New Studies in Biblical Theology

Covenant in God's Unfolding Purpose

Paul R. Williamson, D. A. Carson

• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9780830889709
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

Paul R. Williamson looks at the role of the covenant concept in Scripture and the meaning of this terminology. He then sets the idea of covenant in the context of God's universal purpose, and traces the idea through Noah and the patriarchs, the nation of Israel and the kingship of David. Lastly, he shows how the new covenant is anticipated in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New.In this New Studies in Biblical Theology volume, Williamson offers new insights into key texts and issues related to the theme of covenant. He is not afraid to challenge established positions. One example is his dual-covenant approach to God's dealings with Abraham. His robust scholarship will be appreciated by scholars, lecturers and students in theology, ministers and all who have a serious interest in the covenant concept.Addressing key issues in biblical theology, the works comprising New Studies in Biblical Theology are creative attempts to help Christians better understand their Bibles. The NSBT series is edited by D. A. Carson, aiming to simultaneously instruct and to edify, to interact with current scholarship and to point the way ahead.

Chapter One

Biblical theology and the covenant concept

Biblical theology, covenant and the unity of Scripture

In terms of theological parlance, ‘biblical theology’ is possibly one of the most difficult concepts to tie down. While scholars of all persuasions happily use the terminology, they do not necessarily have the same thing in mind.1 For some it simply refers to theological ideas expressed in the Bible, whether in part or the whole. Thus it may describe the theology of a particular book or corpus (e.g. the theology of Isaiah or the theology of the Pentateuch),2 the theology of either part of the Christian canon (i.e. Old Testament Theology or New Testament Theology), or even a synthesis of biblical doctrine.3 While all such theological reflection certainly falls within its broad compass, as a distinct theological discipline, biblical theology is arguably best thought of as a holistic enterprise tracing unfolding theological trajectories throughout Scripture and exploring no biblical concept, theme or book in isolation from the whole. Rather, each concept, theme or book is considered ultimately in terms of how it contributes to and advances the Bible’s meta-narrative, typically understood in terms of a salvation history that progresses towards and culminates in Jesus Christ. As Rosner (2000: 3) has recently defined it,

Biblical theology is principally concerned with the overall theological message of the whole Bible. It seeks to understand the parts in relation to the whole and, to achieve this, it must work with the mutual interaction of the literary, historical, and theological dimensions of the various corpora, and with the interrelationships of these within the whole canon of Scripture.

It is within the parameters of such a biblical-theological framework (what some have dubbed, ‘pan-biblical theology’) that the present study will explore the nature and relationship between the various divine–human covenants revealed in Scripture.

The validity of such an enterprise, however, has not gone unchallenged.4 Perhaps the most serious of such challenges for constructing such a biblical theology in general, and one focusing on ‘covenant’ in particular, concerns the implications of theological diversity for the overarching ‘unity of Scripture’. Indeed, given the presence of such theological diversity, for many scholars it is impossible to speak of the ‘unity’ of either part of the canon. Thus most mainstream scholarship rejects any idea of a unified theology of the Old Testament, preferring to think rather in terms of Old Testament theologies.5 In a similar vein, most contemporary New Testament scholars reject the possibility of constructing a single New Testament theology, although not all would embrace the radical position advocated by Räisänen, who, following Baur’s lead, identifies such sharp theological disagreement among New Testament authors as to undermine completely the task of constructing a single New Testament theology.6

Against such a negative premise concerning the extent of theological diversity within the scriptural canon, it is certainly difficult to see how biblical theology (as defined above) can be accepted as a legitimate scholarly enterprise: ‘biblical theology cannot be maintained if there is no (at least underlying) unity in the Bible’s theology’.7 Without such fundamental unity, it is inconceivable how one might construct any coherent biblical theology of an overarching scriptural concept such as covenant. While one cannot deny that Scripture has indeed multifaceted voices, sometimes in dialectical relationship,8 the core issue here is not whether Scripture speaks with one voice or many, but whether these many voices – regardless of their distinct emphases – are all essentially singing from the same theological hymn sheet. Evangelical scholarship has traditionally contended that such is indeed the case, and that the key which unlocks this theological symphony is the Bible’s meta-narrative as described above. Thus, while an investigation into the unity of Scripture clearly lies outside the scope of the current investigation, it is hoped that this study will demonstrate how the biblical-theological trajectory of covenant illustrates at least one way in which Scripture’s numerous and diverse voices do blend together in perfect harmony.

The place of covenant in biblical scholarship

It is clear that from an early stage in the Christian era the significance of the covenant concept in biblical theology was recognized. Such is noticeably reflected in the canonical nomenclature applied to Christian Scripture: the Old and New Testaments.9 Apparently, it was not until the Reformation period, however, that anyone constructed a biblical theology around this particular concept. This was done by Johannes Cocceius (1603–69), whose attempt to interpret the Bible holistically by giving central place to ‘covenant’ not only laid the basis for federal or covenant theology (e.g. as presented in the 1677 magnum opus of H. Witsius), but also anticipated more recent emphases by identifying covenant as the major biblical-theological trajectory that could be traced throughout salvation history.

