The Messianic Theology Of The New Testament

One of the earliest Christian confessions—that Jesus is Messiah and Lord—has long been recognized throughout the New Testament. Joshua Jipp shows that the New Testament is in fact built upon this foundational messianic claim, and each of its primary compositions is a unique creative expansion of this common thread. Having made the same argument about the Pauline epistles in his previous book Christ Is King: Paul’s Royal Ideology, Jipp works methodically through the New Testament to show how the authors proclaim Jesus as the incarnate, crucified, and enthroned messiah of God. In the second section of this book, Jipp moves beyond exegesis toward larger theological questions, such as those of Christology, soteriology, ecclesiology, and eschatology, revealing the practical value of reading the Bible with an eye to its messianic vision. The Messianic Theology of the New Testament functions as an excellent introductory text, honoring the vigorous pluralism of the New Testament books while still addressing the obvious question: what makes these twenty-seven different compositions one unified testament?

When the ancients talked about "messiah", what did they picture? Did that term refer to a stately figure who would rule, to a militant who would rescue, or to a variety of roles held by many? While Christians have traditionally equated the word "messiah" with Jesus, the discussion is far more complex. This volume contributes significantly to that discussion. Ten expert scholars here address questions surrounding the concept of "messiah" and clarify what it means to call Jesus "messiah." The book comprises two main parts, first treating those writers who preceded or surrounded the New Testament (two essays on the Old Testament and two on extrabiblical literature) and then discussing the writers of the New Testament. Concluding the volume is a critical response by Craig Evans to both sections. This volume will be helpful to pastors and laypersons wanting to explore the nature and identity of the Messiah in the Old and New Testament in order to better understand Jesus as Messiah.

Two respected Old Testament scholars offer a fresh, comprehensive treatment of the messiah theme throughout the entire Old Testament and examine its relevance for New Testament interpretation. Addressing a topic of perennial interest and foundational significance, this book explores what the Old Testament actually says about the Messiah, divine kingship, and the kingdom of God. It also offers a nuanced understanding of how New Testament authors make use of Old Testament messianic texts in explaining who Jesus is and what he came to do.

This work is not a history of New Testament times, nor an account of New Testament religion. Nor does it proceed from a view that the New Testament was written as theology. We must bear in mind that the writers of the New Testament books were not writing set theological pieces. They were concerned with the needs of the churches for which they wrote. Those churches already had the Old Testament, but these new writings became in time the most significant part of the Scriptures of the believing community. As such, they should be studied in their own right, and these questions should be asked: What do these writings mean? What is the theology they express or imply? What is of permanent validity in them? We read these writings across a barrier of many centuries and from a standpoint of a very different culture. We make every effort to allow for this, but we never succeed perfectly. In this book I am trying hard to find out what the New Testament authors meant, and this not as an academic exercise, but as the necessary prelude to our understanding of what their writings mean for us today. -- From the Introduction

Ladd's magisterial work on New Testament theology has well served thousands of seminary students since its publication in 1974. Enhanced and updated here by Donald A Hagner, this comprehensive, standard evangelical text now features augmented bibliographies and two completely new chapters on subjects that Ladd himself wanted to treat in a revised edition—the theology of each of the Synoptic Evangelists and the issue of unity and diversity in the New Testament—written, respectively, by R. T. France and David Wenham.

An academic study that suggests the Old Testament was written to be read as a work that reveals direct messianic prophecies.

Who do the Gospels say Jesus is? The title and role of "Messiah" ascribed to Jesus in the Gospels has long been regarded as a late add on, a fabricated claim or an insignificant feature. Michael Bird, however, argues that the Gospels' messianic claims are the most significant feature of their portrayal of Jesus. Bird describes how each Evangelist portrays Jesus as the Messiah of Israel, what they think is at stake in that claim, and how the claim that "Jesus is the Messiah" drives the purpose and shape of the Gospels. Emphasizing that Christianity was a messianic movement rooted in its Jewish context, Bird points toward the profound theological implication of Jesus' identity: that Jesus' messiahship is the "mother of all Christology."