Table Of ContentTHE HOLY SPIRIT
In Biblical Teaching,
through the Centuries,
and Today
Anthony C. Thiselton
WILLIAM B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING COMPANY
GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN / CAMBRIDGE, U.K.
© 2013 Anthony C. Thiselton
All rights reserved
Published 2013 by
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
2140 Oak Industrial Drive N.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505 I
P.O. Box 163, Cambridge CB3 9PU U.K.
www.eerdmans.com
Printed in the United States of Anlerica
19 18 17 16 15 14 13
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Thiselton, Anthony C.
The Holy Spirit - in biblical teaching, through the centuries, and today I
Anthony C. Thiselton.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8028-6875-6 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Holy Spirit. I. Title.
BTI21.3.T45 2013
231'.3 - dC23
2013002916
Unless otiIerwise noted, Bible quotations in this publication are taken from
the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989, the Division of
Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the
United States of Anlerica. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
To Rosemary
in the year of our
golden wedding anniversary
Contents
Preface ix
Abbreviations xii
PART I
The Holy Spirit in Biblical Teaching
1. The Spirit of God in the Old Testament 3
2. The Spirit in Judaism 22
3· The Holy Spirit in the Synoptic Gospels 33
4· The Holy Spirit in Acts 49
5· Key Themes in Paul 70
6. Further Gifts of the Spirit and More Controversial
Themes That Involve Hermeneutics 95
7· The Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, in the Johannine Writings 131
8. 1 and 2 Peter, Hebrews, James, Jude, and Revelation 148
PART II
The Holy Spirit through the Centuries
9· The Apostolic Fathers and Early Christian Apologists 163
vii
viii CONTENTS
10. The Ante-Nicene Fathers 173
11. The Post-Nicene Western Fathers 193
12. The Post-Nicene Eastern Fathers 208
13· The Earlier Medieval Period 222
14· The Later Middle Ages: From Bonaventura and Aquinas
to Julian of Norwich and Walter Hilton 240
15· The Major Reformers 255
16. The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries:
From Owen to Edwards 270
PART III
The Holy Spirit in Modern Theology and Today
17· The Nineteenth Century: The Parting of the Ways 293
18. The Earlier Part of the Twentieth Century 316
19· The Later Twentieth Century to 1985 345
20. Three Pentecostal or Renewal New Testament Scholars:
Fee, Stronstad, and Turner 373
21. Five Major Theologians: Congar, Moltmann, Pannenberg,
Lossky, and Zizioulas 394
22. Other Writers from the End of the Century: 1986-2000 420
23· The Twenty-First Century 443
24· Summary, Conclusions, Mutual Dialogue,
and Personal Reflections 468
Bibliography 501
Index of Modern Authors 522
Index of Subjects 529
Index of Scripture and Other Ancient Sources 547
Preface
This book began as a work on the Holy Spirit solely with reference to biblical
teaching. I initially aimed to study the biblical material in its own right, but
with the secondary aim of initiating and developing a mutual dialogue with
Pentecostals and those influenced by the Renewal Movement. I hoped to write
with respect for both sides, to try to reach across a dangerously widening chasm
of church practice.
In the event, I discovered more and more material on the Holy Spirit
through the centuries and today, and came to realize that, if my work were to be
taken seriously, it would be essential to examine the substance and context of
historical and contemporary thought as well as biblical teaching. In practice
this meant writing a book of three or four times the original size. The work of
some Pentecostal and Renewal writers added yet more to the task.
Unexpectedly a double bonus emerged. First, the historical and contempo
rary material conveys fascinating and sometimes little-known insights. Second,
this book now becomes unique in offering a thorough biblical and historical
study of the Holy Spirit in systematic form. H. B. Swete had provided a book on
the New Testament groundwork, but this was first written in 1909, followed by a
historical study of the Church Fathers in 1912, a hundred years ago. Howard
Watkin-Jones extended this to the medieval Church in 1922, but this is more
variable and now ninety years old. James Dunn does not include historical
work but is taken seriously by Pentecostals. Moltmann, Pannenberg, Congar,
Lossky, and Zizioulas remain invaluable, but do not attempt the same degree of
either specific and systematic biblical exegesis or historical comprehensiveness.
Stanley Burgess is helpful on much historical work, but is less systematic and
comprehensive than ideally we need.
