Eschatological Judgment Research Articles

The Father Shows the Son Everything. The Imagery of Education in John 5:19–23

The remarks in John 5:19-23 should be understood in the context of education practices in ancient times. The dynamics of the metaphorical language used in these verses are explored and related to the appropriate socio-cultural framework. The Father educates the Son and prepares him for his mission. He teaches him to give life and to exercise eschatological judgment. This legitimizes the position of Jesus as the one who works like his Father does.

The Worldly and Heavenly Wisdom of 4QInstruction

The Worldly and Heavenly Wisdom of 4QInstruction, by Matthew J. Goff. STDJ 50. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2003. Pp. xi + 276. $105 (hardcover). ISBN 900413591. While the scholarly study of 4QInstruction is still fairly young, several major studies, including the publication of the text in DJD 34, have tackled this fascinating and sometimes enigmatic wisdom text. Matthew Goff s study, a revision of his doctoral dissertation under John J. Collins, is a fine addition to this growing body of scholarship. The central feature of Goff's study, and one that has clearly been a prominent concern of scholarship on this text is "how 4QInstruction should be understood in relation to wisdom and apocalypticism" (p. 27). Indeed, 4QInstruction is a text that blurs the traditional boundaries between wisdom and apocalypticism as scholars have traditionally constructed these categories. In ch. 1, Goff provides an excellent and fair review of the major scholarly studies of 4QInstruction. At this stage, such a review is most welcome because, in previous scholarship on the book, we see just the sort of category confusion that 4QInstruction creates. So, for example, Armin Lange (Weisheitund Pradestination: Weisheitliche Urordnung und Pradestination in den Textfunden van Qumran [STDJ 18; Leiden: Brill, 1995]) "understands 4QInstruction as the eschatologizing of biblical wisdom" (p. 10), and he sees the work as support for Gerhard von Rad's contention that apocalypticism is an outgrowth of Israel's wisdom tradition. On the other side, Torleif Elgvin ("An Analysis of 4QInstmction" [diss.; Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1997]) argues that the practical wisdom and the apocalyptic elements of the book actually represent two separate strata, and thus 4QInstruction is composite-a wisdom layer and an apocalyptic layer. These two studies, then, exemplify the difficulty that 4QInstruction presents to the standard scholarly construct. Goff maintains that neither of these studies really gets to the core problem of how wisdom and apocalypticism relate in this text. For Goff, the wisdom and apocalyptic elements cannot be so easily disentangled because they are closely interrelated in 4QInstruction. He remarks, 4QInstruction is a pedagogical composition devoted to the ethical development of its intended audience. It accomplishes this by giving instruction in the tradition of biblical wisdom on practical topics such as debts and family. It also does this by disclosing divine mysteries that provide knowledge on topics such as the extent of God's dominion over the created order and the imminence of his judgment. These teachings reflect its apocalyptic worldview. The author of 4QInstruction wanted the addressee to live in the light of the revelation given to him. The knowledge that had been disclosed was intended to encourage him to live ethically and piously. 4QInstruction's apocalyptic worldview provides the broader theological context in which its concern for the addressee's ordinary life is to be understood, (p. 28) In the subsequent chapters of the book, Goff explicates this summary argument. In ch. 2, Goff examines the raz nihyeh, or "mystery that is to be." The raz nihyeh, whatever else it might be, is revealed knowledge that has already been given to the book's addressee. The content of the mystery, although not explicitly articulated in the book, appears to include knowledge of God's divine plan for creation up to the eschatological judgment (p. 37). For those who know it, like the addressee, the mystery frames all the teaching of the book and gives it a rationale. Thus, the mystery also pertains, and gives meaning to, all the practical teaching in the book. Goff sees the intersection between wisdom and apocalypticism in this chapter in the issue of epistemology. He argues that "[t]he epistemology of 4QInstruction is closer to that of apocalypticism than biblical wisdom" (p. 51). Essentially, the difference here is that in 4QInstruction the addressee acquires knowledge through revelation rather than on his/her own. …

