Scripture and the Authority of God: How to Read the Bible Today

This will be a theme of my book: modern theologies of the New Testament were failures from a Christian point of view precisely because what they ended up offering was bad history, bad theology, or both.

That is not only what the Old Testament usage would demand;27 it is not only what is indicated by the post-biblical second-temple literature of which John Piper is so cautious. It is massively indicated by the argument of Romans itself to this point, provided we actually read what Paul says, particularly in 2:17-3:8, rather than merely assuming tha

Torah could regulate certain aspects of human behaviour, but it could not touch the heart. That did not constitute a criticism of Torah; Torah operates in its own sphere. But when the promises of scripture were fulfilled, then the heart itself would be changed, and the supreme position of Torah would in consequence be relativized. What was at stake

What then was Jesus talking about? It is time, as I shall argue in detail later on, to reject the old idea that Jesus expected the end of the space-time universe—though this does not mean, as the ‘Jesus Seminar’ has imagined, that Jesus did not use ‘apocalyptic’ language.48 Nor does it mean, as I find myself accused of saying by some colleagues, th