The Jesus Storybook Bible David A
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An International Journal for Students of Theological and Religious Studies Volume 38 Issue 1 April 2013 EDITORIAL: As If Not 1 D. A. Carson OFF THE RECORD: Colonial Atheism: A Very British Vice 4 Michael J. Ovey The Pastoral Implications of Wise and Foolish Speech 6 in the Book of Proverbs Eric Ortlund Telling the Story from the Bible (Part 2): Reviewing 18 The Big Picture Story Bible and The Jesus Storybook Bible David A. Shaw Book Reviews 66 DESCRIPTION Themelios is an international evangelical theological journal that expounds and defends the historic Christian faith. Its primary audience is theological students and pastors, though scholars read it as well. It was formerly a print journal operated by RTSF/UCCF in the UK, and it became a digital journal operated by The Gospel Coalition in 2008. The editorial team draws participants from across the globe as editors, essayists, and reviewers. Themelios is published three times a year exclusively online at www.theGospelCoalition.org. It is presented in two formats: PDF (for citing pagination) and HTML (for greater accessibility, usability, and infiltration in search engines).Themelios is copyrighted by The Gospel Coalition. Readers are free to use it and circulate it in digital form without further permission (any print use requires further written permission), but they must acknowledge the source and, of course, not change the content. EDITORS BOOK REVIEW EDITORS Systematic Theology and Bioethics Hans Madueme General Editor: D. A. Carson Old Testament Covenant College Trinity Evangelical Divinity School Jerry Hwang 14049 Scenic Highway 2065 Half Day Road Singapore Bible College Lookout Mountain, GA 30750, USA Deerfield, IL 60015, USA 9-15 Adam Road [email protected] [email protected] Singapore 289886 [email protected] Ethics (but not Bioethics) and Pastoralia Managing Editor: Charles Anderson The Crossing New Testament Dane Ortlund 3615 Southland Drive Alan Thompson Crossway Columbia, MO 65201, USA Sydney Missionary & Bible College 1300 Crescent Street [email protected] PO Box 83 Wheaton, IL 60187, USA Croydon, NSW 2132, Australia [email protected] Contributing Editor: Michael J. Ovey [email protected] Oak Hill Theological College Mission and Culture Chase Side, Southgate History and Historical Theology Jason Sexton London, N14 4PS, UK Nathan A. Finn Ridley Hall [email protected] Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary Ridley Hall Road Administrator: Andrew David Naselli P. O. Box 1889 Cambridge, CB3 9HG Bethlehem College and Seminary Wake Forest, NC 27588, USA England 720 13th Avenue South [email protected] [email protected] Minneapolis, MN 55415, USA [email protected] EDITORIAL BOARD Gerald Bray, Beeson Divinity School; Oliver D. Crisp, Fuller Theological Seminary; William Kynes, Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church; Ken Magnuson, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; Jonathan Pennington, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; James Robson, Wycliffe Hall; Michael Thate, Durham University; Mark D. Thompson,Moore Theological College; Garry Williams, The John Owen Centre, London Theological Seminary; Paul Williamson, Moore Theological College; Stephen Witmer, Pepperell Christian Fellowship. ARTICLES Articles should generally be about 4,000 to 7,000 words (including footnotes) and should be submitted to the Managing Editor of Themelios, which is peer-reviewed. Articles should use clear, concise English, following The SBL Handbook of Style (esp. for abbreviations), supplemented by The Chicago Manual of Style. They should consistently use either UK or USA spelling and punctuation, and they should be submitted electronically as an email attachment using Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx extensions) or Rich Text Format (.rtf extension). Special characters should use a Unicode font. REVIEWS The book review editors generally select individuals for book reviews, but potential reviewers may contact them about reviewing specific books. As part of arranging book reviews, the book review editors will supply book review guidelines to reviewers. Themelios 38.1 (2013): 1–3 EDITORIAL As If Not — D. A. Carson — D. A. Carson is research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. shall begin with a well-known exegetical conundrum and then branch out to a much larger issue that none of us can afford to ignore. In a context where Paul is talking about “virgins,” both men and women, and delivers his Ijudgment as to whether they should get married, he writes, “Because of the present crisis, I think that it is good for a man to remain as he is” (1 Cor 7:26). To what does “the present crisis” refer? The Greek word ἀνάγκη has commonly been understood