The Ideological and Literary Unity of 4QInstruction and its Authorship

1.1. The sapiential text 4QInstruction (Musar le-Mevin) contains different kinds of material, consisting of theological discourses and sapiential admonitions for everyday life addressed to a student or a son, as is customary in sapiential works.' The preservation of this work in seven copies indicates its importance for the people of Qumran, even though there is no distinctive sectarian terminology or contents in this work, as has been claimed by scholars. No organizational institutions, such as the council of the many or the overseer, are mentioned there. On the contrary, the admonitions deal with financial and agricultural matters pertaining to individuals, family affairs, and relationships between the individual and the authoritiesall customary subjects of traditional wisdom literature. The discourses deal with the importance of studying the mysteries of wisdom, the status of the understanding one, and the eschatological judgement, but are without such dualistic theological terms as sons of light and sons of darkness, Belial, prince of light, etc. Nevertheless, it contains clear evidence of the apocalyptic outlook of its author/ authors, who both in the theological discourses and in the admonitions for everyday life call upon the addressee to relate to ilrin n (the mystery that is to be). However, this term by itself is insufficient for establishing the consistent outlook of this work or for determinung its possible authorship.2

Romans 1–5 and the “Weak” and the “Strong”: Pauline Theology, Pastoral Rhetoric, and the Purpose of Romans

This essay seeks to identify how Paul responds to the problems in the situation in the Roman churches, and in so doing, to identify aspects of the relation between Paul's theology and his pastoral method. First, the pastoral context of the conflict in the Roman church is identified. The parties are seen to divide broadly, though not strictly, along Jew-gentile lines. Paul's responses to the problems in Romans 14:1–15:6 are then examined, and here Paul is seen to contrast that which is simply part of the nuts and bolts of everyday living (eating, drinking, etc) with that which has implications for eschatological judgment (such as judging and despising). Then Romans 1–5 are examined for the way in which these chapters anticipate Paul's arguments in Romans 14–15, and it is seen that at every stage in the earlier chapters Paul has at least one eye on the problematic situation in Rome.

Angels and the Eschatology of Heb 1–2

The denial of angelic rule in the world to come (Heb 2.5) provides an important clue to the purpose of Christ's exaltation over the angels in Heb 1–2. The excessive reliance upon angels for national deliverance and personal protection within Second Temple Judaism posed a threat to the pre-eminence of Christ among Jewish Christians. Rather than seek ‘help’ from angels, the author exhorts his readers to hold firmly to their confidence in Jesus. For as messianic ‘Son’, only Jesus is able to ‘help’ them (Heb 2.18; 4.16) remain faithful through the perils of the coming eschatological judgment.

Hope in the Last Judgement and Human Dignity

Reviewing modern criticisms of eschatological judgement, both theological and moral‐philosophical, this article argues that the notion of the last judgement by Jesus Christ constitutes the dignity of the human person. In modern industrial societies, assertions of autonomous human self‐realization rarely lead to human dignity. By contrast, God’s acts as creator, saviour and judge constitute human worth.

Prediking: eskatologiese transformator en alarmsinjaal

Due to the interlocking of the old and the new aeon, preaching contains an eschatological tension and it projects an eschatological prefiguration in the existing old dispensation. Preaching the kingdom of God in its eschatological perspective is consequently not simply a matter of supplying interesting data about the last locus of dogmatics and what will happen at the end of times. Proclaiming Jesus Christ as the Eschatos constitutes preaching as an eschatological maturing process. The remembrance of the perfecta fulfilled by Christ invokes the futura which is yet to come. Eschatology offers to preaching an actuality and an existential moment in the timespan of every day. With regard to this, preaching the Word - Dabar - of God, which has an eschatological preference and which is critically associated with the proton as the yet incomplete world, opens a vision on the novum of the kingdom of God. Eschatology also projects an alignment with and a praeludium to the eternal judgement of God. Henceforth, preaching is an act of God’s clarion call to "prepare to meet your God" (Amos 4:12). Proclaiming the eschatological judgement, preaching transforms the viva vox of the Deus loquens to the language and environment of the target audience. The preacher is God's interpreter in the language zones of man.

