Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons^™

Hardness Of Heart: A Study In Biblical Thematic, Frederick W. Danker

Concordia Theological Monthly

Lack of ready acceptance of the Gospel by all people was a perplexing problem, especially so for the early church. At stake were not only the credentials of Jesus as the Christ but also the authority of the apostolic message. If God's own people rejected Jesus, could He still be considered a viable candidate for Israel's highest office? And if the church's heralds were the instruments of proclamation of the Word of salvation, why was response to the message so spotty and relatively fruitless? Earnest assessment of the problem led early theologians to their customary quarry, the Old Testament, for …

What In Scripture Speaks To The Ordination Of Women?, John Reumann

Concordia Theological Monthly

"Ordination," it is well to remember, does not appear, full-blown and in our sense of the term, in the Scriptures.

The Particularity Of The Gospel: Good News For Changing Times, John H. Elliott

Concordia Theological Monthly

Change and decay in all around I see; O Thou, who changest not, abide with me." In this transitional period of modern history when change and change by revolution are the order of the day, the plaintive plea of the popular hymn seems to assume an ever more urgent note. But the question is this: How effectively, if at all, can the notion of the unchangeableness of God expressed in this hymn aid an atomic age society in coping with population explosions, sexual, racial, and campus revolutions, and the threat of worldwide nuclear annihilation? Can men of our time indeed …

Four Correlations Of The Revelation Of God And The Witness Of God, Arthur M. Vincent

Concordia Theological Monthly

Christian scholars of many ages have often found "the revelation of God" and "the witness of God" among the major concepts needing study and application to their times. Modern theologians, under the influence especially of Karl Barth, have shown some of the depth and breadth of these topics. Now the Second Vatican Council with its pronouncements, including the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, has brought these subjects into the limelight for current consideration.

Notes On "Spirit-Baptism" And "Prophetic Utterance", Victor Bartling

Concordia Theological Monthly

The two subjects in the title fall into the difficult area of Pneumatology and are prompted by what is called the modern "charismatic" or "Pentecostal" movement. Both subjects deal with the exceptional gifts of the Holy Spirit in the early church usually called "charisms" (charismata). Strictly speaking all gifts of the Spirit are supernatural, Spirit-given, hence charismatic, so, for example, also the three basic endowments granted to all Christians: faith, hope, love. In the following notes, for the sake of convenience, we shall call the exceptional gifts (for example, "speaking in tongues" and "prophecy") "charismatic," and the spiritual endowments granted …

New Testament Studies, Past And Present, Edgar Krentz

Concordia Theological Monthly

The pastor who picks up a recent New Testament introduction or theology, a study of the Synoptic Gospels or Acts, or a history of New Testament times may well feel that for him the study of the New Testament has become an arcane and esoteric discipline. The questions asked about the Redaktionsgeschichte of a Gospel, the surprising frequency with which the term gnosis or Gnosticism appears in current literature, or the discussion in many circles of "incipient catholicism" may well lead him to suspect that the whole discipline has now changed.

Brief Studies, David Backus, Harry N. Huxhold

Concordia Theological Monthly

Some Sources of Graeco-Roman Features in the New Testament

Faith in the Epistle to the Hebrews

Rectilinear Or Typological Interpretation Of Messianic Prophecy?, William J. Hassold

Concordia Theological Monthly

The purpose of this article is not to argue directly for the correctness of the one or the other interpretation, though the writer's preference will, no doubt, become clear; rather it is to give a historical survey of the exegetical literature of the two synods dealing with Messianic prophecy and to show how these two contrasting approaches were held by men who were in church fellowship with each other in The Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America, all the while disagreeing with one another on this issue. By presenting the argumentation of both sides of the problem, this study …

The Continuing Significance Of Luther's Prefaces To The New Testament, Werner Georg Kuemmel

Concordia Theological Monthly

When Martin Luther published his first translation of the New Testament into the German language in 1522, he did not publish the Biblical texts alone. He provided his readers with some help by prefaces to the whole New Testament and to the individual books. These prefaces were reprinted in all the following editions of the New Testament and of the whole Bible until the 17th century, but Luther took one of them out and changed the text of a few of them in later editions.

The Historical Jesus, The Kerygmatic Christ, And The Eschatological Community, John H. Elliott

Concordia Theological Monthly

We are about to discuss a subject that is quite difficult - if not impossible - to treat in completely detached or neutral fashion. For this is a subject which forces a man, every man, to take a position and to make a decision. The earnestness of this decision is to be found in the fact that this is not merely a subject for academic disputation. It is a question of theology and faith. The subject historically has been treated in terms of a question, or a "riddle," as one English scholar has called it. The question or riddle is …

Dangerous Trends In Modern Theological Thought, K. Runia

Concordia Theological Monthly

In an article on “The Development of Theological Thought;” contributed to the symposium Twentieth Century Christianity, Dr. Walter Marshall Horton distinguishes four phases during the first six decades of this century.