Pentecostals and exponents of the Renewal Movement have important
things to say to the established churches, but self-criticism has emerged only
relatively recently among Pentecostals, and seems hardly to have touched the
Renewal Movement, with few exceptions, including perhaps Congar, Smail,
IX
x PREFACE
Purves, and a handful of others. We badly need self-criticism and correction on
both sides, in the light of deeper biblical and historical exploration. Scripture
and history teach so many needed lessons.
Contemporary writing and research show that this is an immensely fast
growing subject. New insights on prophecy, tongues, the miraculous, the range
and nature of "the gifts of the Spirit," and the Holy Spirit in relation to the Holy
Trinity clamor for attention. Moltmann, Pannenberg, and Rogers have opened
up and explored a "narrative" approach to the Holy Trinity which not only does
justice to the New Testament but also helps preachers to know where to start in
explaining the doctrine of the Trinity.
I offer here twenty-three chapters of scholarly work on specific biblical,
historical, and contemporary themes, often citing writers with carefully re
searched sources and sometimes with a direct use of their words. But I have not
forgotten that Pentecostals and Renewal writers often value the testimony of
the heart above intellectual discussion. We need both. I have tried to provide
this. However, Chapter 24 offers entirely my own reflections, for which I alone
am responsible. Admittedly these are suggested in the light of previously thor
ough biblical and historical study and prayer. Since this chapter also constitutes
a summary and conclusion, it is offered without a single footnote. It rests on
the documentation of the previous twenty-three chapters.
This last chapter sets out seven fundamental themes or principles. I have
added to each a practical consequence for worship or life. I then seek to engage
in mutual dialogue with Pentecostals and the Renewal Movement. I recognize, I
hope, their strengths, including not least the dramatic growth and widespread
appeal of these movements. But I also express some reservations. Like Congar, I
could not share the hope that everyone would wish to follow these paths. They
can, however, give fresh intimacy with God, and vigor to an overformalized and
overroutinized faith. Third, for the second time in this book, I have endorsed
the comments of the many who insist that the deepest divisions arise from dif
ferent understandings of hermeneutics. I hope that after a lifetime's study of
this subject, I can offer something in the way of disentangling some deep-seated
misconceptions and mistakes. I make these suggestions entirely in the hope of
facilitating mutual understanding.
lowe a great debt of thanks, first, to my secretary, Mrs. Karen Woodward,
who typed most of the manuscript. Second, my wife, Rosemary, took on much
of the remaining typing when the University of Nottingham made me "Emeri
tus Professor." She has also helped tirelessly with all the proofreading and index
ing, as I have been fairly useless at this task, in view of poor eyesight. I should
also like to thank my PhD graduate, Dr. Andrew Talbert, for helping to compile
indices and check proofs, and Mr. Milton Essenburg of Eerdmans for his metic
ulous and painstaking editing. I should also thank Mr. Jon Pott and others at
Eerdmans for once more risking time and expenditure on a very large book.
Preface xi
The compiling of the indices of subjects and names raised the problem of
where to allocate pre-modern names. In the end, I have perhaps arbitrarily
placed pre-modern names in the index of subjects, and placed all names from
1800 onwards under modern authors. Bold type and italics indicate major dis
cussions of a subject or a pre-modern person, to distinguish the main references
from more incidental or marginal ones.
University of Nottingham, U,K. ANTHONY C. THISELTON
Abbreviations
ANF Ante-Nicene Fathers
BDAG W. Bauer, F. W. Danker, W. F. Arndt, and F. W. Gingrich, A Greek
English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian
Literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 3rd ed. 2003.
CCSL Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina
CD. Church Dogmatics by Karl Barth
CSEL Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum
EKKNT Evangelisch-katholischer Kommentar zum Neuen Testament
ICC International Critical Commentary
JBL Journal of Biblical Literature
JPT Journal of Pentecostal Theology
JPTSS Journal of Pentecostal Theology Supplement Series
JSNT Journal for the Study of the New Testament
JSNTSS Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series
JTS Journal of Theological Studies
LCC Library of Christian Classics
NICNT New International Commentary on the New Testament
NIDOTTE New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and
Exegesis
NIDPCM New International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic
Movements
NIGTC New International Greek Testament Commentary
NovTSup Supplements to Novum Testamentum
NPNF Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers
NTS New Testament Studies
PG Patrologia Graeca, ed. J-P. Migne
PL Patrologia Latina, ed. J-P. Migne
xii
