Thursday, February 21, 2008

Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament

Jeff, the Scripture Zealot, has a great page extolling this terrific new resource co-edited by Don Carson and Greg Beale. I'm still reading Beale's wonderful book The Temple and the Church's Mission, and have read many of Carson's output over the years, particularly appreciating his Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God.

I've only been surveying this commentary so far, and have noticed that the contributors have each used different methods of giving us their information, but that all have been asked to address these issues:
(1) attention to the NT context of the citation or allusion; (2) attention to the OT context of the citation or allusion; (3) attention to the use of the OT passage in the literature of Second Temple Judaism; (4) attention to textual factors—is the NT passage citing the Hebrew, the Greek translation of the Hebrew, or the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew or could the author be citing from memory?; (5) attention to the way in which the OT quotation or allusion is intended to function; and (6) attention to the theological contribution the NT author uses the OT text to make. To this point, all this may sound rather bookish, but the utility of this volume is not limited to the groves of academe.
(This summary is from James Hamilton's review at 9marks.orgJames Hamilton's review

I particularly appreciate the way Andreas Kostenberger has set out his contribution on John. (My wife would probably be amused by that, because she tells me that I love lists and books of lists.) I do like the way he has given us some tables of the Old Testament quotes and allusions.

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Evangelism and Conversion

I've just read two helpful articles from Christianity Today, Mark Dever's What Evangelism Isn't which is excerpted and adapted from his The Gospel and Personal Evangelism and an older, longer article by John Stackhouse,What Conversion is and is not.

Both are well worth your time. You will notice Stackhouse translates METANOIA as "conversion." It means "repentance." Related, but distinct, I think.
Happy New Year, folks.

David McKay