The Teaching Of The New Testament Concerning The Church, Bruce M. Metzger

Concordia Theological Monthly

Today the word "church" has a wide of meanings. These include: (1) the totality of Christian believers as the Church universal; (2) a local congregation, whether gathered at one place for worship or not; (3) a building used for public worship; (4) a denomination; and (5) the clerical profession. Of these five common meanings. only the first two appear in the New Testament; the others are of later development. For example, though today we speak of "the church which is located on such-and-such a street," the earliest known reference to a church building dates from the second century. During the …

The Geneva Bible, Carl S. Meyer

Concordia Theological Monthly

On April 10, 1560, the last page of an English Bible was taken off the press in Geneva. To say that it "rolled off the presses" would be an anachronism. The task of printing this Bible had been begun in January 1558. Twenty-seven months therefore were required for its printing - "God knoweth with what fear and trembling we have been for the space of two years and more, day and night, occupied herein," its translator-pressmen testify. This was the famed Geneva Bible, now 400 years old, which only slowly gave way to the King James Version (1611) during the …

The Unity Of Scripture, Walter R. Roehrs

Concordia Theological Monthly

The unity of Scripture is an article of faith. This unity is also an objective fact that exists apart from faith and does not become a fact merely when I believe it (existentialist theology). But it is more than an arithmetic problem. It is not a mere unit sum at which we arrive by adding a number of given parts and fractions into a whole. This means that it is more than the addition of demonstrable facts and figures.

Pauline Charis: A Philological, Exegetical, And Dogmatical Study, Raymond F. Surburg

Concordia Theological Monthly

No word is more characteristic of Christian faith than the word χάϱις, grace. It conveys the central and fundamental idea of the Christian religion.1 In Lambert's opinion χάϱις is the distinctive watchword of the New Testament; in fact, the words "grace reigns" might be placed over every page. The New Testament scholar Moffatt asserts that the New Testament is a religion of grace, or it is nothing.

A New Lexicon, Martin H. Franzmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

This is not to be a review of the new lexicon -is there such a thing as a "new" lexicon? The survey of New Testament lexicography from 1522 to 1957 given by the editors of this lexicon in their Introduction (pp. v-viii) shows how relative the term "new" is in this connection; lexicographers stand strictly in a succession. Much less is this to be a critical review. We shall have to leave critical reviews to men who are less bound up with this work, emotionally and otherwise, than we of The Lutheran Church- Missouri Synod are. It is hardly to …

Luther Expounds The Gospels, Lewis W. Spitz

Concordia Theological Monthly

Both the state of Luther scholarship and the condition of the church have changed radically since the middle of that century of light, when J. G. Hamann lamented: "What a shame for our times that the spirit of this man who founded our church lies thus under the ashes. What a power of eloquence, what a spirit for interpretation, what a prophet! How good the old wine will taste to you!" Though Theodosius Harnack a hundred years later hailed the renewed study of Luther's theology as one of the most joyous developments in theological scholarship, his own work remained the …

Rudolf Bultmann's Concept Of Myth And The New Testament, Oscar Cullmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

Is it necessary to add a new contribution to the dossier, already too voluminous, of the debate revolving around the publication of Rudolf Bultmann, former professor on the faculty of Protestant theology at Marburg, titled The New Testament and Mythology? This small pamphlet, which may be considered a manifesto and has since been reproduced by the author in a slightly different form, appeared for the first time in 1941 under the title Offenbarung und Heilsgeschehen. The purpose of the author is to make the New Testament language accessible to the modern mind by eliminating what he calls the "myth" and …

The Christian Hope And Our Fellow Man, Martin H. Franzmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

The New Testament is a book of hope, an eschatological book from beginning to end, from John the Baptist to John the Divine, the Seer of Patmos. And this hope of the New Testament is throughout a "practical" hope; it is always related to life and action; the eschatological future indicative is never without its here-and-now present imperative. When John the Baptist announces that the long-foretold and long-awaited reign of God has drawn nigh, that God has laid bare His arm to these last days to interpose finally and definitively in history in the Person of the Mightier One, who …

Does The R.S.V. Mutilate The New Testament Text?, Arthur F. Katt

Concordia Theological Monthly

An outstanding feature of the Revised Standard Version of the Holy Bible is the acknowledged and undeniable fact that its New Testament is based on a much better text than was available to the King James translators in 1607-1611 or to Luther in 1522-1545. The R. S. V. New Testament is essentially a translation of the Greek New Testament used in our colleges and seminaries for the past half century, whether it be the world-renowned edition of Nestle, or that of Westcott and Hort, or, still earlier, that of Tischendorf. Thus the R. S. V. provides pastors with an English …

