Canon, Covenant and Christology: Rethinking Jesus And The Scriptures Of Israel (New Studies in Biblical Theology, vol. 51 | NSBT)
Overview
‘All Scripture is breathed out by God …’ (2 Timothy 3:16). From Paul’s epistles the divine inspiration of Scripture may be confidently affirmed, as well as its corollary attributes. However, on turning to Jesus and the Gospels, it is hard to find an explicit approach like Paul’s.
Matthew Barrett argues that Jesus and the apostles have just as convictional a doctrine of Scripture as Paul or Peter, but it will only be discovered if the Gospels are read within their own canonical horizon and covenantal context. The nature of Scripture presupposed by Jesus and the Gospel writers may not be addressed directly, but it manifests itself powerfully when their words are read within the Old Testament’s promise–fulfilment pattern.
Nothing demonstrates Scripture’s divine origin and trustworthiness more than the gospel of Jesus Christ. In the advent of the Son of God, the Word has become flesh, announcing to Jew and Gentile alike that the covenant promises Yahweh made through the Law and the Prophets have been fulfilled in the person and work of Christ.
- Examines Jesus and the apostles doctrine of Scripture
- Explores the canonical horizon and covenantal context of the Gospels
- Focuses on the promise–fulfilment pattern of Scripture
- Introduction: Reorienting the hermeneutical approach to Jesus and the scriptures of Israel
- Divine authorial intent, canonical unity, and the Christological presuppositions of biblical theology
- The book of the covenant and canon consciousness
- The scripture must be fulfilled: The Matthean witness (case study 1)
- The ultimate fulfillment and self-disclosure of God: The Johannine witness (case study 2)
- Living by every word from the mouth of God: What Christ’s covenant obedience to the scriptures says about the scriptures
- The Word became flesh: From Christology to canon
- Appendix: Is our doctrine of inerrancy Christological enough? The future of inerrancy and the necessity of dogmatics
Top Highlights
“Put otherwise, to read Scripture as Christian Scripture—with the gospel at its centre—means approaching the text knowing the triune God has spoken in every epoch whether by providence or miracle to bring to fruition his redemptive plan communicated since the beginning.” (Page 24)
“Yet here is something marvellous: the scriptural story in which this covenantal word is revealed in a diachronic fashion takes on a Christological focus, either through predictive prophecy or, more often than not, through types and patterns (whether they be persons, events, objects or institutions). The presence of typology leads the biblical theologian to go so far as to say that Christ is not only the centre but the telos of redemptive history: all previous revelation points to him and finds fulfilment in him. Every type, in other words, has its antitype.” (Page 3)
“When the fuller meaning comes to light in redemptive history, it does not go against the original text in which it was conveyed but is ‘capable of being checked against the old’ and is consistent with the wider ‘pattern of revelation’. It is necessary, then, to avoid thinking of dual authorship as if the two authors ‘simply stand side by side’, Poythress qualifies. Instead, there is an inherent unity so that ‘each points to the other and affirms the presence and operation of the other’.75 Concursive operation is key to canonical unity.” (Page 28)
“Old Princetonian Geerhardus Vos presents a far better paradigm when he positions biblical theology’s starting point within the sphere of divine revelation itself and from there submits to Scripture’s own terms of interpretation.42 ‘Biblical Theology, rightly defined, is nothing else than the exhibition of the organic progress of supernatural revelation in its historic continuity and multiformity.’” (Pages 18–19)
In a wide-ranging discussion, Matthew Barrett explores [biblical theology] from the perspective of the Gospels, deploying interesting and stimulating insight that will certainly be picked up and developed by many pastors and theologians. Jesus himself ties together the old and new covenants. He fulfills the Scriptures, but effectively does so only by being obedient to them. The dynamic casts fresh light not only on Christ, but on the Scriptures themselves.
—D. A. Carson, Research Professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, USA
- Title: Canon, Covenant and Christology: Rethinking Jesus and the Scriptures of Israe
- Author: Matthew Barrett
- Editor: D. A. Carson
- Series: New Studies in Biblical Theology (NSBT)
- Publisher: IVP
- Publication Date: 2020
- Pages: 400
- Resource Type: Biblical Theology
- Topic: Scripture