “Apocalypse,” 86–87). Apocalyptic language is just language used to describe such a worldview. The difficulty in defining the genre is that no one work displays all the characteristics set forth as apocalyptic.

66. Mark 13:25; cf. also Luke 21:25; Rev 8:12.

67. Matt 24:29; Mark 13:24.

68.

Скачать книгу