The Origin of the Title ‘King of Kings and Lord of Lords’ in Revelation 17. 14

The purpose of this note is to discuss the christological title ‘King of kings and Lord of lords’ in Rev 17. 14. Most commentators have generally understood the title to have its broad background in intertestamental Judaism and the Old Testament. The title is also attested in Babylonian and Egyptian tradition, but such an influence is unlikely here since John usually limits his sphere of reference to the Old Testament and its related literature and traditions. Among the possible above-mentioned references in Judaism and the Old Testament, 1 En 9. 4 bears closest resemblance to Rev 17. 14. The 1 En reference could be in mind, not only because of its similarity of wording, but also because its context concerns eschatological judgment (i.e. of the fallen Watchers), as does that of Rev 17.

Kingdom Without End: A Note on Marcellus of Ancyra

There is a suggestion in the fourth gospel that the saving lordship of Christ is finally manifest at his lifting up on the cross (cf. John 3.14, 8.28 and 13.32). Paul, in a letter to the Corinthian Church (cf. I Cor. 15.12 ff), proposed the anticipation of the general resurrection in the resurrection of Christ as the climactic moment of Christian belief. The church at Ephesus sang a hymn which celebrated the ascension as the triumphant manifestation of the Christian mystery (cf. I Timothy 3.16). The Apostles’ Creed, following the pattern of the old Roman Creed states that Christ’s glory is most tellingly declared at his return to judge the living and the dead. The credal affirmation here has set a number of theologians considering just how the eschatological judgement is related to the immediate judgement of human beings at their deaths. A deal of attention has been given to relating the future coming of the Son of Man ‘on clouds of glory’ to the promise ‘this day you shall be with me in Paradise’ (Lk. 23.43).There has, however, been rather less modern discussion of how the belief, expressed in the Constantinopolitan-Nicene Creed, of Christ coming into a kingdom (or a reign) ‘without end’, is to be reconciled with Paul’s eschatological scenario of the Son being at the end subject ‘to him who put all things under him, that God may be all in all’ (I Cor. 15.28). Is there, then, one kingdom for the Father and another for the Son? ‘By no means’.

The Shepherd and Sheep Image in the Teaching of Jesus

Dr. J. JEREMIAS in his Parables of Jesus states, 'Jesus loved to speak of his mission in the various figures and symbols which depict his calling to be the deliverer' 1), and among these symbols Dr. JEREMIAS includes that of the shepherd. In the Theologisches Worterbuch the same writer pursues this conclusion further and asserts that Jesus used the shepherd/flock image in three major categories; to describe his mission, to speak of his death, and to symbolise the eschatological judgement. The same assumption that this image is firmly embedded in the teaching of Jesus is seen in a comment on Mark xiv 27/8 by Dr. VINCENT TAYLOR, 'To trace the quotation to later Christian reflection is unnecessary in view of the frequent use by Jesus of imagery connected with sheep and shepherds' 2). The purpose of this article is to examine that use and discover how firmly embedded this image is in Jesus' teaching and in what categories it was used. One must assert, however, that the synoptic tradition is much too complex to be so simply categorised as Dr. JEREMIAS asserts; we will therefore examine occurrences separately, note parallels, and finally assess the evidence. We begin with Mark.

Anticipation and Consummation

THESIS: The idea that present and future salvation ore conditionally related is to be criticized as fostering legalism and otherworldliness, and as misrepresenting God's eschatological judgment and mercy. Their true relationship is one of anticipation and consummation, which is defined in terms of identity, the character of future salvation as destiny and as decisive, and non-conditionality. The doctrine of justification is to be expounded under the category of anticipation, and the issues of assurance of salvation and universalism must be considered in this context. The doctrine of judgment is freed from some restrictions, but it also raises the problem of conditionality most sharply. The finished work of Christ must also be viewed under the category of anticipation if the freedom of God is to be adequately expounded.