The Old Testament and Some Aspects of New Testament Christology (original) (raw)
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Christology, Study of the Son, Part 1
https://www.swrktec.org/theology, 2019
This beginning of Old Testament Christology; not even an outline; barely a skeleton: so far, only of the Pentateuch.... This Christology hopes to entice others to this study. Scriptures are personal translations of Septuagint. What was not expected was the discovery of portents that Moses specifically directed at Judaism.
Hebrews’ High Priestly Christology: Models, Method and Aim
Religions, 2021
This article suggests a systematic analysis of the ways the author of the Letter to the Hebrews links Christ and the sacrificial system, exploring the author’s method of using the sacrificial system in his Christology. It points to the issues in which Hebrews embraces traditional Jewish cultic ideas and—building on these basics—those in which Hebrews greatly diverges and modifies high priestly features. The manner in which the author bases his Christology on the sacrificial cult shows that he acknowledges the efficacy of the high priest and sacrifices for contending with sin. Even when modifying the priestly cult to show that Christ’s atonement is superior to, and takes the place of, the Temple cult, he bases himself on the fundamentals of the high priest entering the Holy of Holies with blood. He uses the sacrificial cult as a model for Christology, like a map for navigating Christ’s doctrine of salvation. It is suggested that Hebrews’ aim is to make sense of Jesus’ death and atone...
Andrews University Seminary Studies, 2020
The epistle to the Hebrews presents a rich Christology articulated in dialogue with the OT. This article assumes that the dogmatic potential of Hebrews should enrich the architecture of systematic theology. Accordingly, the study aims at identifying how the conceptual articulation of the Christology of Hebrews contributes to the theology of Christ's threefold office. To achieve this goal, the article dialogues with categories of the munus triplex (Christ's threefold office): prophet, priest, and king. After a short description of these categories in Christian theology, the study undertakes a systematic reading of Hebrews by first outlining its material contribution to Christology. Then, the article seeks to uncover the formal contribution of Hebrews by exploring how it conceptually uses the OT to articulate its Christological content. The thesis of the article is that the material and the formal dimensions of the Christology of Hebrews enrich the theology of Christ's threefold office. The conclusions of the study suggest that Christ's kingship and priesthood are the ontological content of his eschatological revelation, which is broadly conceived as the prophetic aspect of the munus triplex and is taken as the epistemological principle that expands the meaning of Christ's life and work.
The Contribution of Hebrews to New Testament Christology
This essay attempts an exegesis of some of the key Christological texts in the Epistle to the Hebrews in order to sketch the author’s Christology. The challenging introductory questions relating to the Epistle’s composition are largely avoided; the exegetical method instead focuses on context, grammar and syntax, and intertextuality. Competing scholarly viewpoints are presented and weighed. Particular emphasis is placed on the exordium (Hebrews 1:1-4), the catena of scriptural quotations (Hebrews 1:5-14), the discussion of Christ’s humanity (Hebrews 2:6-18), the comparison of Christ with Moses (Hebrews 3:1-6), and the enigmatic comparison of Christ with Melchizedek (Hebrews 7). Other Christologically significant texts discussed more briefly include Hebrews 4:15-16, Hebrews 5:7-9, Hebrews 9:15-16, Hebrews 10:5-10, and Hebrews 13:8. The conclusion drawn from the study is that the author of Hebrews regarded Jesus as the pre-existent, divine Son of God who became incarnate to deal with sin and was exalted by God for his faithfulness unto death. By its dual emphasis on Christ’s divinity and humanity, Hebrews provides the raw materials for later Chalcedonian orthodoxy, although it does not develop these concepts or attempt to resolve the tension between them.
Jesus, ‘Son of God’ and ‘Son of David’: The ‘Adoption’ of Jesus into the Davidic Line
The authors of both the first and third Gospels, by insisting on both Jesus’ divine paternity and his Davidic descent, pose a conundrum: if Jesus was not Joseph’s biological son, in what sense is he the Davidic Messiah? Most modern scholars assume that Joseph must have adopted Jesus in some form or another, thus giving him Davidic status, and many even point to such adoption as a ‘Jewish custom’. This article examines this assumption and shows that adoption was unknown in Jewish law of the period. Furthermore, such adoption was well known in Roman law, especially among the aristocracy. In the case of such emperors as Augustus, whose adoptive fathers had been deified posthumously, this gave them the status of divi filius, ‘son of god’. The inclusion of such a Roman concept into the Gospels may be an indication of the Gentile, rather than Jewish, cultural backgrounds of the evangelists.