While the centrality of the covenant idea was assumed by Reformed theology in the years that followed, some disagreement broke out over the precise nature and number of the covenants (e.g. in the famous Marrow Controversy [1718–23] of the Church of Scotland, debate raged over the postulated ‘covenant of grace’ and its relationship to the postulated ‘covenant of redemption’).10 With the advent of modernity, however, new questions began to arise with respect to both the antiquity of the covenant concept in Israel’s history, and its theological importance as a biblical idea. While such debate took place largely within the domain of Old Testament scholarship, more recently – through the impact of post-Holocaust ecumenical dialogue and E. P. Sanders’s concept of ‘covenantal nomism’ – New Testament scholarship has become embroiled in its own brand of covenant controversy as well. As discussion of the latter will be taken up in a subsequent chapter, here we will limit our focus to the discussion of covenant within Old Testament scholarship.11

Wellhausen and source criticism

In his highly influential Prolegomena to the History of Israel,12 Wellhausen reconstructed the history of Israelite religion from (what he perceived to be) a primitive stage resting on the conviction of an indestructible natural bond between Yahweh and Israel, through the heightened ethical imperatives of the prophets (the highpoint for Wellhausen) to the slide into legalism in the post-exilic era. According to this reconstruction, the presentation of Israel’s relationship with Yahweh in terms of a covenant was a relatively late development influenced primarily by the preaching of the prophets.13 Through the latter, Wellhausen believed, the ‘natural bond between the two [Yahweh and Israel] was severed, and the relation was henceforth viewed as conditional’.14 From this the notion of covenant or treaty naturally developed.15

While some scholars by and large accepted Wellhausen’s conclusions with respect to the antiquity and historicity of the Sinai traditions, others rejected the sharp dichotomy he had drawn between early Israelite religion and that which arose through the preaching of the eighth-century prophets, and maintained that there was a historical core to the Sinai traditions which reflected some sort of early covenant arrangement.16

Form and tradition criticism

The effect of form criticism, with its emphasis on the narratives as folk tales (German: Sagen), was to sharpen the historical questions even more: how much of the bondage–exodus–wilderness complex of stories was rooted in historical fact? While a kernel of such information was generally acknowledged, controversy continued over the antiquity and historicity of the covenant idea.17 Indeed, of those who accepted the antiquity of the concept in Israel, several understood its early significance very differently; namely, as a pact of mutual protection made between various Hebrew tribes living in the vicinity of Sinai only later reinterpreted theologically in relation to the divine–human relationship of which Israel was party. This raises the question whether or not such a covenant (i.e. made between different social groups) could also have incorporated a covenant with Yahweh himself and, as such, constituted one of the distinctive, foundational aspects of Israelite faith – as was argued by Robertson Smith and several others.18

However, some explanation was thus required for the dearth of references to such a covenant in the literature of the eighth-century prophets. Solutions to this problem included the following: (a) memory of the formal act was unnecessary as long as the divine–human relationship remained intact; (b) the presence of numerous covenant images (e.g. Yahweh as king, father or vineyard owner) in the prophets and their frequent depiction of Yahweh in dispute with Israel indicate that the concept of covenant obligations is present even if the covenant term is not; (c) its absence in prophecy generally (not just pre-exilic) is due to prophetic emphasis on spiritual and ethical realities rather than formal covenant obligations; (d) the concept of covenant was not sufficiently developed at this stage, and would thus have led to an impoverished understanding of the divine–human relationship. While all such explanations found some support among Old Testament scholars, none proved persuasive enough to secure a consensus.

Eichrodt, Mowinckel and Noth

However, a new consensus on the antiquity and significance not only of the Sinai covenant, but also other covenantal traditions in the Old Testament (notably, the Abrahamic and the Davidic) did begin to emerge in the period following the First World War.19 The three main factors leading to this new consensus are listed by Nicholson as follows:

1. As had been argued at an earlier time, covenant was seen to be a necessary feature of Israelite religion as a religion of ‘election’ and not a ‘natural’ religion. Scholars such as Hempel, Weiser and Galling maintained that covenant was key to the uniqueness of Israelite religion, a fact further stressed by Eichrodt in his monumental Theology of the Old Testament, a work that famously employed covenant and the related theology as the main organizing con...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Titles in this series
• Title Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Series preface
• Author's preface
• Abbreviations
• 1 Biblical theology and the covenant concept
• 2 Covenant and God's universal purpose
• 3 God's universal covenant with Noah
• 4 God's programmatic covenants with the patriarchs
• 5 God's national covenant with Israel
• 6 God's royal covenant with David
• 7 God's new covenant anticipated by the prophets
• 8 God's new covenant inaugurated through Jesus
• 9 God's new covenant consummated in the eschatological kingdom
• Bibliography
• Index of modern authors
• Index of Scripture references
• Other Titles from the NSBT Series
• Notes
• Praise for Sealed with an Oath
• About the Author
• More Titles from InterVarsity Press
• Copyright