Table Of ContentThe Nature of New Testament Theology
The Nature of New
Testament Theology
Essays in Honour of
Robert Morgan
Edited by
Christopher Rowland and
Christopher Tuckett
© 2006 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd
except for editorial material and organization © 2006 by Christopher Rowland
and Christopher Tuckett
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1 2006
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The nature of New Testament theology / edited by Christopher Rowland and
Christopher Tuckett.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4051-1175-1 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-4051-1175-5 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-1-4051-1174-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-4051-1174-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Bible. N.T.—Theology.
I. Rowland, Christopher, 1947– II. Tuckett, C. M. (Christopher Mark)
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Contents
List of Contributors vii
List of Abbreviations ix
Preface x
Foreword by Rowan Williams xiii
1 History and Theology in New Testament Studies 1
John Ashton
2 Biblical Theology: an Old Testament Perspective 18
John Barton
3 Apocalypticism and New Testament Theology 31
Adela Yarbro Collins
4 New Testament Interpretation as Interpersonal
Communion: the Case for a Socio-Theological
Hermeneutics 51
Philip F. Esler
5 The Nature of New Testament Theology 75
Morna Hooker
6 Does a Theology of the Canonical Gospels Make Sense? 93
Luke Timothy Johnson
7 Paul in New Testament Theology:
Some Preliminary Remarks 109
Leander E. Keck
vi contents
8 T he Contribution of Reception History to a Theology of
the New Testament 123
Ulrich Luz
9 Women in Early Christianity: the Challenge to
a New Testament Theology 135
Margaret Y. MacDonald
10 Deutero-Paulinism, Pseudonymity and the Canon 158
John Muddiman
11 Towards an Alternative to New Testament Theology:
‘Individual Eschatology’ as an Example 167
Heikki Räisänen
12 ‘Action is the Life of All’: New Testament Theology and
Practical Theology 186
Christopher Rowland and Zoë Bennett
13 Theory of Primitive Christian Religion and New Testament
Theology: An Evolutionary Essay 207
Gerd Theissen
14 Does the ‘Historical Jesus’ belong within
a ‘New Testament Theology’? 231
Christopher Tuckett
15 The Gospel of John and New Testament Theology 248
Francis Watson
16 The Theology of the Cross and the Quest for
a Doctrinal Norm 263
Michael Wolter
17 The Trinity and the New Testament 286
Frances Young
Index 306
Contributors
John Ashton taught New Testament Studies in Oxford until his retire-
ment in 1996.
John Barton is Oriel and Laing Professor of the Interpretation of Holy
Scripture in the University of Oxford.
Zoë Bennett is Director of Postgraduate Studies in Pastoral Theology,
Anglia Ruskin University and the Cambridge Theological Federation.
Adela Yarbro Collins is the Buckingham Professor of New Testament
Criticism at the Yale University Divinity School.
Philip Esler is the Chief Executive of the UK Arts and Humanities
Research Council (during a period of leave from the University of St
Andrews, where he is Professor of Biblical Criticism).
Morna Hooker is Lady Margaret’s Professor Emerita in the University of
Cambridge, and a Fellow of Robinson College.
Luke Timothy Johnson is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of New
Testament and Christian Origins at the Candler School of Theology,
Emory University, Georgia.
Leander E. Keck is Winkley Professor of Biblical Theology Emeritus at
Yale University.
Ulrich Luz is Professor Emeritus of New Testament at the University of
Bern, Switzerland.
viii list of contributors
Margaret Y. MacDonald is Professor of Religious Studies at St Francis
Xavier University, Canada.
John Muddiman is G.B. Caird Fellow in New Testament at Mansfield
College, Oxford.
Heikki Räisänen is Professor of New Testament Studies in the University
of Helsinki and Academy Professor at the Academy of Finland.
Christopher Rowland is Dean Ireland’s Professor of Exegesis of Holy
Scripture at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Queen’s College,
Oxford.
Gerd Theissen is Professor of New Testament Theology in the University
of Heidelberg.
Christopher Tuckett is Professor of New Testament Studies in the
University of Oxford.
Francis Watson holds the Kirby Laing Chair in New Testament Exegesis
at the University of Aberdeen.
Rowan Williams is Archbishop of Canterbury.
Michael Wolter is Professor of New Testament Studies in the University
of Bonn, Germany.
Frances Young is Professor Emeritus of Theology in the University of
Birmingham.
Abbreviations
AB Anchor Bible
ANRW Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt
BTB Biblical Theology Bulletin
BZ Biblische Zeitschrift
CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly
EKK Evangelisch-katholisch Kommentar
ET English Translation
EvTh Evangelische Theologie
ExpT Expository Times
HBT Horizons in Biblical Theology
JAAR Journal of the American Academy of Religion
JBL Journal of Biblical Literature
JR Journal of Religion
JRS Journal of Roman Studies
JSNT Journal for the Study of the New Testament
JSNTSup Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement
Series
JSOTSup Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement
Series
KuD Kerygma und Dogma
NovT Novum Testamentum
NTOA Novum Testamentum et orbis antiquus
NTS New Testament Studies
SJT Scottish Journal of Theology
StNT Studien zum Neuen Testament
TEH Theologische Existenz heute
UTB Uni-Taschenbücher
WUNT Wissenschafliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament
ZNW Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft
ZTK Zeitschrift für Theologie und die Kirche
Preface
We are delighted to offer this collection of essays to Bob Morgan, a
remarkable friend, scholar and mentor. It is on a subject which is close
to Bob’s heart and which he has written about over many years with
insight and a formidable knowledge of the subject matter. It would be
fair to say that he introduced us both to the meaning of this particular
branch of the exegetical discipline and we have continued to benefit
from his writing and even more from engagement with him personally
over the years.
Bob’s has been an unusual contribution to theological life. He has been
at the very heart of a network of colleagues who have come to rely on
his judgement and knowledge and have found his wisdom has propelled
them into areas which they scarcely would have explored without Bob’s
inspiration. The personal contact as much as the writings themselves
have been instrumental in modelling a way of engaging with the biblical
texts. Bob has taken to heart the words of his beloved Paul when he asks
the Corinthians to imitate him. What Bob has done for generations of
students in Lancaster and Oxford, and in the church courses which he
has taught down the years, is to offer a model of the theological task
informed and inspired by Scripture. There are many who would like to
have been part of this volume who join with those of us who have con-
tributed to it in expressing gratitude for Bob’s work over the years.
For Bob, New Testament theology has never been an end in itself.
Pastoral ministry in Sandford-on-Thames, just outside Oxford, has for
nearly the last 20 years been a central part of Bob’s life. The dialectic
between church and academy has been a more and more explicit part
of his writing and has always been a central ingredient in his interpreta-
tive work. In this the inspiration of Ernst Käsemann is everywhere appar-
ent. Bob’s work perhaps lacks the controversial side of Käsemann’s