in one of two ways. First, some have taken this present “crisis” to refer to a period of major social dislocation, owing either to persecution or to famine induced by grain shortages or to some combination of both. The logic would be straightforward: Under normal circumstances it might make good sense to marry, but in times of social upheaval it might be the part of wisdom to remain single. If the church is going through a period of persecution, or is about to go through such a period, there is much to be said for celibacy. For a start, if you are single it is easier to be mobile and easier to hide. Moreover, malicious opponents cannot get at you through your spouse and family if you have no spouse and family. Nevertheless, three things stand against this interpretation. (1) The various sources to which scholars appeal so as to justify a theory about grain shortages and the like, signaling famine, are notoriously difficult to date. (2) There is precious little evidence within 1 Corinthians itself that the church feels itself under threat of famine, social dislocation, or persecution. This seems to be a church that prides itself in its wisdom, a church that includes significant numbers of people who hold to some form or other of over-realized eschatology (which simply does not happen when the church is under attack: the tendency then is toward futurist eschatology), a church that is smugly playing various internal games of one-upmanship (party spirit, claiming to possess superior χαρίσματα, God’s grace-gifts) rather than hunkering down to face social dislocation from outside pressures. Certainly 2 Cor 8–9 presuppose that the Corinthian church, far from teetering on the edge of famine, is quite well-off, and jolly wellought share its wealth with brothers and sisters in Judea who have much less. (3) Above all, this interpretation makes little sense of the peculiar list of “as if not” phrases in 1 Cor 7:29–31. For example, those who mourn, Paul tells the Corinthians, should live “as if they did not; those who were happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep.” It is not easy to fit such judgments into the first scenario. Second, many scholars argue that what Paul has in mind by “the present crisis” (1 Cor 7:26) is the imminence of the Lord’s return—not the theological “imminence” that means only that Jesus could return at any moment yet equally could be long delayed, but the ordinary sense of imminence: Paul 1 Themelios believed, it is argued, that Jesus’ return in glory was impending, so close to being upon the church, that it was the part of wisdom to serve the interests of the gospel flat-out. In the light of this impending parousia, distractions such as marriage are better put aside. After all, might not 1 Thess 4:17 be understood to mean that he expected to be among the “we” who would be caught up to be with the Lord Jesus at his return? Once again, several considerations make this an unlikely interpretation. (1) First Thessalonians 4:17 can no more be taken to mean that Paul expected to be alive at the parousia than 1 Cor 6:14 can be taken to mean that Paul expected to be dead at the parousia. (2) This interpretation inevitably means that Paul was wrong in his expectations. Any interpretation of Paul that, to be right, must presuppose that Paul is wrong, is inherently suspicious. (3) The strange list of “as if not” phrases in 1 Cor 7:29–31 does not fit this reconstruction any better than it fits the previous one. Part of the problem is that some of our versions render ἀνάγκη by “crisis.” The English word “crisis” conjures up a short-term supreme test or climax. By contrast, the first lexical definition provided by BDAG is “necessity or constraint as inherent in the nature of things, necessity, pressure of any kind.” None of this evokes images of crisis (such as social unrest spawned by war or famine), still less of the impending parousia. It might be less misleading to render 1 Cor 7:26, “Because of the present constraint, I think that it is good for a man to remain as he is.” The “constraint” that is “inherent in the nature of things” is then the sum of difficult challenges coughed up by a world that is simultaneously, on the one hand, lost and subject to catastrophic judgment, and, on the other, the locus of the gospel, mysteriously ruled by Christ until death itself is destroyed (1 Cor 15:25–26). It covers the entire period between the first advent of Christ and his second. It is akin to some uses of “tribulation” in the NT. The time is “short” (1 Cor 15:29) in exactly the same sense that Jesus is coming “soon” (Rev 22:20): the last act of the old order is winding down, and the new order has already begun, though it has not yet broken out in consummation splendor. If this is right, then all of the “as if not” phrases make sense.