Brendan Byrne

Gospel Narrative and the Jesus of History: Where Should Christology Begin?

The prevailing tendency to make a reconstruction of the historical life of Jesus the starting point for christology runs into two serious difficulties. First, such reconstructions vary greatly among themselves and are largely precarious in what they claim to know about Jesus. Secondly, resting upon the historical-critical method, the adequacy of which in theological terms has now come into serious question, they fail to do justice to the narrative quality of the gospels, which resists simple reduction to history. This article critically surveys the work of Hans Frei, George Lindbeck, David Kelsey, Luke Timothy Johnson and Francis Watson and formulates seven principles attempting to state the appropriate relationship between the gospels and history with regard to christology. It concludes that the starting point for christology must be the canonical gospels. Four related issues are addressed at the end: first the openness of a text to multiple meaning; then three concerns arising, respectively, out of liberation theology, feminist interpretation, and the anti-Jewish slant of the gospels.

A Step Too Far: A Critique of Francis Moloney’s Understanding of ‘the Scripture’ in John 20:9

In a series of studies Francis Moloney has argued, along narrative critical lines, that the phrase ‘the Scripture’ in John 20:9 should be understood as a reference to the Fourth Gospel itself, which presents itself to later believers as ‘Scripture’ in continuity with the Scriptures of Israel. This interpretation, while resolving the long-noted tension between v. 8 and v. 9 towards the end of the passage, is not tenable on the grounds that such a reinterpretation of γραϕή places too great a demand upon the reader in view of the use of the term up to this point. The transition across vv. 8–9 is better explained as a reference to ‘Scripture’ in a global sense as providing the divinely appointed ‘script’ for the paradoxical messianic mission of the Son.

The Qumran Melchizedek Scroll and the Gospel of Mark: Coherence and contrast in soteriology

The text from Cave 11 of Qumran known as the ‘Melchizedek Scroll’ and the canonical Gospel of Mark have some noteworthy features in common. This article surveys the two documents from the soteriological aspect, noting areas of comparison and also of difference. The most noteworthy aspect of comparison consists in the fact that both see divinely appointed agents of liberation – Melchizedek and Jesus, respectively – as addressing a pre-existing human situation of captivity to the demonic, a captivity brought about through sin. Both documents likewise portray the redemptive figures as effecting liberation from this condition through an act of expiation that amounts to a culminating and final instance of the high priest’s action on the yearly Day of Atonement.

Jerusalems Above and Below: A Critique of J. L. Martyn’s Interpretation of the Hagar-Sarah Allegory in Gal 4.21—5.1

In several studies of Galatians, J. Louis Martyn has argued that in the allegory of Hagar and Sarah (4.1–5.1), the ‘two covenants’ of 4.24b, traditionally identified with Judaism and Christianity respectively, refer, on the one hand, to a Christian Jewish Law-observant Gentile mission, Teachers from whom are disturbing Paul’s Galatian converts, and to the Law-free Gentile mission promulgated by Paul, on the other. In the light, particularly, of Paul’s overall usage of ‘covenant’, Martyn’s interpretation is not sustainable –though this need not imply a return to an anti-Jewish interpretation of the text.

Book Review: Paul, the Law and JustificationKruseColin G., Paul, the Law and justification. Leicester: Apollos (Intervarsity), 1996. ISBN 085114415. Pp. 320. Rrp. £14.99.

units of text beginning and ending, and what particular details they weigh relative to others in the final text. For example, a different royal ideology may emerge if the unit of text selected were to incorporate the whole of Solomons reign in 1 Kings 1-11, which includes his downfall and brings in conditional elements, rather than selectively focussing on 1 Kings 3-10 only. Or again, would the ideologies identified by Habel in Deuteronomy 4-11 and Joshua be so distinct if the allotment of land in Joshua 13ff was not so heavily weighted such that Joshua 23-24 was read primarily in that light, and if the weighting were to fall in these chapters instead on the elements of law and covenant as occurs in Habels interpretation of Deuteronomy 4-11? The question can be raised also as to whether it is possible totally to exclude socio-historical assumptions, however implicit, in any reading of the ideology of texts. The value of the contribution of this pioneering work, however, should not be underestimated, for it provides many exciting insights and, more important, still spearheads a discussion of vital significance that will no doubt reverberate for a number of years to come.

Universal Need of Salvation and Universal Salvation by Faith in the Letter to the Romans

Paul asserts the universal need of the entire human race for the saving work of Jesus Christ as a counter to the universal ravages of sin upon the entire race, summed up in the figure of Adam. For Paul, human salvation is to take place in the wider context of a renewed and transformed world. In Romans, Paul claims the wide-ranging, boundary-breaking scope of the grace of God that comes in Christ. What God has done has - contrary to all expectation - broken the bounds of the community defined by the law of Moses. The “Gentile” stance of receptivity has become the norm - even if the original “insiders”, Israel, are still, as such, held within the plan of God. A special discussion of Rom 11:26, the salvation of “All Israel”, is included.