G.K. Beale is renowned not only for his really
excellent commentary on Revelation but also for his studies on the relationship
between the New Testament and the Old Testament; for example how the New
Testament uses the Old Testament. The writings of Beale are characterized by a keen
insight in the importance of salvation history in understanding the Word of
God.
Sixteen scholars contribute to an illuminating festschrift
in his honor. This festschrift with the From Creation to New Creation.
Biblical Theology and Exegesis reveals the immense appreciation that Beale
has garnered among scholars and exegetes of several kinds. The two editors of
the festschrift were both a teaching assistant of Beale.
I highlight three essays. Daniel I. Block reassess the
evidence for Eden as a temple. He thinks it is much better to say that the temple-building
accounts as being built on a platform of creation theology instead of the reverse.
As a sort of axis mundi, the temple was a divinely revealed and authorized
means whereby God in heaven could continue to communicate with men, even after the
relationship had been ruptured through human rebellion.
The combination of features derived from the heavenly
temple and the original earthly paradise symbolized the LORD’s grace in response
to sin. The incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ rendered
superfluous the temple’s role as the link between the fallen world and the
heavenly court. The move-ment away from the temple as the locus of divine presence
to Jesus Christ climaxes in the vision of a restored cosmos in the book of Revelation.
In his essay ‘The Power and the Glory: The rendering
of Psalm 110:1 in Mark 14:62’ Richard Bauckham demonstrates that the use of ‘the
Power’ in Mark 14:62 to protect the divine trans-cendence from anthropomorphism is
consistent with ways of speaking of God that are well evidenced in the
traditions of Jesus’ sayings elsewhere in the Gospels. Bauckham points among
other to he use of the divine passive in the sayings of Jesus. This undergirds the
authenticity of Mark 14:62.
In ‘From Creation to New Creation: King, Human Viceregency
, and Kingdom’ Christopher A. Beetham offers a sketch of the entire biblical
epic. He shows the theme of creation is inextricable interwoven with that of
divine kingship and human viceregency. The divine program to renew creation is
nothing less than the reassertion of rightful divine rule through restored
human viceregency over the usurped kingdom of the world.
I think this is right but would that when we restrict ourselves
to this aspect of revelation we overemphasize the kingly charac-ter of man as the
image of God at the expense of the priestly element it also has. Man is created
to have fellowship with God. When we value the relationship between the paradise
and the sanctuary we understand that man’s highest privilege was not to be a viceregent
over a creation but to be a son of God. Human viceregency is grounded in
sonship.
To do justice to this element of the biblical message
we must not only be aware of the importance of salvation history but also of
application of salvation. Perhaps, there is a weakness with this respect also
in the writings of Beale himself. But it remains true we can learn of lot of
this gifted scholar and also of his students, friends and colleagues who contributed
to his festschrift.
Daniel M. Gurtner and Bejamin L. Gladd (ed.), From
Creation to New Creation. Biblical Theology and Exegesis (Peabody:
Hendrickson Publishers, 2013), hardcover 339 pp., $49.95 (ISBN 9781598568370)