The New Lexicon Of The Greek New Testament, F. W. Gingrich

Concordia Theological Monthly

Biblical scholarship in the English-speaking world at the present time has only one unabridged lexicon of the Greek New Testament at its disposal, Joseph Henry Thayer's "Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament," first published in 1886 and in a corrected edition in 1889. This was a translation, with many important additions, of the Greek-Latin New Testament lexicon of C. G. Wilke, thoroughly revised by C. L W. Grimm. Arrangements for this translation were first made in 1864, so that a period of 22 years elapsed before the work was finished. This delay was partly due to Professor Thayer's many duties …

The Covenant Of Blood, Paul M. Bretscher

Concordia Theological Monthly

The ceremonial and spiritual climax of the Old Testament religion was the Feast of the Passover; in the New Testament it is the Lord's Supper. In these two feasts, especially as the one merges into the other, the covenant of blood is revealed in its fullest clarity and beauty. The words that Jesus spoke that Passover night in the Upper Room, ''This is My blood of the new Testament," are the simple key which confirms and summarizes the unity of the testaments in the covenant of blood. If this cup is the blood of Jesus Christ in the new testament, …

The Covenant Of Blood, Paul M. Bretscher

Concordia Theological Monthly

To many the Bible appears to contain two different religions. One is the religion of Judaism in the Old Testament; the other, the religion of Christianity in the New. The differences appear to be so great that the two "religions" seem worlds apart. The Old Testament is a religion of Law; the New Testament, of the Gospel. The Old Testament religion is characterized by a complex scheme of sacrifices, by circumcision, by detailed Sabbath regulations; in the New Testament all this is rejected. The Old Testament religion is the religion of a nation; the New Testament religion is to be …

The Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version, George V. Schick

Concordia Theological Monthly

In the fall of 1952 Thomas Nelson and Sons placed on the market the Revised Standard Version of the complete Holy Bible. The New Testament section remains substantially the same as the one which already appeared in 1946, but a few changes of a lesser import were given room when this text was issued in combination with the Old Testament translation. The latter, however, is new and represents the results of years of intensive research by the Revision Committee.

Natural Law And The New Testament, Robert Hoeferkamp

Concordia Theological Monthly

This paper will attempt to investigate elements of Natural Law which are generally alleged to appear in the New Testament. Thus a historical discussion of Natural Law and the indication of the importance of the topic for current theological discussion are in order.

Race Relations -The Christian Directive, Richard R. Caemmerer

Concordia Theological Monthly

Does the Christian religion have something to say c:onceming race relations?

There are those who would limit the references of the Christian religion to race relations simply to those data of the Old and New Testaments of sacred Scripture which concern races. Thus they assemble material on the creation of man, the separation of races, the pattern of races in the pre-Christian era, the nature of races and the Biblical references to them in the Christian era, and the like.

Essays In Hermeneutics, Martin H. Franzmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

In the circle of language the interpreter seeks to master the language in which the Scriptures were originally written; in the circle of history he seeks to master the world in which and for which the Scriptures were originally written; he strives to envisage and to keep before himself, as concretely and as plastically as may be, the geographic, social, economic, and cultural pattern in which the original proclaimers and the first hearers lived and moved. This pattern, or complex, includes also the past of which the proclaimers and hearers were the inheritors, for by the very fact that a …

New Testament Light On Old Testament ''Millennialistic" Prophecies, Walter H. Koenig

Concordia Theological Monthly

Some months ago, it happened that I came to grips with an ardent disciple of Premillennialism. To meet the man's arguments, I was driven to the Bible, as I found very little help outside of it. Especially on one point did I wish clarity: How does the Holy Ghost in the New Testament apply prophetic passages which millennialists interpret literally but which we interpret spiritually? What is the basis of our spiritual interpretation of Old Testament prophecy? My paper is intended to draw out the meaning of Scripture - and it will offer an example of one of the prime …

Light From The Papyri On St. Paul's Terminology, Eric C. Malte

Concordia Theological Monthly

The problem of defining the type of Greek in the Pauline Epistles has, in the past, afforded ample room for much controversy. It remained for Adolf Deissmann to discover that while the language of the New Testament differs from classical Greek, it is neither "Special Greek," nor "Aramaic Greek," nor "Biblical Greek"; still less is it "tired Greek" or "bad Greek."

A Definite Need In The Field Of New Testament Textual Criticism, W. Arndt

Concordia Theological Monthly

There are a number of desiderata that a person who is interested in New Testament textual criticism becomes aware of; and my caption must not be interpreted as signifying that we have arrived at that happy stage of development in this field where all difficulties have disappeared excepting one and all hands can now be summoned to dispose of this one disturbing element. Without much trouble rather many needs that should be supplied could be enumerated. This afternoon I should like to specify one of these. It is, to say it at once, a more accurate classification of the manuscripts …